Taxnul Reference Grammar

uhhhhhhhhhhhh taxnul is my conlang. it's a personal lang so don't jump on my ass for anything that isnt 900% naturalistic.

i'm also not an expert linguist or anything so don't yell at me if i said something stupid ;~;

so.. yeah. here's the reference grammar.

Taxnul is a Nominative-Accusative language. This means that the argument of an intransitive verb takes the same case as the agent of a transitive ones, that being the Nominative case. It follows, then, that the patient, or direct object, of a transitive verb takes the Accusative case. In addition to these, Taxnul features three additional cases: The Dative, Genitive, and Equative. Case in Taxnul is marked on articles, adjectives, and pronouns. Below is a series of explanations with example sentences.

Dative

The Dative case denotes the recipient or beneficiary of an action, or, in English, the indirect obect of a verb.
Consider the sentence "I gave the book to the customer." in Taxnul, this translates to:

Sil pozcit zotl Gapiren zom Pjosct kokescare.

As you can see, zotl Gapiren, or, "the customer," is in the Dative case because they are the recipient of the verb, "kokescare."

Genitive

The Genitive case denotes possession. This is achieved in english by appending "'s" to a the owner of the noun being modified, or with "of." in Taxnul, the system is similar to that of German. Consider the translation for the sentence "That is the woman's handbag":

Do kax zon Bjoktl zo Kaisc.

*Note: As Taxnul doesn't denote gender, the word for 'woman' is simply 'Kaisc,' or 'person.'

As is illustrated, the Genitive case is inherited by the owner currently modifying the noun in question.

Equative

Finally, the Equative case denotes comparison of equals, as in "as... as a...." consider the sentence "You're as fortunate as a spider."

Mozc kaxat kve karak winjo ak Scjanatl

*Literally: "You're so (kve) fortunate like (winjo) a spider"

The Equative case in Taxnul is also used as a similative case, as in the sentence "It's like a bad dream." Translation: Ul kax winjo ak Sorazc scotlakos.

Pronouns in Taxnul are declined for case and number, below is a chart for the personal pronouns.

person	nom	acc	dat	equ
1st singular	sil	zcik	scotl	zil
1st plural	sila	zcila	scila	zitla
2nd singular	mozc	moktl	moret	mur
2nd plural	mora	moktara	morela	mojtaw
3rd singular	ul	utl	ular	uz
3rd plural	ulia	utlia	ulora	uzta

And, the possessive pronouns:

person	nom	acc	dat	gen	equ
1st singular	zori	wilok	wilotl	zilom	wilos
1st plural	zoria	wjutok	wjutl	zitlor	wjutos
2nd singular	emta	emtak	emtatl	emtar	emtas
2nd plural	eloma	elomak	elomatl	elomar	elomos
3rd singular	zoru	zoruk	zorutl	zoruw	zorus
3rd plural	asoru	asoruk	asorutl	asoruw	asorus

*notice the irregularity in the 1st person nominative and genative.

There's not a ton to say about the articles, i just kinda needed somewhere to dump this chart.

	nom	acc	dat	gen	equ
definite	zon	zom	zotl	zo	zan
indefinite	en	em	et	er	ak

Note that the definite articles drop the /z/ when immediately preceded my a sibilant. For example:

"Zon Pjas o Torjal," instead of "zo Torjal"

Taxnul adjectives are to be declined for the case of the noun they modify. They also are placed after the noun they describe. Here's yet another chart for you to memorize:

nom	-
acc	-(o)k
dat	-(o)tl
gen	-(o)r
equ	-(o)s

And here's a chart using the example "My red bag:"

nom	wil Bjoktl akal
acc	wilok Bjoktl akalok
dat	wilotl Bjoktl akalotl
gen	wilor Bjoktl akalor
equ	wilos Bjoktl akalos

Verbs in Taxnul are conjugated for person and number. Their infinitive forms consist of the verb stem + "ir," for example "kaxir." Below is a chart detailing the present-tense congugations of the verb "antir," or, "to eat."

person	singular	plural
1st	antit	antin
2nd	antot	antota
3rd	antur	antutan

The future tense in Taxnul is as simple as conjugating the verb, and prefixing "wo-." If the verb stem begins in a vowel, prefix "woj-." Example:

In addition to the future and present, Taxnul features two past tenses: The simple (or "enwak -- easy") and complex (or "gosan -- whole") past.

To form the complex past tense, the past participle of the verb must be used. This is formed by prefixing "ko(k)-" and changing "ir" to "are". Example: "fisir" becomes "kofisare." After constructing the past participle, the auxiliary verb "pozcir" is to be used, and the modified verb kicked to the end of the sentence. Consider this example:

This brings us, finally, to the simple past. It definitely lives up to its name, as all you have to do is conjugate the verb normally and prefix "ko(k)-." Here's an example:

Simple, right?

under construction

Taxnul has a traditional ceremonial writing system similar to the Elian Script, in which words are read in columns of letters from top to bottom, left to right. This system allows words to be written in many different forms. Here's a couple graphics and examples to explain:

As was previously stated, this system has traditionally been used in ceremonial contexts, such as religious celebrations, government seals, etc. In modern-day, however, it has become popular among young Taxnula. Today it is commonly used to write sigils, carve phrases into trees, graffiti, and for signatures. It also can still be found in its original religious contexts.