Legend: Definitions, Terms, <Text>, [IPA], -Tags-, and "Glosses".
The morphological word classes are verbs, cardinal numbers, nouns, pronouns, determiners, adverbs, conjunctions, postpositions, and particles. Most of these may be involved in derivation; verbs, nouns, and pronouns are inflected. Many verbs, including the quantity verbs, are also scalar, being used for scales of comparison.
The 2 main properties of verb roots and stems are the action type and the argument structure class.
The action types are shown, along with their labels and descriptions, in the following table:
| Label | Name | Description | Group |
| VS_ | Scalar | static and can be scale of comparison | State |
| VB_ | Binary | other static | |
| VH_ | Habitual | multiple occasions or long-term | Process |
| VU_ | Unitizable | can be divided into steps | |
| VC_ | Culminating | terminates in transition into state | |
| VE_ | Event | treated as single transition | Event |
The argument structure class descriptions, along with their labels and names, are shown in the following table. Parentheses indicate that the argument can be omitted without marking the verb intransitive.
| Label | Name | Subject | Object | Locational |
| V_P | Descriptive | - | Descriptee | - |
| V_R | Relational | - | Locatee | (Location) |
| V_A | Actional | Actor | - | (Route) |
| V_L | Labile | Experiencer | (Stimulus) | - |
| V_T | Transitive | (Agent) | Patient | - |
| V_D | Ditransitive | (Donor) | Theme | (Recipient) |
There are 3 types of verb forms: finite, imperative, and participial, all of which have the following structure:
| # | Name | Description | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Directional | allative or ablative | |
| 2 | Scalar Adverb | scalar stems only | |
| 3 | Secondary Verb Root | * | at least 1 required |
| 4 | Primary Verb Root | * | |
| 5 | Stage | ||
| 6 | Polarity | negative | |
| 7 | Type and Role | ||
A verb stem consists of either a primary verb root, secondary verb root, or both, in which case, a compound verb stem is formed. The secondary verb root is typically a static verb root while the primary verb root is typically dynamic. The action type of a compound verb stem is that of the primary verb stem. The argument structure class of a compound verb stem is the union of the 2 classes.
A directional prefix changes the role of the locational argument. The prefixes are shown in the following table:
| Prefix | Tag | Name | Description |
| nu- | All- | Allative | location becomes destination |
| pa- | Abl- | Ablative | location becomes place of origin |
| Prefix | Tag | Description | Group |
| kyal- | LP- | loose | Precision |
| - | TP- | tight | |
| pyo- | SQ- | interrogative | Function |
| - | SSat- | satisfactive | |
| - | SAbs- | absolute positive | |
| - | SMax- | absolute superlative | |
| - | Norm- | normative |
The stages, which depend on the verb stem's action type, are shown in the following table:
| Suffix | Tag | Name | Applies to | Produces |
| Durative | state, process | (same) | ||
| Culminative | event | event | ||
| -i | -Cul | process | event | |
| -an | -Inc | Inceptive | process, event | event |
| -do | -Con | Conative | process, event | state |
| -gyu | -Sem | Semelfactive | habitual, unitizable | event |
| -kwi | -Hab | Habitual | non-habitual? | habitual |
| -usla | -Ctu | Continuative | state, process | (same) |
| -is | -Prf | Perfect | process, event | state |
| -ot | -Pro | Prospective | process, event | state |
| -ba | -Pot | Potential | (any) | state |
Negative polarity is marked by the suffix -kho -Neg; positive polarity is unmarked.
The suffixes are shown in the following table. An asterisk (*) indicates that the suffix vowel combines with a preceding vowel. The suffix -o appears after consonants and the suffix -r appears after vowels.
| Suffix | Tag | Description | Type |
| direct | Finite | ||
| -mi | -Inv | inverse | |
| -so | -Uns | impersonal | |
| -u * | -ImpS | imperative (2nd person) singular | Imperative |
| -ulo * | -ImpP | imperative (2nd person) plural | |
| -usu * | -HorP | hortative (inclusive person) plural | |
| -ik * | -CoS | coreference subject | Participial |
| -o, -r | -CoO | coreference object | |
| -cha | -CoL | coreference location | |
| -tu | -CoI | coreference instrument |
| zolkozetnisilan | |||
| zol | kozet | nisil | -an |
| Prf | carry | in | -All |
| "have carried into" | |||
| noxalcixotansi | ||||
| no- | xal- | cixot | -an | -si |
| 2- | Neg- | give | -All | -1S |
| "I — not give you" | ||||
| xatakit | |
| xatak | -it |
| break | -Pat |
| "broken" (inanimate) | |
The copula Cop has a locatee argument, which is marked on the verb as inverse voice subject, and a location argument, which isn't. It lacks stages and has no imperative order.
The non-numeric quantities dasl "many", - "few", - "much", and - "little" are descriptive scalar verb roots.
The corresponding quantity words are derived form them by appending i.
A cardinal number is a sequence of 1 or more digits, starting with the most significant. The final a of the last digit (appearing in the citation form) is replaced, e.g. -a-a-i "642" (whole number).
| Value | Word | Value | Word |
| 0 | -a | 1 | -a |
| 2 | -a | 3 | -a |
| 4 | -a | 5 | -a |
| 6 | -a | 7 | -a |
| 8 | -a | 9 | -a |
The final i of a number word is characteristic of a whole number. The value "0" always takes this ending.
A positive exponent is derived by replacing the final i of a whole number with -?? ShL and a negative exponent is derived with -?? ShR. An exponent always follows the whole number or fraction it modifies.
The denominator of a fraction is derived by replacing the final i of a whole number with -?? -Div. The denominator follows the numerator.
A negative number is formed by replacing the final i of the numerator with -?? -Min while a positive number is formed by replacing the final i of the numerator with -?? -Plu.
Example: - "-400/3".
The ordinal numbers are verbs derived from the corresponding whole numbers by replacing the final i with the suffix -?? -Ord.
A quantity word is nominalized by replacing the final i of a whole number with one of the following gender suffixes:
| Suffix | Tag | Description |
| - | -I | Instrumental |
| - | -L | Locational |
| - | -E | Everything else |
The quantity nouns for "much" and "little" produce mass nouns, so they take singular suffixes. The cardinal number for "1" also takes singular suffixes while the word for "0" may take either singular or plural suffixes. All other quantity nouns take plural suffixes.
page started: 2018.Sep.19 Wed
current date: 2018.Sep.19 Wed
content and form originated by qiihoskeh
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