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Chiresh: Difference between revisions
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===Prosody=== | ===Prosody=== | ||
Modern Chiresh has a simple mobile stress. Most words are stressed on their initial syllable, but certain prefixes and suffixes can drag stress towards them. Some southern dialects have a simple initial stress in all words. In its earlier stages of development Chiresh probably had a pitch accent, but it was lost and instead syllables, that used to have a high pitch, tend to become stressed. The same happened in the neighbouring Miirei language. | Modern Chiresh has a simple mobile stress. Most words are stressed on their initial syllable, but certain prefixes and suffixes can drag stress towards them. Some southern dialects have a simple initial stress in all words. In its earlier stages of development Chiresh probably had a pitch accent, but it was lost and instead syllables, that used to have a high pitch, tend to become stressed. The same happened in the neighbouring Miirei language. | ||
==Grammar== | |||
In general terms, Chiresh is an agglutinative language, with many grammatical functions being served by both prefixes and suffixes, primarily on the verb, though some affixes select nouns as well. A feature, shared by all Plains languages is the use of an [[w:Obviative|obviation]] system as a way to track which entities and concepts are particularly central/salient to a story. Nouns, verbs, and some adverbs take obviative markers, making it different from the obviation system, like in other Plains languages. Chirseh also makes use of an inverse system, similarly to other West Plains languages. The language also has an overt [[w:Copula (linguistics)|copula]], ''(y)in'' ("to be"), which is attached to nouns as a suffix - the feature it shares with Miirei. | |||
===Word order=== | |||
Word order in Chiresh is flexible and differ in response to discourse and pragmatic concerns. As is the case with many head-marking languages, it is rare to have both an overt subject and an overt object in a sentence since the morphology of the verb usually makes it clear who is acting on whom. In a "neutral" context, VSO word order is preferred; however, it also alternates with SOV order in short sentences and when a new topic is introduced. The pre-verbal position in VSO-type sentences can be occupied by adverbs and particles. | |||
In Chiresh the situations, which involve the use of first- or second-person markers on verbs, require using markers from two (or three in case of some verbs) sets of markers, for a subject and for an object. But when both the subject and the object are the third person singular, both will require zero markers. As a consequence, the inverse system on a verb will be used to clarify the interaction between these third persons along with obviation on nouns. The following example shows the difference between direct and inverse constructions: | |||
:{| | |||
|xüttĕ | |||
|ilăxăn | |||
|nonnă. | |||
|- | |||
|xütt-ĕ | |||
|ilăx-ăn | |||
|∅-∅-nonn-ă | |||
|- | |||
|man.AN.SG.PROX | |||
|woman-AN.SG.OBV | |||
|3sg.AN-3sg.AN-see.PFV-DIR | |||
|- | |||
| colspan="5" |"The man (proximate) saw a woman (obviative)". | |||
| | |||
|} | |||
:{| | |||
|xüttĕn | |||
|ilăxă | |||
|nonu. | |||
|- | |||
|xütt-ĕn | |||
|ilăx-ă | |||
|∅-non-u | |||
|- | |||
|man.AN.SG.OBV | |||
|woman-AN.SG.PROX | |||
|3sg.AN-3sg.AN-see.PFV-INV | |||
|- | |||
| colspan="5" |"A man (obviative) saw the woman (proximate)". | |||
| | |||
|} | |||
In Chiresh [[w:Dependent clause|dependent]] clauses are marked with an ''"i-" prefix on a verb and an obligatory VS(O) word order, as are questions and relative clauses. The nominalization of a verb usually does not require the ''i-'' prefix, but insead it is characterised by an initial vowel change, for example, ''pură'' "he/she drinks" turns into ''(-i)pör'' "drinking", when nominalized, here the prefix only appears when prefixes are attached. | |||
[[Category:Languages]] [[Category:Settameric languages]] | [[Category:Languages]] [[Category:Settameric languages]] | ||