Kaingang/Grammar
From LING073
Contents
Conjunctions
Common Conjunctions | |
---|---|
Kaingang | English |
ge ra | as so, even so |
hã jé | for this end |
hã kato | instead of this |
hã kỹ | because of this |
hã ra | but, on the contrary of |
hã ri | similar to |
hã to | instead of |
hã tugrĩn | because of this, for that |
hã tỹ | because of this, for that |
jarĩnmỹ | although |
jãvo | but, on the contrary of |
jo | but |
kỹ | therefore, for this end |
mũ ra | as so, even so |
mỹr’ | meanwhile |
Interjections
Pronouns
Personal Pronouns
Subject | ||
---|---|---|
Person | Singular | Plural |
1 | inh | ẽ |
2 | ã | ãjag |
3m | ti | ag |
3f | fi | fag |
Examples:
- Genderable nouns receive "suffixes" for pluralization and gender.
- Kanhgag<n><nf><sg> ↔ Kanhgag ti "Indigenous (male)"
- Kanhgag<n><f><sg> ↔ Kanhgag fi "Indigenous woman"
- Kanhgag<n><nf><pl> ↔ Kanhgag ag "Indigenous men"
- Kanhgag<n><f><pl> ↔ Kanhgag fag "Indigenous women"
- Some irregulars such as mynh "mother" when pluralized mean something completely different.
- mynh<n><f><pl> ↔ mynh fag "parents"
Reflexive Pronouns
There are two reflexive pronouns that function as an object or possessive, but not as a subject or ergative.
Kaingang | type | English |
---|---|---|
jagnẽ | object and possessive pronoun: reciprocal | one another |
vẽnh | object pronoun: reflexive | of himself/of herself |
Demonstrative Pronouns
Demonstratives | ||
---|---|---|
Anaphoric (leftwards reference) | Exophoric close | Exophoric far |
ẽn | tag (this) | tã (that) (followed by circumstantial indicator) |
Interrogative Pronouns
Who | What | When |
---|---|---|
ū | ne | hẽ |
Ex. 1: Ū ne? who is it?
Ex. 2: Ne ne? what is it?
[Pronoun document, 378-379]
Relative Pronouns
Indefinite Pronouns
-ũ: Indefinite marker
Nouns
- Nouns take on different morphology based on whether they are agents, subjects, or objects. These markers appear at the end of the noun phrase:
- kẽnkẽr "parrot"
- kẽnkẽr<n><sub> ↔ kẽnkẽr vỹ "the parrot"
- kẽnkẽr<n><agent> ↔ kẽnkẽr tỹ "the parrot"
- kẽnkẽr<n><obj> ↔ kẽnkẽr "the parrot"
- Kaingang doesn't mark definite nouns. However, Kaingang has an (optional, but to reduce ambiguity we will always add it) indefinite marker.
- jynhkén "lizard"
- jynhkén<n><def> ↔ jynhkén "the/a lizard"
- jynhkén<n><indef> ↔ jynhkén ũ "a lizard"
- Kaingang nouns can all take genitive markers that are conjugated for number, person, and gender (in the third person)
- mynh "mother"
- mynh<n><gen3pnf> ↔ ti mynh "his mother"
- mynh<n><gen1ps> ↔ inh mynh "my mother"
Verbs
- Certain verbs have different forms that require minute changing of the base verb. Not all verbs have different forms at all. Among the verbs that do have different forms, not all of them contain a distinct spelling for all the different forms. These forms exist independent of the transitivity of the verb. What form a verb takes depends on where the verb is located within the sentence. No categorization defaults to basic?[Dic KG-PT 163]
- fãn "to harvest corn"
- fãn<v><bas> ↔ fãn
- fãn<v><v1> ↔ fã
- fãn<v><v2> ↔ fa
- fãn<v><v3> ↔ fãg
- rĩnh "to carry (pl.)"
- rĩnh<v><bas> ↔ rĩnh
- rĩnh<v><v1> ↔ rĩ
- rĩnh<v><v2> ↔ rĩnh
- rĩnh<v><v3> ↔ rĩg
- fãn "to harvest corn"
- Verbs come in one of three classes: intransitive, transitive, and semi-transative. Semi-transitive verbs can only take objects with the help of a post-position.
- fyn<v><bas><tra> ↔ fyn "to divide"
- ẽkrénh<v><bas><int> ↔ ẽkrénh "to marry"
- jé prẽr<v><bas><sem> ↔ jé prẽr "to call (ã)"
- The verb is followed by three more markers: A modality marker
- sór "to want"
- ēgfãn "harvest corn"
- ēgfãn<v><int><bas><sg><want> ↔ ēgfãn sór "want to harvest corn"
- vĩ "to talk"
- vĩ<v><bas><int><sg><want> ↔ vĩ sór "want to talk"
- kanãn "to smooth"
- kanãn<v><bas><tra><sg><want> ↔ kanãn sór "want to smooth"
Vocatives
Used to get someone's attention.
Markers
Modality Markers
Follows only verbs
Follows verbs, nouns, and other modality markers
Aspect Markers
Perfective Aspect Markers
Imperfective Aspect Markers
Indicators of Circumstance
Grammatical Mood/OpinionMarkers
Kaingang | Approximate Meaning |
---|---|
inhhã | ‘only, focus marker’ |
ge | ‘thus’ |
gé | ‘as well’ |
ha | ’emphatic now’ |
hã | ‘emphatic focus, assertive’ |
hẽ | ‘don't do!’ |
hẽ’ | ‘it can't be done!’ |
hur | ‘already’ |
huri | ‘already’ |
hỹn | ‘probably’ |
hỹn | ‘where?’ |
ker | ‘continued habitually, does not stop happening’ |
kur | ‘fast,quickly, hurriedly’ |
mỹr | ‘it's true, truthfully’ |
nẽji | ‘as I have heard, it is said’ |
sir | ‘thus, important information’ |
-' | ‘doubtedly, emphatic focus marker, assertive’ |
Noun Markers
Subject markers are used to define the topic or subject of a given sentence. They typically follow the subject in a sentence.
Kaingang | Approximate Meaning |
---|---|
jé | subject expects/anticipate the action, speaker desires the action |
mỹ | subject of a yes-no question |
ne | subject is origin of the action |
né | agent has feelings? (only in third-person) |
nỹ | subject is topic and contrasted with vỹ, subject shift/change |
pijé | subject does not do the action |
tóg | subject is agent |
tỹ | agent is ergative; topic marker |
vé | this subject does bad things |
vỹ | subject is topic |
[Dicionario PT-KG 159-160]