Nankôre: Difference between revisions

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Auxiliary verbs encode number, voice and tense.  Intransitive pronominal core arguments, if used as independent pronouns, precede the auxiliary.

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Transitive verbs mark number on core arguments by ablaut, or by adding a prefix, to the auxiliary.  These markers indicate the number of both the higher animate and the lower animate arguments.  

# Rompóy kurasno tarayro ita-tā'itá'.  "The dogs played with the girls."

The Nankôre verb is rich in voice and tense distinctions.  These distinctions are combined in an auxiliary verb, formed by adding one or more prefixes to the copular verb ''itá'' /ɪ'taʔ/, hence this auxiliary is called the ''itá''-verb.  The ''itá''-auxiliary verb is always clause final, the main verb and any other VP particles  preceding it.  Some voices also encode formality, with the long forms, e.g. ''man'itá', suphitá', tā'itá',  hô'itá', and pā'itá' '',  used for formal situations, and the short forms ''manta'/nitá', supta', tayta', hoyta''', and ''pitáh'' for informal conversation among friends and family.

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The Irrealis ''-hi'' is suffixed to the copula.  It is obligatory for all Future tenses.  It also surfaces in imperatives, yes-no questions which are marked with the ''-yo'' marker cliticizing to the first or second word of a sentence, as in ''Chire-yo tā'itá'-hi?'' "Did he die?", and in WH-questions when the event actually happening has not yet been established as having occurred; for example, ''Enket chire tā'itá'?'', "Where did he die?" implies that the person's death is a fact, and it is only the location that is being inquired, versus ''Enket chire tā'itá'-hi?'' implies that not only is the location unknown, but the person's actual death happening still remains to be established.  An interesting structure, called the "double interrogative", is a combination of a WH-word followed by a word bearing the ''-yo'' clitic, which also turns the question into yes-no question: ''Enket chire-yo tā'itá'-hi?'', "Did he die, and if so, where?"  The ''-hi'' suffix is believed to be cognate with the Minhast Irrealis clitic ''=š''.

====Positional and Motion Verbs====

These auxiliaries are often confused for adpositions, or relational nouns, but unlike adpositions and locative nouns, these auxiliaries are full-fledged verbs.  If inverse marking is required, the prefix ''tā/tāh'' is still prefixed to the auxiliary verb.  Likewise, aspect and modality markers are attached to the auxiliary, a process that occurs only with verbs in the language, never with nouns.  Moreover, these auxiliaries can stand alone as independent verbs, such as ''Kosmakis Anut yampe itá'' "Anut walked with Koshmak" (''yampe '' = to be arm-in-arm; c.f. ''yanup'' "elbow").

==Syntax==