Grammar

Pikotika grammar is small enough to read in an afternoon. Word order is rigid, no word ever changes form, and there is nothing irregular to memorize — so most of what follows is telling you which of English's rules you can put down.

The short version

Six rules, and nearly everything else is a consequence of one of them.

  1. Word order never changes. Subject ri verb a object — and nothing changes this: not a question, not for emphasis, not inside a subordinate clause. → Basic sentence structure
  2. No word ever changes form. No conjugation, no plurals, no gender, no case, no articles, no agreement. What you learn is what you say. → Nouns and pronouns
  3. Everything after ri describes the subject — and it need not contain a verb. An adjective, a prepositional phrase, or a noun does the job just as well, which is why we need no word for ‘is’. → Describing the subject
  4. Modifiers come before what they modify. Adjective, adverb, and possessive are one operation rather than three — and so is comparison, and so are can, want, and must. → Modifiers
  5. What other languages put in verb endings, Pikotika puts in ordinary words. Time, aspect, ability, obligation, and condition are all vocabulary you already have. → Time and aspect
  6. An often-used phrase can become a word. Close up the spaces, keep one stress, and you have a compound. This is how the language grows without growing. → Coining new words

The grammar pages

In reading order. You can stop after Making a sentence and already say a great deal; the groups after it are for saying it more exactly.

Speaking and writing

  1. Pronunciation Ten consonants and five vowels — and the wide range of accents that are all equally correct.
  2. Pikotika in written form The common Latin writing you've already seen, and two alternatives for special occasions.

Making a sentence

  1. Basic sentence structure The four slots available to every sentence, and the particles that mark them.
  2. Nouns and pronouns No articles, no plurals, no gender, no case — and what stands in their place.
  3. Describing the subject What can follow ri, and why the language needs no word for ‘is’.
  4. Prepositional phrases In, to, from, with, for — where the phrase goes, and when it is the whole thing you are saying.
  5. Negation non and nem, and the difference between ‘not happy’ and ‘sad’.
  6. Questions and answers Put ker where the answer belongs. Nothing else moves.
  7. Commands and indefinite subjects Two kinds of sentence with no subject: ‘Stop!’ and ‘It’s stopping.’

Building phrases

  1. Modifiers (adjectives and adverbs) Adjective, adverb, and possessive are one operation, and it always comes before the word it modifies.
  2. Stacking modifiers Which modifier sits nearest the noun — and why you almost certainly know already.
  3. Grouping with TE The rare particle that moves the boundary between the modifiers and the word they modify.
  4. Coining new words Close up the spaces and you have a new word. How Pikotika grows without growing.

Time and possibility

  1. Time and aspect Past, future, beginning, finished, still going — all without touching the verb.
  2. Can, want, must Five short words that carry ability, wish, permission, and obligation.
  3. Conditions and counterfactuals If, and if only: how to open a condition and how to deny it.

Putting it together

  1. And, or, but, because Three joining words that work at any size, and how to give a reason.
  2. Comparison More, less, and the same — with ‘from all’ doing the work of a superlative.
  3. Subordinate clauses A whole sentence used as the object of a verb, and where it ends.
  4. Relative clauses ‘The animal that the person ate’ — two ways to hang a clause on a noun.