Legend: Definitions, Terms, <Text>, [IPA], -Tags-, and "Glosses".
The 3rd person pronouns distinguish gender (animate and inanimate) as well as number. The da- forms are "emphatic".
| Singular | Plural | Tag | Description | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ma | dama | mal | damal | 3A | 3rd person Animate |
| sa | dasa | sal | dasal | 3I | 3rd person Inanimate |
The remaining personal pronouns are actually participle forms of the copula, shown in the following table:
| Word | Tag | Description |
|---|---|---|
| damai | 1S | 1st person singular |
| dameš | 1P | 1st person plural |
| damáta | Incl | Inclusive person |
| damau | 1P | 2nd person |
| daman? | Cor | Coreferential |
| damok? | Rel | Relative |
Other pronouns are formed by combining determiners with generic nouns, with the determiner vowel acquiring an acute accent in the plural, e.g. ci + mel becomes címel.
| Word | Tag | Name | Group |
|---|---|---|---|
| ci | Prox | Proximal | demonstrative |
| co | Medi | Medial | |
| la | Dist | Distal | |
| e | Ind | Indefinite | other |
| če | CQ | Content Question | |
| saré | Sat | Satisfactive |
The demonstratives and the indefinite determiner combine with any of the generic nouns. The content question determiner combines with with the animate and general nouns (čemo and čeþa). The satisfactive determiner combines only with the general noun (saréþa).
| Singular | Plural | Tag | Name |
|---|---|---|---|
| mo | mel | Ani | Animate |
| so | sel | Ina | Inanimate |
| þa | þal | Kind | General |
Derivation involves either compounding or prefixing; incorporation isn't possible (non-referential nouns are used as arguments instead).
Each verb stem has an implicit action type, either static or dynamic. Scalar verbs are a subclass of static and dynamic verbs may be telic or non-telic.
The following table gives the action types and their labels:
| Label | Class Name | Implied Aspect |
|---|---|---|
| H | habitual | Habitual |
| C | scalar | Stative |
| S | static | |
| D | dynamic | Progressive |
| T | telic | Aoristic |
A compound noun consists of a head noun followed by a noun or verb as modifier, as a single word. If the last part of a compound noun is a verb root, the singular form has a phase 1 stem and the non-singular forms have a phase 2 stem.
The structure of the participant nominals may be analyzed as either compounding or prefixing.
Each verb stem is either a verb root or derived using prefixing. The following table shows some derivational prefixes:
| Prefix | Tag | Description |
|---|---|---|
| for- | NP- | natural possibility (can, able to) |
| diš- | NN- | natural necessity (inevitable) |
| xa- | Con- | conative (attempt) |
| ho- | Auto- | autocausative |
The superlatives are derived from the corresponding scalar verbs, using the prefix Sup- sar-.
The quantity words include the cardinal numbers, the fractional numbers, and a few other words.
The basic number words are the digits, multiples of ten, and multiples of one hundred. These are arranged from largest to smallest to form compound quantity words.
| Value | Word | Value | Word | Value | Word |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ga | 10 | fu | 100 | to |
| 2 | sok | 20 | sakuf | 200 | sokto |
| 3 | dus | 30 | desuf | 300 | dusto |
| 4 | man | 40 | manuf | 400 | manto |
| 5 | že | 50 | žihuf | 500 | žeto |
| 6 | čil | 60 | čiluf | 600 | čilto |
| 7 | þer | 70 | þuruf | 700 | þurto |
| 8 | kwemi | 80 | kumif | 800 | kumito |
| 9 | lubi | 90 | lubif | 900 | lubito |
Examples: fu sok (12), kumif dus (83), and manto þuruf (470).
The ordinal numbers are derived from the corresponding cardinal numbers, using the prefix Ord-. The ordinal of ga is plega "1st" and the ordinal of fu is pluf "10th"; otherwise, the prefix has the form pel-.
A fractional number consists of a denominator followed by a numerator. The numerator is a cardinal number, omitted if 1. Denominators are regularly formed from the corresponding cardinal numbers by appending -'ta-. Examples: selo'ta (1/5), shopi'ta wika (3/4).
There are a few scalar quantity words; these are the only words with morphological comparatives, as shown in the following table:
| Word | Comparative | Gloss |
|---|---|---|
| fando | fandebo | many |
| fasso | fassebo | much |
| nendo | nendebo | few |
| nesso | nessebo | little |
| Word | Gloss |
|---|---|
| chando | how many? |
| chasso | how much? |
| forando | so many, enough |
| forasso | so much, enough |
page started: 2016.Nov.11 Fri
current date: 2016.Nov.24 Thu
content and form originated by qiihoskeh
Table of Contents