Legend: Definitions, Terms, <Text>, [IPA], -Tags-, and "Glosses".
This person terminology is used for verb inflection, noun inflection, and pronouns.
The 1st person distinguishes singular from plural. The 2nd person and inclusive person don't distinguish number. Although phrases can distinguish singular from plural, 3rd person inflections don't distinguish number.
The major classes of words are the verbs, participles, nouns, pronouns, quantity words, and particles. The kinds of particles are post-clausal, adverbial, and determining. Many static verbs (and some quantity words) are also scalar, i.e. able to be used to denote scales of comparison.
Verbs are grouped into classes with respect to agreement and action type. The morphological action types are static, habitual, dynamic, and telic.
Participles are also constructed from verb stems, so action type is relevent here as well.
Nouns can be animate or inanimate, count or mass, and common or proper. Pronouns may also be animate or inanimate.
The following summarizes the inflectional structure:
| Subject%#- | VerbStem | -Mood | -Polarity | -Voice | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Subject%#- | VerbStem | -Aspect | -Polarity | -Voice | |
| Argument%#- | VerbStem | -Aspect | -Role | -Polarity | -Case |
| NounStem | -Polarity | -Case |
Verbs, participles, nouns, and pronouns can all inflect for polarity in some fashion. Positive polarity is unmarked while negative polarity (-Neg) is marked with suffixes, as follows:
| Stem Type | Suffix | Position |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | -ók | between stem and Number |
| Participle | -ók | between Role and Number |
| Verb | -pa | between Aspect and Voice |
| Imperative | -pa | between Mood and Voice |
Aspect is common to verbs and participles and is marked with the 1st inflectional suffix after the derivational stem. The imperative mood and the aoristic aspect are limited to verbs. The following table shows the how the suffixes appear for each action type. The starred (*) entries mark the citation form suffixes.
| Scalar | Static | Habitual | Dynamic | Telic | Tag | Name |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| -e * | -(e) * | -ú | -i * | -i | -Dur | Durative |
| -eso | -(e)so | -úso | -iso | -(a)so | -Prf | Perfect |
| -ele | -(e)le | -úle | -ile | -(a)le | -Pro | Prospective |
| -ú | -ú | -ú * | -ú | -ú | -Hab | Habitual |
| -a | -a | -a | -a | -a * | -Aor | Aoristic |
| -ó | -ó | -ó | -ó | -ó | -Imp | Imperative |
The grammatical voice verb endings are shown in the following table:
| Indicative | Imperative | Tag | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| -Dir | Direct transitive | ||
| -ku | - | -Inv | Inverse transitive |
| -n | -Ant | Antipassive | |
| -r | - | -Pas | Passive |
| -sh | -Rfx | Reflexive | |
The subject and object prefixes shown in the following table appear on verbs:
| Prefix | Tag | 1st Argument | 2nd Argument |
|---|---|---|---|
| nu- ? | BLS- | 2nd person | 1st person Singular |
| tu- ? | BLP- | 2nd person | 1st person Plural |
| ni- | 1S- | 1st person Singular | 3rd person (if transitive) |
| ti- | 1P- | 1st person Plural | |
| ta- | Incl- | Inclusive person | |
| go- | 2- | 2nd person | |
| 3rd person |
The argument prefixes shown in the following table may appear on participles:
| Prefix | Tag | Description |
|---|---|---|
| ni- | 1S- | 1st person Singular |
| ti- | 1P- | 1st person Plural |
| ta- | Incl- | Inclusive person |
| go- | 2- | 2nd person |
| shi- | Rfx- | Reflexive |
| 3rd person |
Participles are identified and distinguished by the role suffix, which follows the aspect suffix.
| Suffix | Tag | Description |
|---|---|---|
| -kh | -Don | donor or agent |
| -t | -Rcp | recipient or animate patient |
| -m | -Thm | theme or inanimate patient |
The case endings are the final suffixes appearing on nouns and participles.
| Suffix | Tag | Name |
|---|---|---|
| -e | -NF | Non-final Form |
| -o | -CF | Combining Form |
| -i | -Nom | Nominative |
| -u | -Pri | Primative |
| -á | -Gen | Genitive |
Pronouns may take the same case endings as nouns, although some forms are rare.
The following table shows the personal, correlative, and reflexive pronoun roots.
| Root | Tag | Description | Group |
|---|---|---|---|
| nikh- | 1S | 1st person Singular | Personal |
| tikh- | 1P | 1st person Plural | |
| takh- | Incl | Inclusive person | |
| gokh- | 2 | 2nd person | |
| shikh- | Rfx | Reflexive (3rd person) | Other |
| j- | Cor | Correlative |
All other pronouns are composites of determiner plus gender words.
| Root | Tag | Description |
|---|---|---|
| t- | Anim | animate |
| m- | Inan | inanimate |
The determiner roots which form pronouns are shown in the following table:
| Root | Tag | Description |
|---|---|---|
| di | Prox | proximal demonstrative |
| do | Medi | medial demonstrative |
| la | Dist | distal demonstrative |
| cha | CQ | content question |
| e | Ind | indefinite |
| hanto | other, rest |
The plural indicator -s(u) may appear immediately before the gender word.
The kind indicator -rá is an additional element which may appear immediately after the determiner root, e.g. dirast- "these kinds of beings".
The genitive forms of personal pronouns may also combine with the gender words (possibly with the kind and/or plural indicators) to form possessive pronouns.
| gotepapa |
|---|
| go-tep·i-a-pa |
| 2-run-Aor-Neg |
| "You didn't run" |
| -- |
|---|
| -- |
| "" |
The special verbs (Class 2) include the existential and contrafactual verbs. These are distinct from the copula (bú· Cop), which is a defective (?) habitual Class 5 verb.
| Root | Tag | Description |
|---|---|---|
| hú· | Exi | existential, positive |
| pá· | Neg | existential, negative |
| pen· | CtfPos | contrafactual, positive |
| shau· | CtfNeg | contrafactual, negative |
The quantity words include the cardinal numbers, the fractional numbers, the plural marker s(u) P, and a few other words.
The basic number words are the digits, multiples of ten, and multiples of one hundred. These are arranged from largest to smallest to form compound quantity words.
| Value | Stem | Value | Stem | Value | Stem | Value | Stem |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | hai | 10 | sete | 100 | rabi | 1st | miku |
| 2 | dai | 20 | daste | 200 | darbi | 2nd | dayun |
| 3 | wipa | 30 | wipaste | 300 | wiparbi | 3rd | wipan |
| 4 | shoki | 40 | shokiste | 400 | shokirbi | 4th | shokin |
| 5 | selo | 50 | seloste | 500 | selorbi | 5th | selon |
| 6 | dapa | 60 | dapaste | 600 | daparbi | 6th | dapan |
| 7 | nage | 70 | nageste | 700 | nagerbi | 7th | nagen |
| 8 | dashki | 80 | dashkiste | 800 | dashkirbi | 8th | dashkin |
| 9 | kuno | 90 | kunoste | 900 | kunorbi | 9th | kunon |
Examples: sete dai (12), dashkiste wipa (83), and shokirbi nageste (470).
Ordinal numbers are static verbs derived from the corresponding cardinal numbers. Only the last number word is modified. The digit values are shown in the table above. An -n -Ord is appended to tens or hundreds value when that word is last, e.g. dasten (20th).
A fractional number consists of a numerator followed by a denominator. The numerator is a cardinal number, omitted if 1. Denominators are regularly formed from the corresponding cardinal numbers by appending -a't- before the final o. Examples: bira'to (1/2), baho saka'to (3/4).
There are a few scalar quantity words; these are the only words with morphological comparatives, as shown in the following table:
| Word | Comparative | Gloss |
|---|---|---|
| fande | fandure | many |
| fasse | fassure | much |
| nende | nendure | few |
| nesse | nessure | little |
The means of derivation include incorporation, compounding, and suffixing.
Participles and verbs can incorporate nouns by prefixing the combining form of the noun to the verb; this preempts the participle's prefixed argument and one of the verb's arguments. The role of the incorporated noun complements that of the participle or the voice of the verb. E.g. warochobúkhi "fish-eater" (war-o + chob-ú-kh-i). Participles (without prefixes) are occasionally incorporated as well.
The combining form of a noun or participle may also be prefixed to another noun, forming a compound noun. A participle may not have an argument prefix here. The meaning of these tends to be idiomatic.
The autocausative suffix -k·a -Aut may be appended to static and scalar stems, e.g. mink·a and sishek·a. It denotes an entry to the state caused by the descriptee or experiencer and produces telic verbs with the same agreement class as the original verb.
The conative suffix -íd·i -Con may be appended to telic, dynamic, habitual, and some static roots. It denotes attempted action and produces dynamic verbs with the same agreement class as the original verb.
The natural possibility suffix -af·(e) -NP and the natural necessity suffix -okh·(e) -NN may be appended to verb roots, producing static verbs with the same agreement class as the original verb. Natural possibility denotes ability or potential and natural necessity denotes inevitability.
There are also participant nominals and action nominals, which are deverbal nouns derived by applying infixes to verb roots.
Superlatives are static verbs regularly derived from scalar verbs by appending the superlative suffix -ék·u -Sup to the root.
page started: 2016.Sep.16 Fri
current date: 2016.Sep.25 Sun
content and form originated by qiihoskeh
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