Editing D'ni grammar (section)

== Word order ==

D'ni is a SVO language, i.e. the subject comes first, the verb follows, then comes the object. The article and the negation precede the noun, adjectives usually follow the noun, and adverbs follow the word they modify<ref>{{cite web|url=http://linguists.bahro.com/domahreh/grammar/chapter2/wordorder.html|title=Word Order|website=A First Survey of the Facts for Writing D'ni|access-date=September 6, 2020|archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20050506165853/http://linguists.bahro.com/domahreh/grammar/chapter2/wordorder.html|archive-date=May 6, 2005}}</ref>.


: <span style="font-size:120%">articles – nouns – adjectives – verbs/adj. phrases – objects – adverbs</span>


Modifiers almost never come between the verb and its object. The indirect object almost always precedes the direct object; however, if the indirect obj. is modified by an adjective or adjectival phrase, it's the direct object that comes first. Adverbs can be placed at the beginning of a sentence to modify it entirely, e.g. {{dni-text|khahpo}} "perhaps". Modifying phrases can occur anywhere, but always close to the word they modify. Appositive phrases or vocatives that modify an implied subject appear near to where the implied subject would have been. Dependent clauses precede or follow but never split up the complete independent clause.

Here are a few examples of relatively complex sentences from the Aitrus' Map:

: {{dni-text|loymaht||re-|mishtah|-tahv||robot||tso||re-|bishtah||ril||mahrent|-en||re-|say|-tee||kahg}}
: "Though the actual construction of the tunnel doesn't follow the original designs,"
: {{dni-text|re-|lenah||gahth||shento|-en||blo||yahr|-tee||sen||f'-|toogo}}
: "the journey still takes about three days on foot." (''"[[Reference:Aitrus's Map (D'ni)#Timepiece|D'ni Timepiece]]" text in Aitrus's Map'')

: {{dni-text|.|re-|tiwah}} ... {{dni-text|ko-|mes|-en||re-|doyhah|-tee||prad|teeg|-ahl||tor||gahro||b'-|fahsee}}
: "The Shaft ... required the four greatest rock-working machines"
: {{dni-text|t'-|biv||tre-|gahn||d'nee||gah|vailee|-tee||tren||b'-|choylahnay}}
: "in all of the D'ni Empire and a few months to complete." (''"[[Reference:Aitrus's Map (D'ni)#Shaft|Shaft]]" text on Aitrus's Map'')