Lántas is unusual (as far as I know) in that words which are often considered to form a separate “adjective” class, or, a subset of verbs, are in fact (the genitive case of) nouns.

Number

The basic form of a noun is its singular, in all cases. The plural is formed by adding:

–al to a word ending in l or ł,
–l to a word ending in a vowel, or
–ł to a word ending in a consonant, syllabic or not, other than l.

This plural form can also be applied to names of people. In this case it forms what is called an associative plural, and refers to a person plus a group associated with them, usually their family or friend group.

Definiteness

The definite suffix for nouns (DEF) is usually –m, and is used more frequently than ‘the’ in English. For example, in the first sentence below Sam has one dog, but in the second he is implied to have several. The names of people and places are also definite.

The suffix has a few different forms depending on how the word ends:

Ending	Suffix	Examples
m or ḿ	–am	šaksḿam ‘the ash’,
		TODO word ending in m
other consonant or ń	–ḿ	lántasḿ ‘the language’,
		kášńḿ ‘the lizard’
vowel, ŕ, or ł	–m	luwam ‘the truth’,
		laksŕm ‘the fish’,
		ustaiƶłm ‘the singer’

A sequence ńḿ formed in this way is pronounced as /nm̩/. In other words, kášńḿ has two syllables, not three like it is written. An extra -a is inserted after the -m form of the suffix if it is needed due to another suffix following it.

Using the definite suffix

The definite suffix is used:

When the referent is old information already mentioned.
- Pas nú bairusina.
  Nai rala núm manifnut gašnat ippausi.
  I saw two people. One of them was wearing a nice shirt.
For people, places, countries, and other proper names.
- Ƶuƶ pas kášńł ǧiššimamba nuabia.
  Those two lizards live above the bakery.
In time phrases with gimi. However, naigimi ‘sometime’ is indefinite.
- Gimimli lána.
  I’m doing it now.
- Naigimimli lámána.
  I’ll do it at some point.
In statements of general fact.
- Númsal pasla aƶal ai.
  Humans have two eyes.
TODO: ?

The definite suffix is not used (in contrast to English):

In superlatives.
- Milnutlit aifa.
  It’s the smallest.
TODO: ?

Core cases

Declension for the core cases of nú ‘man’ and lun lun ‘road’ are shown below. Some of the endings are slightly different in the case of a stem ending in a consonant or vowel, and if the ending starts with multiple consonants the final one of the stem is dropped.

	SG	PL
Nominative (NOM)	nú	nú·l
Genitive (GEN)	nú·t	nú·t·ł
Comitative (COM)	nú·kas	nú·kas·ł
Caritive (CAR)	nú·ssa	nú·ssa·l
Instrumental (INS)	nú·la	nú·la·l
Essive (ESS)	nú·gu	nú·gu·l
Translative (TRA)	nú·sti	nú·sti·l
Exessive (EXE)	nú·ču	nú·ču·l

	SG	PL
NOM	lun	lun·ł
GEN	lu·t	lun·t·ł
COM	lun·kas	lun·kas·ł
CAR	lu·ssa	lu·ssa·l
INS	lun·la	lun·la·l
ESS	lun·gu	lun·gu·l
TRA	lu·sti	lu·sti·l
EXE	lun·ču	lun·ču·l

The nominative is the subject of sentences, and the unmarked form. The genitive is used for the object of sentences, the possessive, and for modifying other nouns (see below).

For inalienable possession (body parts, family members, etc), the definite is usually used instead of an explicit genitive construction.

The comitative case is used for ‘and’ between two nouns, as well as ‘with’ in the sense of ‘accompanied by’. It is used on all but the last noun being conjoined, with the last one taking the semantic case for the whole sequence. The opposite case, the caritive, means ‘without’, and is also used for negative possessive statements. (See the adessive, described below, for affirmative statements.)

The most common use of the instrumental case is the “theme” of ditransitive sentences (while the recipient is in the genitive). It is also used for ‘with’ as in ‘using’, in distributive phrases such as kallila kallila ‘in threes, in sets of three, three each’, and quantifiers like ‘every’.

The basic meaning of the essive case is a state. It is used:

when a noun modifies another, but with a descriptive meaning
wasalgu fadau “animal friend” (i.e. a friend who is an animal);
as the object of certain verbs like TODO what?;
with comparatives;
as the second argument of ai (in very conservative styles the nominative is still used here)

The translative and exessive cases indicate a change of state:

with state-change verbs, the translative marks the new state, and the exessive the old;
the exessive is also used with comparatives;
TODO what else is the translative used with otherwise why does it exist

TODO: examples

Locational cases

The locational cases are formed by pairs of suffixes, one for the type of motion and one for the orientation or part of the target object.¹ These cases have formulaic names, e.g., ‘adessive’ (at), ‘superablative’ (from above), and so on. The prefixes describe the type of motion, and the main words indicate the relative position:

ad–	AD	at, on
in–	IN	in
pre–	PRE	in front of
post–	POST	behind
inter–	INTER	between, among
super–	SUPER	on top of, above
sub–	SUB	below, under
apud–	APUD	near, next to

essive	ESS	at, on
lative	LAT	towards
ablative	ABL	away from
perlative	PRL	through, along

Unlike for the core cases, the endings are the same regardless of whether the stem ends in a consonant or vowel, so they are only listed for nú.

		ESS	LAT	ABL	PRL
AD	SG	nú·sa	nú·sa·s	nú·sa·n	nú·sa·ri
	PL	nú·sa·l	nú·sa·s·ł	nú·sa·n·ł	nú·sa·ri·l
IN	SG	nú·li	nú·li·s	nú·li·n	nú·li·ri
	PL	nú·li·l	nú·li·s·ł	nú·li·n·ł	nú·li·ri·l
PRE	SG	nú·ƶu	nú·ƶu·s	nú·ƶu·n	nú·ƶu·ri
	PL	nú·ƶu·l	nú·ƶu·s·ł	nú·ƶu·n·ł	nú·ƶu·ri·l
POST	SG	nú·gi	nú·gi·s	nú·gi·n	nú·gi·ri
	PL	nú·gi·l	nú·gi·s·ł	nú·gi·n·ł	nú·gi·ri·l
INTER	SG	nú·nua	nú·nua·s	nú·nua·n	nú·nua·ri
	PL	nú·nua·l	nú·nua·s·ł	nú·nua·n·ł	nú·nua·ri·l
SUPER	SG	nú·ba	nú·ba·s	nú·ba·n	nú·ba·ri
	PL	nú·ba·l	nú·ba·s·ł	nú·ba·n·ł	nú·ba·ri·l
SUB	SG	nú·ku	nú·ku·s	nú·ku·n	nú·ku·ri
	PL	nú·ku·l	nú·ku·s·ł	nú·ku·n·ł	nú·ku·ri·l
APUD	SG	nú·mi	nú·mi·s	nú·mi·n	nú·mi·ri
	PL	nú·mi·l	nú·mi·s·ł	nú·mi·n·ł	nú·mi·ri·l

Non-locative uses

Subessive is used for:
- ‘in the opinion of’: Kaku manifnut ai.
  That’s pleasant to me/I like that.
Superessive is used for:
- ‘about’
  Suba jaisi fína.
  I had a dream about you.

Position words

The position suffixes give rise to the following words based on some roots fan fan, gis gis, and pul pul, which no longer exist as separate words:

Adjectivals

Most words considered as adjectives in other languages are in fact grammatically nouns in Lántas; words such as sabu sabu can be translated as ‘the colour black’. When one noun modifies another attributively, the genitive case suffix -t is used. In the case of multiple adjectives, all other than the last have a modified form of the comitative suffix, –kat. Adjectives, like other noun modifiers, precede the head noun.

Genitive forms can be used as adverbs with the suffix -tta; the conjunctive variant is -ttás. Adverbs appear immediately before the verb if they are short. Long adverbial phrases, as well as context-setting adverbs such as time words, are usually placed before the rest of the sentence. Longer adverb phrases at the start of a sentence are often separated from the rest by a comma.

From adjectivals, several further derivations can be made: the equative, which expresses that two objects have an equal measure of some property; the comparative, which says that one object has more of a property than another object; and the superlative, which claims that an object has the most of a property.

The noun being compared with is in the essive case for the equative, and the exessive for the comparative.

You might think that this sounds too artificial, but I actually stole it from Tsez. That’s also where I got the pseudolatin names.↩︎


Sámimat ƶasim
Sami–ma–t	ƶasi–m
Sam–DEF–GEN	dog–DEF
Sam’s dog


Sámimat ƶasi
Sami–ma–t	ƶasi
Sam–DEF–GEN	dog
one of Sam’s dogs


guwanḿt samńḿ
ˈɡu.wa.nm̩t ˈsam.nm̩
guwan–ḿ–t	samń–ḿ
sun–DEF–GEN	colour–DEF
the colour of the sun


Jánim línait bairusi.
Jáni–m	línai–t	bairu–si
John–DEF	mouse–GEN	see–RPST
John saw a mouse.


Jánimat línai
Jáni–ma–t	línai
John–DEF–GEN	mouse
John’s mouse


Nattumatł bairusina.
nattu–ma–t–ł	bairu–si–na
parent–DEF–GEN–PL	see–PST–1SG
I saw my [the] parents.


Kalńkas ƶasit bairusina.
kalń–kas	ƶasi–t	bairu–si–na
cat–COM	dog–GEN	see–RPST–1SG
I saw a cat and a dog.


Sairiassa aina.
sairia–ssa	ai–na
money–CAR	be–1SG
I don’t have any money.


Kat fadaukas ká rut ǧimamlis šikkúsi.
kat	fadau–kas	ká	rut	ǧima–m–li–s	šikkú–si
my	friend–COM	I	his	house–DEF–IN–LAT	go–RPST
I went with my friend to his house.


Sanǧula paraina.
sanǧu–la	parai–na
pen–INS	write–1SG
I write with a pen.


kalli litrala tippi
kalli	litra–la	tippi
three	litre–INS	water
three litres of water


nakasnala hámal
nakasnala	háma–l
every;INS	country–PL
every country


nai rala númł
nai	ra(n)–la	nú–m–ł
one	thing–INS	person–DEF–PL
one of the people


nala númł
nala	nú–m–ł
any;INS	person–DEF–PL
some of the people


sabut líbiskat ƶasi
sabu–kat	líbi(s)–t	ƶasi
black–ADJCOM	happy–GEN	dog
a happy black dog


ausut línai
ausu–t	línai
large–GEN	mouse
a large mouse


Línaim sihatta irhi.
línai–m	siha–tta	irhi
mouse–GEN	small–ADV	squeak
The mouse is squeaking quietly.

Adjective	ausu·t	big
Equative (EQU)	ausu·t·sat	as big as
Comparative (CMP)	ausu·t·pat	bigger than
Superlative (SUPL)	ausu·t·lit	the biggest


ǧimagu ausutsat
ǧima–gu	ausu–t–sat
house–ESS	big–GEN–EQU
as big as a house


fíraču panísatpat
fíra–ču	panísa–t–pat
sky–EXE	blue–GEN–CMP
bluer than the sky