Accented vowels are indicated by an acute if the base vowel is written with a plain letter, or a circumflex if the base vowel is written with an umlaut. Accented long vowels are indicated with a postscript dotless i: ı.

Mutation

Palatalisation and umlaut

There is a very limited phenomenon of palatalisation and umlaut within verbal conjugation, but which is not found in nominal declension. The following alternations are seen in the 1sg, the 2pl imperfectives and presents, and in the infinitives of some verbs.

Consonant deletion and epenthesis

Due to the strict syllable structure previously described, Erhadzy often has to delete consonants when inflecting words. However, the exact result of consonant deletion varies depending on the consonant being deleted and the consonant that triggers the deletion. Certain consonants, however, cause epenthetic vowel insertion instead of consonant deletion, and in some cases it is simply not possible to synchronically predict whether epenthesis or syncopation will occur. One general rule is that geminate consonants are reduced to single consonants.

The following patterns are observed for echo vowels:

Morphology

Erhadzy morphology, like most Edastean languages, has both prefixing and suffixing inflectional and derivational morphology.

Nouns

Nouns have the following principal parts:

1. Direct singular
2. Full stem, or direct plural
3. Approximant-suffixed reduced stem, or nominative singular
4. Approximant-suffixed full stem, or nominative plural
5. Vowel-suffixed stem, or accusative singular
6. Consonant-suffixed stem, or genitive singular
7. Inessive singular

The citation form is the first part. The inessive is a principal part because the suffix is quite unpredictable, with some nouns taking -rhəluaƞ and others -luaƞ: this is due to various contractions that occurred in the development of modern Erhadzy. The plural is formed by prefixing ə-. The other parts are usually similar or identical to each other; in particular, the first and second parts are usually the same, and the third, fourth and fifth parts are usually the same. The second part is usually the fifth part plus a thematic vowel.

It should be noted that the above only applies to native vocabulary; Ōmishima borrowings, excepting very early borrowings, are highly regular: they do not exhibit any stem alternation, and always take -rhəluaƞ in the inessive.

Hence, the Middle Erhadzy noun məládzə, Yhát maládza, can be conjugated from one of the following sets of forms:

• məládzə (əməládzə, məlázo, əməládzo, məládzaƞ, məláınə, məládzəluaƞ)
• məládzə (əməládzə-, məláz-, əməládz-, məládz-, məláı-, -luaƞ)

Compare Mi.E. hóə:

• óə (əhorhə, óō, əhórho, óəaƞ, óənə, órhəluaƞ)
• óə (əhorhə-, óə-, əhórh-, óə-, óə-, -luaƞ)

And Mi.E. əhúnə:

• əhúnə (ahúnə, əhúno, ahúno, əhúnəaƞ, əhúƞnə, əhúnəluaƞ)
• əhúnə (ahúnə-, əhún-, ahún-, əhúnə-, əhúƞ-, -luaƞ)

And Mi.E kŏtóba, Ōmishima kotoba:

• kŏtóba (əkŏtóba, kŏtóbao, əkŏtóbao, kŏtóbāƞ, kŏtóbanə, kŏtóbarhəluaƞ)
• kŏtóba (əkŏtóba-, kŏtóba-, əkŏtóba-, kŏtóba-, kŏtóba-, -rhəluaƞ)

Declension classes

Nouns are divided into several declension classes based on patterns in their six main principal parts. del indicates that the consonant stem is deleted, long indicates that the consonant stem is deleted with compensatory lengthening, nasal indicates that the consonant stem is replaced by /ɴ/, echo indicates that an epenthetic echo vowel is added.

Number

Erhadzy distinguishes singular and plural nouns. For some words, two plural numbers are contrasted: a collective number, marked with the prefix ə- and a true plural, marked with prefixed (partial) reduplication; for example, take the word tsá, star:

• tsá - star, singular
• ətsá - constellation, singular collective
  • atsá - constellations, plural collective
• tsətsá - stars, plural

Another example is the word rhádzə, word:

• rhádzə - word, singular
• ərhádzə - language, singular collective
  • arhádzə - languages, plural collective
• rərhádzə - words, plural

However, for most words, ə- marks both the collective and the plural. The collective and the plural can be distinguished by a number of features, most notably, collective nouns have singular agreement. Another difference is the interaction with quantifiers: if a quantifier is used, then the plural marker is dropped, whereas the collective marker is retained.

Case

Pronouns

Personal pronouns in Erhadzy have a somewhat irregular declension.

Verbs

The verbal system in modern Erhadzy is considerably simplified compared to Middle Erhadzy and even more so compared to Yhát. Mood prefixes are no longer productive in Erhadzy, and the only verb that has a reasonably complete set of modal forms is û, to be. Modern Erhadzy has also lost 2sg agreement. On the other hand, it has augmented the aspectual system with a fully orthogonal tense system.

An Erhadzy verb has five principal parts:

1. Infinitive stem, or the habitual infinitive
2. Passive stem, or the passive infinitive, or the 2sg habitual
3. Habitual stem, or the 1sg habitual
4. Aorist stem, or the 1sg aorist
5. Imperfective stem, or the 1sg imperfective

For example, to conjugate the verb ʻâje, Mi.E. qájaj, the following information is required:

• ʻâje (qále, qáiƞ, qáwiƞ, qádʒiƞ), which may be written
• q- (-âj, -á, -á, -á, -á)

Compare sálue, Mi.E. sálvaj:

• sálue (sálole, sálüiƞ, sáluwiƞ, sálədʒiƞ)
• sál- (-u, -o, -u, -u, -ə)

The most irregular verb in Erhadzy is û and its various modal forms (yŋû, əmû, poʻû etc.), which requires seven parts:

1. Infinitive stems
   1. Habitual infinitive: û
   2. Aorist infinitive: êu
   3. Imperfective infinitive: áı
2. (û has no passive.)
3. Habitual stem: ûj-
   1. 2pl habitual: ûļə
4. Aorist stem: ê-
5. Imperfective stem: á-

Such verbs are labelled class VII.

Conjugation classes

Verbs are divided into several conjugation classes based on patterns in their five principal parts. del indicates that the consonant stem is deleted, long indicates that the consonant stem is deleted with compensatory lengthening, nasal indicates that the consonant stem is replaced by /ɴ/, echo indicates that an epenthetic echo vowel is added, uml indicates that the preceding vowel undergoes umlaut.

Aspect

Note: with stative verbs, the aspectual system is reinterpreted as a tense system, with the habitual as a non-past, the aorist as a past, and the imperfective as a present.

Person

Infinitives

Erhadzy infinitives function both as abstract nouns (which take no arguments) and as phrase nominalisers. In the latter capacity, they are also used as adjuncts. Additionally, the Yhát cohortative and the active habitual infinitive collapsed together in Old Erhadzy; furthermore, concordant with the fossilisation of mood prefixes in Middle Erhadzy, the imperative also fell in with the infinitive in Early Modern Erhadzy.

Dynamic verbs can be transformed into stative verbs by taking the combining form of an infinitive as the stem and conjugating it as an adjective.

Tense

Tense is optionally marked in Erhadzy. The tense-marked forms are built on the combining forms of the infinitives, i.e. the 1sg past imperfective of sálue is not **sálədzëwiƞ, but sáluedzëwiƞ.

Adjectives

Adjectives in Erhadzy are verbal in nature, unlike in its Edastean relatives where they tend to have qualities more similar to nominals. The conjugation of adjectives is fairly straightforward and is tabulated below.

Usage and syntax

Erhadzy is a mostly left-branching, head-final language, which is in sharp contrast to its Edastean relatives which tend towards head-first, right-branching word order. Remnants of the original word order is still found in the haphazard constituent order found in native compound words, which are head-final at the phrase level, yet head-first at the word level.

Demonstratives and interrogatives

There are two demonstratives, tşí this, and só that, and derivatives.

Numbers

For numbers under one hundred, simple fusional compounding is used:

• rháka - eleven
• rháha - twelve
• rhása - thirteen
• yhárəka - twenty-one
• níləŋil - ninety-nine

Numbers above one hundred are formed as phrases using the clitic -aƞ:

• káī-aƞ ká - 101
• káī-aƞ kárə - 110
• káī-aƞ rháka - 111
• káwo-aƞ káī-aƞ rháka- 1,111

Numbers above 100,000 (ten myriad) are also formed as phrases:

• rháka-jŏródzo - 110,000
• kárə-jŏródzo - 1,000,000
• káī-jŏródzo - 10,000,000
• níluo-aƞ nílī-aƞ níləŋil-jŏródzo-aƞ níluo-aƞ nílī-aƞ níləŋil - 99,999,999

Beyond jŏródzo there are:

• majŏródzo, 10⁸,
• mimájŏro, 10¹²,
• jomájŏro, 10¹⁶,
• imájŏro, 10²⁰,
• mumájŏro, 10²⁴,
• namájŏro, 10²⁸,
• jamájŏro, 10³²,
• komájŏro, 10³⁶,
• tomájŏro, 10⁴⁰,
• əmajŏrónərhaka, 10⁴⁴,
• əmajŏrónərhaha, 10⁴⁸,

and so on.

Numbers may either precede or follow the noun: if it precedes, then it behaves like an indeclinable determiner; if it follows, then it is a declinable noun. An important semantic distinction between the two is that the latter is a partitive construct. As previously noted, the head noun is not marked for plurality when there is a numeral determiner present.

Aspects

Erhadzy has three aspects:

• The habitual, denoted hab, which expresses an action which is repeated as a matter of habit or nature;
• The aorist, denoted aor, which expresses an action taken as a whole without reference to the internal temporal structure, though more often than not is used to denote a completed action, particularly in combination with the past tense; and
• The imperfective, denoted impf, which expresses an ongoing action.

As previously noted, the aspectual system is only semantically an aspectual system when used with dynamic verbs: with stative verbs, the same morphemes denote tense.

Tenses

Tenses are marked only on main and coordinate clauses, never on relative clauses and other subordinate clauses. There are three tenses:

• non-past, denoted pres,
• preterite, denoted past, and
• emphatic present, denoted pres;emph.

The non-past tense is used to express near-past, ongoing and future events, or in the case of stative sentences, present, persistent and future states. It is also possible to express the future tense periphrastically with the verb stâje, to become:

On the other hand, the emphatic present tense can only express ongoing events and present states. It is therefore typically used with the imperfective aspect. With stative sentences, the use of the emphatic present tense suggests that the state is temporary and fleeting.

The preterite tense is used to express past events and states. If a stative sentence is in the preterite, it usually is taken to mean that the state was temporary and no longer holds.

Perfects

We can productively form perfects (stative verbs that express current relevance) by using adjectivial conjugation on the infinitives of verbs. Erhadzy has two perfects:

• the perfect of result, which is derived from the aorist infinitive; and
• the perfect of persistent situation, which can be derived from both the habitual and imperfective infinitives.

For example:

Moods and polarity

Erhadzy has four moods:

• Generic: û
• Emphatic: yŋû
• Conditional: poʻû
• Optative: ŏʻû

And of course, each mood has a corresponding negative:

• Negative: əmû
• Negative emphatic: əmyŋû
• Negative conditional: aƞboʻû
• Negative optative: əmoʻû

Some other verbs have other mood prefixes, for example, sálue, to give, takes the imperative prefix yku- in the fossilised expression -eu ykusálue, which expresses a polite request. Most verbs, however, do not take any mood prefixes: mood is expressed periphrastically using nominalised verbal clauses, and the negative is expressed with mə, which is a metathesised form of the negative prefix reanalysed as an adverb.

Simple sentences

Erhadzy sentences are composed of an inflected predicate phrase, which is optionally preceded by a topic phrase, a subject phrase, and/or various adjuncts. An inflected predicate phrase is in turn composed of an inflected verb and optionally preceded by verbal complements, such as object phrases. Erhadzy is a very economical language, and speakers often omit information clear from context.

The above sentences essentially convey the same message, however, the topic and focus is different in each sentence. One way of conceptualising this difference is by considering what question each of the above sentences answer:

1. What do you do? I write.
2. What do you (plural) do? (...). And as for me, I write.
3. Who writes? I write.

Active voice

Intransitive:

Transitive:

Transitive benefactive:

Ditransitive:

Passive voice

The Erhadzy passive voice has two functions, first, to promote objects (direct and indirect) to subjects, and second, to denote respect for the agent. In the former usage, the agent is usually in the instrumental case, though the dative case is also seen; in the latter usage, the agent is marked in the nominative case and the patient is marked in the accusative case, as in active sentences.

The following sentences are examples of the first usage:

The following sentences are examples of the second usage:

Direct quoting

A direct quote is terminated with the particle sá, thus:

Relative clauses, nominal modification and nominalised clauses

Erhadzy is strongly left-branching, meaning that the head of a phrase tends to come last. In the case of adjectives, this means that adjectives precede the noun they modify. Relative clauses and nominalised clauses are formed in exactly the same way - an inflected (though unmarked for tense if a dynamic verb) verbal phrase preceding a nominal head. A nominalised clause is formed with the demonstrative tşí, whereas ká is used as an arbitrary pronoun head in relative clauses.

Sample text

The Legend of Emperor Sinakan

Interlinear gloss

Article One of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Standard Erhadzy:

Eastern Erhadzy (narrow transcription):

Ōmishima: