Tundra-Nench grammar
This article gives an overview of the grammar of the Tundra Nenets. The Tundra-Nenets language is spoken in central Russia and belongs to the Samoyed language family along with the Forest-Nenets language . It differs enough from the Wald-Nenzian dialect to be perceived by some linguists as a separate language.
transcription
The transcription for this article follows the Nikolaeva (2014) transcription. With a few exceptions, it is phonetically. The palatalization of consonants is done withmarked. The extra long vowels are í and ú . æ can also be pronounced as a diphthong. ° is used for a very short swa. q and h are the glottal plosive, h can be nasalized. y corresponds to [j] in the IPA .
Typology
The tundra niche is characterized by a high degree of agglutinating synthesis. Most words have more than one morphological marker, with some of these markers fulfilling semantic functions comparable to individual words in Indo-European languages. For example, ownership structures, which in Indo-European languages are typically expressed using pronouns (mine, yours, etc.), are represented in Tundra-Nenets using possessive suffixes.
noun
Morphological features are marked in tundra niche by suffixes on the nouns. Marked categories are case, number, owner and a category usually referred to as destinative. The niche has the three numbers singular, dual and plural. The singular is unmarked and is used for individual countable objects, uncountable abstracts and mass nouns. The dual occurs only in the cases that are called grammatical. The possessive marking is based on the owner in person and number. The destinative usually appears only with possessive markings and expresses a future or former relationship, for example in "my future husband" or "our former mayor".
case
The Tundra-Nenzische distinguishes seven different cases, which are divided into grammatical and local cases. The grammatical cases include nominative, accusative and genitive, the local dative, locative, ablative and prolative.
| Singular | dual | Plural | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nominative | ŋəno | ŋəno-x ° h | ŋəno-q |
| accusative | ŋəno-m | ŋəno-x ° h | ŋənu |
| Genitive | ŋəno-h | ŋəno-x ° h | ŋəno-q |
| dative | ŋəno-n ° | ŋəno-x ° q | |
| locative | ŋəno-xəna | ŋəno-xəqna | |
| ablative | ŋəno-xəd ° | ŋəno-xət ° | |
| Prolative | ŋənu-wəna | ŋənu-qməna |
Pronominal system
Personal pronouns refer to humans, to a limited extent to animals, but never to inanimate objects. The pronominal system distinguishes three people who appear in all three numbers, but only in the three grammatical cases.
| Nominative | accusative | Genitive | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sg | You | Pl | Sg | You | Pl | Sg | You | Pl | |
| 1. | mən '° | mən'ih | mən'aq | s'iqm'i | s'id ° n'ih | s'id ° naq | s'iqn ° | s'id ° qn'ih | s'id ° qnaq |
| 2. | pidər ° | pid ° r'ih | pid ° raq | s'it ° | s'id ° d'ih | s'id ° daq | s'it ° | s'id ° t'ih | s'id ° taq |
| 3. | pida | pid'ih | pidoh | s'ita | s'id ° d'ih | s'id ° doh | s'ita | s'id ° t'ih | s'id ° toh |
Possessive marking
The possessive marking expresses (comparable to the possessive pronouns in European languages) a property relationship between the marked word and a person. Which affix is used depends on the person and number of the owner:
| Sg | You | Pl | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | -m'i / -w ° / -m'ih | -m'ih | -waq |
| 2. | -r ° | -r'ih | -raq |
| 3. | -there | -t'ih | -doh |
The possessive affix comes after the case affix of the noun.
| Singular | dual | Plural | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| NOM | 1. | ŋəno-m'i | ŋəno-m'-ih | ŋəno-w-aq |
| 2. | ŋəno-r- ° | ŋəno-r'-ih | ŋəno-r-aq | |
| 3. | ŋəno-da | ŋəno-d'-ih | ŋəno-d-oh | |
| AKK | 1. | ŋəno-m'i | ŋəno-mt-ih | ŋəno-w-aq |
| 2. | ŋəno-mt- ° | ŋəno-m-t'-ih | ŋəno-m-t'-ih | |
| 3. | ŋəno-mta | ŋəno-m-t'-ih | ŋəno-mt-oh | |
| GENE | 1. | ŋəno-n- ° | ŋəno-n'-ih | ŋəno-n-aq |
| 2. | ŋəno-nt- ° | ŋəno-n-t'-ih | ŋəno-t-aq | |
| 3. | ŋəno-nta | ŋəno-n-t'-ih | ŋəno-nt-oh | |
| DAT | 1. | ŋəno-xə-n- ° | ŋəno-xə-n'-ih | ŋəno-xə-n-aq |
| 2. | ŋəno-xən-t- ° | ŋəno-xən-t'-ih | ŋəno-xən-t-aq | |
| 3. | ŋəno-xən-ta | ŋəno-xən-t'-ih | ŋəno-xən-t-oh | |
| LOC | 1. | ŋəno-xəna-n- ° | ŋəno-xəna-n'-ih | ŋəno-xəna-n-aq |
| 2. | ŋəno-xənan-t- ° | ŋəno-xənan-t'-ih | ŋəno-xənan-t-aq | |
| 3. | ŋəno-xənan-ta | ŋəno-xənan-t'-ih | ŋəno-xənan-t-oh | |
| OJ | 1. | ŋəno-xəd ° -n- ° | ŋəno-xəd ° -n'-ih | ŋəno-xəd ° -n-aq |
| 2. | ŋəno-xədən-t- ° | ŋəno-xəd ° n-t'-ih | ŋəno-xəd ° nt-aq | |
| 3. | ŋəno-xədən-ta | ŋəno-xəd ° n-t'-ih | ŋəno-xəd ° nt-oh | |
| PROL | 1. | ŋəno-wəna-n- ° | ŋəno-wəna-n'-ih | ŋəno-wəna-n-aq |
| 2. | ŋəno-wənan-t- ° | ŋəno-wənan-t'-ih | ŋəno-wənan-t-aq | |
| 3. | ŋəno-wənan-ta | ŋəno-wəna-t'-ih | ŋəno-wənan-t-oh | |
Verbs
conjugation
Verbs are inflected according to time and mode; furthermore, they congruent in number and person with the subject and in number with the object. Depending on the verb considered, the reflexive or the subjective paradigm of subject congruence is used.
| reflexive | subjective | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sg | You | Pl | Sg | You | Pl | |
| 1. | teyə-w ° q | tey ° -n'ih | tey ° -naq | mənc ° raə-d ° m | mənc ° ra ° -n'ih | mənc ° ra ° -waq |
| 2. | teyə-n ° | tey ° -d'ih | tey ° -daq | mənc ° raə-n ° | mənc ° ra ° -d'ih | mənc ° ra ° -daq |
| 3. | tey ° -q | teyə-x ° h | teyə-d ° q | mənc ° ra ° | mənc ° raə-x ° h | mənc ° ra ° -q |
Congruence with an object in the singular is not recognizable as such, but changes the subject suffix.
| Sg object | You object | Pl object | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sg | You | Pl | Sg | You | Pl | Sg | You | Pl | |
| 1. | meə-w ° | me ° -m'ih | me ° -waq | meŋa-xəyu-n ° | meŋa-xəyu-n'ih | meŋa-xəyu-naq | me-yə-n ° | me-y ° -n'ih | me-y ° -naq |
| 2. | meə-r ° | me ° -r'ih | me ° -daq | meŋa-xəyu-d ° | meŋa-xəyu-d'ih | meŋa-xəyu-daq | me-yə-d ° | me-y ° -d'ih | me-y ° -daq |
| 3. | me ° -da | me ° -d'ih | me ° -doh | meŋa-xəyu-da | meŋa-xəyu-d'ih | meŋa-xəyu-doh | me-y ° -da | me-y ° -d'ih | me-y ° -doh |
Tense and mode
There are five different tenses in the indicative:
- The present tense marks continuous, ordinary or, in the case of perfect verbs, what has just happened ( aorist ) and is not marked by a separate suffix.
- The past tense is marked by the suffix -s'ə , which comes after the agreement affixes , and describes past events.
- The future tense is marked by the suffix -tə or -ŋko and describes events in the immediate or distant future.
- Habitiv is marked by the suffix -s'ətə and describes situations that either occur periodically or are generic and timeless.
- Future-in-the-past actually contributes a modal part of meaning (unrealis), but is often analyzed as a tense, as it is formally part of the tense paradigm. The form connotes the apodosis of the unrealis or an unrealized situation in the past. The corresponding suffix is -s'ə.
In the other 15 modes, not all times are necessarily marked.
- The imperative only exists in the second person and uses its own declaration suffixes. It has the typical directive meanings.
| no object | Sg object | Dual object | Plural object | Reflexive | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | xada-q | xada-d ° | xada-xəyu-n ° q | xada-n ° q | te-d ° q |
| 2. | xadaə-d'ih | xadaə-r'ih | xadaŋa-xəyu-d'ih | xadaə-y ° -d'ih | tey ° -d'ih |
| 3. | xadaə-daq | xadaə-raq | xadaŋa-xəyu-daq | xadaə-y ° -daq | tey ° -daq |
- The hortative only exists in the first person and is marked by -xə . He denotes adhortative statements.
- The jussive , or optative, occurs only in the third person and is marked by -ya. It is used for permissive statements.
- The subjunctive can appear in both the present and the past tense and is marked by -yi in front of the agreement affixes . The first person expresses a promise, the second person can be compared to a weakened imperative, and the third person a "should". Using the subjunctive in the past expresses a strong wish about future events.
- Apprehensive is marked by the affix -rəwa after the lexical stem. It is mostly used to express fears for the future.
- The necessetative is marked with -pc (') u (whereby the initial consonant is often not realized) and expresses an expectation of future events in the first and third person, while in the second person it is used in a similar way to the permissive.
- The potential is marked with -pc (') aqxiə and is used in the first person for promises, in the second for hopes and in the third for possibilities.
- The inferential mode is formed with a grammatical form of the perfect affix -miə in the predicative function. The mode occurs in all five tenses and is used analogously to the indicative, but expresses inferred events instead of self-observed circumstances.
- The reportative is formed with the marker -rəxamíə and is used to report something known through listening and speaking .
- The interrogative, marked by -s (') a, occurs only in the past tense and is used for questions about the past.
- The dubitative is formed with the affix -wan ° ŋkəb'a and is often used for statements about the truth of which the speaker is not sure or rather questions them.
- The probabilitative can be used in the past, present and future. It is formed in the present tense with the complex affix -n (') aqxiə or -t (') aqxiə , in the past tense with -meəqxiə . The speaker is expressing that what is said is not definitely true.
- In order to express a higher probability than the probabilitive, the approximate formed with -rəxa is used.
- Reputative is used for rhetorical questions whose truth value is questioned. It is formed with the affix -məna .
- The debitiv is a historically young mode, the formation of which is based on future participation. It is used for deontic statements for which the future tense would be used in German, for example in "She will now be in Bielefeld".
Non-finite verb forms
Non-finite verb forms are verb forms that are never or rarely the only predicate in a sentence, i.e. only occur in relation to other components. Furthermore, they seldom have agreement with the subject and never with the object.
- Of the participles there are four: the imperfective, the perfective, the future and the Negativpartizip. The imperfective participle is formed with -n (') a , or -t (') a and typically describes a dependent action that occurs simultaneously with the main action. The perfect participle is formed with -miə and situates the dependent action before the main action. The future participle is formed with the suffix -mənta and expresses future or modal meanings. The negative participle, formed with the suffix -mədawe (y (ə)) describes the negation of the previously occurring dependent action.
- Action nominal are nominalizations of entire sentences and denote dependent propositions such as facts or events. The imperfective action nominal is formed with -m (') a , the perfective with - (o) qm (') a . The imperfective AN describes a simultaneous or later situation, the perfective a previous one.
- Converbs are comparable to gerunds in English, but unlike action nouns, they do not have case suffixes. They are formed with -s'ə .
- The conditional is used to express adverbial meanings or to form dependent questions. In the present tense it is formed with the suffix -pəq and with -pəqnan for the emphatic present tense. The future tense is formed with the present conditional of a future verb. All forms are agreed with the subject via possessive affixes.
- The auditory could be analyzed as a mode, but since it is not possible for reflexive or object agreements, it is formally understood as non-finite. Similar to the conditional forms, the agreement suffixes are chosen from the possessive paradigm, whereby the first person does not seem to appear. The auditory's marker is -m (an) oh . It is used to make it clear that what was said was known through auditory impressions, in contrast to the normal case in which what was said was seen.
- As in many other Uralic languages, sentences are negated periphrastically with an auxiliary verb. The verb form used for the lexical verb is the connegative , which is formed by suffixing -q .
Simple sentences
Word order
The standard word order is SOV, although similar to German it is not fixed.
Predicative clauses
Predicative clauses always have verb-final word order. The subject is in the nominative and the verb is inflected according to either the subjective or the reflexive paradigm.
Interrogative clauses
The verb in questions is generally in the present indicative, but when asked about past situations, the interrogative is used. The most important question words are xíb'a (who), ŋəmke (what), xurka (what a / -e), xən'ana (where), s'an ° (how much / -e), s'ax ° h (when), xənc'er ° q (like), and xən'aŋi ° (which / -r / -s). The words for "who" and "what" are used as nouns, "which / -r / -s" and "what kind of / -e" are used as adjectives, and the rest as adverbs. The rate is not changed. Yes-no questions do not differ syntactically from the corresponding statements, but are spoken with increasing intonation on the last and penultimate syllable.
negation
Negation is formed periphrastically with the auxiliary n'i- , where the lexical verb is in the connegative.