Friday, January 30, 2009

Words for ‘here’ and ‘there’ in Apatani

here

there

[near the speaker]

[away from both the speaker and addressee]

[away from the speaker but near the addressee]

[far away from both the speaker and the addressee]

I. so / siika so

inso / inka so

ho / hiika ho

into so / into ho

II*. si / siika si

insi / inka si

hii / hiika hii

into si

Case I: so, sika so, inso, inka so, ho, hiika ho and into so / into ho tell where an action happened or about to happen e.g,

1. Command: So a’to. [Come here.]

2. Past event: Inso Ato ka ude hii done. [The house of Grand father was located there (don’t exist now)]; Hiika ho ngo ngiika cell phone mi ba’pah siito. [I lost my cell phone there (over there by your side).]

3. Future event: Into so arda ngunu bo’sa. [Let’s go there tomorrow.]

Case II: si, siika si, insi, inka si, hii, hiika hii and intosi tell where someone or something is in state of doing something (at time of speaking or writing) e.g,

1. Kano insi da. [Kano is standing there.]

2. Lopa hii hiika hii do. [The stick is lying there.]

3. Aki hii into si du. [The dog is sitting there.]

4. Yam insi a’la do. [Yam is coming there.]

5. Into si piita ako go’do. [A bird is flying there.]

*[si, siika si, insi, inka si, hii, hiika hii and intosi are also used as demonstrative pronouns depending on their usages (see Demonstrative Words)]

Note.

1. si, siika si, insi, inka si, hii, hiika hii and intosi are always used with present participle.

2. The verbs da, do and du (as in examples 1 to 3 above) are special case of present participles (do not require markers to form one as in a’la do).

3. Lopa hii literally means ‘stick in question’; thus, hii when followed a noun (when not used as hiika lopa hii) behaves as definite article ‘the’ in English (yet to be verified if it applies in all condition).

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

hello there thanks for your grat post, as usual ((o: