Difference between revisions of "Western Abenaki/Grammar Documentation"

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* kaozem - cow
 
* kaozem - cow
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** {{morphTest|kaozem{{tag|n}}{{tag|aa}}{{tag|pl}}|kanalak}}
  
 
====Locative Case====
 
====Locative Case====

Revision as of 21:46, 16 February 2023

Parts of Speech

Western Abenaki has heavily inflected verbs, which have affixes marking subject person and number as well as object person and number, nouns inflected with formatives in a similar manner, adjectives which have agreement with nouns, adverbs, and pronouns.

Spell Relax

ȣ and ô

w

"w" and "u" are used fairly interchangeably across the corpus. It is unclear (but unlikely) that there is a pronunciation difference. Additionally, "w" is often dropped orthographically and phonetically when followed by "ô."

Morphology

Noun Pluralization

Regular plurals are formed depending on whether the noun is animate or inanimate.

  • Regular animate plurals are formed with -ak:
    • kanal - teakettle
    • kanal<n><aa><pl> ↔ kanalak
  • After -d and -t the animate plural becomes -ik
  • After -gw and -kw the animate plural becomes -ok and the w disappears.
    • amiskw - beaver
    • amiskw<n><aa><pl> ↔ amiskok
    • azeskwamagw - mud fish
    • azeskwamagw<n><aa><pl> ↔ azeskwamagok
  • After -ȣ and -a the animate plural becomes -k
    • abitȣ - farmer
    • abitȣ<n><aa><pl> ↔ abitȣk
    • alȣtegwihla - wood duck
    • alȣtegwihla<n><aa><pl> ↔ alȣtegwihlak
  • Regular inanimate plurals are formed with -al:
  • After -g and -k the inanimate plural becomes -il
  • After -gw and -kw the inanimate plural becomes -ol and the w disappears.
  • Certain words ending in -m and -n form their plural with -ok and -ol (animate and inanimate respectively)

Pronouns

Pronouns are usually affixed to verbs, but sometimes are found as their own words.

Person and Number Western Abenaki
1st person singular nia
2nd person singular kia
3rd person singular agma
1st person plural (exclusive) niona
1st person plural (inclusive) kiona
2nd person plural kiowȣ
3rd person plural agmȣwȣ
3st person plural (obviative) agmȣgik

Possessive pronouns have their own forms which are affixed onto nouns to mark possession.

Person and Number Prefix Suffix
1st person singular n-
2nd person singular k-
3rd person singular w- -a
1st person plural (exclusive) n- -na
1st person plural (inclusive) k- -na
2nd person plural k- -wȣ
3rd person plural w- -wȣ
  • kaozem - cow
    • kaozem<n><aa><pl> ↔ kanalak

Locative Case

The locative case (<loc>) on Western Abenaki nouns (<n>) denotes a location or being located at or with something, adding a "place" quality to a noun. The functions roughly like with English prepositions "in/at/on."

It is suffixed to the noun in one of three forms: "-k" "-ek" or "-ik." The distinction is based on the root-final segment.



  • алма<n><loc> ↔ алмада
  • кол<n><loc> ↔ колдо
  • көз<n><loc> ↔ көздө
  • бел<n><loc> ↔ белде
  • баш<n><loc> ↔ башта
  • чок<n><loc> ↔ чокто
  • күч<n><loc> ↔ күчтө
  • иш<n><loc> ↔ иште