Appendix:Grammar/Common grammar

== Introduction ==
In this paper, I strive to explicate the grammar of Zekaisivarsi that is common to all peoples across dialects and to expound upon significant regional idiosyncrasies. This is written primarily for Indo-Europeans and thus uses linguistic terms peculiar to them.
== Units of speech ==
A speech unit is an independent morpheme with a particular function in expressing a thought. The speech units belong to particular speech categories, including substantives, enumeratives, qualificatives, relatives, descriptives, essives, copulatives, factives, ideophones, and particles.
=== Substantives ===
A substantive is a speech unit that denotes an entity, that is, someone or something that does
something or that has attributes. It is similar to the concepts of nouns and pronouns. 
For example, examine the sentence rhahail ar. 
 rhahail	
 ar
 Think-3s(PRES)	
 person
 A person thinks.	
 A person thinks.
In this sentence, ar
is a substantive because s/he does something, namely, rhahail. 
A substantive can also possess an attribute in a discourse
rather than do something. This is typically expressed with essives or copulatives.
 zu	
 pau	
 u
 You-ABS	
 human-ABS	
 be­-2s(ESS)
 You are human.	
 You are human.	
 You are human.
In this sentence, zu
is the topic of this sentence and is stated to have an attribute, namely, pau. The topic is considered the
substantive.
==== Inflection ====
A substantive may or may not be inflected depending on its
class, sentence context, and discourse.
==== Conditions for inflection ====
A substantive is inflected if:                                                                                                                   
* its number, gender, or standing is relevant to the discourse
* it is used with an uninflected verb
* it stands in place of another substantive, thus acting as a pronoun-like substantive
A substantive is uninflected if:
* it precedes or follows an enumerative
* its number, gender, and standing are irrelevant to the discourse
* it indicates an attribute
===== What are substantives inflected for? =====
Substantives are inflected for class (animate vs.
inanimate), gender (masculine vs. feminine vs. epicene vs. common), case
(ergative, absolutive, accusative, etc.), standing (superior vs. common vs.
inferior), clusivity (including you vs. excluding you), number (singular, dual, trial, pental, and plural), and possessedness (inherent vs. exherent).
====== Class ======
The class of a substantive
is its categorization according to its semantic properties, its animacy. Animacy is the quality of igwai, often translated spirituality or soulishness. The class of a substantive affects its relation, or binding, with other words in a
discourse. A higher-igwai substantive
can have possessive or inherent relation with a lower-igwai substantive and is said to take precedence over the lower-igwai. However, a lower-igwai can only have inherent relation
toward a higher-igwai.
Examine the phrases below.
 ye	
 na	
 uikai
 1st person singular ergative	
 Possessive particle	
 writing
 My writing (that which I wrote)	
 My writing (that which I wrote)	
 My writing (that which I wrote)
 uikai	
 na	
 ye
 writing	
 possessive particle	
 1st person singular ergative
 My writing	
 My writing	
 My writing
Why do these phrases mean exactly the same thing, at least
literally? This is because higher-igwai
substantives are more salient then
lower-igwai substantives. Salience, or primacy, is the significance of an entity to a discourse, relative
to other entities in the discourse. A human, for example, is more salient than
a book.
====== Gender ======
The gender of a
substantive is its inflection and relation to other words in a discourse
according to the natural gender of its class or of its associated class. The
genders are masculine, feminine, epicene, and common.
Masculine gender
comprises male animals, including humans, as well as male clothing and natural
things associated with masculinity.
Feminine gender
comprises female animals, including humans, as well as female clothing and
natural things associated with femininity.
Epicene gender comprises
mixed-gender groups and entities with qualities of both genders, including
hermaphrodite.
 Word	
 Word	
 Class	
 Gender               	
 Gender               	
 Meaning
 arh	
 animate	
 animate	
 animate	
 masculine	
 a male human, age not
 specified
 wjih	
 animate	
 animate	
 animate	
 masculine	
 a male youth, boy
 vrakvrakaq	
 Inanimate	
 Inanimate	
 Inanimate	
 masculine	
 lightning
 ribajhah	
 inanimate	
 inanimate	
 inanimate	
 masculine	
 a full-body covering
 worn by males
 arsau	
 animate	
 animate	
 animate	
 feminine	
 a female human, age
 unspecified
 wjiah	
 animate	
 animate	
 animate	
 feminine	
 a female youth, girl
					
====== Standing ======
The standing of a
substantive is the social position of its referent.
=== Enumeratives ===
An enumerative is
a word that indicates quantity of a thing. It answers the question “How many?”
Enumeratives comprise numerals and some modifiers.
==== Numerals ====
A numeral is an enumerative that indicates a specific amount. Because Zekaiseii use a base-5 counting system, most traditional numerals are based on the word paj, which literally means “hand”. 
===== Functions of numerals =====
Numerals are used to count (skih, “to count, enumerate, measure, reckon”) entities of a particular kind.
===== Using numerals in discourse =====
Because numerals are based on words with literal bodily
meanings (some of which are quite gruesome), numerals MUST be introduced with the enumerative particle ski when they are used to qualify substantives. 
Binay ski paj ayri. I have five siblings. 
When a numeral is used as a substantive, iei[i]
is affixed to the final word of the numeral as a substantivizing particle. 
Sijara jzail aur vigale? How many persons live here?
Paj ej ipi iei (jara jzail). Six (persons live here).
===== Numerals to 10 =====
 Numeral	
 Meaning (“Literal”)
 ipi paj	
 one (“finger of the
 hand”)
 usa paj	
 two (“couple of the
 hand”)
 paj a waz ipi usa	
 three (“cut a couple
 of fingers from the hand”)
 paj a waz ipiy	
 four (“cut one finger
 from the hand”)
 paj	
 five (“the hand”)
 paj ej ipi	
 six (“the hand and a finger”)                              
 paj ej usa paj	
 seven (“hand and a
 couple of fingers”)
 paj e paj waz usa	
 eight (“hand and hand
 cut off a couple”)
 paj e paj waz ipiy	
 nine (“hand and hand
 cut off a finger”)
 paj usa	
 ten (“couple of
 hands”)
===== Numerals after 10 =====
The Zekaiseii numerical system is based on paj, “the hand”, which typically has five fingers (ipi). To form numerals after ten, Zekaiseii use addition and multiplication.
Paj usa ski paj usa
one hundred 
Notice that this uses the enumerative particle ski after the first numeral. This
indicates that the quantities of ten are being counted and have been found to
amount to ten tens, or one hundred. 
Paj usa ej ipi eleven 
This uses the conjunction ej, “and, plus”, which combines
numerical quantities. 
==== Quantifiers ====
Quantifiers are words that indicate a particular, but not precise, amount of an entity. The most
common quantifiers are listed below.
fiel ar yefi. Every person breathes/all persons breathe.
ichiri ura uau ma? Why’d you eat all the rice?
araeii umba fieahjel. Most (the majority of) people want to survive. 
vibaba iqa wiei. I am drinking a little alcohol.
 yefi	
 all, every
 ura	
 entire, complete, all (of one entity)
 umba	
 most, (plural) majority of
 iqa	
 some, a little (of one entity)
 piqe	
 few, very little
 zi/zit	
 none, not one, no, there is/are no
 gal	
 much, (plural) many
=== Descriptives ===
A descriptive is
a word that indicates the qualities of, or describes,
a substantive or a factive. 
==== Substantive-modifying descriptives ====
It typically indicates the character or appearance of a person
or the use, style, or appearance of an object. It usually follows its
substantive.
 Ar	
 bele[ii]
 person-ABS	
 virtuous
 “a virtuous person”	
 “a virtuous person”
===== Multiple descriptives (serial descriptive construction) =====
When two or more descriptives that modify a singular
substantive exist in succession that are opposite, they act as a disjunctive
phrase. When they are not opposite, they act as a conjunctive phrase.
 ar	
 ajha	
 wji
 Person-ABS[iii]	
 old	
 young
 An old or young person	
 An old or young person	
 An old or young person
 Ar ajha wji galmoupahi
 Gloss: Person-ABS old young love-1psg-CON
 Word-for-word: I love someone who is old or
 young.                     
 Sense-for-sense: I tend to love a person, whether old or young.	
 Ar ajha wji galmoupahi
 Gloss: Person-ABS old young love-1psg-CON
 Word-for-word: I love someone who is old or
 young.                     
 Sense-for-sense: I tend to love a person, whether old or young.	
 Ar ajha wji galmoupahi
 Gloss: Person-ABS old young love-1psg-CON
 Word-for-word: I love someone who is old or
 young.                     
 Sense-for-sense: I tend to love a person, whether old or young.
Because ajha and wji are
antonyms to each other and they modify the same singular substantive, they are
disjunctive                                                                                  
===== Comparison =====
To compare multiple instances of a substantive, one must
alter the form of the descriptive and add a particle. 
====== Positive comparison ======
To make positive comparisons of substantives from so-called
regular[iv]
descriptives, one reduplicates the first sound pair (NOT syllable). For
example, say we have a descriptive ses[v]
which means “happy”. To form the comparative degree, we add the first sound
pair of ses which is se to form seses which means “happier”. To form the superlative, simply add se to seses to form seseses
which means “happiest”. (123… stem; 12123... comparative; 1212123… superlative)
To explicitly compare one person or thing to another, one
must use avaa “more than” without a comparative descriptive or a
comparative descriptive alone.
Seses ye zui. I am happier
than you.
Ses ye avaa zui. I am happier than you.
Yet, this is not the only way descriptives inflect for
comparison. 
Some descriptives change their stem vowel.
==== Factive-modifying descriptives ====
A descriptive is comparable to an adjective in that it can
modify noun-like substantives; however, some descriptives modify factives. (Qualificatives also modify verbs, but in a
different way.)
Factive-modifying descriptives are similar in principle to adverbs in English in that descriptives
express the quality of an action. 
=== Factives ===
Factives are
speech units that indicate actions. They are similar to active and passive
verbs.
==== Derivation ====
As a highly inflected language, Zekaisivarsi derives actives
from various speech units such as substantives, descriptives, and ideophones. Here
are some types of derivation.
===== Substantive derivation =====
Factives are often derived from substantives, especially
body parts, to indicate an associated action of the substantives. 
 Substantive          	
 Meaning	
 Derived actives	
 Meaning	
 Derivative method
isva	
“eyes”	
isvaih	
“see”	
Affixation
isva	
“eyes”	
isaveih	
“look”	
Sound shuffling
isva	
“eyes”	
uraisvaih	
“investigate”	
Affixation
ospia (yospi)	
“nose; (dual) nostrils”	
ospia	
“smell; opine”	
Alternate usage
ospia (yospi)	
“nose; (dual) nostrils”	
yospi	
“smell well; breathe through nostrils”	
Dual form, alternate usage
ospia (yospi)	
“nose; (dual) nostrils”	
yosfih	
”smell like, give off scent”	
Stem sound alteration
vaq	
“mouth”	
vaih	
“talk; communicate”	
Phonetic merge
irara	
“ear”	
iraraih
irarahaih	"hear"
"listen"	Affixation
==== Inflection ====
In Zekaisivarsi, factives are inflected for several qualities,
including person, tense, mood, and voice.
===== Voice =====
Voice is the
quality of a sentence that indicates whether mentioned entities are agents or
patients, active voice and passive voice, respectively. 
====== Active voice ======
A factive in the active voice indicates that the first substantive bound to it is an agent, an
entity who/that does the action specified by the factive. 
A bivalent active voice factive takes its subject in the ergative case and its object in the absolutive case. 
Eiy eiya dosil. (him/her he/she is killing;
OSV) They is killing him/her. 
A monovalent active voice factive takes its subject in the reflexive
case.
 Eiy doseil. (Him/her is killing; O(iS)V) He/she kills himself/herself.
====== Passive voice ======
A factive in the passive voice promotes the patient to a subject and demotes the agent to an oblique
or it indicates that its sole argument is a patient.
Eiy doxil pamhe zhe. (Him/her | died
(“was killed”) | crook-OBLIQUE | by, due to action of) He was killed by a
crook.
Eiy afviel. (Him/her | lives) He/she is
alive.
====== Active-passive voice (“mediopassive”) ======
The active-passive voice is a grammatical structure that fuses activity and passivity in order to indicate that an entity’s being acted upon or having a certain quality
affects another entity.
The word yosfih, which means “to smell like”
or “to give off scent”, is active-passive. Some of the meaning is passive (“to
be smelled”) and some is active, specifically, causative (“to smell like, cause
to be smelled”). 
===== Tense =====
The tense of a
factive is the morphological quality that indicates the time at which an act is
performed. There are three simple morphological tenses, preterit, present, and future and various compound tenses.
====== Present tense ======
The present tense
indicates actions or events that are happening right now, in the present.
Unlike English and other Indo-European languages which use the present tense to indicate actions that tend
to happen and the present progressive to indicate actions that are taking place right now (I eat vs. I am eating), Zekaisivarsi
uses the present tense, also called the current tense, to denote actions that are happening or that apply at the time of
the speech or writing; therefore, the current tense can be translated as simple
present or present progressive according to the context. It tends to be the
basic form of the word.
Zui ame. I love you. 
This is not rendered I am loving you, as that would imply that love is a process with a set
beginning and a set end. This expresses that the speaker has the feeling of
love at the time that he/she says it.
Jifru zue ski. I find you not guilty.
This denotes that a judge or jury has just reached a
decision that is relevant right now.
Riuai zwiei awai. I am making dinner.
This denotes that someone is making dinner currently. 
====== Habitual tense          ======
The habitual tense
indicates actions or events that one tends to perform or that tend to occur up
to the current time. It is used with dynamic and atelic actions, such as
motion, communication, and thought. It typically involves a reduplication of
the second syllable.
Ajaelav pamimiwi. I walk in the early morning.
====== Preterit tense ======
The preterit tense
indicates actions or events that one performed or that occurred and were
completed at a set point in the past. It tends to involve some form of internal
stem change.
Zui ivasahi ajael zu pampamu. I saw you
walking around early morning.
umura pamawil. S/he walked around the
world.
===== Irregularity =====
Being more of a complex creole than a singular language,
many grammatical features in Zekaisivarsi are not strictly established (though Rhajazekaisivar[vi] are trying to institute specific rules to standardize the language), which
is particularly evident in the various inflections of the factives. Several
factives inflect only for certain persons, tenses, and moods (i.e. they are
defective), change meaning when inflected (especially between perfective and
imperfective), alternate between using affixes and stem changes, or use
suppletive forms.
===== Inflexion for specific categories =====
In Zekaisivarsi, factives tend to inflect for person[vii],
tense[viii],
and mood[ix].
However, some factives are restricted to certain categories.
Ai
This factive means “I decree, I order, I command” and that
alone. It inflects only for first-person singular present indicative. The word
for others’ commands is iauheih which
does not inflect for the first person, or perhaps it just has not been attested
yet
==== Factive combination ====
Some factives depend on other factives to complete their
meaning. The factives that complete meaning are called complements or coverbs and
the dependent factives are called heads.
pami wi factive I walk (to a place), I go (by
walking)
=== Qualificatives ===
A qualificative
is a word or morpheme that modifies a factive, substantive, or ideophone and is neither a descriptive nor an enumerative. Qualificatives typically intensify or diminish the meaning of a word. Common qualificatives indicate degree, frequency, intentionality, place, and time. 
 wihaa	
 planned to (+factive)
 haaua	
 in a fit of rage
 (+factive)
 piqi	
 barely, almost not                         
 uaa           	
 really, a lot, extremely, very much
 vwivwi	
 often, a lot,
 frequently; tends to
 vwivwi	
 vwivwiyi: too much, excessively
 ave	
 sometimes; may
 ziwi	
 never
 jaraja	
 always
 (+statives/perfectives), forever (+imperfectives)
 isavasa[x]	
 today (from isava, “seeing”; “the day that we are
 seeing”)
 iva	
 yesterday (from ivasa, “saw”; “the day that we saw”)
 isvasva	
 tomorrow (from isvasva, “will see”; “the day that we
 will see”
Dosil wihaa uryei. He
intentionally killed them.
Some qualificatives also
indicate obligation or requirement, somewhat like auxiliary verbs except that
they’re not verbs.
 duje	
 It is morally wrong for (agent) to (factive),
 (agent) should not (factive)
 zija	
 It does not behoove (agent) to (factive),
 (agent) should not (factive)
 ziha	
 Do not (factive)! It is against (ruler’s)
 command to (factive). You shall not (factive)!
 zivu	
 (agent) does not have to (factive), to
 (factive) is not necessary for (agent) to survive or excel
 belji                                                              	
 It is morally right for (agent) to (factive),
 should
 yaja	
 It behooves (agent) to do (factive)
 iha	
 Do! (agent) must (factive) per (ruler’s)
 command. You shall! (deprecated in most dialects by ai)
 vu                                                                      	
 (agent) has to (factive) to survive or excel
Dosiesu duje zu arya. It is wrong for you to kill anyone.               
=== Ideophones ===
Ideophones are
speech units that express basic ideas, such as emotions and bodily feelings.
They are typically monosyllabic.
Au of pain
Je of joy
=== Particles ===
Particles are
speech units that perform grammatical functions without carrying much
independent meaning of their own. They are comparable to conjunctions and
adpositions. Each particle is governed by distinct rules.
 Case-marking particles
 These particles indicate the function of a substantive in a sentence,
 be it an agent, patient, experiencer, or instrument.
 	
 Case-marking particles
 These particles indicate the function of a substantive in a sentence,
 be it an agent, patient, experiencer, or instrument.
 	
 Case-marking particles
 These particles indicate the function of a substantive in a sentence,
 be it an agent, patient, experiencer, or instrument.
 	
 Case-marking particles
 These particles indicate the function of a substantive in a sentence,
 be it an agent, patient, experiencer, or instrument.
 	
 Case-marking particles
 These particles indicate the function of a substantive in a sentence,
 be it an agent, patient, experiencer, or instrument.
 	
 Case-marking particles
 These particles indicate the function of a substantive in a sentence,
 be it an agent, patient, experiencer, or instrument.
 
 ee	
 by, with, on account of	
 indicates an object (can also be a person) used as a means of
 performing a specific action (wal ee skiu ma? – why do you judge by
 clothing?), typically follows the noun phrase	
 zia	
 without	
 indicates that one does not need a specific object to perform an
 action
 au	
 topic marker	
 indicates the topic of a sentence			
 hazai	
 to, for	
 indicates the person who is intended to benefit from an action, often
 used with verbs of giving (uikai' ''jerwi'
 ''zui' hazai''' – I give this book
 to you, I give this book for you), benefactive NOT dative	
 akai	
 against	
 indicates the person who is intended to suffer from an action, often
 used with verbs of fighting, attacking, cursing, etc.
 haa	
 agent, doer	
 indicates the person who performs an action	
 ia	
 experience, bear	
 denotes the experiencer of a monovalent event (doxil ia eyyi – he/she
 died)
 er	
 in, on	
 indicates location (jzai er jzai – I live in a house.)			
 nri	
 for, on behalf of	
 indicates for whom an action is done but is not the direct object (nri zu vai – I speak on your behalf, I
 vindicate you)	
 uraak	
 against, opposing	
 indicates against whom an action is done but is not the object
 wi	
 (verb) go to, reach; (preposition) to	
 indicates indirect object, indicates that an action is performed in
 relation to an object but the object is not changed in state (jaijei wi isvai – I see the tree), also indicates motion in the
 direction of a place (Amerika wi uajas vijai. I am travelling
 to America by boat.)			
  					
 Relational particles
 These particles indicate specific kinds of relationships between two or more substantives.	
 Relational particles
 These particles indicate specific kinds of relationships between two or more substantives.	
 Relational particles
 These particles indicate specific kinds of relationships between two or more substantives.	
 Relational particles
 These particles indicate specific kinds of relationships between two or more substantives.	
 Relational particles
 These particles indicate specific kinds of relationships between two or more substantives.	
 Relational particles
 These particles indicate specific kinds of relationships between two or more substantives.
 na	
 of, ‘s	
 possessive, denotes real possession of a thing that is made or bought
 by one (uikai na ye – my writing; paj
 na ye – my hand, figuratively, my cup, container [as if translated literally, it implies that one bought or cut off a human hand], my five [of a specified thing])	
 aaj	
 (literally) with	
 denotes borrowing (iskiau aaj ye – the computer that I am
 borrowing), use but not primary ownership of a work (ibraa aaj zu – the
 artwork that you are borrowing), or custody (wji aaj ui – the
 children whom the people care for)
 ei	
 (untranslatable)	
 used with body parts to indicate inalienable possession or urayi (“perfect tangling”) (ye ei
 paj ee zui eraai – with my hands, I caress you)	
 ya	
 of, on; from	
 indicates familial relation such as descent (yahabri – Abrahamite, Abrahamic person)
== Sentences ==
A sentence is a
word or set of words that expresses a complete thought. It can take the
structure agent-verb-patient, patient-agent-verb, or ideophone. There are
several classes of sentence.
== Simple sentences ==
A simple sentence
consists of a single clause, a subject and a predicate. 
Efi.
I am. I exist. (ye is the implied
subject; efi is the predicate)    
Ame zui. I love
you. (ye is the implied subject; ame zui is the predicate)   
== Questions ==
When you need or want information from someone, you ask him
or her questions. 
=== How are you? ===
Several questions that are used in Zekaisivarsi can be
translated to English as “How are you?”
·        
Aja zu aabelei ma? (How-COMMENT you-TOPIC
health-FOCUS QUESTION-MARKER) Inquires of one’s state of health 
o  
Belili ye aabelei. (Good-COMMENT I-TOPIC
health-FOCUS) indicates that one is in good health.
o  
Aqe ye aabelei. (Sick-COMMENT I-TOPIC
health-FOCUS) indicates that one feels unwell 
·        
Aja zu ui ma? (How you with people INTERROGATIVE)
Inquires of one’s relationships with people
o  
Ayrigalmpi ye ui ha iharuie. (I know-I love | I
| with another | the | intimate) I know someone and love him or her as a
friend.
o  
Uiakaak uiy. I am at enmity with people.
=== Ma       ===
Ma is a general
question word that is added at the end of a sentence to make it interrogative.
If it is the only question word in a sentence, it can be translated what or how, depending on context. If other question words are in a
sentence (such as aja, ajara, viaii, viau, etc.), it is
often left untranslated.
Zu avahaei ma?
What/how should I call you? (NOT what is your name?)
Vaueqiu ma? How do
you feel about this? (taste-you how?)
Viau zu il ma? Who
are you?
=== Disjunctive questions          ===
Disjunctive questions
seek one of two answers. They are introduced with mai.
==== Positive ====
Questions of positive
quality 
Mai afiu? Are you
breathing?
Mai afid bele? Is
life virtuous?
==== Answers ====
                                                
== Conjunctive vs. disjunctive or in
sentences ==
Zekaisivarsi distinguishes between conjunctive or and disjunctive
or.
·        
Conjunctive
or means “at least one of the
options, or maybe both.” It uses the word ba.
o  
In questions, ba indicates that one is asking about whether or not a certain
condition applies to at least one thing or person in a set, not for the
specific person to whom the condition applies. 
§ 
Eya ba
eiy sail ma? Does he or she[xi]
know?
o  
In declarative statements, ba indicates that a certain condition applies to at least one
member of a set.
§ 
Eya ba
eiy sail. He or she knows.
§ 
Eya ba
eiy zih sail. He or she does not know.
·        
Disjunctive
or, also called or
of alternatives, means that a certain condition applies to only one or some
(or is expected to apply to only one or some) members of a set, that is,
“either A or B, but not A and B”. 
o  
In questions, the word zi is used between words of the same lexical category to indicate
alternatives. 
§ 
Ea zi eu
vusu ma?  Do you want this or that?
·        
To this question are two answers:
o  
Ea vusi. I want this.
o  
Eu vusi. I want that.
o  
In statements, the word zi is used between words of the same lexical category to indicate
that a condition or action applies to only one member of a set.
§ 
Janri zi Junri
awjahi. I will accept/hire Jan or Jun.
o  
In questions, the word zi is used between the same word written or spoken twice in order
to ask “…A or not A”. 
§ 
Beleue zi beleue
zu? (“Well not well?”) Are you well or not well?
== Being verbs and constructions ==
In English, one word is used to indicate essence, existence,
location, state, condition, and action, be;
however, Zekaisivarsi employs several verbs and constructions. 
=== Essives ===
Essives are words
that denote intrinsic characteristics or significant traits.
==== Identity, occupation ====
The verb used to indicate one’s identity or occupation is il. Both words are in the absolutive
case.
Tyi il aijai. Tyi
is a leader.
Ye i paar. I am a
human.
An emotional-emphatic construction uses noun-noun without
verb.
Aj ul awjahi. U zit.  We hire only adults. You are not an adult.
Aye aj. I am an
adult!
==== Existence ====
The word for expressing existence is efi “to exist, be; to have”. The entity is in the stative case and
the location of the entity is in the absolutive case. Entities do not always
have to bind with a locative.
Efil Af. God exists.
God is. There is God.
Ie! Ie! Efil jiwrisi! Come see! Come see!
There is water!
Jzairueye efil galmoupeii. In my house, there
is great love. 
Although this verb can take a locative, it cannot simply be
used to ask where someone or something is.
*Efi aabaeel ajarama? Where
does the food exist? Where is food real? 
=== Copulatives ===
==== Location ====
Location is indicated by several distinct verbs.
===== Jzaih      =====
Jzaih (literally, “that one lives, that one dwells”) denotes
continuous stay in a place, that is, staying somewhere for a while. It is typically used with places of residence or
obligation.
Ajara jzau ma?
Where are you?
Jzair jzai. I am
at home.
Ierhaur jzai. I am
at school.
===== Zeih        =====
Zeih (literally, “that one stands”) denotes being somewhere for a certain amount of time for a certain
purpose. 
===== Eaih =====
Eaih (literally, “that one sits, lies, reclines”) is used of
persons to denote staying somewhere to rest and of things to denote being
situated somewhere.
Zurvischir eai. I
am on my bed.
Ajara e’[xii]
librarei eail ma? Where is the library?         
Jir e’ Bueliece eail e’ librarei. The library is on Bueliece
Street.
== Special uses of the word ar ==
Besides its meaning of “person”, the word ar fulfils other specific roles in a
discourse such as indicating voice, saying that something happened without
specifying who did it, signaling a relative clause, etc.
=== Indicating voice ===
The word ar is the
Zekaisi quasi-equivalent to the English passive
voice, which indicates an action without the actor.
 iswae	
 ar	
 dosil
 female	
 person	
 killed
 Used as a pronoun for females, third-person singular feminine	
 Used as a general pronoun for people, third-person singular
 indefinite	
 Patientive, passive of doxil
 “dies”
 She	
 By person	
 Kills.
 She is killed.	
 She is killed.	
 She is killed.
== Orthography ==
Real Zekaisivarsi does NOT use the Latin alphabet, and
native Zekaiseii tend not to transliterate their language into a non-Zekaisei
form, as Zekaisivarsi is a dialect
continuum, not a language. .
== Ifwai ==
In Zekaisivarsi, seemingly innocuous words can have quite
nefarious meanings in certain contexts. This quality and the words that have it
are called ifwai, which means “deep
meaning” or “multifaceted”. Many of these words refer to body parts or bodily
actions, and others of them refer to various entities or actions. These
“secondary” meanings are not listed in formal dictionaries because of their
offensiveness. Use them with caution. If possible, use a safe word instead.
Now, behold the two-faced words…
 Word         	
 Definition	
 Ifwai	
 Safe word(s)
 Human body parts: Words that literally denote specific body parts but are figuratively used to denote
 other body parts or as words of offense	
 Human body parts: Words that literally denote specific body parts but are figuratively used to denote
 other body parts or as words of offense	
 Human body parts: Words that literally denote specific body parts but are figuratively used to denote
 other body parts or as words of offense	
 Human body parts: Words that literally denote specific body parts but are figuratively used to denote
 other body parts or as words of offense
 ipi	
 finger; fifth; tenth	
 (Uae pala) penis (ipi ijweijwe – playing with one’s penis,
 masturbating); (Kanjeii) gossiper,
 rabble-rouser; (Mizre) an
 incompetent person, as one who only has one finger (kaka wiuyefi ipi zji!
 – you are inept at any work, you incompetent (literally, you one-fingered
 person)!)	
 finger: epaj
 fifth: epaj
 tenth: epajusa
 pam              	
 foot	
 (Kanjei) villain, evil
 person, criminal, one whose feet run swiftly to evil 	
  
 vaq	
 mouth	
 (Uae pala, Mizre) the
 Grave; (the Guardian of) Death	
  
 ^uai	
 I eat, I devour, I consume	
 (Uae pala) I steal; I rape,
 I molest	
 eat: aabelai, I nourish,
 sustain, feed; I heal, make healthy/whole
			
  
Oh, and by the way, there exists a
== taboo on those with whom you are not acquainted. ==
According to the Zekaiseii who live according to ui[xiii]
rather than nations, to “invoke the Name of another is to strive to appeal to
her essence”. The Name is considered a private thing, an intimate aspect of a
person to be used only with their consent. A person’s parents made a person’s
Name for the honor of their child, not to have it called and misappropriated by
some ankwu[xiv].
Therefore, people who were not friends of the child or his/her family were
forbidden to say the Name under penalty of faukraui[xv].
== Relations ==
Zekaisivarseii use particular words and constructions to
indicate various relations between substantives, broadly classed as association and possession.
=== Association ===
Association refers
to relationships between persons, including familial relations (kinship), social relations (socialization), and professional
relations (contract).
==== Ayrih ====
In Zekaisivarsi, to state that one has a specific relationship
with someone, one uses the word ayrih. Ayrih literally means
“sit together with” and conveys the meaning of “know intimately”.          When it is translated to English, it is
often rendered “have”.
Binaiy ski paj e paj ayri. I have ten brothers. (I know ten brothers; brother
COUNT-PARTICLE hand [“five”] and hand [“five”] I know)
Amiei ihar bele ayri. I have good close friends. 
The Zekaiseii do indeed have a word (several words,
actually) that can be rendered “have”, including saih, ihnaih, aiaih, and efi, but none of them actually make literal sense.
Binaiy ski paj e paj sai. I have ten brothers. This
makes sense, right? Actually, no. Not at all. See, sai denotes a possessive having, a holding. So what I’m really
saying is “I am holding ten brothers.” But couldn’t those brothers be mine, one
may ask? No. One has to examine the semantics of the sentence. The “ten
brothers” I “am holding” are brothers in relation to each other, not to me.
Binaiy ski paj e paj ihnai. I have ten brothers. This
refers to a laying claim to a thing, 
=== Possession ===
Possession refers
to ownership or use of an inanimate thing. The structures used to indicate
possession are called iyakai.
==== Ei/ya possession ====
The particles ei
and ya denote inherent or inalienable
possession, such as one’s relation to a body part or a mental aspect.
The prefix ei is
usually used with body parts, personal aspects, living necessities, and things
that are possessed but not owned, such as creative works[xvi].
Ye eimiens rhajai. I consider in
(with) my head.  
Ye eijza jzai. I live in my house.
With the particle ei, the possessor is always in first position and the possessed thing is in second
position in the possessive phrase. The possessor is always in the absolutive case and the possessed in the possessed case. As a phrase, this can be used as a topic, focus, subject, object, or adjunct. In the above sentences, it
functions as an adjunct.
The prefix ya is used with intrinsic aspects of a person, especially the spiritual and mental aspects. 
yazu iji duje. You are of bad character.
==== Na possession ====
The particle na denotes ownership of an inanimate object.
== Word formation ==
Due to the synthetic nature of Zekaiseivarsei, words are being created constantly through various processes.
=== Inflection ===
Inflection is the process of changing the grammatical state of a word by adding, removing, or altering morphemes. This is useful to creating new words in open classes.[xvii]
ame (factive) “I love” > amai (substantive) “one who loves, lover, friend”
The word amai is derived from the lemma ame “I love” through affixation of the morpheme ai “a person who does”. The affix ai changes the grammatical state from action (factive) to actor (substantive).
=== Compounding ===
Compounding is the combination of two or more roots or independent morphemes to create a word.
When compounding a factive and its object, the object precedes the factive. When compounding a substantive and its descriptive, the descriptive succeeds
the substantive.
Consider the word aurwai. It is a substantive that is composed of a substantive (ar, “person”) and a factive (wai, “I make, form, develop, create [especially over time]”). 
 Ar wai	
 >	
 aurwai
 Person-ABS[xviii] make-1psg[xix].PRES[xx]	
 >	
 Person=make
 I am making a person. (clause)	
 >	
 Making a person (substantive)
 I am making a person.	
 >	
 The collective acts by family, friends, and associates that cause a
 person to develop psychologically and socially
In the first stage, ar wai is a clause wherein ar and wai are distinct words and depend upon each other to convey the complete meaning. In the second stage, ar morphs to aur due to the VC-to-VVC sound change rule, which is that “whenever a vowel shall precede a consonant in a syllable and said syllable shall precede a syllable that begins with a consonant, the preceding syllable shall add a relative vowel after its vowel or shall stress its vowel (VC/CV… > VVC/CV…)”. The object
precedes the factive. 
Consider the word dubel.
It consists of two roots, du “evil”
and bel “good”. 
=== Radical lemmatization ===
Radical lemmatization
is the process of making a root into a word. A root is a morpheme that carries significant meaning and can stand
independently. A lemma is a basic
word, uninflected save for essential inflections. 
The root bel means
“good, healthy, whole”. From this root come various words.
bel good,
healthy, whole
bele virtuous
==== List of roots and their derivatives ====
Here is a list of the most common roots in the Zekaisivarsi.
 Root	
 Meaning	
 Derivative(s)	
 Meaning
 af	
 Holy, sacred	
 aif
 
 	
 Of God, on God’s behalf
 af	
 Holy, sacred	
 Af Enahi	
 The god of the Kanjeii religion
 av	
 High, up, superior	
  	
 bel	
 Morally good, whole, healthy, well	
 bel	
 (obsolete) virtuous, well
 bel	
 Morally good, whole, healthy, well	
 bele	
 Upright, good, honest, virtuous; right in and of itself,
 intrinsically good, wholesome
 bel	
 Morally good, whole, healthy, well	
 beli	
 Goodness, righteousness, virtue
  		
  	
  		
  	
  		
  	
[i] Iei:
formerly a substantive of various meanings, among which were “stick”, “branch”,
“rock”, “pebble”; from these meanings developed the sense of “number,
quantity”; used as a general count classifier during the Uae Naja'ah (as in uuk iei paj, “five rocks [rock COUNT five]”); reanalyzed as a particle 
[ii] Bele:
(here rendered “virtuous,” often translated “good”) denotes a kind of character
that is upright, morally honorable
[iii] Absolutive case. See endnote xvi
[iv]
If there’s one thing you learn about the Zekaisivarsi, it’s that there’s no
such thing as regular inflection. 
[v] Ses:
happy, joyful, content with life; enlightened, wise, sapient
[vi] Rhajazekaisivar:
a public civil council consisting of linguists and specialists who convene to
regulate common expression in Zekaisivarseii
[vii] Person: comprises all categories pertaining
to subjects, including first, second, or third person, and singular, dual, or
plural number
[viii]
Tense: comprises all categories
pertaining to time, including when an event happens (tense), how long it
happens (duration), and how often it happens (aspect)
[ix] Mood: comprises factuality (realis vs
irrealis) and attitude
[x]
The qualificatives
of place and time (spatial-temporal qualificatives) vary according to
the dialect of each ui. These apply
to Common Standard Zekaisivarsi.
[xi]
In Zekaisivarsi, the use of a “he or she” construction always refers to two distinct persons, never a person of
unidentified gender.
[xii]
E’ is used before proper names and foreign words that have not been haumvaur (considered a common word by
the people). It means that is called but is often left untranslated. 
[xiii]
Ui:
a group of people bound together by blood and/or mutual concern for one
another, family and friends; considered more stable than a society as members
act for the good of each other rather than their own; often mistranslated tribe or clan or even ethnicity
[xiv] Ankwu:
a stranger, a foreigner, an outsider; one who does not belong to the ui in discussion; a trespasser, an
intruder, an invader; a non-friend, a foe, an enemy; alien, illegal immigrant;
them (in Us vs. them) 
[xv] Faukraui:
literally “throwing out from the people”, a form of combined action in which an
entire community decides to banish a person from the land and deny his/her
return 
[xvi]
The use of particles varies according to dialect. 
In the Kanjei dialect, ya is used with things that are owned but not worked for, such as
body parts and creative works that one did not create but rather uses in
contrast to na, which denotes things
that are worked for or created, and ei
is used solely for body parts.
Thus, uikai ya ye means “the book that I read”
whereas uikai na ye means “the book that I write/have written”. Ye eiuikai*
would denote that the book is a part of “my” body, which is not at all
possible.
In the Mizwe dialect, ya is used with things that originate from someone, such as body
parts and creative works, and ei is
reserved for body parts. The particle ei indicates
things to which one does not hold prime claim but that one possesses. Na refers to things physically held by
someone.
Thus, uikai ya ye means “the book that I
write/have written” whereas uikai na ye means “the book that I
possess; my copy of the book”.
[xvii]
Open classes: lexical categories to
which words can be freely added, tend to carry semantic meaning; include substantives, factives, descriptives,
and enumeratives
[xviii]
ABS: Absolutive case, represents the
person or entity directly affected by the action denoted by the factive
[xix]
1psg: first-person singular                                     
[xx] PRES: present tense
Category:Grammar