Legend: Definitions, Terms, <Text>, [IPA], -Tags-, and "Glosses".
The word classes are verbs, nouns, pronouns, quantity words, ordinals and superlatives, the genitive and partitive words, and various kinds of particles.
Verbs are either static or dynamic and static verbs may be scalar. Verbs are also univalent, bivalent, or trivalent, with a few bivalent verbs being reciprocal.
Nouns are animate or inanimate, count or mass, and common or proper.
A few quantity words are scalar.
The 1st person distinguishes singular from plural. The 2nd person and inclusive person don't distinguish number. Although phrases can distinguish singular from plural, 3rd person inflections don't distinguish number.
Along with verbs, the genitive and partitive words are conjugated.
The genitive word Gen and the partitive word Par take personal suffixes, as shown in the following table:
| Genitive | Partitive | Tag | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| osé | aké | -1S | 1st person singular |
| osiš | akiš | -1P | 1st person plural |
| oséta | akéta | -Incl | Inclusive person |
| osó | akó | -2 | 2nd person |
| osen | aken | -Cor | Coreferential |
| osuk | akuk | -Rel | Relative |
| oséži | akéži | -MA | Matrix Argument |
| hes | rek | 3rd person |
A verb form is either a participle or finite.
A participle is inflected for tense, relativized argument role, and (if the verb is transitive) person and number of a 2nd argument.
A finite verb is inflected for tense or mood, grammatical voice, and person and number for up to 2 arguments. Agreement uses a 2 > 1 > 3 hierarchy.
The following summarizes the participial form inflectional structure:
| (Tense)- | VerbStem | -Role1 | -(Argument2) |
|---|
The following summarizes the finite form inflectional structure:
| (Tense)- | VerbStem | -(Voice) | -(Argument1) | -(Argument2) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mood- | VerbStem | -(Voice) | -(Argument2) |
Verb stems have 3 phases, derived from historical stress on the penult. The phase 1 stem originally stressed the next-to-last stem syllable, the phase 2 stem originally stressed the last stem syllable, and the phase 0 stem originally was unstressed. Because of this, phase 1 forms have all null suffixes, while phase 2 forms fill a single suffix slot and phase 0 forms fill at least 2 slots. Phase 3 isn't an actual phase; it's always the same as one of the others.
| Phase 1 | Phase 2 | Phase 0 | Phase 3 | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| tage | tage- | tage- | tage- | A |
| heba | (h)oba- | (h)oba- | (h)oba- | B |
| dok | daku- | daku- | dok- | C |
| ber | bre- | ba- | ba- | D |
See the vowel alterations sub-section when appending suffixes to stems.
The matrix argument suffix appears only on participles while the coreferential and relative suffixes appear only on finite verbs.
| Suffix | Tag | Description |
|---|---|---|
| -i | -1S | 1st person singular |
| -šI | -1P | 1st person plural |
| -ta | -Incl | Inclusive person |
| -u | -2 | 2nd person |
| 3rd person | ||
| -n | -Cor | Coreferential |
| -kU | -Rel | Relative |
| -ži | -MA | Matrix Argument |
The participle role suffixes are appended to phase 2 stems, which become phase 0 stems if an argument suffix follows. Except for reciprocal verbs, which are patientive, bivalent and trivalent verbs take all 3 roles; univalent verbs are split with some taking only the agent role and others (scalars) taking only the patient roles.
| Suffix | Tag | Trivalent | Bivalent | Patientive | Agentive |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| -ka | -Don | donor | agent | - | actor |
| -ma | -Rcp | recipient | animate patient | animate | - |
| -sa | -Thm | theme | inanimate patient | inanimate | - |
The grammatical voice suffixes are appended to phase 2 stems, which become phase 0 stems if an argument suffix follows.
| Suffix | Tag | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Direct | Arg1 > Arg2 | ||
| -rE | -Inv | Inverse | Arg1 < Arg2 |
| -zu | -Ant | Antipassive | Arg1 > 0 |
| -ni | -Pas | Passive | Arg1 < 0 |
| -xE | -Rfx | Reflexive | Arg1 = Arg2 |
In the following table, each entry gives the phase number along with the combination of valence-reducing voice and argument suffixes.
| Antipassive | Passive | Reflexive | Tag | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0-zi | 0-ni | 3-xe | -1S | 1st person Singular |
| 0-zuš | 0-niš | 3-xiš | -1P | 1st person Plural |
| 0-zúta | 0-níta | 3-xéta | -Incl | Inclusive person |
| 0-zu | 0-nu | 3-xo | -2 | 2nd person |
| 0-zun | 0-nin | 3-xen | -Cor | Coreferential |
| 0-zuk | 0-nik | 3-xuk | -Rel | Relative |
| 2-zu | 2-ni | 2-x | 3rd person |
In the following table, the rows are labeled with the tags of the agents while the columns are labeled with the tags of the patients. Each entry gives the phase number along with the combination of direct-inverse voice, 1st argument, and 2nd argument suffixes; inverse voice endings are marked with an asterisk (*).
| 1S | 1P | Incl | 2 | Cor | Rel | 3 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1S | - | - | - | 0-rve * | 0-yen | 0-yuk | 2-i |
| 1P | - | - | - | 0-rviš * | 3-šin | 3-šik | 2-šI |
| Incl | - | - | - | - | 3-tan | 3-tok | 2-ta |
| 2 | 0-ve | 0-viš | - | - | 0-ven | 0-vuk | 2-u |
| Cor | 0-žen * | 0-ršin * | 0-rtan * | 0-rven * | - | - | 2-n |
| Rel | 0-žuk * | 0-ršik * | 0-rtok * | 0-rvuk * | - | - | 2-kU |
| 3 | 0-re * | 0-riš * | 0-réta * | 0-ro * | 0-ren * | 0-ruk * | 1 |
Some inherently reciprocal verbs, such as the copula (da Cop), lack distinct inverse voice forms.
The mood prefixes each imply the person of the agent.
| Prefix | Tag | Name | Person |
|---|---|---|---|
| mi- | Hor- | Hortative | Inclusive |
| u- | Imp- | Imperative | 2nd |
| ha- | Jus- | Jussive | 3rd |
The imperative mood has limited voice and argument combinations, which are shown in the following table. The hortative mood is the same except that there are no 1st person forms.
| Direct | Antipassive | Reflexive | Tag | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2-i | - | - | -1S | 1st person Singular |
| 2-šI | - | - | -1P | 1st person Plural |
| 2-en | - | - | -Cor | Coreferential |
| 2-kU | - | - | -Rel | Relative |
| 1 | 2-zu | 2-x | 3rd person |
The jussive mood also has limited voice and argument combinations, which are shown in the following table:
| Direct | Inverse | Antipassive | Reflexive | Tag | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| - | 0-re | - | - | -1S | 1st person Singular |
| - | 0-riš | - | - | -1P | 1st person Plural |
| - | 0-réta | - | - | -Incl | Inclusive person |
| - | 0-ro | - | - | -2 | 2nd person |
| - | 0-ren | - | - | -Cor | Coreferential |
| - | 0-ruk | - | - | -Rel | Relative |
| 1 | 2-r | 2-zu | 2-x | 3rd person |
The habitual aspect prefix may appear between the tense or mood prefix (if any) and any derivational prefix.
| Prefix | Tag | Name | Slot |
|---|---|---|---|
| Relative Present | tense-mood | ||
| go- | RPst- | Relative Past | |
| be- | RFut- | Relative Future | |
| na- | APrs- | Absolute Present | |
| gwan- | APst- | Relative Past | |
| byan- | AFut- | Relative Past | |
| zi- | Hab- | Habitual | aspect |
Pronoun stems will be covered in the derivational morphology chapter.
Nouns are inflected for referentiality and number; the forms are singular, plural, and non-referential. There are 2 stems: singular and non-singular. Plural -P and non-referential -NR differ only in the final consonant (always l and t, respectively).
| Singular | Plural | Non-referential |
|---|---|---|
| þami | þamil | þamit |
| dampo | dampuhel | dampuhet |
| sóbai | sobayel | sobayet |
| binuc | bincul | bincut |
| peč | pačil | pačit |
The singular stem ends in an i, u, a, or e which is preceded by VC (unaccented). The non-singular stem is the same as the singular.
The singular stem ends in a p, c, č, ', f, þ, š, or ç which is preceded by i or e. In the non-singular, an e becomes a while an i either becomes e, remains, or is deleted (in which case other changes may occur).
The singular stem ends in a p, c, k, ', f, þ, s, or x which is preceded by u or o. In the non-singular, an o becomes a while a u either becomes e, remains, or is deleted (in which case other changes may occur).
All other nouns are of this type; there are 3 sub-classes.
The singular stem ends in a p, t, k, ', f, þ, s, x, m, n, r, or l which is preceded by an unaccented vowel. In the non-singular, an immediately preceding i, u, or e may be deleted.
The singular stem ends in a ai or au, which become ay- and av-, respectively, in the non-singular.
The singular stem ends in a vowel preceded by CC or accented VC. In the non-singular:
Besides the stem changes given in the preceding sub-sections, there can be additional changes, such as when r, l, y, v, or h is involved. Note also that penult acutes appearing in the singular become antepenult non-acutes in the non-singular.
| Singular | Plural | Non-referential |
|---|---|---|
| amaveþ | amauþel | amauþet |
| dayus | daisul | daisut |
| kahiš | kášil | kášit |
| geher | gárel | gáret |
| bunhek | bunokel | bunoket |
| taxren | taxanel | taxanet |
page started: 2016.Nov.11 Fri
current date: 2016.Nov.28 Mon
content and form originated by qiihoskeh
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