A Grammar of Wail

Introduction

Scope and Purpose

This grammar provides a systematic description of the Wail language (the 1981st 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 Wail.

Typological Profile

Phonology

Phoneme Inventory

Consonants

Wail has 19 consonant phonemes, a size that falls within a broadly average range.

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

Vowels

Wail has 7 vowel qualities, forming a relatively large inventory. The system distinguishes several vowel categories, as indicated in the chart, offering a wide range of vocalic contrasts.

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

Stress and Tones

Wail has phonemic stress but no lexical tone. Stress consistently falls on the first vowel of the root, and no contrastive tonal distinctions are made.

Phonological Processes

Vowel Harmony

Vowel harmony does not exist in this language.

Writing System

Introduction

Wail 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

Wail distinguishes singular and plural.

Gender

Wail does not have genders or noun classes.

The Nominal Phrase

Nominal phrases in Wail 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 Wail consists of the root followed by an optional suffix expressing number.case, comprising -ul /-ul/ ‘sing.NOM’, -aw /-aw/ ‘sing.GEN’, -up /-up/ ‘sing.DAT’, -uj /-uj/ ‘sing.INS’, -ukh /-ux/ ‘sing.VOC’, -ur /-ur/ ‘sing.ALL’, -ud /-ud/ ‘sing.LOC’, -ik /-ik/ ‘sing.ABL’, -ip /-ip/ ‘sing.PART’, -ub /-ub/ ‘plur.NOM’, -in /-in/ ‘plur.GEN’, -ab /-ab/ ‘plur.DAT’, -as /-as/ ‘plur.INS’, -ib /-ib/ ‘plur.VOC’, -ir /-ir/ ‘plur.ALL’, -iz /-iz/ ‘plur.LOC’, -uh /-uh/ ‘plur.ABL’ and -am /-am/ ‘plur.PART’.

The noun displays the following derivational morphology: two suffixes, namely -aj /-aj/ ‘little’ and -ad /-ad/ ‘big’

The Adjective

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

Numerals

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

Determiners

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

Pronouns

The pronoun in Wail stands alone without any prefixes or suffixes attached to it.

In Wail, subject pronouns (but not object pronouns ones) are dropped unless they are stressed. Here is an example where neither of the pronouns are stressed:

But here, the word corresponding to he (i.e., the subject) is stressed:

Proper Nouns

Possession

Derivation

Wail has a few derivational processes. To illustrate this, let us start with a simple noun phrase:

In the following, the word for little becomes an affix attached to lamb:

Compounding

Verbs

Inflectional Categories

There is one type of clitic in the verbal phrase, namely an enclitic (placed finally), expressing mode.voice.negation. a clitic expressing mode.voice.negation, comprising gaw /ɡaw/ ‘indicative.active.NEG’, khing /xiŋ/ ‘indicative.active.POS’, pim /pim/ ‘indicative.passive.NEG’, ling /liŋ/ ‘indicative.passive.POS’, lab /lab/ ‘imperative.active.NEG’, has /has/ ‘imperative.active.POS’, bur /bur/ ‘imperative.passive.NEG’, zaj /zaj/ ‘imperative.passive.POS’, tij /tij/ ‘conditional.active.NEG’, kut /kut/ ‘conditional.active.POS’, jat /jat/ ‘conditional.passive.NEG’, kir /kir/ ‘conditional.passive.POS’, huk /huk/ ‘optative.active.NEG’, kan /kan/ ‘optative.active.POS’, tin /tin/ ‘optative.passive.NEG’ and gul /ɡul/ ‘optative.passive.POS’.

In addition, the verb is structured like this: the root followed by an obligatory suffix expressing ta.question, comprising -ut /-ut/ ‘PRES.Q’, -id /-id/ ‘PRES.not.Q’, -al /-al/ ‘PAST.Q’ and -ad /-ad/ ‘PAST.not.Q’.

The verb displays the following derivational morphology: two suffixes, namely -ib /-ib/ ‘begin’ and -ap /-ap/ ‘stop’

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.

Wail 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 Wail.

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 Wail 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-final: the possessor precedes the possessed noun. For example, Wail expresses “the child’s toy” with the equivalent of “child toy”. This ordering is found in many SOV and postpositional languages and aligns with a broader tendency towards modifier-first structures.

Case Marking

Wail does not use case marking to distinguish the core participants of the clause. There is therefore no regular nominative, accusative, ergative, active or stative marking on subjects and objects. Instead, the roles of the participants are identified by other means, cf. the examples below.

Conjunctions

Here is an example of a conjunction.

Modifiers and Determiners

The ordering of demonstratives, articles (if present), and other modifiers in Wail 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

Wail forms relative clauses by placing the relative clause after the noun it modifies. The clause follows the internal word order of ordinary finite clauses. A dedicated relativising marker introduces the clause and identifies the relationship between the head noun and its role inside the relative clause.

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

Wail 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

Wail 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:

Language creation took 0.02 seconds; writing the grammar 0.04 seconds.