Nankôre
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Nankôre | |
---|---|
Nankôre | |
Pronunciation | [/nan.'ko:re/] |
Created by | – |
Native to | Nanhoshka Kôya |
Native speakers | 3,232,430 (2014) |
Nahenic
| |
Official status | |
Official language in | Koya Island |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-1 | nk |
ISO 639-2 | nnk |
Background
Nankôre, from the words nan ("man, human") and kôre ("speech"), is spoken by the Nanhoshka people of Kôya Island. There are two main dialects, the Konishmak, located in the Northeastern Coastal Mountains, and the Sapshira, encompassing the western and southern parts of the country. The dialects differ chiefly in pronunciation and differences in certain lexical items, but are otherwise mutually intelligible.
For a little over a century the origins of the language and its people remain clouded in mystery. Physically, the Nanhoshka people look distinct from the Northwest Pacific Native Americans just 862 kilometers from the eastern shore, but their physical features bear a strikingly close resemblance to the Minhast people of the Republic of Minhay, who live much further away on the other side of the Pacific Ocean close to Japan and Ainushir. Because of these physical resemblances, both anthropologists and linguists started exploring a possible relationship between the two peoples. Recent genetic research uncovered that both the Nanhoshka and Minhast belong to the haplogroup C-M212, indicating a common ancestry. Linguists had a more difficult task in establishing a relationship. Finally Benson et. al. compiled an extensive Swadesh list and internally consistent sound correspondences between the two languages. Most importantly, a set of affixes that were quite conservative were revealed, notably the Causative affix, and a set of fossilized affixes which are prefixed to body parts to derive verbs. In addition, a third language, Nahónda, also previously classified as a language isolate, contained common vocabulary and affixes which it shared with both Nankôre and Minhast. Therefore, both Nankôre and Minhast, along with Nahónda, are now recognized as belonging to the same language family, which has been named the Nahenic language family.
Phonology
Orthography
The Nankôre orthography is based on the Allen-Mills system, derived from the Latin alphabet. However, a second system, the American Media system, has started displacing the Allen-Mills system. Although based on the Allen-Mills system, the American Media system uses the grapheme <y>, and the digraphs <ch> and <sh>, to make transcription of the language more accessible to American readers.
Allen-Mills | American Media | IPA |
---|---|---|
' | (n/a) | ʔ |
a,ā, â, á | a,ā,â, á | ɑ, ɑ: |
e | e, eh | e |
i | i, ih | ɪ, i |
o, ô | o, ô | o, o: |
u | u | u |
c | c, ch | tʃ |
s | sh | s, s̺, ʃ |
š | sh | ʃ |
h | h | h |
k | k | k |
r | r | r |
m | m | m |
n | n | n |
p | p | p |
t | t | t |
y | y | j |
Note that the grapeme <s> is pronounced /ʃ/ or /s̺/ when followed by [i] (e.g. shinkokah "orca"), or in coda position (Nanhoshka "the True People"). A few decades after the Allen-Mills transcription system was developed, a sound shift in the northwestern Hoyampe dialect, whereby /s/ shifted to the voiceless apico-alveolar fricative /s̺/ when followed by /i/ or in coda position. A similar sound shift occurred at around the same time in the northeastern Konishmak dialect (possibly the result of the Hoyampe sound shift), but it was the voiceless palato-alveolar fricative /ʃ/ that appeared. It was this sound shift that spread out through most of the country, although there are some remote regions of the country that have not been affected by either sound shift. As a result in foreign transcriptions <sh> is often used in words where the /s/ >> /ʃ/ has already occurred, e.g. akôsh vs. the original akôs transcription
The grapheme <ô> is used to indicate vowel length for /o/, and <ā> for /ɑ/.
Consonants
Nankôre has a small inventory of consonants, only fourteen in number. Noteworthy is the paucity of voiced consonants which contributes to the limited number of consonants in the Nankôre language. The following table contains the entire consonantal inventory:
Bilabial | Dental | Alveolar | Apical | Post-alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Nasal | m | n | ||||||
Stop | p | t | k | ʔ | ||||
Affricate | ͡tʃ | |||||||
Fricative | s | s̻ | ʃ | h | ||||
Approximant | j | |||||||
Flap | r |
Vowels
Front | Near- front | Central | Near- back | Back | ||
Close |
| |||||
Near-close | ||||||
Close-mid | ||||||
Mid | ||||||
Open-mid | ||||||
Near-open | ||||||
Open |
Prosody
Stress
Intonation
Phonotactics
Morphophonology
Morphology
Nouns
The Nominal Hierarchy
Nankôre nouns, at first glance, appears very simple. They are not inflected for case, gender, nor do adpositions indicate their directional or positional relationships. Number is distinguished only in pronouns. Nevertheless, the nominal system has a complex hierarchy of animacy, which although unmarked, is a semantic feature of the noun and pronoun. This hierarchy of animacy is used to determine the syntactic roles of the core arguments of a clause, namely that of Agent and Patient. Arguments that are higher in the Animacy Hierarchy are by default considered Agents, whereas lower animacy arguments are considered Patients. If the syntactic roles of two core arguments are reversed, namely a lower animacy argument acts as an Agent on a higher animacy Patient argument, a special construction known as the Inverse Voice, involving the prefix tā(h)-, is added to both the main verb and the auxiliary verb itá'. Thus, the Inverse Voice is doubly-marked.
Where a given NP falls within the animacy hierarchy must be memorized in order to use the verbal inverse prefix tā(h)- correctly (see section on Verbs for additional details regarding inverse marking).
The Nankôre nominal hierarchy has been traditionally classified along two axes, the first marking category, and the second marking levels of hierarchy within a given category. Animacy along categories decrease as one traverses from Supernatural/Phenomonological onwards towards the Ephemeral. Animacy decreases as one goes down the Level axis. The hierarchy is arranged according to the following table:
Level | Supernatural & Phenomonological |
Human | Animals | Weather | Lower Animals | Plants | Geophysical | Material | Ephemeral | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Mammals | Birds | |||||||||
1 | Gods, the Earth, the Sun, the Sky/Heavens | Adults >> Children | predator >> prey | Clouds | Reptiles (excluding snakes) | Forests | Rushing rivers | Water | Magic | |
2 | Demons | Older >> Younger | wild >> domesticated | Rain | Snakes | Large Trees | Slow-moving rivers | Food | Actions | |
3 | Human & Animal Spirits | Male >> Female | Pet (usually carnivorous) >> Non-Pet (usually raised for food) | Snow | Amphibians | Small Trees | Streams, brooks, springs | Fabrics, fibers, skins, clothing | Emotions | |
4 | Destructive Forces of Nature | Strong >> Weak | Large >> Small | Wind | Fish | Fruit/Nut Trees | Lakes | Wood | Thoughts | |
5 | Lightning | Large >> Small | Strong >> Weak | Breeze | Crustaceans | Bushes/Shrubs | Glaciers | Buildings | Disease | |
6 | Ocean | Quick >> Slow | Quick >> Slow | Water | Insects | Prairie grass | Mountains | Metals | States | |
7 | Thunderstorms | Intelligent >> Unintelligent | Carnivore >> Herbivore >> Carrion Eater | Air | Worms | Leafy plants | Cliffs, jagged outcroppings, tumuli, boulders | Jewels and gemstones | Abstractions | |
8 | Fire | Fertile >> Infertile | Stud >> Gelded | Flight >> Flightless | Muggy weather | Mollusks | Mushrooms/Fungi/Mosses | Flat land or gently rolling landscape | Stones, rocks, pebbles | Death |
If two nouns with equal animacy but different number appear as core arguments, the plural noun is assigned a higher animacy status than the singular noun. However, if animacy and number are equal, the most recently introduced noun, providing it was introduced as a core argument, is assigned the higher animacy status.
In situations were two nouns have equal animacy and equal number, the rules for assigning the position each core argument in the hierarchy is as follows:
- If one of the nouns is just newly introduced info, it is considered less animate because the older noun has been presumably been the center of discourse and at least during part of the previous discourse it was agent. SOV order is usually used, particularly if pragmatics and other contextual cues cannot disambiguate the syntactic roles
- HOWEVER, if the new noun is topicalized with the clitic ="=hat", it is considered the agent.
- Another pattern, where a new noun is introduced by an intransitive been as a Patient argument, it is regarded as the less animate argument once the older noun is reintroduced back into the discourse in a transitive construction.
- If the animacy level of each argument cannot be resolved, then the unmarked SOV word order is used when context can't disambiguate syntactic roles.
The Noun Template
root - derivation - adjective - demonstrative/decessives
Derivational Affixes
-no: Diminutive suffix, e.g. kurash (woman), kurashno (girl)
Adjectival Suffixes
Nankôre lacks a separate word class for adjectives. They may be expressed as attributive verbs, e.g. Aryak neshkak itá, "Aryak is smart", Kanko shoykar itá, "Kanko (an indigenous vegetable) is good" (for your health), or a suffix may be attached to the noun it modifies. These suffixes are called adjectival suffixes. Some of these suffixes are etymologically derived from an attributive verb, e.g. -kerek > karyak itá "to be red". Others appear to be derived from separate roots, c.f. "Aryak-arku", ("clever Aryak") vs "Aryak neshkak itá" ("Aryak is clever"). Theoretically an unlimited number of suffixes may be appended to the noun, but in practice the number of adjectival suffixes seldom exceeds three. The suffixes may appear in any order, so long as the meaning is comprehensible. Nevertheless it appears that scope determines the ordering of the suffixes: suffixes with wider scope tend to appear towards the end e.g. "Kenenkor-pita-shune-une itá" (bed plush-red-soft-very 3S.COP ) "It is a very soft, red and plush bed."
There are seven traditional categories of adjectival affixes:
- Quality
- Quantity
- Strength
- Size
- Color
- Tactile
- Other Attributes
Demonstrative Clitics
Type | Spatial | English Translation | Example |
---|---|---|---|
Proximal | =shkoro | this one near me; now | nan=ishkoro "this man here"; oriyat=hepi "today" |
Medio-Proximal | =hori, =ori | that one by you; just awhile ago | nan=hori "that man next to you"; |
Distal | =nko, =kekori | yonder, that one near him/her/them; yesterday, a few days ago | nan=inko "yonder man"" |
Invisible | =nanak | that one beyond the horizon, or occluded by a distant object | nan=nanak "that man (e.g. on the other side of the mountain)" |
Number
Number is usually determined by context, but plurality can be indicated by either joining a cardinal number, a quantifier, or the plural marker no before the noun. The noun is always linked to these modifiers by the si- connective, as in no si-kurashno "the girls".
Quantifiers
kamun = "all"
Interrogatives
Header text | Header text | Notes |
---|---|---|
Who | ra' | Possibly cognate with Minhast redad |
What | pôh | c.f. Minhast bak |
When | tu'a | |
Where | nahí' | c.f. Minhast nakki. Also, note dialectal variant enket (Sapshira dialect) |
Why | penóh | |
Which | yôri- |
As Interrogatives proper, they appear BEFORE the auxiliary itá' and are accompanied by rising intonation, and often preceded by a slight pause after the main VP: Okep nari ayrarke, penóh hô'itá? (Why did Okep spank her child earlier this morning?), Ka ta-honé, ra pish'itá? ("Who is making you cry?)
All Interrogatives can also serve as conjunctions, eg Hôri ak konsho tā'itá' penóh Okep nari ayrarke ho (I did not hear/receive the news why Okep spanked (her) nephew early this morning").
Interrogatives can also serves as Conditionals by a shi- Topicalization structure: Ra'=shi karampo neknek tā'itá, shi-akosh ta-makkó itá' ("Whoever slaughtered the bear (in this manner) is a danger to us all"). Take note that the embedded clause linked to the Interrogative is linked to its matrix clause by the Connective as well.
Ra' is a high-animacy pronoun and is outranked only by proper nouns, and 1st and 2nd person prounouns. With regards to 3rd person pronouns, the situation is more complicated, where the 3rd person pronoun sometimes outranks ra' , and other times ra' outranks the 3rd person pronoun. This is because the semantics of the verb (see examples with the Verbs of Victimhood" below).
Pôh is much lower in the Animacy Heirarchy, classified just above Sessiles. Yôri- is always prefixed to the noun it modifies and can never appear as an independent word. If necessary, it can be prefixed to pôh and ra' (yôripoh and yôra' ) in order to avoid repeating its host noun, or in cases where the target NP contains more than one noun class or type (e.g. a mix of men and women).
Pronouns
The first group of pronouns are the simple independent pronouns. The animacy of each pronoun is arranged in the following hierarchy:
Pronominal hierarchy |
---|
1st >> 2nd >> 3rd |
Plurality generally does not affect the animacy level across persons. However, if two 3rd person arguments have the same animacy and one of the arguments is plural, then the plural argument is assigned a higher animacy level.
The following table lists the forms of the simple independent pronouns:
Singular | Plural | |
---|---|---|
1S | ak | akôs, akôsh |
2S | kā, ka | kakôs, kakôsh |
3S | tā, ta | takôs, takôsh |
If used as a core argument, they appear in intransitive clauses only, and just before the clause-final copula itá,e.g. Nitori kā itá! (You are a fool); sometimes the pronoun is cliticized to the main verb, e.g. Nitoriká' itá!, in which case a final long vowel is shortened and is appended with the glottal stop. They may also be used to emphasize a noun, in which case the pronoun precedes the noun linked with the connective si=, as in tā shi=naho (She/Her, the mother).
Singular | Plural | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1S | 2S | 3S | 1P | 2P | 3P | ||
1S |
-- |
akak | akat |
-- |
akakos, akakosh | akatos, akatosh | |
2S | akak |
-- |
kat | akoska, akoshka |
-- |
katakos, katakosh | |
3S | akat | kat | tat | akosta, akoshta | kakosta, kakoshta | takosta, takoshta | |
Plural x Plural | |||||||
1P |
-- |
akoskos, akoshkosh | akostos, akoshtosh | ||||
2P | akoskos, akoshkosh |
-- |
kakostos, kakoshtosh | ||||
3P | akostos, akoshtosh | kakostos, kakoshtosh | takostos, takoshtosh |
As earlier stated, nouns in Nankôre are not inflected, nor are case clitics attached to them to indicate case relations. Transitive verbs take two NPs as core arguments. The case relations of the two arguments are determined by the position of the noun in the animacy hierarchy; the core argument that is higher in the animacy hierarchy is assigned the Agent role, and the other argument is assigned the Patient role. However, an inverse affix tā=/tāh=/ta=/t= is prefixed to the verb or its auxiliary to alter the argument structure by marking the lower-animacy argument as Agent.
Unlike the Intransitive forms, the portmanteau Transitive forms come before the main verb, not the auxiliary verb, e.g. Akostos karok tā'itá' , "I ate it". Sometimes the portmanteau is cliticized to the main verb, as in Akostos=karok tā'itá' . If the Inverse marker appears simultaneously with the Transitive portmanteau pronoun, the preverbal Inverse marker tā=/tāh=/ta=/t= cliticizes to the portmanteau pronoun. Since the Inverse voice is double-marked, the Inverse form of the auxiliary itấ' also is used, as in the improbable sentence, Takostos karok tahortā'itá'/Takostoskarok tahortā'itá' , from Tā-akostos-karok tahortā'itá' , "He/she/it ate me".
Oblique arguments on the other hand are treated as adjuncts, and are thus bound to their clause with the connective clitic si=. Context alone determines the semantic role of the oblique. Because obliques are considered adjuncts, they may not come between the core arguments and the verb, and therefore must appear either before or after the clause nucleus. To illustrate, the sentence Maska si=ohipna koykare ekán itá (anthill=CONN twig boy twist COP.PST), i.e. "The boy inserted the twig into the anthill", the noun maska (anthill) is the oblique argument and is marked with the clitic si= to join it to the rest of the sentence, e.g. Ohipna koykare ekán itá si=maska.
Verbs
Verbs mark for [blah blah blah blah]
Verb Template
Primary Verb Slot | Auxiliary Verb Slot | |||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Transitive Portmanteau Pronounr | Inverse marker | Applicative | Primary Verb | Evidential | Verb | Caus | Modality | Aspect | Intrans Pronoun | Tense | Negator | Interrogative |
Example | Example | Example | Example | Example | Example | Example | Example | Example | Example | Example | Example | Example |
An example of a sentence with a polymorphemic main verb demonstrates the templatic structure. The first line is the normalized text. The text that follows is denormalized text which indicates the morphemic boundaries of all the words. The final text is a full gloss of the denormalized text.
- Rompóy kurashno tayamyayakhoshmakor tā'itá'.
- Rompóy kurashno ta-yam-yayak-hoshma-kor tā'itá'.
- dog girl INV-COMM.APPL-go.up.mountain-often INV.PST.COP
"The dog went up the mountain with the girl."
Main Verb
The main verb is believed to be descended from a verbal noun. The main verb hosts the Inverse Marker tā-/ta-, applicative, aspect, and evidential/modal markers. If a pronoun is used, it may cliticize to the first element of the verb. However, one or more adjuncts may be inserted between the portmanteau pronoun and the verb, in which case the portmanteau cliticizes to the adjunct following it.
Applicatives
The Applicative affixes betray their origins as motion and positional verbs. However, Applicatives, unlike their locomotive verbal counterparts, also alter the argument structure of a clause by promoting an oblique NP to a derived Patient argument; this promotion of an oblique argument triggers the demotion of the original Patient argument to oblique status. Applicatives are mutually incompatible with the Passive and Antipassive markers that are carried on the auxiliary verb (see section on Auxiliary Verbs below). However, since the Applicatives increase the transitivity of a clause, thereby creating a derived Patient, the Inverse Prefix can be prefixed to the Applicative in the usual manner, namely, to mark lower animacy core arguments as Agents and higher animacy arguments as Patients in transitive clauses. When the Inverse marker cliticizes to an Applicative, morphophonemic may alternations occur.
Because of their origin from motion and positional verbs, these affixes are prefixed to the main verb.
Applicative Marker | Inverse Marker + Applicative Marker | Meaning | |
---|---|---|---|
Dative/Allative | san- | tasan- | to, towards |
Benefactive | nas- | tanas- | for |
Commitative | yam- | tayam-, teym-, tem- | with, along |
Instrumental | mak- | tamak- | by means of, using |
Ablative | ris- | tarsh- | from |
Locative | ne- | tan- | in, within |
Vialis | nak- | tanak-, tank- | through |
Prolative | rosh- | torsh- | across |
Elative | nakri- | takri- | out of |
Illative | nak- | tanak- | into |
Superessive | or- | tor- | above |
Subessive | yor- | chor- (Shapshira dialect: "toyor-") | below |
Ablative-Superessive | suk- | tushk-, toshk- | from above |
Ablative-Subessive | roy- | toroy- | from below |
Perlative | tek- | tatek- | across |
Riverine | tem-, ten- | tatem, taten- | along a river |
Montaigne | yayk- | teyk- | upwards on a mountain |
Aspect
The Perfective Aspect is null-marked, but several non-Perfect Aspects are recognized:
Aspect Marker | Meaning | |
---|---|---|
Perfect | -Ø | |
Semelfective | -no | completed in one single motion/act, e.g. hit |
Simple Imperfect | -ro | |
Durative/Repetitive | -nahoyra | several times |
Habitative | -(h)oshma, -shma | often |
Factual | -yoshir | (general truth statement, e.g. "The sun rises in the east") |
Continuative | -namporo | to continue |
Inceptive | -otah | to begin |
Cessative | -chiri | to stop |
Terminative | -ruykáno | to finish |
Incipient | -kara | about to |
Approximative | -tontoro | almost, nearly |
Frequentative | -nokori, -(o)nkori | often |
Modals and Evidentials
The Modal and Evidential suffixes occupy the final position of the main verb's template.
Mode | |
---|---|
Factual | -mash |
Hearsay | -kor |
Visual | -nui |
Intentive | -neat |
Auxiliary Verbs
Auxiliary verbs encode number, voice and tense. Intransitive pronominal core arguments, if used as independent pronouns, precede the auxiliary.
((More stuff to follow))
Animacy-Number Agreement Marking
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.
Higher Animate Singular | Higher Animate Plural | |
---|---|---|
Lower Animate Singular | -- | t(i)- |
Lower Animate Plural | first /a/ lengthened to /a:/ | ita- |
Unmarked:
- Rompóy kurasno rayro ta'itá'. "The girl played with the dog."
- Rompóy kurasno tarayro ta'itá'. "The dog played with the girls."
Higher Animate Plural x Lower Animate Singular
- Rompóy kurasno rayro ti-ta'itá'. "The girls played with the dog."
- Rompóy kurasno tarayro ti-ta'itá'. "The dog played with the girl."
Higher Animate Singular x Lower Animate Plural
- Rompóy kurasno rayro kor tā'itá'. "The girl played with the dogs."
- Rompóy kurasno tarayro kor tā'itá'. "The dogs played with the girl."
Higher Animate Plural x Lower Animate Plural
- Rompóy kurasno rayro ita-tā'itá'. "The girls played with the dogs."
- Rompóy kurasno tarayro ita-tā'itá'. "The dogs played with the girls."
Voice and Tense
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.
Note that the Present Inverse form tā'itá' is identical in form with that of the Past Direct form. Fortunately, the Inverse Voice is double-marked: the enclitic ta= and its allomorphs tā=/tah=/tāh= cliticizes to the main verb so no ambiguity arises.
HAS = High Animate Singular
HAP = High Animate Plural
LAS = Low Animate Singular
LAP = Low Animate Plural
Present | Mythological Past | Distal Past | Past | Recent Morning Past | Future | |||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
HAS x LAS | HAS x LAP | HAP x LAS | HAP x LAP | HAS x LAS | HAS x LAP | HAP x LAS | HAP x LAP | HAS x LAS | HAS x LAP | HAP x LAS | HAP x LAP | HAS/LAS | HAS x LAP | HAP x LAS | HAP x LAP | HAS x LAS | HAS x LAP | HAP x LAS | HAP x LAP | HAS x LAS | HAS x LAP | HAP x LAS | HAP x LAP | |
Direct | itá' | itâ' | titá' | titâ' | man'itá', manta', nitá' | man'itâ', mantâ', nitâ' | timan'itá', timanta', tintá' | timan'itâ', timantâ', tintâ' | suphitá', supta' | suphitâ', suptâ' | tisuphitá', cupta' | tisuphitâ', cuptâ' | tā'itá', tayta' | tā'itâ', taytâ' | titā'itá', titayta' | titā'itâ', titaytâ' | hô'itá', hoyta' | hô'itâ', hoytâ' | tihô'itá', tihoyta' | tihô'itâ', tihoytâ' | pā'itáhi, pitáh | pā'itâhi, pitâh | tipā'itáhi, tiptáh | tipā'itâhi, tiptâh |
Inverse | tā'itá', tayta' | x | x | x | taman'itá', tamanta' | x | x | x | tahorish'itá', taroshta' | x | x | x | tahortā'itá', tahorta' | x | x | x | tahorô'itá', taróyta' | x | x | x | tahorpā'itáhi, torpáytah | x | x | x |
Simple Causative | shiphitá' | x | x | x | mashpitá' | x | x | x | ishpitá' | x | x | x | tashpitá' | x | x | x | hoshpitá' | x | x | x | pashpitáhi, pashpitah | x | x | x |
Double Causative | shipshiphitá' | mashishpitá' | ishishpitá' | tashishpitá' | hoshishpitá' | pashishpitáhi, pashishpitah | ||||||||||||||||||
Intransitive Active | kitá' | mankitá' | ishkitá' | tākitá', takta' | hôkitá', hokta' | pākitáhi, paktah | ||||||||||||||||||
Intransitive Stative | itá' | mankitá' | ishkitá' | tākitá', takta' | hôkitá', hokta' | pākitáhi, paktah | ||||||||||||||||||
Passive | horkitá' | horankitá' | horishkitá' | hortākitá', hortakta | horôkitá', horokta | horpākitáhi, horpaktah | ||||||||||||||||||
Reflexive | shorkitá' | mashorkitá' | ishorkitá' | tashorkitá' | hoshorkitá' | pashorkitáhi, pashorkitáh | ||||||||||||||||||
Reciprocal | soshorkitá' | masoshorkitá' | isoshorkitá' | tasoshorkitá' | hososhorkitá' | pasoshorkitáhi, pasoshorkitah | ||||||||||||||||||
Middle/Inchoative | hankitá' | mankitá' | yankitá' | tankitá' | honkitá' | pankitáhi |
Nankôre has five intransitive voices, two basic Intransitive voices, one for Active verbs and another for Stative verbs; a Passive-Direct, a Reflexive, and a Reciprocal. A submorpheme -k- is found in all four intransitive voices, although it is lacking in the Present Tense form of the Intransitive Stative Form. The Active and Stative Intransitive forms are otherwise identical.
The Passive demotes a lower animate core argument, which is then relegated to oblique status or is dropped from the clause. All Intransitive voices are incompatible with the Inverse marker ta=/tā=/tah=/tāh= that cliticizes to the main verb.
Finals
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
As an example, the auxiliary kohán passivizes the clause, resulting in a one-argument clause containing only the logical Patient. Since there is only one core argument, the need for inverse marking no longer exists, and in fact the presence of both the passive auxiliary kohán and the inverse marker tā-/tāh-' in the same sentence is ungrammatical. The same is true for the antipassive auxilliary norhe/norhâ, that is the logical Patient is deleted leaving only the agent, and so once again, the presence of the inverse tā-/tāh- is ungrammatical. When either the Agent or the Patient has been deleted by the passive or antipassive auxiliaries, one thing that must be noted is that the demoted arguments are fully deleted. In other languages that have passives and/or antipassives, demoted core arguments need not be deleted, in fact in many languages the demoted argument may still be retained in the sentence, but this time as an oblique argument. Such is not the case in Nankôre; the former core argument cannot appear in the sentence.
The applicative verbs promote an Oblique argument to core status, thereby creating a derived Patient. This results in a transitive sentence, and the inverse marker tā-/tāh- once again can be used to disambiguate the roles of the core arguments if a lower-animacy argument is an Agent. Interestingly, unlike passivation and antipassivation, the demoted core argument, which is always the former Patient, can still appear in the clause as an Oblique argument, marked with the connective si- There are several of these auxiliaries, listed in the following table:
The Positional/Motion verbs usually appear at the beginning of the VP.
Positional/Motion Verb | Sample Sentence | Translation | Comment | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Directional | sanha | Anut America sanha-kor kamuk itá. | Anut supposedly flew to America. | -kor = HEARSAY.EVID, attaches to the first verb of a VP. |
Benefactive | nasko | Nanhoska karen tā-nasko-ro-kor eyna itá. | It is said the (sacred) tree gave (life) for the people. | Note also the inverse marker tā- -ro- = IMPF. |
Commitative | yampe | Anut yampe-kor temen itá | Anut walked beside the river with him. | temen = to perform an activity by a river |
Instrumental | makôr | Ehok yurasna makôr-nahoyra-kor neat itá. | The adolescent struck (it) repeatedly with a club. | -nahoyra- = Repetitive neat, ne'at = INTENTIVE |
Ablative | risa | Shôni Nan Kamun Koryash risa-kor man itá | First Man emerged from (out of) the snow. | Shôni Nan "First Man" Kamun Koryash "All Snow" (the birthplace of First Man) |
Locative | neyhi | Yonka asrok tāh-neyhi-kor akun ho itá. | The fly buzzed inside Yonka('s mouth) this morning. | Note inverse marker -tāh asrok = fly, insect ho = earlier this morning. |
Vialis | nahke | Pohak tā-nahke-nui shokor-ken ka itá | I saw the river take you through the cave. | pohak = cave shokor = to flow -ken- = CAUS -nui- = VIS.EVID |
Prolative | roshkar | Ak piri roshkar hô'itá'. | I crossed the street earlier this morning | piri = street, road, path |
Superessive | oros | Ayôhe arupenrô oros-kor yaunke hô'itá. | The airplane flew over Ayôhe township earlier this morning. | arupenrô = airplane yaunke = to fly |
Subessive | yorha | Ekurki saska yorha-ro-kor kahoro itá. | The turtle swam underneath the ice. | ekurki = turtle saska = ice kahoro = to swim |
Ablative-Superessive | isuk | (Example) | (Example) | |
Ablative-Subessive | royna | (Example) | (Example) | |
Riverine | temen | No si-kurasno temen-kor rohnas itá. | The girls supposedly were playing by the river. | |
Montaigne | yayak | Kahno chôri yayak chire itá | The boy went up the mountain. |
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").
Derivation
Nankôre has a set of verbalizing prefixes that when attached to nominal roots, often body parts, create verbs. These prefixes are most likely the remnants of Proto-Nahenic noun incorporation, based on comparisons with Nankôre's distant relatives, Minhast and Nahónda; similar or even identical fossilized affixes have been found in these languages that likewise attach to nominal roots for body parts to derive verbs, e.g. Minhast kirim (from k-erum, literally "make sound with the mouth) and Nahónda teloma (from t-loma, note that Minhast /k/ maps to Nahónda /t/); kirim is the Minhast cognate of Nankôre kôre.
Prefix | Sample Noun | Example | Meaning | Nahenic Cognates | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Sound | k- | ore "mouth" | k-ore | to speak | Common Minhast k-irim "to speak" (NB: Nankôre ôre = "mouth" is cognate with Minhast erum = "mouth") |
Striking | ya- | shipa "hand" | ya-shpa | to punch | Minhast, Horse Speaker dialect: wi-šnu "to strike, hit" (Minhast išna "fist", "knuckles") |
Movement | ha- | nake "foot" | ha-nake | to scoot along the floor with one's foot; to kick around | Nahónda: ho-sispa "to give" sisp = hand; c.f. Minhast sespir = hand, Nankôre shipa = hand |
Stability | pa- | are "eye" | p-are | to stare | Common Minhast p-uħta "to stand up" (from yuħta = "sole of the foot", cognate with Nankôre yohíhita = "flat surface") |
Removal | ro- | ampe "body" | ro-yampe | to remove one's clothes | Common Minhast ruyyamb "to take off clothing" (but note that Minhast lost the original *yambet (body), replacing it with tarti (body) |
Numbers
The Nankôre number system is dozenal, i.e. base-12. The numbers thirteen through twenty-three are modified compounds consisting of the unit numbers shori (1) through shiktash (11) compounded to shin (12). The number twenty-four hanoshin can be analyzed as han-o-shin, where the affix -o- signifies "multiplied by", so hanoshin literally means "two times twelve". The multiplicative pattern continues until the number 144, which is called nakpa. The number 100 (nenanoshin >> nena ān-o-shin) is literally "four (and) eight times twelve". The ordinals for the numbers 1-7 are the cardinal numbers suffixed by -ak or -ok. Numbers 8-11 are the cardinal numbers suffixed with the ending -u. The ordinal for the number 12 is again suffixed with -ok, and the higher numbers with -nok. If the -nok affix is preceded by a consonant followed by -i-, the -i- may be dropped, provided that this does not form the impermissible consonant cluster -CCC- sequence.
-Number | Cardinal | Ordinal |
one | shôri | shoriak |
two | hani, ôhi | hanyak |
three | tushta, tak | tushtak |
four | nena, kayoka | nenak |
five | shishak | chatak |
six | shirisho | shirshok |
seven | kerisho | kirshok |
eight | ān | anku |
nine | karu | karku |
ten | kashe | kashku |
eleven | shiktash | shishtu |
twelve | shin | shinok |
thirteen | shorshin | shorshinok |
fourteen | hanshin | hanshinok, hanshnok |
fifteen | tushin | tushinok, tushnok |
sixteen | ninshin | ninshinok, nishnok |
seventeen | chashin | chashinok,chashnok |
eighteen | shirshin | shirshinok, shirishnok |
nineteen | kirshin | kirshinok, kirishnok |
twenty | anshin | anshinok, ashnok |
twenty-one | karushin | karushinok, karushnok |
twenty-two | kashmin | kashminok |
twenty-three | shikshin | shikshinok |
twenty-four | hanoshin | hanoshinok,hanoshnok |
thirty-six | tushtoshin | tushtoshinok,tushtoshinok |
one hundred | nenanoshin | nenanoshinok, nenanoshnok |
one hundred forty-four | nakpa | nakpanok |
Clitics and Particles
Temporal Deictic Clitics
The Temporal Deitic clitics are usually attached to the first word of a sentence, e.g. Anut=antak America san-kamuk tā'itá' , "A year ago, Anut flew to America". In multiclausal sentences, the clause in which they appear have scope over the elements preceding it. At least one, =yorai, cannot appear after the initial clause. These clitics may also be attached to the primary verb, and in the process replace the auxiliary tense affixes of the Direct Voice, as in Anut America san-kamuk=inkát itá' "Several years ago Anut flew to America" (note that the Temporal Deictic clitic =inkát has replaced the past tense affix tā- in tā'itá' ). Compare this with the Direct Voice Distal Past form suphitá' , in Anut America san-kamuk suphitá' , "Anut went to America a while back". Also note that the other verb voices do not lose their tense markers, as in Otok erashi ta-karok=inkat ta'itá' (boy crab INV-eat=several.years.ago INV.PST-COP) "The crab ate the boy."
Clitic | Meaning | Header text |
---|---|---|
=yorai | Once upon a time | Example |
=(i)nkát | Several years ago | Example |
=sheyhori | A few years ago | Example |
=(a)ntak | A year ago | Example |
=(e)kak | Several days ago, last week | Example |
=nate | The day before yesterday | Example |
=kira | Yesterday | Example |
=ho | Earlier this morning | Example |
=tora | Just awhile ago | Example |
=(e)yót | Now | Example |
=(e)nash | Soon | Example |
=k(e)sor | Tomorrow | Example |
=n(i)kos | In the next few days | Example |
=n(a)koy | In the indeterminate future | Example |
Syntax
Word Order
Nankôre is classified as a SOV language. The auxiliary verbs, such as the copula itá, obligatorily appear in clause-final position. Although the core argument NPs do not take any overt case marking, the animacy hierarchy and inverse system usually provide enough information to identify the Agent from the Patient, so OSV orders are also found in speech and text. Although auxiliary verbs are obligatorily clause-final, the main verb may appear at the beginning of the clause for emphasis, as in Kakno, rihat makshe no itá >> seize.3, falcon.AGT mouse.PT SEM COP, lit. "It seizes it, the falcon the mouse in.one.act it.does", i.e. "The falcon seizes the mouse in one fell swoop." Note that the fronted verb is followed by an audible pause.
As in many SOV languages, modifiers precede their heads, e.g. Shirkosh shi=rohpa, "This fine foreign cloth" (lit. "Foreigner fine.cloth").
Possession
Possession is indicated by joining the possessor to the possessum with the connective si=/shi=, followed either by the verb ras/rash to indicate inalienable possession e.g. Koykare shi=naho rash, "The boy's mother", or ocité for alienable possession, e.g. Koykare shi=mashka ocité. If the possessor is lower in the animacy heirarcy, the inverse marker ta'/tah is prefixed to the verb, as in the improbable Mashka shi=koykare tah-ocité, "The anthill's boy".
Comparatives and Superlatives
Degrees of comparison are formed by placing the auxiliary verb soyka (to be big, i.e. to be more) or hatka (to be small, i.e. to be less) before a stative verb. Since two arguments are involved, namely the comparer NP and the compared NP, the phrase is structurally equivalent to a transitive clause, requiring an Agent and a Patient, and follows the rules governing the nominal animacy hierarchy. In the sentence Joe Sara soyka inupe tā itá (Joe is stronger than Sarah; lit. "Joe bigs strongs Sara"), soyka precedes the stative verb inupe (to be strong). Joe, being male, is higher in the animacy scale and so is assigned Agent status. If Sara were stronger, the Inverse affix tā-/tāh- surfaces, as in Joe Sara tā-soyka inupe tā itá (Sara is stronger than Joe). Other examples:
1) Joe Sara soyka soyka tā itá (Joe is taller than Sara; lit. "Joe bigs bigs Sara").
2) Joe Sara tā-hatka nahamosh tā itá (Sara is less tan than Joe).
3) Joe Sara hatka hatka tā itá (Joe is smaller than Sara; lit. "Joe small smalls Sara").
4) Natos Suhe soyka makit itá (Natosh [masc.] runs faster than Suhe [fem.]; lit. "Natosh big runs Suhe").
5) Orôyo Paul tā-soyka soyka itá (The volcano is bigger than Paul; note that orôyo is less animate because it is a sessile object, hence the use of the inverse marker tā-).
To express the superlative, the clause must be antipassivized with the auxiliary verb norhe/norhâ e.g. Orôyo norhe soyka soyka itá (This is the largest mountain), or Sikôya orôyo norhe soyka soyka itá (This is the largest mountain in Kôya Island).
Constituent order
Noun phrase
Verb phrase
Sentence phrase
Dependent clauses
Example texts
Other resources
(Phrases and terms from FB - To be incorporated later)
1) "tak orâshim kot": 3 Orashim trees hands" (i.e. the number 300). The length of the trunk of an orâshim tree is the length of approximately 100 hand-lenghths, from heel of the hand to tip of the middle finger.
2) "koytan karásh", meaning "lava lizard", a scarlet colored giant salamander with venomous glands scattered across its skin. It lives in certain mountain rivers in Kôya Island
koytan = lava karásh = lizard
3) "Ekáh akôsh atoroh itá, penoh Konkekma Yamâtaroh karhok tā'itá" (We do not know why the Minhast expelled the Japanese refugees)
4) Example of the Perlative Applicative:
"Shirikoy akat teki-temen tā'itá." (I walked across the river/I forded the river).
river 1S+3S PERL.APPL-walk DIR.PST.COP
5) "bear": raiyarke
6) "spider": erte
7) "Minhashtôri nahke-nui pohro ninúrta takôsh itá. Shinráko nató ak nampita." Meaning: "The Minhast came with weapons. Thus did I take out my knife."
Minhasht-tôri nahke-nui pohro ninúrta takôsh itá. Shinráko nató ak namp-itá.
Minhast-to.be.wrong come.through while carry.weapons 3P PAST knife take.out 1S as.a.result-PAST.
8) Nankôre has two words for flesh, one for human, the other for food: "nashpi" = (carnal) flesh "aroyka" = (meat) flesh
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