The end of a morpheme may interact with the start of the following morpheme. In particular:
Verb agreement has accusative alignment, with the subject matching the donor, agent, or subject role.
A fully inflected verb is organized as follows:
Root-Derivationals-Voice-Subject%#-Tense
| Derivationals | various derivational slots |
| Voice | active (0-marked) or passive-anticausative |
| Subject%# | subject person and number |
| Tense | tense |
With respect to argument structure, there are 4 basic verb classes:
However, complicating this, some impersonal and univalent verbs can also have recipients.
There are only 2 grammatical voices: active, which is unmarked and uses the argument structures described above, and passive-anticausative, which is marked by the suffix *wp (-Pas).
The passive-anticausative modifies the argument structure:
The imperative and hortative suffixes preclude tense marking.
| Protoform | Suffix | Tag | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| *jk | -ik | -1S | 1st person singular |
| *rnw | -anu | -1P | 1st person plural |
| *wt | -ut | -2 | 2nd person |
| *r | -a | -3A | 3rd person animate |
| *w | -u | -3I | 3rd person inanimate |
| *en | -en | -SS | same subject |
| *rnw-e | -ame | -Hor | 1st person plural hortative |
| *e | -e | -Imp | 2nd person imperative |
With the following, tense is always 0.
| Protoform | Suffix | Tag | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| *0 | -0 | .Cor | other coreferential |
| *r | -a | -Ani | participle animate |
| *w | -u | -Ina | participle inanimate |
Impersonal verbs have only 0 in the subject slot, representing the sole finite form. There are no participles or other coreferential forms.
| Protoform | Suffix | Tag | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| *0 | -0 | -Pst | past |
| *hej | -hê | -Prs | present < "now" |
| *jrt | -yat | -Fut | future < "expect" |
If no tense suffix appears, past time is indicated unless a temporal adverb referring to the future appears. However, only finite forms have any tense other than relative present.
Certain coreferential auxiliary verbs may follow non-finite stems. These include the aspectual, modal, and polar auxiliaries, in that order.
| Protoform | Stems | Description |
|---|---|---|
| *thwp | sup, sub | begin (process phase) |
| * | - | pause (process phase) |
| * | - | resume (process phase) |
| * | - | finish (process phase) |
| *twkw | tugu, tugw | repeat |
| *henr | hena, heq | continue |
| Protoform | Stems | Tag | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| *thj | si, ç | NP | natural possibility or potential |
| *jwh | yuh | NN | natural necessity or inevitability |
| *krh | kah | DP | deontic possibility |
| *ken | kon | DN | deontic necessity |
| *rjnt | rint, rind | SP | social possibility |
| *wek | wek, weg | SN | social necessity |
No auxiliary is used for positive polarity.
| Protoform | Stems | Tag | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| *tjk | tik, tig | Neg | negative |
| *pwn | pun | Aff | affirmative |
The polar auxiliaries may combine with the preceding modal auxiliary. In the following table, the finite-participle stems are shown.
| Pos | Neg | Aff | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | - | tig- | pun- |
| NP | ç- | sidig- | sibun- |
| NN | yuh- | yuttig- | yuppun- |
| DP | kah- | kattig- | kappun- |
| DN | kon- | kondig- | kombun- |
| SP | rind- | rintig- | rintpun- |
| SN | weg- | wektig- | wekpun- |
Each noun is either animate or inanimate. With the exception of predicate nominals, nouns are inflected only for case. The cases are
| Protoform | Suffix | Tag | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| *0 | -0 | .Abs | absolutive |
| *te | -te, -de | -Erg | ergative (= instrumental) |
| *rn | -an | -Dat | dative (animate only) |
| *eth | -es | -Gen | genitive, animate |
| *phr | -fa | -Gen | genitive, inanimate (originally partitive) |
| *kj | -ki, -gi | -Com | comitative (animate only) |
Animate nouns ending in *j, *w, or *r double this before the genitive or dative ending except when preceded by *e, e.g. fimâça (absolutive) and fimâçares (genitive). This applies to animate participles as well, which are declined as follows:
| -Abs | -Erg | -Dat | -Gen | -Com | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| -Ani | -a | -ade | -aran | -ares | -agi |
| -Ina | -u | -ude | - | -ufa | - |
In addition to the cases listed above, there are spatial verb derivations which seem to act like cases.
A noun may also take verb endings, specifically subject person and number and tense. The doubling rule may apply here as well.
Any of the following proclitic pronouns will appear instead of the absolutive patient argument. 3I- will appear instead of the absolutive theme argument while any of the others will appear instead of the dative recipient argument. Where both appear, the recipient proclitic precedes the theme proclitic.
| Protoform | Pronoun | Tag | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| *jk | ik-, ig- | 1S- | 1st person singular |
| *rnw | anu-, am- | 1P- | 1st person plural |
| *wt | ut-, ud- | 2- | 2nd person |
| *r | a-, r- | 3A- | 3rd person animate |
| *w | u-, w- | 3I- | 3rd person inanimate |
| *en | en- | SS- | same subject |
| *trh | tah- | Rfx- | reflexive |
The same pronominal roots are used with the case endings:
| -Abs | -Erg | -Gen | -Com | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1S | iga | ikte | igos | ikki |
| 1P | ama | anude | ames | anugi |
| 2 | uda | utte | udes | utki |
| 3A | â | ade | res | agi |
| 3I | - | ude | ufa | - |
| SS | ena | ende | enes | engi |
| Rfx | taha | tatte | tahes | takki |
Additional pronoun roots include
| Protoform | Tag | Description |
|---|---|---|
| *tje | CQ | content question |
| *ke | RP | relative pronoun |
| * | Sat | satisfactive |
| -Abs | -Erg | -Dat | -Gen | -Com | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CQA | câ | câde | ceran | ceres | câgi |
| CQI | cô | côde | - | côfa | - |
| RPA | kâ | kâde | koran | kores | kâgi |
| RPI | kô | kôde | - | kôfa | - |
The spatial verb derivational suffixes are applied to CQ and RP, even though the inanimate stem is implied.
page started: 2013.Nov.22 Fri
current date: 2013.Nov.26 Tue
content and form originated by qiihoskeh
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