Ákat objects: the boulders on the beach

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In the most widely spoken of the base languages, objects were divided into five different classes (or genders - the terms are interchangable). The Nakap philosophers determined that at one time these classes were clearly differentiated by meaning, but that time had corrupted the divisions between each class group. In reforming the language, they attempted to rectify this problem by redefining the classes and ensuring wherever possible words were assigned to the class whose concept best described that word.

The following is a summary of the attributes of each class:

The simplest words in the language are made by combining the appropriate class marker with the object concept root. For instance, from the concept root "cus" (inquisitiveness) come the following five words:

It can be argued that the Nakap philosophers were not always successful in their class assignments. Much of this is to do with the culture they were working in - for instance the base language word for "dog" appeared to have similarities with words such as "hunt" and "discover", and culturally dogs were seen as the animal embodiment of inquisitiveness. And policemen were not always seen as the protectors in Nakap communities, but rather as oppressors enforcing the will of those who disapproved of the philosophers' politics.

Personal objects - pronouns

Ákat does not posess a closed class of words that equate to the Ramajal class of pronouns. Instead, it makes use of the core concept ke! (being-ness) to supply a set of personal objects that can be used to substitute for previously introduced objects or object phrases.

All of the simple objects derived from the core concept ke! are countable objects, thus paucal and plural versions are often encountered. Note however, that they are not required to be present in a clause, as the verb particles that mark for agent and patient take into account person.

Reference objects

Ákat reference objects are built on the core concepts kel, kol and kul - which are loosely related to the core concept ke! (being-ness). Unlike that word, though, reference nouns have no meaning within themselves. Instead, they are used to represent objects and object phrases encountered in previous clauses

The reference object system is equivalent to the personal object system, in that both can replace objects in subsequent clauses. Choosing whether to deploy a personal object or a reference object is not an easy decision. Most native speakers appear to have a preference for personal object when the objects they represent are animate (especially human), and use reference objects for inanimate objects - but there are numerous exceptions to this guidance.

Reference objects are simple to use - the choice of reference object depends on whether it is replacing an agent, a patient or an oblique object in the previous clause.

Note that reference objects do not posess an innate case or number. Rather, they will take the case and number of the object (or head object in an object phrase) that they are replacing.

Once introduced into the discourse, a particular reference object can be used to represent that object (or object phrase) in subsequent clauses - though confusion will arise if it is used in a subsequent clause whose previous clause includes an object phrase which could also be replaced by that reference object - in other words, the reference object system is not as persistent as the personal object system. For extended use across many clauses and sentences most speakers will prefer to use personal objects - especially for people.

A fourth group of reference objects, based around the core concept ku!, are used to reference a previous word in the same clause - these are known as the immediate reference objects, and operate in the same manner as outlined above.

Demonstrative and locative objects

Ákat lacks articles and demonstrative pronouns, but does posess a demonstrative object - tapas - which can be added to an object using the modifier particle ki:

For the most part, Ákat speakers manage to do without the demonstratives, and only use them for emphasis, or to introduce a new person or object into the discourse (when they remember). Note that demonstrative objects cannot be added to incorporated agent objects, and are hardly ever used with agent oblique objects; instead the verb has a dedicated set of particles for indicating the agent's demonstrativeness - see the agentive determiner webpage for more details.

Similarly, Ákat lacks a set of locative pronouns. Again, this is not a problem as there is a dedicated locative object - ỳqok, usually using the modifier particle li - which can be employed as necessary:

Existentiality of objects

An interesting use of the modifier particle xi is to attach a temporal or existential quality to an object. The shortened forms of the following can be suffixed to any object - where they are commonly used as copulas, while the full forms (shown in brackets) can be suffixed to an entire object phrase. Note that these are not considered to be a constituent part of the language, but they remain ubiquitous among all but the most reactionary Nakap philosophers:

This page was last updated on Tecunuuntuu-15, 527: Yaezluu-65 Gevile