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===Adjectives=== | ===Adjectives=== | ||
Adjectives are of two types. Verbal adjectives are the participles in ''-ng/na'' or ''-i'' (e.g. ''ekonna'' "growing", ''ewai'' "tired, exhausted, spent"). Nominal adjectives are either primary adjectives (e.g. ''haz'' "old", ''ong'' "good") or derived from a noun, other adjective or a verb (e.g. ''acchi'' "masculine", ''ukko'' "watery, aquatic", ''eyiking'' "pessimistic, defeatist" < ''exi'' "despair"). | |||
Any of these adjectives may occur attributively by preceding the noun they qualify unmodified, e.g. ''haz gyong to'' "that old man", ''ekonna fuz'' "a growing tree", ''eyiking heni chiri'' "three pessimistic guards". | |||
When used predicatively, both types of adjective follow the entire noun phrase and precede the relevant form of ''yita'' "to be". Verbal adjectives are unmodified in this usage and, as often with English, the adjectival function of the participle is indistinguishable from the verbal function, e.g. ''fuz tong ba ekonna xiniteng'' "this tree wasn't growing", ''haz gyong to ba ewai jaite'' "that old man is tired". | |||
===Pronouns=== | ===Pronouns=== |
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