An Ancestral word was woven of two strands: one consonantal and one vocalic. Put simply, the consonants of an Ancestral word symbolized in sound a specific form of being and its vowels symbolized the state of that being.

The Typology Of Ancestral

Given it’s extraordinarily low morpheme-to-word ratio, it’s clear that Ancestral was an isolating or analytic language, much like Chinese or English.

The Ancestral Parts Of Speech

There were no meaningful differences between the parts of speech in Ancestral. In theory, any word could play any part in any sentence. The following classification is presented for the convenience of those readers who are accustomed to thinking in more traditional grammatical terms.

The Ancestral Noun

In Ancestral, any word that served as the foundation of a noun phrase may be termed a head noun.

The Ancestral Conoun

In Ancestral, any word that followed a head noun and gave it additional specificity (in effect forming a compound noun) may be termed a conoun. Although any semantically-appropriate word might serve in this capacity, several categories of conoun deserve particular mention:

• Role (indirect actor, actor, action, actee, indirect actee)
• Polarity (- -, -, + / -, +, + +)
• Gender
• Size
• Place
• Time
• Relationship

The Ancestral Adnoun

As the Puritan missionary John Eliot wrote in his 1666 grammar of the Massachusett language:

“An Adnoun is a part of Speech that attendeth upon a Noun, and signifieth the Qualification thereof.”

That sums up the situation in Ancestral very neatly. In Ancestral, any word that followed the noun it modified and was introduced by the resemblance marker na could be termed an adnoun.

Example

qe la-kwe-so no lawa-nfanda
CMO eye-human-that RMO color-sky
‘eye-human-that like-quite color-sky’
‘Her quite blue eyes’

Common Comparatives

na rainbow
‘like the color of’

na skin
‘like the feel of’

na eye
‘like the look of’

na ear
‘like the sound of’

na ?
‘like the number of’

na nose
‘like the scent of’

na creation
‘like the shape of’

na growth
‘like the size of

na mouth
‘like the taste of’

na hand
‘like the weight of’

na  water
‘like the temperature of’

The Ancestral Verb

In Ancestral, any word that served as the foundation of a verb phrase may be termed a head verb.

The Ancestral Coverb

In Ancestral, any word that followed a head noun and gave it additional specificity (in effect forming a compound verb) may be termed a coverb. Although any semantically-appropriate word might serve in this capacity, several categories of coverb deserve particular mention:

• Role (indirect actor, actor, action, actee, indirect actee)
• Polarity (- -, -, + / -, +, + +)
• Gender
• Size
• Place
• Time
• Relationship

The Ancestral Adverb

In Ancestral, any word that followed the verb it modified and was introduced by a comparative marker could be termed an adverb. An Ancestral adverb is best translated into English as an adverb of manner.

Examples

‘She runs like a deer.’
‘She runs quickly.’

‘He talks like a crow’
‘He talks loudly.’

The Ancestral Marker

In Ancestral, a set of markers telegraphed the function of the corresponding utterance, sentence, clause, phrase, or word, thereby creating the framework of an Ancestral illocutionary act.

The Ancestral Utterance Marker

The Ancestral Sentence Marker

The Ancestral Clause Marker

The Ancestral Phrase Marker

The Ancestral Word Marker