Wednesday, March 11, 2009

The Suffixes and Their Meanings - 1

The suffixes (marker word elements or morphemes) used after noun, pronoun, verb, adverb or adjective are consistent with the meaning they denote. Some select suffixes are being taken up for their meanings and usages.

Some select suffixes:

ja: completion of something by an action as indicated by the verb e.g, lu'ja [complete something(what one has to say) by speaking], mii'ja [complete something by doing e.g work], dii'ja [complete eating something] etc.

Usage: Mo apin dii'ja biine. Or Mo, apin mi, dii'ja biine. [He/ She has finished the rice by eating.] Compare:- Mo apin dii'bii ne or Mo, apin mi, dii'bii ne. [He/ She has eaten the rice or meal.] Mo apin dii ne. [He/She ate meal or rice.]

khah: completion of something by an action as indicated by the verb such that nothing is left.

Usage: Aki, paku mi, dii'khah biine. [Dog completely removed the food stuck (leftover) on the plate (by eating).] Aki, paku daka apin mi, dii'khah pabii ne. [Dog has completely finished off the rice on the plate (by eating)]

laa: good at doing, capable, can e.g, hen'laa [ good at heart, sensible], mii'laa [capable to do or ability of doing], ka'laa [able to recognise] etc.

Usage: Mo ano hen'laa du. [He is a very kind hearted person.]. Tamo santu cha'laa kendo. [Tamo can climb tree.]

peh: completion of something that is being set to do as indicated by the verb

Usage: Mii'go mi, mii'peh pato. [Do the work to completion.] Putu cha'niin mi, pulyan cha'peh to. [Climb the mountain till the peak is reached.] In'peh pala, in'nge. [Go till the destination is reached.]

thii ( or tii): completion of something supposed to be completed by an action as indicated by the verb e.g, Ngo, sa (tea) mi, tan'thii lakin ma [I cannot finish the tea (by drinking)]

Similar sounding suffixes , as above, with different meaning:

jah (or za): tear off something due to the action indicated by the verb e.g, sar'jah [tear off something by hand (by tearing)], sii'jah [tear off something by scratching], pa'jah [tear off something by cutting] etc

Usage: Tapu ngiika tarii mi sar'jah biine. [Literally:- Tapu did tear off my shirt (by tearing with hand). Tapu has torn off my shirt (by tearing with hand). ]

jah is derived from the word pajah(adj.) [Having edges that are jagged from injury] e.g, tarii-pajah [torn shirt], nyachu-pajah [cleft lips] etc.

kha: wrong or misplaced action

Usage: Mo, ngiimi, tu'kha biine. [He miskicked me (He kicked but did not hit me)]; Ngo ngiiyi mi la'kha to. [I could not take hold of the fish]; Kano ngiika nam mi ke'kha biine. [Kano wrote my name wrongly. (literally:- Kano did write my name wrongly.)]

la: denote continuity of action e.g, mii'la do [doing], dii'la do [eating], a'la done [was coming etc. Kanya apin dii'la do. [Kanya is eating meal.]

pe: ask, seek as indicated by the verb e.g, bi'pe [give], kuh'to pe [ask for (me)], mii'bo pe [assist (me) to do)

Usage: (Ngiimi,) Niika pen mi, bi'lya pe. [Lend me your pen.]

tii: action done

Usage: No knii mii'tii? [What have you done?]

11 comments:

PB said...

Hi GT, gud post again. To me, -BII is certainly one of the most difficult suffixes to understand... What would be, for eg. the difference between:
"Kano ngiika nam mi ke'kha biine."
and
"Kano ngiika nam mi ke'kha ne." ?

GT said...

@ pb
'bii' with tense marker 'ne', 'do', 'ma' etc. seem to act simiar to auxiliary verb ‘do’ in english.
1. imi biine [did sleep]; imi ne [slept]
2. ke’bii ne [did write] ; ke’ne [wrote]
3. ke’kha biine [did write wrongly]; ke’kha ne [wrote wrongly]
4. ke’bii do [(do) writing]; ke’do [is/are writing];
5. ke’bii la do [(do) in process of writing]; ke’la do [is/are (in process of) writing]
*** "Kano ngiika nam mi ke'kha ne." [Kano wrote my name wrongly.]
‘Kano ngiika nam mi ke'kha biine.’ [Kano did write my name wrongly]
Both the above sentences are correct but in Apatani later is used more often. [This is contrary to English where former would be preferable most of the time]

*** strictly based on the spoken apatani, 'bii' may float between the marker element and the main word [verb , verb root or adverb] as shown in above phrases from 1 to 5. That is, in a phrase, when the head word is single syllable, 'bii' associates with the head word [e.g, ke’bii ne] and when it is double syllable 'bii' stays with the marker element [e.g, ke’kha biine or imi biine] Thus, in above case the word element 'bii' may behave both as prefix and suffix.

PB said...

Thanks, this is quite informative. Like u I noticed that -BII is found attached to verbs more often than not. Another verbal suffix which is quite puzzling to me is -SII. Is it a plural marker ?

GT said...

@ pb
the morpheme 'bii' and 'sii' are allomorphs- 'sii' is specifically used after the words containing suffix 'ba' [marker for togetherness]in them, such as "a'ba sii" [come together], "a'ba siine" [came together], "a'ba siima" [do not come togther], "a'ba siima ne" [did not come together] etc.

Unknown said...

Scholarly discussions!!
It is heartening to see you guys engaged in these activities. I can now visualize a day when professionally treated books on Tanii agun will be part of the world linguistic literature.

GT said...

@ kanno
thnx a lot for ur comments...jst trying to give a spark... it's a kinda brainstorming... need lot of discussions involving lot of ppl to arrive at proper form of writen tanii agun
lets be hopeful...

PB said...

Hi Tallo,
About that suffix -SII again....It seems that there is a slight difference of meaning between these 2 sentences:

No rengii dudo
No rengii siidu do

"You must be tired"

Can u explain it ?

GT said...

pb
1. reng dudo [must be (feeling) tired]
2. reng siidu do [must be (feeling) tired (with conditionals in sentence)]

in the statement 2 above the affix 'sii' is added when there is conditonals such as 'hoja-lo', 'hoja-lopa', j'alo etc'. in a sentence i.e,
a] No reng siidu-do, hoja-lo yasan khonye-he taa'to-ran. [you must be feeling tired still cut (split) some firewood.]
b] Ngo luko siija-lopa mo takin-ma. [even if i tell him, he won't listen.]

**exception: in a word consisting of vr+ba, the affix 'sii' combine with tense marker to tell about the tense, such as 'aba-sii', 'aba siido', aba siine etc [not 'aba-do', 'aba-ne' etc.

that's what i can make out; if you find otherwise do inform.

PB said...

Thanks...I may soon post something regarding this suffix, though my understanding of it is still limited. At least that will be a support for further discussion...

tdtara said...

Is "bo" suffix ?
bo:across/along sth ; like
Ber'bo:jump across.
Yo'bo :jump across.
ka'bo :look across.
har'bo: run along sth.
em'bo,
Se'bo,
ke'bo,
ta'bo,
sa'bo,....etc etc,.
I may be wrong , correct me if am wrong.

GT said...

@ tdtara

you are correct.
'bo' is used both as suffix and verb root

as verb root e.g, No inso bonge. [You go across there]here 'bo' is verb root and 'nge' is a suffix.

as suffix: you have already mentioned in you comment like- Ber'bo:jump across.
Yo'bo :jump across.
ka'bo :look across.
har'bo: run along sth.
em'bo,
Se'bo,
ke'bo,
ta'bo,
sa'bo,....etc etc,

*note:- i employed common place apatani in my blog with slight customization. 'bo' as i used in my blog and as you wrote in your comment is 'bho' according hd's apatani dictionary.