Syntax

Word Order and Dependent Clauses

The basic word order of Hurga ker Maja is OSV. Maja relies on this word order for its nominative-accusative alignment, and so this order generally doesn't change. The verb-final portion of this word order is so strict that Maja doesn't usually like to have verbs anywhere else in the sentence. Typically, at most there can be two verbs, not counting auxiliaries, and there is a strict hierarchy between them, in that the second of them - called the primary - is conjugated normally, while the first of them - the secondary, subordinate to the primary - is deranked and must be in the continuous aspect. Furthermore, the two actions must be related in some way for this construction to make sense. Here is an example:

Kos ganokreni kar ki tonja ra edewakion hange.

I went to the store to get some apples.

As you can see, the objects of the two verbs appear in the same order as their respective verbs, within the object-space of the sentence. Also, the actions are related by temporal order and intent - going to the store, then getting apples. But since the limit for this is two, you cannot expand on this model indefinitely - you either begin a new sentence, or you get around this limit with action nominal constructions:

Kan ki dethado ker ki meiki kos ganokreni kar ki tonja ra edewakion hange.

I went to the store to get some apples to feed the dogs.

Kan ki dethado ker ki meiki doesn't mean "feed the dogs" - that would be ki meiki deth - it means "for the feeding of the dogs".

However, this structure only applies to:
1) dependent clauses where the subject of the dependent clause, if made independent, would be the same as the independent clause. I went to the store, I got some apples, I fed the dogs.
2) dependent clauses where the subject of the dependent clause is the same as the object of the independent clause:

Ki ganokreni ra scainuion fascno.

I want the apples to vanish.

The important thing is that there must only be one subject in the subject space of the overall sentence. However, because of the deranked nature of the secondary verb, the subordinate clause cannot be conjugated for tense. As such, indirect objects specifying a time must be used if the time of the event needs clarifying, or, tense can be supplied on the primary verb if its tense would not be explicitly different from the secondary's. While all of this works fine for non-finite subordinate clauses, it makes most forms of relative clause impossible. Maja has no special morphology or syntax for relative clauses, so those valid within this subordination system appear in the same way as non-finite clauses:

Ki deruz varo nukorion endosge.

This is the person who died.

Note how the past tense in the English appears on the verb of the subordinate clause, while the past tense in the Maja appears on the primary.

Now, let's look at how you would say something like "You know the person who I talked to." "You know the person" and "I talked to the person" have different subjects, and the object of the former differs from the subject of the latter. Therefore, the latter cannot be subordinated to the former...:

Ki deruz hoj kilen. Ka ra hurga.

You know the person who I talked to.

...and the Maja must therefore be in two sentences.

Questions

This is where Maja actually changes its word order - to SOV.

Ki meik ka endos.
It is the dog.

Ka ki meik endos?
Is it the dog?

Kuda ka endos?
What is it?

Nominal Syntax

Most things that would modify a noun come before it - adjectives, numbers, demonstratives, prepositions. The main exception to this is genitives, which are formed by a preposition on the noun being modified into a genitive. So:

van varoi din kazo vaniri ker waisc

in these two red pipes of water

Verbal Syntax

Adverbs are not a distinct class of word in Maja - adjectives are used for their purpose. Adjectives modifying a verb always appear directly before their verb, even for the primary verb of a subordinate construction. The only other things that do this are the negative preposition nil, and the optative auxiliary verb kanta. The other auxiliary verb, the attemptive gasc, appears after the verb it modifies.

Morphology

Universal Morphology

nal- - not, without
-neg - denotes a system of thought or ideology

Nominal Morphology

Affixes

-ado - diminutivizer
-as - adjectivizer
-et - adjectivizer
-i - plural

-as and -et serve the same function, and one of them is probably native to the language's family, with the other being a borrowing. Dunno which is what. I've been leaning towards maybe having -as being more productive, though.

-i is always its own syllable. It never diphthongizes with final vowels. This serves to disambiguate.

Prepositions

ki - definite article
kos - partitive article
ar - conjunction (and)
ker - genitive (of)
kar - locative (at)
van - inessive (in)
tar - superessive (on)
kan - benefactive (for), adessive (against)
gan - disjunction (or)
kilo - instrumental, comitative (with)
zu - ablative (from), adessive (by)
dar - elative (out of)
on - around (in the vague location of, not circular motion), any

Adjectival Morphology

Affixes

-ado - nominalizer

Verbal Morphology

Affixes

-ado - nominalizer
-as - adjectivizer
-et - adjectivizer

-ja - future tense
-ge - past tense
-ion - continuous

Prepositions

kanta - optative mood

Postpositions

gasc - attemptive mood

Sentence Morphology

Prepositions

ke - now
vaia - may, might, should (archaic & posh)
falu - but, however
feth - also, again
falu kilo - (lit: but with) also, as well, too
kan falu - (lit: for but) if
zu kilo - (lit: from with) since (causal, not temporal)
zu kan - (lit: from for) because
rotal zu - (lit: up from) than