Morphology
Evenki is highly agglutinating, suffixing, and not flectional. Each morpheme is easily recognizable and carries only one piece of meaning. Evenki pronouns distinguish between singular and plural as well as inclusive and exclusive in the first person. The Evenki language has a rich case system—13 cases, though there is some variation among dialects—and it is a nominative–accusative language. Evenki differentiates between alienable and inalienable possession: alienable possession marks the possessor in the nominative case and the possessum in the possessed case, while inalienable possession is marked by personal indices.
| Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|
| First person | -v | -vun (exclusive) -t (inclusive) |
| Second person | -s, -si, -ni | -sun |
| Third person | -n, -in | -tyn |
Below is a table of cases and suffixes in Evenki, following Nedjalkov (1997):
| Case | Suffix | Example | Meaning | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nominative | - | asatkan | the girl | |
| Accusative | indefinite | -ja | e-ja | what? |
| definite | -va, -ma | bi kete-ve himmikte-ve tevle-che-v cowberry- gather-- |
I gathered much cowberry | |
| reflexive-genitive definite | -vi (sg.), -ver (pl.) | hute-kle-vi - |
to/for own child | |
| "Old genitive" | -ngi | e:kun-ngi |
whose? | |
| Ablative | -duk | e:kun-duk |
from whom/where? | |
| Locative | Locative-Directive | -kle, ikle | hute-kle |
for the child |
| Dative-Locative | -du, -tu | tatkit-tu |
at/in school | |
| Allative-Locative | -tki, -tyki | agi-tki |
(in)to the forest | |
| Allative | -la | d'u-la |
into the house | |
| Elative | -ditk | oron-ditk |
from the reindeer | |
| Prolative | -li, -duli | nadalla-li singilgen-duli |
in a week's time in the snow |
|
| Instrumental | -t, -di | pektyre:vun-di |
with the gun | |
| Possessed | -gali, -chi, -lan, -tai | muri-chi beje man |
a man with a horse; a horseman | |
| Semblative case | -ngachin, -gechin | lang-ngachin |
like a trap | |
Plurals are marked with -il-, -l-, or -r- before the case marker, if any: tyge-l-ve (cup--) "the cups (accusative);" Ivul-ngi oro-r-in (Ivul- reindeer--), "the reindeer (pl.) of Ivul."
Read more about this topic: Evenki Language
Famous quotes containing the word morphology:
“I ascribe a basic importance to the phenomenon of language.... To speak means to be in a position to use a certain syntax, to grasp the morphology of this or that language, but it means above all to assume a culture, to support the weight of a civilization.”
—Frantz Fanon (1925–1961)