Ziotaki uses the present tense for stories, unlike most languages.Ziotaki grammar relies heavily on particles placed before phrases to clarify relationships.
The particle 'o' is placed before a direct object phrase, the particle 'yo' is placed before a direct object phrase, and the particle 'jo' is placed before direct speech. These cannot be dropped.
The particle 'lo' is placed before relative clauses, like "that" in English, and like "that" it may be dropped, but only if the relative clause consists of only the verb. Relative clauses drop the word they modify, so "lo yana
The particle 'a' is used to pull a phrase or clause modifying the verb to the front of the sentence, and may not be dropped.
Another class of particles is placed at the end of the sentence. The only two here are 'ga', making a question, and 'ta' giving a reason.Ziotaki prepositions fuse with their objects (either nouns or verbs) and copy the last vowel of the object. Prepositional phrases are introduced by 'ka'.
Ziotaki nouns form the possessive with -pa. suzuru "daughter" > suzurupa "daughter's"; suzurau "daughters" > suzuraupa "daughters'"
Ziotaki pronouns act like nouns, except that they form different plurals (a feature not seen here). They have no special case forms, and do not distinguish gender.
Since the third-person pronoun "tira" is very general, the first possible antecedent is assigned the form "tiraa" and the second "tiraya" when there is the possibility of confusion. When there is none, "tira" alone is used.Ziotaki verbs do not distinguish aspect, but they distinguish two voices, four tenses, and many moods.
Verbs are negated by the prefix ya-.
The base form of the verb is the passive; to form the active insert -i- between the last consonant and the last vowel. If the last vowel is i, change it to ai.tena "to write" > tenia "writes"
gasi "to join" > gasai "joins"The present tense is formed with the suffix -cha, the past with -ma, and the future with -n@.
tena > teniacha "writes, is writing"
gasi > gasaima "joined"
metani "to greet" > metanin@ "will be greeted"Moods are shown by adding a mood suffix after the tense suffix. The indicative mood has a zero suffix. The only other moods in this story are potential -ta, optative -se, "commendative" -l@ (like English "should", Spanish "deber", Japanese "...no hou ga ii"), and speculative -mu (English "may, might, maybe").
tena > teniamal@ "should have written"
gasi > gasain@mu "may join"
metani > metanaichase "want to greet"
chanu "to eat" > chanuta "can be eaten"The verbs gachu "to be" and telesei "to walk" are irregular; their present active forms are listed in the wordlist.