The next suffix in the fully structured Siye verb is the number suffix. This suffix indicates the grammatical number (null, singular, dual, paucal, plural, or pantic) of either the grammatical subject or the grammatical object of the sentence (note that this is the grammatical object, rather than the semantic patient - this is important in ( Read more... )

 
Third Person Marker Borrowing from Siye in Ulok

The third person suffixes in Ulok are archaic borrowings from a millennia-old version of Siye. The third animate singular suffix -p and the Siye singular enclitic =pu derive from a Siye postpositive particle pu, which indicated both third person and singular number. Ulok kept the former distinction, ( Read more... )

Siye has six grammatical numbers, typologically unusual for a Terran language. Whether it is unusual for a Martian language is debatable: there are only three surviving language families on the entire planet: one in the Valley, one on the Mountain, and one in the Southern highlands. The six numbers are as follows (0 indicates no ending):
Null ( Read more... )