Berik/Grammar
Classes
The Grammatical Sketch lists the uninflectable closed classes as:
- Response words ("yes", "no", "don't want") <resp>
- Pseudo-Imperatives ("come", "watch out", but not related to the verbs) <psimp>
- Exclamatory words ("(amazement)", "(pity)") <ij>
- Interrogatives ("what", "who", "why") <itg>
- Numerals (only "1", "2", "3", "4") <num>
- Manner Adverbs ("also", "again", "already") <adv><man>
- Temporals ("today", "yesterday", "tomorrow") <temp>
- Locationals ("middle of", "on", "behind", it's unclear how these relate to prepositions) <locl>
- Conjunctions ("and", "or", "then") <conj>
The inflectable classes are:
- Nouns (below) <n>
- Verbs (below) <v>
- Pronouns (there should perhaps be a distinction between subject and non-subject pronouns) <prn>
- Modifiers (adjectives, with regular derivation to adverbs) <adj>
Nouns
Nouns occurring as the subject of a sentence typically receive the suffix «-na». However, not every noun receives this inflection.
Consider the following examples where subjects receive the suffix «-na»
- bangge<n><subj> ↔ banggena
Locational suffixes « -ap » "towards" and « -wer » "away from" occur on nouns.
- jina<n>+ap<post> ↔ jinap
- jina<n>+wer<post> ↔ jinawer
When the direction irrelevant, either may be used.
- sita<n>+ap<post> ↔ sitap
- sita<n>+wer<post> ↔ sitawer
The suffix « -yan » sometimes occurs on nouns in non-transitive clauses and is used to negate the clause.
- tane<n>+yan<neg> ↔ taneyan
- bwernabar<n>+yan<neg> ↔ bwernabaryan
- domol<n>+yan<neg> ↔ domolyan
The suffix « -em » occurs on nouns as an instrument.
- at<n><ins> ↔ atem
- gin<n><ins> ↔ ginem
Something's wrong here. Either do gin<n><ins> ↔ ginem or gin<n>+em<post> ↔ ginem.
The suffix « -far » (sometimes « -bar ») occurs on nouns as comitative.
- uwa<n><com> ↔ uwafar
- je<n><com> ↔ jebar
- Korano<n><com> ↔ Koranofar
Same here
The suffix « -bara » indicates a special form of accompanying relationship between a noun and a pronoun. It carries the meaning 'to have,' as in "I have a daughter.'
- yafontoi<n><relational> ↔ yafontoibara
- gwora<n><relational> ↔ gworabara
Same here
The suffix « -mana » occurs on nouns as a possessor.
- Korano<n><pos> ↔ Koranomana
- uwa<n><pos> ↔ uwamana
Same here
If the possessor precedes the item it possesses, the suffix « -em » is used instead.
- Korano<n><pos> ↔ Koranoem
Same here
Verbs
It looks like you have enough data to get a good idea of what's going on. And you really need to figure it out.
Number
Intransitive verbs agree with the subject for dual number by adding the pluralizer word «ge» before the verb.
- jila<v><iv><du> ↔ ge jila
- sofwa<v><iv><du> ↔ ge sofwa
- nasona<v><iv><du> ↔ ge nasona
- fina<v><iv><du> ↔ ge fina
For plurals 4 examples are given, but the pattern isn't clear.
- jila<v><iv><pl> ↔ ge jalbili
- sofwa<v><iv><pl> ↔ ge sofwabili
- nasona<v><iv><pl> ↔ ge nasbawena
- fina<v><iv><pl> ↔ ge fibili
Transitive verbs mark the number of the object.
In dual, the ending appears to be «-sona» for verbs ending in «-(b)ana», which is sometimes accompanied by a vowel change in the stem. There is not enough data to find a pattern for other types of verbs.
- damtana<v><tv><du> ↔ domsona
- saftana<v><tv><du> ↔ sofsona
- nasbana<v><tv><du> ↔ nasona
- telbese<v><tv><du> ↔ telmisi
- wirusu<v><tv><du> ↔ wirsosa
Plural is again difficult to make out.
- damtana<v><tv><pl> ↔ damtabili
- saftana<v><tv><pl> ↔ saftabana
- nasbana<v><tv><pl> ↔ nasbabili
- telbese<v><tv><pl> ↔ telbebesi
- wirusu<v><tv><pl> ↔ wirtababisi
Gender
Many verbs agree with the gender of the object. Some these have a regular suffix alteration between «-bana» and «-bili».
- sarbana<v><tv><f> ↔ sarbili
- eyebana<v><tv><f> ↔ eyebili
- gwebana<v><tv><f> ↔ gwebili
Others undergo stem changes. Some of these are very similar to the suffix alteration.
- gerbana<v><tv><f> ↔ golbili
Whereas others (those ending in «-tana», it seems) change the first syllable and change the suffix to «-ola».
- damtana<v><tv><f> ↔ domola
- saftana<v><tv><f> ↔ sofola
Distance
When the action takes place far away, the infix «-tet-» is inserted before the final syllable. If the verb ends in «-tena» the result is «-tetna», otherwise the «n» is doubled and «-tet-» is inserted between them.
- disultena<v><tv><dst> ↔ disultetna
- gwerana<v><tv><dst> ↔ gwerantetna
Give
Since verbs are really messy and the grammar documentation is minimal, here's conjugations to "to give", for which the dictionary lists the root as "gubana" or "gobali", for the male and female versions, respectively. Forms are given for both genders in past, present, and future tenses, for singular, dual and plural object number, and with both sunlight and darkness forms.
- gubana<v><tv><prs><sg><sun> ↔ gulbana
- gubana<v><tv><pst><sg><sun> ↔ gulbanant
- gubana<v><tv><fut><sg><sun> ↔ gulbafa
- gubana<v><tv><prs><sg><dark> ↔ gulbasa
- gubana<v><tv><pst><sg><dark> ↔ gulbafant
- gubana<v><tv><fut><sg><dark> ↔ gubafa
- gubana<v><tv><prs><du><sun> ↔ terbene
- gubana<v><tv><pst><du><sun> ↔ terbenent
- gubana<v><tv><fut><du><sun> ↔ terbefe
- gubana<v><tv><prs><du><dark> ↔ terbese
- gubana<v><tv><pst><du><dark> ↔ terbefent
- gubana<v><tv><fut><du><dark> ↔ terbefe
- gubana<v><tv><prs><pl><sun> ↔ kitobana
- gubana<v><tv><pst><pl><sun> ↔ kitulbanant
- gubana<v><tv><fut><pl><sun> ↔ kitobafo
- gubana<v><tv><prs><pl><dark> ↔ kitobasa
- gubana<v><tv><pst><pl><dark> ↔ kitulbafant
- gubana<v><tv><fut><pl><dark> ↔ kitobafo
And the feminine:
- gobali<v><tv><prs><sg><sun> ↔ gobili
- gobali<v><tv><pst><sg><sun> ↔ golbilint
- gobali<v><tv><fut><sg><sun> ↔ golbifi
- gobali<v><tv><prs><sg><dark> ↔ gobisi
- gobali<v><tv><pst><sg><dark> ↔ golbifint
- gobali<v><tv><fut><sg><dark> ↔ golbifi
- gobali<v><tv><prs><du><sun> ↔ terbili
- gobali<v><tv><pst><du><sun> ↔ terbilint
- gobali<v><tv><fut><du><sun> ↔ terbifi
- gobali<v><tv><prs><du><dark> ↔ terbese
- gobali<v><tv><pst><du><dark> ↔ terbefint
- gobali<v><tv><fut><du><dark> ↔ terbifi
- gobali<v><tv><prs><pl><sun> ↔ kitobili
- gobali<v><tv><pst><pl><sun> ↔ kitulbilint
- gobali<v><tv><fut><pl><sun> ↔ kitulbifi
- gobali<v><tv><prs><pl><dark> ↔ kitobisi
- gobali<v><tv><pst><pl><dark> ↔ kitulbifint
- gobali<v><tv><fut><pl><dark> ↔ kitulbifi
shouldn't these have the same lemma, and <m> and <f> tags?
