Difference between revisions of "Miskito and English/Contrastive Grammar"

Revision as of 13:39, 29 April 2021

Grammatical Differences

Miq-Eng tests

Object Order

• (miq) Yang wal wîna kalila piras. → (eng) I do not eat meat and chicken

  (miq) yang<prn><p1> wîna<n> kalila<n> piras<v><p1><neg> → (eng) I<prn><p1> eat<vblex><p1><pres> meat<n> and<cnjcoo> chicken<n>

Miskito is an SOV language, so the object phrase always follows the noun phrase and generally precedes the verb phrase (there are some exceptions). In contrast, English is an SVO language.

Adjective Order

• (miq) aras ba sirpi sa → (eng) The horse is small

  (miq) aras<n> ba<det><def><dst> sirpi<adj> kaia<v><pres><p3> → (eng) The<det> horse <n> be<vbser><pres><p3><sg> small<adj>

Subject Deletion

• (miq) wapri → (eng) I walked

  (miq) wapri<v><past><p1> → (eng) I<prn><p1> walked<vblex><past>

Plurals

In Miskito, plurality is created by adding the word nani after the noun. In contrast, English creates plurals by adding s to the end of nouns.

• (miq) Aras nani ba → (eng) The horses

  (miq) Aras<n> nani<det><pl><def> ba<det><def><dst> → (eng) The<det><def> horses<n><pl>

Possessives

• (miq) man araskam → (eng) Your horse

  (miq) man<prn><p2> araskam<n><px2sg> → (eng) your<det><px2sg> horse<n>