Nouns and pronouns
A Pikotika noun never changes shape. There is nothing to learn here except which rules you can stop applying.
Four things that don't exist
| English has | Pikotika has |
|---|---|
| articles — a, the | nothing. nino is ‘child’, ‘a child’, or ‘the child’. |
| plurals — child / children | nothing. nino is one child or many. |
| gender — he / she / it | nothing. tisomo is any of these. |
| case — I / me | nothing. eko is both. |
Pronouns
There are four, and they double as the demonstratives.
| Word | Sense |
|---|---|
| eko | I, me, my |
| tu | you, your |
| tis | this, it, the one here |
| nontis | that, the other one |
For a person rather than a thing, add omo: tisomo is ‘he, she, they — this person’, and nontisomo is the other one, or ‘they’ in the sense of people generally.
She's my sister.
Tisomo ri eko samparivema.‘We’ is a compound, not a form of ‘I’
men is an ordinary root meaning group, so ekomen is literally I-group. It's just a regular compound word.
We're leaving.
Ekomen ri eksire.The same root does the work of any plural you actually need to state: avismen is a flock, parimen your relatives.
When you do need to say ‘more than one’
Say it with a word, the way you would say ‘several’ or ‘all’ in English. Number, quantity, and mur or pan all sit in front of the noun like any other modifier.
| Pikotika | Meaning |
|---|---|
| mur karta | many pages |
| pan omo | all people |
| 4 rotunpomo | four apples |
Here, now, today
tis combines with a handful of roots to point at the current one of anything:
| Word | Literally | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| tisroko | this-place | here |
| tistempo | this-time | now |
| tisyan | this-day | today |
I'm here.
Eko ri in tisroko.Try it yourself
- Panomo ri tika a tis.
Show answer
‘Everybody says that.’ every-person — a compound, not a special pronoun.
- Tu nino ri kermoto?
Show answer
‘How are your children?’ Or, perhaps, ‘How's your child?’ tu nino is your child or your children; context would make it clear.
- Ekomen ri tene a kamar.
Show answer
‘We have room’ or ‘We have a room,’ again depending on context.