Frustrated conlanger is frustrated.

[covenmouse]

Ommmggggg... I could rant for hours about the fact that sentence structure is a pain in my arse, but I won't.  Instead I'm just going to sit here and laud Sandy as being a hero, and my savior, and just... awesome shit. Seriously, praise her.   So here's a run down of the conlang shit I've been doing this week for Hurstikan.  This is still very much a work in progress, but if any of the conlangers/lang-peeps want to go point out "HAY UR DOIN IT WRONG" about something, please do.  I've already managed to completely miscomprehend Nominative case.  XD

Verb & Adjective  Conjugation

Model Verbs:
            Walk: tOg
            Run: lEggen
            Sit: watkig
            Slide: SHTEndar
            hold: AgSHT
            be: Etich

Past and Present Conjugation

Verbs/adjectives ending in a vowel followed by a single consonant that is NOT a fricative (f, v, w, s, z, r, h), add "-st" for past (simple and participle), "-on" for present participle, and "-ist" for third person present. 
InfinitivetOg (walk)PasttOgstPresent ParticipletOgonPast ParticipletOgstPresent:  ItOg  YoutOg  He, She, IttOgist  WetOg  YoutOg  TheytOg
            Verbs/adjectives ending in a two or three consonants the last of which is NOT a fricative (f, v, w, s, z, r, h), add "-en" for past (simple and participle), "-on" for present participle, and "-ist" for third person present. 
InfinitiveAgSHT (hold)PastAgSHTen Present ParticipleAgSHTonPast ParticipleAgSHTenPresent:  IAgSHT  YouAgSHT  He, She, ItAgSHTist  WeAgSHT  YouAgSHT  TheyAgSHT
            Verbs/adjectives ending in a in a fricative (f, v, w, s, z, r, h), DROP THE FRICATIVE and add "-Est" for past (simple and participle), "-on" for present participle, and "-ost" for third person present. 
InfinitiveSHTEndar (slide)PastSHTEndaEst Present ParticipleSHTEndaonPast ParticipleSHTEndaEstPresent:  ISHTEndar  YouSHTEndar  He, She, ItSHTEndaost  WeSHTEndar  YouSHTEndar  TheySHTEndar
Future Tense Conjugation

Verbs/adjectives beginning in a vowel, add "ah-" for future (simple and participle)
InfinitiveAgSHT (hold)FutureahAgSHT
            Verbs/adjectives beginning in a consonant, add "CHE-" for future (simple and participle) 
InfinitivelEggen (run)FutureCHElEggen

Adjectives would, in English appear to translate directly as "The redding wall" rather than "the red wall." In past tense it might appear as "He ran past the redded wall."

Adverb Conjugation

There are two types of adverbs in Hurstikan: Adverbs which are ONLY adverbs and function only as adverbs, and adjectives which are conjugated to function as adverbs.  The first kind of adverb does not conjugate, ever. These are adverbs which generally answer a question of: in what way?, when?, where?, and to what extent? There is no direct way to spot them, except to ask yourself "could this be used as an adjective?" If the answer is "no," then it does not need to be conjugated.
    Adjectives which modify verbs do NOT submit to regular adjective conjugation! Instead, they double their last consonant (this may or may not come before the end of the word.
    EXAMPLES:  
            PFan (happy) ---> PFann
            Odl (old) ---> Odll
            hafi (sad) ---> haffi

Noun Modifiers

Model Nouns:
            horse: enOk
            man: UkOt

Gender - Hints to the gender of a noun. You are better off just learning the word and it's gender simultaneously, though. Many gendered nouns are self evident if you understand their social views on gender, but not all are.  If you're unsure of a noun's gender, it's better to assume that it's masculine.
    Gender only matters for Nouns and Articles -- nothing else is affected. Some scholars believe there may have used to be a conjugation involved which has since died out.

Masculine

• If a word ends in "U"

• If the word begins with a three-consonant cluster.

Feminine

• If a word ends in "A"
• If the word has three or more vowels.

Neutral

• Words can be neutral, but this implies a complete lack of gender or gender association (in a derogatory way if used with a personal noun) so be careful.

Cases - Modify nouns in order to facilitate actions, specify number and/or gender, and possession.

Case
Change
Hurstican Ex.
English Ex.
Subject / Nomativeak>akUkOtt
akenOktthe world (is, does, ...)
Object / AccusativeAs-(Ust/vU) AsUkOt
AsenOk(something affects) the world
"I see the world"Possessive / Genitive-UfUkOtUf
enOkUfthe world'sIndirect object / dativedo-doUkOt
doenOk(given, sold, etc.) to the worldAblative of AgentPFi-PFiUkOt
PFienOk(something is done) by the worldAblative of Instrumental-wiseUkOtwise
enOkwise(using, with, by means of) a penAblative of Movement-UdAk (moving) toward the world

"homeward"Ablative of SeparationtAg-tAgUkOt
tAgenOk(verb) from the world -
"...ran away from the world"
"Took from the world"Ablative of Time (past)gUtEn-gUtEnUkOt (ancestor man)
gUtEnenOk (ancestor horse)"Yesterday" is a good example when applied to time, but this can also be used to talk about something which is in the past--implied that it cannot be again.Ablative of Time (future)gAtEn-gAtEnUkOt (possible man)
gAtEnenOk (possible horse)Used to talk about things which may come to be. Often used in conjunction with time ("tomorrow") but can talk about, for example, children you may have in the future.Plural (simple)-asUkOtas
enOkasworldsVocativeot> otUkOtes
otenOkesO World!
Articles -  In Hurstikan, articles come directly before their specified noun and must agree in gender. Absence of an article marks the noun as indefinite.

Definite
Masculine
Feminine
Neutral
TheUstAstEstIndefinite   AvUwAwOPartitive   ("some")kUnkAnkenNegative   No/noneUgAgig
Pronouns - When functioning as a subject, they are cased as a Noun. However, they are limited to accusative, dative, and possessive cases. It is also a breach of formality to use a pronoun when there is a noun which would suffice.
                    Example, you should never use "she" for the Queen. It is always "Ast _Queen_," unless you are the King--or possibly if you are related to her.
    Personal
Singular
 Plural
 I
 ACHwe
 ePFyou (in)
 danyou (in)
 uPFyou (form)
 dAnyou (form)
 UPFhe
 dUsthey (in)
 ostshe
 dAsthey (form)
 Ostit
 dErthose/them
 dEst    Correlatives - holes indicate a lack of specific word. They can be filled with a phrase.

Query
This
That
Some
No
Every
Adjective
EtantikantokkenigUtenPerson
vUhgvigtUgvUgtik  wAkUkThing
EtantikantokkenOgigUtenPlace
aPFadantikantokkenOg  Time
GRotGRtUkantok AgatUCHatWay
nendaantik keandiigndi Reason
sAnti   sAnok

Structure
    Model Nouns:
        Day: Ogg
        Dog: Orak
        Man: UkOt
        (body) hair: SHTudEn
        Cat: CHis
        Home: lOdoen
        Mouse: OttastE
    Model Verbs:
        Bite: watt
        See: hEss
        Speak: engog
        Said: engogst
        Bring: faek
        Brought: faekst
        Catch: hannen
        Caught: hannenst

Model Adjectives:
        Fat: hAgstAtist
        Hairy: SHTudEnist
    Model Adverbs:

Basic Statement
    Formally, Hurstikan follows the word order of Verb-Subject-Object (VSO). However, one must still pay attention to the case of nouns, as word order can be changed for emphatic purposes.

Informally, Hurstikan can take on just about any sentence structure, thanks to its casing system.  While the Noun phrase, article and clause order remains the same, the sentence set up varies from class to class, dialect to dialect.  Read Formality/Informality for a more in depth analysis.

Example
wattEst Est akOrakt Ust AsUkOt
Bit the dog the man. (VSO)
[bit] [the.neutral] [nominative.dog] [the.masculine] [accusative.man]

Noun Phrases - Hurstikan is head-middle with articles applying before the noun, and adjectives appling after. Subordinate clauses coming last.

Example
wattEst Est akOrakt SHTudEnn Ust AsUkOt hAgstAtist
Bit the dog hairy the man fat.

Relative Clauses - Relative clauses come, as Subordinate clauses, directly behind the subject they address.

Example
wattEst Est akOrakt SHTudEnist Et hEsEst ePF gUtEnOgg Ust AsUkOt hAgstAtist
Bit the dog hairy which saw we yesterday the fat man
The hairy dog, which we saw yesterday, bit the fat maan.
    Example
engogst PFiAch doantok hannenst Est akCHist faekst lOdoenUdak PFiAleciat eta AsOttastE
Said I that caught the cat brought home Alecia the mouse. (VSO)
[V AA IO V S V AM AA O]
I said that the cat, brought home by Alecia, caught the mouse. (SVO)

Also, why did I not have a conlang tag before now? utter failure.