Legend: Definitions, Terms, <Text>, [IPA], -Tags-, and "Glosses".
Words are classified as verbs, quantity words, nouns, pronouns, and particles. Verbs are conjugated; nouns and pronouns are declined. The kinds of particles are post-final, adverbial, and determining. Verbs are grouped into classes with respect to voice morphology. Many verbs and some quantity words are scalar (i.e. able to be used to denote scales of comparison). Nouns can be animate or inanimate, count or mass, and common or proper, with possession being required or optional. Nouns are also divided into syntax-relevent classes.
This person terminology is used for verb inflection, noun inflection, and pronouns.
For the inclusive person, the unmarked form is dual (2 persons) with the plural referring to more than 2 persons. For all others, the unmarked form is singular (1 person) with the plural referring to more than 1 person.
Nouns are inflected for referentiality, number, case, and possibly person and number of the possessor. Non-referential nouns don't distinguish number. There are also 2 special noun forms: the non-final form and the combining form.
Noun stems are grouped according to their endings: there are stems ending in consonants, stems ending in u, and stems ending in other vowels. For many stems ending in u, the u is deletable, so they act mainly like C-Stems (i.e. consonant-final) rather than like V-Stems (i.e. vowel-final). There are also mixed u-Stems.
| Suffixes | Tag | Name | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| V-Stems | C-Stems | |||
| -sa | -a | -NF | Non-final | |
| -0 | -o | -Com | Combining | |
| -0 | -0 | .S | Singular Stem | |
| -r | -0 | .S.Abs | Absolutive Singular | |
| -sˇu | -n | -e | -P | Plural Stem |
| -tˇu | -tˇu | -NR | Non-Referential Stem | |
The case endings are appended to the singular, plural, or non-referential noun stem. Note that the absolutive case marker is null except in the singular. Each noun is either animate or inanimate. Inanimate nouns don't normally take the obviative and vocative cases endings. Since the phrase conjunctions are morphologically like cases, they're included here. There are 2 plural suffixes for V-Stem nouns; while some nouns take the 1st or 2nd exclusively, most have mixed plurals, as shown in the following table in the Plurals column.
| Suffix | Plurals | Tag | Name | Group |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| -(r) | -su | -Abs | Absolutive | Core |
| -i | -si | -Obv | Obviative | |
| -te | -ste or -nte | -Dat | Dative | Oblique |
| -va | -suva | -Abl | Ablative | |
| -mi | -mmi | -Ins | Instrumental | |
| -se | -sse | -Loc | Locative | |
| -go | -ngo | -Voc | Vocative | |
| -na | -nna | -Gen | Genitive | Adnominal |
| -yo | -nyo | -Agg | Aggregate (and) | Conjunctive |
| -vi | -suvi | -Alt | Alternate (or) |
Nouns may take prefixes specifying a possessor.
| Prefix | Tag | Description | Type |
|---|---|---|---|
| go- | 2S- | 2nd person | Local |
| gosu- | 2P- | 2nd person plural | |
| ba- | InclD- | Inclusive person dual | |
| basu- | InclP- | Inclusive person plural | |
| ni- | 1S- | 1st person | |
| nisu- | 1P- | 1st person plural | |
| ji- | Rfx- | Reflexive | 3rd person |
| gomishinte |
|---|
| go-mishi-n-te |
| 2S-cat-P-Dat |
| "to your cats" |
Pronouns have most of the same suffixes as nouns. However, they all lack non-referential and combining forms. The following table shows which of the other inflections appear for the various groups of pronouns.
| Pronoun | Non-Final | Plural | Core Cases | Vocative |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Personal | yes | yes | - | - |
| Reflexive | - | - | - | - |
| "the same" | yes | yes | yes | - |
| Anaphoric | - | yes | yes | - |
| Demonstrative | - | yes | yes | yes |
| Indefinite | ||||
| Relative | - | - | yes | - |
| Content Question | ||||
| Satisfactive |
The following table shows the personal, relative, and reflexive pronoun roots.
| Root | Tag | Description | Group |
|---|---|---|---|
| go | 2 | 2nd person | Personal |
| ba | Incl | Inclusive person | |
| ni | 1 | 1st person | |
| me | Rel | Relative (3rd person) | Other |
| ji | Rfx | Reflexive (3rd person) | |
| ko | 3A | 3rd person Animate | Anaphoric |
| sho | 3I | 3rd person Inanimate |
The demonstrative pronouns each have animate and inanimate stems, as do the indefinite pronoun and "the same".
| Animate | Inanimate | Description | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| dikˇu | ProxA | dishˇi | ProxI | Proximal Demonstrative |
| sokˇu | MediA | soshˇi | MediI | Medial Demonstrative |
| rakˇu | DistA | rashˇi | DistI | Distal Demonstrative |
| hekˇu | IndA | heshˇi | IndI | Indefinite |
| takˇu | IdA | tashˇi | IdI | "the same" |
The content question pronouns are used in questions of identity and definition. The satisfactive pronoun is used in satisfactive clauses.
| Identity | Definition | Description | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| chafu | CQId | "who" | char | CQDef | "what" | Content Question |
| - | dokkar | SatDef | "enough" | Satisfactive | ||
| - | her | IP | "whatever" | Indefinite | ||
Verbs are inflected for voice, temporal marking (such as aspect or tense), proximate and obviative person, and proximate and obviative number. Voice is marked by the 1st suffix after the verb stem, with the temporal marker being the ending. Person and number marking is accomplished using prefixes.
Verb stems are grouped according to their endings: there are stems ending in consonants, stems ending in u, stems ending in i, and stems ending in other vowels. For most stems ending in u, the u is deletable (indicated with a mid-dot), so they act mainly like C-Stems (i.e. consonant-final) rather than like V-Stems (i.e. vowel-final). The remainder act like I-Stems (i.e. i-final)
Voice is a fusion of valence and direction of action. The voice suffixes possible for a given verb depend on the verb's class, of which there are 4. Class 1 is basically transitive, but can be made intransitive (using voice suffixes). Classes 2 and 3 are basically intransitive, but can be made transitive. Class 4 verbs can only be intransitive and don't take any voice suffixes. Class 5 verbs are impersonal. The voice suffixes are shown in the following table.
| Class | Stem | Direct | Inverse | Antipassive | Passive | Reflexive |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | V-Stem | -0 | -hou | -ya | -hen | -sh·u |
| I-Stem | -ou | -en | ||||
| C-Stem | -ia | -ish·u | ||||
| 2 | V-Stem | -har | -hou | -0 | -hen | -sh·u |
| I-Stem | -ar | -ou | -en | |||
| C-Stem | -ish·u | |||||
| 3 | V-Stem | -har | -hou | -ya | -0 | -sh·u |
| I-Stem | -ar | -ou | ||||
| C-Stem | -ia | -ish·u |
According to the type of temporal marker, there are 4 sets of conjugated stems: final, coordinate, subordinate, and participial. The temporal suffixes are shown in the following table.
| Suffixes | Tag | Name | Type | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| C-Stems | V-Stems | |||
| -e | -ku | -DPst | Definite Past | Final |
| -kettu | -PstCtf | Contrafactual Past | ||
| -to | -IPst | Indefinite Past | ||
| -0 | -Prs | Present | ||
| -uttu | -ttu | -PrsCtf | Contrafactual Present | |
| -no | -Fut | Future | ||
| -ma | -Jus | Jussive | ||
| -o | -0 | -Imp | Imperative | |
| -tei | -Seq | Sequential Conjunction | Coordinate | |
| -kai | -Sim | Simultaneous Conjunction | ||
| -bon | -Dis | Disjunction | ||
| -bi | -Aor | Aoristic | Subordinate | |
| -de | -Prf | Perfect | ||
| -ri | -Prg | Progressive | ||
| -fa | -Pro | Prospective | ||
| -0 | -Inf | Infinitive | ||
| -a | -su | -Sta | Perfect | Participial |
| -i | -Dyn | Progressive | ||
For participles, note that y + i becomes i.
Most verbs have a limited set of negative forms, used only for prohibitives and negative participles.
| Suffixes | Tag | Name | Type | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| C-Stems | V-Stems | |||
| -ayo | - | -NegImp | Prohibitive | Final |
| -aya | -haya | -Sta | Perfect | Participial |
| -ai | -hai | -Dyn | Progressive | |
Unlike all other verb forms, the imperative and prohibitive lack both voice marking and person and number marking. The proximate argument is implicitly 2nd person with number not specified and the obviative argument is always null (antipassive).
These prefixes mark the person and number of the core (proximate and obviative) arguments. The proximate argument can be any person while the obviative argument (if the verb is transitive) is limited to 1st person (non-inclusive) and 3rd person. Bilocal prefixes can be used only on transitive non-participial stems. Intransitive participial stems can only be non-local. The proximate plural prefix always follows a person prefix; note that 3rd person number is never marked on the verb.
| Prefix | Tag | Proximate | Obviative | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| tuu- | 2S:1S- | 2nd person singular | 1st person singular | Bilocal |
| tuve- | 2P:1S- | 2nd person plural | ||
| tau- | 2S:1P- | 2nd person singular | 1st person plural | |
| tave- | 2P:1P- | 2nd person plural | ||
| go- | 2S- | 2nd person singular | 3rd person | Unilocal |
| gosu- | 2P- | 2nd person plural | ||
| ba- | InclD- | Inclusive person dual | ||
| basu- | InclP- | Inclusive person plural | ||
| ni- | 1S- | 1st person singular | ||
| nisu- | 1P- | 1st person plural | ||
| 0- | 3- | 3rd person | 3rd person | Non-local |
| nirokutayaku |
|---|
| ni-rokuta-ya-ku |
| 1S-drink-Ant-DPst |
| "I drank." |
The special verbs include the copula, the existential verb, and the negative existential. They take temporal endings but they're not inflected for voice, being intransitive. The existential verbs can take the person and number prefixes while the copula can't.
| Root | Tag | Description |
|---|---|---|
| yu | Exi | existential, positive/affirmative |
| pa | Neg | existential, negative |
| shu | Cop | copula (positive) |
The verb ruu "tell, say" uses the stem ri in the inverse voice and riv before other vowel-initial suffixes.
Some derivations, such as compounding and incorporation, are more syntactical than morphological.
The productive verb-to-verb derivations include the natural possibility modal, marked by the suffix -yosˇu (NP), the natural necessity modal, marked by the suffix -kashˇu (NN), and the conative, which is marked by the suffix -dor (Con). Conative verbs are dynamic while the others are static. Some verbs also have a dynamic autocausative derivation, marked by the suffix -okˇu (Aut); these will all be listed in the lexicon.
Certain verbs directly incorporate certain kinds of nouns. The construction where a transitive non-local verb is preceded by the combining form of a noun is productive and also has the effect of incorporation.
Superlative nouns are derived from scalar verbs by means of a suffix. Ordinal numbers are also nouns and are derived from the corresponding cardinal numbers. There are also participant nominals (deverbal nouns).
Idiomatic noun-noun compounds occur. The construction where a noun is preceded by the combining form of a noun is productive and has the effect of noun-noun compounding.
page started: 2016.Jun.12 Sun
current date: 2016.Jun.29 Wed
content and form originated by qiihoskeh
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