Ritharngu affixes in Ngandi

Summary

Affix function number of borrowed affixes

Description

Information and examples are from Heath (1978a; 1978b).

2 case markers (out of 7 Ngandi case markers) (Heath 1978b:41–50)

  • -ṱu ~ -ḓu ‘ergative/instrumental’, e.g. -mumbaʔ-ḓu ‘with axes’, awaṭuʔṇayi-ṱu ‘his dog ［bit me］’
  • -ku ‘genitive, dative, purposive’, e.g. ŋayi-ku ‘mine’, mawaṇguraʔ-gu ‘the bandicoot’s’

Note that four further affixes may have been borrowed, but the directionality of borrowing is not clear, therefore they are not counted here (see also the entry on Ritharngu): (i) 2 out of 3 derivational adverbializers (called “compounding” elements by Heath (1978b:121)): malk- ‘times’, bala- ‘side’; (ii) 2 out of 2 verbal derivation markers (called “comitative” by Heath (1978b:83)): -baṱa- ‘applicative’ (forming (semantically) transitive verbs with comitative object from intransitive verbs), -ṛi- ‘applicative’ (forming transitive verbs with an object that denotes something transported from intransitive verbs of motion).