A Grammar of Jal

Introduction

Scope and Purpose

This grammar provides a systematic description of the Jal language (the 1973rd one produced by the Language Creator), outlining its sound system, word formation and syntactic structure, with the aim of presenting a coherent account of the language as an integrated whole. Attention has been paid to both regular patterns and minor irregularities, as these together define the internal balance of the language.

The grammar is accompanied by a bilingual dictionary and a collection of illustrative texts, offering material for further study and comparison. The examples have been selected to demonstrate typical constructions and to give a sense of the language in extended use. The description is intended as a reference work for linguists and language enthusiasts alike, and as a foundation for any future research, teaching or creative adaptation of Jal.

Typological Profile

Phonology

Phoneme Inventory

Consonants

Jal has 22 consonant phonemes, a size that falls within a broadly average range.

The table below presents the full inventory of consonant phonemes in Jal. The chart lists all places and manners of articulation attested in the language.

Vowels

Jal has 5 vowel qualities. This places it within the broadly common range of mid-sized vowel inventories. The vowel chart shows the full set of contrasts employed in the language’s phonology.

The table below presents the full inventory of vowel phonemes in Jal. The system comprises the distinct vowel qualities listed in the chart.

Stress and Tones

Jal has neither phonemic stress nor lexical tone. Prosodic prominence and pitch variation are determined by pragmatic and discourse factors rather than by lexical contrasts.

Phonological Processes

Vowel Harmony

The language employs vowel harmony. To be specific, the following vowels change to match the first vowel of the root: /i/ becomes /u/, /e/ becomes /o/.

Writing System

Introduction

Jal is normally written using the Latin alphabet, whose familiarity makes it straightforward for most readers. For clarity and precision, phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) are also provided throughout this grammar.

Orthography

Here are the various components of the orthography:

Simple letters

Multi-letter combinations such as digraphs

Word Classes and Morphology

Number and Gender

Number

Jal distinguishes singular and plural.

Gender

Jal does not have genders or noun classes.

The Nominal Phrase

Nominal phrases in Jal can be exemplified by the following example:

In the following, we shall look at the various components in more details.

The Noun

The noun in Jal consists of first, the root; second, an obligatory suffix expressing def, comprising -i /-i/ ‘not.def’ and -a /-a/ ‘def’; and finally, third, an obligatory suffix expressing case, comprising -d /-d/ ‘ABS’, -h /-h/ ‘ERG’, -y /-j/ ‘GEN’, -t /-t/ ‘DAT’, -p /-p/ ‘INS’, -k /-k/ ‘VOC’, -l /-l/ ‘ALL’, -j /-d͡ʒ/ ‘LOC’, -v /-v/ ‘ABL’ and -f /-f/ ‘PART’.

The noun displays the following derivational morphology: 20 suffixes, namely -amag /-amaɡ/ ‘little’, -aviz /-aviz/ ‘big’, -alañ /-alaɲ/ ‘old’, -ilij /-ilid͡ʒ/ ‘new’, -izad /-izad/ ‘good’, -ilay /-ilaj/ ‘bad’, -arat /-arat/ ‘have’, -iñam /-iɲam/ ‘use’, -iwiy /-iwij/ ‘see’, -ariv /-ariv/ ‘make’, -ajab /-ad͡ʒab/ ‘break’, -ifin /-ifin/ ‘eat’, -igam /-iɡam/ ‘drink’, -amiz /-amiz/ ‘wear’, -ikhal /-ixal/ ‘own’, -iwil /-iwil/ ‘contain’, -ichich /-it͡ʃit͡ʃ/ ‘hold’, -iwin /-iwin/ ‘lack’, -azir /-azir/ ‘touch’ and -awam /-awam/ ‘carry’

The Adjective

The adjective in Jal stands alone without any prefixes or suffixes attached to it.

Numerals

The numeral in Jal stands alone without any prefixes or suffixes attached to it.

Determiners

The determiner in Jal stands alone without any prefixes or suffixes attached to it.

Pronouns

The pronoun in Jal has the following structure: an obligatory prefix expressing number, comprising r- /r-/ ‘sing’ and j- /d͡ʒ-/ ‘plur’ followed by the root.

In Jal, both subject and object pronouns are dropped unless they are stressed. Here is an example where neither of the pronouns are stressed:

But here, the word corresponding to he is stressed:

And here, it is the one translated as her that is stressed:

Proper Nouns

Possession

Derivation

Compounding

Verbs

Inflectional Categories

The verbal phrase clitics in Jal fall into two categories, proclitics and enclitics: first, a clitic expressing ta, comprising vip /vip/ ‘PAST’; second, a clitic expressing mode, comprising khag /xaɡ/ ‘imperative’, chip /t͡ʃip/ ‘conditional’ and fag /faɡ/ ‘optative’; third, a clitic expressing voice, comprising chaw /t͡ʃaw/ ‘passive’; and finally, fourth, a clitic expressing negation, comprising bit /bit/ ‘NEG’.

In addition, the verb is structured like this: the root followed by an optional suffix expressing question, comprising -id /-id/ ‘Q’.

The verb displays the following derivational morphology: 12 suffixes, namely -ikas /-ikas/ ‘begin’, -ayaw /-ajaw/ ‘stop’, -atan /-atan/ ‘continue’, -idach /-idat͡ʃ/ ‘try’, -amip /-amip/ ‘start’, -ibav /-ibav/ ‘want’, -ivak /-ivak/ ‘can’, -ijap /-id͡ʒap/ ‘finish’, -atar /-atar/ ‘need’, -ikhas /-ixas/ ‘decide’, -avim /-avim/ ‘fail’ and -azan /-azan/ ‘hope’

Adverbs Minor Classes

Adpositions

There is one type of clitic in the adpositional phrase, namely an enclitic (placed finally), expressing root.

Syntax

Basic Clause Structure

Constituent Order

Constituent order describes the typical arrangement of the subject (S), verb (V) and object (O) in simple declarative clauses. It is a fundamental parameter in grammatical description and forms one of the clearest ways of characterising the overall structure of a language’s clause system.

Jal employs Subject–Verb–Object (SVO) as its basic word order. The subject is followed by the verb, with the object occurring in post-verbal position. This ordering is widely attested across the world’s languages.

The following examples illustrate the basic, unmarked, constituent order in Jal.

The language has a fixed constituent order, and major phrases normally appear in a predictable position in the clause. Movement for discourse reasons is highly restricted: topics and foci are expressed not by rearranging elements, but through dedicated constructions such as clefts, focus clauses or topic–comment frames. Constituents remain continuous, and both the relative order of phrases and the internal structure of each phrase are stable. As a result, significant deviations from the basic word order are ungrammatical, and discourse structure is managed through these specialised constructions rather than through word-order variation.

Noun Phrases

Structure and Order

The internal structure of noun phrases in Jal reveals typologically significant preferences in the ordering of nominal constituents. This includes the position of adjectives, numerals, and possessors relative to the noun, each of which can offer clues to the overall headedness of the language.

Possessive constructions are head-initial: the possessed noun precedes the possessor. For instance, Jal expresses “the child’s toy” with the equivalent of “toy child”. This structure is typologically rarer and often co-occurs with verb-initial syntax or with grammatical marking on the noun.

Case Marking

Jal uses ergative–absolutive case marking. The subject of an intransitive verb and the object of a transitive verb are treated alike and take the absolutive case, while the subject of a transitive verb is marked with the ergative case. From the point of view of such a system, this is a perfectly natural way to organise the clause: the absolutive marks the participant most directly involved in the event or state, while the ergative marks the additional participant that causes or controls a transitive event.

Conjunctions

Here is an example of a conjunction.

Modifiers and Determiners

The ordering of demonstratives, articles (if present), and other modifiers in Jal provides further insight into the structure of the noun phrase. These elements frequently exhibit fixed positions and may reveal whether the language favours head-initial or head-final patterns.

Complex Sentences

Relative Clauses

Jal forms relative clauses by using a head-internal strategy. The head noun appears inside the clause itself, occupying its regular syntactic position. The entire clause functions as a modifier, and its external syntactic behaviour is identical to that of a noun-modifying phrase.

To illustrate how relative clauses work, let us begin with a simple sentence:

We can now add a relative clause modifying the noun:

Relative clauses may themselves contain other relative clauses:

Finally, here is an example containing several layers of embedding:

Complementation Strategies

Jal introduces complement clauses with a dedicated complementiser, similar to English that. The complementiser appears at the beginning of the embedded clause and signals that the clause functions as a syntactic argument. The embedded clause is fully finite and displays the same tense, aspect and agreement patterns as independent clauses.

The following example illustrate how complement clauses function:

Quotes

Jal expresses quoted or reported speech without a dedicated quotative particle. Quotations appear as ordinary clauses, distinguished only by the surrounding syntactic context or by the use of verbs of speaking.

Here is an example of how quotations are expressed:

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