Kelt
| Kelt | |
|---|---|
| Keltah | |
| Pronunciation | [/kɛlt/] |
| Created by | Neil Whalley |
| Date | 2021 |
| Native to | Jacques (Tśak) |
| Extinct | c. AD 800 |
Isolate
| |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | qkk |
Kelt is the extinct native language of the island of Jacques (Tśak), believed to have been a language isolate. Relatively little is known of the language; there are few written survivals and the primary source of information is through its impact on the language of Pulqer, which replaced it. Kelt is the name of the language in Pulqer, it is thought to have been called Keltah by its speakers.
History
Internal
Prior to the arrival of the Pulqer on Jacques, the island was inhabited by various tribes described by the new arrivals: primarily the Khrapnathi and Lakhaśqraelithi (Qraalakaśaqralitti) in the north east, the Laphakhraelithi (Qraalapakqralitti) and Paekhi (Qraapak) in the south east, the Urumuaeli (Qraahurumwaal) in the southern forests and the Baerqhalue (Qraabaarqalwah)
Phonology
Vowels
Kelt had a system of four primary vowels, each of which had long and short variants. There were no diphthongs.
| Front | Back | |
|---|---|---|
| Close | i /i/, ii /iː/ | u /u/, uu /uː/ |
| Open-mid | e /ɛ/, ee /ɛː/ | |
| Open | a /a/, aa /aː/ |
Consonants
The consonant inventory is shown below. It is characterised by having only voiceless plosives, fricatives and affricates but voiced resonants. It is unclear whether Kelt originally had a series of aspirated plosives alongside the unaspirated ones - a defining feature of Old Pulqer, which has a phonology heavily influenced by Kelt. If this distinction existed, it had probably been lost by the time Pulqer began ousting Kelt.
It is possible that /l/ and /ɾ/ were allophonic variants of the same sound occurring in different environments. Evidence from later Pulqer suggests that /ɾ/ occurred between vowels or after a consonant (CrV) while /l/ occurred at the beginning or end of a word and before consonants (VlC).
The realisation of h is unclear and may also have had allophonic variation, perhaps /h/ in most circumstances but /ʔ/ or /χ/ at the end of a word.
| Bilabial | Alveolar | Post-alveolar | Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plain | Labial | |||||
| Nasal | m /m/ | n /n/ | ||||
| Plosive | p /p/ | t /t/ | k /k/ | q /kʷ/ | ||
| Fricative | f /ɸ/ | s /s/ | ś /ʃ/ | h /h/ | ||
| Affricate | ts /t͡s/ | tś /t͡ʃ/ | ||||
| Approximant | r /ɾ/ | |||||
| Lateral app. | l /l/ | y /j/ | w /w/ |
Phonotactics
Roots may consist of any of the following structures:
- CVC
- CV1V1C
- CrVC
- CV1CV1C
Prefixes usually end in a vowel though a few consonant-final prefixes do occur. Suffixes frequently begin with consonants, creating consonant clusters across morpheme boundaries.
The maximal structure for a syllable is therefore CrVCC or CVVCC (e.g. heent "vision, view").
- Note: it has been proposed that, historically, Kelt roots were limited to CVC structure but that these syllables could be augmented with prefixed consonants plus the main vowel repeated. Evidence for this comes from the relationship between certain CVC roots and longer roots, e.g. palat "spear" seems to be an ancient derivative of lat "thrust, pierce", hatal "child" looks to be from tal "raise, nourish". In this way, initial CVC roots gave rise to CVCVC roots and, either directly or through a later process of elision, to CrVC roots. The meaning of these consonant prefixes is not understood. CVVC roots are also thought to have developed in the same way from earlier CVC roots with a now lost initial consonant, probably h (later h being a reduced form of /x/). Thus eKelt *han or yielded *lahan then laan.
Stress
Stress placement is unclear, but may have been on the penult.
Grammar
Roots and Stems
The basic element of the Kelt word is a mono- or disyllabic root, which has a basic meaning (or set of meanings) but does not belong to a particular part of speech, e.g. LAAN "air; breathe", NEH "old; to be old; old man/woman/thing".
Roots may be extended with derivational affixes to create longer stems. Affixes include the diminutive -ap (e.g. putap "little man" < PUT "man") or the noun ending -t (e.g. kelt "language" < KEL "speak").
Roots and stems are transformed into different parts of speech (nouns, adjectives, verbs, prepositions etc.) either through the addition of inflectional affixes or through syntax. These will be discussed in more detail in the sections below.
There are two basic patterns of relationship governing how the meaning of a root or stem appears in different parts of speech:
- Noun/Verb in which the verb root indicates an action performed with or using the noun (e.g. HEEN means "to see" and "eye");
- Adjective/Verb in which the verb root indicates the state of being the adjective (e.g. SUUP means "to be large" and "large"). From this a noun may be formed indicating an object that represents the adjective (e.g. SUUP "a big thing").
Personal Prefixes
Prefixes denoting person and number were widely used in Kelt and form an important part of the morphology. They exist in subject, object and possessive forms. Each class has prefixes for each of the three persons, singular and plural (with a distinction of gender in the 3rd singular only), plus an indefinite form meaning roughly "someone, something" when the referent is unknown or deemed irrelevant. Additionally, the subject class has an impersonal and the object class has a reflexive/reciprocal.
Subject Prefixes
As well as the normal personal forms, the subject prefixes include an impersonal subject, which effectively acts as a placeholder when there is no apparent agent.
| Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | ki- | ni- |
| 2 | li- | ti- |
| 3m | si- | wi- |
| 3o | hi- | |
| Ind. | tśi- | |
| Imp. | e- |
Subject prefixes are used in the following ways:
- added to transitive or intransitive verbs to mark the subject. All verbs require a mandatory subject even prefix even where the subject is otherwise specified. An epenthetic -h- may be inserted between the prefix and a following vowel-initial stem.
- kilaani "I am breathing"
- qeput sihineena nuukah "the man saw a dog"
- added to construct nouns to form a copula construction. Here, the vowel of the prefix is lost before the gender/number prefix of the noun:
- wiikayatitti "they are fishermen"
- haqral "it is a house"
- added to adjectives to form a predicate. Here, an epethetic -h- may be inserted between the prefix and a vowel-initial stem.
- hihets "it is salty"
- sisuup "he is big"
The impersonal subject prefix places focus on the verb and/or its object. It may be used:
- with transitive verbs to create a passive sense,
- esuneenamen "he was seen" (i.e. "X saw him")
- with intransitives verb it can be translated with the dummy subject "there" (or "it" with weather etc.)
- etipa "there was runnning"
- esili "it is raining"
Object Prefixes
Object pronouns are similar to subject forms, but have an additional reflexive/reciprocal form and no impersonal.
| Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | -ku- | -nu- |
| 2 | -lu- | -tu- |
| 3m | -su- | -wu- |
| 3o | -hu- | |
| Ind. | -tśu- | |
| Refl. | -keru- |
Object prefixes are used in the following ways:
- with a transitive verb to show the direct object, inserted between the subject prefix and the verb stem. All transitive verbs require an object prefix, even where the object is otherwise stated. When the prefixes precede a vowel-initial stem, an epenthetic n is inserted.
- kisuneenamen "I saw him"
- nitśukali "we are eating (something)".
The reflexive/reciprocal is used with all persons but only with verb stems, e.g. likeruneenamen "you saw yourself", sikerutanya "he will kill himself". With plural referents, it may be interpreted as either reflexive or reciprocal, the distinction being understood through context, e.g. wikerutinita "they hit themselves" or "they hit each other".
Possessive Prefixes
| Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | key- | ney- |
| 2 | ley- | tey- |
| 3m | sey- | wey- |
| 3o | hey- | |
| Ind. | tśey- |
Possessive prefixes may be used in the following ways:
- added to a construct noun to denote possession:
- keyaqral "my house"
- weyaahatal "their children"
- added to a preposition to denote its object:
- leyfalta "around you"
- heysafelat "on top of it"
- added to a numeral or indefinite pronoun to denote the object of a partitive phrase (usually only plural pronouns):
- neywak "four of us"
- weymaman "some of them"
Verbs
Verbs are defined by the presence of both a subject prefix and an aspect suffix on the stem. The verb is composed of the following elements:
- [SUBJECT PREFIX] + ([OBJECT PREFIX]) + [STEM] + ([DERIVATIVE]) + [ASPECT SUFFIX] + ([TENSE SUFFIX])
Aspect and Tense Suffixes
All true verbs must have an 'aspect' marker (which includes the irrealis mood marker), added after the verb stem:
- Perfect -a
- Imperfect -i
- Irrealis -ya
- Habitual -itti
E.g. tisuntsi "you are sleeping", tisuntsa "you slept", tisuntsiya "you may/will sleep", tisuntsitti "you sleep often".
To these may be added the tense marker -men denoting the past, e.g. tisuntsimen "you were sleeping", tisuntsamen "you had slept", tisuntsiyamen "you would sleep".
These two sets of suffixes are used to build the verb paradigm, as follows:
| Verb Form | Construction | E.g. | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Present | STEM + i | kitipi | I run |
| Past Continuous | STEM + i + men | kitipimen | I was running |
| Past | STEM + a | kitipa | I ran |
| Pluperfect | STEM + a + men | kitipamen | I had run |
| Present Habitual | STEM + itti | kitipitti | I often run |
| Past Habitual | STEM + itti + men | kitipittimen | I used to run |
| Future | STEM + ya | kitipya | I will run |
| Conditional | STEM + ya + men | kitipyamen | I would have run |
| Imperative/Hortative | faa _ STEM + ya | faa kitipya | I ought to run |
Notes on the Tenses
- Present
- Used as both a simple and continuous present, denoting general truths or ongoing actions/states.
- It can also have a future sense, when the action is impending or when used with an adverb of time e.g. kitipi tapatla "I am going to run tomorrow".
- Past Continuous
- Used to denote ongoing actions/states in the past.
- Past
- A simple past or perfect, denoting completed past actions.
- Pluperfect
- Denoting actions/events that were completed at some time in the past.
- Present Habitual
- Denoting actions/states that the subject regularly or repeatedly experiences.
- The habitual suffix -itti can be used to create a noun meaning "one who Xes habitually", something like an agent or occupational noun, e.g. kalittiek "one who eats often, a glutton", qekayateltitti "the fisherman (one who fishes)".
- Past Habitual
- Expresses actions that used to be habitual for the subject, but no longer are. The use of the past habitual is relatively rare.
- Future
- Denotes actions/states expected to occur in the future. This is the base form of the irrealis mood, which indicates merely that an action/state has not taken place and has not been completed. No indication is given as to the likelihood of the verb action taking place. As such, while the primary meaning is taken to be future, the verb may be translated not only with the English future "I will run" etc (which indicates that the action is likely to occur), but also with "I may run" etc (where there is less certainty).
- Conditional
- The conditional is the past irrealis denoting hypothetical past events. Its use is mainly restricted to a conditional sense, e.g. "I would have run" etc.
- Imperative/Hortative
- Generally expressing commands, entreaties, wishes or obligations. It must be preceded by the particle faa. The strength of the meaning is purely contextual. The 2nd person forms may be a translated as direct imperative, e.g. faa litipya "run!" but also "you ought to run, please run, may you run". In the other persons, these other meanings are also used, e.g. faa misuntsya "I ought to sleep", faa tśikalya "one ought to eat".
Causative
A suffix -tsa may be added to the end of the verb to create a causative. Here, the subject prefix marks the agent of causation and the object prefix marks the agent of the verb itself, e.g. kisuneenitsa "I make him see". Causatives usually take an indirect object (see below).
Nominals
Nouns were marked for gender (masculine, other), number (singular, plural) and state (absolute, construct) through a series of affixes. Adjectives were unmarked but formed compounds with the noun they modified. Personal pronouns were usually prefixes attached to verbs, nouns, adjectives etc.
Gender
The earliest recorded examples of Kelt appear to have had an unbalanced gender system in which singular nouns could be masculine (denoted by the suffix -e or -eh), feminine (-ah) or neuter (-a). These classes appear to have been semantically driven based largely on natural gender, with some exceptions, for example fake(h) "male", fakah "female", qrala "house". In the plural there were only two endings: -ii which seems to have been an animate plural (for both masculine and feminine nouns), and -aa which appears to have been an inanimate or neuter plural, but was also used to create animate collective nouns. For example, fakii "men, women", qralaa "houses", fakaa "people".
| Singular | Masculine -e(h) |
Feminine -ah |
Neuter -a |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plural | Animate -ii |
Inanimate/Collective -aa |
Already in the earliest historical period this system appears to have been breaking down due to the creation of a new masculine class with suffixes ending in -k, probably derived from the honorific ending ke, originally applied only to nouns connected with the life of the warrior elite. Some remaining nouns from this class initially passed into the feminine (with sg. -ah, pl. -ii), blurring the purely semantic boundaries of the classes, while the use of the collective plural for feminine nouns eventually led to the merger of the feminine and neuter classes (with sg. -ah, pl. -aa(h). Other masculine nouns fell together with the new class.
By the better attested Middle Kelt period the gender system was based on two largely semantic classes:
- the masculine class (also called the E-class) included male humans, animals and deities along with other 'masculine' objects denoted by shape (i.e. long/tall and narrow), material (all metal and some stone objects belong here), purpose (e.g. weapons) or importance (including many celestial bodies).
- the other class (or A-class) contains all other nouns that don't belong to the masculine category, including all female living beings and deities, and many abstracts.
As gender is semantically determined, stems usually have inherent gender but some nouns may belong to more than one gender with a difference of meaning, e.g. the root HATAL "child" may be masculine qehatal "the boy" or other qahatal "the girl, the child". Masculine nouns may be declined as 'other' to give a pejorative sense, e.g. putah "effeminate or weak man".
A feminine suffix -s (-ts after nasals and approximants) may be added to any root to specify a female subject and is always declined as 'other', e.g. qahatalts "the girl", nuuksah "a bitch".
Number
Nouns are either singular or plural and number is required on all nouns.
A collective suffix -ul can be used to denote a class of objects and is declined as a singular noun, e.g. putulek "men (in general)".
State
All nouns have an absolute and a construct form. The absolute is marked with suffixes and is the form used without any preceding determiner or pronominal prefix and, as such, may be called 'indefinite'. The construct occurs with a preceding determiner or pronominal prefix and is usually definite.
Construct nouns must be preceded by one of the following:
- a demonstrative prefix
- a possessive prefix
- a verbal prefix
Declension
All nouns consist of an immutable stem to which affixes are attached, e.g. PUT "man", QRAL "house", NUUK "dog". The stem may not stand alone and must be accompanied either by absolute suffixes or some kind of prefix. Nouns are declined according to their class. Masculine nouns have e in the singular and ii in the plural. Other nouns have a in the singular and aa in the plural. These vowel sequences form part of the affixes attached to the noun stem, as follows:
| Masculine PUT | Other QRAL | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Absolute | Singular | putek | qralah |
| Plural | putiik | qralaah | |
| Construct | Singular | -eput | -aqral |
| Plural | -iiput | -aaqral |
Nouns are not marked for case (syntax is used to indicate the function of the noun), but the genitive construction is formed by adding the suffix -i to the possessed noun in the absolute state followed by the possessor in the relevant state, e.g. nuukaahi qeput "the man's dogs", qralahi qafaks "the woman's house", palatiiki selikittiik "hunters' spears".
Demonstrative Prefixes
The demonstrative prefixes are added to the beginning of the construct noun and are as follows:
- q- "that", denoting things close to the listener, but used in a general sense almost like a definite article, e.g. qaqral "the/that house".
- p- "this", denoting things close to the speaker or recently mentioned, e.g. piiput "these men"
- qr- "that" denoting things far away or abstract, e.g. qrahatal "that girl/child".
Verbal Prefixes
Verbal prefixes transform the noun into a predicate, e.g. keput "I am a man", hanuuk "it is a dog". See below for forms.
Derivation
Nouns from verbs:
- -sen basic verb noun or gerund, denoting the action of the verb, kalsenah "(an) eating, a meal",
- -t
Adjectives
Adjectives may be attributive or predicative and they may be either simple (e.g. SUUP "large") or derived from another part of speech (e.g. PUTIŚ- "manly, man-like").
An attributive adjective is placed after the noun in either its absolute or construct state and is unmarked for gender, number or state, e.g. qaqral suup "the big house", putek neh "an old man". In many cases an attributive adjective may be compounded with the noun stem, where the relationship between the noun and adjective is stronger. Here, the adjective intervenes between the construct noun stem and prefixes, e.g. qasuupqral "the big house, the mansion", nehputek "an old man".
A predicative adjective may be formed by adding the verbal prefixes to the stem where the subject is a pronoun, e.g. kiputiś "I am manly", hisuup "it is large". When the subject is a noun the attributive structure is used and verbal prefixes are added to the noun, e.g. haqral suup "it is a large house" or "the house is large", siput neh "he is an old man" or "the man is old".
- Note: the personal forms of adjectives and nouns are strictly tenseless, so that hisuup may be translated as "it is large", "it was large", or "it will be large" depending on context.
Adjective stems may function as nouns by taking the appropriate affixes, with gender and number matching the referent. The meaning is always "X one(s)" so qiisuup "the large ones (m.)" < SUUP "large", qrahets "this salt" (lit. "this salty one") < HETS "salty", humah "honey" (lit. "sweet one") < HUM "sweet".
Adjectives may also take verbal affixes, typically with an inchoative meaning. Compare the following forms with MAL "hot": himali "it gets/is getting hot", himalimen "it got hot" (and stayed hot), himala "it got hot" (and is no longer), himalamen "it got hot earlier" (and is no longer), himalitti "it gets hot often", himalittimen "it got hot often", himalya "it will get hot".
Pronouns
Personal Pronouns
Personal pronouns are most commonly found in the form of the subject and object prefixes. The independent pronouns are used:
- Following prepositions, e.g. fal wat "to them"
- Following conjunctions, e.g. ku lat "and you"
- As an independent clause
| Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | kat | nat |
| 2 | lat | tat |
| 3m | sat | wat |
| 3o | hat | |
| Ind. | tśat |
Interrogatives, Demonstratives & Indefinites
An interrelated series of interrogative, demonstrative and indefinite words (pronouns, adjectives and adverbs) are formed with prefixes + gender/number affixes + roots denoting place, manner, time etc.
The prefixes are:
- f- for interrogative words
- q-, qr- and p- for demonstrative words (distributed in the same way as determiners
- m- for indefinites
The roots are:
- -ne for people and things
- -le for place
- -ntap for time
- -qim for manner
- -ku for reason
- -man for quantity
| Interrogative f- |
Distal q- |
Abstract qr- |
Proximal p- |
Indefinite m- | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Person (m.) | fene "who" | qene "that one" | qrene "that one" | pene "this one" | mene "someone" |
| Person/Thing (o.) | fane "who, what" | qane "that one" | qrane "that one" | pane "this one" | mane "someone, something" |
| Place | fale "where" | qale "there" | qrale "over there" | pale "here" | male "somewhere" |
| Time | fantap "when" | qantap "then" | qrantap "then" | pantap "now" | mantap "sometime" |
| Manner | faqim "how" | qaqim "in that way | qraqim "in that way" | paqim "in this way" | maqim "somehow" |
| Reason | faku "why" | qaku "because" | qraku "because" | paku "because" | maku "for some reason" |
| Quantity | faman "how much, how many" | qaman "that many" | qraman "that many" | paman "this many" | maman "a certain number" |
Numbers
Cardinal
Kelt used a vigesimal numerical system (based on the number 20) with a sub-base of 5. The first 20 numbers are:
| 1 | wan | 6 | maswan | 11 | tulwan | 16 | petwan |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | tśak | 7 | mastśak | 12 | tultśak | 17 | pettśak |
| 3 | fap | 8 | masfap | 13 | tulfap | 18 | petfap |
| 4 | wak | 9 | maswak | 14 | tulwak | 19 | petwak |
| 5 | mas | 10 | tul | 15 | pet | 20 | sel |
Above 20 the pattern repeats, but the 'twenties' are separated by a hyphen, e.g. sel-wan "21", sel-tul "30", sel-tulwak "34". Multiples of 20 are:
| 40 | tśaksel | 60 | fapsel | 80 | waksel | 100 | yan |
|---|
Yan "100" is the highest unique numeral. Above this, tens and units follow after the conjunctive particle i, e.g. yan i wan "101", yan i waksel-tulfap "193".
Multiples of 100 are formed like multiples of 20 but continue beyond "4x", e.g. tśakyan "200", fapyan "300", maswanyan "600", tulyan "1,000", petyan "1,500", selyan "2,000".
Higher numbers (above 100) are rarely attested; the system for counting above 2,000 is unknown and may not have existed. The word hatmara occurs in some contexts and appears to have originally meant "a great number" but may have been used in later Kelt to translate Latin milia "thousand".
Ordinal
Ordinals are formed simply by adding the suffix -im to the cardinal number or to the end of a hyphenated string, e.g. wanim "first", maswakim "ninth", sel-tulim "30th". With "100" and above, the suffix is added to the hundred, e.g. yanim i wan "101st", tulyanim i sel-tulwak "1034th".
Prepositions
Kelt had only a small number of basic prepositions indicating either location or motion. These could be combined with each other or with nominal elements in order to create more complex prepositions and adverbs.
The simple and combined prepositions are as follows:
| Simple | Interior | Exterior | Surface | Adjacent | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Simple | li "in" | ta "out" | sa "on, at" | kun "by, near" | |
| Motion to | an "to" | anli "into" | anta "out to" | ansa "onto" | ankun "up to" |
| Motion From | pa "from" | pali "from in" | pata "from out" | pasa "off" | pakun "from" |
| Motion/Location† | fal "about" | falli "through" | falta "around" | falsa "along, across" | falkun "beside" |
†fal and its derivatives denote either motion or location on an extended plane.
Both simple and combined prepositions may be used with nominal elements, often derived from parts of the body, to create more prepositions.
- with felat "head", denoting position above:
- safelat "on top of"
- kunfelat "above, over"
- anfelat "up"
- with waal "foot", denoting position below:
- sawaal "at the bottom of"
- kunwaal "below, beneath"
- anwaal "down"
- with tal "side", denoting position beside:
- satal "beside"
- kuntal "at the side of"
- with ken "back", denoting position behind:
- saken "on the back of"
- kuntal "behind, beyond, after"
- falkuntal "behind, after"
- with wah "face", denoting position before:
- sawah "on the front of"
- kunwah "in front of, before"
- anwah "against, opposite"
When followed directly by their noun referent, these nominal prepositions take the connecting suffix -i, e.g. safelati qaqral "on top of the house", kunwahi qahelmen "in front of the fire".
Syntax
Basic word order is SVO. Where the subject and/or object are pronouns, they are expressed with prefixes so that a single verb may be an entire sentence, e.g. kilupiini "I love you", siwutanya "he will kill them".
Arguments formed of a noun or noun phrase are placed before or after the conjugated verb, which must include the relevant prefixes agreeing in gender and number with the argument, e.g. qeput sihupiini fakah "the man loves a woman", qeselik siwutanya qiitruts "the hunter will kill the boars".
Indirect objects are placed before or after the main SVO structure, usually preceded by a preposition, e.g. tihurawamen fal kat "you gave it to me", ipa palatiik wisutanamen "they killed him with spears". Indirect objects of a causative verb (i.e. the semantic object of the original verb) always come after the verb, e.g. kisuneenitsa qaqral "I made him see the house, I showed him the house).
Derivation
Derivation of the Kelt root is carried out in one of three ways:
- zero-derivation simply uses the root in another part of speech.
- affixation uses prefixes and suffixes to alter the meaning
- compounding joins roots or stems together to alter the meaning.
Derivative Affixes
Nouns
- -s (-ts after approximants and nasals): feminine (e.g. turtsah "goddess")
Adjectives
Verbs
- -el: "re-, again" (e.g. kikelela "I spoke again")
- -kun: comitative, "together" (e.g. wikalkunitti "they eat together")
- -ts: causative (e.g. sikuneentsa "he showed me")
Compounding
Compounding forms an important part of Kelt derivation and can affect nouns, adjectives or verbs.
Nominal compounds generally consist of a head word preceded by another word that qualifies the meaning of that noun.
- Noun + Noun compounds usually create a subtype of the head noun, e.g. laan "breath" + qal "wind" = laanqalah "breeze", tśitel "demon" + hel "fire" = tśitselhelah "wild-fire". In some cases there may be a genitive relationship between the two elements, e.g. kayat "fish" + palat "spear" = kayatpalateh "fish-spear, harpoon", tur "god" + qral "house" = turqralah "temple". Usually the compound will follow the gender of the head noun, but semantics may dictate otherwise.
- Adjective + Noun compounds also form a subtype of the noun, e.g. suup "large" + qral "house" = suupqralah "mansion, palace",
- Verb + Noun compounds form a subtype of the noun that carries out that verb either as the agent or as an instrument, e.g. selik "hunt" + nuuk "dog" = seliknuukah "hound".
Adjective compounds consist of a head word preceded by a qualifying noun or adjective:
- Noun + Adjective usually creates an adjective meaning 'X as a Y', e.g. luts "sun" + napan "hot" = lutsnapan "hot as the sun".
- Adjective + Adjective compounds usually indicate a combination of the two adjectives or something in between, e.g. kawan "weak" + neh "old" = kawanneh "frail, decrepit".
In verbal compounds, a noun object may be incorporated into the verb creating an intransitive verb, e.g. hurat "offering" + raw "give" = kihuratrawamen "I made an offering".
A Verb + Verb compound creates a kind of serial verb construction in which the two verbs occur simultaneously, often where the first verb describes the manner of the second, e.g. maap "walk" + tuq "come" = kimaaptuqamen "I came walking", teś "fall" + mit "go down" = kiteśmitamen "I fell down", pel "carry" + tuq "come" = kipeltuqamen "I brought".
Vocabulary
- EEN v. see
- een_tsa v. show
- ETS adj. salty • no. salt • v. to salt
- FAK no. woman, person
- HATAL nm. boy • no. girl, child
- KAL no. food • v. eat
- KAYAT nm. fish • no. fish (flatfish etc.) • v. fish
- kayatitti nm. fisherman
- LAAN no. breath • v. breathe
- qallaan no. breeze
- NEH adj. old, aged • nm. old man • no. old woman, old person, old thing
- NUUK nm. male dog • no. dog, bitch
- PALAT nm. spear, harpoon • v. spear, harpoon
- PIIN no. love • v. love
- PUT nm. man, husband
- putiś adj. manly
- QRAL no. house, dwelling, building used for a specific purpose • v. dwell, live
- RAWA no. gift • v. give
- SELIK no. quarry, prey • v. hunt, chase
- selikitti nm. hunter
- SIL no. rain • v. rain
- SUNTS no. sleep • v. sleep
- SUUP adj. large, big, great
- TAN v. kill
- TIP v. run
- TRUTS nm. (wild-)boar • no. wild boar
Swadesh List
Vocabulary