Evenki grammar
Appearance
This article outlines the grammar of the Evenki language in both Cyrillic and Latin scripts.
Morphology notes
[edit]Vowel harmony
[edit]Like other Tungusic languages, Evenki employs vowel harmony. There are two rows ("first and second row") with two effectively neutral vowels, и (i) and у (u).[1]
First row | Second row | Neutral |
---|---|---|
а a |
э ə |
и i |
е e |
у u | |
о o |
- Syllables containing first row vowels can only be followed by another syllables that contain first row vowels: анактад’аран (anaktad’aran), эмэктэд’эрэн (əməktəd’ərən), and соӈоктод’орон (soŋoktod’oron).
Nouns
[edit]Pluralization
[edit]There are some rules of forming Evenki plurals:[2]
- The plural suffixes -л (-l) after vowels or -ил (-il) after consonants are usually used.
- бур (bur) : бурил (buril) "islands"
- дю̄ (ʒū) : дю̄л (ʒul) "yurts"
- However, after -н (-n), -р (-r) is used instead and the final consonant before the suffix is removed.
- орон (oron) : орор (oror) "deers"
- Some nouns use -сал (-sal) in addition to the previous two suffixes. Notice that this suffix also removes -н (-n) from the stem.
- киран (kiran) : кирасал (kirasal) "eagles"
- There are also some irregular plurals of kinship terms:
- амын (amin) : амтыл (amtil) "fathers"
- эмын (emin) : эмтыл (emtil) "mothers"
- акин (akin) : акнил (aknil) "older brothers"
- экин (ekin) : экнил (eknil) "older sisters"
- нэкун (nəkun) : нэкнил (nəknil) "younger brothers, younger sisters"
- аса (asa) : асил (asil) "women"
- хунаг (hunag) : хунил (hunil) "girls"
Cases
[edit]This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (February 2022) |
Evenki nouns are inflected for 13 cases: nominative, accusative, accusative indefinite, dative, illative, locative, prosecutive (longitudinal), directional locative, directional prosecutive, deferred, initial, instrumental, and joint cases.[3]
Case | Suffix | Notes |
---|---|---|
Nominative | -∅ (no marker) -∅ |
|
Accusative[4] | -ва/-вэ/-во/-ма/-мэ/-мо -va/-və/-vo/-ma/-mə/-mo |
Nouns in -н (-n) may use forms in -м- and remove the last consonant before the suffix (орон (oron) → оромо (oromo) "deer") |
Accusative indefinite[5] | -я/-е/-ё/-а/-э/-о -ja/-jə/-jo/-a/-ə/-o |
Nouns in -н (-n) may use one of the last three forms (орон (oron) → ороно (orono) "deer") |
Dative[6] | -ду/-ту -du/-tu |
Nouns ending in voiceless consonants may use the form -ту (-tu) (а̄мут → а̄мутту "for (the) lake") |
Illative[7] | -тыки/-тки -tiki/-tki |
Nouns ending in vowels may use the form -тки (-tki) (беру → берутки "to (the) sheep") |
Possession
[edit]This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (March 2022) |
Evenki nouns can also be inflected for possession, where a possessive suffix is attached to the noun based on features of the noun which possesses it.[8][9][10]
Final element in the stem → | Singular | Plural | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Person ↓ | Vowel | Most consonants | Nasal -n | -l | -r | ||
Singular | 1st person | -в -v |
-ив -iv |
-мӣ -mī |
-вӣ -vī | ||
2nd person | -с -s |
-ис -is |
-нӣ -nī |
-лӣ -lī |
-рӣ -rī | ||
3rd person | -н -n |
-ин -in | |||||
Plural | 1st person | exclusive | -вун -vun |
-мун -mun |
-вун -vun | ||
inclusive | -т -t |
-ит -it |
-ты -ty | ||||
2nd person | -сун -sun |
-нун -nun |
-лун -lun |
-рун -run | |||
3rd person | -тын -tyn |
References
[edit]- ^ "Гармония гласных". Эвенгус. Retrieved 20 February 2022.
- ^ "Единственное и множественное число имён существительных". Эвенгус. Retrieved 19 February 2022.
- ^ "Падежи имён существительных". Эвенгус. Retrieved 20 February 2022.
- ^ "Винительный падеж". Эвенгус. Retrieved 19 February 2022.
- ^ "Винительный неопределённый падеж". Эвенгус. Retrieved 21 February 2022.
- ^ "Дательный падеж". Эвенгус. Retrieved 21 February 2022.
- ^ "Направительный падеж". Эвенгус. Retrieved 1 March 2022.
- ^ "Лично-притяжательные суффиксы". Эвенгус. Retrieved 23 March 2022.
- ^ Bulatova, Nadezhda; Grenoble, Lenore (1999). Evenki Grammar. München: Lincom Europa. p. 13.
- ^ Nedjalkov, Igor (1997). Evenki. London: Routledge. pp. 143–4.