User:Jomeara421/Ottawa Morphology

Gender and verb classes
Ottawa is characterized by a system of grammatical gender that classifies nouns as either animate or inanimate. Transitive verbs select for the gender of the grammatical object, and intransitive verbs select for the gender of the grammatical subject, creating a set of four verb subclasses.


 * 1) Animate Intransitive (VAI) (animate subject)
 * 2) Inanimate Intransitive (VII) (inanimate subject)
 * 3) Transitive Animate (VTA) (animate subject, animate object)
 * 4) Transitive Inanimate (VTI) (animate subject, inanimate object)

Noun gender is cross-referenced in agreement with verbs, and there is agreement in gender with demonstrative pronouns as well.

Verb orders
Verbs are inflected in three separate paradigmatic classes called Orders. The Orders are: Independent, Conjunct, and Imperative'. The second person singular forms for the verb jiibaakwe "cook" are given below in each Order; the inflectional prefix or suffix is in bold type.

1. Independent
 * gjiibaakwe "you (singular)"

2. Conjunct
 * jiibaakweyin "you (singular)"

3. Imperative
 * jiibwaakwen "you (singular)"

Any verb may be inflected in any one of the orders. Each of the four major verb subclasses has a distinct paradigm for each Order.

Verb modes
Each of the three verb Orders is further divided into sub-paradigms called Modes.
 * 1) Indicative (Neutral)
 * 2) Preterite
 * 3) Dubitative
 * 4) Preterite-Dubitative