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Takkenit: Difference between revisions
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===Nouns=== | ===Nouns=== | ||
Takkenit nouns have the grammatical categories of number (singular, dual, plural), case (nominative, genitive, accusative, locative, ablative and vocative) and possessivity (non-possessive versus possessive forms). Yet because the language is active-stative rather that nominative-accusative, the nominative case is sometimes called the agentive, the accusative - the patientive and the locative - the indirect or oblique case (locative has also the function of dative and marks an indirect object of a sentence). If a clause has more that one word (such a in "a small bush") endings are attached only to the main word of a clause: ''kulu kenna'' ("small bush", nominative singular) and ''kulu kennim'' ("small bushes", accusative plural). It is because these are not real endings, but suffixes or even clitics (like English example: "two white cats' ball" not "*two's white's cats' ball"). The usual translation is a noun phrase in English, but such phrases can be full sentences in Takkenit. For example: ''kulu kennit'' can mean both "the small bushes" and "the bushes are small", so the plural suffix '''-it''' also can mean "are", but it is not a real verb, just like English "'s" is not a separate particle. | Takkenit nouns have the grammatical categories of number (singular, dual, plural), case (nominative, genitive, accusative, locative, ablative and vocative) and possessivity (non-possessive versus possessive forms). Yet because the language is active-stative rather that nominative-accusative, the nominative case is sometimes called the agentive, the accusative - the patientive and the locative - the indirect or oblique case (locative has also the function of dative and marks an indirect object of a sentence). If a clause has more that one word (such a in "a small bush") endings are attached only to the main word of a clause: ''kulu kenna'' ("small bush", nominative singular) and ''kulu kennim'' ("small bushes", accusative plural). It is because these are not real endings, but suffixes or even clitics (like English example: "two white cats' ball" not "*two's white's cats' ball"). The usual translation is a noun phrase in English, but such phrases can be full sentences in Takkenit. For example: ''kulu kennit'' can mean both "the small bushes" and "the bushes are small", so the plural suffix '''-it''' also can mean "are", but it is not a real verb, just like English "'s" is not a separate particle. | ||
Early Takkenit did not possess any cases and nouns could only decline for a number. Various modifying suffixes as well as noun incorporation (Takkenkikle was polysynthetic back then) were used instead. | |||
{| class="wikitable" | {| class="wikitable" | ||
|+ Case suffixes | |+ Case suffixes | ||
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There are two locative cases in Takkenit. The locative I is used to describe place or position, while locative II is used, when the position changes or to describe direction of motion. Also this case is used as an indirect object marker in phrases like: "I gave a small fish to the woman" - ''Urkum imkəkemkan ŋenanta'', where "''ŋenanta''" means "to the woman". | There are two locative cases in Takkenit. The locative I is used to describe place or position, while locative II is used, when the position changes or to describe direction of motion. Also this case is used as an indirect object marker in phrases like: "I gave a small fish to the woman" - ''Urkum imkəkemkan ŋenanta'', where "''ŋenanta''" means "to the woman". | ||
The genitive case is used instead of accusative, when an absence of something is mentioned. For example, in ''kinjəri puŋkim (e)'' ("the dog has a tail") accusative ending is used to mark the direct object, but in ''kinjəri puŋkin ne'' ("the dog has no tail") genitive is used instead. | The genitive case is used instead of accusative, when an absence of something is mentioned. For example, in ''kinjəri puŋkim (e)'' ("the dog has a tail") accusative ending is used to mark the direct object, but in ''kinjəri puŋkin ne'' ("the dog has no tail") genitive is used instead. Early Takkenit however used noun compounding and incorporation and the phrase would be ''*kinjɨpujŋun'' according to the reconstruction. | ||
The default nominative plural marker in the Takkenit language is '''-t'''. Wnen mentioning something specific, an '''-i-''' infix can be added in most cases. For example the word for "goose" (''kila'') is ''kilit'' in its nominative plural form, if you mention some specific geese, or ''kilat'', if talk about "goose" as a kind of birds (in general). Many nouns in Takkenit do not have dual or plural form, for examle the word ''kujma'' ("fire"), or ''kuŋuma'' ("smoke") which are called uncountable nouns. Words for herds of animals, groups of objects also belong to this category. Some words, like ''unla'' (small river") have irregular dual (''unelki'') and plural (''unelet'') forms, most of them contain a suffix and is a word for places, or weather phenomena. A small number of nouns have a '''-m''' plural marker, which change into '''-p-''' in ablative and genitive. These are words, which can only be a patient and never an agent of a sentence. A good example is ''kerni'' ("flint"), which is ''kernam'' in both nominative and accusative, ''kernapu'' in genitive and ''kernapta'' in ablative plural. The last irregular category contains some very old words, like terms of kinship and tools which have an -uj- or -aj- plural infixes which do not require neither dual nor plural markers. For instance, the word ''pujku'' ("son") which has the dual form ''pujkuja'' and the plural ''pujkujət'' (or usually just ''pujkuj''). | The default nominative plural marker in the Takkenit language is '''-t'''. Wnen mentioning something specific, an '''-i-''' infix can be added in most cases. For example the word for "goose" (''kila'') is ''kilit'' in its nominative plural form, if you mention some specific geese, or ''kilat'', if talk about "goose" as a kind of birds (in general). Many nouns in Takkenit do not have dual or plural form, for examle the word ''kujma'' ("fire"), or ''kuŋuma'' ("smoke") which are called uncountable nouns. Words for herds of animals, groups of objects also belong to this category. Some words, like ''unla'' (small river") have irregular dual (''unelki'') and plural (''unelet'') forms, most of them contain a suffix and is a word for places, or weather phenomena. A small number of nouns have a '''-m''' plural marker, which change into '''-p-''' in ablative and genitive. These are words, which can only be a patient and never an agent of a sentence. A good example is ''kerni'' ("flint"), which is ''kernam'' in both nominative and accusative, ''kernapu'' in genitive and ''kernapta'' in ablative plural. The last irregular category contains some very old words, like terms of kinship and tools which have an -uj- or -aj- plural infixes which do not require neither dual nor plural markers. For instance, the word ''pujku'' ("son") which has the dual form ''pujkuja'' and the plural ''pujkujət'' (or usually just ''pujkuj''). | ||