ADJECTIVES AND ADVERBS
In rráp ‘ayá adjectives and adverbs become suffixes to the words they describe creating a complex, polysynthetic morphology for nouns and verbs.
ADJECTIVES
Adjectives are suffixed to nouns which causes lenition in the adjective. This suffixation happens PRIOR to any case marking. If a consonant becomes doubled (other than /n,m/) one is dropped. In cases where impermissible consonant clusters occur a syllabic break intercedes.
Eg. krrpʼá – ‘fast’ + ‘osok – ‘car’ –> ‘osokhrrpʼá – ‘fast car’ (remember that /k/ –> /h/ / ___rr)
ADVERBS
Adverbs are (for the most part) formed from adjectives by infixing <avá> after the onset of the first syllable. This is similar to English ‘-ly’ ending (eg. quick (ADJ) + -ly –> quickly (ADV)). These are then suffixed to the verb which causes lenition in the adverb. As with adjectives, double consonants other than /n,m/ are reduced to single consonants and impermissible consonant clusters are broken up syllabically.
Eg. krrpʼá – ‘fast’ –> kavárrpʼá – ‘quickly’ + mbrr – ‘runs’ = mbrrxavárrpʼá – ‘runs quickly’
DEGREE WORDS
Degree words are PREFIXED to the adverb/adjective causing lenition to the adj/adv. This compound is then SUFFIXED to the noun/verb being modified which causes lenition to the compound.
Eg. fʼíyo – ‘very/really’ + kavárrpʼá = fʼíyoxavárrpʼá – ‘very quickly’ + mbrr = mbrrfíyoxavárrpʼá – ‘runs very quickly’
As mentioned in the section on verbs this is where word recognition becomes very tricky in rráp ‘ayá. Take the phrase:
‘ih tsu̝ kenfetárruke̝kʼéfíyoxavárrpʼá enmrrokʼéyopán hlense’? – ‘Everyone knows that my cats (those boys) will (sadly) not be running very quickly?’
This phrase includes everything discussed so far – plurality; case marking; verb inflection for tense, mood, aspect, and affect; evidentiality; interrogatives; and adj/adv suffixation. Without a great deal of practice, it is extremely difficult to recognize that the root verb in tsu̝ kenfetárruke̝kʼéfíyoxavárrpʼá is mbrr – ‘runs’ when you hear it spoken.
POSTPOSITIONS
rráp ‘ayá makes use of postpositional morphemes which occur directly after the word they modify. With its heavy use of case marking, many adpositional phrases can be made using inflectional morphology:
Eg. ‘ásʼu – ‘house’ –> ‘ásʼuál – ‘to a house (directionally)’
‘ásʼuán – ‘from a house (directionally)’
‘ásʼuáy – ‘at a house’
ngá – ‘hand’ –> ngátopák – ‘with/by (way of) your hand’
These don’t cover all cases however. Adpostions that cannot be made via case marking are made using the following words:
tsi’ – ‘on’
hru – ‘in/inside’
‘ik – ‘above/over’
‘ak – ‘below/under’
‘o – ‘around/enclosing’
‘árr – ‘around/encircling’
sʼek – ‘by’ (temporal) as in “by 5 o’clock”
pux – ‘by/near’ (locative) as in ‘osok pux – ‘by a car’ vs. ‘osokáy – ‘at a car’
lé – ‘toward’
‘en – ‘beside/directly adjacent to’
hyrr – ‘across’
mpuyo – after
mpuyé – ‘before’
nga’ – during’
kyoná – ‘among’
‘ip – ‘like’ (comparative) as in “he looks like his brother”
chʼurrá – ‘about’
tsep – ‘along’
rrukʼ – ‘without’ (lit. ‘not-NEG + with-COM’)
melo – ‘through’
ngeso – ‘throughout’
ndopá – ‘in/between’
kaw lé – ‘behind’ (lit. toward (the) back)
Eg. rréko̝kʼé kyoná – ‘among people’
‘asʼu hru – ‘in a house’
‘osokso lé – ‘toward that car’
hrívá nga’ – ‘during night’
Used in a sentence you might say:
Eg. rréko̝kʼé kyoná rráp ‘ayát ylyohye’yo rráx rráyom – ‘I (happily) speak rráp ‘ayá (lit. give voice to rráp ‘ayá) among people.’
ARTICLES AND DEMONSTRATIVES
As mentioned before in the topic of Pronouns, the rráp ‘ayá demonstratives are derivative of the 1st and 2nd person pronouns. The difference in their usage is that when used as a demonstrative the GEN particle is excluded and the morpheme undergoes lenition prior to suffixion.
Eg. yo – ‘this’ –> ‘asʼuyo – “this house”
to – “that” –> ‘asʼuso – “that house”
Compare this to their pronominal/agreement usage:
Eg. ‘asʼuyop – “my house”
‘asʼutop – “your house”
rráyo – “I” (lit. “this voice”)
rráto – “you” (lit. “that voice”)
enrráyon mbrryo – “I run”
enrráton mbrrto – “You run”
A couple things to note:
1. The /y/ does not lenite so the only way to know that it is being used as a demonstrative is that it is attached to a noun (not a verb as in agreement which also does not lenite) and it does not include the GEN morpheme -p.
2. The pronouns “rráyo” and “rráto,” although literally translated as “this voice” and “that voice” and therefore technically in demonstrative mode, are ONLY used as personal pronouns and therefore would not receive the lenition associated with demonstratives.
**If you wanted to say something like: “of this house” you would of course add the GEN morpheme suffix creating ‘asʼuyop which would also translate as “my house.” The way that you would distinguish this is by the surrounding context. For example, if you were to say ‘ayá ‘asʼuyop this would be translated “a child of this house” since “a child my house” is not grammatical. To say “a child of my house” you would have to add the GEN morpheme a second time to give: ‘ayá ‘asʼuyopáp. -yo- is the only pronominal morpheme that causes this kind of ambiguity as it is the only one that does not lenite when used as a demonstrative.
rráp ‘ayá does not have an indefinite article (as in English “a” or “an”). The lack of such an article indicates that the noun described is indefinite. The definite article is netʼ which is suffixed to the end of a noun prior to any case marking.
Eg. ‘asʼunetʼ – “the house”
‘asʼunetʼáp – “of the house” (ie belonging to/originating from the house)
‘as’unetʼál – “to the house” (directionally speaking).
IMPERATIVE MOOD AND VERB ASPECT
In indirect speech, the laudative [LDV] and pejorative [PJV] affixes are used to indicate how the speaker feels about the predicate of their utterance.
eg. hrán ylfetárryo ‘enrráyon.
[REC.PAST] [LDV]-run<imperfective>-[1st(sg)] [NOM]-I-[NOM]
(Recently) I was running (and I’m happy about it).
In the imperative mood, the affect affixes can be used to let the subject know how the speaker feels about issuing the directive:
eg. “Támas kʼélo, ‘íkovasʼusot ylfrryna’to.”
Thomas, (kindly) close that door.
-VS-
“Támas kʼélo, kenfrryna’to ‘íkovasʼusot!!” **
Thomas, CLOSE THAT DOOR!!!
**note how the word order changed to put the [PJV] affected verb first, thereby giving emphasis to it.
You can also add adverbs to your imperative VP to imply haste:
eg. nákʼ = immediate (lit. “with haste”) –> n<avá>kʼ –> navákʼ = immediately
“Támas kʼélo, kenfrryna’tonavákʼ ‘íkovasʼusot!!”
Thomas, close that door IMMEDIATELY!!
THE COPULA
rráp ‘ayá has no copula which corresponds to English “is.” Instead, it uses the verb yvetʼ “to have” with a nominalizing particle ‘an in a “circumfix-like” manner to provide the meaning “noun A has ….ness.” ‘an is lenited when affixed.
‘íkovasʼunetʼát hyán yvetʼko prrnnéa’an.
The door had closed-ness (but may now be open) = The door was closed.
This is semantically different from:
‘en’íkovasʼunetʼán hrán prrna’… The door closed…
as the passive form can imply that the door was closed “by” someone. The clause could be expanded by adding a noun in the instrumental [INS] case:
‘íkovasʼunetʼát yvetʼko prrnnéa’an Támasák. **
Door-Def. Article-[ACC] have-the-quality-of-being-[3rd Sg N] close<PP>-[NLZ] Thomas-[INS]
The door was closed by Thomas.
Unlike English which puts the event in the past – “The door was closed by Thomas,” rráp ‘ayá has the verb in the present tense which gives the meaning “the door is closed because of Thomas.” To put the verb in the past tense (as in the above example) gives the implication that the state/quality of “closed-ness” may not be applicable now.
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