Sakha affixes in Uchur Ėvenki

Summary

Affix function number of borrowed affixes

Description

Information and examples are from Malchukov (2006), who cites Myreeva (1964), see also Malchukov (2003).

1 hypothetical mood marker

  • -dax ‘hypothetical mood’ (this form is part of the complex marker -r.dax-, a combination of the native Evenki present tense marker -r(a)- with the Sakha hypothetical mood in -tax-), e.g. waa-r.dag-im ‘I must have killed’, waa-r.dag-a ‘he/she/it must have killed’

6 person subject markers (all 6 borrowed) used only in combination with the hypothetical mood marker

  • -im ‘first singular’, e.g. waa-r.dag-im ‘I must have killed’, waa-r.dag-a ‘he/she/it must have killed’
  • -iŋ ‘second singular’, e.g. waa-r.dag-iŋ ‘you (sg.) must have killed’
  • -a ‘third singular’, e.g. waa-r.dag-a ‘he/she/it must have killed’
  • -put ‘first plural’, e.g. waa-r.dak-put ‘we must have killed’
  • -kit ‘second plural’, e.g. waa-r.dak-kit ‘you (pl) must have killed’, suu gorolli-r.dak-kit (you.nominative/far_away_go-probability-2pl) ‘you (pl) must have gone far away’
  • -tara ‘third plural’, e.g. waa-r.dak-tara ‘they must have killed’

1 ordinal number-forming suffix

  • -s ‘ordinal numeral derivation’, which is used in addition to a native derivational marker -i(s), e.g. d’uur-i-s ‘second’ (from d’uur ‘two’)

Malchukov (personal communication 2011) notes that the hypothetical mood marker is a “recently grammaticalized auxiliary verb, which explains why it comes with its own inflectional morphology.”