Viku: Grammar

by Viktor Medrano

Typology

Viku is an isolating language. A purely isolating language does not use affixes or root modifications like "walk, walks, walking, walked" in English. Each Viku word is invariable, and meanings have to be modified by inserting additional words, or understood by context. In more modern parlance, Viku is a highly analytic language.

Parts of Speech

There are three major parts of speech in Viku: predicate words, structure words, and names. Predicate words, the roots, are listed in the Vocabulary. They are the "meat" of the language. Structure words, which are described on this page, are small words that hold the language together. They are the "bones" of the language. Names are those of specific people, things, events, and places.

The roots are called "predicate words" as they are not really verbs, nouns, adverbs, or adjectives, but can function as any of these. Regular terminology of English grammar makes less sense in the context of Viku.

The parts of speech of Viku have certain phonological signatures. Predicate words have a structure (C)VCV or (C)VCVCV where C is a consonant and V is a vowel. Structure words have a structure (C)VC or (C)VCVC. Names can be of any length (C)V...V(C) as long as C and V are alternating.

Sentence Structure

The Viku sentence expresses a predicate relationship which is held together by a 'functor' with its zero or more arguments. In English grammar, the functor corresponds to the verb; the arguments correspond to nouns, pronouns, et cetera. In Viku, the functor normally goes in the beginning of the sentence.

functor argument1 argument2 argument3...

If we look at the Vocabulary, we see defined the predicate word for "come/go" is latu:

latu   x1 comes/goes to destination x2 from origin x3 via route x4 using means/vehicle x5

We can make a sentence like the following:

latu an apatu in pali in nuvuk |
go ART person ART Paris ART New York
functor argument1 argument2 argument3
The person is going to Paris from New York.

Two articles (ART) mark the arguments. The common article 'an' is for unnamed objects, persons, events, and places, while the name article 'in' is for named objects, persons, events, and places. There is also the functor article which is 'un'; it is used to disambiguate the functor, for example in cases when the functor is not at the beginning of the sentence. This article may often be omitted if there is no ambiguity.

an apatu in pali un latu in nuvuk |
ART person ART Paris ART go ART New York
argument1 argument2 functor argument3
The person is going to Paris from New York.

As you can see, the functor can be moved to a different slot in the sentence.

The bar | marks a pause and takes the place of periods, commas, semi-colons, question marks, and exclamation marks that would appear in an English sentence. You will note that capital letters are not normally used in Viku.

A sentence may optionally begin with 'iv' and optionally end with 'uv'. These may be used to disambiguate the limits of a sentence. Usually, the pause | is enough to disambiguate the limits of sentences.

iv latu an apatu in pali in nuvuk uv |
BEGIN go ART person ART Paris ART New York END
functor argument1 argument2 argument3
The person is going to Paris from New York.

Some structure words used as arguments:

kut	I/me/my
kus	we/us/our (inclusive, with you)
kup	we/us/our (exclusive, without you)
vat	you/your (singular)
vas	you/your (plural)
tat	this/this-here/this one's, he/him/she/her/it/its
tas	these/these here/these ones', they/them/their
tit	that/that-there/that one's, he/him/she/her/it/its
tis	those/those ones', they/them/their
tut	that yonder, he/him/she/her/it/its
tus	those yonder, they/them/their
nus	unspecified value (used when an argument is unimportant or obvious)

The structure word 'nus' can be used to skip an argument; however, if 'nus' is at the end of the sentence, it may be omitted. In previous examples, we have skipped arguments 4 and 5.

latu kut nus an niniva |
come I ARG2 ART home
functor argument1 argument2 argument3
I am coming from home.

latu tis |
come they/those
Those/They are coming.

A functor without arguments is a perfectly grammatical sentence in Viku. Often, the context disambiguates who or what are involved.

latu |
come
(Someone/something) is coming.

Plurals

Number is not usually explicit when refering to predicate words, so 'an apatu' may mean '(the/a/some) person(s)'. If you want to be explicit with plurality, precede the predicate word with 'pan', so 'an pan apatu' means '(the/some) persons'. If you want to be explicit with singularity, precede the predicate word with 'satus' (one), so 'an satus apatu' means '(the/a/one) person'. Usually, context gives the number and you then do not need to be explicit.

Varying the Order of Arguments

The place structure specifies the numerical order of arguments, but this can be varied. An argument may be placed out of numerical order by labelling it with a tag. When a tag is used for one argument, all other arguments must be tagged as well.

kap	argument1
lap	argument2
nap	argument3
pap	argument4
sap	argument5

nap in nuvuk lap in pali kap an apatu un latu |
TAG3 ART New York TAG2 ART Paris TAG1 ART person ART go
argument3 argument2 argument1 functor
The person is going to Paris from New York.

Switching Place Values

Place values can be reordered by tagging the predicate word with special structure words.

lip	switch place values 1 and 2
nip	switch place values 1 and 3
pip	switch place values 1 and 4
sip	switch place values 1 and 5

We see from the Vocabulary that 'to talk' which is 'apunu' is defined as follows:

"x1 talks/speaks to x2 about subject x3 in language x4."
apunu TALKER TALKED-TO SUBJECT LANGUAGE
TALKER talks/speaks to TALKED-TO about SUBJECT in LANGUAGE

We can reorder the place values:

lip apunu TALKED-TO TALKER SUBJECT LANGUAGE
nip apunu SUBJECT TALKED-TO TALKER LANGUAGE
pip apunu LANGUAGE TALKED-TO SUBJECT TALKER

For example:

lip apunu in niki kut an vituta in viku |
ORD is-talked-to ART Nicky me ART mathematics ART Viku
Nicky is talked to by me about mathematics in Viku.

nip apunu an vituta in niki kut in viku |
ORD is-talked-about ART mathematics ART Nicky me ART Viku
Mathematics is talked about to Nicky by me in Viku.

We can see that emphasis and semantics are different when place values are reordered for the functor. What about in the arguments themselves?

Compare the following examples:

latu an apunu in pali |
go ART talker ART Paris
The talker is going to Paris.

latu an lip apunu in pali |
go ART ORD talked-to ART Paris
The one talked to is going to Paris.

In an argument itself, we can see that any place value can be referenced: 'an lip apunu' = one-talked-to, 'an nip apunu' = subject-talked-about, 'an pip apunu' = language-used-to-talk. Note that a predicate word without a reordering tag and used as an argument refers to the first place value: an apunu = talker.

Yes/No Questions

A yes/no question is preceded by the structure word 'kal':

kal latu vat in pali |
QUES go you ART Paris
Are you going to Paris?

But when you want to be specific about questioning a certain part of the sentence, precede the word or argument with 'kal':

latu vat kal in pali |
go you ART QUES Paris
Is it Paris where you are going?

'Yes' is 'vak'. 'No' is 'nik'.

Question Argument

The structure word 'kul' questions the value of an argument. It may ask 'who?', 'what?', 'where?', 'why?', or 'when?'.

latu kul in pali |
go QUES ART Paris
Who/What is going to Paris?

latu vat kul |
go you QUES
Where are you going?

Question Predicate

The structure word 'kil' questions the functor of the sentence.

kil vat in pali |
QUES you Paris
functor argument1 argument2
What are you doing in/about/to Paris?

Positive-Negative Scale

vak	strong positive, yes, indeed, certainly
vik	somewhat positive
vuk	neutral
nik	negative
nuk	opposite

These can be placed before a predicate word.

vak sinala tat |
YES high this
This is certainly high.

vik sinala tat |
SOMEWHAT high this
This is somewhat high.

vuk sinala tat |
NEUTRAL high this
This is neutral on the high-low scale.

nik sinala tat |
NO high this
This is not high.

nuk sinala tat |
OPPOSITE high this
This is low (opposite of high).

Imperatives

vit apunu [vat] |
ABRUPT talk [you]
[You] talk!

vis apunu kus |
POLITE talk we
Please, let's talk!

vit apunu tat |
ABRUPT talk he
Let him talk!

Temporal Tense

In Viku, tense is completely optional. Often context disambiguates when an event occurs. However, if you would like to be specific about time, there are structure words for it which are placed before the predicate word.

pal	past
pil	present
pul	future
pat	short time distance
pit	medium time distance
put	long time distance
pak	short time interval
pik	medium time interval
puk	long time interval

pal latu kut |
PAST go I
I went.

pul latu kut |
FUTURE go I
I will go.

put latu kut |
LONGDIST go I
A long time before or from now, I went or will go.

pal put latu kut |
PAST LONGDIST go I
A long time ago, I went.

pul pal pat latu kut |
FUTURE PAST SHORTDIST go I
I will have just gone.

pal pak latu kut |
PAST SHORTINT go I
For a short interval, I went.

Note that 'time distance' when used by itself can be a distance into the future or into the past.

Spatial Tense

sal	here
sil	there
sul	there yonder
sat	short spatial distance
sit	medium spatial distance
sut	long spatial distance
sak	short spatial interval
sik	medium spatial interval
suk	long spatial interval

sal apunu kut |
HERE talk I
I talk here.

sul apunu kut |
YONDER talk I
I talk there yonder.

sut latu kut |
LONGDIST go I
For a long distance, I go.

sak latu kut |
PAST SHORTINT go I
For a short spatial interval, I go.

The structure words 'sal', 'sil', and 'sul' may be used for demonstrative adjectives 'this' and 'that' in English. Do not confuse with 'tat', 'tas', 'tit', 'tis', etc. which mean 'this one's', 'these one's', 'that one's', 'those one's' etc when preceding a predicate word.

latu an sal apunu |
go ART HERE talker
This talker is going.

latu an tas apunu |
go ART THISONES talker
This one's talker is going.

Aspect

An aspect marker may be placed before a predicate word to describe the action. See the description on Verb Aspect for more information. Here is a list of the aspect markers:

Marker	Aspect	English Example
palak	perfective	I was eating a mango when she entered.
pilak	imperfective	I was eating a mango when she entered.
salak	habitual	I used to eat a mango every morning
silak	progressive	I am eating a mango.
kapak	perfect (retrospective)	I have eaten a mango.
lapak	prospective	I am about to eat a mango.
lipak	inceptive	I am beginning to eat a mango.
lupak	inchoative	It is turning yellow.
napak	cessative	I am quitting eating mangoes.
nipak	pausative	I stopped eating mangoes for awhile.
nupak	resumptive	I resumed eating mangoes.
tatak	punctual	The camera flashed.
lalak	durative	I ate a mango for an hour.
titak	delimitative	I walked for a bit.
vatak	perdurative	I went on eating mangoes.
vitak	protractive	I ate mangoes on and on.
vutak	superfective	I kept eating my mango after the meal was over.
satak	iterative	I ate mangoes regularly.
sitak	random	I ate mangoes here and there.
sutak	frequentative	I ate mangoes frequently.
tavak	semelfactive	I knocked on the door.
tivak	simulfactive	I ate a mango in one fell swoop.
kipak	experiential	I have eaten a mango before.
vavak	intentional	I looked at the mango.
vivak	accidental	I fell on my butt.
valak	future utility	We will buy mangoes (for future eating).
tasak	distributive	I ate the mangoes one by one.
tisak	alternation	I ate a mango, did something else, ate a mango, did something else, etc.
kalak	generic	Mangoes grow on trees.
nanak	completive	Eat it all up.
puvak	intensive	It glared.
pivak	moderative	It shined.
pavak	attenuative	It glimmered.
kakak	crescendo	It glimmered, shined, then glared.
kikak	decrescendo	It glared, shined, then glimmered.

pal salak latu kut in pali |
PAST HABITUAL go I ART Paris
I used to go to Paris.

kipak latu kut in pali |
EXPERIENTIAL go I ART Paris
I have been to Paris before.

kakak anisa |
CRESCENDO illumine
It glimmered, shined, then glared.

Relative Clauses

upapi an apatu lat latu tal in pali [lut] |
big ART person RESTRICT go PROARG ART Paris [END]
This person who goes to Paris is big.

The difference between a restrictive and non-restrictive clause is that the former describes an essential attribute of the object in question, while the latter describes incidental information. A non-restrictive clause in English is often marked off with commas.

upapi an apatu lit latu tal in pali [lut] |
big ART person NONRESTRICT go PROARG ART Paris [END]
This person, who goes to Paris, is big.

latu an apatu lit upapi [tal] lut in pali |
go ART person NONRESTRICT big [PROARG] END ART Paris
This person, who is big, goes to Paris.

When the relative clause attaches to the functor, it acts adverbially in a corresponding English sentence.

latu lat apunu kut lut vat |
go RESTRICT talk I END you
You go when I talk.

Events

val	event introducer
vul	event terminator (may be omitted if no ambiguity)

val apunu kut vul
EVENT talk I END
event of my talking

'luvala' (cause) is defined as "x1 (event/state) effects/physically causes effect x2 (event/state) under conditions x3."

luvala an val apunu kut vul an val latu vat |
cause ART EVENT talk I END ART EVENT go you
main-functor argument1(functor argument1) argument2(functor argument1)
My talking causes your going.
You go because I talk.

'nutuku' (with) is defined as "x1 is with/accompanies/is a companion of x2, in state/condition/enterprise x3 (event/state)."

nutuku an val apunu kut vul an val latu vat |
with ART EVENT talk I END ART EVENT go you
main-functor argument1(functor argument1) argument2(functor argument1)
With my talking is your going.
I talk while/when you go.

'tisani' (desire) is defined as "x1 desires/wants/wishes x2 (event/state) for purpose x3."

tisani kut an val apunu vat vul an val usapa kut vat |
desire I ART EVENT talk you END ART EVENT understand I you
main-functor argument1(functor argument1) argument2(functor argument1 argument2)
I want that you talk, so I understand you.

'liki' (future) is defined as "x1 is in the future of/later than/after x2 in time sequence; x1 is latter; x2 is former."

liki an val latu vat vul an val apunu kut |
future ART EVENT go you END ART EVENT talk I
main-functor argument1(functor argument1) argument2(functor argument1)
My going is in the future of your talking.
I go after you talk.

Connectives

latu vat iv vap apunu ku |
go you BEGIN if talk I
You go if I talk.

latu vat pap tat iv vap apunu ku |
go you and/or he BEGIN if talk I
You and/or he go if I talk.

latu vat iv kip apunu ku kip tat|
go you BEGIN and talk I and he
You go, and I and he talk.

Note the use of 'iv' to disambiguate the boundaries of clauses.

Compounding and Modification

When a predicate word precedes another predicate word, the former modifies the latter in the way an adjective describes a noun or an adverb describes a verb in English.

akuka latu an upapi apatu |
fast go ART big person
The big person goes quickly.

In sequences of several predicate words, the compounding is cumulative grouped from the left: (((p1 p2) p3) p4)... so that (p1 p2) modifies p3 and so on.

an upapi apatu iku
((big people) company)

The structure word 'las' means 'of' and can be used the same way as English. The 'of' phrase can be terminated with the structure word 'lus' when ambiguity may arise as to its ending.

latu an apatu las upapi iku lus in pali |
go ART people OF big company END ART Paris
The people of the big company are going to Paris.

'las' is useful for discussing qualities, quantities, et cetera.

'tisani' (desire) is defined as "x1 desires/wants/wishes x2 (event/state) for purpose x3."

tisani kut an patuki las nusi |
desire I ART quality OF new
I want the newness.

Reference

In English, often one sentence refers to something from a previous sentence by the use of a pronoun. By context, the reference is disambiguated.

The elephant goes home. It is blue. (Which? The elephant or the home?)

In Viku, there is a mechanism whereby the first syllable of the original word becomes the substitute as a name. For example:

latu an upapi nalinu an niniva | iluvi in na |
go ART big elephant ART home. blue ART it.
The big elephant goes home. It [the elephant] is blue.

In the previous example, 'na' substitutes for 'nalinu' (elephant). When there is a clash in the case that two or more arguments in the same sentence claim the same syllable, then we use the first three letters as substitute. Then the clash could be resolved.

Sometimes, we must refer to the entire previous utterance. We use the structure word 'tap' for this.

latu an upapi nalinu an niniva | alanu tap |
go ART big elephant ART home. good it.
The big elephant goes home. It [that the elephant goes home] is good.

Attitudinals or Emotional Indicators

The following may be placed anywhere in the sentence to express an emotion.

ak	hope
ik	desire
uk	interest
al	agreement
il	approval
ul	fear
ap	love
ip	peace
up	complaint
as	discovery, "Ah, I get it!"
is	surprise
us	wonder, "Wow!"
at	happiness
it	amusement
ut	repentance, "I'm sorry!"
av	pity, sympathy

The opposite can be expressed by placing 'nuk' before the emotional indicator.

nuk at
OPPOSITE happy
Sad.

Discursives

Place a discursive at the beginning of a sentence to control the flow of discourse.

kilal	but
kalal	also
vapal - vuk vapal - nuk vapal	exaggeration – accuracy – understatement
sapal - nuk sapal	precisely speaking – loosely speaking
vikal - nik vikal - nuk vikal	certainly – uncertain – certainly not
lalal - nuk lalal	probably – improbably
takal - nuk takal	by the way – returning to the subject
patal - nuk patal	on the one hand – on the other hand
sipal - nuk sipal	in reality – hypothetically
kikal	Huh?

latu kut | kilal nik latu tat |
go I. but not go he.
I am going. But he is not going.

Numbers

nulun	0
satus	1
luval	2
talut	3
tipat	4
panap	5
nanin	6
pitup	7
valuv	8
sivas	9

vav	positive sign
nuv	negative sign
kav	decimal point
kiv	fraction slash
pav	repeating decimal
piv	percent sign
kuv	delimiter or spacing between digits
sav	ordinal
siv	collective
suv	multiple

Numbers are expressed as strings of digits. Where a comma is seen in a number in English, it is expressed as 'kuv' in the sequence. Some examples:

10	satus nulun
3/4	talut kiv tipat
5%	panap piv
-356	nuv talut panap nanin
4 927	tipat kuv sivas luval pitup
52 861 346	panap luval kuv valuv nanin satus kuv talut tipat nanin
5 000 000	panap kuv kuv (zeroes elided)
1 026 004	satus kuv luval nanin kuv tipat (zeroes elided)

talut siv an luval sav latu |
3 COLLECTIVE ART 2 ORDINAL goer
The second goers are a threesome.

talut sav an luval suv latu |
3 ORDINAL ART 2 MULTIPLE goer
The double goer is third.

Greetings

Foreign Words, Loanwords

Foreign words can be accomodated in Viku as names by following the phonological rules of names, which have the article 'in'. Names can be of any length as long as vowel and consonant alternate for each word and these vowels and consonants are in the Viku alphabet. Examples:

in sapakiti
spaghetti

in kalati
karate