A morpheme-initial i or u will usually fuse with the final vowel of the preceding morpheme to form a diphthong or a long vowel. E.g. te-i- > tee-.
Final codas may regularly assimilate to initial onsets, e.g. -k + p- becomes -pp- (geminate).
| Univalent | Subject-Aspect-Voice/Gender-Polar-ROOT |
| Bivalent | Subject-Aspect-Voice/Gender-Polar-ROOT-Patient |
| Trivalent | Subject-Aspect-Voice/Gender-Polar-ROOT-Recipient-Theme |
Positive polarity is 0-marked. Negative polarity uses the prefix nae- (Neg) and affirmative polarity uses the prefix too- (Aff).
There are 5 classes of verbs:
| PA | univalent with animate subject |
| PI | univalent with inanimate subject |
| AA | bivalent with animate patient |
| AI | bivalent with inanimate patient |
| Tri | trivalent with animate recipient and inanimate theme |
Univalent verbs can be made bivalent by marking them as causative (adding an agent), while bivalent verbs can be made univalent by marking them as passive (removing the agent). The passive also makes trivalent verbs bivalent by removing the donor. The gender of the subject (if univalent or passive) or the patient (if bivalent or causative) can also be changed. These 2 operations are fused into 4 prefixes:
| Prefix | Tag | Description |
|---|---|---|
| n(u)- | APas- | passive, patient is animate |
| k(u)- | IPas- | passive, patient is inanimate |
| i- | ACau- | causative, patient is animate |
| s(u)- | ICau- | causative, patient is inanimate |
Voice/Gender is 0-marked iff neither feature is to be overridden.
| Prefix | Tag | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 0- | Sta. | stative (static) |
| 0- | Aor. | aoristic (dynamic) |
| ra- | Prg- | progressive (dynamic) |
| ce- | Ret- | retrospective |
| po- | Pro- | prospective |
The 3rd person forms are used for attributive participles as well for finite verbs. The coreferential is used for infinitives and secondary predicates.
| Prefix | Tag | Description |
|---|---|---|
| ki- | 1S- | 1st person singular |
| ma- | 1P- | 1st person plural |
| so- | 2- | 2nd person |
| sa- | Imp- | imperative (2nd person) |
| te- | 3- | 3rd person |
| e- | SS- | same subject |
| 0- | Cor. | coreferential |
The 0-marked 3rd person suffix is used for patient, recipient, and theme while unspecfied inanimate can't be used as a recipient and the others can't be used as themes.
| Suffix | Tag | Description |
|---|---|---|
| -ki | -1S | 1st person singular |
| -ma | -1P | 1st person plural |
| -so | -2 | 2nd person |
| -0 | .3 | 3rd person |
| -he | -Rfx | reflexive |
| -no | -UA | unspecified animate ("somebody") |
| -r(u) | -UI | unspecified inanimate ("something") |
Nouns are not inflected.
Personal pronouns have base forms and genitive forms, regularly formed.
| Base | Gen. | Tag | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| kii | kin | 1S | 1st person singular |
| maa | man | 1P | 1st person plural |
| soo | son | 2 | 2nd person |
| mee | men | 3A | 3rd person, animate, proximate |
| pee | pen | 3O | 3rd person, animate, obviative |
| taa | tan | 3I | 3rd person, inanimate |
| hee | hen | Rfx | reflexive |
| jaa | jan | RP | relative pronoun |
Combinations of determiners and dummy nouns are used for the additional pronouns, e.g. pakme "everyone". The demonstratives also distinguish number by inserting the proclitic quantity word ak (P) between the demonstrative and the dummy noun for the plural forms. E.g. kicta proximal singular inanimate and kicatta proximal plural inanimate.
Ordinal numbers are regularly derived from the corresponding cardinal numbers using the prefix pec- (Ord-).
Comparative and equative forms of adjectival verbs are regularly derived using the prefixes nok- (Cmp-) and turi- (Equ-), respectively.
Inchoative verbs (which are dynamic) are regularly derived from static verbs using the prefix ha- (Inc-). Example:
| cii sorashamokki? | |
|---|---|
| cii | so-ra-s-ha-mok-ki-0 |
| PQ | 2-Prg-ICau-Inc-hot-1S-3 |
| "Are you making it hot for me?" | |
Compounds are Head-Modifier.
page started: 2013.Dec.16 Mon
current date: 2013.Dec.19 Thu
content and form originated by qiihoskeh
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