Martuk

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

Nounal Morphology
Nouns in Proto-Martuk declined for five cases (nominative, accusative, genitive, dative and locative) and two numbers (singular and plural). It lost the gender system and the suffix absorption system of Proto-Martuk. 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 three classes of verbs, denoted by their different nominative endings (-i and -uk).

Clitics
There were a number of clitics in Martuk, generally used in place of conjuctions or to provide additional information when a locative case is used (for example tu-ROOT-id described motion away from something, paš-ROOT-id described motion towards something and ROOT-id simply denoted that something was located at a place). Martuk had lost the clitic agreement that existed in Proto-Martuk, with the only vestige of this agreement existing in the plural forms of and and nor, forming both and neither.

Morpheme Chain
Due to the large number of inflections in Proto-Martuk, 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; 6. main case; 8. dimunitive marker; 11. definitiveness

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

Verbal Morphology
Verbs in Martuk conjugated for five moods (indicative, subjunctive, imperative, conditional and dubitative), three tenses (past, present and future), two numbers (singular and plural) and three persons (first-person, second-person, third-person).

Adjectival and Adverbal Morphology
Adjectives and adverbs in 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
''Irhraptir penur tubun laǧelem pašnimenidi pašsemidi, nitufuk Bešmētar penepemu. ''> The great king lead his army to the crossing and to the border, and they fought the Bešmifuti/Bešmifir.