Kirtumur verbs: Difference between revisions

Middle voice is unmarked and morphologically looks fairly similar to the active voice of intransitive verbs: ''hakaure'' "I am sleeping (active)", ''hakhat'' "I stop (middle)"; the only difference is the absence of ''"-e"'' in middle verbs. The subject of such verbs is like the subject of active verbs, but it is also affected by the action it performs. This also makes this voice similar to [[w:Reflexive verb|reflexive]], which, unlike the former, has a direct object, which is the same as the subject: ''eca'''m'''akhat'' "I stopped '''myself''' from (doing) it". After active Kyrdan verbs underwent several morphological changes, the middle voice became indistinguishable from from the active voice of intransitive verbs in some forms: ''eikhat'' "it stopped (middle)" and ''eitum'' "she/he said (active)" have the same forms (comparing to Kērsalur ''eikhat'' and ''eitume'' with the same meaning). In Umunesal, as well as in almost all spoken varieties, the middle voice is slowly becoming the [[w:Mediopassive voice|mediopassive]].

In Erepursal it is common to use antipassive of transitive verbs if both participants of an action are inanimate, for example: ''hestaun nōex šakykatē'' "the hammer cracked a stone". Umunesal simply uses active voice instead: ''khilkilem nō ekukatē''. Erepursal also uses passive voice in that case, when a speaker wants to emphasise a more salient participant instead: ''hestaunex nō našakykōt'' (lit: "the stone was cracked by a hammer"). Umunesal usually does not use an equivalent construction.

In a clause with passive voice, the patient of the main verb becomes the intransitive subject, while the former agent is deleted. Morphologically it is formed from a transitive verb by replacing its person suffix with a prefix ''m-'': ''khathō'' "I stop you" – '''''m'''ōkhathe'' "You are stopped" (here the suffix "''-e''" reappears, because it is no longer blocked by the person suffix). Unlike antipassive, passivisation always involves deleting the transitive subject, never changing it into an adjunct. This construction is called the dynamic passive, the usage of which is restricted, because it is similar to reflexive and in some cases the forms can coincide: ''meyil'' means either "it was thrown away" or "it threw itself away". Kirtumur solves this ambiguity by mainly choosing a reflexive meaning, while for a passive meaning the stative passive is used instead: ''yilauni'' "thrown away"; this is a non-finite verb form and usually such forms cannot be used on their own in a sentence, for example, the sentence ''heimnu '''ritēni''' amax'' "(this) is the place, where his/her house '''is built'''" is correct, because it contains a [[w:Predicate (grammar)|predicate]] ''amax'', while ''*heimnu '''ritēni''' yim'' "*here his/her house '''built'''" is not valid, because it requires a finite verb. A stative passive differs from a dynamic passive in that it only indicates the event or state and does not specify its duration. The form ''heim mirite'' "the house is being built" indicates that the action is ongoing, unlike the previous example. This differs from the West Kyrdan languages that preserved the old suffix ''*-ëqa'': ''egudeˀa'' "it was built" (Cirdamur). The corresponding East Kyrdan suffix ''*-aq'' disappeared completely in Kirtumur and only shows traces in Kērsalur, since in both languages the middle voice gained a broader usage.