Minhast/Noun Incorporation

Types of Noun Incorporation

• This is an example of Minthun's Classificatory NI (Class IV) being exploited by Minhast. Here, it is essentially creating the equivalent of a locative noun in other languages, e.g. English "Within the interior of the beast...", which is essentially an Inessive-like case construction. Here, nua means "side", and has been incorporated into the verb complex. The implicit head is suharak (deerskin), which was mentioned in a previous line in the passage, which is what the Locative applicative naħk- is referring to. This construction is equivalent to saying "Next to it", "By its side", etc.

Tayyamakim tayyapte naħkixripuxnutartimmahabu
tayyamak min tayyap=de naħk-xr-pux-nua-tar-timmah-ab-u
thunder CONN ball=ERG LOC.APPL-ITER-boom-side-3S.ANIM.ABS+3S.ANIM.ERG-IMPF-TRANS
Canonballs explode next to it.

Truncation/Weak Suppletion

Most Minhast nouns are irregular in their IN forms, the majority of which exhibit what has been referred to among Minhast linguists as truncation, but is more commonly referred to as week supletion (see also "Noun Incorporation: A New Theoretical Perspective", Alessio Muro, 2009). Cross-linguistic occurrence of this process may be seen in other languages such as Sora, a language from the Munda family in India. The first example shows the analytic version of the Sora sentence "Will they eat the buffalo/ Do they eat buffalo?". The second example shows the noun incorporated-version of the same sentence:

bɔŋtɛlәnәdɔŋ jomtɛji pɔ
bɔŋtɛl-әn-әdɔŋ jom-t-ɛ-ji pɔ
buffalo-/әn/3-ACC eat-NPST-3S-PL.S Q
Will they eat the buffalo/ Do they eat buffalo?

jombɔŋtɛnji pɔ
jom-bɔŋ-t-ɛ-n-ji pɔ
eat-buffalo-NPST-3S-INTR-PL.S Q
Will they eat the buffalo/ Do they eat buffalo?

Notice in the independent form of buffalo, bɔŋtɛl, loses its final syllable in its incorporated form, -bɔŋ-. Similarly, Minhast INs exhibit weak suppletion, and it occurs extensively, particularly with nouns longer than two syllables, e.g. sussagarānī > -suggan- (big toe), hispawak > -hispak- (birch), izzesparak > -spark- (canoe). The pattern of truncation is unpredictable; syllable loss may occur in initial, medial, or final positions, although noun roots with more than two syllables tend to lose either their medial or final syllables and retain the initial syllable, but exceptions abound, such as allāga > -lgagg- (conch) .

Noun Incorporation in Stative Verbs

Although noun incorporation in Minhast is associated with transitive verbs, stative verbs may incorporate nouns in non-Patient theta roles, as in the following example, where the incorporated noun fills a Causal role:

Kulditiprekaran
kuld-tipr-ek-ar-an
sick-flesh-1S.NOM-PST-INTR
I am sick from (infected) meat.

Such incorporation is allowed only if the semantic properties of the verb permits it; typically such verbs require the core argument's theta role to be that of Experiencer. The following example is ungrammatical, as the nominal arguments of stative verbs denoting colour are not Experiencers:

*Ruppamaktirekt asumtahālpurrakmaharan.
ruppamak-tirek=de asum-tahāl-purrak-mah-ar-an.
face-3NS.NOM+1S.NOM=ERG INCH-green-pigment-3NS.NOM-PST-INTR
My face became green from the dye.