Kaingang/Grammar
Singular and Plural
Many nouns don't have a distinction between singular and plural. Plural isn't simply denoted by adding a marker, so plural forms are treated as separate words.
Plural in a verb indicates the action is done multiple times.
- If it is a transitive verb, the action is repeated because the object is plural (object plurality will only be shown in the verb).
- rĩnh<v><tv><pl> ↔ rĩnh (to carry many things)
- rĩnh<v><tv}<tt style="background-color: #f9f9f9; font-size: 90%; color: #7a7a7a;"><<b style="color: black;">pl>}</b>></tt> ((a person) carrying many things)
- rĩnh<v><tv><pl> ↔ rĩnh mũ ((many people) carrying many things)
- If it is an intransitive verb, the action is either done by many agents or by the same agent many times.
- te<v><iv><sg> ↔ te (to carry something)
- te<v><iv><sg> ↔ te tĩ ((a person) carrying something)
- te<v><iv><sg> ↔ te mũ ((many people) carrying something)
If an action is done by a group, even if there are many objects or many agents, the singular form of the verb can be used. The plural/singular of nouns can be specified by the use of demonstrative pronouns in the plural/singular form.
Conjunctions
There are some conjunctions that introduce sentences and or follow phrases, like the circumstance markers. The opinion markers hã and ge are used with certain circumstance markers to create other conjunctions.
{ ↔ -
"to call (ã)"
- 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"
The verb can then be followed by three more markers:
- Modality Markers
- sór "to want"
- ẽgfãn "harvest corn"
- ēgfãn<v><int><sg><bas><vaux> ↔ ēgfãn sór "want to harvest corn"
- vĩ "to talk"
- vĩ<v><iv><sg><bas><want> ↔ vĩ sór "want to talk"
- kanãn "to smooth"
- kanãn<v><iv><sg><bas><want> ↔ kanãn sór "want to smooth"
- Aspect Markers
- tĩ (habitual marker)
- a'a'ke "to vomit"
- a'a'ke<v><bas><int><hab> ↔ a'a'ke tĩ "to vomit repeatedly"
- nĩ (continuous marker)
- rãnhrãj"to work"
- rãnhrãj<v><bas><int><con> ↔ rãnhrãj nĩ "to have work"
Vocatives
Used to get someone's attention.
já | 'ladies!' |
jỹ | 'lady!' |
pá | 'aunt!' or 'mother-in-law!' |
vá | 'men!' |
vỹ | 'man!' |
Or any expression used with <-’>, such as 'kakrã’', which means 'uncle!'
Markers
Modality Markers
A modality marker modifies verbs or nouns when it follows them.
Follows only verbs (Adverb)
e | "a lot" |
kónãn | "breaking/getting messed up/rotting" |
kren | "almost" |
mãn | "again" |
rén | "lastly" |
sór | "to want" |
tãvĩn | "focus, assertive" |
vãnh | "to not want" |
vén | "first of all" |
Follows verbs, nouns, and other modality markers
gy | "difficult" |
ja | "finished" |
jãvãnh | "to not know" |
mé | "to like" |
mẽ | "a lot/fast" |
pẽ | "true (focus, assertive)" |
tãvĩ | "focus, assertive" |
tũ | "no" |
ve | "to appear as" |
Aspect Markers
Aspect markers end a sentece, but can be followed by certain opinion markers.
Perfective Aspect Markers
There are perfective aspect markers that occur with the <v3> form of verbs that have this perfective form (groups 1 and 6). When the verbs don't have <v3>, the basic form is used.
They occur in the constructed sentences according to the nominative-accusative standard used in narration, description, and in the texts of procedures. They indicate an action from a global point-of-view. They differentiate an action for being done while standing, while sitting, while lying down, or while walking, by one person or many.
Perfective ("realis") | |
---|---|
jẽ | standing |
jẽgtĩ | habitually standing |
jẽ nĩ | in the situation of standing |
mũ | doing |
mũgtĩ | habitually doing |
mũ nĩ | in the situation of doing |
nĩ | seated; in the situation of |
nĩgtĩ | habitually in the situation of |
nĩ nĩ | in the situation of sitting |
nỹ | lying down |
nỹgtĩ | habitually lying down |
nỹ nĩ | in the situation of lying down |
- Here, <mar> denotes a marker, <hab> denotes "habitually," and <sit> denotes "in the situation of."
- jẽ<mar> ↔ jẽ
- jẽ<mar><hab> ↔ jẽgtĩ
- jẽ<mar><sit> ↔ jẽ nĩ
Imperfective Aspect Markers
Indicators of Circumstance
Grammatical Mood/Opinion Markers
Opinion markers express the attitude of the speaker about the transmitted information. They may occur in many different places in the sentence.
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.
They follow nouns, pronouns, or noun phrases when used as the subject. They are pospositions. When they occur, the subject is emphasized and preceeds the verb (in many cases, it starts the sentence).
Only <tóg>, following a pronoun, can follow the ver in the sentence and doesn't emphasize the subject. <tóg> is also the only one that can occur with the third person singular and that can combine with other subject markers.
Another particular case is <tỹ>, used to indicate ergaative and also with a topicalized constituent (?). In both cases, the consituent is the first one in the sentence.
Kaingang | Approximate Meaning |
---|---|
jé | subject expects/anticipates 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]