Syntax

Ŋarâþ Âlþor has ergative alignment. The basic word order is AVS, where S denotes the subject of an intransitive verb or the object of a transitive verb, and A denotes the subject of a transitive verb:

A can be omitted even for transitive verbs if it can be inferred from context or it is not relevant:

S can be topicalized by putting it in the beginning of a clause, followed by the particle ħe:

Noun phrases

The basic structure of a noun phrase is (determiner) (small modifier) noun (modifiers).

A determiner is a demonstrative or indefinite determiner or a numeral determiner.

A small modifier is a non-reduplicated adjective or a weak possessive pronoun.

A modifier is an adjective, a strong possessive pronoun, a numeral adjective, or a postpositional phrase.

Postpositional phrases

A postpositional phrase is a noun phrase followed by a postposition. It can modify a noun phrase by following it or a clause by following the rest of the clause. A postpositional phrase modifying a clause can also be topicalized by moving it to the beginning of the clause, followed by the particle ħe:

Tense

The tense marker, if present, can occur at the end of the clause (after postpositional phrases modifying the clause).

The ‘past of past’ tense and ‘future of past’ tense refer to times before or after events put in the past tense.

Copular clauses

Copular clauses are clauses that link a subject to a complement. This complement can be another noun phrase or a modifier. In either case, the clause consists of the complement followed by the subject:

The subject can be topicalized as in a regular clause using ħe and often is so:

There is a tense marker for the past tense, doî, used in copular clauses:

A copular clause with a nominal complement implies identity only. To denote membership, the postposition sui among must be used:

Negation

A verb phrase is negated using the particle fn after the verb:

Any other constituent is negated using the particle cn after the noun:

Both fn and cn can be followed by another noun phrase and dâ to provide an affirmative alternative:

Questions

All questions are formed by introducing the particle ħôô before the relevant clause. For polar questions, this is all that is needed:

For content questions, …

For choice questions, …

Coordination

Coordinating two consituents involves placing a coordinator between them. The coordinator used is dependent on the type of the coordinands.

Attitudinals

Attitudinals are clause-final particles (occuring after tense particles) that show the speaker’s emotions toward a statement.