Introducing Sargaĺk

Sargaĺk appeared to me as an idea a few days ago, and it's already generating a fair share of notions with me. So, here's what I know this far about Sargaĺk.

In the conworld in which it's set, it is related - albeit distantly - to Dairwueh and Bryatesle. It is possible the notion of "relation" breaks down at the time-depths involved, and that the proto-languages of both just were parts of some very tight sprachbunds. Similarities do occur in phonology, lexicon and grammar, although seldom in ways that would lend themselves to any very regular reconstruction.

Sargaĺk is spoken off the northern coast of the continent on which Dairwueh, Bryatesle, Ćwarmin and so on all are spoken.

Besides the odd alignment (pegative-accusative?), it does use the pegative case for a few more uses that we will get into soon. First, the case system:

• nominative

  The nominative marks most subjects, as well as the indirect object of ditransitive verbs and non-pronominal direct objects.

• accusative

  The accusative marks direct objects, as well as some objects of adpositions. It also marks at what time something occurs. It is only distinct from the nominative for pronouns and a handful of nouns, including most nouns that designate times.

• pegative-genitive

  The pegative marks subjects of ditransitive verbs. It also marks possessors in noun phrases. In a number of fossilized expressions it also marks origins and qualities, and there are traces of its origin as an ablative.  It also marks subjects of verbs of transition, i.e. "X becomes Y" is "X.peg Y grow/go/shrink/..." and "X makes Y be Z" is "X Y.peg Z.acc makes"
  
  Due to sound changes, not all nouns have unique pegatives, having been conflated with the nominative in some forms (and for the pronoun sib, distant third person masculine, the pegative and accusative are conflated). If such a noun is supposed to be in the pegative and is in an unusual position with regards to word order, it often gets an adverbial close by. Which particular adverbial depends on the verb.

• comitative-instrumental

  The comitative marks instruments and accompanying people. Both of the objects of verbs meaning things like "replace, change, switch" are also in the instrumental case.  (Holds, sort of, for one verb, referring to barter trade?)

• locative cases
• locative

  The locative marks, as the name implies, location. It also marks by whose opinion, until which time, out of what material, for what reason.

• ablative
  

  Origin, from which time, by whose permission, by whose perception.

• lative
  

  The lative marks to where. It also marks at what intervals or during which recurring time (i.e. 'during the days' or 'each day') something occurs.

Beyond this, there is a comitative that only appears with humans, and is only used for extended family members of the speaker's family.

The morphological markers are as follows:

	masc	fem	plur masc	plur fem
nom	-		-sa	-air
acc	-a	-at	-sat	-sar
peg	-ta	-tat	-sta	-sta
com	-mai	-mic	-zvi	-zvai
fam. com	-mime	-mimis	-mimes	-mimes
loc	-ru	-rut	-ssu	-ssu
abl	-tsa	-tsa	-ssa	-ssa
lat	-rne	-rne	-ssi	-ssi

So much for nominal morphological tables.

Word order is SOV, and we have the usual order-related things that tend to go along with that.

The verb is more complex than in most nearby Ćwarminian languages: several aspects, markers for ditransitivity (and on some verbs for transitivity), gender congruence (to some extent), many moods and a fair share of stackable derivative morphology.

The adjective is fairly simple, but it does have - unlike almost all of my conlangs - a fairly close equivalent to the comparative and superlative. These morphemes also can be used on verbs as well as adpositions.

There are also a number of nouns that appear in slightly reduced form as particles, and help distinguish various meanings of a verb, e.g. drown, disappear, be covered, be hidden, be lost, flee, be buried all use the same verb, but with water, sky, hand, mind, people (or carnivorous animals), ground as reduced nouns somewhere in the clause. A huge number of nouns have such forms, but they are not entirely regularly formed.

This is but an early draft of the Sargaĺk language's features.