Oro Mpaa

3.    Nomina

3.1.    Nouns

There is not much to say about nouns in Oro Mpaa, as they don't inflect in any way.  There are no compulsory articles and no inflections for number, so the noun ttou [to] can mean "man, a man, the man, men, the men".  This level of detail is often sufficient in speech.  Should the definiteness or number be important, it can be expressed with a pronoun or quantifier (see following chapter).

Unlike English, Oro Mpaa builds its noun phrases head-first; that is, adjectives and appositions follow the main nouns.   Example: ttou  [to] "man",  cele ['kiLi] "old", mpolen [,buLin] "beard", aaia ['aaja] "white", ttou cele mpolen aaia [,to'giLim,buLi'naaja] "the/an old man with a white beard".

There is a gender distinction in Oro Mpaa, but it strictly follows the biological gender, much as in English.  All living things with a gender are represented with the animate pronouns, while everything else is mapped onto the inanimate ones.

3.2.    Pronouns

Considering the very isolating nature of Oro Mpaa in general, the personal pronouns show a somewhat surprising number of forms that distinguish numbers and genders.

The numbers are singular, plural and categorical.  Plural is used for a specific given group or amount of things, even if it's not easily measured or counted, while categorical refers to the totalty of the things, the things in general.  For example, consider the sentence "Alligators came near the settlement yesterday.  I killed them."  In Oro Mpaa, you would use the plural pronoun om for "them", because you are talking about a specific group of alligators.  If however, you said "I hate them", meaning alligators in general rather than some particular specimens, you'd use the categorical pronoun neu.

Inflected Pronouns	Singular	Plural	Categorical
1st Inclusive	sia [Sa]	siaum [SQm]	neusia  [,nyZa]
1st Exclusive	—	sseum [Sym]	neusse [,nySSi]
2nd Informal	le [li]	lom  [lum]	neule [,nyli]
2nd Honorific	ahan [a,han]	ahon [a,hun]	neuhan [ny,han]
3rd Animate	an [an]	om [um]	neu [ny]
3rd Inanimate	ei  [e]	el [il]	nel [nil]
Indefinite Animate	cuan [kwan]	com [kum]	—
Indefinite Inanimate	cuei [kwe]	cuel [kwil]	—

The personal pronouns can be used by themselves, or as the head of a noun phrase, in which case the function can become similar to a strong definite article: ttou [to] "man", an ttou [an'to] "he, the man (litterally: he man)".  This also works well persons other than the third: Ttaro tuer, neusse ttou tsan neule vel. [,tarudir nySSi,to'dzan nyli,vil] "We men never understand you women."

When placed after a noun, the personal pronoun can act as a possessive pronoun:  sia ttou [Sat,to] "I as a man ..."; ttou sia [to,Za] "my man".  This also works well with names: corampa ttou [,ku4ambat,to] "the man Kuramba", ttou laare [to,laa4i] "Laari's man (husband)".

The indefinite pronouns mean "a, one, someone" in the singular and "some, several" in the plural.

4.    Verbs

4.1.    Verb Forms

The verbs of Oro Mpaa are even easier to use than those of English.  Each verb has only two forms in which in can appear.  A professional grammarian would probably call them finite and non-finite, but I shall refer to them as strong and weak according to the usage of the native speakers.  

The two forms are often related to each other by one of a handful of regular paradigms, but there are many irregular pairs as well.  For example, the verb "talk to" is mpa ['ba] in its strong form and mpaa ['baa] in its weak form; these are clearly related.  However, one might not expect that oua ['owa] is the weak form of mo ['mu].

Strong verb forms...

• ... convey information about the verb action, it is presented as a new bit of information; they form statements, they are informative.
• ... are used for verb actions that really happen (e.g. "it's raining") or are considered a realistic possibility or outcome ("if it rains tonight, we'll get wet").
• ... are usually translated with finite verb forms in English, e.g. ttou mpa vel [tom'ba fil] "the man talks to the woman", uel las [wil 'las] "the fish swims", or as a predicative construction, e.g. vel raima [fil '4Ema] "the woman is pretty"

Weak verb forms...

• ... describe or identify other parts of the sentence, usually nouns, by means of the verb action, which is not a piece of news itself; they are descriptive.
• ... are used for purely hypothetical verb actions ("if it were raining, we'd be wet by now") and implausible wishes ("if only I were a bird").
• ... by themselves can be used as a noun to refer to the verb action ("swimming is fun").
• ... are usually translated with participles, gerunds or short relative sentences, e.g. ttou mpaa vel [tom'baa fil] "The man talking to the woman; the man who talks to the woman", lassa sum [lassa'zum] "swimming is fun"; or simply as an adjective, e.g. vel rae [fil '4ai] "the pretty woman".

4.2.    Conjugation Paradigms

It might be a bit pretentious to speak of two form per verb as conjugation, but for lack of a better word, I'll call it that way.

It might also be a bit modest to speak of Oro Mpaa verbs as regular; most of them are paradigmatic, so it's easy to remember a given conjugation pair, but it's not possible to reliably predict a conjugation when only one the base form of the verb is known.

What is the base form, then?  Strong or weak?  The answer isn't quite so simple.  Oro Mpaa can basically describe two kinds of concepts: Actions and states.  Actions are words that have been "born as verbs", their strong (finite) form is the base form, and their weak form is usually an obvious derivative of the strong one.  States, on the other hands, correspond to the adjectives of English: They are mostly used as appositions in noun phrases, thus the weak (non-finite) form is the base, and the strong form is usually an obvious derivative of the weak one.  The strong form of a state is translated as a predicate in English, e.g. "is old", "is pretty" etc.

To respect this distinction, there is the lexical convention of writing the forms of an action as strong/weak and the forms of a state as weak\strong.  This makes sure that the base form, which is usually more recognisable, is mentioned first in word lists and dictionaries.  The direction of the slash still indicates unambiguously which of the forms is the strong.

Here follow a few common derivation processes for the non-base forms.  As mentioned above, they are not predictable with certainty, so one should always memorize both forms when learning a verb.

Action paradigms:

• A-Extension:  Add the vowel -a to the base.  This paradigm is chiefly applied to bases ending in a vowel or a glide.  Examples: mpa ['ba] "talk", mpaa ['baa] "talking"; ppou ['po] "give", ppoua ['powa] "giving".
  
• Fortification:  Geminate (double) the final consonant and add a copy of the last vowel of the base.  This usually happens to bases ending in a consonant.  Examples: cel ['kil] "see", celle ['kiLLi] "seeing";  las ['las] "swim", lassa ['lassa] "swimming".
• Expansion:  Geminate (double) the last vowel.  This usually happens to bases ending in a consonant.  Example: sel ['Sil] "rains", seel ['Siil] "raining; rain (as a noun)".
  

State paradigms:

• Ma-Extension:  Add the syllable -ma to the base.  Use -e- as a binding vowel if the base ends in a consonant.  Usually, though, this paradigm applies to bases already ending in -e. Some unpredictable effects can happen, like the reduction of an -e to a glide.  Examples: cele ['kiLi] "old", celema ['kiLima] "be old";  rae ['4ai] "pretty", raima ['4Ema] "be pretty".
• Nasalisation:  Add -g to the base.  This usually happens to bases ending in -a.  Examples:  aaia ['aaja] "white", aajag ['aajaN] "be white".
  
• Eh-Extension:  Add the syllable -eh to the base.  Some rather strange effects can happen to the base when this ending is applied.  Examples:  ot [ut] "of, pertaining to", oteh ['udZiC] "belong to, be associated with"; ssou [so] "part of, among", ssueh [siC] "be part of, be among".

4.3.    The Prefix me(m)–

Adding the prefix me(m)- to a verb causes it to swap its subject and object, that is, the syntax of that particular phrase becomes OVS rather than SVO.

One might be tempted to view this as a passive voice, but its scope of application is wider than in English, and even intransitive verbs can make use of it.  The prefix doesn't convey a connotation of passive involuntariness like the English passive voice, thus its use in speech is less restricted.

Examples:

• Mempraula can celuan eia ntoor.  [mim'b4Qla kaN kilwaJ'eja duu4]  {SWAP:be_good a chief going_to temple}  "A temple-going chief is good;  it's good for a chief to go to the temple."
  
• Te mo ntoor memeia celuan cala vourea.  [tSi'mu duu4 mi'meja  kilwaN'kala ,fo4ia]  {this be temple SWAP:going_to chief serve praying}  "This is the temple where the chief goes in order to pray."
  
• Laare olau memolau Corampa.  [laa4i'ulQ mi'mulQ ,ku4amba]  {Laari love SWAP:love Kuramba}  "Laari loves Kuramba [and] he loves her [too]."
  

4.4.    Tense and Aspect

Marking past or future tense is not a necessity in Oro Mpaa, and is indeed neglected in most cases, since context usually establishes the time frame well enough.  For the sake of precision, one can always start out with (tuer) uaneh, ... [(ti4) 'waJiC] "(time) downstream" for the future and (tuer) heleh, ... [(ti4) 'hiLiC] "(time) upstream" for past tense.  As ever so often, Oro Mpaa makes use of an analogy from its jungle environment here, equating life with the journey of a leaf on a river, never knowing what surprises the next river bend might bring, but certain to be swept up and put to rest on the riverside sooner or later.  

Another mechanism for marking tense is to apply the state verbs uane\uaneh "downstream" and hele\heleh "upstream" to the subject instead of dedicating a clause to them.  

Examples:

• Heleh, sia coa sia nape ttou tiappa.  {upstream, I want I become man hunting}  "In the past, I wanted to become a hunter."
• Sia heleh coa sia nape ttou tiappa.  {I upstream want I become man hunting}  "My past self wanted to become a hunter."

As for aspect, Oro Mpaa provides idiomatic uses of the action verbs ntevo/ntevoa "come from" and golua/goluaa "face, look towards, stand before":

Examples:

• Tuer sia ee hol gev, vel sia ntevo hema prah.  {time I go_to inside hut, woman I come_from causing stew}  "When I entered the hut, my wife had (already, just) made stew."
• Nau sia ttantevoa celle vios, le goluaa peniaa.  {course I NEG:come_from see venomous_snake, you facing dying}  "If I hadn't seen the venomous snake, you'd face death now."

Obviously, tense and aspects can be marked or neglected quite independently of each other.

5.    Syntax

5.1.    Phrases

There are essentially two sorts of phrases:  Noun phrases and predicate phrases.  In both types, sandhi happens between all constituent words wherever possible.

A noun phrase is an uninterrupted string of nomina (nouns and pronouns).  The first of those nomina is the head, which all subsequent nomina modify.  For example, the aforementioned ttou cele mpolen aaia [to'gilimbuli'naaja]  {man old beard white}  "the/an old man with a white beard" is a noun phrase with the head noun ttou "man".  All other nouns tell us what kind of man it is.

A predicate phrase is a noun phrase plus a directly following verb.  The noun phrase acts as the verb's subject.  Any following object is excluded from the predicate phrase.  Example:  Ttou cele mpa ttou tame [to'gilim'ba to'dami]  {man old talk_to man young} "the old man talks to the young man".  There is phrasal sandhi within the verb phrase ttou cele mpa and the noun phrase ttou tame, but not between mpa and ttou, since these words are not in a phrase together.

5.2.    Simple Clauses

A clause is a very flexible definition in Oro Mpaa:  It's an alternating sequence of noun phrases and verbs which are parsed serially.

A simple clause contains at most two noun phrases and a verb in between.  They are parsed as subject, verb, and object (SVO).  Every one of those components is optional and can be left away.  Both strong and weak forms of verbs count as verbs.  Remember that even some words rendered as an adjective in English, e.g. pale "soft", are actually the weak forms of a verb (pale\palema "to be soft").

Even a single verb or noun phrase can be a valid clause.  Such vestigial clauses usually only make sense in the context of their whole sentence.

• SV:  Intransitive clause.  Only a subject and a verb are present.  Examples:
• Ttou lon.  {man sing}  "The man sings."
• Vel raima.  {woman be_pretty}  "The woman is pretty."
• SVO:  Transitive clause.  The first noun phrase acts as the subject, the second one as the object.  Verb actions with more than one object cannot be expressed in a simple clause.  Examples:
• Ttou cel heite.  {man see tree}  "The man sees the tree."
• Vel arrag sono.  {woman be_angry child}  "The woman is angry with the child."
• VO:  No subject is present.  This can convey a passive meaning or simply an action that happens without anyone causing it.
• Ien sono.  {wash child}  "(Someone) washes the child;  the child is washed."
• Sel.  {rain}  "It's raining."

5.3.    Serial Clauses

Things get more complicated but also more flexible if we introduce more than one verb in a clause.  Its components are parsed serially from left to right.

• Promotion:  The object of a verb becomes the next verb's subject.
• Ttou tovea mbao iop.  {man kick dog run}  "The man kicks the dog, who in turn runs."
• Tamen ropa ccar ee terepa penia.  {lad toss stone go_to bird die}  "The young man tosses a stone which hits a bird which dies."
  
• Ama sia toi mpolen sia ttaraima neu tamel.  {mother me say beard me NEG_be_pretty CAT young_woman}  "My mother says about my beard that it doesn't appeal to the girls."
  
• Inheritance:  If a verb has no object, the next verb inherits the former one's subject.
• Om sono moren meien uaaca.  {they child dirty be_washed shout}  "The dirty children are being washed (and) shout."  Note that moren "dirty" also counts as a verb form.
  
• Seel hem ago loteh ropa poet polo.  {raining cause leaf be_wet toss drop sun}  "The rain makes that the leaves are wet (and that the leaves) throw off drops of sun (=sparkle)."

Sometimes, the promotion of an object to subject might not be desirable.  It can be hindered with the conjunction hau "and" or a comma to break the phrase flow (see next chapter for punctuation):

• Ama hem om sono ien maio ee ente.  {mother cause they child wash face go_to bed}  "The mother makes the children wash [their] face, which in turn goes to bed."  Doesn't make lots of sense, does it.
• Ama hem om sono ien maio hau ee ente.  {mother cause they child wash face and go_to bed}  "The mother makes the children wash [their] face and go to bed."  The conjunction hau prevents the object maio "face" to become the new subject, so now it's the children who go to bed.  Much better.
  

In order to express relations beyond subject and direct object, the English language uses prepositions.  In Oro Mpaa, one makes use of idiomatic serial phrases instead.  Some verbs like ee/eia "to go to..." or cala/calaa "serve, benefit" have taken the role of prepositions like "to" and "for".

• Ttou ppou tacce ee mbao.  {man give bone go_to dog}  "The man gives a bone to the dog."
• Tamen len cala tamel.  {guy sing serve gal}  "The guy sings for the gal."
• Tamen len rooa olo.  {guy sing discuss love}  "The guy sings about love."
  

5.4.    Sentences

A sentence is a sequence of clauses separated by punctuation marks (comma, semicolon) and conjunctions.  In speech, the global tone rises in the last one or two syllables before a comma, while it dips before a semicolon.

The comma is a rather weak separator, it allows the following clause to inherit pretty much all of the context of the previous clause: The most recent subject, object and adverbial circumstances.  If the following clause has a subject and/or object of its own, they override the ones inherited from the previous clause.  

The semicolon is a stronger separator.  While it still keeps the context alive, it puts a greater distance between clauses and brings older subjects and objects back to the surface.

Examples:

• Ama hem om sono ien maio, ee ente.  {mother cause they child wash face, go_to bed}  "The mother makes the children wash [their] face and [the children] go to bed."  Note how the comma begins a new clause, which inherits the most recent subject of the previous phrase (om sono) since it has no subject of its own. 
• Ama hem om sono ien maio; ee ente.  {mother cause they child wash face; go_to bed}  "The mother makes the children wash [their] face; then [she] goes to bed."  Note how the semicolon resets the subject to the primary subject of the context (ama). 
• Taine, neu vel hem prah; nase, toc.  {morning, CAT woman cause stew; evening, eat}  "In the morning, the women make a stew; in the evening, they eat it."  Here, the commas package the time nouns (taine, nase) into clauses of their own, thereby making them act as time adverbials that establish the context for the following clauses.  The semicolon makes a stronger division after the first half of the sentence, after which the context is changed in time.  Both the subject and the object of the last clause are inherited from the older clause neu vel hem prah, since no new subjects or objects are given.

5.5.    Relative Clauses

Most English relative clauses can be translated into Oro Mpaa without the use of any special structures for this purpose.  The serial verb syntax, the weak verb forms and the order-swapping prefix me(m)- can already go a long way by themselves.

Examples (subjects and objects):

• S(S):  Ttou celle sia, toc uel.  {man seeing I, eat fish}  "The man who sees me eats fish."  The comma breaks object promotion, thus the second clause inherits {man} as the subject.
• S(S):  Uel mentoc ttou celle sia.  {fish SWAP:eat man seeing I}  The same statement as above expressed in a single clause.  Object promotion coupled with the order-swapping verb prefix allows both verbs to dock to {man} simultaneously, although they both use it as the subject.
  
• S(O):  Sia celle ttou toc uel.  {I seeing man eat fish}  "The man whom I see eats fish."  Straight object promotion.  The fact that the whole sentence begins with {I seeing} even though it's not the subject of the whole sentence might appear strange to a speaker of English, but the fact that {seeing} is weak and {eat} is strong clearly determines that {man eat fish} is the main clause of the sentence.
• O(S):  Sia cel ttou tocco uel.  {I see man eating fish}  "I see a man who eats fish."  Straight object promotion again.  The word order is intuitive for an English speaker here.
• O(O):  Ttou tocco uel, sia cel.  {man eating fish, I see}  "I see the fish which the man eats."  The comma breaks object promotion, thus the second clause inherits {fish} as the object.  For the sake of clearness, it would be advisable to add a personal pronoun (sia cel ei {I see it}) or the elective pronoun (sia cel taur {I see the_latter}) to the second clause to represent the fish.
• O(O):  Sia cel uel mentocco ttou.  {I see fish SWAP:eating man}  "I see the fish which the man eats."  The same statement as above expressed in a single clause.  Object promotion coupled with the order-swapping verb prefix allows both clauses to dock to {fish} simultaneously, although they both use it as the object.

Examples (adverbials):

• Time:  Tuer neu sono vero, neu ndala rooa.  {time CAT child sleeping, CAT adult discuss}  "When the children are asleep, the adults have a talk."  In order to make it even clearer, one could start the second clause with the resumptive pronoun tair "the former, aforementioned" or even tair tuer "that aforementioned time".
• Place:  Ous sia celle uel ope, asso harae.  {river I seeing fish big, witness tiger}  "At the river where I've seen big fish, there's a tiger."  The subjectless construction asso X {witness X} is idiomatic for "there's a X".  It can also be used with a place or time as a subject: ous asso X {river witness X} "there's a X at the river";  cuei tuer asso X {some time witness X} "at some times X happens".
  

5.6.    Questions

Absolute questions are formed by adding the adverb miati [mjaS] to the end of a sentence, separated by a comma.  It's a compressed form of meiat sia [me'jat Sa] {SWAP:ask I}, meaning "that I ask".

Example:

• Prah raula.  {stew be_good}  "The stew is good."
• Prah raula, miati.  {stew be_good, I_ask}  "Is the stew good?"

Wh-questions are formed with the state verb oe\oie [ui uje].  Its weak form oe can be used as a noun phrase of its own, meaning "what?", or as an adjective "which? what kind of?".  Its strong form is a predicate meaning "... is what?".

Example:

• Te oie.  {this be_what?}  "What is this?"
  
• Sono ropa ccar ee oe.  {child throw stone go_to what?}  "What does the child throw a stone at?"
• Le ssaag ei oie.  {you holding it be_what?}  "What is it you're holding?"
• Le ssaa cei oe.  {you hold a what?}  "What kind of thing are you holding?"
• Le coa ei oe.  {you want it what?}  "Which one do you want?"