Meruk

Meruk, derived from Proto-Martuk martuk meaning language, was a semi-agglutinative, ergative-accusative language of the Irmartuk language family, descended from Proto-Martuk and thus a close relative of Martuk. It was the language of the Ermifi Empire, which had a lasting legacy on the Ateter Kingdom and other nation-states of Hieret.

Nounal Morphology
Nouns in Meruk declined for five cases (ergative, accusative, genitive, dative and locative, with the locative being employed as a general case denoting motion), two numbers (singular and plural) and two genders (animate and inanimate, with the former being unmarked and the latter being denoted through the addition of the suffix -wi to the preceding case endings). It differed from Proto-Martuk in that it nouns did not take more than one case. Definiteness and partitiveness (the latter also being used to emphasise indefiniteness) were conveyed through the addition of suffixes, with each noun having an unmarked indefinite form. In addition to the different inflexions, there were two classes of verbs, denoted by their different ergative endings (-i and -ur).

Clitics
There were a number of clitics in Meruk, generally used in place of conjuctions or to provide additional information when a locative case is used. Clitics were attached to the base noun they described and, unlike in Proto-Martuk, not to the agreeing noun. Remnants of clitic agreement were still, however, present in the constructions both and neither.

Morpheme Chain
Due to the large number of inflections in Meruk, their positions in relation to one another were strictly ordered by a morpheme chain, which was as follows:

1. locative clitic; 2. conjunctive clitic; 3. root; 4. plural marker; 5. case; 6. gender marker (or dimunitive marker) 7. definitiveness

An example of this morpheme chain would be tu-ni-bûr-s-uk-wi-ni-ru X, meaning and from both of the houses of X.

Verbal Morphology
Verbs in Proto-Martuk conjugated for six moods (indicative, emphatic indicative, subjunctive, imperative, conditional and dubitative), four tenses (aorist, imperfect past, present and future), two numbers (singular and plural), three persons (first-person, second-person, third-person) and two genders (animate and inanimate).

Adjectival and Adverbal Morphology
Adjectives and adverbs in Proto-Martuk did not take separate endings from the nouns and verbs which they modified, and were only distinguished through the addition of an adjectival/adverbal prefix si- or not at all if the adverb/adjective in question had a unique root.

Examples
Ertaptir pẽnub tubum lamalam tanimẽnlili tasemlili, nitubsûr Bešmifuti pẽnapamu > The great king led his army to the crossing and to the border, and they fought the Bešmifuti/Bešmifir.