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 transitivity and action type. 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. Nouns are also divided into syntax-relevent classes.
This person terminology is used for both verb inflection and personal pronouns.
For the M 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, and case. Non-referential nouns (as well as mass nouns) don't distinguish number.
Noun stems are grouped according to their endings: there are stems ending in consonants and stems ending in vowels.
Suffixes | Tag | Name | |
---|---|---|---|
V-Stems | C-Stems | ||
-0 | -0 | Singular Stem | |
-z | -a | -P | Plural Stem |
-na | -na | -NR | Non-Referential Stem |
The case endings are appended to the singular, plural, or non-referential noun stem. Each noun is either animate or inanimate. Inanimate nouns don't normally take the vocative cases endings.
Suffixes | Tag | Name | Group | |
---|---|---|---|---|
V-Stems | C-Stems | |||
-0 | -0 | Absolutive | Core | |
-y | -i | -Voc | Vocative | Oblique |
-t | -t (-o) | -Gen | Genitive | Adnominal |
lentízat | pármazi |
---|---|
lentíz-a-t | parma-z-i |
?-P-Gen | ?-P-Voc |
"?" | "?" |
Pronouns lack non-referential forms. The following table shows which of the other inflections appear for the various groups of pronouns and also whether there's a corresponding determiner:
Pronoun | Determiner | Plural | Absolutive | Vocative |
---|---|---|---|---|
Local | - | yes | yes | - |
Anaphoric | - | yes | yes | - |
"the same" | yes | yes | yes | - |
Demonstrative | yes | yes | yes | yes |
Satisfactive | yes | - | yes | - |
Content Question | ||||
Indefinite Relative | - | - | yes | - |
Correlative | ||||
Reflexive | ||||
Relative | yes | - | - | - |
Indefinite | yes | - | - | - |
The following table shows the local, reflexive, and relative pronoun roots, along with their genitive forms. The local pronouns take the plural suffix -z and the genitive suffix -o.
Root | Genitive | Tag | Description | Group |
---|---|---|---|---|
pí | pú | K | K person | Local |
nó | nóó | L | L person | |
tlé | tláw | M | M person | |
sé | sáw | Rfx | Reflexive (3rd person) | Other |
zí | zú | Cor | Correlative (3rd person) |
The demonstrative pronouns each have animate and inanimate stems, as do "the same" and the anaphoric pronouns. All these take noun-type plural and genitive suffixes.
Animate | Inanimate | Description | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
má | 3A | kó | 3I | Anaphoric |
tima | ProxA | tiko | ProxI | Proximal Demonstrative |
zoma | MediA | zoko | MediI | Medial Demonstrative |
lama | DistA | lako | DistI | Distal Demonstrative |
?ma | ?A | ?ko | ?I | "the same" |
The following pronouns have stems for definition and identity.
Identity | Definition | Description | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
cák | QId | "who" | cár | QDef | "what" | Content Question |
'ák | UId | "whoever" | 'ár | UDef | "whatever" | Indefinite |
- | ?r | SatDef | "enough" | Satisfactive |
Verbs are inflected for polarity, temporal marking (such as aspect or tense), inversion, transitivity, proximate person and number, and obviative person and number.
Verb stems are also grouped according to their endings: there are stems ending in consonants and stems ending in vowels, although this affects the suffixes less. ???
Negative polarity may be marked using the suffix -ál -Neg while positive polarity is unmarked. The polarity marker is the 1st suffix following the verb stem (after any derivational suffixes).
The temporal suffixes follow the polarity suffix, if any, According to the type of temporal marker, there are 7 sets of conjugated stems: final, imperative, coordinate, subordinate, infinitive, secondary, and participial. The temporal suffixes are shown in the following table.
Suffixes | Tag | Name | Type | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Static | Dynamic | |||
-'a | -Pst | Past | Final | |
-yo | -Prs | Present | ||
-ís | -Fut | Future | ||
-? | -Ctf | Contrafactual | ||
-0 | Imperative | Imperative | ||
-? | -Seq | Sequential Conjunction | Coordinate | |
-? | -Sim | Simultaneous Conjunction | ||
-? | -Dis | Disjunction | ||
-0 | -so | -Prf | Perfect | Subordinate & Infinitive |
-í | -Prg | Progressive | ||
-le | -Pro | Prospective | ||
-á | -0 | -Aor | Aoristic | |
-0 | -Prf | Perfect | Secondary & Participial | |
-í | -Prg | Progressive | ||
-le | -Pro | Prospective |
In general, these endings mark the person and number of the proximate argument, as well as the inversion. Along with the temporal suffixes, they determine the verb's function.
Infinitive forms have no personal ending.
Secondary forms have no personal ending.
Imperative forms have the following endings:
Suffix | Tag | Person | Number |
---|---|---|---|
-y | -2S | 2nd | Singular |
-a | -MD | M | Dual |
-toy | -2P | 2nd | Plural |
-toa | -MP | M |
Non-local finite and participial forms have the following endings:
Suffix | Tag | Inversion | Type |
---|---|---|---|
-w | -RelDir | Direct | Participial |
-mo | -RelInv | Inverse | |
-z | -3Dir | Direct | Finite |
-mez | -3Inv | Inverse |
Unilocal participial forms, Unilocal finite forms, and Bilocal finite forms are made up of an inversion and number part and a person part.
K person | L person | M person | Tag | Inversion | Number |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
-k | -n | -r | -SDir | Direct | Singular |
-mek | -men | -mer | -SInv | Inverse | |
-tok | -ton | -tor | -PDir | Direct | Plural |
-hak | -han | -har | -PInv | Inverse |
Class 1 is basically transitive, but can be made intransitive. Classes 2 and 3 are basically intransitive, but can be made transitive. Class 4 verbs can only be intransitive and don't take any prefixes. Class 5 verbs are impersonal. All but the Intr- prefixes make the verb transitive, if it isn't already. The prefixes are shown in the following table:
Class 1 | Classes 2 & 3 | Tag | Description |
---|---|---|---|
ki- | 0- | Intr- | Intransitive |
0- | mi- | Tran- | Transitive |
'ó- | LS- | L person singular | |
zó- | LP- | L person plural | |
s(e)- | Rfx- | Reflexive | |
wá- | Par- | Participial |
The L person prefixes can be used only with K person suffixes.
zóhookyotok | kihookalísmen |
---|---|
zó-hook-yo-tok | ki-hook-ál-ís-men |
LP-?-Prs-KPDir | Intr-?-Neg-Fut-LSInv |
"?" | "?" |
The special verbs include the copula, the existential verb, and their suppletive negatives. They take temporal suffixes. The existential verbs are always intransitive. The copulas are transitive but can't take inverse endings or the intransitive prefix.
Root | Tag | Description |
---|---|---|
zoy | Exi | existential, positive/affirmative |
xay | ExiNeg | existential, negative |
xi | Cop | copula, positive |
pa | CopNeg | copula, negative |
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.Jul.12 Tue
current date: 2016.Jul.13 Wed
content and form originated by qiihoskeh
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