User:James Crippen/Tlingit grammar/Noun

The Lingít noun can be simple or compound. It can be derived from verb forms as well as other nouns. It is marked for case, but not number. Noun possession divides all nouns into two open classes.

Possession
Nouns can be divided into two open classes, possessable and unpossessable. This division is based on whether a particular noun may have a possessed relationship with another noun, both syntactically and semantically. In Lingít the names for people and places, called proper nouns in English grammar, are unpossessable, other nouns may be either optionally or obligatorily possessed.

Possessable nouns are marked for possession in a manner opposite of the English possessive case using the -yi possessed suffix. When a given noun, e.g. hít “house, building” is possessed by some other noun, e.g. Jáan “John”, it is marked with the -yi suffix, thus Jáan hídi “John’s house”.

Names are unpossessable nouns in Lingít. It is thus syntactically inadmissable for a name to be possessed by another noun. A construction such as Alice’s John referring to for example the husband of a woman named Alice, is acceptable in colloquial English. However in Lingít such a construction is impossible, so *Anis Jáani is nonsensical.

As is apparent in the previous example, the -yi suffix has a number of allomorphs depending on the phonological environment of the preceding syllable. If the final syllable ends with a vowel then the suffix is -yi. If however it ends with a consonant then the y is dropped giving -i. If the final syllable is rounded, i.e. it contains a round vowel or a rounded consonant cluster then the suffix becomes -wu. The dropping of w applies similarly to y above. Tone is always opposite that of the final syllable, so a low tone final causes the suffix to take high tone, and vice versa. Final aspirated stops are deaspirated when suffixed; this is a regular process in all Lingít suffixation that is not always marked orthographically.

The allomorphy of this suffix derives from phonological adaptation after the loss of the ÿ consonant. Previously this suffix was -ÿi, but the ÿ was either palatalized or rounded into y or w respectively. In many situations in Lingít morphology a similar process has occurred subsequent to the devolvement of ÿ, further muddying the waters of Lingít allomorphy.

This complexity of allomorphy for the -yi possessed suffix may be easier to understand schematically, and a set of rules are given below. In these rules the symbol A indicates an unrounded vowel, the symbol O indicates a rounded vowel, the symbol C indicates an unrounded consonant cluster, and the symbol W indicates a rounded consonant cluster. Vowels are additionally marked with tone, thus Á indicates an unrounded high tone vowel. Vowel length has no effect and is thus unmarked.


 * 1) -Á + -yi → -Áyi t'áa + -yi → (du) t'áayi “(his) board”
 * 2) -A + -yi → -Ayí shaa + -yi → (du) shaayí “(his) mountain”
 * 3) -Ó + -yi → -Ówu [no example]
 * 4) -O + -yi → -Owú gishoo + -yi → ''(du) gishoowú “(his) pig”
 * 5) -ÁC + -yi → -ÁCi hít + -yi → (du) hídi “(his) house”
 * 6) -AC + -yi → -ACí aan + -yi → (du) aaní “(his) village”
 * 7) -OC + -yi → -OCú [no example]
 * 8) -ÓC + -yi → -ÓCu khóok + -yi → (du) khóogu “(his) box”
 * 9) -AW + -yi → -ACú yaakw + -yi → (du) yaagú “(his) boat”
 * 10) -ÁW + -yi → -ÁCu [no example]

Possessable nouns are completely subdivided further into two open classes, alienable and inalienable nouns.

Alienable Nouns
Most nouns in Lingít are alienable nouns. These may be used alone or may be possessed by another noun. When possessed they are marked with the -yi suffix discussed above. The term “alienable” refers to the idea that these words can be used on their own, thus conceptually they can be alienated from other nouns.

Inalienable Nouns
All inalienable nouns have an obligatory possessed relationship with another noun. They generally refer to kinship, body parts, and spatiophysical relationships. They are most commonly associated with a possessive pronoun as the possessor, e.g. axh tláa “my mother”, du xh'é “his mouth”. They may however belong to any noun, e.g. dóosh jín “cat's paw”. Occasionally they are compounded into more complex nouns, e.g. du jintáak “his palm” from du jín “his hand” and at táak “its inside surface”.

A notable feature of inalienable nouns is that they are not normally marked for possession, i.e. they do not take the possessed -(y)i suffix. The possessive relationship in this case is implicit in the meaning of the noun and thus need not be syntactically marked. It is however possible to add the possessed suffix to an inalienable noun, particularly those referring to body parts. In this case the meaning changes from being part of a body into being a body part that is somehow separated from the rest of the body. This is analogous to the same process of optional possession in English, thus xóots shá means “a bear’s head”, but xóots shayí means “a bear head” or “a bear’s head detached from its body”.

In dictionaries and vocabulary lists inalienable nouns are usually indicated by preceding them with a dummy possessor noun. For body parts this is du “his, its”, for things specifically associated with people this is khaa “person's”, and for other nouns it is at or a “its”. If an inalienable noun is not distinguished in this manner it is difficult for nonnative speakers to determine the noun's class.

Number
The Lingít noun is not marked for number. There are a number of pairs of singular and plural nouns, but the manner of constructing plurals from singular nouns is not productive.

Nominal Cases
Nominal cases in Lingít are designated by postpositions as with most SOV languages, however they are morphologically treated as suffixes. Postpositions mark nominals and pronominals. The latter are typically formed by adding a possessive pronominal prefix to the base -.i-.

Final syllables of the shape CÓ (where C is a consonant and Ó is a high tone vowel) are usually lengthened before postpositions. Exceptions are the anaphor á “3 rec” and the relational nouns ká “surface” and yá “face”, and the pronominal bases xha- “1 sg”, u- “3 neu”, tu- “refl“, khu- “indef”, and -.i-.

Ergative
The ergative postposition is -ch. It marks the agent of a transitive verb with a definite object. The meaning is roughly “by means of” and is consistent with other split ergative languages.

In the following example the patient of the verb yajaakh “to kill” is the definite object xhat “me”, the agent is the subject tá “sleep”. This is a metaphor indicating that the speaker is tired, that the desire to sleep has overcome him.




 * colspan=3|Tách xhat uwajakh
 * tá-ch || xhat || u-ya-jakh
 * sleep- ERG || 1 SG.OBJ || PERF -(0,-D,+I)-kill
 * colspan=3|“Sleep has killed me”
 * }
 * colspan=3|“Sleep has killed me”
 * }
 * }

In the next example the patient of the verb si.ee “to cook” is the definite object phrase wéi dleey “that meat”, and the agent is Jáan “John”. In this instance the definite object is postposed following the verb because it is topically unfocused. In the previous example the definite object is a pronoun and hence does not need to be extraposed.




 * colspan=4|Jáanch sa.ée wéi dleey
 * Jáan-ch || sa-.ée || wéi || dleey
 * John- ERG || (s,-D,+I)-cook || that || meat
 * colspan=4|“John is cooking the meat”
 * }
 * colspan=4|“John is cooking the meat”
 * }
 * }

Punctual
The punctual postposition is -t.

When used with a positional imperfective it designates physical position, roughly meaning “(resting) at”.

When used in a telic derivative it means “(coming) to”, “(arriving) at”. E.g.,




 * colspan=2|haat uwagúk
 * haa-t|| u-ya-gúk
 * 1 PL.OBJ - PUNCT || PERF -(0,-D,+I)-come
 * colspan=2|“(he/she) came to us”
 * }
 * colspan=2|“(he/she) came to us”
 * }
 * }

In an atelic na-aspect derivative it means “(moving) about”.

Pertingent
The pertingent postposition is -xh.

It can mean an extended physical location or extended contact with an object, e.g. “(usually or always) at”.

In another sense it indicates repetitive physical arrival, as in “repeatedly arriving at”, “always coming to”.

In a third sense it indicates physical status, i.e. “in the form of”. Consider:




 * colspan=4|Lingítxh haa sateeyí (lingít)
 * Lingít-xh || haa || sa-tee-yí || (lingít)
 * Tlingit- PERT || 1 PL.OBJ || (s,-D,-I)-be- REL || (person/people)
 * colspan=4|“We who are Tlingit”
 * }
 * colspan=4|“We who are Tlingit”
 * }
 * }

In the above example the main clause is relativized. Its argument, optional in this case, is lingít “people”.

It is probable that the adverb yáxh which indicates similarity with a noun could be derived from yá “face” + -xh → yáxh “like, similar”. This construction is used as follows:




 * colspan=3|yaakw yáxh yatee
 * yaakw || yá-xh || ya-tee
 * canoe || face- PERT || (0,-D,+I)-be
 * colspan=3|“(it is) like a canoe”
 * }
 * colspan=3|“(it is) like a canoe”
 * }
 * }

With the preceding derivation of yáxh this could also be interpreted as “(its appearance or behavior) is always the ‘face’ of a canoe”. This comparison construction then indicates the similarity.

Locative
The locative postposition is -x' with the variant forms -: (lengthened vowel), -0 (phonologically null value), and -i.

It may indicate physical location, such as “at a place”, “by a place”, “in a structure”.




 * colspan=4|Aangóonx' yéi xhat yatee
 * Aangóon-x' || yéi || xhat || ya-tee
 * Angoon- LOC || ADV || 1 SG.OBJ || (0,-D,+I)-be
 * colspan=4|“I am/live in Angoon.”
 * }
 * colspan=4|“I am/live in Angoon.”
 * }
 * }

It is extended by analogy to temporal location, such as “at a time”, “by a time”.




 * colspan=3|Sándix' yéi kkhwagút
 * Sándi-x' || yéi || ga-u-gha-xha-ya-gút
 * Sunday- LOC || ADV || CONJ - IRR - ASP - 1SG.SUBJ -(0,-D,+I)-come
 * colspan=3|“I will come on/by Sunday.”
 * }
 * colspan=3|“I will come on/by Sunday.”
 * }
 * }

The locative has allomorphs under the following conditions:
 * -: lengthened vowel after CÓ
 * -0 null phoneme after long vowels CO: or CÓ:
 * -i after all consonants

Adessive
The adessive postposition is -ghaa. Leer calls this vicinitative in his dissertation, but the typical term is adessive as used in e.g. Finnish and Hungarian.

Its primary meaning indicates physical adjacency to place or object, such as “around {a place or object}”, “by {a place or object}”. By extension of this concept it may indicate physical succession, “(go) after something” or “(follow) something”, as well as the temporal associations of “(waiting) for something” and ”about (a time)”, “around (a time)”.

Ablative
The ablative postposition is -dáxh with an allomorph -dxh after open (vowel-final) syllables.

It marks the physical origin of an action, translated as “from (a place)” or “out of (a place)”. By temporal extension it means “since (a time)” or “from (a time)”.

Prolative
The prolative postposition is -náxh. Leer calls this perlative in his dissertation, and the same grammatical case is sometimes termed prosecutive.

It marks a course of physical translation by some action, translated as “along (a way)” or “via (a path)”. Temporal extension indicates the translation of an action along a duration of time, or the inclusion of a period of time, thus “during (some period)”, “including (some time)”.

A frequent use is in describing speech or language. The noun phrase for language is generally (du) yoo xh'átángi, but when speaking of a thing said in a particular language, the term is (du) xh'éináxh.




 * colspan=5|Lingít xh'éináxh waa sá duwasáakw?
 * Lingít || xh'éi-náxh || waa || sá || du-ya-sáa-kw
 * Tlingit || mouth- PROL || how || Q || INDEFH . SUBJ -(0, -D, +I)-name- DUR
 * colspan=5|“How is (it) called in Tlingit?” (lit. “How is it named by the Tlingit mouth?”)
 * }
 * colspan=5|“How is (it) called in Tlingit?” (lit. “How is it named by the Tlingit mouth?”)
 * }
 * }

Allative
The allative postpostion is -dei.

It marks a physical or temporal destination, translated as “to, toward” and “until”, respectively. It may also describe an analogical motion, “in the manner of“.

Comitative-Instrumental
The comitative-instrumental (or simply comitative) postposition is -tin with allophones -n and -.een.

It may describe either the instrumental “with (a utensil)”, “by means of (something)”, or the comitative “with (something, someone)”, “along with (something, someone)”.

Locative Predicative
The locative predicative postposition is -u. It functions as a postposition plus a nonverbal predicate.

Relational Postpositions
Similar to the nominal cases, and in many respects confused with them, are the relational postpositions. These are not properly speaking cases because they convert the phrase to which they are appended from an NP to a PP. Their behavior has more in common with the relational nouns than with nominal cases per se.

The major relational postpositions are


 * ghóot “without”
 * nákh “away from”
 * yís “for”
 * yáxh “like, as much as, according to”
 * yánáxh “more than”
 * khín “less than”