| Glossary/mini dictionary |
aɬagí – today, this day, that day, the particular day under discussion
aɬɛ – use, make use of
anágo – pants (two-tube lower body clothes)
bakóru – warrior
-da (1) – manner converb ('in such a way as'), adverbialiser; participates in a
construction ADJ-da tagá 'think of [obj] as ADJ'
-da (2) – genitive for possessions, descriptions, etc; experiencer with
perception verbs
dôká – chicken
eida – greatly, very
fiɬó – go towards (without an explicit object usually means 'come', 'go towards
here')
-ga – narrative past tense
-hta – antipassive (in this case, it gives a verb an indefinite object)
inalɛ́ɬa – duck or other waterfowl
íza – mountain
=íza – copula clitic
izána – season, calendar cycle, calendar
-jɛni – applicative for 'through', 'throughout' or 'about', 'concerning'
jo – and
káni – all, every, the entire
kaó – play around, not take things seriously
kɛ́mí (imperative kɛ́mebi) – look at, pay attention to, listen to, watch
ki – 2sg abs
lɛ̂ra – evidential for 'indeed/surely, this is the case'
li – person, 'them'
ligí – that person, 'them'
lúúma – statue, figurine, decorative object
máwa – where?
mɛ́la – speak, talk, say something
ndarɛɛ – evidential for 'this fact is new knowledge for me, which I have just
deduced'
ni – 1sg absolutive
-ni – genitive for forms/compositions, non-gapped core argument in relative
clauses
nî – be not there, be absent
págabo – courage, decisiveness
paná – large, great, frequent
-râ – interrogative marker
rɛjdej – keep watch, stand guard
-sâ – continue doing
-ɕemi – applicative for 'in', 'at' and at times 'on'
ɕí – concept, matter, thing (immaterial), action
ɕî – life (esp. as a human experience)
-ɕí – absolutive-gapped relativiser (when the object or intransitive subject has
been moved outside the clause)
ɕígîzi – after that, then
sokó – heavy, difficult, weighty, grand
tagá – think, have an opinion, believe
tarû – sword
teká – cause anger in, be hated by (takes an experiencer with -da)
wei – stand, be located (of tall things)
-zi – ergative-gapped relativiser (tazi li 'the one who does', vs. taɕí ɕí 'the
thing that is done), adjective subject relativiser
-zî – progressive aspect |
| Grammar notes |
- The transcription here is basically phonemic IPA. The diacritics are tones.
- Tones can move around a bit in Emihtazuu, just like in most languages with
tones. In this passage, the only couple of places where that matters involve the
following rules:
-- High tones spread rightwards over unmarked syllables to the end of a word
-- High-low and low-high melodies can expand rightwards over unmarked syllables
(so ta + -râ becomes tára); the high tone of a high-low melody can merge into a
high tone on the previous syllable (so tagá + -râ becomes tagára)
- Emihtazuu is ergative-absolutive to a fairly extensive degree. Beyond simple
main-clause subject and object marking, relativisers also pattern in an erg-abs
way. There is one relativiser (-zi) for when the ergative argument (or subject
of an adjective) is gapped out of the relative clause, and one (-ɕí) for when
the absolutive argument is gapped out. The remaining core argument in both kinds
of clauses takes a (now mostly historical) genitive suffix -ni.
- Emihtazuu word order is mostly SOV, but as long as the verb's at the end, the
rest of things can be moved around for information structure reasons. It is
strongly head-final.
- Emihtazuu marks ergative case with a morphophonemic/historical -i that mostly
surfaces as vowel changes. In this passage, the relevant changes are:
i + -i > ei
u + -i > ii
a + -i > ɛɛ
Absolutive case has no overt marking.
- Emihtazuu prefers to use applicative marking on the verb when discussing
spatial relations, and always promotes obliques to objects if there's no object
already. In this passage, it's never forced to use its oblique case system, and
so there are several applicatives.
- Emihtazuu has no overt plural marking, and plurality is inferred from context.
Verbs do not agree with anything. |
