There are 5 series of personal pronouns: independent pronouns, proclitic subject pronouns, proclitic imperative subject pronouns, enclitic object pronouns, and enclitic inverse object pronouns. The distinctions made can include person, number, clusivity, and gender.
| Tag | Subject | Imperative | Object | Inverse | Free | Description | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1S | k(e)- | - | -ko | -k | -ke | koy | 1st person singular |
| 1P | nak(e)- | - | -nak | -nake | nakie | 1st person plural | |
| NP | nax(e)- | nas(e)- | -nax | -naxe | naxie | Inclusive person plural | |
| 2S | x(e)- | s(e)- | -xi | -x | -xe | xi | 2nd person singular |
| 2P | hox(e)- | hos(e)- | -hox | -hoxe | hoxie | 2nd person plural | |
| 3AS | i- | - | -te | -te | tay | 3rd person animate singular | |
| 3IS | -ri -di | -r | -di | di | 3rd person inanimate singular | ||
| 3AP | hoy- | - | -ne | -ne | nay | 3rd person animate plural | |
| 3IP | -si | -s | -si | si | 3rd person inanimate plural | ||
The final e of the proclitic subject and imperative pronouns is used only when phonologically necessary.
Where the Object column has two entries, the 2nd is used on vowel stems when no 2nd object pronoun follows; the 1st is used otherwise. The inanimate pronouns are also used for the 2nd object.
There's also an enclitic reflexive pronoun -ce used for all persons.
A verb can have 4 basic stems: the citation stem, the inverse stem, the geminate stem, and the dependent stem; there are other stems derived from these.
The citation stem is used for the direct forms of the most basic aspect of the verb: stative for static verbs and perfective for dynamic verbs. It's found by removing any enclitic pronouns from the citation form (as used in the vocabulary). The 1st syllable (if there are 2) of the citation stem is stressed.
The root of a verb is a hypothetical form from which all the actual forms are constructed. For some verbs, the citation stem is the same as the root, but for others, additional information is needed. If the citation stem ends in a consonant, a 2nd vowel must be specified. If the 1st vowel of the citation stem is a, the 1st vowel of the geminate stem must be specified.
The inverse stem is used for the inverse forms of the most basic aspect of the verb. It's constructed from the root by replacing the 2nd vowel by in if the vowel is i and by on otherwise. The 2nd syllable of the inverse stem is stressed. The 1st vowels ay and aw become e and o, respectively.
The geminate stem is used for certain additional aspects. It's formed by geminating the 2nd consonant of the root and adding the 2nd vowel of the root, if it's not already present. The 1st syllable of the geminate stem is stressed.
The dependent stem is used for derived forms and for additional aspects, such as the imperfective of dynamic verbs. It always takes a prefix (ma- for the imperfective), which is stressed. The 1st vowel may be deleted if i or o and if deletion is permitted by the phonology. Verbs where the 1st vowel alternates between a and e may also delete it.
All this may be summed up by the following table:
| Citation | Root | Inverse | Geminate | Dependent | Example | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CawCV | CawCV | CoCV'n | CoCCV | -CoCV | sawhe | sohon | soffe | -sohe | |
| CayCV | CayCV | CeCV'n | CeCCV | -CeCV | qayto | qeton | qetto | -qeto | |
| CeCV | CeCV | CeCV'n | CeCCV | -CeCV | wese | weson | wesse | -wese | |
| CaC | -V | CaCV | CaCV'n | CaCCV | -CaCV | haq -o | haqon | haqqo | -haqo |
| CaCa | [a] | CaCa | CaCon | CaCCa | -CaCa | pana [a] | panon | panna | -pana |
| CaCa | [e] | CeCa | CaCon | CeCCa | -C(e)Ca | lara [e] | laron | lerra | -lda |
| CeC | -V | CeCV | CaCV'n | CeCCV | -C(e)CV | tep -i | tapin | teppi | -tpi |
| CoC | -V | CoCV | CoCV'n | CoCCV | -C(o)CV | mof -e | mohon | moffe | -mhe |
| CoCV | CoCV | CoCV'n | CoCCV | -C(o)CV | soxi | soxin | soxxi | -soxi | |
| CiC | -V | CiCV | CiCV'n | CiCCV | -C(i)CV | nik -o | nikon | nikko | -nko |
| CiCV | CiCV | CiCV'n | CiCCV | -C(i)CV | kima | kimon | kimma | -kma | |
In addition, there are irregular verbs and verbs that don't use every stem.
Most nouns are derived by prefixing a classifier to the dependent stem of a root. The root may be that of a verb, or homophounous to that of a verb, or completely different from any known verb. The classifier is one of 24, each of which has an associated animacy and number, used for agreement.
There are 5 marked tenses, plus an unmarked relative present tense. The marked tenses are absolute present, definite past, definite future, indefinite (or relative) past, and indefinite (or relative) future.
There are 4 marked evidentials, plus an unmarked participant evidential and a marked polar question particle -qha. The marked evidentials are witnessed, reported, inferred (epistemic necessity), and epistemic possibility. The evidential is also unmarked in content questions.
The evidential markers are enclitic to the preceding word, either a tense marker or a conjunction. In some cases, the evidential, the preceding word, or both are modified. The following table shows the combination of evidential with tense or conjunction:
| Host Particle | Unmarked | Witness | Report | Inferred | Possible |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Relative Present | yo | wera | nem | pot | |
| Absolute Present | ca | cay | cawra | cammo | capti |
| Definite Past | do | doy | dora | dommo | dopti |
| Definite Future | ni | - | nira | nimmo | nipti |
| Indefinite Past | so | soy | sora | sommo | sopti |
| Indefinite Future | he | - | hora | hemmo | hepti |
| Sequence | ka | kay | kawra | kammo | kapti |
| Conjunction | ci | ciyo | ciwera | cinem | cipot |
page started: 2010.Dec.12 Sun
current date: 2010.Dec.13 Mon
content and form originated by qiihoskeh
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