Morphosyntax

Declension of number 'one' or emphasised indefinite declension is like the indefinite pronoun plus 'ei-' prefix (with ancient i-umlaut in the forms that once contained 'i', thus 'ä-'). Final -e is dropped with this prefix:

'one' and the indefinite article exist in plural, too, and mean 'some'. 'one(pl) word' = 'some words' (like in Spanish).

Declension of 'no' is like the indefinite pronoun plus 'k-' prefix.

The relative clause structure is very similar to that of Mandarin Chinese. Historical linguists think that it has developped from structures like 'Ich seh dem Mann seinen Hund' by obviously reinterpreting this as a special kind of Chinese relative clause. The relative particle is 'se' (cognate to German 'sein', Low German 'suin', Dutch 'zijn/z'n'). The relative particle is really a relative article, as it inflect for number and case. Before vowels, and in colloquial speech even more often, it is reduced to 's'. (No apostrophe is writen to indicate dropped 'e'.)

Single NPs in front of 'se' take dative case.

I see the man's dog. = Ich sä da Man se Chui.

The man I see is tall. = De ich sä se Man is lang.

You can drop the article in front of a 'se' construction. You lose number, case, and definedness information by this, but it can usually be inferred from context anyway

(The) man I see is tall. = Ich sä se Man is lang.

In relative clauses, the relative article contains number and case information, so when used with a preposition, that preposition put in front of the relative clause, and the relative article is in the corresponding case and number normally used with that preposition.

Note that preposition + article always fuses if the combination exists, in this case, when the relative clause starts with an article.

I start with the/a dog's man. = Ich los mita Chui se Man.

I start without the dog's man. = Ich los sona da Chui se Man.

Here, 'sona' uses NOM and 'sona' + 'da' cannot fuse, since 'da' is DAT.

Even with the presence of a relative clause, an article can be used (it is optional). It precedes the whole relative clause.

'I start with THE man who is of the dog'. = Ich los mita da Chui se Man.

'I start with A man who is of the dog'. = Ich los mina da Chui se Man.

Same particles will act like the verb in the sentence. The other verbs in the verb phrase will be moved to the end of the clause. After that moved verb phrase, only the truth and speech act complements follow. Such verbs are called 'auxiliaries'.

If several auxiliaries stack up at the end of the sentense, their order is like in Dutch, i.e. 'He could come.' = 'De hat kan lei' instead of German order *'De hat lei kan.'

Sentences are usually underspecified for time, only a few verbs always indicate tense (e.g. 'is'). To express the tense explicitly, an auxiliary is used.

Additional to these markers, the word order may change.

Note that in imperatives, the subject is not dropped -- therefore, it is possible to use non-2rd person subjects.

The word order in subordinate clauses is considered the basic word order in Da Mätz se Basa by grammarians. It is also called V-last order, because the verb is (almost) last. This subsection will introduce the word order thoroughly with a lot of examples all in subordinate order.

Yes-no questions are indicated by a modified word order that we'll call question order, or V1 order, because the head verb is clause initial. Starting with the subordinate word order, the head verb moves to the very beginning of the clause.

Question order is used for several purposes in Da Mätz se Basa, of course, the most obvious purpose being a question. A yes-no question. To get a full-fledged yes-no question, however, the clause is modified further: a speech act complement 'he' is appended to indicate a question. It appears clause finally in the top-level clause only. This addition only occurs in questions.

Some conjunctions trigger question order, too. Most take subordinate order, though, but some may require question word order. This is lexicalised for each conjunction. One of the conjunctions that triggers question order is 'säo'.

Topicalised order, or V2 order, is derived from question order. It is used in propositional sentences, after some conjunctions, and in relative clauses (in a special form). A sentence in question order is converted into topicalised order by moving one of the constituents into clause initial position. The verb is then in second position, hence the name 'V2 order'.

Some constituents cannot be be topicalised directly: the head verb, the direct object, the negation, the truth complement, the speech act complement. The head verb cannot be topicalised, because it is in front in question order and must be in second position in topicalised order, and the object cannot be topicalised because there is no marking on the direct object, so subject and object are purely distinguished by word order. Fronting would make sentences ambiguous.

As has been said before, relative clauses are prefixed, use topicalised (V2) word order, and the particle 'se' (which is inflected for case and number) connects them to the modified noun phrase (in an appropriate case).

The word order in relative clauses is a bit modified, however, since one of the constituents, the modified one, is outside the subordinate clause. The basic order is a subject-topicalised clause, in which the modified constituent is missing.

Quite like in German (this will be elaborated later).

If a coordination is modified by 'se', the 'se' is duplicated: 'Kota on Turm' = 'village and tower', 'da Man se Kota on se Turm' = 'the man's village and ('s) tower'

If the 'se' has fused with a pronoun, the second instance becomes 'se' again: 'dänir Kota on se Turm' = 'their village and ('s) tower'

Sentences with interrogative words like 'wat' = 'what' will either use topicalised word order where the question word is topicalised, or use normal order, especially when the question word is the object of a phrase. Questions with question words are still marked with the 'he' complement.

'Wat is dat he?' = 'What is that?'

'Je is Wat he?' = 'What are you?'