Dendana/Vuuyin Zayxa/Morphology

Nominals

Nouns

• nouns don't really have inflectional morphology

Adpositions

Adpositions in Vuuyin Zayxa may be used either with a noun or a subordinate clause, often with a slight meaning difference. They also decline for the definiteness and number of the following noun- clauses always take the singular plain definite form.

The singular definite form is always formed with <-q>, singular topical with <-qla>, singular indefinite with <-v>, plural definite with <-qnon>, plural topical with <-qnonla>, and plural indefinite with <-nonv>.

Note that the vowels may change before nasals, according to the nasalization changes.

form	meaning
o	locative, until
aza	to, in order to
ni	in (nominal only)
moqzu	from, since, because
opímà	in front of, after
ontavâ	behind, before
ave	while (clausal only)
nvavó	between (nominal only)
olá	under, below (nominal only)
ilu	over, on top of (nominal only)
va	against, despite
mexú	near, about, around the time that
npu	causing, so (clausal only) (becomes a 'because' suffix on prev. clause eventually)
aqfa	without, rather than, unless
nte	with, by
no	like, as if

Articles, case markers, and demonstratives

• DEF/INDEF, ERG/other, singular/plural
• proximate/distal

Note that the absolutive articles have special forms after absolutive pronouns- they fuse into one entity.

	DEF.SG	DEF.PL	INDEF.SG	INDEF.PL
ERG	nzoq	nzonónq	nzov	nzonónv
ABS	l/lo, la	nonq, nonq la	uqse	nonv

The two articles with la is used for topical or backgrounded referents, while l/lo and nonq are used for known but not topical referents. The indefinite articles are used mainly for unspecific referents.

l is used before a word beginning in a vowel, lo otherwise.

The ergative articles descend from topic markers, and plural marking from name 'some'. la is descended from a contraction of lo xǝ 'DEF.NOM PROX.NOM'. uqse is from u tse 'INDEF.NOM DIST.NOM'.

Interrogatives

Nominal:

• what (nominative): heva
• what (accusative): hevá (used with prepositions, except for ala and no)
• what (comitative): fahéva

• who (nominative): yaú
• who (accusative): yau (used with prepositions, except for ala and no)
• who (comitative), whose: fayaú

Adjectival:

• what kind of: eviqsa (from ewitsa)
• how many, how much: emozo (from emodo)

Adverbial:

• how: nteheva (from ntɛ + xɛwǝ)
• how is that okay: nvomuyaú (rhetorical, angry) (from mvomu + yaú)
• how so: nvováeviqsa (used to call into doubt the truth of a statement) (from mvɔwa + ewitsa)
• instead of what: ala heva
• like what: no heva
• when: xola
• where: yalu (must take a preposition, for example o LOC, but note exceptional form with mexu)
• around where: mexu yalú
• instead of who: ala yaú
• like who: no yaú
• why: nzova

Pronouns

• absolutive pronouns are mostly obligatory to the sentence and decline for aspect
• a subset of the absolutive pronouns, the 'partitive pronouns', are used for negative and other irrealis sentences
• other pronouns include ergative, possessive/genitive, comitative-locative, and oblique pronouns
• the possessive/genitive pronouns are also used as genitive markers
• pronominal forms are generally 1s, 1p, 2s, 3s, 2/3p
• the 2/3p distinction is often clarified with coreferential nominals and demonstratives
• absolutive pronouns have special inflectional forms for number, specificity and topicality of a following noun phrase
• in transitive sentences without an overt object, the ergative argument is promoted to an absolutive one (this is kind of like an antipassive)
• example: ne thuq (PERF.1S.ABS eat) 'I ate', zoé nov miq thuq (1S.ERG PERF.3S-INDEF bread eat) 'I ate some bread', ne naza (PERF.1S.ABS sleep) 'I slept', zolenó ne moá (2S.ERG PERF.1S.ABS select) 'you picked me', zo nai ne lui moá (ERG someone PERF.1S.ABS 3S.OBL select) 'someone picked me for it, i was picked for it'

Absolutive pronouns

• stative-habitual, perfect, imperfect, future, progressive, hypothetical, experiential

stative	plain	definite	topic	indefinite
1s	xe
2s	xoqôq
3s	xa	xaq	xaqla	xav
1p	xâ
2/3p	sonà	sonàq	sonàqla	xônonv

• (sonà is from tson-, xônonv from s-ah)

perfect	plain	definite	topic	indefinite
1s	ne
2s	no
3s	na	naq	naqla	nav
1p	nâ
2/3p	nzô	nzôq	nzoqla	nônonv

• (nzô is from n-zoh, nônonv from n-ah)

imperfect	plain	definite	topic	indefinite
1s	te
2s	teqoq
3s	teqaq	teqaq	teqaqla	teqaqv
1p	tâ
2/3p	teyà	teyànq	teyàqla	teyìnonv

future	plain	definite	topic	indefinite
1s	none
2s	nozo
3s	nona	nonaq	nonaqla	nonav
1p	nonà
2/3p	nozò	nozòq	nozòqla	nozònonv

progressive	plain	definite	topic	indefinite
1s	phuyxi
2s	phuyxaqoq
3s	phuyxa	phuyxaq	phuyxaqla	phuyxav
1p	phuyxè
2/3p	phuyxà	phuyxàq	phuyxàqla	phuyxìnonv

hypothetical	plain	definite	topic	indefinite
1s	phe
2s	phoqoq
3s	phova	phovaq	phovaqla	phovav
1p	phà
2/3p	phovà	phovàq	phovàqla	phovìnonv

experiential	plain	definite	topic	indefinite
1s	ozole
2s	ozózo
3s	ozola	ozolaq	ozolaqla	ozolav
1p	ozolà
2/3p	ozózò	ozózòq	ozózòqla	ozolònonv

• (from ɔdɔl-/ɔdol-, ozózò from ɔdo-doh, ozolònonv from ɔdɔl-ah)

Partitive pronouns

• used for negative transitive sentences only, other negative sentences use different negation strategies

experiential	plain	definite	topic	indefinite
1s	mi
2s	maqoq
3s	ma	maq	maqla	mav
1p	mê
2/3p	mâ	mâq	mâqla	mônonv

Ergative pronouns

1s	nzoé
2s	nzolenó
3s	nzolóu
1p	nzoví
2/3p	nzovaú

Genitive pronouns

freestanding
1s	ahe
2s	azo
3s	ayu
1p	ayme
2/3p	â

• used for headless possessive phrases as well as emphatic possession, following the possessed noun

enclitic
1s	=he
2s	=zo
3s	=yu
1p	=(a)yme
2/3p	=à/`

• =ayme is used after a consonant, =yme after a vowel
• =à is used after a consonant, =` is a floating tone that makes a final vowel into the low tone

Comitative-locative pronouns

1s	fené
2s	fazo
3s	falóu
1p	fenévi
2/3p	favaú

• (the 1s and 2s forms are direct from the comitative inflected preposition, others from preposition + nominative pronoun)

Oblique pronouns

1s	a
2s	lenó
3s	luu
1p	ve
2/3p	váu

• (all from BN accusative pronouns)

Quantifiers

Fuzzy quantifiers

Note: first the inanimate form is given, then the animate form. Fuzzy quantifiers follow the nouns they modify, unless otherwise stated.

Large quantities

• all: ehe fiya, eú fiya (from ehe, eú plus fiya 'together')
• almost: vazúa
• even (too): ntehávu (from ntɛxavu)
• many: ova
• more: neve
• most: ixa
• too many: nalixa (from ñalisa, precedes noun)

Medium quantities

• at least: maxa (from masa)
• half of: háalà (from xagala ah 'portion of', precedes noun)

Small quantities

• any: oma (from oma)
• each of: ehe, eú
• few: va
• none of: mahe, mau
• only: seá
• some of: nave, nau
• too few: omáuvaa (from rɔma ubarǝ 'that which is lacking')

For 'one of', 'two of', etc., see the next section on numerical quantifiers.

Numerals

Numbers above 2 and ordinals above 1 have been borrowed c. 500 YP from Southern Fáralo. Due to trade with Kasca, a second set of numbers has been borrowed more recently (c. 1300 YP) from Wippwo, which is used for many weights, times, and other measures.

The Buruya Nzaysa word kɛ'u 'one of' has been extended to the first three numbers.

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
unit	khe	ne	voxa	vu	zavá	exa	miyéma	huze	nila	o
x10	(o)	nio	voxo	vuo	zaváo	exo	miyémo	huzeo	nilo	iq
partitive	khequq	nequq	voquq
Kascan unit	khe	ni	voa	poa	tu	ixa	mema	sona	nila	loa
Kascan x10	(loa)	nilo	voalo	poalo	tulo	xulo	menlo	sonlo	nulo	khexa
ordinal	ehe	ini	uvo	upo	utu	hixa	imen	ison	inila	ulo

Numbers higher than ten are formed by saying the multiple of ten, then the unit.

Multiples of hundreds are formed by saying the multiplier in units, then iq.

'Thousand' is expressed as 'ten hundred'.

As in BN, numbers precede nouns. However, the numbers one, two, and three in the non-Kascan set may follow the nouns they modify.

Verbs

• The verb may be described as NEG/MOOD-PROX-ASP-SUBORD-stem, where ASP is aspect, PROX is proximate and SUBORD is subordinate.
• The proximate prefix is ha-, which comes from BN xa 'this.ACC'
• The subordinate prefix takes several forms, depending on the initial consonant of the stem. Often the initial stem consonant changes as well. In a few cases, there may be multiple options, and the correct prefix must be learned with the verb.

initial	prefix	changed initial
Ø	nte-
Ø	nt-
f	nte-
f	nte-	Ø
h,l,v,x,y	nte-
nk	ntin-	Ø
kh	nte-	h
m,n,np	ntin-
nv,nz	nta-
ph	nte-	v
s	nteq-
nt	ntaq-	s
th	nte-	z
z	nteq-	Ø + -q

Note that the forms for nk- verbs are beginning to simplify to just a ntin- prefix.

• verbs usually inflect for plain, inchoative, and cessative aspects, and various irrealis modes
• these inflections take the form of prefixes
• verbs also take a negative prefix (this applies to almost all negative clauses: the exception is negative hortative/imperative sentences)

inchoative: tha-/thon- cessative: avo(va)-/avon- negative: ma-/mon- (precedes other verb prefixes)

• ne thonáza 'I fell asleep' (PERF.1S.ABS INCHO-sleep)
• ne monáza 'I didn't sleep' (PERF.1S.ABS NEG-sleep)
• ne avothúq 'I finished eating' (PERF.1S.ABS CESS-eat)

• mathontináza 'not falling asleep' (NEG-INCHO-SUBORD-sleep)
• mahathontináza 'not falling asleep like this' (NEG-PROX-INCHO-SUBORD-sleep)

Modifiers

• usually created through noun-like constructions with the genitive enclitic =à/`
• xinì ako (apple=GEN.3P sweet) 'sweet apple'