Difference between revisions of "Ainu/Grammar"

Revision as of 15:33, 9 February 2017

Parts of Speech

Verb

Because Verbs in Ainu <vblex> have only the indicative mood <pri>, conjugations use auxiliary verbs. For example, a present tense <pres> continuing action is denoted by the auxiliary verbs <vaux> «shiri ne», while the auxiliary «okere», when placed after a verb, means the verb has concluded.

• ku kik<vblex><vaux><pres> ↔ ku kik shiri ne ("I strike" becomes "I am striking")

Pronoun

Ainu has 5 pronoun <pn> classes: personal, possessive, relative, indefinite, and interrogative.

Personal pronouns are divided into first person singular <p1><sg> and second person singular <p2><sg>. The first person singular pronoun start with «k» and can be used by male or female speakers:

• kuani<pn><p1><sg><mf> ↔ kuani (this and the following three pronouns mean "I")
• kani<pn><p1><sg><mf> ↔ kani
• Anokai<pn><p1><sg><mf> ↔ Anokai
• Chokai<pn><p1><sg><mf> ↔ Chokai

The second person singular pronouns are «e»- (for verb attachment), «eani», «yani», «aokai», and «anokai»:

• eani<pn><p2><sg><mf> ↔ eani (this and the following three pronouns mean "you")
• yani<pn><p2><sg><mf> ↔ yani
• aokai<pn><p2><sg><mf> ↔ aokai
• anokai<pn><p1><sg><mf> ↔ anokai

The third person <p3> pronoun is instead replaced with «»shiroma, «shinuma», and demonstrative adjectives, to mean "he; she; it", with no regard for animacy.

Possessive pronouns employ the use of «koro» to the personal pronoun (using <px1sg> for first person singular possessive, <px2sg> for second person singular possessive, <px1pl> for first person plural possessive, and <px2pl> for second person plural possessive):

• ku<pn><px1sg><mf> ↔ ku koro
• e<pn><px2sg><mf> ↔ e koro
• chi<pn><px1pl><mf> ↔ chi koro
• echi<pn><px2pl><mf> ↔ echi koro

Adverb

Adverbs in Ainu <adv> seem to be created from adding suffixes to adjectives:

• ashiri<adv> ↔ ashin'no ("new" becomes "newly")
• son<adv> ↔ sonno ("true" becomes "truly")
• moire<adv> ↔ moire-tara ("slow" becomes "slowly")
• ratchi<adv> ↔ ratchi-tara ("gentle" becomes "gently")

Article

Although there is no proper article in Ainu, the numeral adjective «shine» can be used as an indefinite article, for which we will use the tag <det> to denote determiner and <ind> to denote indefiniteness.

• ainu<det> ↔ shine ainu ("a man")
• chisei<det> ↔ shine chisei ("a house")
• chikoikip<det> ↔ shine chikoikip ("an animal")

However, «shine» is also used to denote one of a thing (denoted by the tag <sg>) varying by context:

• ainu<sg> ↔ shine ainu ("one man")
• shiwentep<sg> ↔ shine shiwentep ("one woman")

For the definite article (<def> the demonstrative adjective «nei» is sometimes used:

• guru<det><def> ↔ nei guru ("(the) person")
• chep<det><def> ↔ nei chep ("(the) fish")

Noun

Nouns (<n>) in Ainu do not undergo any morphological processes to denote number, gender, or case. Other words are combined with nouns to express this information:

• ainu<n> ↔ ainu
• ainu<n><pl> ↔ ainu-utara
• ainu<n><sg> ↔ shine-ainu

Adjective

There are two types of adjectives <adj> in Ainu, simple and compound. Both can express number. There are at least 15 adjectival endings for simple adjectives. Some examples include:

• hek<adj> ↔ hekai
• shise<adj> ↔ shisak
• ra<adj> ↔ ram
• reta<adj> ↔ retara

For compound adjectives, the endings are «an», «koro», «ne», «nei», «o», «sak», «tek», «un», and «ush»:

• kera<adj> ↔ kera an
• haro<adj> ↔ haro koro
• ramu<adj> ↔ ramu-sak
• nuchak<adj> ↔ nuchaktek
• ashkan<adj> ↔ ashkanne
• paro<adj> ↔ paro-un
• kem<adj> ↔ kem-ush
• ki<adj> ↔ ki-o

Adjective Comparison

Often in Ainu adjectival degree is left to be inferred from the context, but if required, the word «naa» can be used before the adjective <adj> in question to mark the comparative form <comp>, and «iyotta» can be used in the same way to mark the superlative form <sup>:

• pirika<adj><comp> ↔ naa pirika
• pirika<adj><sup> ↔ iyotta pirika
• pon<adj><comp> ↔ naa pon
• pon<adj><sup> ↔ iyotta pon

Adjective Pluralization

Adjectives <adj> may be pluralized <pl> with the suffix plural particle «pa»:

• pirika<adj><pl> ↔ pirikapa
• wen<adj> ↔ wenpa
• pon<adj> ↔ ponpa
• harokoro<adj> ↔ harokoropa

Adjectivalization

The prefix «chi» attaches to transitive verbs to make them passive where they act as adjectives.

• ama<adj> ↔ chiama
• kuba<adj> ↔ chikuba
• pereba<adj> ↔ chipereba
• tereke<adj> ↔ chitereke
• ye<adj> ↔ chiye

Diminuitive

In Ainu, «po» marks the diminutive particle, denoted as <dim>

• ise<vblex><dim> ↔ isepo
• ponbe<n><dim> ↔ ponbepo
• chikap<n><dim> ↔ chikap-po
• okkai<n><dim> ↔ okkai-po
• chi-ika-nai<n><dim> ↔ chi-ika-nai-po
• chishnai<n><dim> ↔ chishnai-po
• tukara<n><dim> ↔ tukarapo

Intensifier

Note: still searching for more examples, so this is not intended to be part of the grammar assignment. In Ainu, the morpheme «i» can mark intensity (<int>)

• se<vblex><int> ↔ ise

Nominalizing

In Ainu, adding the morpheme «i», «hi», or «ambe» to adjectives <adj> or verbs <vblex> can express abstract qualities <abs>:

• nupeki<n><abs> ↔ nupeki-i ("bright" becomes "brightness"
• nupeki<n><abs> ↔ nupeki-hi
• nupeki<n><abs> ↔ nupeki-ambe
• itak<n><abs> ↔ itak-i ("to speak" becomes "a speech")
• itak<n><abs> ↔ itak-hi
• itak<n><abs> ↔ itak-ambe

Adding the suffix «pe» (realized as «p») to adjectives <adj> can nominalize them <n> to mean "an <adj> thing" and can also nominalize passive verbs <vblex><pass> to mean "thing that is <vblex><pass>":

• pase<n> ↔ pasep ("heavy" becomes "a heavy thing", not "heaviness")
• poro<n> ↔ porop ("large" becomes "a large thing", not "largeness")
• ae<n> ↔ aep ("to be eaten" becomes "food")
• aye<n> ↔ ayep ("to be spoken" becomes "the thing said", not "speech")

Noun Gender

Nouns are subject to no changes to indicate gender, number or case. Often Ainu has different words for differently gendered animate objects:

• «ainu» "man", «mat-ainu» "woman"
• «shiuk» "a he bear", «kuchan» "a she bear"

When an object has no special masculine or feminine form but the sex of the object is relevant, the word «pinne "male" or «matne» "female" are placed before it:

• chikap<n><m> ↔ pinne chikap ("a cock")
• chikap<n><f> ↔ matne chikap ("a hen")
• seta<n><m> ↔ pinne seta ("a dog")
• seta<n><f> ↔ matne seta ("a bitch")

For human beings/gods, the word «okkai»/«okkaiyo» "male" replaces «pinne»:

• kamui<n><m> ↔ okkai-kamui

Noun number

Since the number of the noun is typically indicated by the context or verb, there is no need to use an additional morpheme to express plurality. However, when it is necessary, there are several derivations. The most typical is the suffix (or possibly separate word) «-utara», «-utare», or «-utari».

• aiai<n><pl> ↔ aiai-utara
• umma<n><pl> ↔ umma-utara
• ainu<n><pl> ↔ ainu-utara

Additionally, the morpheme «u» is used for a number of nouns as a suffix for plurality

• am<n><pl> ↔ amu
• ashikipet<n><pl> ↔ ashikipettu
• at<n><pl> ↔ atu
• chep<n><pl> ↔ chep-nu
• hura<n><pl> ↔ huranu
• itak<n><pl> ↔ itaku
• kut<n><pl> ↔ kuttu
• nishi<n><pl> ↔ nishu

However, sometimes the «u» morpheme is used as a prefix instead:

• ikushpe<n><pl> ↔ ukushpe
• iriwak<n><pl> ↔ uiriwak
• kema<n><pl> ↔ ukema
• nimaki<n><pl> ↔ unimaki

Lastly, there appear to be other methods of pluralizing, including reduplication, and the use of the morpheme «cha»:

• pe<n><pl> ↔ pepe
• pet<n><pl> ↔ petcha

Noun affinity

In Ainu, the suffixes «-po», tonoge indicate reffering to a noun in a complimentary way <endear>, akin to "my dear", while «nishpake» can indicate referring to a noun in a honorific way <honor>, akin to "my honored" in English:

• ak<n><endear> ↔ ak-po
• turesh<n><endear> ↔ turesh-po
• aak<n><endear> ↔ aak-tonoge
• apoho<n><endear> ↔ apoho-tonoge
• anish<n><endear> ↔ anish-tonoge
• ayupo<n><endear> ↔ ayupo-tonoge
• amichi<n><endear> ↔ amichi-tonoge

• ayupo<n><honor> ↔ ayupo-nishpake
• aak<n><honor> ↔ aak-nishpake
• atono<n><honor> ↔ atono-nishpake

Verbalization

Nouns can sometimes become verbs <vblex> by taking «-kara» (to do) «-koro» (to possess) after them:

• ikiri<vblex> ↔ ikiri-kara (from "a seam" to "to sew"}}
• attush<vblex> ↔ attush-kara (from "cloth" to "to weave")
• chisei<vblex> ↔ chisei-kara (from "a house" to "to build a house")
• hau<vblex> ↔ hau-koro (from "the voice" to "to crow; to bark; to neigh")
• honi<vblex> ↔ honi-koro (from "the stomach" to "to conceive")
• kaya<vblex> ↔ kaya-koro (from "a sail" to "to sail"

Letter changes

To be completed and not considered for part of Ainu grammar assignment

• No voiced stop may begin a sentence but sometimes voicing occurs: k->d, p->b, t->d

Chi is sometimes changed into t before utara, and u is dropped:

 * Heikattara = heikachi + utara = "lads"
 * Matkattara = matkachi + utara = "girls"

He/hei becomes se/sei in some places:

 * Hekachi -> sekachi ("a lad")

Ko becomes cho and vice versa:

 * koropok -> choropok "underneath"

Pa becomes cha sometimes:

 * upaskuma -> uchashkuma "preaching"

N becomes m before b or m:

 * tan be -> tambe "this thing"
 * tan matkachi -> tammakatchi "this girl

Ra and ri become n before n and ra, and t before t:

 * kara nangoro -> kan nangoro "will make"
 * oara raige -> oan-raige "to kill outright"
 * ara tuye -> oattuye "to cut through
 * ashiri no -> ashin-no "newly"

Ro becomes t before chi and t, and becomes n before n:

 * ku goro chisei -> ku kot chisei "my house"
 * ku goro toi -> ku kottoi "my garden"
 * ku-goro-nishpa -> ku konnishpa "my master"

Ru becomes n before n:

 * an guru ne -> an gun' ne "it is a person"

If word ending in vowel is followed by word starting with vowel, first vowel is sometimes dropped:

 * moshiri ebitta -> moshir' ebitta "the whole world"
 *ota moshiri un guru -> oya moshir' un guru "a foreigner"
 * Utara, obitta -> utar' obitta "everybody"

Special emphasis can be given to a noun/adj ending with a vowel by reduplication of the previous syllable where the consonant is replaced with "h":

 * nimaki -> nimakihi "a tooth"
 * to -> toho "a day" "a lake"
 * pirika -> pirikaha "good"
 * kunne -> kunnehe "black" "dark"

Often it is customary to reduplicate the final vowel:

 * cha -> chaha "twigs"
 * hochi -> hochihi "a sum"
 * wenkuri -> wen-kurihi "a rain cloud"