The 3 types of morphemes are initials, medials, and finals or roots; they always appear in that order.
The syntactical functions apply to both content and function words:
| Init. | Tag | Description |
|---|---|---|
| e | Vrb | verb (i.e. head of a clause) |
| a | Nom | noun (i.e. head of a phrase; role depends on case) |
| u | Erg | agent, donor, perceiver, or instrument noun |
| i | Sec | adverb, adjunct, or secondary predicate |
| o | Att | modifier |
This section lists all medials, not necessarily in order.
The dynamic relational medials are fe, ya, and ku. They may also be applied to relational roots. The static relational medials are re, do, and ta. The absolutive applies only to a-initial words.
| Medial | Tag | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | Abs | Absolutive | subject, patient, theme, or identity complement |
| di | Dat | Dative | indirect object |
| do | Gen | Genitive | possessor etc. |
| ta | Par | Partitive | whole (of which part is selected) |
| re | Loc | Locative | location (at), accompaniment (with) |
| fe | All | Allative | destination (to) |
| ya | Abl | Ablative | origin or source (from) |
| ku | Per | Perlative | route (via) |
Some of these (*) are the same as the relative tense medials.
| Medial | Tag | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 * | Dur | Durative | host action occurs during adjunct situation |
| ma | Aor | Aoristic | adjunct action occurs during host situation |
| te * | Ret | Retrospective | host action occurs after adjunct action |
| go * | Pro | Prospective | host action occurs before adjunct action |
| po | ? | ? | cause or reason? |
| si | ? | ? | purpose |
| ? | ? | ? | means |
| ? | ? | ? | circumstances |
| ? | And | Conjunctive | and (all must be true) |
| ? | Ior | Disjunctive | ior (at least one must be true) |
| ? | Exc | Exclusive | exactly one must be true |
| ze | Cpl | Complementizer | marks complement clauses (a only) |
| ze | Rel | Relativizer | marks relative clauses (o only) |
These apply only to a, u, and maybe i initials.
| Medial | Tag | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | Def | Definite | definite |
| ni | Ind | Indefinite | non-specific indefinite |
| ci | Spc | Specific | specific indefinite |
| qa | CQ | Interrogative | content question |
| Medial | Tag | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | S | Singular | singular |
| na | Coll | Collective | collective plural |
| ke | Dstr | Distributive | distributive plural |
| Medial | Tag | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | Positive | positive | |
| fu | Neg | Negative | negative |
| gi | Aff | Affirmative | emphatic or contrasting positive |
The polar question particle qo (PQ) appears as the first medial of the first word in the sentence.
These are used mainly on verbs; the imperative is used only on verbs.
| Medial | Tag | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | ? | ? | relative present |
| te | Ret | Retrospective | relative indefinite past |
| go | Pro | Prospective | relative indefinite future |
| mi | Prs | Present | absolute present (used only when necessary) |
| va | Pst | Past | absolute definite past |
| xo | Fut | Future | absolute definite future |
| cu | Imp | Imperative | imperative mood |
These are used on participles, which appear as modifiers or nouns.
| Medial | Tag | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | ? | subject, patient, theme | |
| pi | Agt | Agentive | agent, donor, perceiver |
| su | Rcp | Receptive | recipient |
| Medial | Tag | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| je | Man | Manner | adverbs of manner |
| bu | Deg | Degree | adverbs of degree |
Pronouns are formed using the pronominal medials (which are actually final). The personal pronouns have non-derived collective plural forms while the distributive plurals are regular (like nouns). Some pronouns have related locational roots.
| Tag | Sing. | Coll. | Dstr. | Description | Locational |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | vi | be | kevi | 1st person (exclusive) | rvi |
| 2 | yu | jo | keyu | 2nd person | ryu |
| N | - | sa | kesa | 1st person inclusive plural | - |
| 3A | la | ha | kela | 3rd person animate | rra |
| 3I | lo | ho | kelo | 3rd person inanimate | |
| CQ | qa | ? | ? | content question | rqa |
The reflexive pronoun xe (Rfx) refers to the agent of the same clause. The coreferential pronoun nu (Cor) refers to either argument of the host or matrix clause.
These appear either before or after another root, with differing lexical results. They can also appear as modifiers, meaning "small" and "large".
page started: 2013.May.16 Thu
current date: 2013.May.19 Sun
content and form originated by qiihoskeh
Table of Contents