Western Abenaki/Grammar Documentation
Contents
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 the animate plural becomes -ik, and the -d becomes -j
- alokad - worker
- alokad<n><aa><pl> ↔ alokajik
- 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:
- badoziz - little rowboat
- badoziz<n><nn><pl> ↔ badozizal
- bamskoda - meadow
- bamskoda<n><nn><pl> ↔ bamskodaal
- After -g the inanimate plural becomes -il
- bakagaȣkwtag - crosspiece of a canoe
- bakagaȣkwtag<n><nn><pl> ↔ bakagaȣkwtagil
- After -gw and -kw the inanimate plural becomes -ol and the w disappears.
- bamskodaitegw - prairie river
- bamskodaitegw<n><nn><pl> ↔ bamskodaitegol
- bakwaaskw - cattail
- bakwaaskw<n><nn><pl> ↔ bakwaaskol
- After -ȣ the inanimate plural becomes -l
- wizenȣ - beaver castor
- wizenȣ<n><nn><pl> ↔ wizenȣk
- 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><px1sg> ↔ n'kaozem
- kaozem<n><aa><px2sg> ↔ k'kaozem
- kaozem<n><aa><px3sg> ↔ w'kaozema
- kaozem<n><aa><px1pl excl> ↔ n'kaozemna
- kaozem<n><aa><px1pl incl> ↔ k'kaozemna
- kaozem<n><aa><px2pl> ↔ k'kaozemwȣ
- kaozem<n><aa><px3pl> ↔ w'kaozemwȣ
- kaozem<n><aa><pl><px1sg> ↔ n'kaozemak
- kaozem<n><aa><pl><px2sg> ↔ k'kaozemak
- kaozem<n><aa><pl><px3sg> ↔ w'kaozema
- kaozem<n><aa><pl><px1pl excl> ↔ n'kaozemnawak
- kaozem<n><aa><pl><px1pl incl> ↔ k'kaozemnawak
- kaozem<n><aa><pl><px2pl> ↔ k'kaozemwȣk
- kaozem<n><aa><pl><px3pl> ↔ w'kaozemwȣ
Locative Case
The locative form (<loc>) of 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 with allomorphs of the "-ikw" suffix, which usually surfaces as one of three forms: "-k" "-ek" or "-ik." This is because the morpheme is often word final, meaning the glide is deleted. A distinction is not made for animacy with the locative form.
- ababskweda<n><loc> ↔ ababskwedak "stove" - "at/on the stove"
- msazesko<n><loc> ↔ msazeskok "much mud" - "in much mud"
- abagapskw<n><loc> ↔ abagapskok "flat rock" - "at/on the flat rock"
- gôgajigapskw<n><loc> ↔ gôgajigapskok
- abagijiman<n><loc> ↔ abagijimanek "rowboat/flat-bottomed boat" - "at/in the rowboat"
When pluralizing the locative (<loc><pl>), the /i/ vowel typically does not delete and the glide becomes /o/.
- 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
