Vunakish enters the world with a clear purpose: to be globally learnable, expressive, and structurally transparent from the very first lesson. This overview introduces the early grammar- the foundational rules that shape how Vunakish works before the lexicon grows large and before learners explore the more advanced mechanics.

Vunakish grammar rests on five pillars:

  1. Clear, predictable word classes
  2. Zero irregular verbs
  3. Clean sentence structure (strict SVO)
  4. A highly readable copula system
  5. Universal rules for deriving meaning

These principles make the language feel intuitive, even for learners who come from very different linguistic backgrounds.

Word Classes: How Vunakish Shapes Meaning

Vunakish maintains rigid boundaries between nouns, verbs, and adjectives. This eliminates ambiguity and prevents accidental collisions between word types.

Nouns

  • Always end in a consonant
  • Never end in vowels
  • Plural: add -i
  • Possessive: add -s
  • Plural possessive: -is

Examples:
dom (house) → domi (houses) → domis (houses’)

Verbs

  • Always end in -en in the infinitive
  • Take tense endings: -o (past), -e (present), -u (future)
  • Add -z for the continuous aspect

Examples:
kiben – to run
kibo – ran
kibe – runs
kibu – will run
kibez – is running
kiboz – was running
kibuz – will running

The future tense and imperatives share the same form. Kibu means will run, but it also means Run! Context decides.

Adjectives

  • Always end in -a
  • Modify nouns directly
  • Predicative (after the copula) use the bare form without -a

Example:
devidosha man – a farsighted man
Hi a devidosh. – He is farsighted.

This clear separation ensures that every Vunakish word is instantly identifiable by sight.

Sentence Structure: Familiar but Cleaner

Vunakish uses strict SVO word order, just like English, but with fewer exceptions.

Active:
Di hund bito di boy.
The dog bit the boy.

Passive:
Di boy bitoa by an hund.
The boy was bitten by a dog.

Modifiers slide into predictable positions:
Subject → Verb → Adverb → Adjective → Object

Relative clauses use dat and always follow the noun:

Di man dat kibo.
The man who ran.

This early structure keeps sentences easy to parse even for beginners.

Tense and Aspect: Elegant Miniature Particles

Vunakish keeps tense simple, regular, and uniform across all verbs.

Tense Suffixes

  • -o = past
  • -e = present
  • -u = future

Ongoing Aspect

Add -z to any tense vowel:

  • -oz (past continuous)
  • -ez (present continuous)
  • -uz (future continuous)

No exceptions. No irregular verbs. Ever.

And Vunakish offers something rare: the ability to use the tense vowel as a free-standing mini-copula before verbs or nouns.

Examples:
Shi u kib. – She will run.
Mi o an doktor. – I was a doctor.
Di dom e nivan. – The house is inside.

This dual system makes sentences extremely flexible without becoming ambiguous.

Stative Copulas: Express Qualities with Precision

Vunakish treats qualities, states, and conditions differently from simple existence.

For qualities, Vunakish uses specialized stative particles:

a – is (in a state / possessing a quality)
az – is being / is remaining
oa – was (in a state)
oaz – was consistently
ua – will be (in a state)
uaz – will continually be

These create expressive, nuance-rich statements:

Hi a devidosh. – He is farsighted.
Shi az seresh. – She is being beautiful (right now).
Mi ua gromesh. – I will be strong.

The stative system prevents ambiguity between “is” used for identity, location, and description.

Verb Chaining: The Engine of Vunakish Syntax

Whenever a verb acts upon another verb (want to run, try to sleep, begin to eat), only the first verb carries tense. All following verbs appear in a non-finite form:

  • -en (infinitive)
  • -ez (ongoing non-finite)

Examples:
Mi chav kamen. – I want to eat.
Shi e golez joden. – She is going to drive.
Hi wijodu mangdan. – He will try to drive tomorrow.

A hard rule:
Only the first verb in a chain may be marked for tense or aspect.

This avoids the ambiguity common in natural languages.

Causation: A Core Feature Made Simple

All intransitive verbs become transitive with ka-.

dormen – to sleep
kadormen – to cause sleep / to put to sleep

Examples:
Shi rako hi kadormen.
She rocked him (causing) sleep.

If the speaker wants a more explicit construction, they can use the standalone verb kaso (“cause”).

Intentionality: A Single-Vowel Window into Human Agency

One of the most elegant features of Vunakish is its intentionality system, built from five W-prefixes:

We- intentional
Wu- obligatory
Wi- attempted
Wa- accidental
Wo- unable to

These attach directly to the verb and instantly clarify why the action occurred.

Examples:
Hi wekibio. – He ran intentionally.
Hi wafelo. – He fell accidentally.
Shi wujodu mangdan. – She will drive tomorrow (must / obligation).

This adds expressive richness without adding irregularity.

Evidentiality: Marking the Source of Knowledge

One of the most distinctive features of Vunakish is its evidentiality system—the way speakers mark why they believe a statement is true. Many natural languages do this, but Vunakish raises the ceiling by offering a full, regular, and intuitive set of markers that map cleanly onto the personal pronoun system.

Whenever a speaker makes a declarative claim, they may—optionally but naturally—clarify the source of the information. This helps remove ambiguity: you’re not just saying what happened, but how you know.

The Evidential Markers mirror the pronouns which all end with i, like Mi, Vi, Hi, etc.

Mo – I say / I said
Vo – you said
Ho – he said
Sho – she said
Zo – they said (human/animal, gender unspecific)
Go – it said / it indicates
To – this said
Cho – that said
Toni – these said
Choni – those said
Zoni – they said (plural animate)
Goni – things indicated / the evidence suggests
Woni – we said

This symmetry makes the system instantly learnable. If you know the pronouns, you know the evidentials.

How Evidentials Work

Evidentials don’t specify who was told the information; they only indicate the source. The recipient can be clarified afterward:

Hu kibo vo.
You told me he ran.

Hi kibo vo shi.
You told her he ran.

Hi kibo mo vi.
I told you he ran.

Markers like goni allow elegant statements where the “speaker” is not a person but evidence itself:

Daukuz goni.
It will be bad, the things imply (forecasts, clouds, signs).

Changing When the Saying Occurs

By changing the tense particle or adding -z, Vunakish can indicate when something was said or will be said:

Hi e legendara zuni.
He is legendary, they will say.

Shi oz dauk hez.
She was bad, he is saying.

The flexibility is deliberate: evidentials allow storytelling, recounting, rumor, inference, and even prophecy with precision and without clutter.

Word Generation: How New Words Are Formed (Early System)

Although the full lexicon of Vunakish will grow over time, the word-generation system already defines how new words behave, combine, and evolve. These rules make the language scalable, consistent, and globally recognizable.

Do note that many of the grammatical examples used elsewhere may use word suffixes that are not in accordance with this early word generation system. The system was the latest thing to be designed and is still in development.

The system has three guiding principles:

Roots follow strict structural rules

  • Noun roots end in consonants.
  • Verb roots end in -en.
  • Adjective roots end in -a.

Suffixes carry predictable semantic weight

Vunakish includes a large family of derivational suffixes—agent markers (-ist, -ot, -aut), collectives (-um), augmentatives (-ag), diminutives (-ik), tool markers (-ev), lack/abundance markers (-aum / -aim), result markers (-ank, -amp), and many others.

Each suffix creates a new, unambiguous word type, allowing the lexicon to expand modularly.

Examples:
hund → hundik (small dog) → hundag (big dog)
manjen → manjez (eating) → manjezank (an act/event of eating)

Prefixes refine meaning rather than redefine roots

Some mark evaluation (Rai-, Fau-), others mark time or relation (Kar-, Kark-, Karch-), and others modify action (Ka- for causation, Tum- for becoming). Their behavior is consistent and never irregular.

Examples:
dormen (to sleep) → kadorm (to cause sleep)
faurosk (bad request)
raimanjen (good food)

Scientific and Technical Words

A specialized set of scientific suffixes (-skop, -osij, -oid, -itij, etc.) allows natural integration of international terminology while still obeying Vunakish phonotactics.

Loanword Adaptation

Loaned roots must obey the rules with no exceptions:

  • no final vowels
  • no prohibited diphthongs
  • no letter q or y
  • consonant closure required
  • double consonants avoided unless allowed by the phonotactic system

This prevents future drift and keeps the language globally pronounceable.

A System Still Under Development

The word-generation system is robust enough to support thousands of new words, but it remains open to refinement as the lexicon grows. As new patterns emerge from real usage, the system may tighten or expand- but its foundational predictability will remain.

Forming Questions: Simple, Flexible, Predictable

Yes/no questions use Keo:

Keo shi kibe?
Will she run?

To question a specific word, place ko immediately after it:

Shi ko rako di babim kadormen?
SHE(?) rocked the baby to sleep?

Question words like Kauno (who), Kecho (what), Kojo (where) behave exactly as in English, appearing at the beginning or end of the sentence:

Kauno zo? – Who was it?
Be gold kosko? – How much gold is there?

Negation: Always Clean, Always Logical

Negation is built from a single particle: No.

It always appears before the verb it negates and covers the entire following verb phrase.

Shi no jodu. – She will not drive.
Shi e no golez joden. – She is not going to drive.

Double negatives produce logical reversal, not emphasis.

Mi no zawo noding.
Incorrect → “I didn’t say nothing” = I said something.

Mi no zawo lubding.
Correct → “I didn’t say anything.”

Comparison: Two Particles, Zero Exceptions

Comparatives use:

gai – more
lau – less

Superlatives use:

Di gaid X – the most X
Di laud X – the least X

Examples:
Ki woman e gai sera. – This woman is more beautiful.
Di gaid sera woman. – The most beautiful woman.

Contractions: Efficient, Predictable, and Ambiguous Only by Position

Contractions in Vunakish look similar to evidential markers, but context and position tell you exactly what they are. Instead of adding ambiguity, contractions make sentences lighter and more natural without sacrificing clarity.

Pronoun + Copula Contractions

When a pronoun meets a copula particle, they may merge:

Mi u kib (or Mi kibu) → Mu kib
I will run.

Here mu does not mean “I will say” (which would also appear as Mu in the evidential position). Because it appears in the copula slot before a verb, it is interpreted only as Mi + u.

This system extends even to stative copulas:

Shi u a ser → Shua ser
She will be beautiful.

These compressed forms keep everyday speech smooth while maintaining full transparency for learners.

Here/There Contractions

The words for “here” and “there” behave like pronouns and contract with copulas too:

Ji (here) → Je (here is), Jo (here was), Ju (here will be)
Bi (there) → Be (there is), Bo (there was), Bu (there will be)

This creates a uniquely compact way to express existence and location:

Be dom.
There is a house.

Ju seresh.
Here will be beauty / The place will become beautiful.

These contractions give Vunakish a natural rhythm without adding irregularity.

What Makes This Early Grammar Special

Across world languages, simplicity tends to sacrifice expressiveness, and expressiveness tends to sacrifice learnability. Vunakish attempts to escape this trade-off.

Its early grammar is built around:

  • consistent patterns
  • clean morphology
  • unambiguous endings
  • a universal copula system
  • built-in intentionality
  • rigorously separated word classes
  • predictable and intuitive syntax

Every one of these features exists to make Vunakish feel instantly usable while still capable of nuance usually reserved for natural languages.

This is the foundation on which the rest of the language will grow.