Nuosu/Grammar

Part of Speech

1. Open
   • Noun
     • lyp<n> ↔ lyp - seed
   • Verb
     • lyp<v> ↔ lyp - sow
   • Adjective
     • jjip<adj> ↔ jjip - full
2. Semi-closed
   • Determiner
     • Classifier
       • ji<Cl> ↔ ji - bar,used to classify one-dimensional entities
   • Adverb
     • gexyimu<adv> ↔ gexyimu - stupid
   • Conjunction
3. Closed
   • Pronoun
     • nga<p1><sg> ↔ nga
   • Particle
     • da<pfv> ↔ da

Morphological Analysis

Size prefixes

• The diminutive prefixes i and the augmentative prefix a can be prefixed to a set of adjectival roots generating pairs of antonyms.
  • sho<n><pl> ↔ ix sho** -iet (big)
  • -a (small)
  • ax (small)

Nominalizer suffixes

Three nominalizer suffixes can be attached to verbs to form nouns. Not all verbs can take three suffixes.

• -lu is attached to a verb to form the action of that verb
• -jjux is attached to a verb to mean the quality or extent of that verb
• -tie is is attached to a verb to indicate the manner of that verb

Adjectivizer suffixes

• -sa
• -we

Reduplicaiton

• Nouns
• Cl
• Pronouns
• Verbs/Adjectives reduplicate to form alternative question

Gender/Age suffixes

• Three gender and one age suffixes attached to animal names: - bat (male), -bu (male), -mop (female) and -sse (young).