Tsakxa syntax

Syntax in Tsakxa roughly follows the model dictated here.

The utterance

The utterance as a whole is verb-final. Arguments may precede the verb in any order; however, the most salient argument, usually the topic or an emphasised element, is fronted. This 'focus' argument may be any argument of the verb, and is the first element of any utterance:

Sesu-ø uʔ-a se-ta-nxa - your sister saw you (sister-TOPIC 2ps-DAT ABS^-3-see⁰-PERF¹)

The utterance as a whole, according to Dawkins (1999), has the following prototypical order:

FOCUS	TIME	MANNER	PLACE	AGENT	PATIENT	VERB
waspap	patangqate	ateteta	-	Yetekxa	wen	unquyuyut
that tent	yesterday	with a knife	-	Yete	meat	cutting (in it)
Yesterday Yete was cutting meat in that tent

In actual speech, however, the order of the elements between the focus and the verb is effectively free.

Compulsory arguments

To be a complete sentence, an utterance must have at least a focus (which may be the agent or patient) and a verb:

wen syuyut - the meat is cut (meat ABS^-3:cut⁰)

mama uyuyut - the person cuts something (meat GEN^-1:cut⁰)

A 'transitive' verb without the generic prefix (which reduces the valency by one) requires a patient but not a stated agent:

wen (sukxa) syuyut - the meat is cut (by me) (meat (1ps:ERG) ABS^-3:cut⁰)

Deletion of arguments

The focus may never be deleted. However, other pronominal arguments may be deleted if they are understood from context:

engqa setanxaf? - did (you) see the beast? (beast ABS^-3:see⁰:PERF¹:INTERR²

Both personal pronouns and interrogative pronouns can be deleted:

engqa setanxal? - (who) saw the beast? (beast ABS^-3:see⁰:PERF¹:DUB²

The noun phrase

Dawkins presents the following order as prototypical of Tsakxa noun phrases:

NOUN	GENITIVES	ADJECTIVES	PLURAL	DEMONSTRATIVES	SUFFIX	CASE
fesak	su-qa	wasa	-t	-ep	-u	-nxa
cooking-pots	my	blue	(ones)	that	towards me	(ergative)
Those blue cooking pots of mine (ergative)

A noun phrase requires only a noun and a case ending.