Nepali affixes in Chantyal

Summary

Affix function number of borrowed affixes

Description

Information from Noonan (2003; 2008), for some background see also Noonan (1996). Examples from Noonan and Bhulanja (2005).

 

4 case markers, out of 22 Chantyal case markers

‑siŋ, ‑səŋ, ‑səŋə, ‑səŋgə ‘allative/comitative’, e.g. na‑siŋ ‘I (had)’, gəjjab‑siŋ ‘with goodness’

‑ma, ‑wã ‘temporal’, e.g. bis bərsə‑ma (twenty/year‑temporal) ‘in twenty years’

‑bɦənda comparative/temporal’, e.g. nakhu‑bɦənda ‘(bigger) than a dog’ (example from Noonan 2003: 320)

‑dɦin, ‑dɦikin ‘comparative/temporal’, e.g. khawa‑dɦikin (coming‑temporal) ‘since I had come home’, pəyle‑dɦikin ‘since the first’

 

2 subordinators, out of 4 Chantyal subordinators

-nu infinitive’, e.g. thũ-nu la-gəy a-thũ (drink-infinitive/do-progressive/negative-drink) ‘she was about to drink, but didn’t’

-khiri, -khir, -khi ‘cotemporal’, e.g. ca-wa-khiri (eat-nominalization-cotemporal) ‘when we eat’, thaa ta-wa-khiri (knowledge/become-nominalization-simultaneous) ‘when they know’

 

In addition, Chantyal borrowed all numerals (cardinal and ordinal), with two classifier suffixes for human vs. nonhuman used on numerals ‘one’, ‘two’, ‘three’. These classifiers are not counted here because their use is restricted to borrowed stems.