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Biloxi | |
---|---|
Tanêksąyaa ade [1] | |
Native to | United States |
Region | Mississippi, Louisiana |
Extinct | 1930s, with the death of Emma Jackson |
Siouan
| |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | bll |
Glottolog | bilo1248 |
Pre-contact distribution of the Biloxi language. | |
Biloxi is an extinct Siouan language, which was once spoken by the Biloxi tribe in present-day Mississippi, Louisiana, and southeastern Texas.
The Biloxi tribe first encountered Europeans in 1699, along the Pascagoula River. [2] By the mid-18th century, they had settled in central Louisiana. Some were also noted in Texas in the early 19th century. [3]
By the early 19th century, their numbers were already dwindling. By 1934, the last native speaker, Emma Jackson, was in her eighties. [4] Morris Swadesh and Mary Haas spoke with her in 1934 and confirmed that she spoke the language. [5]
Biloxi is an Ohio Valley, or Southeastern, Siouan language. It is related to Ofo and Tutelo.
Multiple possible inventories have been suggested. This article follows that of Einaudi (1976).
Along with contrastive nasalization, Biloxi also has phonemic vowel length.
Front | Central | Back | |
---|---|---|---|
Close | i ĩ ⟨į⟩ | u | |
Mid 1 | e | ( ə )2 | o õ ⟨ǫ⟩ |
Open | a ã ⟨ą⟩ |
Notes:
Dorsey & Swanton (1912) postulated phonemic vowel length, which was verified by Haas and Swadesh in speaking with Emma Jackson in 1934. Their findings appeared in Haas (1968).
Also, there may still be some uncertainty as to whether certain words contain /ą/ or /an/.
Phoneme | Word | Gloss | Phoneme | Word | Gloss |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
/i/ | ide | 'it falls' | /į/ | įde | 'dung, manure' |
/u/ | ku | 'he gives' | /e/ | ane | 'louse' |
/o/ | dohi | 'anything rubbed or smeared' | /ǫ/ | dǫhi | 'he sees' |
/a/ | da | 'he gathers' | /ą/ | dą | 'he holds' |
Bilabial | Alveolar | Postalveolar | Velar | Glottal | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Stop | p b 1 | t d | tʃ ⟨c⟩ | k | |
Fricative | ɸ ⟨f⟩1 | s | ʃ ⟨š⟩1 | x | h |
Nasal | m | n | |||
Approximant | w | j ⟨y⟩ |
Notes:
Biloxi may also have a phonemic aspiration distinction for some segments. [6]
Phoneme | Word | Gloss | Phoneme | Word | Gloss | Phoneme | Word | Gloss |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
/p/ | pa | 'head' | /m/ | ma | 'ground' | /w/ | wa | 'very' |
/t/ | ti | 'house' | /c/ | ci | 'they lie down' | /s/ | si | 'yellow' |
/k/ | ką | 'when' | /x/ | xą | 'where' | /h/ | hą | 'and' |
/d/ | de | 'he went' | /n/ | ne | 'he stands' | /y/ | yahe | 'this' |
Phoneme | Examples |
---|---|
/b/ | |
/f/ | |
/š/ |
Syllable structure is (C)(C)(C)V(C) or (C)V(C)(C). However, clusters of three consonants are rare.
Most words end in a vowel. The others usually end in /k/ or /x/ as a result of deletion: tox from toho "he fell."
Few consonant clusters end syllables. Most exceptions are caused by vowel deletion: tohoxk from tohoxka "horse."
The following consonant clusters are observed: [8]
p | t | d | c | k | s | x | h | m | n | w | y | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
p | x | x | x | x | x | ? | ||||||
t | x | x | x | x | ? | x | x | |||||
d | ? | |||||||||||
c | x | x | x | |||||||||
k | x | x | x | x | x | x | x | x | x | |||
s | x | x | x | x | x | x | ||||||
x | x | x | x | x | x | x | x | |||||
h | ||||||||||||
m | ||||||||||||
n | x | x | ? | x | x | |||||||
w | ||||||||||||
y |
Geminates do not occur. /n/ sonorants and probably /d/ occur only as the second elements of clusters. /h/ and /m/ are never the second element. Fricatives do not co-occur.
There are a few three-consonant clusters, all of the form C+s+stop or C+x+glide and some with alternate forms:
There are many verb roots and two mode markers with the morphophonemically-conditioned alternation e~a~i (underlying ||E||):
The alternation depends on the following morpheme:
||E|| > /a/ /___: | ||E|| > /i/ /___: | ||E|| > /e/ |
---|---|---|
|
| elsewhere |
Nouns and verbs whose stems end in -Vhi or -Vhį change to -Vx before the plural marker -tu:
That may occur with duti 'to eat' also:
The rule may optionally also apply in compounds and across word boundaries if the next element starts with CV:
Nouns that end in -di and can undergo pluralization change to -x: ||adi + tu|| > /axtu/ 'their father'.
Verbs whose stems end in -Vki, -Vpi, or -si optionally lose their -i before the plural marker:
||k(i)|| > x/___k occurs optionally across morpheme or word boundaries.
The rule may cause the previous vowel to denasalize.
Verbs whose stems end in -ti or -hi may optionally change to -x before the negative mode marker ni:
Stems ending in -si optionally become -s.
The dative marker ki becomes kiy before a vowel.
(However, Einaudi cites one counterexample, ||ki + į|| > /kiį/ 'they were drinking it for him', perhaps with a glottal stop inserted.)
The following rule is optional in compounds and across word boundaries and obligatory everywhere else:
V1V1 > V1
V1V2 > V2
However, there are a few words with two adjacent vowels: naǫ 'day', hauti 'be sick', etc.
Two morphophonemically identical syllables may not appear contiguously, but the former is dropped.
Einaudi finds one counterexample, ||kite + te|| > /kite te/ 'she wanted to hit him'.
C1C1 > C1
The following rule optionally applies to compounds:
XV#CY > XCY
That may lead to otherwise-disallowed clusters, including geminates:
The following rule applies to compounds:
Vn#C > V̨#C
The following rules are conditioned by person markers on nouns and verbs:
Stems beginning with /h/ and some beginning with /y/ (morphophonemically distinguished as ||Y||) undergo the following (obligatory for h-stems but optional for Y-stems): ||Y, h|| > ∅ / ||nk||___, ||ay||___
However, that does not apply for y-initial (rather than Y-initial) stems:
The following rule applies before roots and the dative marker ki: ||nk|| > /x/ /___k
||nk|| > /ǫ/ /___n (optionally /m/, /p/)
||nk|| > /n/ /___other consonants (optional except before /p/ and for /m/ unless it was covered by the previous rule)
||nk|| > /nk/ /___V
(optionally) ||ay|| > /aya~ya/ /___k,x
||ay|| > /i/ /___C
||ay|| > /ay~y~iy/ /___V
The use of different allomorphs in free variation is attested for some verbs.
The next four rules combine personal affixes and so apply only to verbs: ||nk + ay|| > /į/ /___C
||nk + ay|| > /ny/ /___V
||nk + ∅|| > /ax/ /___k
||ay + nk|| > /yąk/ (which may undergo further changes as described above)
The subjunctive mode marker ||xo|| undergoes the following rule: ||xo|| > /xyo/ / i___ / į___
The habitual mode marker ||xa|| optionally undergoes the following rule: ||xa|| > /xya/ / Vf___
The auxiliary ande undergoes the following rule: ||ande|| > /ant/ / ___k
The three word classes in Biloxi are verbs, substantives (nouns and pronouns), and particles. Only first two take affixes.
Verbs are always marked for person and number and may also take dative, reciprocal, reflexive, and/or instrumental markers as well as mode markers, the object specifier, and auxiliaries. They are at or immediately before the end of clauses.
All nominal affixes may also be used with verbs, but nouns use a subset of the verbal affixes. They may not use dative, reciprocal, reflexive, or instrumental markers or mode markers or auxiliaries.
Particles serve many functions, including noun phrase marking and acting as adverbials.
Nouns may be inflectable or, as most are, non-inflectable.
The former group inflects for person and number. It contains names of body parts and kin terms, which must inflect, and a few other personal possessions, with option inflection. The person markers are nk- for the first person, ay- second person, and Ø- for the third person.
They may be pluralized with the marker -tu. The noun's number itself is not marked explicitly.
Examples of inflected nouns are below:
Here are examples of optionally-inflected nouns:
Personal pronouns are formed by inflecting the root indi for person and number. (It may once also have been done by the demonstratives he and de.) Pronouns are always optional, and are emphasis. Singular pronouns may occur as either the subject or the object, but the plurals are always subjects (see -daha).
nkindi 'I' | nkįxtu 'we' |
ayindi 'you' | ayįxtu 'you all' |
indi1 'he, she, it' | įxtu2 'they' |
Biloxi has two common demonstratives: de 'this' and he 'that'. They may be marked for plurality as denani and henani, but that is very rare since they are used if plurality is unmarked elsewhere, and it is marked on the verb in noun phrases with classificatory verbs:
Verbs inflect for person (1st, 2nd, 3rd), number (singular vs. plural), and mode (many possibilities, including some less-well understood mode markers).
Morphemes within verbs have the following order:
(ku) | person | thematic | dative, reciprocal, reflexive | instrumentals | root | number1 | mode |
---|
Verbs may either be classificatory or normal. Classificatory verbs specify the subject's position (sitting, standing, etc.) and differ from normal verbs in that the first person is not inflected for person.
Inflection for person and number is identical to inflected nouns:
Because of the rules determining the surface manifestations of some combinations of person markers, 2nd person on 1st and 3rd person on 1st forms are identical, e.g. yaxtedi 'you hit me, he hit me'. Also, 2nd person subj., 2nd person on 3rd, and 3rd person on 2nd are identical, e.g. idǫhi 'you see, you see him, they see you'.
-tu marks animate plurality (except with some motion verbs).
However, -tu is not used:
Some (but not all) verbs of motion mark plurality with the prefix a- inserted directly before the root:
But there are counterexamples (even ones derived from the same roots):
daha marks plural objects when they are not specified elsewhere. It comes after -tu and before all mode markers.
Examples:
There are two examples of daha being reduced to ha:
a- may be added to some verb roots to mark an unspecified indefinite object:
There are many mode markers in Biloxi. Some are common and well understood, while others are infrequent and have elusive meanings.
Mode | Marker | Position | Examples | Comments | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Follows: | Precedes: | |||||
Declarative mode | na, male speaker ni, female speaker | always last |
| Usage is optional:
| ||
Interrogative mode | wo, male speaker ∅, female speaker | always last (never appears with declarative) |
| It is unclear what sort of intonation accompanied the interrogative. | ||
Hortatory mode | hi | na (or wo) |
| Almost always appears before declarative na/ni, but there's one example of it before wo:
Also, it may appear on its own in embedded sentence:
| ||
Potential mode | dande | tu daha | na xe |
| ||
Optative mode | tE1 | tu daha | dande ǫ wo hi ni |
| te almost always follows -tu, but there is a counter-example:
| |
Subjunctive mode | xo~xyo2 | always last |
| Semantic force is in question. Involves potentiality and contingency ('... if/provided'). nani 'can' may appear before 'xyo', lending it the meaning 'must' or 'must have':
| ||
Habitual mode | xya~xa3 | Everything except... | ... na/ni |
| Habitual and declarative combined are sometimes glossed as 'can':
| |
Negative mode | (ku)...ni |
| It's unclear when ku is needed. It is used for stems ending in -ni and with the feminine declarative marker ni4. The negative form of the verb duti 'eat' is kdux ni 'he did not eat', and not the expected kudux ni. | |||
Imperative mode | Positive | ta, male speaker to male addressee di, male speaker to female addressee te, female speaker to male addressee ∅, probably used to address children, possibly also female speaker to female addressee xye na, first person plural | stem (+ number marker) |
| The plural marker -tu (or a-) is used for plural addressees, and person markers mark objects (except for 2nd person negative imperative). There is one example of the person marker omitted from the (ku)...ni imperative:
| |
Negative | na5; second person strong negative (ku)...ni (the regular indicative form) |
| ||||
Rare | hi ko5; "deferential" dki~tki6 (possibly for female addressees) ką | hi ko: same as hi (potential mode marker) |
| |||
Dubitative mode | ha | na/ni |
| Meaning somewhat uncertain due to limited data. Appears adjacent to na/ni like hi, but unlike it does this even in embedded sentences. | ||
Strong declarative mode | xye, masc speaker xe, female speaker | xye: follows dande | xe: precedes xo |
| Stronger semantic force than na/ni. xye/xe may be followed by xo, but it's unclear whether this lends additional meaning:
| |
Inferential mode | yeke | dande | na |
| Most often used with a declarative marker. | |
Intensification | wa |
| It is unclear exactly how wa differs from xti (see below). It is possible that xti means 'very' while wa means 'so'. wa sometimes may be glossed as 'always'. | |||
Completive mode | ǫ~ǫni | te xti | xa |
| Emphasizes that the event occurred in the past. ǫ often is followed by xa, which may be glossed either as the expected 'regularly in the past', or 'in the remote past':
| |
Superlative mode | xti | occurs immediately after whatever is being intensified |
| xti may be used with adverbs:
| ||
Nouns may be derived either through nominalizing verbs or by compounding.
Verbs are nominalized via the prefix a-:
Compound nouns may either be formed by combining two nouns or a noun and a verb. (Some morphophonemic rules are involved, see above.)
noun + noun:
noun + verb:
For the personal pronoun indi, see above. įkowa may be used as a reflexive pronoun. It is possible that both of these, and perhaps the reflexive pronoun -įxki- (see below) are derived from a root in.
A number of interrogatives come from the prefix ca- (with vowel elision following morphophonemic rules):
Some are derived from pronouns:
Verbal derivation may occur by root derivation (reduplication and compounding) or stem derivation (thematic prefixes, dative markers, reciprocals, reflexives, and instrumentals.)
Reduplication, common in Biloxi, is used for intensification or distributiveness. Usually, the first CVC of the root is reduplicated but sometimes it is only the first CV:
Verbal compounds may be noun + verb or verb + verb.
It seems that most noun-verb compounds are formed by using the verb ǫ 'do, make':
Examples of verb-verb compounds:
Some of the above compounds end up having adjacent vowels, since syncope in compounds is optional.
Thematic prefixes come after person markers and before dative markers and instrumentals.
Prefix | Meaning | Examples | Comments | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
a- | habitual action |
| |||||
directional indicator: 'there, on' |
| ||||||
transivitizer |
| ||||||
į- | instrumental prefix, 'with' | ayą + į + duko | > /ayįduko/ 'tree + with + whip' = 'whip against a tree' | į + das + k + ǫ | > /įdaskǫ/ 'with + back + obj. + do' = 'sit with one's back to' | ||
u- | 'within a given area' |
|
The dative marker ki- (kiy- before vowels) is used after thematic prefixes.
It is peculiar in that it may be used if someone else's body parts are the direct object (the "dative of possession").
It appears as kik- before ǫ 'do, make' and gives it a benefactive gloss (kikǫ daha 'he made for them'). (It should not be mistaken for kiki-.)
The reduplicated kiki- marks reciprocity. The plural marker -tu is then optional.
įxki- (or ixki-, perhaps because of the denasalizing morphopohnemic rule above) marks reflexives. It normally comes immediately after person markers, but in some third-person cases, ki- may come before it:
Instrumentals serve to mark how the event was carried out and immediately precede the root.
Prefix | Meaning | Examples |
---|---|---|
da- | 'with the mouth or teeth' |
|
du- | 'with the hand(s), claws, etc.' |
|
duk(u)- | 'by hitting or punching' |
|
na- | 'with the foot' |
|
pa- | 'by pushing' |
|
pu2 | 'pushing or punching' |
|
di2 | 'by rubbing or pressing between the hands' |
|
Adverbs may be derived from connectives, pronouns, and verbs and particles via a number of affixes:
Affix | Meaning | Examples | ||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
e- | 'and (?), the aforesaid (?)' |
| e + de | 'just now' | e + wa | 'in that direction' | e + wite + xti | 'very early in the morning' | e + ma | 'right there' |
ke- | (?) |
| ke + cana | 'again' | ke + cumana | 'again' | ||||
kuhi- | 'high' |
| kuhi + adi | 'upstairs' | ||||||
ndo- | 'hither' |
| ndo + ao | (?) 'hither' | ndo + sąhį | 'on this side of' | ndo + ku | 'back hither' | ndo + wa | 'this way' |
ewa- | 'there' |
| ewa + sąhį | 'on the other side of' | ||||||
-wa | 'locative ending' |
| e + wa | 'in that direction' | he + e + wa | 'that way' | ko + wa | 'further along' | ndo + wa | 'this way' |
-yą | (?) |
| e + xti + yą | 'at a distance' | e + yą | 'there' | he + e + yą | 'there' | ndo + sąhį + yą | 'on this side of' |
There are various instances of derived connectives:
Derived numbers contain predictable vowel syncope (see above).
Biloxi | Gloss |
---|---|
sǫsa | 'one' |
nǫpa | 'two' |
dani | 'three' |
topa | 'four' |
ksani | 'five' |
akuxpe | 'six' |
nąpahudi1 | 'seven' |
dąhudi1 | 'eight' |
ckane | 'nine' |
ohi | 'ten' |
11-19 are derived via the formula 'X sitting on Y' ('Y Xaxehe').
Biloxi | Gloss |
---|---|
ohi sǫsaxehe | 'eleven' (='one sitting on ten') |
ohi nǫpaxehe | 'twelve' |
ohi danaxehe | 'thirteen' |
ohi topaxehe | 'fourteen' |
ohi ksanaxehe | 'fifteen' |
ohi akuxpaxehe | 'sixteen' |
ohi nąpahu axehe | 'seventeen' |
ohi dąxu axehe | 'eighteen' |
ohi ckanaxehe | 'nineteen' |
20-99 are derived via the formula 'X sitting on Y Zs' ('Z Y Xaxehe')
Biloxi | Gloss |
---|---|
ohi nǫpa | 'twenty' (='two tens') |
ohi nǫpa sǫsaxehe | '21' (='one sitting on two tens') |
ohi dani | '30' |
ohi dani sǫsaxehe | '31', etc. |
ohi topa | '40' |
ohi ksani | '50' |
ohi akuxpe | '60' |
ohi nąpahudi | '70' |
ohi dąhudi | '80' |
ohi ckane | '90' |
Biloxi | Gloss |
---|---|
tsipa | '100' |
tsipa sǫsaxehe | '101' (='one sitting on 100'), etc. |
tsipa ohi sǫsaxehe | '111', etc. |
tsipa nǫpa | '200' |
tsipa dani | '300' |
tsipa topa | '400' |
tsipa dani | '500' |
tsipa akuxpe | '600' |
tsipa nąpahudi | '700' |
tsipa dąhudi | '800' |
tsipa ckane | '900' |
tsipįciyą | '1000' ('old man hundred') |
ukikįke1 | 'one half' |
Ordinal numerals (1st, 2nd, 3rd) are not attested. To express 'once', 'twice', 'three times', etc.', use the verb de 'to go' before cardinal numbers:
To form multiplicatives, use akipta 'to double' before cardinal numbers:
Biloxi is a left-branching SOV language.
Its lexical categories include interjections (I), adverbials (A), subjects (S), objects (O), verbs (V), and connectives (C).
The three types of phrases are:
There are dependent and independent clauses, and major and minor sentences. (see below)
Interjections may be:
Vocatives are almost always unmarked:
There are only three exceptions:
Adverbials most often appear directly before the verb, but they may also act as subjects and object. They may not follow verbs or precede connectives in sentence-initial position.
Adverbials may be:
Some particles:
(Also, see "adverbs", above.)
Usage examples:
(For vowel elision, see above.)
Postposition | Gloss | Example(s) |
---|---|---|
itka | 'in, among' |
|
kuya~okaya | 'under' |
|
nata | 'middle of' |
|
(u)wa | 'into, towards' |
|
yaskiya12 | 'under' |
|
yehi~yehi ką~yehi yą | 'close to' |
|
acka | 'near' |
|
eusąhį3~sąhį | 'beyond' |
|
ndosąhį | 'on this side of' |
|
tawi | 'on, on top of' |
|
ǫ~ǫha | 'with' |
|
Notes:
Almost all of the above allow following de or yą. de has the expected meaning 'here' or 'this', while yą may be glossed 'the' or 'yonder'.
Prepositions are sometimes used without modifying a noun, becoming adverbial:
Such as:
Interrogative | Gloss | Example(s) |
---|---|---|
cidike~cidiki | 'how? why?' | how:
why:
|
cak~caką1 | 'where' |
|
cina | 'some, many' |
|
cinani23 | 'how many?' |
|
Subjects and objects are formed almost identically, save for the fact that the nominal particle ką may only be used after objects.
A subject or object must include a simple noun (N), and may optionally also include a verb (V), nominal particle (np), and/or demonstrative pronoun (dp), in that order.
If the noun is a personal pronoun, it may only (optionally) be followed by either a demonstrative pronoun or a nominal particle, but not both. For other pronouns (e.g. de 'this'), they may not be followed by anythihng.
Examples:
N V
N np
N dp
N V np
N V dp
N np dp
N V np dp
Possession in S's and O's is expressed by the possessor followed by the possessed, followed by np's.
Two subjects may be juxtaposed with reciprocal verbs:
Additives may be expressed by juxtaposition followed by the np yą, but this is not used often due to ambiguity (it might be interpreted as a possessive phrase):
Alternatives are expressed with juxtaposition followed by the particle ha (not otherwise an np):
Biloxi has many nominal particles, and for the most part their function is unclear.
A non-exhaustive list:
For the most part it's unclear what conditions the use of a particular np (or ∅), but the following can be said:
Simple verbs (not causatives or expanded verbs, see below) must contain a person marker, root, and number marker, and optionally the following:
Prefixes:
Suffixes:
Biloxi contains a defective auxiliary verb (h)andE/yukE (ande is used in singular, yuke for plural). By itself it may mean 'to be' or 'to stay', but with another verb it lends durativity. The plural marker -tu is not used with yuke since the defective form itself already serves to mark number.
When the auxiliary construction is used, both the main verb and the auxiliary are inflected.
Examples:
Generally to express the negative the stem is negated, rather than the auxiliary: [9]
Biloxi contains five classificatory verbs, which indicate duration and position of the subject: (See above for morphophonemic explanation of ||mąki|| > /max/.)
They may be used alone as verbs (kuhik mąx ką 'when it was lying high') but often reinforce synonymous roots:
They are used mostly with animates. [11]
Classificatory verbs are only inflected for 2nd person (not 1st) when used as auxiliaries.
hamaki~amaki is used as the plural form for all five classificatory verbs (even optionally for mąki and ne, which have their own plural forms mąxtu~amąki and ne):
The causative verb ||YE|| comes after (uninflected) stems to form a causative construction. In first and second person ha (sometimes h if followed by a vowel, see 3.1 above) is inserted between the stem and ||YE||.
Examples:
Serial verb constructions occur with two or three verbs in sequence. All are of the same person and number, but only the final stem has suffixes:
Connectives may be co-ordinating or subordinating:
Connective | Meaning | Example(s) | |
---|---|---|---|
Clause-final | hą | 'and' |
|
hąca | 'but, and subsequently' |
| |
Sentence-initial | ekeką | 'and then' |
|
ekehą | 'and then' |
| |
ekeko | 'well' |
| |
eką | 'well' |
| |
eke | 'well' |
| |
ekedį | 'that is why' | ||
ekeǫnidi | 'therefore' |
|
All subordinating connectives end the clause. ką is the most common by far and may be related to the np ką.
Connective | Meaning | Example(s) |
---|---|---|
de hed hą | [marks previous verb as past perfect, lit. 'this finished and'] |
|
dixyį | 'when, if' |
|
dixyą | 'whenever, when, if' |
|
ką | 'when' |
|
kne | 'just as, as soon as' | |
ko | 'when, as, since' | |
kike | 'although' |
|
xyeni | 'although' |
|
Clauses may end no more than one clause final connective. Subordinating connectives are used to create dependent clauses.
In clauses, the following order generally holds:
(Connective) (Subject) (Object) (Adverb) Verb (Connective)
There are occasional examples of S and/or O occurring after the verb, always with animates. O rarely precedes S, possibly for emphasis.
Direct objects always precede indirect objects: ąya xi yandi ąxti yą int ką ku 'the chief gave him the woman'.
Full sentences always end in independent clauses. Embedded sentences are not usually marked, but the horatory marker hi can be used if the embedded action has not yet occurred, and ni can be used if the action was not performed. wo (or wi) is used for mistaken ideas. [12]
Madí—also known as Jamamadí after one of its dialects, and also Kapaná or Kanamanti (Canamanti)—is an Arawan language spoken by about 1,000 Jamamadi, Banawá, and Jarawara people scattered over Amazonas, Brazil.
The morphology of Irish is in some respects typical of an Indo-European language. Nouns are declined for number and case, and verbs for person and number. Nouns are classified by masculine or feminine gender. Other aspects of Irish morphology, while typical for an Insular Celtic language, are not typical for Indo-European, such as the presence of inflected prepositions and the initial consonant mutations. Irish syntax is also rather different from that of most Indo-European languages, due to its use of the verb–subject–object word order.
Tagalog grammar are the rules that describe the structure of expressions in the Tagalog language, one of the languages in the Philippines.
Mbula is an Austronesian language spoken by around 2,500 people on Umboi Island and Sakar Island in the Morobe Province of Papua New Guinea. Its basic word order is subject–verb–object; it has a nominative–accusative case-marking strategy.
Bengali grammar is the study of the morphology and syntax of Bengali, an Indo-European language spoken in the Indian subcontinent. Given that Bengali has two forms, Bengali: চলিত ভাষা and Bengali: সাধু ভাষা, it is important to note that the grammar discussed below applies fully only to the Bengali: চলিত (cholito) form. Shadhu bhasha is generally considered outdated and no longer used either in writing or in normal conversation. Although Bengali is typically written in the Bengali script, a romanization scheme is also used here to suggest the pronunciation.
Hindustani, the lingua franca of Northern India and Pakistan, has two standardised registers: Hindi and Urdu. Grammatical differences between the two standards are minor but each uses its own script: Hindi uses Devanagari while Urdu uses an extended form of the Perso-Arabic script, typically in the Nastaʿlīq style.
Athpare, also known as Athapre, Athpariya, Athpre, Arthare, Arthare-Khesang, or Jamindar, spelled Athpariya I to be distinguished from Belhariya, is an eastern Kiranti language.
Bororo (Borôro), also known as Boe, is the sole surviving language of a small family believed to be part of the Macro-Jê languages. It is spoken by the Bororo, hunters and gatherers in the central Mato Grosso region of Brazil.
Somali is an agglutinative language, using many affixes and particles to determine and alter the meaning of words. As in other related Afroasiatic languages, Somali nouns are inflected for gender, number and case, while verbs are inflected for persons, number, tenses, and moods.
The Nukak language is a language of uncertain classification, perhaps part of the macrofamily Puinave-Maku. It is very closely related to Kakwa.
Nepali grammar is the study of the morphology and syntax of Nepali, an Indo-European language spoken in South Asia.
Cebuano grammar encompasses the rules that define the Cebuano language, the most widely spoken of all the languages in the Visayan Group of languages, spoken in Cebu, Bohol, Siquijor, part of Leyte island, part of Samar island, Negros Oriental, especially in Dumaguete, and the majority of cities and provinces of Mindanao.
The morphology of the Welsh language shows many characteristics perhaps unfamiliar to speakers of English or continental European languages like French or German, but has much in common with the other modern Insular Celtic languages: Irish, Scottish Gaelic, Manx, Cornish, and Breton. Welsh is a moderately inflected language. Verbs conjugate for person, tense and mood with affirmative, interrogative and negative conjugations of some verbs. A majority of prepositions inflect for person and number. There are few case inflections in Literary Welsh, being confined to certain pronouns.
The Naʼvi language is a fictional constructed language originally made for the 2009 film Avatar. In the film franchise, the language is spoken by the Naʼvi, a race of sapient humanoids indigenous to the extraterrestrial moon Pandora. The language was created by Paul Frommer, a professor at the USC Marshall School of Business with a doctorate in linguistics. Naʼvi was designed to fit moviemaker James Cameron's conception of what the language should sound like in the film. It had to be realistically learnable by the fictional human characters of the film and pronounceable by the actors, but also not closely resemble any single human language.
Uyghur is a Turkic language spoken mostly in the west of China.
Marra, sometimes formerly spelt Mara, is an Australian Aboriginal language, traditionally spoken on an area of the Gulf of Carpentaria coast in the Northern Territory around the Roper, Towns and Limmen Bight Rivers. Marra is now an endangered language. The most recent survey was in 1991; at that time, there were only 15 speakers, all elderly. Most Marra people now speak Kriol as their main language. The remaining elderly Marra speakers live in the Aboriginal communities of Ngukurr, Numbulwar, Borroloola and Minyerri.
Warndarrang (waɳʈaraŋ), also spelt Warndarang, Wanderang, Wandaran, and other variants is an extinct Aboriginal Australian language in the Arnhem family, formerly spoken by the Warndarrang people in southern Arnhem Land, along the Gulf of Carpentaria. The last speaker was Isaac Joshua, who died in 1974, while working with the linguist Jeffrey Heath.
Zotung (Zobya) is a language spoken by the Zotung people, in Rezua Township, Chin State, Burma. It is a continuum of closely related dialects and accents. The language does not have a standard written form since it has dialects with multiple variations on its pronunciations. Instead, Zotung speakers use a widely accepted alphabet for writing with which they spell using their respective dialect. However, formal documents are written using the Lungngo dialect because it was the tongue of the first person to prescribe a standard writing, Sir Siabawi Khuamin.
This article describes the grammar of the Old Irish language. The grammar of the language has been described with exhaustive detail by various authors, including Thurneysen, Binchy and Bergin, McCone, O'Connell, Stifter, among many others.
Swahili is a Bantu language which is native to or mainly spoken in the East African region. It has a grammatical structure that is typical for Bantu languages, bearing all the hallmarks of this language family. These include agglutinativity, a rich array of noun classes, extensive inflection for person, tense, aspect and mood, and generally a subject–verb–object word order.