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The words in each major part of speech have distinctive patterns of vowels (V) and consonants (C), making it possible to determine the part of speech of a word just by looking at it.
The part of speech of a word determines where it may be placed in a sentence; see Syntax for details.
If a part of speech is derived from a root (R), it has the approximate basic shape of C[V(V)C]V(V)C(C). Any part of speech that can be derived from multiple roots is an open part of speech, meaning speakers can define new words simply by combining roots in novel ways. All other parts of speech are considered closed and cannot be changed by speakers.
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