Morphology - Verbs (I)
So, verbs! They're probably going to be the most fun bit of Trollian (temp. name), and where we'll spend the most time.
(For reference, from now on I will be using a simplified transcription scheme, where /ɑ(:)/ will be represented by <a(:)> and /ə(:)/ will be represented by <o(:)>)
Trollian verbs will mostly be built out of either general stems or bare roots. Roots in general will be very verb-y in nature, and verbs would be the primary thing derived from them. Nouns are additional derivations or just re-interpreted verbs.
Some elementary verbs would probably be minimal in size, expressing some rudimentary concepts. A suggested few, for illustrative purposes:
<ʂr> - eat
<ɖʐ> - please
<k'> - shout
<kr> - see
Some other, more complex roots, would embody more complex concepts, such as:
<ne> - accept
<sa:xt> - write
In general, roots cannot stand alone as a verb. Due to grammatical limitations as to what constitutes a sentence, a verb must at least be inflected for the absolutive. I'll tentatively propose the following series of morphemes:
<-ja-> - first person singular absolutive
<-ra-> - second person singular absolutive
<-na-> - third person singular absolutive
Since Trollian verbs are going to become massively inflected, I've been considering a free-er order of affixes, something resembling Greenlandic but not quite like it: affixes do not have a fixed position in the verb and instead are free to move around, causing lots of allomorphy.
Giving a freer order to affixes in the verb gives us travesties such as <ʂrra> and <sa:xtna>, which do not feel like they belong in a language I'm looking to make smooth and flowing. We need to introduce some restrictions and processes.
Primarily, I'm thinking about anaptyctic vowels i.e. vowels inserted to break up unwieldy consonant clusters. As all the vowels in that chart are phonemic (except for the [ə:] which I'll have to elaborate upon later), it is basically a choice of using any of the short vowels. Instead of going with <-o->, I'm thinking of using <-a-> as it's a fairly neutral and pleasant vowel.
Inserting the anaptyctic vowel would be also variable. One could insert it in any desired location, though some clusters might obviously be obligatorily broken up. As it's a morphologically null-valued affix (meaningless morpheme), it could also potentially be infixed into root. This would give verbs such as <sa:xatna> or <sa:xtana>, and <ʂrara>.
A limitation I'd propose is to make all ejectives always come before vowels. This would mean that a hypothetical "he is shouted" would have to be translated as <k'ara> or <rak'a> and definitely neither <k'ra> or <rak'> as it would go against the limitation. Might be arbitrary, but word-final ejectives don't feel good to me.
Another limitation would probably be that clusters with ascending sonorancy (such as <ʂr>, with a low-sonorancy fricative followed by a high-sonorancy approximant) would definitely be disallowed from being syllable codas. This would mean that sonorancy decreases as one moves farther away from the vowel, and it would also disallow a verb such as <jaʂr> because it would have a bad sonorancy order at a coda, and would instead force it to be something like <jaʂra> or <ʂraja>, or even <ʂarja>.
I think this free-er verb building actually gives a sort of unique feel and flow to the language. If anyone wants to do some work on this, while keeping the morphosyntactic alignment in mind, try translating the following sentences in as many ways as you can, and send here if you've got answers!
"You are pleased"
"I am accepted"
"S/he is seen"
"I am eaten"
—Nexvs
