Look and learn: glossing guidance

Given that Ákat only has one open class, form which both objects (nouns) and actions (verbs), and their modifiers, are derived, it makes little sense to follow a conventional glossing system. Instead, the clauses and sentences in this section use the following terms

Patient objects

Object class (gender) is ignored, as only a few other parts of speech are declined to match it. Object number is marked, with the word's translation following in lowercase:

• SG - singular
• PC - paucal
• PL - plural
• NL - nullar
• UN - unnumbered

Personal objects are shown thus:

• I me my - first person singlular object
• you your - second person singular object
• he.1 him.1 his.1 she.1 her.1 hers.1 it.1 its.1 - third person singular object
• he.2 him.2 his.2 she.2 her.2 hers.2 it.2 its.2 - alternate third person singular object
• it.3 its.3 - inanimate third person singular object
• PC.we PC.us PC.our - first person paucal object
• PC.you PC.your - second person paucal object
• PC.they.1 PC.them.1 PC.their.1 - third person paucal object
• PC.they.2 PC.them.2 PC.their.2 - alternate third person paucal object
• PC.they.3 PC.them.3 PC.their.3 - inanimate third person paucal object
• PL.we PL.us PL.our - first person plural object
• PL.you PL.your - second person plural object
• PL.they.1 PL.them.1 PL.their.1 - third person plural object
• PL.they.2 PL.them.2 PL.their.2 - alternate third person plural object
• PL.they.3 PL.them.3 PL.their.3 - inanimate third person plural object

Reference objects do have class (gender) agreement with the objects they reference - in this instance, both the reference object and the referenced object will show their class in the gloss:

• [W]. - people things - WA - class
• [J]. - natural things - JA - class
• [S]. - dangerous things - SA - class
• [T]. - made things - TA - class
• [N]. - thought things - NA - class

Existentiality suffixes are not translated, but rather bear the following glosses:

• NOEXIST - never existed, denial of existence
• POSEXIST - possibly will exist
• BECOME - becoming, forming
• REMAIN - continuing, existing, remain
• UNIQUE - unique, completed
• UNEXIST - ceasing, no longer existing

Name suffixes are not differentiated or translated; they carry the gloss:

• NAME - naming or labelling suffix

Modifying particles

Numbers are translated without gloss. Modifiers are translated as the Ramajal modifier (red) rather than its nominative form (redness).

• M-DESC - descriptive particle
• M-ASSG - assignatory particle
• M-META - metaphorical particle
• M-EPHM - ephemeral particle (has, have, had)
• M-TGEN - temporary genetive particle
• M-GGEN - general genetive particle
• M-IGEN - inalienable genetive particle
• M-CONC - concatenative particle
• M-INST - instrumental particle
• M-PART - partitive particle
• M-ASSC - associative particle
• M-COMP - comparative particle

Oblique objects and particles

Oblique particles are glossed as follows:

• O-LOCATIV - locative oblique particle
• O-ANTILOC - antilocative oblique particle
• O-SUBESSIV - subessive oblique particle
• O-ADESSIV - adessive oblique particle
• O-PERLATIV - perlative oblique particle
• O-ALLATIV - allative oblique particle
• O-ABLATIV - ablative oblique particle
• O-COMITATIV - comitative oblique particle
• O-PRIVATIV - privative oblique particle
• O-BENEFACT - benefactive oblique particle
• O-PARTITIV - partitive oblique particle
• O-EQUATIV - equative oblique particle

Where the oblique object phrase is acting as a temporal oblique or agentive oblique, the O- is replaced with T- and A- respectively, for example:

• T-LOCATIV - locative temporal oblique particle
• T-ADESSIV - adessive temporal oblique particle
• A-BENEFACT - benefactive agentive oblique particle

Action scopes

All actions carry a scope - even the unmarked one (which in the gloss is shown with ø). Because the scopes are in effect inflective prefixes rather than a set of agglutinative particles, they are glossed in square brackets, with the components separated by periods as necessary:

• + - positive scopes (indicative, interrogative)
• - - negative scopes (negative, negative-interrogative)
• IND - indicative scopes (indicative, negative)
• INT - interrogative scopes (interrogative, negative-interrogative)
• PAST - past tense scopes
• NONP - non-past tense scopes
• DEF - default scopes
• ADD - additional scopes
• ALT - alternate scopes
• COMP - comparative scopes
• COMM - commencement scopes
• LOC - locative scopes
• CHAN - change scopes
• TERM - terminal scopes
• TEMP - temporal scopes
• PROD - productive scopes
• CAUS - causal scopes
• AGREL - agent relativiser scopes
• PATREL - patient relativiser scopes

For example:

• [+IND.NONP.DEF] - positive indicative non-past default scope (ø-)
• [-INT.PAST.DEF] - negative interrogative past default scope (cuxahm-)
• [+IND.NONP.ADD] - positive indicative non-past additional scope (e-)
• [+INT.NONP.ALT] - positive interrogative non-past alternate scope (cuo-)
• [+IND.NONP.AGREL] - positive indicative non-past agent relativiser scope (ki-)

The pro-verb vz - also known as the scope stem - is glossed as SCOPER.

Action aspect

All actions demonstrate an aspect - the aspect particle is analogous to an object's case and number:

• PERFECT - perfective aspect
• REPEAT - repetitive aspect
• CONTINUE - continuous aspect
• INCEPT-S - singular inceptive aspect
• INCEPT-R - repetitive inceptive aspect
• CEASE - cessive aspect
• RESUME - resumptive aspect
• INDEF - indefinite aspect
• NEGATE - negative aspect

Agentive and patientive markers

Use the personal object markup given above

Agentive determiner

Not marked as such; instead use the translated article/determiner: a, the, this, that-near, that-far, REFLEX. There's no need to differentiate between the incorporated and unincorporated versions of each particle, though an unincorporated definite article will need to be shown in the Ákat script as ø.

Action modality

As modal particles are not a required part of the verb, they should only be shown when present. Rather than attempt a translation, use the following markup:

• + - high degree (greqe, grexe, grembe)
• ø - medial degree (vaqa, vaxa, vamba)
• - - low degree (puqu, puxu, pumbu)

• IMPER - imperative mode (greqe, vaqa, puqu)
• JUSS - jussive mode (grexe, vaxa, puxu)
• OPTAT - optative mode (grembe, vamba, pumbu)

Where a modal particle splits an agentive noun stem from its case particle, both the particle and the stem should carry the case letter (in square brackets eg [W], [J], [N], [T], [S]), with the translation given under the stem.

Evidentiality markers

Where they are used, they should be given the following markup:

• DECLARE - declarative marker
• SPECULATE - speculative marker