Nepali affixes in Chantyal
Summary
Description
Information is drawn from Noonan (2003; 2008), for some background see also Noonan (1996). Examples are 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’. All examples in the literature consulted have a comitative reading, but Noonan (2003:319) characterizes this form as “allative/comitative”.
- -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). All examples in the literature consulted have a comparative reading, but Noonan (2003:319) characterizes this form as “comparative/temporal”.
- -dɦin, -dɦikin ‘comparative/temporal’, e.g. khawa-dɦikin (coming-temporal) ‘since I had come home’, pəyle-dɦikin ‘since the first’. All examples in the literature consulted have a temporal reading, but Noonan (2003:319) characterizes this form as “comparative/temporal”.
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.