NOUNS AND PRONOUNS
– Plurals/Duals
Plural Suffix – /-íkʼé/
Dual Suffix – /-íkʼá/
Both of these suffixes cause internal change within the word caused by the /í/ according to:
– a –> e
– á –> é
– e –> i
– é –> í
– i –> í
– í –> unchanged
– o –> e
– u –> y
– y –> unchanged
Word final vowels become raised diphthongs (with the exception of /í, i/; /i/–> [í]):
– a, á –> a̝
– e, é –> e̝
– o –> o̝
– u–> u̝
Word final diphthongs also become raised diphthongs:
– ay –> a̝
– oy –> o̝
With the exeption that -aw becomes simple /o/.
The /í/ is dropped from the suffix. If the word ends in /k/ it is dropped. If the word ends in /kʼ/ it is retained.
Eg. tsamek – ‘woman’ tsemékʼé – ‘women’
hrrto – ‘man’ hrrto̝kʼé – ‘men’
ngá – ‘hand’ nga̝kʼá – hands (a pair of)
– Pronouns
– No lenition when suffixed.
– Used to affix the personal Genitive to a given noun (Eg. mbéyop – ‘my hair’) and to inflect verbs for agreement with the subject Eg. ndaxa̝topát yltoxoyo rráyom tʼá – thank you (lit. I truthfully (and happily) acknowledge your grace).
– /-yo/ – 1st person sg suffix (I)**
– /-yo̝kʼá/ – first person dual suffix(we – you and me, but not them)
– /-yo̝kʼé/ – 1st person plural suffix( we – all of us)
– /-to/ – 2nd person sg suffix (you)**
– /-to̝kʼá/ – 2nd person dual suffix (used to refer to a romantic couple)
– /-to̝kʼé/ – 2nd person plural suffix (you – plural)
– /-ko/ – 3rd person sg neuter suffix (it) (also used to reference a person of unspecified gender) Eg. rráko – ‘person’ (lit. voice of indeterminate gender).***
– /-ko̝kʼá/ – 3rd person dual neuter suffix (used to reference a romantic couple of mixed gender)
– /-ko̝kʼé/ – 3rd person plural neuter suffix (they – either those things -OR- that group of men and women)
– /-ké/ – 3rd person sg masculine suffix (he)
– /-ke̝kʼá/ – 3rd person dual masculine suffix – (used to refer to a homosexual male couple)
– /-ke̝kʼé/ – 3rd person plural masculine suffix – (they – that group of men)
– /-ká/ – 3rd person sg feminine suffix (she)
– /-ka̝kʼá/ – 3rd person dual feminine suffix – (used to refer to a homosexual female couple)
– /-ka̝kʼé/ – 3rd person plural feminine suffix – (they – that group of women)
Subjective forms (I, you, he, she, they, we, etc.) are suffixed to rrá – ‘voice’ and take take the Nominative Case (NOM) marker /en-|-n/ with intransitive verbs and the Ergative Case (ERG) marker /-m/ with transitive and ditransitive verbs.
– Eg. rráyo – ‘I’ (lit. this voice) –> enrráyon (NOM) -OR- –> rráyom (ERG)
Objective forms (me, you, him, her, them, us, etc) are suffixed to rrá and take the Accusative Case (ACC) marker /-x/.
– Eg. rráyox – ‘me’
Genitive forms (my, your, his, her, their, our, etc.) are suffixed to the noun they modify and take the Genitive Case (GEN) marker /-p/.
– Eg. ‘osokép – ‘his car’ (‘osok + ké + -p)
**These are also demonstratives which, when used as such are suffixed to the noun they describe WITHOUT the GEN marker and undergo lenition.
Eg. ‘osoktop – ‘your car’
‘osokso – ‘that car’
‘osokyop – ‘my car’
‘osokyo – ‘this car’
Note that yo does not change but to–>so this is because /y/ is not affected by lenition. In the case of yo – ‘this’ you must rely on the lack of GEN morpheme.
***This is also the relative pronoun (who, that, which) and it is a separate morpheme that is placed before the VP in the relative clause.
Eg. enKérrenán, ko hyohye’koaváuá rráuá hlense’, mbrrukáfíyoxavárrpʼá pex. – ‘It is rumored that Karen, who, as everyone knows, sings prettily, does not run very quickly.”
**Note that the verb in the relative clause agrees with ko and not the subject since it is the matrix verb which must agree with the subject.
– Case Marking
– The last suffix to be affixed to a noun
– NOM – Only used with intransitive verbs – en-|-(á)n (circumfix)
– ERG – -ám, -m
– ACC – -áx, -x
– Dative (DAT) – -át, -t
– GEN – -áp, -p
– Locative (LOC) – -áy, -y
– Allative (ALL) – -ál, -l
– Ablative (ABL) – -án, -n
– Instrumental (INST) – -ák, -k
– Comititve (COM) – -ákʼ, -kʼ
– Gerund (GER) – -ás, -s
It is because of this system of case marking that word order in rráp ‘ayá can be so free. Generally, the reason that a particular word is spoken first is to provide emphasis, even if it is not necessarily the subject of the clause.
THE VOCATIVE CASE
THE VOCATIVE CASE – [VOC]
The vocative case is a noun case that indicates that the noun in question is being addressed directly by the speaker, rather than spoken about indirectly.
Indication of the vocative case is a particle – kʼélo – that follows the noun being addressed. kʼélo is a reflection of the etymology of the vocative particle. An early form of the vocative was actually a phrase that meant “with whom I would speak” – “…, kokʼ ‘éwéloyo enrráyon…” – which was contracted to just the commitative case ending, –kʼ (with) and the root verb ‘élo to create the particle as it exists today.
Eg. If you are addressing Támas (male name) you would say: “Támas kʼélo, …”
If you wanted to give someone a directive you could say:
Eg. “Támas kʼélo, ‘íkovasʼusot ylfrryna’to.”
“Thomas [VOC], that-which-covers-that-which-allows-acce
“Thomas, (kindly) close that door.”
VOCAB: ‘íkovasʼu – n. that which covers that which allows access to (a) house – a door
prrna’ – v. to close
VERBS
Probably the most difficult concept to grasp when learning rráp ‘ayá is the verb morphology. rráp ‘ayá verbs are inflected for 5 tenses, 3 aspects, 4 moods and 2 affects. Some of these morphological particles are infixed, some prefixed and some are separate morphemes altogether. The difficulty isn’t necessarily in forming the word, its understanding the word when you hear it and knowing what the root is.
Here we go…
VERB TENSE
Tense is marked by a separate particle that directly precedes the verb. The 5 verb tenses are:
Present (Aorist) – Unmarked
Past (recent) – hyán
Past (distant) – hrán
Future (near) – tsu̝
Future (distant) – chu̝
Eg. mbrr – ‘runs’ –> hyán mbrr – ‘ran (recently)’
VERB ASPECT
Aspect gives information regarding the temporal flow of a given action ie. whether it is continuous or completed. It is infixed after the onset of the penultimate syllable. Wherever impermissible consonant clusters occur, insert /-á-/.
– Perfective (aorist) (PFV)- Unmarked
– Imperfective (IPFV) – <et>
– Perfect (PRF)- <yá>
Eg. mbrr – runs –> mb<et><á>rr –> mbetárr – ‘running’
When tense is added, you would get:
Eg.
IPFV –> tsu̝ mbetárr – ‘will (be) running (shortly/soon)’ (lit. I will be in the process of running shortly)
PFV –> tsu̝ mbrr – ‘I will run (soon/shortly)’ (lit. I will start running shortly)
PRF –> tsu̝ mbyárr – ‘I will have run (shortly)’ (lit. shortly I will have finished running).
VERB MOOD
The mood of the verb indicates its modality, either epistemic (the way things might be) or deontic (the way things ought to be). Verb mood is indicated by an infixed particle before the coda of the penultimate syllable. As with aspect, wherever impermissible consonant clusters occur insert /-á-/.
Epistemic
– Subjunctive (SJV) – <té>
– Optative (OPT) – <wé>
Deontic
– Imperative (IMP) – <y>
– Negative (NEG) – <rru>
Eg. hyohye’ – ‘gives’
SJV – hyo<té>hye’ –> hyotéhye’ – ‘were to give (hypothetically)’ (as in ‘If I were to give you this…)-OR- ‘suggest to give’ (as in ‘I suggest you give him the benefit of the doubt…’)
OPT – hyo<wé>hye’ –> hyowéhye’ – ‘wish to give’ (as in ‘I wish to give you this) -OR- ‘hope to give’ (as in ‘I hope you give me that…’).
IMP – hyo<y>hye’ –> hyoyhye’ – ‘Give!’
NEG – hyo<rru>hye’ –> hyorruhye’ – ‘Give not.’
If you add tense and aspect to this you get:
Eg. hyán hyetorruhye’ – ‘was not giving (recently)’
PAST(Recent) gives-<IPFV>-<NEG>
VERB AFFECT
The affect tells the listener how the subject of the sentence feels about the action (not necessarily the speaker of the utterance as in some languages). This is often combined with the evidentiality particles (to be discussed in the next posting) when it is not firsthand information. These are prefixes which cause lenition.
Laudative (LDV) – yl-
Pejorative (PJV) – ken-
Eg.
LDV – yl + hyohye’ –> ylyohye’ – ‘gives (happily)’
PJV – ken + hyohye’ –> kenyohye’ – ‘gives (not happy about it)’
So, putting it all together provides the complex verb:
hrán kenyyáorruhye’ – ‘have not given (for a long time and is not happy about it)’
PAST (Distant) PJV-gives-<PRF><NEG>
As stated before, the difficulty comes not from producing the complex verb but understanding it when you hear it. After so much inflection (especially in instances where the affect is added, causing lenition) the original verb can become nearly unrecognizable. This is solved in part by pronunciation. Stress is placed on phonemes/morphemes from the ORIGINAL ROOT. So in the above example: kenyyáorruhye’ the stress is placed on kenYyáOrruHYE’ with the primary stress falling on the [o], secondary stress on [y] and tertiary stress on [hye’]. In this way the inflectional morphology is suprasegmentally separated from the word as a whole revealing the original root to carry the bulk of the meaning. The other way this is solved is by knowing all the different forms that a verb can take simply by hearing them spoken all the time. As with any first language this sort of thing would be non-problematic for native speakers. It just increases the learning curves for us poor L2’s lol.
EVIDENTIALS
rráp ‘ayá makes use of 6 evidential particles depending on the speaker’s assuredness of the accuracy of his statement and the source of his information.
Certain Truth (Eyewitness or firsthand information) – tʼá
Believed/Inferred Truth -OR- Speaker’s opinion – mpé
Common Knowledge – hlense’
Rumor/Hearsay – pex
Conjecture – ka’an
Unknown – hyákʼ (lit. hyá – ‘doubt’ + –kʼ – COM case –> ‘with doubt’)
Evidential particles ALWAYS appear at the end of an utterance.
Eg. hyán ylfetárruké enTámasán mrrawákʼ mpé
PAST(recent) LDV-runs-<IPFV><NEG>-3rd Sg. NOM-Tómas-NOM cat – COM Opinion-EVDL
In my opinion, Tómas was not recently running with (a) cat (and he is happy about this).
No matter what order the other words in the sentence, the evidential always appears at the end.
Eg. mrrawákʼ hyán ylfetárruké enTámasán mpé.
INTERROGATIVES
Questions in rráp ‘ayá are formed in two ways, both of which make use of the Interrogative particle ‘ih.
The first way is to simply use ‘ih to begin a declarative sentence. It lets the listener know that what follows is a question, rather than a statement.
Eg. mrrokʼékʼ enTámasán mbrrké tʼá. –> It is true that Tómas runs with cats.
-vs.-
‘ih mrrokʼékʼ enTámasán mbrrké tʼá? –> Is it true that Tómas runs with cats? (More literally it would be “It is true that Tómas runs with cats?)
The second way is to use a interrogative functional word derived from ‘ih, either by adding case marking or by infixing ‘ih after the onset of the first syllable of the word being modified. As with the first method, the interrogative is placed at the beginning of a sentence.
What – fʼihaw (lit. item?/object?/thing? from fʼaw – thing/item/object)
Where – ‘iháy (LOC marker lit. location?)
When – kihivetʼ (lit. time? from kivetʼ – time)
Who – rrihá (lit. person? from rrá – voice/person)
Why – vihinakʼál (lit. to end? translates loosely as “to what end” from vinakʼ – end with ALL case)
How – ‘ihákʼ (INST marker lit. with/by way of what means?)
Which – mbiha’ (lit. kind?/type? from mba’ – type/kind)
Eg. kihivetʼ hrán mbrrké enTámasán mrrawákʼ? –> When did Tómas run with (a) cat?**
vihinakʼál mbrrké enTámasán mrrokʼékʼ? –> Why does Tómas run with cats?
Typically the second form will not include an evidential particle at the end of the sentence whereas the first form can.
When asking about a past event, the distant past particle – hrán – is used since it is unknown to the speaker whether the action was recent or not. Same with asking about future events, the chu̝ particle would be used.
PARTICIPLES
In English, the participles are morphologically similar (in some cases) to either the present continuous tense (active) or the regular past tense (passive) and are reliant on word order/context to identify them.
eg. The running boy is nimble. (Active) vs. The boy is running (present continuous)
The closed door barred my way. (Passive) vs. The door closed on my foot. (regular past tense)
rráp ‘ayá has distinct markers to represent the participles to avoid contextual confusion. Also, since word order is essentially free, it can’t be relied upon to indicate tense/participle.
Participle markers are infixes which are placed after the onset of the final syllable in polysyllabic words OR suffixed to the end of monosyllabic words prior to agreement/adverb phrases.
Active marker: <no>
Passive marker: <né>
Where impermissible consonant clusters occur, insert -á-
If followed by a vowel which doubles the marker vowel, the second vowel is dropped.
eg. hyohye’ – to give
hyohyánoe’ – giving
hyohyánée’ – given**
mbrr – to run
mbrrno – running
mbrrné – run
**in this example, the é [e] is a different phoneme than the e’ [ɛʕ] so they are both pronounced.
an example of a participle phrase would be:
eg. ‘íkovasʼunetʼ prrnnéa’ – the closed door ***
mbrrno hrrtonetʼ – the running man
***in this example, -nn- is an acceptable consonant cluster and so is maintained (see post on consonants for pronunciation of doubled consonants).
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