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.