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Although attempts have been made to reconstruct a quasi-regular “ablaut” system for Proto-Meskangela, the vowel gradation in the Classical Meskangela variety is sporadic and irregular, especially in case of open-syllable roots. Some verb conjugational pattern may be attributed to the Proto-Meskangela affixes that later merged with the verb stem, such as the "a-ö" alternation, which often shows up in the derivational morphology of Meskangela. Pairs, such as, ''khitan'' “to rub” and ''khutan'' “to scratch”, ''rum'' “darkness” and ''rim'' “evening” are relatively common with back vowels often representing a more "internalised" process or abstract phenomenon, than their front counterparts which are more concrete and "external". Certain prefixes have active and passive counterparts, such as ''si-'' (active transitive) and ''su-'' (mediopassive): ''sinnaŋan'' “to read (something)” and ''sunnaŋan'' “to read (in general)/ to be read” (hence Western ''sunnaŋ'' “book”, but Eastern ''abirai'' from ''bërëjan'' “to write”). | Although attempts have been made to reconstruct a quasi-regular “ablaut” system for Proto-Meskangela, the vowel gradation in the Classical Meskangela variety is sporadic and irregular, especially in case of open-syllable roots. Some verb conjugational pattern may be attributed to the Proto-Meskangela affixes that later merged with the verb stem, such as the "a-ö" alternation, which often shows up in the derivational morphology of Meskangela. Pairs, such as, ''khitan'' “to rub” and ''khutan'' “to scratch”, ''rum'' “darkness” and ''rim'' “evening” are relatively common with back vowels often representing a more "internalised" process or abstract phenomenon, than their front counterparts which are more concrete and "external". Certain prefixes have active and passive counterparts, such as ''si-'' (active transitive) and ''su-'' (mediopassive): ''sinnaŋan'' “to read (something)” and ''sunnaŋan'' “to read (in general)/ to be read” (hence Western ''sunnaŋ'' “book”, but Eastern ''abirai'' from ''bërëjan'' “to write”). | ||
===Nouns=== | ===Nouns=== | ||
The following parts of speech are viewed as nominals in terms of their morphology: nouns, pronouns and numerals. There are unambiguous morphological criteria for distinguishing between nominals and verbs. In Classical Meskangela, as well as in its later dialects, nouns can be marked for case, person (possession) and number. There is no grammatical gender in any Meskangela variety, instead nouns are differentiated by their animacy with humans, mythological and folktale figures being animate and everything else being inanimate; the animacy is not marked on the noun itself, but is instead reflected by verb conjugation. Nouns can be [[w:Focus (linguistics)|focused]] or neutral, depending on their importance in the conversation. Meskangela is a [[w:Topic-prominent language|topic-prominent]] language, the topicalised nouns are often marked with demonstratives, and a topic is placed first in the sentence, for example: '''''laháŋ tau''' dzana matwiwā'' “cooked rice is a delicious food” (''laháŋ t-au dzan-a matwi-wā'' “cooked rice-Abs that-Top food-Foc be.tasty-3sg.Inan” | |||
Classical Meskangela has thirteen cases. Case endings are attached to nouns with or without the non-singular suffix. Allomorphy of case endings depends on whether the noun ends in a vowel or consonant. Below the case endings of the noun ཀྱིམ ''kyim'' “house” are presented: | |||
{| class="wikitable" | |||
|- | |||
! Case !! Suffix !! Non-focused !! Focused !! Translation | |||
|- | |||
! [[w:Absolutive case|absolutive]] | |||
| ''-∅-a'' || ''kyim'' || ''kyim'''a''''' || house (patient) | |||
|- | |||
! [[w:Ergative case|ergative]] | |||
| ''-i-s'' || ''kyim'''i''''' || ''kyim'''is''''' || house (agent) | |||
|- | |||
! [[w:Instrumental case|instrumental]] | |||
| ''-o-n'' || ''kyim'''o''' || ''kyim'''on''' || by means of the house | |||
|- | |||
! [[w:Vocative case|vocative]] | |||
| ''á- (-o)'' || ''á kyim'''o''''' || — || oh house | |||
|- | |||
! [[w:Locative case|locative 1]] | |||
| ''-na/-mpa'' || ''kyim'''ma''''' || ''kyim'''pā''''' || in the house (neutral/same level) | |||
|- | |||
! [[w:Locative case|locative 2]] | |||
| ''-ta-u'' || ''kyim'''ëta''''' || ''kyim'''ëtau''''' || in the house (at a higher level) | |||
|- | |||
! [[w:Locative case|locative 3]] | |||
| ''-tuh(e)-u'' || ''kyim'''tuhe''''' || ''kyim'''tuhu''''' || in the house (at a lower level) | |||
|- | |||
! [[w:Comitative case|comitative]] | |||
| ''-d/-llō'' || ''kyim'''ëd''''' || ''kyim'''ëllō''''' || with the house | |||
|- | |||
! [[w:Ablative case|ablative]] | |||
| ''-gi-s'' || ''kyim'''ëgi''''' || ''kyim'''ëgis''''' || from the house | |||
|- | |||
! [[w:Elative case|elative]] | |||
| ''-lwa-s'' || ''kyim'''ëlwa''''' || ''kyim'''ëlwas''''' || as the house | |||
|- | |||
! [[w:Allative case|allative]] | |||
| ''-l-as'' || ''kyim'''ël''''' || ''kyim'''ëlas''''' || to the house | |||
|- | |||
|} | |||
The dual and plural numbers are denoted, when required, by adding the resepective suffixes: ''-seŋ'' for dual and ''daŋ'' for plural. | |||
===Verbs=== | ===Verbs=== | ||
Classical Meskangela has five verb classes, based on their stem ending: | Classical Meskangela has five verb classes, based on their stem ending: | ||