Tsakxa noun phrases

Nouns in Tsakxa are comparatively lightly inflected. Some analyses treat them as being declined for both case and number; however, Dawkins (1999), who wrote the most widely-accepted Grammar of Tsakxa, opposes this by noting numerous clitic-like properties assigned to these suffixes, most predominantly their suffixing to adjectives. There are two 'classes' of noun in Tsakxa, distinguished by their inflection for plural. The noun phrase follows this syntactic pattern:

Noun stem	Genitive	Adjectives	Comparison	Number	Demonstrative	Suffix	Case
Umu tatataqa pesheshetpenungxu
umu	tata-ta-qa	pesh	-esh	-et	-ep	-en	-ungxu
gift	my father's	rich	-est	(ones)	that	not	amongst
Not among those richest gifts of my father's

Stem

Noun stems may be animate or inanimate. Compounds take the animacy of the head. The noun stem itself may be modified for number as a unit through vowel and consonant change. However, the vast majority of nouns fall into the 'first class' or 'common class', which form their plural regularly through clitic-particles which come later in the noun phrase. The only case in which more than one constituent is marked for number is when a class 2 noun takes an adjective, in which case the -t is applied to the adjective and the noun takes its irregular plural as usual.

Class 1 nouns

Class 1 nouns do not vary in and of themselves. They may take the number suffixes (see below) but only when they are the only constituent of the phrase preceding the number suffix slot.

Class 2 nouns

Class 2 nouns, variously called 'irregular nouns', 'strong nouns' and 'broken nouns' by grammarians, undergo a vowel change in the plural (but not the dual). According to Dawkins, this was the original system for the formation of plurals, thanks to an old system of vowel harmony which caused vowels to assimilate with the vowel of an initial prefix which he posits to be e- or perhaps originally i-. They form the dual identically to Class 1 nouns. All Class 2 nouns have an initial consonant followed by /a/.

In nouns beginning with any other consonant than /t/ or /p/, the plural is formed by a simple vowel change from /a/ to /e/:

mama -> mema - 'human' -> 'humans'

In nouns beginning with /t/, in addition to the vowel change, the /t/ lenites to /s/:

tap -> sep - 'eye' -> 'eyes'

In nouns beginning with /p/, the /p/ lenites to /f/:

pasak -> fesak - 'cooking-pot' -> 'cooking-pots'

Adjectives

Comparable adjectives are declined into positive, comparative and equative degrees with a null suffix, the suffix -ya and the suffix -(e)sh respectively:

mama wa - a young man

mama wa-ya - the younger man/youngest man

mama wa-sh - the as-young man

The superlative and the comparative are differentiated by the postposition used to link it to the object of the comparison. The superlative uses the genitive, the comparative the comitative:

mama wa-ya wa-nxa-qa - the person who is youngest of the youths

mama wa-ya wa-ta - the person who is younger than the youth

The equative always uses the comitative:

mama wa-sh wa-ta - the person who is as young as the youth

Number suffix

The number suffix has its own place in the noun phrase. There are four possible numbers:

Singular

The singular is unmarked.

pasak wasa - blue cooking pot

Dual

The dual is formed by -f (according to Dawkins, derived from a classifier plus fi 'two'):

paʔe -> paʔef - child -> two children

Through epenthesis, following a stop other than /p/,' -f is usually found as an infix before the final consonant:

sat -> saft - 'house' -> 'two houses'

The f also causes a final bilabial stop (i.e. /p/) to assimilate:

tap -> taf - 'eye' -> 'two eyes'

The dual assimilates to a final f:

sat emenxaf -> sat emenxaf - red house -> red houses

Plural

The plural is formed with the suffix -t (derived, according to Dawkins, from a classifier plus tum, 'many'):

paʔe -> paʔet - 'child' -> 'children'

In the case of preceding constituents already ending in a consonant that cannot form a cluster with /t/ (/ç/, /t/), the suffix is preceded by a vowel that assimilates to the last preceding vowel:

sat -> satat - 'house' -> 'houses'

sat weq -> sat weqet - 'permanent house' -> 'permanent houses'

Those ending in a nasal consonant assimilate the /t/, resulting in no change:

pan -> pan - 'wolf' -> 'wolves'

Paucal

The paucal or generic suffix is formed with the suffix -nxa:

paʔe -> paʔenxa - 'child' -> 'a group of children', 'children (as a class)'

If preceded by a dental consonant, the consonant is assimilated:

pan - > panxa - 'wolf' -> 'a group of wolves', 'wolves (as a class)'

If preceded by a non-dental consonant, -nxa takes an epenthetic vowel which matches the final vowel of the preceding constituent:

sat weq -> sat weqenxa - 'permanent house' -> 'a group of permanent houses', 'permanent houses (as a class)'

The paucal suffix is used to express the idea of a group of something:

shulata -> shulatanxa - 'soldier' -> 'a group of soldiers'

shulatanxa wawa Mosaqana aku - a group of soldiers are coming to Moscow

It is also used similarly to the French definite article in forming sentences discussing groups of nouns 'as a class':

shulatanxa wa Mosaqana aku - soldiers are always coming to Moscow

Demonstratives

Demonstrative adjectives are suffixed to the noun phrase:

Distance from speaker
this	that	yonder
-nxu	-ep	-e

Nxu roughly equates to 'this', referring to something close to the speaker, nxa to 'that', referring to something easily visible, and e to 'yonder', referring to something either far away or out of visual range.

Case

Tsakxa nouns are sometimes described as being inflected for case. It is perhaps more accurate to say that there are a number of postpositioned particles and true postpositions that have cliticised and can phonetically assimilate with preceding noun phrases. These are totally regular in their affixation and there is no change between Class 1 and Class 2 nouns.

Absolutive case

The absolutive case is marked by a null morpheme. Nominals in the absolutive case may be either grammatical patients (i.e. the things affected by a verb) or grammatical agents with no volition (the unwilling subject of a verb). For example:

Waspa ashewaq-ø qa-engxut-u ush-u - the tentflap blew outward towards me (tent door.flap-ABS DAT-blow-PERSONAL outward-CONJ)

In this case, the tentflap is what in English would be called the 'subject'. In Tsakxa, however, it is considered to have no volitional part in the action described in the verb, so it is treated as a patient. Likewise:

Waspa Nunu-ø unqa-utshu-nxa - Nuna died in the tent (that we are discussing)

In this case, Nunu is again the 'subject' of the verb utshu, 'to die'. Nevertheless, he is treated as a patient because the dying is not of his volition, contrasted with Waspa Nunu-kxa unqa-utshu-nxa, 'Nunu let himself die/committed suicide in that tent', where Nunu is marked with the ergative or active case.

Waspa Efan-akxa Nunu-ø unqa-utshu-nxa - Efan made Nunu commit suicide in the tent (that we are discussing)

In this last example, despite the translation of the verb being identical to the former translation with the ergative, Nunu is treated as being non-volitional again. This is the same in all cases of causativity; the 'agent' is reduced to a patient.

Waspa unqa-tusha-nxa Nunu-ø engqa-ø - In the tent (that we have been discussing), Nunu accidentally killed a fly/a fly accidentally killed Nunu

Note that the above sentence is ambiguous as to who did what to whom. This would be shown by context.

Ergative case

The ergative or active case, marked with the particle kxa, is used for volitional agents: that is, grammatical agents considered to be willingly engaged in the activity described by the verb. This is the only way to distinguish a number of distinct verbs in English: for example, Paʔ, Nunu-kxa utshu-nxa ('as for that, Nunu committed suicide') and Paʔ, Nunu utshu-nxa ('as for that, Nunu died') are only differentiated by the degree of volition exhibited by the agent.

Waspa unqa-tusha-nxa Nunu-nxa engqa-ø - In the tent (that we have been discussing), Nunu killed a fly

The above sentence shows the typical use of the ergative case (contrasted with Waspa unqa-tusha-nxa Nunu-ø engqa-ø, which implies an accidental killing). Omission of Nunu is possible and would result in a passive-like sentence: Waspa unqa-tusha-nxa engqa-ø - in the tent, a fly was killed.

Waspa unqa-tusha-nxa Nunu-ø engqa-ø Ivan-nxa - In the tent (that we have been discussing), Ivan made Nunu kill a fly/Ivan made a fly kill Nunu

In a causative situation, the causative party is promoted to the main agent and takes the -nxa. The actual agent of the verb, in this case Nunu, is demoted to the absolutive. Note that this produces ambiguity like that above which is disambiguated by context.

A sentence can only ever have a maximum of one agent.

To sum up the morphosyntactic roles of the absolutive and the ergative:

		Sentence type
		Causative	Transitive	Intransitive
Case	Causative	ergative/ergative	-	-
	Agent	absolutive/absolutive	ergative/absolutive	ergative/absolutive
	Patient	absolutive	absolutive	absolutive

Here, green represents volitional and red non-volitional arguments. As it can be seen, only agents in non-causative sentences may change case to show volition.

Focus case

The 'focus' case is more of a lack of case than an actual case unto itself. No matter what the actual grammatical relationship the focus has with the rest of the sentence, it takes no case marking; instead, the relationship is marked on the verb:

Nunu, utshu-nxa - Nunu committed suicide

Nunu, se-utshu-nxa - Nunu died

Dative case

The dative case, marked with the particle -(q)a, is used for indirect objects, for genitives and in a large number of idiomatic constructions:

Sesu uʔ-a - your sister (sister 2ps-DAT)

With certain verbs - nutu, for example, 'to shoot' - both the dative and the absolutive may be used for the patient. The use of the dative expresses an attempt but does not specify the success or failure of the attempt:

Pan te-nutunxa - I shot the wolf (I hit the wolf when I shot it)

Pan qa-nutunxa - I shot at the wolf (and may have hit it or not)

Locative cases

The locative cases are really a highly comprehensive set of postpositions which phonologically assimilate with the preceding noun phrase.

ta: 'and', 'in company with', 'at', 'in' (a location), 'by', 'to' (with verbs of motion) assimilates to preceding nasal

fesak-ta - by the cooking pots, and the cooking pots

fesak wasat-ta - by the blue cooking pots

Mosaçan-na - 'in Moscow', 'near Moscow'

unqa: 'inside' (a hollow object), 'into' (with verbs of motion), causes preceding /t/ to assimilate to /s/, causes preceding vowel to assimilate to /u/

sas-unqa: 'in the house', 'into the house'

memu-unqa: 'inside people'

sat wasu-unqa: 'inside the blue houses'

ut: 'outside', 'near', 'out of', 'away from' (with verbs of motion), causes preceding /t/ to assimilate to /s/, causes preceding vowel to assimilate to /u/

sas-ut: 'outside the house', 'out of the house'

fa, 'beneath', 'below', 'under', 'down (into)', 'down in the' (with verbs of motion), causes preceding /p/ to assimilate to /f/

kutqu-fa: 'down into the cave', 'under the cave'

anqe, 'above', 'on', 'onto', 'up (out of)' (with verbs of motion)

wespa-anqe: above the tents, on the tents

te: 'in', 'within', 'during' (time)

fasha-te: 'in that year'

Other suffixes

Negative suffix

The 'negative suffix' acts to a degree like a case, although it can be combined with other cases and is the last suffix to be applied to a noun phrase, after plural. This takes the form -en and can be applied to both nouns and adjectives:

Paʔ, Nunu-n utshu-nxa - Nunu didn't die

Nunu-n keq-em-en - Nunu is not dead

Personal suffix

The so-called 'personal suffix' is used in a number of contexts, most commonly to imply a form of motion towards the speaker. When used with nouns, it implies inherent possession. It is used consistently with parts of the body belonging to the speaker. It takes the form of -(s)u for male speakers and -(s)a for female speakers. It precedes locative cases.

taf-u - 'my eyes', literally 'eyes towards me'

Focus-referential suffix

Whilst the 'topic' or 'focus' itself is unmarked except through word order, there is a suffix (or rather a clitic) whose purpose is ill-defined in most grammars. It appears to imply some kind of connection to the initial element of the sentence (i.e. the focus/topic). It is usually glossed as a possessive suffix, although its uses are far more wide-ranging than simply a marker of ownership. It is believed to have derived from a former reflexive pronoun or second third person pronoun that was used to discriminate in situations such as 'Anna gave Joan her (Anna's) book' and 'Anna gave Joan her (Joan's) book'. It is often used in the manner of a copula with stand-alone adjectives or noun phrases which modify the focussed element.

Mosaqan, metqu-m! - As for Moscow, it's vast! (Moscow-TOPIC vast-TOP)

Ifan, taf-em metqu - Ivan has large eyes (Ivan-TOPIC eye.PLU-TOP large)

Ifan, sesu-em ta-nxa - As for Ivan, I saw his sister (Ivan-TOPIC sister-TOP see-PERF)