Siberian Yupik/Grammar

Morphophonemics

Stem Termination Patterns

This is for my reference, these are the possible ways that stems can end and will be useful in determining what suffixes can be added to a stem.

• Stem ending in a single prime vowel (any other than e)
  • nuna<n> "land"
  • {pana<n> "spear"
  • siku<n> "ice"
  • qiya<v> "to cry"
  • ifla<v> "to lose or be lost"

• Stems ending in two prime vowels
  • puu<n> "handle"
  • kii<n> "wound"
  • avii<v> "for one's ears to ring"
  • aghnau<v> "to be a woman"

• Stems ending with e not preceded by t
  • nege<n> "food"
  • tume<n> "footprint"
  • neghe<v> "to eat"
  • kuuve<v> "to spill"

• Stems ending in te
  • yughaghte<n> "preacher"
  • riigte<n> "den"
  • ingaghte<v> "to lie down"

• Stems ending in weak gh
  • qayagh<n> "kayak"
  • aghnagh<n> "woman"
  • qikmigh<n> "dog"
  • No verbs

• Stems ending in strong fricative
  • savig<n> "knife"
  • kiiw<n> "river"
  • ategh<n> "bone"
  • All verbs ending with fricatives are strong fricatives
  • gavagh<v> "to sleep"
  • mayugh<v> "to climb"

Suffixation Pattern Notation

This is also for my reference, different symbols at the beginning of suffixes indicate in what manner they are attached to the stem. This will be useful for writing code to attach the suffixes.

• "-" indicates that any final consonant on a stem will be deleted
• "-w" indicates that a weak stem-final consonant will be deleted, but strong ones will remain. Weak consonants are gh preceded by a single prime vowel (a, i, or u), gh preceded by two vowels or e will remain
• "+" indicates that all stem-final consonants will be retained
• ":" indicates that gh will be deleted if occurs between single vowels at the boundary between stem and suffix (but not double vowels)
• "~f" indicates that a stem-final e will be deleted
• "~sf" indicates that a semi-final e will be deleted from a stem, this is an e right before a final consonant
• "~" indicates that a final or semi-final e will be deleted
• "@" or an arrow indicates a complicated change to a stem final te

Absolutive Cases

Adding absolutive singular endings to nouns

The Ø ending changes noun stem into a common "abslolutive" form used for naming, I couldn't find a good tag for this so I am using <abs>. This can also be referred to as a "citation" form.

• e# → a
  • nege<n><abs><sg> ↔ nega -food
  • riigte<n><abs><sg> ↔ riigta -den
  • sigute<n><abs><sg> ↔ siguta -ear
• gh# → q
  • qayagh<n><abs><sg> ↔ qayaq -kayak
• g# → k
  • ungag<n><abs><sg> ↔ ungak -whisker
• w# → kw
  • kiiw<n><abs><sg> ↔ kiikw -river
• ghw# → qw
  • qiighw<n><abs><sg> ↔ qiiqw -grey hair
• Prime vowel at end of stem remains the same

Adding absolutive plural endings to unpossessed nouns

Adding absolutive plurals is done by attaching t. The full form of the plural is "~sf-w:t". I will use <abs> for absolutive, <pl> for plural, and <impers> or impersonal for unpossessed.

• nuna-<n><abs><pl><impers> ↔ nunat -lands
• tume-<n><abs><pl><impers> ↔ tumet -trails
• piitute-<n><abs><pl><impers> ↔ piitutet -seeds
• manig-<n><abs><pl><impers> ↔ maniget -eggs
• taqegh-<n><abs><pl><impers> ↔ taaqghet -veins