Legend: Definitions, Terms, <Text>, [IPA], -Tags-, and "Glosses".
The word classes are verb, secondary, adjective, noun, quantity word, and particle. There are similar root classes. Particles and quantity words are uninflected while nouns are declined and everything else is conjugated.
Conjugation involves voice and gender, format, temporal inflection, and personal agreement.
There are 3 voices: direct-antipassive, inverse-passive, and reflexive. The direct-antipassive distinguishes the gender (animate or inanimate) of the subject or patient argument, so there are 4 distinct markers.
| Marker | Tag | Gender | Voice |
|---|---|---|---|
| î (û) | T | inanimate | direct-antipassive |
| â | R | animate | direct-antipassive |
| o | D | animate | inverse-passive |
| ê (au) | X | animate | reflexive |
There are 5 verb formats, a secondary format, and an adjective format, each of which may occur for a root or derived stem. Every format distinguishes voice and gender; the position of that marking partially determines the format. The format groups are as follows:
The following table summarizes the formats:
| # | Group | Suffix | Suffix Note | Temporal | Tag | Name |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | A | -si (-su) | 0 if verb root | (tense) | Ind | Indicative |
| 2 | A | - | - | aspectual | Sub | Subjunctive |
| 3 | B | -a | (tense) | Piv | Pivotal | |
| 4 | B | - | - | aspectual | Inf | Infinitive |
| 5 | B | -ô | 0 if verb root | - | Imp | Imperative |
| 6 | B | -î | 0 if secondary root | - | Sec | Secondary |
| 7 | A | -lo | 0 if adjective root | (tense) | Att | Attributive |
There are 2 groups of temporal inflections: aspectual and relative tense. Both are the final suffixes to the verb. The 1st table shows the relative tense suffixes:
| Static | Other | Telic | Tag | Tense |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| -q | -x | -Pst | Past | |
| -s | -Prs | Present | ||
| -s | -gʷ | -gʷ | -Fut | Future |
The 2nd table shows the aspectual suffixes:
| Suffix | Tag | Aspectual |
|---|---|---|
| -tâ | -Stat | Stative |
| -mô | -Inch | Inchoative |
| -bê | -Pros | Prospective |
The personal prefixes specify up to 2 arguments. They're shown in the following table:
| Prefix | Tag | Description |
|---|---|---|
| ni- | 1S- | 1st person singular |
| niz- | 2:1S- | 1st person singular : 2nd person |
| we- | 1P- | 1st person plural |
| wez- | 2:1P- | 1st person plural : 2nd person |
| ya- | Incl- | Inclusive person |
| go- | 2- | 2nd person |
| 3rd person or none |
The following table shows some forms of 3 example verbs:
| Group | # | Verb Root | Adj. Root | Sec. Root |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | 1 | mendâ | sôbâsi | goθâsi |
| 7 | mendâlo | sôbâ | goθâlo | |
| B | 5 | menâd | sovâbô | gogâθô |
| 6 | menâdî | sovâbî | gogâθ | |
| C | menden | sôben | gôθen |
The copula is irregular, using suppletion for the pivotal and infinitive stems and lacking the imperative and secondary stems. Also, voice and gender are not marked. The A group root is ho and the B group root is bi. The vowel is lengthened for the subjunctive and infinitive forms unless a personal prefix appears. The attributive (adjective) form appends the -lo suffix.
The possessive adjectives are forms of the defective adjective sp with personal prefixes, e.g. nisp- "my". No 3rd person forms exist; otherwise, the conjugation is regular.
Each noun is either animate or inanimate. Nouns are inflected for number and case. The numbers are singular and plural (P). The cases are the O-case, the S-case (Top, topical), and the G-case (Gen, genitive). Inanimate nouns lack the S-case.
There are 5 declensions, based primarily on stem structure, and 2 or 3 stems per declension. The distribution of the stems depends on the declension. The following table shows the number and case forms for example animate nouns:
| Number | Case | Tag | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sing. | O-case | tel | gero | xʷanti | zûrap | qâden | |
| S-case | -Top | telki | geroki | xʷantiki | zurapki | qâdenki | |
| G-case | -Gen | têlos | gegoros | xʷanitos | zurapos | qâdenos | |
| Plur. | O-case | -P | tela | gegora | xʷantiz | zurpaz | qavedan |
| S-case | -PTop | telaki | gerozki | xʷantizki | zurpazki | qavedanki | |
| G-case | -PGen | têlar | gegorar | xʷanitar | zurapar | qâdenar |
The generic nouns mâ (Ani, animate) and mî (Ina, inanimate) are regular 1st declension nouns (both with vowel alternation). They are used by themselves as 3rd person pronouns or combined with preceding determiners to form other pronouns, e.g. tîmâ "this" (animate). In the latter case, G-case vowel lengthening doesn't occur.
The adjective forms of the copula with personal prefixes combine with following animate generic noun forms to construct the personal pronouns, e.g. niholomâ "I", "me". The 2nd person forms may be singular or plural depending on the number of the referent while the 1st person singular forms are always singular and the others always plural. The genitive forms are replaced by the corresponding possessive adjectives.
The content question pronouns are kʷil "who(m)" (animate) and kʷem "what" (inanimate).
The relative pronouns sâ (RAni, animate) and sî (RIna, inanimate) are regular 1st declension nouns (both with vowel alternation).
There are also headless relative pronouns: sil (RHAni, animate) and sem (RHIna, inanimate).
A root of a given class may be converted to a stem of another class by suffixing, by infixing, and by 0-derivation (for verbs of definition).
An action noun refers to the event or other situation rather than a participant. Action nouns are regularly constructed from verbs, secondaries, and adjectives by appending -le -Act to the B group stems. The voice and gender marking specifies the role of the participant argument, if any.
The basic cardinal numbers are shown in the following table. The value "1" has a distinct form for each gender.
| Value | Word | Value | Word | Value | Word |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | xâ, xî | 10 | xiyoda | 100 | xîpqa |
| 2 | pô | 20 | povoda | 200 | pôpqa |
| 3 | sê | 30 | seyoda | 300 | sêpqa |
| 4 | saro | 40 | sarolda | 400 | saropqa |
| 5 | baŋo | 50 | baŋolda | 500 | baŋopqa |
| 6 | bina | 60 | binalda | 600 | binapqa |
| 7 | doqu | 70 | doqulda | 700 | doqupqa |
| 8 | raiki | 80 | raikilda | 800 | raikipqa |
| 9 | kʷixte | 90 | kʷixtelda | 900 | kʷixtepqa |
Compound numbers are constructed from highest value to lowest. When followed by a digit component, the final a of the tens's component is replaced by i. When followed by another component, the final a of the hundred's component is replaced by u. Example: binapqu-saroldi-pô "642".
For each cardinal number, the corresponding verb base is formed by appending m.
The ordinal numbers are nouns derived from the corresponding cardinal numbers.
page started: 2017.Aug.04 Fri
current date: 2017.Aug.07 Mon
content and form originated by qiihoskeh
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