luryt

Foundational Spec (v2)

v2 — August 2026. First revision, driven by an external stress test of the language. Summary of changes: -t referential vs -m descriptive; a pivot-and-role clause rule; three distinct spatial constructions with the new G-series (path orientation) and ru as the path-phrase closer; linear operator scope; a clause-final ROOT-l event-manner slot; a zero-copula simple property clause with broad N-series polarity, narrow na scope, and property-local M-series degree; the numeral marker num with productive base-100 cardinal runs; stress restated as root-anchored (equivalent to the old penultimate rule). The prior version is preserved as archive/doc_v15.md. Details in §9.

0. Scope

Fixed now:

Still open (deliberately):

Design principle:

Wherever natural, CV particles double as prefixes with parallel semantics (phrasal vs lexical level). K-series is the first fully specified example of this.

1. Phonology

1.1 Consonants

Canonical consonant order (for indexing, sorting, numeric codes, series labels):

P B M F V T D N Q S Z L C W X J K G R H

Letter IPA Description
P /p/ bilabial voiceless stop
B /b/ bilabial voiced stop
M /m/ bilabial nasal
F /f/ labiodental voiceless fricative
V /v/ labiodental voiced fricative
T /t/ alveolar voiceless stop
D /d/ alveolar voiced stop
N /n/ alveolar nasal
Q /ts/ alveolar voiceless affricate
S /s/ alveolar voiceless fricative
Z /z/ alveolar voiced fricative
L /l/ alveolar lateral approximant
C /tʃ/ postalveolar voiceless affricate (“ch”)
W /dʒ/ postalveolar voiced affricate (“j”)
X /ʃ/ postalveolar voiceless fricative (“sh”)
J /j/ palatal approximant (“y”)
K /k/ velar voiceless stop
G /g/ velar voiced stop
R /ʀ/ uvular trill (or [ʁ])
H /h/ glottal voiceless fricative

Final consonant pool (for content words):

M T N S L R

Only these six may appear as the final consonant of a content word.

1.2 Vowels

Canonical vowel order:

I Y E A O U

Letter IPA Description
I /i/ high front unrounded
Y /y/ high front rounded
E /e/ mid front unrounded
A /a/ low (front/central)
O /o/ mid back rounded
U /u/ high back rounded

Used for:

1.3 Syllable Structure & Stress

Examples: pi.rim → pirim; ka.pi.rim → kapirim.

Because prefixes are unstressed but free particles are stressed, ka pirim (ka pirim, “people, as a group”) is audibly distinct from kapirim (kapirim, “a crowd”).

2. Word Structure

2.1 Two Word Types

  1. Atomic words (particles)
    • Shape: typically CV; a few longer fixed forms allowed (currently one exists: num, the numeral marker — §8.1).
    • Used for: pronouns, TAM, quantifiers, roles, wh-words, etc.
    • No productive morphology (no prefixes/suffixes) on these forms.
  2. Content words
    • Exactly one CVCV root.
    • Optional prefix block of one or more CV prefixes.
    • Exactly one final consonant suffix from {M, T, N, S, L, R}.

    • Template:

      (CV prefix)* + CVCV(root) + final suffix
    • Open-class items: entities, events, properties, manners, relations.

In running text:

2.2 Final Suffix System (Head Kinds)

Final suffixes (in canonical order):

-M -T -N -S -L -R

Suffix Head kind Typical use
-m Entity head descriptive noun: “an X / X-things” (no particular one)
-t Referential head identifiable entity or set: “the X (we can identify)”
-n Event head verb: “to X / X happens”
-s Property head adjective: “X-like, having X-property”
-l Manner head adverb: “in an X way, X-ly”
-r Relational head relational NP: “of X, X’s, from X, related-by-X”

These six head meanings and their word formation are fixed. The basic syntax below specifies entity, event, and property constructions, including event-modifying ROOT-l manner heads (§7.1), attributive ROOT-s modifiers, and NP-internal ROOT-r relational restrictions (§7.2). Non-event placement of ROOT-l and the distribution of ROOT-r outside the specified entity-NP restriction block remain deliberately open.

-m vs -t (v2): -t picks out a referent the hearer can identify — a specific individual or an identifiable plural set (kory-t “the house / those houses, you know which”). -m is descriptive and non-anchored: a class or an unidentified instance (kory-m “a house, houses in general”). -t marks identifiability, not distance — pointing is the D-series’ job, and demonstratives therefore normally combine with -t (§7.2).

Hyphens (piri-m) are just glossing; in orthography it’s written as one word (pirim).

2.3 Parsing Content Words

Given a token:

  1. If length = 2 and shape = CV → treat as atomic word.
  2. Else:
    • If final char ∉ {m,t,n,s,l,r} → not a well-formed content word.
    • Else:
      • final char = suffix.
      • preceding 4 characters must be CVCV = root.
      • any remaining left characters must form a sequence of CV prefixes.

If this holds, segmentation is unique:

(CV prefix)* + CVCV(root) + suffix

2.4 Series Principle (Particles & Prefixes)

Any systematic CV series uses:

Example:

Many CV series serve as:

K-series (configuration) is the first fully specified particle+prefix series.

Note (categorical series): when one series crosses two categories (distance × number in D, person × number in J), the vowels interleave major–minor — di/dy “this/these”, ji/jy “I/we”. Future series must not place a participant-, polarity-, or direction-flipping contrast on the acoustically weakest vowel pairs i/y and o/u; those pairs should differ only in the minor category or by one step of the scale.

3. Semantic Matrix (Domains × Aspects)

Every root is C₁ V₁ C₂ V₂.

3.1 Domains (V₁)

3.2 Aspects (V₂)

3.3 Cells (V₁ × V₂) – Concept Zones

I PERSON (V₁ = I)

Y SOCIETY (V₁ = Y)

E LIFE (V₁ = E)

A PHYSICAL (V₁ = A)

O ARTEFACT (V₁ = O)

U ABSTRACT (V₁ = U)

4. Particle Mappings (Atomic CV Series)

Consonant order:

P B M F V T D N Q S Z L C W X J K G R H

Vowel order:

I Y E A O U

0 – P (Phase / Event Aspect)

Form Phase value Gloss
pi inceptive / just starting “just now start to”
py progressive / in progress “currently, be -ing”
pe resumptive / back again “again, back to doing it”
pa continuative / still ongoing “still, keep (on)”
po completive / through to the end “completely, all the way”
pu perfect / already done / result state “already, (has) done/finished”

Used as clause particles, typically before the verb.

1 – B

(reserved — earmarked for mood / clause force)

2 – M (Degree / Intensity)

Form Degree value Gloss
mi minimal presence “slightly, a bit, barely”
my low / below-typical “somewhat, rather low”
me neutral / typical degree “moderately, normally”
ma above-typical “quite, pretty, fairly”
mo strong / high degree “very, strongly”
mu maximal / excessive / too much “extremely, too, overly”

In an event clause, M occupies its existing front-operator position (§7.1). In a simple non-comparative property clause, one M particle may instead occur immediately before the clause-final ROOT-s, grading only that property (§7.5).

3 – F (Coordination & Logical Linkage)

Form Relation Gloss
fi additive “and”
fy sequential “and then”
fe alternative (inclusive) “or”
fa adversative “but, yet”
fo consecutive “so, therefore”
fu preventive / alternative consequence “or else, otherwise”

The scale runs from symmetric addition to conditional consequence: additive → sequential → alternative → adversative → consecutive → preventive. A free F particle joins two constituents of the same kind — complete noun phrases or complete clauses — and may open a sentence as a discourse connective. Syntax and attachment in §7.6.

Note (safety): fi/fy differ only in sequence, and fo/fu are both forward-looking consequence links, so a misheard vowel keeps the discourse move. “Because” is deliberately not an F form — backward-looking grounds are future X-series subordination; until then, put the cause first and link with fo (§7.6).

4 – V

(unused / reserved)

5 – T (Time / Tense-like)

Form Time value Gloss
ti remote past “long ago”
ty recent past “recently, just now”
te present “now, currently”
ta near future “soon, about to”
to far future “later, someday”
tu gnomic / timeless “generally, whenever”

6 – D (Demonstratives)

Form Distance / number Gloss
di near, singular “this”
de medial/local, singular “that (here / in view)”
do far / elsewhere, singular “that (elsewhere)”
dy near, plural “these”
da medial/local, plural “those (here / in view)”
du far / elsewhere, plural “those (elsewhere)”

7 – N (Polarity)

Form Polarity type Gloss / core force
ni explicit affirmation “yes, indeed, it is so”
ny partial / mixed presence “sort of, partly, more or less”
ne neutral / unmarked polarity “(no special polarity)”
na simple negation “not, no, it isn’t so”
no contrary / opposite / anti- “on the contrary, anti-”
nu strong negation / impossibility “never, absolutely not, cannot”

8 – Q (Quantifiers)

Form Type Short gloss
qi few / small subset “few, a small number of”
qy existential, non-partitive “a / some (there exists)”
qe partitive, not-all “some of (them), not all”
qa large subset “most (of)”
qo universal, collective “all (of), the whole X”
qu universal, distributive “every / each / any (one by one)”

The scale is a monotone positive quantity progression: few → some → some of → most → all → every. There is no negative quantifier: an empty-set claim is compositional, with a front N-series particle over an existential — na qy piri-m pase-n. “no person goes” (¬∃), nu qy piri-m pase-n. “absolutely no one goes” — exactly as linear operator scope (§7.1) already provides. Quantity is not configuration: qi piri-m “few people” (proportion) contrasts with ke piri-m “people in a small group” (K-series grouping).

9 – S (Spatial Topology, Static/Dynamic)

Form Topological relation (static) Gloss
si interior / within boundary “in, inside (within X)”
sy surface / contact “on, on top of, touching X”
se adjacency / side-by-side “next to, beside X”
sa surrounding area / vicinity “around X, in X’s area”
so exterior / beyond boundary “outside X, beyond X”
su among multiple / spread through “among X, amidst, throughout”

Static pattern: FIGURE S GROUND Path-neutral motion: FIGURE S GROUND MOTION-VERB; the S-relation describes the path topology.

10 – Z

(reserved — earmarked for reflexive, reciprocal & discourse reference)

11 – L

(unused / reserved)

12 – C (Comparatives / Scalar Relations)

Form Comparative role Gloss
ci superlative-low “least, the least ~”
cy less-than “less, not as ~”
ce equal “as ~ as, equally”
ca more-than “more, -er”
co superlative “most, the most ~”
cu extremal limit “as ~ as possible”

The scale is symmetric and monotone: least → less → equal → more → most → as-possible.

Pattern with property PROP-s:

A cy/ce/ca PROP-s B re
= “A is less/as/more PROP than B”

re (R-series) marks standard-of-comparison (“than B”). The superlatives ci and co take the standard-less frame A ci/co PROP-s (§7.5). Scalar bounds are compositional, not lexical: front na over a comparative gives “at least” (na … cy, not-less) and “at most” (na … ca, not-more) — see §7.5. No C form encodes a bound.

13 – W (Wh-/Interrogatives)

Form Question type Gloss
wi time “when?”
wy reason “why? (for what reason?)”
we place “where?”
wa thing “what? / what thing?”
wo person “who? / which person?”
wu manner “how? / in what way?”

14 – X

(reserved — earmarked for subordinate-clause delimiters)

15 – J (Personal Pronouns)

Form Person / number Gloss
ji 1sg I
jy 1pl we
je 2sg you (sg)
ja 2pl you (pl)
jo 3sg he / she / it
ju 3pl they

The mapping is person-major, number-minor — the same major–minor interleave as the D-series (di/dy “this/these”), so the acoustically closest pairs ji/jy and jo/ju differ only in number (“I/we”, “he-she-it/they”), never in discourse participant.

16 – K (Configuration / Collectivity: Particle + Prefix)

K-series expresses how many units and how they are grouped. Each form functions as:

Form Config type Particle gloss Prefix gloss (kV-ROOT-m)
ki singled, atomic “as a single unit, alone, singly” “one singled-out X, an atomic unit”
ky pair / dual “in pairs, as a pair” “a pair of X”
ke small group “in a small group, a few together” “a small group of X (a few Xs)”
ka generic group / crowd “as a group, together, in a crowd” “a group / crowd / community of X”
ko large collective / mass “en masse, as a large crowd/mass” “a large collective / mass / population of X”
ku scattered / distributed “scattered, spread out, all over” “X scattered / distributed (many Xs)”

Examples of prefix use:

As a particle before an NP, K occupies the outermost NP slot:

[K] [Q] [D] [NUM] [ROOT-r]* [ROOT-s]* [ROOT-{m|t}]

The free K-particle configures the participants selected by the complete following Q/D/NUM/modifier/head phrase. At most one free K-particle fills this slot. NUM is the optional exact-cardinal constituent defined in §7.2.

A bound kV- remains lexical inside the entity head, so Q and D select configuration entities instead. Compare:

Direct event-level use of free K, and its order among the front operators, remain open (§7.1).

17 – G (Path Orientation)

Orients a motion event relative to its path. The path phrase is closed by ru (§7.3).

Form Orientation Gloss
gi origin “from, starting at”
gy departure “away from, leaving”
ge route “along, via, through”
ga approach “toward, nearing”
go endpoint “into / onto, arriving at”
gu return “back to, returning”

Pattern: FIGURE G (S) GROUND ru MOTION-VERB — see §7.3.

18 – R (Roles / Case-like Particles)

Form Role Gloss
ri agent / controller “by (agent), as doer”
ry experiencer / beneficiary “to / for (person)”
re patient / theme / standard “object of, about; ‘than’ in comparatives”
ra instrument / means “with, using, by means of”
ro location / setting “at, in, on (place/time)”
ru path-frame closer closes a G-oriented path phrase; not directional by itself

NP + R pattern: R normally acts like a postposition. In the path construction, ru closes the complete G (S) GROUND frame; the G-series supplies its orientation (§7.3).

19 – H (Frequency / Habituality)

Form Frequency value Gloss
hi single occurrence “once, one time”
hy low frequency “rarely, seldom”
he intermittent “sometimes”
ha frequent “often, frequently”
ho typical / habitual “usually, normally”
hu maximal frequency “always, constantly”

5. Derivational Prefixes

Content words:

(CV prefix)* + CVCV(root) + suffix

Some CV series can serve both as:

When used as a prefix, they apply their semantics lexically, inside the word, rather than phrasally.

5.1 K-series as derivational prefix (configuration)

For a root R = C₁V₁C₂V₂, entity head R-m:

Example:

This does not change the Domain×Aspect classification of the root; it only modifies internal configuration.

Note (v2): ki- singles out one unit from a configuration (“one of the group”). It does not mark identifiability (that is -t) nor pointing (that is the D-series): kipiri-m “a lone individual”, kipiri-t “the lone individual (we can identify)”.

Other series (M, T, etc.) may later get parallel prefix roles (e.g. degree prefixes on adjectives, tense-aspect prefixes on verbs).

6. Core Roots (Matrix-Aligned Lexicon)

Each root is CVCV. Actual words add a suffix:

I I

I Y

I E

I A

I O

I U

Y I

Y Y

Y E

Y A

Y O

Y U

E I

E Y

E E

E A

E O

E U

A I

A Y

A E

A A

A O

A U

O I

O Y

O E

O A

O O

O U

U I

U Y

U E

U A

U O

U U

(Examples sometimes use an extra root nife ≈ “eat”; this is a provisional IE root not yet in the core 36 list.)

7. Basic Syntax (Provisional)

7.1 Default Event-Clause Template

A useful canonical order for a clause headed by an event word (ROOT-n):

[W (+R)?] [T] [P] [H] [M] [N] [PIVOT] [other NPs + R/S] [MANNER] [na] VERB

Where:

The smallest pivoted event clause is PIVOT + VERB. The pivot may be absent in a fully role-marked clause. Static-location and property-predicate clauses use their own patterns below and do not require an event word.

The track covers the fixed event operators. A free K-particle that introduces an NP belongs to that NP and precedes its Q, D, and NUM slots (§§4.16, 7.2). Direct event-level K scope and order relative to this track remain open.

An event clause may contain one event-modifying ROOT-l manner head in a clause-final MANNER slot after the pivot and every role-marked or spatial phrase but before the existing immediately-preverbal narrow na (if present) and final ROOT-n; the manner modifies that final event predicate, while W/T/P/H/M/N front operators retain their existing order and rightward scope. The slot is optional and single: multiple event-manner heads are not licensed.

Example:

Pivot and roles (v2). An event clause has at most one unmarked noun phrase: the pivot, in the pivot slot, read as the most agent-like argument of the verb. Every other argument carries an R-series role particle (§7.3), including a questioned argument (§7.4). A clause may also be fully role-marked, with no pivot at all — which is how the agent is omitted, with no passive morphology:

Event manner. The MANNER slot stays adjacent to the clause-final event tail even when the clause contains arguments or spatial frames:

Operator scope (v2). The front operators ([T] [P] [H] [M] [N]) take scope over everything to their right, in linear order. Polarity na may also stand immediately before the verb for narrow scope:

7.2 Noun Phrase Template

[K] [Q] [D] [NUM] [ROOT-r]* [ROOT-s]* [ROOT-{m|t}]

Examples:

Free K takes scope over the participants selected by the following Q/D/NUM/modifier/head phrase. Bound K is part of the head instead: ka num pa piri-m means “exactly three people, together,” while num pa ka-piri-m means “exactly three crowds.” Likewise, ky qe da feni-t configures some animals as pairs, whereas qe da ky-feni-t selects some identifiable animal-pair entities. Only one free K occupies the optional outer slot. A following R-series role marks the complete NP, including its K/Q/D/NUM and modifier scope.

A NUM constituent contains the marker followed by a maximal run of one or more numeric CV blocks:

NUM = num numeric-CV+

Each block keeps its 0–99 value from §8. With block values d₁ … dₖ, the run is read most-significant first in base 100:

value = d₁ × 100^(k-1) + d₂ × 100^(k-2) + … + dₖ

A one-block run therefore retains every existing 0–99 expression. In a run of two or more blocks, the first block must be nonzero; zero blocks may occur internally or finally. num pi is the sole form of zero. There is no maximum block count.

NUM gives the exact cardinality of the entity head — as restricted by any relational and property blocks — inside any restriction supplied by D. An overt Q scopes over the following D/NUM/restricted-head cardinal frame, so qe da num bi feni-t selects some but not all of an identified five-animal set. All K/Q/D particles precede NUM, and both modifier blocks follow NUM. After num, successive numeric CVs belong to its payload until the first structurally distinct content word — a relational restriction, an attributive property modifier, or the entity head — ends the run; no K/Q/D or other particle can intervene. Outside an entity NP, the numeral-phrase boundary ends a standalone NUM. A later num begins a separate NUM constituent, not another block of the same integer. These boundaries preserve the particle/numeral distinction even when a CV has both uses:

The rule adds no special agreement morphology: combinations whose existing D, Q, and numeral meanings contradict one another remain semantically anomalous.

Relational restrictions. Within an entity noun phrase, zero or more bare ROOT-r content words form a prenominal relational-restriction block in the slot immediately after optional NUM and immediately before every attributive ROOT-s; each restricts the final ROOT-{m|t} head to referents for which its established “related-by-X” meaning holds, order among ROOT-r modifiers carries no semantic import, K/Q/D/NUM scope over the head after all relational and property restrictions, and a ROOT-r beginning this block counts as an NP-initial word for the §7.6 low-attachment rule.

The block supplies a generic, contextually interpreted relation to the root concept; it does not add an explicit possessor, complement, or direction to that relation. Only bare ROOT-r words occur here: prefixed relational words, relational restriction of pronoun heads, recursive relational dependents, relational predication, and F-coordination inside the block are not licensed. Those constructions remain open. All ROOT-r modifiers precede all ROOT-s modifiers, and neither kind follows the entity head, so category order and the NP boundary remain fixed.

The head suffix remains contrastive inside the same environment: zife-r rufi-m is “a speech-related idea,” while zife-s rufi-m is “a speech-like idea.” The mixed-category order is canonical: zife-r vosa-s toki-m is a speech-related broken tool, while vosa-s zife-r toki-m is not one licensed noun phrase.

Attributive properties. An entity noun phrase may include an attributive block of one or more property modifiers — each a bare ROOT-s content word — immediately before its entity head. No M particle occurs inside this attributive block. Each attributive ROOT-s restricts the head’s referents intersectively to those having the property; order among stacked attributives carries no semantic import. When a relational block is present, the complete ROOT-r block precedes the complete ROOT-s block. The surrounding K/Q/D/NUM operators take scope over the relationally and property-restricted head: restriction applies before configuration, quantification, pointing, and counting, so qa vosa-s kory-m quantifies over broken houses, not houses. Attributive ROOT-s occurs only in this prenominal block — never after the head, never on a pronoun head, and nowhere else in the clause — so clause-final property predication (§7.5) keeps its unique parse. The positions form a minimal pair: vosa-s kory-m “a broken house” is a noun phrase, while kory-m vosa-s. “a house is broken” is a clause.

Demonstratives point at identifiable referents, so they normally take -t heads; a -m head after a demonstrative gives a kind reading (da feni-m ≈ “those sorts of animal”).

Pronouns (ji, jy, je, ja, jo, ju) behave as NPs.

7.3 Roles & Space

Role particles (R-series):

Space (v2) distinguishes three constructions:

1 · Static location — no verb needed: FIGURE S GROUND

2 · Location adjunct of an event — the spatial phrase is closed by ro (location role):

3 · Motion path. An S-phrase alone supplies path topology without choosing an orientation:

A G-series particle adds orientation, and ru closes the whole oriented path phrase: FIGURE G (S) GROUND ru MOTION-VERB

ru no longer means “from” or “to” by itself: orientation lives in the G-series, and ru is the role particle closing the completed path frame. (This fixes v1, where ru conflated source with goal and the directional example placed ru before its NP, against the NP + R rule.)

7.4 Questions

Wh-questions use the W-series and keep the W-word clause-initial. A W-word that questions the pivot is unmarked. If it questions any other event participant or setting, its ordinary R-series marker follows it immediately; the W+R phrase remains ahead of T/P/H/M/N. W-words used as non-role operators (time, reason, manner) remain unmarked.

This rule does not extract a W-word from inside a static S construction or an oriented G…ru path frame; those question constructions remain open (§0).

Yes/no questions: same clause + question intonation / ?.

Answers with N-series:

7.5 Properties and Comparatives

Property from root + -s:

Simple property clause. An unmarked affirmative non-comparative property clause has the zero-copula form SUBJECT [M] PROPERTY: SUBJECT is exactly one pronoun or complete §7.2 noun phrase, optional M is one degree particle, and PROPERTY is exactly one clause-final ROOT-s whose property is asserted of that subject.

SUBJECT [M] PROPERTY

In a simple non-comparative property clause, optionally place one M-series particle immediately before the clause-final ROOT-s — [N] SUBJECT [M] ROOT-s or SUBJECT na [M] ROOT-s; it grades only that property, while the existing front-N and local-na positions and scopes remain unchanged. The slot permits at most one M particle; M particles do not stack.

Examples:

Property polarity. A simple property proposition may contain at most one free N-series particle in one of two mutually exclusive positions:

[N] SUBJECT [M] PROPERTY
SUBJECT na [M] PROPERTY

Any N-series form (ni/ny/ne/na/no/nu) may occupy the front position and takes rightward scope over the complete SUBJECT [M] PROPERTY proposition. Only na may instead occur after SUBJECT and immediately before optional M and PROPERTY; there, the complete SUBJECT noun phrase — including its K/Q/D/NUM scope over any modifiers — outscopes negation, and na outscopes the graded property. The two positions cannot co-occur, and N particles do not stack. With neither position, the clause retains the unmarked affirmative reading.

Examples:

No copula, event head, role marker, or agreement stands between the subject and property; local na is the sole licensed intervening polarity particle, and optional local M is the sole licensed degree particle, in that order. The template licenses one property predicate; multiple or coordinated property predicates remain open. Attributive ROOT-s inside a noun phrase is licensed by §7.2 and is not predication: in di vosa-s kory-t hata-s. only hotness is predicated, of this broken house. Property polarity and the property-local M slot are the only operator extensions licensed here: simple property clauses have no T/P/H operator track, and the event-clause M position in §7.1 does not extend to them by analogy. The property-local M rule licenses no M occurrence inside noun phrases, comparisons, static-location clauses, or other constructions. The two N patterns above likewise do not extend by analogy to static-location clauses; a comparison licenses one front polarity position of its own (below).

Comparative pattern (C-series + re):

Superlatives (standard-less frame):

Comparative polarity. A comparative or superlative clause may contain at most one front N-series particle, taking scope over the whole comparison; the narrow pre-predicate position does not extend to comparisons:

Scalar bounds are therefore compositional — na + cy “at least”, na + ca “at most” — and no C form encodes a bound.

An overt C-series form keeps the existing comparative or superlative construction; it is not an optional part of the simple SUBJECT [M] PROPERTY template. The property-local M slot does not combine with a C-series comparison.

7.6 Coordination (F-series)

A free F particle (§4.3) links exactly two constituents of the same kind as X F Y:

Chains iterate left to right with the same construction: A fi B fi C; a mixed chain such as A fi B fe C groups as (A fi B) fe C.

Attachment (low attachment). An F particle immediately preceded by a noun-phrase-final word (an entity head or pronoun) and immediately followed by a noun-phrase-initial word (a K/Q/D particle, num, a relational ROOT-r, an attributive ROOT-s, an entity head, or a pronoun) coordinates noun phrases; clause coordination is available only otherwise. To chain a clause after one that ends in a noun phrase (a static-location clause), give the next clause a non-NP-initial start — a front operator — or use separate sentences.

Discourse use. A sentence may open with one F particle, linking the whole sentence to the previous sentence with the same relation: di koryt vosas. fo ji gosen. — “The house is broken. So, I build.” Cause-first order plus fo covers “because” until X-series subordination exists.

Not licensed: linking constituents of different kinds; F inside either modifier block; correlative doubling (“both … and”); and F directly inside an open numeral payload — a numeric-vowel F form there is read as a payload block (§8.1), so bare numerals are not coordinable (coordinate counted heads instead: num pa kory-m fi num bi feni-m).

Examples:

8. Numeric CV Blocks and Base-100 Cardinals

Consonant indices (canonical order):

  1. P
  2. B
  3. M
  4. F
  5. V
  6. T
  7. D
  8. N
  9. Q
  10. S
  11. Z
  12. L
  13. C
  14. W
  15. X
  16. J
  17. K
  18. G
  19. R
  20. H

Vowel indices for numerals (first five vowels):

  1. I
  2. Y
  3. E
  4. A
  5. O

Each numeric CV is one base-100 block. For integer d with 0 ≤ d ≤ 99:

c_index = d // 5      # 0..19
v_index = d % 5       # 0..4

CV(d) = C[c_index] + V[v_index]

Examples:

Inverse, given CV (with vowel in {I,Y,E,A,O}):

d = 5 * c_index + v_index

8.1 The numeral marker num and positional composition (v2)

Seventy-five of the hundred numeric CVs are homophonous with defined particles (te is both “now” and 27). The remaining twenty-five use the five reserved or unallocated series consonants and currently have only a numeric reading. Because collisions are nevertheless systematic and common, ordinary numeric expressions are announced uniformly by num — the language’s first fixed atomic form longer than CV, a clipped entity form of nunu “number”:

Inside an entity NP, num numeric-CV+ occupies the NUM slot after any K, Q, and D particles and directly before the relational and property modifier blocks (if any) and entity head (§7.2). The marker governs the maximal following run of numeric CVs. For example, da num da piri-t keeps the first da demonstrative and reads the second as 33, while da num py pi piri-t reads the payload as 100.

For a payload of k block values d₁ … dₖ, composition is positional and most-significant first:

N = Σ dᵢ × 100^(k-i)    for i = 1 … k

Equivalently, start at zero and replace N with 100 × N + d for each block from left to right. The spelling is canonical:

Thus 9,999 is num ho ho, 10,001 is num py pi py, and 12,345,678 is num me do ly jy. A following content word — relational modifier, property modifier, or entity head — or the boundary of a standalone numeral phrase ends the run. A new num starts a separate numeral constituent: num py pi is the single integer 100, whereas num py / num pi (with the slash only marking a phrase boundary here) contains the separate integers 1 and 0.

A bare numeric CV remains available as a label or code where no clause competes for the reading (list numbering, IDs, tables). A bare sequence such as py pi is correspondingly two code elements, never an unmarked alias of num py pi “100.”

9. Version History

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