Escolar Documentos
Profissional Documentos
Cultura Documentos
CONTENTS:
Preface
Part one. Texts
Part two. Grammar
Part three. Dictionary
List of abbreviations
References
PART TWO
GRAMMAR
CHAPTER 1 . PHONOLOGY
CHAPTER 2. MORPHOLOGY
CHAPTER 3. SYNTAX
2
CHAPTER 1 . PHONOLOGY
In the present phonological sketch we will describe the following two main
aspects of the Chukchi phonology: the static aspect, that is inventories of phonological
units (segments and suprasegmentals), and the dynamic aspect, that is phonological
processes (morphophonology). The static part deals with the Chukchi sounds phones
and phonemes (1.1), as well as rhythmic and syllable patterns (1.2). The dynamic part
deals with phonological processes found in Chukchi, they are presented in the form of
dynamic rules (1.3).
The approach we use here is close to that of the generative phonology. Two levels
of representing word-forms are distinguished: the underlying level, that is the level of
phonemes (it corresponds to the morphophonemic level in the Russian traditional
phonological theory) and the surface level, that is the level of phones (we omit some
minor details of Chukchi pronounciation, irrelevant for the phonetic system). The
dynamic rules apply to the underlying representation of a word-form, which is a sequence
of underlying representations of the corresponding morphemes; underlying
representations of Chukchi morphemes are shown in the Dictionary see Part three. The
result is the surface representation, or the phonetic transcription of a word-form.
In the present section the underlying representation of Chukchi word-forms and
morphemes is given in round brackets; the practical transcription of word-forms is
usually given without any brackets; in some special cases we write the phonetic
transcription in square brackets. The inventories of the underlying and the surface
representations are identical, that means we use one and the same alphabet for writing
phonemes and phones.
Cf. also some other desceiptions of the Chuckhi phonology in [Meljnikov 1948,
Skorik 1961, Assinovskij 1991].
1.1. Segments
The distinctive segments of Chukchi are 14 consonants and 6 vowels. Some more
segments are used in loan-words (see further). There also used to be some difference in
mens and womens pronunciation which is disappearing nowadays. All segments listed
below are illustrated by examples demonstrating the following phonological positions:
with consonants initial, intervocalic, before a consonant, after a consonant, final; with
vowels initial, after a consonant, final.
1.1.1. Consonants
The Alutor inventory of consonants is not large, it includes only 14 segments. The
consonants are distinguished in terms of p l a c e o f a r t i c u l a t i o n (labials vs.
3
dentalveolars vs. palatals vs. velars vs. uvulars vs. glottal laryngeals vs. epiglottal
laryngeals), m a n n e r o f a r t i c u l a t i o n (obstruents vs. sonorants; plosives vs.
fricatives vs. vibrants vs. glides; central vs. lateral) and n a s a l i t y (oral vs. nasal).
Besides, consonants may be voiced and voiceless. All consonantal segments are
pulmonic egressive.
The classification of consonants is given below in Table 1.
ruents simple c
fricatives
lateral
fricatives
sono- nasals m n
rants vibrants r
glides w j
The Chukchi consonants are divided into two subsystems obstruents and
sonorants which differ greatly.
Obstruents are represented by plosives and fricatives.
All plosives are voiceless. The fricative is voiced, it is close to sonorants.
The obstruents are:
1. Bi-labial voiceless p. Implosive and slightly aspirated in word-final position.
E.g.: pojn spear, wapaq fly-agaric, wopq elk, ajpn dam, watap reindeer
moss.
2. Apico-dental voiceless t. Implosive and slightly aspirated in word-final
position. E.g.: tamtam cone, qetaqet salmon, ktm sable, pont liver, warat
people.
3. Dorso-velar voiceless k. Slightly affricated in word-initial and intervocalic
position, strongly aspirated in word-final position, with an explosion. E.g.: kojn
mug, kuke pot, mkrn quantity, ktkt spring, itk to be.
4
as tr. Women used to pronounce tc instead of r. E.g.: rawe squirrel, rrak to cut,
tirktir son, janra separately, ktrakr foam.
5. Labio-labial voiced fricative w. Becomes voiceless after . E.g.: wa knife,
tewena oar, iwt below, wtwt leaf, awa otherwise, wanaw resin.
6. Dorso-palatal voiced j. Becomes voiceless in clusters with voiceless consonants
and in word-final position. E.g.: jara house, yurta, ajo brain, ajko bed, ratjo
bound to, inqej boy.
All consonants may occur in word-final position, except (see the examples
above). All consonants may appear word-initially (see the examples above).
In general, Chukchi avoids initial consonant clusters, except clusters of the type
C, cf. uk see.
As a rule, two initial consonants are separated by an epenthetic vocalic segment
(see further) : rpe- a hammer, cf. e-rpe-te by a hammer.
With some stems beginning with a cluster a syncoped form without epenthetic
may appear, which sometimes becomes the rule. This usually happens when the second
consonant is a fricative. Some dictionaries record such syncoped forms as the main
variant of pronunciation. E.g.: qaw (instead of qaw) man, mraqac (instead of
mraqac) on the right side. This phenomenon is more typical for western dialects.
Some other stems beginning with a cluster (mostly verbal stems) lose their initial
segment in word-initial position. This happens only to clusters with dentalveolars t, , n,
c , r as the first member and a labial, velar or uvular segment as the second member.
Since deletion is determined not only by phonological context, these stems form a certain
morphonological group and are usually listed in dictionaries. E.g.: qutk (< qut-k ) to
stand up, cf. t-qut-rk-n I am standing up; wak (< twa-k) to stay, cf. a-twa-en
he was.
There are no three-consonant clusters in word-medial position, except those of the
type CC. Thus, only two-consonant clusters and three-consonant clusters of the type
CC may appear word-medially, e.g. pin throat, mtun we saw it. In all other
cases, when there appears a three-consonant cluster in word-medial position and the third
consonant is not , the consonants are separated by an epenthetic segment at a
morpheme boundary (see further), e.g.: e-pint-in (< e-pint-in) he rushed at. In
case there are two morpheme boundaries, the segment is inserted only at one of them,
e.g. mt-n-tomaw-n (< mt-n-tomaw-n) we created it.
All nasals may be geminated, but the two parts of a geminate belong to different
syllables: mmej Mummy (a word for addressing), rnnn tooth; horn, epek
boots.
The resonant geminated w has also a plosive initial segment, e.g. ekwetk to
go. The geminate jj does not occur.
6
1.1.2. Vowels
Tongue height
high i u
mid e o
low a
example, they would pronounce |kt|kt| for |kt|kt| (the sign | marks the syllable
boundary) spring, |t||t| for |t||t| fish-scale. What is true is that actually the
segment is predictable in most positions, because in many cases it is used to divide
wrong consonant clusters and to vocalise syllables, cf. itk (< it-k) to be.
Yet there are a lot of words in which the segment is unpredictable and must be
considered as an essential part of a morpheme, e.g. wewe thimble, cf. wiwi
price. We will call such segments " lexical" in opposition to epenthetic , which are
automatically inserted according to the insertion rules (see further), for instance, it--k (<
it-k) to be, cf. -it-in he was, ite-k to look at. Besides, we find it convenient to
consider "vocabulary" those that always occur in a morpheme in one and the same
position, in spite of the fact that they may be predicted, e.g. qep nail.
As a rule, we omit epenthetic when writing morphemes, but in word-forms we
mark these vowels in all the positions they occur irrespective of their nature, just like
other scholars do. We will therefore write nkimqin for n-kim-qin slow, etc. E.g.:
1) "lexical" :
qq frost, retret dream, rrk walrus;
2) "epenthetic" :
pkir--k to arrive, cf. ite-k to look at;
n--ketu-qin strong, cf. n-om-qen warm;
n-i--qin white, cf. i-ew-k to become white.
With the exception of some special situations (paradigms and morphonological
rules, where we put epenthetic with hyphens), in word-forms with marked morpheme
boundaries we usually attach epenthetic to one-consonantal initial or final morphemes
or to the preceding morpheme, except the cases when it is inside a morpheme. Thus, we
write t-rkp--rk-n I am hitting him instead of t--rkp--rk--n.
Any vowel may appear word-finally, but such examples are not numerous, for in
general the final vowel is usually lost or reduced.
Most nominal stems ending in one consonant and a vowel (more rarely two
consonants and a vowel) lose their final vowel in word-final position (this usually occurs
in the absolute singular with a zero marker), e.g.: aacek (< aaceke) a youth, cf.
aaceke-t youths.
When a final vowel belongs to a short stem, it is usually preserved, but may be
reduced, e.g. wa (< waa) a knife, cf. waa-t knives.
In the absolute singular with a zero marker all final a and "recessive" e (see
further) those which are not lost are reduced to , e.g.: ep (< epe) grandfather, cf.
epe-te by a grandfather, pont (< ponta) lever, cf. ponta-ta by a lever.
Most nominal and some verbal affixes of nominal origin lose their final e (=
"recessive" e) and a, too, e.g. niqin (< n-i-qine) white (he), cf. n-i-qine-t
8
white (they); tun (< t-u-ne) I saw him, cf. t-u-ne-t I saw them. But some
short affixes preserve their final vowels, cf. ococ-o as a chief, waa-ta by a knife.
Some final i, e, u, o originate from the diphthongoid combinations of a vowel
and a glide j or w (see further). Such strings may appear in a word-final position when
the final vowel is lost, e.g. nte (< ntj ntjo) a daughter-in-law, cf. ntjo-t
daughters-in-law.
Any vowel may appear word-initially.
A sequence of two vowels may appear in Chukchi only in a position where a
consonant is omitted (synchronically or historically), e.g.: qaa- ~ qora- reindeer,
caat (compare Koryak cawat ) lasso, uttuut (compare Koryak utt-ut) stick.
In all other cases when two vowels meet, one of them is omitted (the first segment
or the second one see further), e.g. iwin (< e-iw-in) he said.
The strictly regulated syllable structure is one of the principal features of the
languages of the Chukchi-Kamchatkan group (see also [Kodzassov, Muravyova 1980]).
The canonical syllable patterns are |CV| and |CVC|, but due to some peculiarities in the
Chukchi phonology there are also patterns |CV|, |CVC|, |V| and |VC|, and even |CCV|
and |CCVC| (only word-initially in some normalised syncoped forms), e.g.: |mi|m|
water, |a|q| sea, |po|po| fly-agaric, |en|me|em| rock, |qa|w| man.
The following regulations are observed for the canonical syllabic structure. A
single consonant segment goes with the following syllable. Two adjacent consonantal
segments (including the case of geminates) are assigned to the preceding and to the
following syllable respectively, when the second segment is not : |pi|kuk| to jump,
|ut|tu|ut| a stick. Of the three adjacent consonants of the type CC the first one is
assigned to the preceding syllable, the next two (C) to the following syllable:
|t|wt| a boat. Two adjacent vocalic segments are assigned to the preceding and to
the following syllable respectively: |qa|a|| reindeer.
A word-initial morpheme may have an initial cluster, not admitted word-initially.
A word-final morpheme may end in a cluster or in a vowel, not admitted word-finally. A
word-internal morpheme usually fits the word structure.
Syllabic division is usually independent of morphological structure, but in case of
reduplication the second part of it usually begins a new syllable: |a|no|an| spring.
Syllabic boundaries always coincide with word-boundaries, e.g. |ti|te| |p|kir|i|
when did-you-come?
The sequence of two vowels is usually divided into two vocalic segments
belonging to the preceding and to the following syllables respectively: |ca|at| lasso.
Stress does not play any contrastive role in Chukchi. But it does play some kind
of demarcative role, because together with the vowel harmony and other
morphonological processes it helps to separate one phonological word from another.
9
The principal phonetic correlate of stress is that of the energy power. It should be
also noted that the basic unit for stress in Chukchi is rather a whole syllable than a single
vowel.
There is usually only one stress in a word, but in case of an incorporation there
may be a secondary stress (stresses) on a non-initial stem (stems).
The position of stress is not constant, but usually it is not further than the third
syllable of the word.
The position of stress in a word cannot be forecasted solely in terms of its
phonotactic structure, although the latter plays an important role in the placement of
stress. Since the accentuated material is rather scarce, here we will describe only some
observations.
The following principles of placing the stress are of the most importance: the
stress is preferred on the stem, not on the last syllable of the word and not on the syllable
of the type |C|.
The original stems usually have the stress on the last syllable of the root, i.e. on
the first, the second or the third syllable: poj-n spear, wkw-n stone, ret-k to
bring, iw-k to say; jara- house, weo-n ear, peat-k to rest, wiri-k to
defend, reqoka-n polar fox.
The stress in Chukchi is not constant under morphological processes and
compounding.
When the stem-final syllable is the final syllable in the word, the stress moves
onto the preceding syllable (one-syllable words are rare): qora- reindeer qora-t
reindeer (pl), warat-te peoples warat people (sg), jejwe-ti orphans jejwe
orphan, rrka-jp from a walrus rrk walrus.
In case of a reduplicated form the stress may be either on the first or on the
second syllable, usually on a more broad vowel: weni-wen bell, kei-ke book,
nute-nut land, pie-pi snowfall.
If the stem has a suffix with a full vowel, the stress moves onto this vowel:
micir-et-k to work. If the suffix has no full vowel (only the segment or no vowel at
all), the stress remains on the root: wa-r-n (root twa-, suffix r-) life, poj-c-
n (root poj-, suffix c-) stem.
When the original root has no vowel, the stress may be on the prefix: a-nm-en
(root tm-) he killed, a-tw-en (root tw-) he told.
In the incorporate complexes the main stress in on the initial stem, but there are
also secondary stresses on every non-initial stem, e.g. n-qora-nret-qen he is
guarding reindeer.
Some affixes derived from roots may also have a secondary stress, e.g.: mem-
to-a by a piece of seals meat (mem- seal (2), -tu- piece).
10
1.3.1. Reduplications
1.3.2. Deletions
nominal origin as well, also lose their final vowel in word-final position (mainly
recessive e, and only in case an affix is not too short); morphemes of the described type
are usually listed in dictionaries or grammars, i.e.
V / _# and V belongs to a nominal root from the list
V / _# and V belongs to a nominal affix from the list
E.g.:
aacek (< aaceke) a youth, cf. aaceke-t youths (root aacek(e)-);
niqin (< n-i-qine) white (he), cf. n-i-qine-t white (they) (circumfix
n-...-qin(e));
atwaen (< a-twa-ena) he was, cf. a-twa-ena-t they were (circumfix
e-...in(e));
t-u-n (< t--u-ne) I saw him, cf. t-u-ne-t I saw them (object suffix -
n(e)).
Some roots preserve their final vowels, e.g. pont (< ponta) lever.
There are some rare cases when the final w of a two-consonant cluster, which is
supposed to be separated from the preceding consonant by an epenthetic according to
the insertion rules, is either reduced to with short roots or completely deleted with
longer roots in word-final position, i.e.
w *w / C_w belongs to a short stem from the list
w / C_# and w belongs to a long stem from the list
E.g.: win (< winw > winw) track, winw-e by a track; etn (< etn <
etnw < etnw) a host, cf. etnw-k at hosts.
Intervocalic consonants w, j, , r are often deleted in some roots, and the two
adjacent vowels do not undergo the deletion rules (see below) and may assimilate (see
further), i.e.
w / V_V
j / V_V
/ V_V
r / V_V
(NB: with some words deletion is optional)
E.g.: eekk (< ew-ekk) daughter, cf. ewmirn grandmother, jiii (<
ji-i < ji-ji) tongue; aaaen (< a-aa-en < e-aa-in) he passed by, cf.
aa-k to pass by; qiirk (< qrirk) to look for.
Of the two adjacent vocalic segments at a morpheme boundary of a simple word
(not a compound) only one is preserved (NB: the two vowels that become adjacent due to
the deletion of a consonant do not undergo this rule).
The deletion of vowels, with some exceptions, may be described in terms of
"steady" and "unsteady" vowels. The most unsteady segment is , it is usually deleted
when being adjacent to any other vowel, e.g. tapak (< ta-pa--k) to make soup, cf.
pa-a soup (but in some rare cases the stem- initial may be preserved, e.g. te
13
(< e-t-e) alongside with ete with the father). Next goes recessivee and a,
then i and dominant e, and the most steady vowels are u and o. It should be also noted
that in most cases the "unsteady" vowels belong to affixes.
The hierarchy of the vowels runs as follows:
< recessivee, a < i, dominant e < u, o.
The deletion process is regulated by the following rule: of the two adjacent
vowels only the "steady" one is preserved (but, naturally, if the vowels are the same, any
of them is preserved), i.e.
V2 / V1+_ and V1 is more steady than V2
V1 / _+V2 and V2 is more steady than V1
E.g.: itin (< e-it-in) he was, okwanawma (< e-ut-wanaw-ma) with
wood resin.
The deletion usually does not take place in case of different kinds of compounds
reduplicated forms, incorporate complexes, some types of lexical compounds. E.g.: uttu-
ut stick, eme-ekk every son, piwre-ue a diving seal.
1.3.3. Insertions
The only segment that may be inserted into a Chukchi word is the segment . It is
inserted to shape the cannon syllabic structure, for very often original morphemic
structure does not correspond to the requirements of the cannon syllabic structure. In this
case the segment has a purely auxiliary function. But the segment may be an original
segment of a morpheme as well, see pa- soup, broth, n-i-qin wet.
The insertion rules for are the following:
E.g.: ekk (< ekk < ekke ) son, cf. ekke-te by a son, itk (< it-k ) to be, cf.
it-tk you were, ite-k to look.
1.3.4. Lenitions
the adjacent consonantal segment. This happens only when the two consonants, which
become adjacent as a consequence of this rule, are homorganic dentalveolars, i.e.
+C2 +C2 | C1_C3 and C1, C2 are homorganic
E.g.: aatn (< aar-n < aar-n < aar-n) star.
k / _
/ _
E.g.: tepek (< te-pek--k) to sew boots, etok (< e-to-k) to
hatch.
5. Dorso-velar is assimilated by the preceding w, and the geminated w then
changes into kw according to the dissimilation rule (see below), i.e.
*w / w_
*w w / _ w
E.g.: tkwrn (< tw-wr-n < tw-r-n) the news.
6. Dorso-velar k is assimilated by the following dorso-uvular q , i.e.
k q / _q
E.g. : nniqqej (< nnik-qej) little animal.
7. Apico-dental c is assimilated by the following dentalveolars t, , r and then
becomes a plosive t according to the rules of dissimilation (see below), i.e.
c t / _t
c * t / _
c *r t / _ r
E.g.: mattotet (< mac-totet) rather silly, oten (< -o-en < -oc-en)
answered with a snarl, matrak (< mar-rak < mac-rak ) a little bit farther.
8. Apico-dentallateral is assimilated by the following r, the geminated r then
changing into tr according to the dissimilation rule (see below), i.e.
*r t / _ r
E.g.: rotramkn (< ror-ramk-n < ro-ramk-n) the upper people.
9. Apico-alveolar vibrant r is assimilated by the following dentalveolars t, c, , n,
the geminates then altering according to the rules of dissimilation (see below), i.e.
r t / _t
r *c t / _ c
r * t / _
r n / _n
E.g.: pkittk (< pkir-tk) you arrived, qapatcn (< qapac-c-n <
qapar-c-n) glutton, aatn (< aa-n < aar-n) star, tunnen (<
tur-ne-n) new fell.
10. Dorso-velar nasal becomes a corresponding labio-labial m before bilabial p
and w, i.e.
m / _p
m / _w
E.g.: tamperak (< ta-perak) to look well, tamwaern (< ta-wane-
r-n) good work.
18
6. Dorso-velar fricative geminate changes into a cluster with the initial plosive
k, i.e.
k / _
E.g.: manekp (< mane-p) from a cloth.
7. Labio-labial fricative geminate w changes into a cluster with the initial plosive
k, i.e.
w k / _w
E.g.: tkwrn (< tw-wr-n < tw-r-n) the news.
20
The phonological law of Chukchi called "vowel harmony" differs a great deal
from what we find in many other languages (like Turkic, Mongolian, Finnish-Ugrish,
etc.) in several aspects (for details see [Muravyova 1980b]).
First, the class of a morpheme (root vs. affix) does not play any decisive role in
shaping the vocalism of a word-form. In some cases it is the root that causes alternation
in affixal vowels, in some other cases it is an affix (a prefix, a suffix, or a circumfix) that
influences the vocalic appearance of the root.
Second, the position of a morpheme that determines the vocalic appearance of a
word-form (initial vs. non-initial) is irrelevant. Sometimes the vowels are changed due to
a morpheme that occupies the last position in a word-form with more than 10
morphemes.
Third, from the point of view of articulation the vowel harmony is based not on
the zone properties (forward vs. non-forward), but that of the rise (high vs. non-high).
Besides, unlike Turkish, for example, the original morph can be indicated for any
morpheme in Chukchi; it may alternate itself or cause alternation in other morphs of the
same word-form.
It should be also noted that on the synchronic level the alternation sometimes
cannot be described only in terms of the phonological structure and articulation.
A Chukchi word-form may contain only one of the following two sets of vocalic
segments:
1) i, u, e, the so-called "weak", or "recessive" vowels; these are mostly narrow
vowels;
2) e, o, a, the so-called "strong", or "dominant" vowels; these are mostly wide
vowels.
As one can see, the segments e and appear in both rows, but each variant
represents a functionally different morphonological unit correspondingly: "recessive" e
and "dominant" e, "recessive" and "dominant" .
All Chukchi morphemes, regardless of their morphological class ( a stem or an
affix) are divided into two morphonological groups: "recessive" and "dominant".
A dominant morpheme has only one vocalic variant with only dominant vowels
(or no vowels at all) . E.g.:
emo- to be bored, qora- reindeer, jara- house, mere- tear, -n (an
absolute case marker), -c (augmentative suffix).
A recessive morpheme has usually two vocalic variants, one with recessive
vowels and the other with dominant ones (or with no vowels at all). E.g.:
miute- / -meota- hare, nute- / nota- land, -te / -ta (an instrumental case
marker), -k (an infinitive marker).
With dominant morphemes their only variant should be considered the original
morph. With recessive morphemes the recessive variant should be considered the original
morph, as one can formulate the rules how vowels of a recessive variant should be
changed in certain positions, and not vice versa.
21
E.g.:
n-om-qen (< n-om-qin) warm (om- is a dominant root, n-...-qin is a recessive
affix), cf. n-i-qin white (i- is a recessive root);
a-meota-ma (< a-miute-ma) with a hare (miute- is a recessive root, a-
...-ma is a dominant circumfix);
n-t-qen (< n--t--qin) hard (t- (2) is a dominant root, n-...-qin is a
recessive affix);
mere-ta (< mere-te) by a tear (mere- (2) is a dominant root, -te is a recessive
affix), cf. miute-te by a hare (miute- is a recessive root);
meota-n (< miute-n) a hare (miute- is a recessive root, -n (2) is a
dominant affix);
a-tor-na-ma (< a-tur-ne--ma) with a new fell (a-...-ma is a
dominant circumfix, tur- is a recessive root, ne- is a recessive root);
t-qora-nret-k (< t--qora-nrit--k) I guarded reindeers (qora- is a
dominant root, nrit- is a recessive root, t-, -k are recessive affixes).
22
The traces of the consonant harmony in Chukchi may be seen in the historical
alternation /c. This alternation is registered both in roots and affixes.
With affixes the variants with and c often differ in meaning, so we can find split
affixes, and the number of affixes is doubled in this way. For example, nouns marked
with an affix -q- denote a places rich in certain objects, while nouns marked with cq-
denote the surface of an object, e.g. mim-q-n a place rich in water, mim-cq-n
the surface of the water.
With roots the variant with c is usually used when there is an affix of a certain
group in the same word. Since in the related languages (Koryak and Alutor) such affixes
cause the alternations l-l and n-n alongside with l-c, this kind of consonant variation my
be treated as distant palatalisation, and the affixes that cause it may be considered
"palatalising". E.g.: Chuk. veco-tkn (< viu-tken), Alut. vilu-tken (< vilu-tken) the
upper part of a ear (-tkn is a "palatalising" suffix).
Some palatalising affixes have themselves a segment c in their segmental
structure, so this segment may be considered the cause of alternation, e.g.: quci-cet-k
(root qui- voice, suffix -cet iterative suffix) make un uproar, ecwe-c-n (root
ewe- other, suffix -c nomena aentis marker) a stranger. But some palatalising
affixes have no segment c: qci-jr-n (root qik- man, suffix -jr a group of) a
group of men, mc-kw-n (root m- louse, suffix -kw a cover ) a shirt (=a cover
against lice).
With some words the alternation -c is accompanied by the alternation t-c, e.g.:
tt-tjoca alongside with ccc-cjoca (tt- door) before a door.
All these alternations are of relict character and cannot be described with the help
of standard rules.
23
CHAPTER 2. MORPHOLOGY
Verbal and nominal inflection follow derivational affixes. Since all affixes may
cause changes or change themselves according to the harmony of vowels (see 1.3),
"dominant" morphemes are marked here with the index (2) where necessary. Besides, in
the paradigms epenthetic segments (see 1.3.3) are sometimes separated by hyphens, but
in word-forms they are attached to the preceding morpheme.
2.1.1. Nouns
Noun stems are usually inflected either for case and number or for person and
number. Noun stems are not inflected when they are incorporated. Thus, all nouns have
two grammatical representations: autonomous (= a separate word) and incorporated (= a
stem used as a part of a compound).
The syntactic and semantic functions of noun phrases are expressed chiefly by
bound affixes, by derivational affixes (adjectivization), more rarely by postpositions in
combination with case-forms. A special way of expressing nominal functions is
incorporation.
Case and number markers in Chukchi are fused into items forming two main
paradigmatic types: type 1 and type 2 (see the table below). Type 1 distinguishes number
only in the nominative case, type 2 both in the nominative and in most of the oblique
cases. These two sets of affixes are used to inflect three types of declension.
The type of declension is determined by the semantic properties of a noun, based
on "human non-human" distinction and also on "proper name common noun"
distinction. There are three noun class in Chukchi called declensions:
A. Common nouns denoting non-humans;
B. Proper names (including names of domestic animals) and some common nouns
denoting close elder relations used by the members of a family, i.e. "highly
individualised" persons;
C. All other common nouns denoting human beings (= not very familiar ones).
Loan words are assigned to different types of declension on the basis of their
semantics too.
The nouns of the 1st declension (common nouns denoting non-humans) are
inflected by the items of type 1, both for singular and plural. The nouns of the 2nd
declension (proper names including the names of domestic animals and some common
24
names denoting elder relations) are inflected by the items of type 2, both for singular and
plural. The nouns of the 3rd declension (all other common nouns denoting persons) are
inflected by the items of type 1 for singular, and by the items of type 2 for plural, but the
plural forms are used only when the speaker has a special intention to express plural,
otherwise he uses the items of type 1. Thus, the items of the 3rd declension are a
combination of the 1st declension singular and 2nd declension plural. Besides, for the
nouns of this semantic group there is a variation between the 1st and the 3rd declension.
Nominal inflections form the following two paradigmatic types according to case
and number (see the comments below).
4. Some stems lose their final w (but the preceding epenthetic may be
preserved) , e.g. ajpn (< ajpnw) dam, cf. ajpnw-a by a dam, win (< winw <
winw) road, cf. by a road.
Inflection -n is added to stems ending either in a vowel or in a consonant, the
latter being followed by an epenthetic , e.g. kupre-n net, but ne-n (= ne--n)
fell, cf. ne-e by a fell, Inflection -n, added to some short stems ending in , may
be considered as a variant of -n, e.g. i-n wolf.
Inflection -n (2) has three variants distributed according to the type of stems :
-n, -n and -tn. The variant -n (originating from -n) is added to stems
ending in a vowel, a two-consonant cluster, or in a single consonant (in the last two
cases the ending is separated from the stem by an epenthetic ), e.g. tka-n leg,
mn-n (= mn--n) hand, cf. mn-a by a hand; te-n (= te--
n) a ski, cf. ti-e by a ski, The variant -n is added to stems ending in a single
consonant, except , e. g. mran-n mosquito, The variant -tn is usually added
to one-syllable stems ending in r and is separated from the stem by an epenthetic , e.g.
ar-tn (= ar--tn) thumb.
Some stems form the absolutive singular by means of reduplication. This
morphological type is indicated in the above table by "Red". As a rule, reduplication
consists in repeating the first three segments of the root, but not more than two
consonantal segments, i.e. CVC, CC (< CC), VC. The alternations in reduplicated forms
are described further. E.g. : mro-mr (root mro) laminaria, qu-qu (root qu-
) fish-scale, nute-nut (root nute-) land, wi-wi (root wi-) price, je-j (root
je-) mist, uttu-ut (root utt-) stick, ee-e (root ee-) summer, Thus, reduplication
as the means of building the nominative case form may be either complete or partial,
according to the length of the root. This type of reduplication should be distinguished
from the reduplication of short roots used to build a stem, which is usually complete:
pipni (stem pipni-, root pi) ashes, cf. pipin-t ashes (pl).
Inflection - is attached to a limited group of stems, e.g. jara- house, yurta,
joro- bed, qora- reindeer, pa-a soup.
The nominative plural of type 1 is formed by means of the inflections -t/-ti, the
latter being attached to the stems ending in a single consonant t, , c, r, n, j, e.g. jara-t
houses, ne-t (=ne--t) fells, but jajar-te tambourines, mem-te seals,
tintin-ti ices, e-ti (< ej-ti) hills.
The ergative and the designative case endings, and also the second part of the
comitative circumfix, have two phonological variants: -V and -CV. The first variant is
used after consonants and "vocabulary" , the second variant after vowels except :
mier-e by a gun, e-mier-e with a gun, mier-u a gun, but kupre-te by a
net, e-kupre-te with a net, kupre-nu as a net, cf. we-a (< we-a, stem we-)
thimble.
26
With the locative case form the variant -k is used after stems ending in :
emnu-k in the tundra, cf. jara-k in a house, mn-k (=mn--k) in a hand.
With the dative case form the variant -t (2) is used after vowels except , the
variant -et (2) after one or two consonants or after a consonant plus : koka-t
(stem kuke-) to a pot, eer-et (stem iir-) to an island, kaj-et (stem kej-) to a
brown bear, cf. jara-t to a house.
With the ablative case form the variant -jp (2) is used after vowels except , the
variant -p (2) after stems that end in a single consonant r, , n, the variant -ep (2)
after one or two consonants or after a consonant plus : koka-jp (stem kuke-) from a
pot, eer-p (stem iir-) from an island, kaj-ep (stem kej-) from a brown bear,
ve-ep (stem ve-) from a thimble.
Type 2 has no markers for the comitative and associative cases for the nouns of
the 2nd declension, but it has the circumfix a-...-rma for the comitative plural of the
3rd declension.
There is also a special vocative form which is derived either from a stem (in
singular) or from a nominative case noun phrase in plural. All these forms are
characterised by prolonging the last vowel (sometimes accomponied by changing its
quality), due to which the stress is heard on the last syllable, so usually [Skorik 1961] it is
the stress moving that is considered to be the marker of the vocative form , e.g. kawaw
(Nom.) kawaaw (Voc.) Kawaw (pr.n.), jatjo (Nom.) jatjoo (Voc.) fox, But, in
our opinion, there is no stress at all in such cases, since these forms are affective. When
the stress in the nominative case is on the last syllable, there is still some difference in
pronouncing the nominative and the vocative form, e.g. enpew (Nom.) npeew
(Voc.) old woman.
In addition to this, there is a special vocative ending -j. In singular the marker -j is
added first of all to the stems which end in a vowel, e.g. epee-j (Voc.), cf. ep (Nom.)
Grandpa, wopqaa-j (Voc.), cf. wopq (Nom.) elk, The stems ending in two
consonants also acquire this marker. Since in such cases there is an epenthetic vowel
between the stem and the ending, this vowel is prolonged to a full vowel o, e.g. owt-oj
(< owt-j) Rowten!, cf. owt-n (Nom.), kej-oj bear!, cf. kej-n (Nom.).
Proper names ending in -ten regularly loose their final part in the vocative:
jette (Voc.) jetten (Nom.) Yettegen, For proper names ending in r-n this
way of expressing the vocative is optional, e.g. otr (Voc.) ~ otr-oj (Voc.)
otr-n (Nom.) Roltegergen.
In plural the stems ending in a vowel and inflected by the nominative case marker
-t are opposed to the nominative case forms only in the way of pronouncing these forms,
e.g. epe-t (Nom.pl) epee-t (Voc.pl) Grandpas, wopqa-t (Nom.pl) wopqaa-t
(Nom.pl) elks, The epenthetic before the ending -t is prolonged and changes into o-t,
e.g. aacek-t (Nom.pl) aaceko-t (Voc.pl) youths, kej-t (Nom.pl) kejo-t
(Voc.pl) bears.
27
ekk jek-we
son:NOM:SG wake-PF:3SG.S
The son woke up
aq runtmek-wi
SEA:NOM:SG become.quiet-PF:3SG.S
The sea became quiet
3. The direct object of a transitive verb; there is no change in inflection when the
subject of the verb is expressed only by verbal inflection.
t-jp-nat ti-t
1SG.S-put.on-PF:3PL.O ski-NOM:PL
[I] put on the skies
4. The agent of the antipassive construction (in case of a transitive verb with a
direct object):
5. The comitative counterparts with nouns of the the 2nd and 3rd declensions,
which have no comitative cases:
mur-i ropt-n
we-NOM Ropten-NOM:SG
me/we together with RopteN
mur-i tum-tum
we-NOM friend- NOM:SG
me/we together with my friend
tr-i tcaj
they-NOM aunt-NOM:SG
he/they together with his aunt
This construction is used to express both the subject or the direct object:
ekke-te atan-nen ew
son-ERG drive-PF:3SG.S:3SG.O herd:NOM:SG
The son drove the herd
3. An oblique object:
5. The agent of the passive construction (if expressed at all); the constructions
with resultative forms may be considered passive:
3. An oblique object:
The same construction may be used when the head noun belongs to the 1st
declension:
2. "Motion to":
mo ktntat-at jara-t
everybody:NOM:PL run-PF:3PL house-DAT
Everybody ran to the house
3. A benefactive function:
4. Purpose:
2. "Motion from", "motion past", e.g. aw-ep from the herd, along the
herd (cf. aw-et to the herd), amno-et to the tundra, amno-p from the
tundra, along the tundra.
p a-waom-en wkwa-rp
news:NOM:SG RES-hear-RES:3SG.O Wekwenan-ABL:PL
The news was heard from the Wekwenans
4. Material:
5. Cause:
ew n-twa-qen t-jet
herd:NOM:PL NRES-be-NRES:3SG lake-ORT
The herd is situated towards the lake
2. A circumstantial relation:
1. The associative relation both for the subject and the direct object (with the
words of the 1st declension):
2. A complement of the copular construction (with the verb become and some
others):
3. The subject-complement:
5. Function:
6. Translative:
The most general means of expressing location, regardless orientation and motion,
is the locative case, "motion to" is expressed by the dative case, "motion from" and
"motion past" by the ablative case (see above).
In order to specify the type of location a locative case noun phrase woth a
postposition is used, e.g. t-k (Loc.) qaca (postp.) near the lake, Most postpositions
are used. The following locative postpositions are used in Chukchi: qaca near, cmce
close to, ttjoca in front of, rmat behind jaa further, roca over,
above, ewca under, opposite and others. There is also a postposition reen together
used with a locative noun phrase to express the comitative meaning with the nouns of the
3rd declension (see above). Postpositions may have some case forms (see below).
Some types of location are expressed by nominal suffixes. These forms represent
very productive models and have no restrictions regarding the type of stems they are
attached to, so may be considered case-markers of the second range. The locative
markers are (the nominative singular endings are given in brackets):
-qaca (Nsg -n) the place near an object
-cku (Nsg -n) the place inside an object
-te()n (Nsg -) the place in front of an object
-cq (Nsg -n) the suface of an object
-tkn (2) (Nsg -) the upper part of an object
-i (Nsg -) the lower part of an object
-jikwi (Nsg -n) the extent of an object
-curm (Nsg -n) the side of an object
-ku (Nsg -n) among, between objects
Below we will consider some specific types of location.
Proximate is usually expressed by means of a locative case noun phrase followed
by a postposition qaca near or cmce close to:
t-k qaca
lake-LOC near
near the lake
36
qora-k qaca
reindeer-LOC near
near the reindeer
Although qaca is considered a postposition, it may have several case forms, like
an ordinary noun, which express the following types of location: "motion to" the dative
case, "motion from" the ablative case, "motion past" the ergative case, "motion
towards (a point of orientation)" the orientative case. E.g.:
t-k qaca-jp
lake-LOC near-DAT
to the place near the lake
t-k qaca-t
lake-LOC near-ABL
from the place near the lake
t-k qaca-ta
lake-LOC near-ERG
past the place near the lake
The alternative way of expressing this type of location is a noun marked with the
suffix -qaca the place near an object (followed by the ending -n in the nominative
singular), e.g. jara- house jara-qaca-n a place near a house, t-n lake
t-qaca-n a place near a lake, Such nouns have all case forms.
Interior (the inner part of the object) may be expressed by means of a special
suffix -cku (with the ending -n in the nominative singular). In principal such words
have all nominal forms, but the nominative case form is more typical for hollow objects
(or at least for those that can be thought of as hollow) E.g.: kuke- boiler kuke-
cku-n the inner part of the boiler, jara- house jara-cko-n the inner part of the
house, The locative case has no marker with such nouns, e.g. kuke-cku inside the
boiler, jara-cko inside the house, ja-cko in the mist, wkw-cko in the
stone.
Anterior is expressed by means of a locative noun phrase, followed by a
postposition ttjoca in front of, before, E.g.:
37
miute-k ttjoca
hare-LOC in.front.of
in front of the hare
tmk-k ttjoca
hummock-LOC in.front.of
in front of the hummock
The postposition ttjoca has also several case forms, with the help of which
the following types of location may be expressed: "motion to" the dative case, motion
from" the ablative case, "motion past" the ergative case, "motion towards (a point of
orientation)" the orientative case. E.g.:
tmk-k ttjoca-t
hummock-LOC in.front.of-DAT
to the place in front of the hummock
tmk-k ttjoca-jp
hummock-LOC in.front.of-ABL
from the place in front of the hummock
The alternative way of expressing this type of location is the suffix -te()n the
place in front of, added to different kinds of nominal stems. In the nominative singular it
is followed by a zero ending. E.g.: i-i ice i-ten the place in front of the ice,
t-n lake t-tan the place in front of a lake, enme-em rock enm-
tan the place in front of a rock.
tmk-k ttjoca-ta
hummock-LOC in.front.of-ERG
past the place in front of the hummock
t-k rmat
lake-LOC behind
behind the lake
38
The postposition rmat has several case forms, used to express different types
of motion: "motion to" the dative case, "motion from", "motion past" the ergative
case, "motion towards (a point of orientation)" the orientative case. E.g.:
t-k rmat-et
lake-LOC behind-DAT
to the place behind the lake
t-k rmat-ep
lake-LOC behind-ABL
from the place behind the lake
t-k rmat-ta
lake-LOC behind-ERG
past the place behind the lake
t-k rmat-jet
lake-LOC behind-ORT
towards the place behind the lake (as a point of orientation)
jara-k roca
house-LOC above
above the house
ej-k roca
hill-LOC above
above the hill
The postposition roca has several case forms, used to express different types
of motion: "motion to" the dative case, "motion from" the ablative case, "motion
past" the ergative case, "motion towards (a point of orientation)" the orientative case.
E.g.:
ej-k roca-t
hill-LOC above-DAT
to the place above the hill
ej-k roca-jp
hill-LOC above-ABL
from the place above the hill
39
ej-k roca-ta
hill-LOC above-ERG
past the place above the hill
ej-k roca-jet
hill-LOC above-ORT
towards the place above the hill (as a point of orientation)
tw-k ewca
boat-LOC under
under the boat
wkw-k ewca
stone-LOC under
under the stone
The postposition ewca has several case forms, used to express different types of
motion: "motion to" the dative case, "motion from" the ablative case, "motion past"
the ergative case", "motion towards (a point of orientation)" the orientative case.
Citerior-contact is expressed by means of the suffix -curm the side of, followed
by the ending -n in the nominative singular, e.g. t-n lake t-corm-n the
shore of a lake, jkr-n mouth jkr-corm-n the sides of a mouth, umk-n
wood umk-curm-n the side of a wood.
nmnm-k ranaw
village-LOC opposite
opposite the village
The postposition ranaw has several case forms used to express different types of
motion: "motion to" the dative case, "motion from" the ablative case, "motion past"
the ergative case, "motion towards (a point of orientation)" the orientative case.
Nominal person-number inflection form the following paradigm, the 3rd person
forms being homonymous to the nominative case-number forms (cf. 2.1.1.1). The fused
person-number items are shown in Table 4:
number sg pl
person
1 -jm -muri
2 -jt- -turi
3 = items are identical with those of case-number forms
41
Endings -jm, -jt, -muri, -turi are similar to the corresponding personal
pronouns m, t, muri, turi. Variants -jm, -jt appear only after vowels. In
position after one or two consonants an epenthetic segment is inserted between the stem
and the ending and the syllable-final j then changes into a single vowel i or e according
to the harmony of vowels (see 1.3.8), e.g.: epe-jt grandfather-thou, but inqej-it
(< inqej--jt) boy-thou, pnnac-e (< pnnac--jt) old-man-thou.
Person-number forms are used to express the following syntactic functions:
1. The complement of a copular construction:
m ewcqet-im
I:NOM woman-1SG
I am a womaN
m tnanto-jm
I:NOM Tenanto(p.n.)-1SG
I am Tenanto
m cawcwa-jm
I-NOM reindeer.breeder-1SG
I am a reindeer-breeder
2.1.2. Adjectives
Qualitative adjectives are marked with the circumfix n-...[-qin(e)] with the
suffixal part used only for the 3rd person (for the 1st and the 2nd the pronominal person-
number markers are used see below).
Relative adjectives have different markerage according to the semantic group they
belong. There are relative adjectives proper marked with -kin(e), possessive adjectives
marked with -in(e)/-nin(e)/-rin(e), habitive adjectives marked with e-...[-in(e)]
and some others (for details see 2.1.1.5). All these markers loose their final vowel in
word-final position.
Adjectives may be used both predicatively and attributively. The grammatical
binding between the adjective and the modified noun is expressed either by agreement or
by incorporation (see further 2.1.2.7). Thus, as well as nouns, adjectives have two
grammatical representations: autonomous and incorporated. Adjectives used
autonomously usually agree with nouns in person and number, sometimes in case and
number. Thus, they have person-number forms and occasional case-number forms.
Any adjective may be used as predicate. In this case it has a marker of the
adjective, which differs according to the group of the adjective.
Being used predicatively, adjectives agree in person and number with the
dominant noun. E.g.:
ton n-erme-qin
he:NOM ADJ-strong-ADJ:3SG
He is strong
tr-i n-erme-qine-t
they-NOM ADJ-strong-ADJ-3PL
They are strong
43
mur-i n-erme-muri
we-NOM ADJ-strong-1PL
We are strong
mike-kine-jt m emnu-kine-jm
where-REL-2SG I-NOM tudra-REL-1SG
Where are you from ? I am from tundra
When the adjective is used as attribute and the dominant noun is a nominative
case noun phrase, the same grammatical form is used as in case of predicate:
But when the dominant noun is an oblique case noun phrase, the adjective is
usually incorporated (for the more detailed rules see Chapter 3). In case of incorporation
the qualitative adjective loses its marker, but the non-qualitative adjectives preserve their
suffixes. E.g.:
e-qora-ta t-r-ekwet-ek
white=reindeer-ERG 1SG.S-POT-go-PF-1SG
I will go by the white reindeer
For this reason the adjective used autonomously (in various syntactic positions
listed above) is usually treated as predicative (or predicative-attributive), and only the
incorporated adjective is considered attributive (see, for example, [Skorik 1961:427]).
Here, however, we consider both types of adjectives in different syntactic positions as
representatives of one and the same grammatical class.
There exist two more grammatical forms for the qualitative adjective. One of
them is the so-called "participle-noun". It is derived from the qualitative stem by means
45
of the suffix -- (with -n in the nominative singular). This form is used to denote an
object characterized by the quality expressed by a stem. E.g.:
Autonomous adjectives used predicatively agree in person and number with the
noun they modify. It can be also stated that autonomous adjectives, being used
attributively with a nominative case noun phrase, agree in person and number (or in case
and number, since these forms are homonymous), with the dominant noun. When
adjectives are used autonomously with an oblique case noun phrase, they may sometimes
agree in case or number, or both, with the dominant noun.
Qualitative adjectives always agree in number with the dominant nominative case
noun phrase, e.g.: n-erme-qin (3sg) tt-n (sg) a strong dog n-erme-qine-t (3pl)
tt-t (pl) strong dogs,
Possessive adjectives, as a rule, do not agree in number with the dominant
nominative case noun phrase, e.g. inqej-in (poss.) jeo (sg) the boys uncle
inqej-in (poss.) jeo-nte (pl) the boys uncles,
Relative adjectives usually agree in number with the dominant nominative case
noun phrase, e.g. umk-kin (3sg) at (sg) a bird from the forest umk-kine-t (3pl)
aa-t (sg) birds from the forest,
All types of person-number adjectival forms are inflected by special fused person-
number items given in Table 5.
number sg pl
person
1 -jm -muri
2 -jt -turi
3 - -t
46
The 3rd person markers shown in the Table are identical with the nominal number
markers. With qualitative adjectives the suffix -qin(e) may be treated as the 3rd person
marker, and with relative subjective relative adjectives the suffix -in(e).
There are some rare examples when an attributive adjective used autonomously
agrees in case with the dominant noun. The rules that regulate such situations are
different for different types of adjectives.
Qualitative adjectives are inflected for case rather rarely, mostly for the ergative
and locative case. They are inflected then according to the type of declention of the
dominant noun, e.g.
Possessive adjectives, that are usually used autonomously, do not agree in case
with the dominant oblique case noun phrase, e.g.:
Relative adjectives are used autonomously with the dominant oblique case noun
phrase only when they are emphasised. In this case they may agree in case with the
dominant word (this is more typical for the ergative and locative case), e.g.:
When an adjective is used without the dominant word, it it inflected for case and
number like an ordinary noun, e.g.:
47
mir-kin mier
grandfather- REL:3SG gun:NOM:SG
a gun related to a grandfather, a gun from a grandfather
2. Source:
ireq inqej-mk-kin
two boy-GROUP-REL:3SG
two of the boys
Cf.:
ireq inqe-ti
two boy-NOM:PL
two boys
The same with non-numeral quantifiers and with partitive negative quantifiers:
qut-ti inqej-mk-kin
some-NOM:PL boy-GROUP-REL:3SG
some of the boys
ut-nin mier
Rulten-POSS(SG):3SG gun:NOM:SG
Rultens gun
ut-rin mier
Rulten-POSS(PL):3SG gun:NOM:SG
the Rultens gun
t-in mier
father- POSS:3SG gun:NOM:SG
fathers gun
2. Part whole:
wopq-en rnn-n
elk-POSS:3SG horn-NOM:SG
the elks horN
utt-in rt
tree-POSS:3SG brach:NOM:SG
a branch of a tree (trees)
49
utt-ine-t rt-t
tree-POSS-3PL brach-NOM:PL
branches of a tree (trees)
3. Material:
wkw-en jara-
stone-POSS:3SG house-NOM:SG
a house made of stones
4. Reference quality:
aacek-en ror-n
youth-POSS:3SG experience-NOM:SG
the youths experience
2. Reference quantity:
koj-n e-mimt-in
mug-NOM:SG HAB-water-HAB:3SG
a mug of water
e-tte-kin
CAR-water-CAR:3SG
the one who is not cunny
2. Negative possession:
a-poj-kin
CAR-water-CAR:3SG
the one who has no spears
Equalty may be expressed with a noun-participle marked with -l and the object
of equalty marked with an adverbial suffix -mi, e.g.:
n-i-qin e- wa--n
ADJ-white-ADJ:3SG white-ADV be-PART-NOM:SG
white the one that is more white
n-mej-qin nan-maj-c-n
big the biggest
n-np-qin nan-np-c-n
old the oldest
51
n-ttep-qin nan-ttap-c-n
clever the cleverest
n-me-qin n-i-n-me-qin
good very good
n-jero-qen n-e-n-jero-qen
clever very clever
Small measure is expressed by means of the prefixes mac- to some extent, cik-
rather, kn- rather, added before the prefix of an adjective, e.g.:
n-ikw-qin mec-n-ikw-qin
high rather high
n-in-qin ci-n-in-qin
young rather young
n-nrr-qin kn-n-nrr-qin
sharp-eyed rather sharp-eyed
2.1.3. Verbs
Finite forms distinguish mood, aspect and resultativeness (see also [Nedjalkov
1993]).
According to the tradition, there are three principal moods in Chukchi, which
form the regular morphological system: Indicative, Conjunctive and Imperative. As the
Imperative mood distinguishes person and number forms and expresses some special
meanings, we prefer to treat it as the Optative mood (see also [Muravyova 1990]).
Besides, we treat forms with the future meaning as the Potential mood (see below).
According to the tradition, there are three main tenses in Chukchi: present, past
and future. Here we prefer another way of describing these forms. Since the meaning of
traditional present and past forms is usually combined with the aspectual meaning of
imperfective/perfective respectively, we will treat them as aspectual forms, but they may
also denote absolute tenses present and past. Besides, as future forms distinguish
imperfective / perfective forms and are morphologically similar to traditional
"present"/"past" forms, we treat the future meaning of these forms as a separate mood
the Potential Mood.
The meaning of mood can be combined with the meaning of aspect, so there are
eight mood-aspect forms: the Indicative imperfective, the Indicative perfective, the
Potenial imperfective, the Potenial perfective, the Optative imperfective, the Optative
perfective, the Conjunctive imperfective, the Conjunctive imperfective. By their
morphological properties these forms may be treated as "canonical" mood-aspect forms.
53
There are also non-resultative and resultative forms that express non-actual
tenses, for the actions and states they denote do not have immediate relation with the
moment of speech (for details see [Nedjalkov, Inenlikej, Rakhtilin 1983]). Such forms are
found only in the Indicative mood. By their morphological structure non-resultative and
resultative forms are similar to "present" and "past" participles used as predicates, for
they have the same markers as qualitative and relative adjectives (see 2.1.2).
There is a great difference in morphology between canonical mood-aspect verbal
forms and adjectival resultative/non-resultative forms, that is why we will consider them
separately.
Of the four moods only the Conjunctive and the Potential mood have their special
markers the prefix - for the Conjunctive mood and the prefix re- for the Potential
mood. The future perfective form has either a zero marker or a suffixal marker -- (it
appeares before the subject endings -tk, -t and before all the object endings except -t,
-e ). But in fact most of mood forms are opposed to each other only by person-number
items (mostly prefixes). Some 2sg Optative mood forms have a connecting morpheme -
- that precedes a person-number item, e.g.: q-ejmit--n take it!.
The suffix -rk- and a special set of person-number items are used to mark the
imperfective forms. The suffix -rk- is sometimes followed by a connecting morph -ni.
This happens only before the person-number endings -m , -t , -mk , -tk , tk or
before the object marker of the 3rd person -n(e) , when the subject is in the 3rd person
singular. Traditionally the suffix -rkn is considered to be the marker of the present tense
form, but since in some forms -rk- may be combined with the pluralizer -t (-rk--t), the
string rkn should be devided into two morphs separated by the epenthetic segment : -
rk--n , where -n is a separate person-number ending (instead of a zero ending), typical
for other forms as well. Here are some present tense forms (an epenthetic is written
here together with the preceding morph or with a one-consonant initial and final morph):
t-ktntat-rkn I am running
ktntat-rkn he is running
mt-ktntat-rkn we are running
ktntat-rkne-tk you are running
ktntat-rk-t they are running
The perfective forms have no special affixal marker (they have a zero marker), it
is expressed together with person-number items. Since its person-number items are often
54
the same as with imperfective forms, these two aspectual forms are practically opposed
only by the presence / absence of the marker -rk-. Compare the following perfective
forms with the corresponding imperfective forms:
t-ktntat-a-k I ran
ktntat-e he ran
mt-ktntan-mk we ran
ktntat-tk you ran
ktntat-at they ran
The the non-resultative forms are marked with the circumfix n-...-[qin(e)] , with
the suffixal part used only with the 3rd person and person-number markers used for the
1st and 2nd person.
The resultative form is marked by the circumfix e-...- [in(e)], with the suffixal
part used only for the 3rd person and person-number markers used for the 1st and 2nd
persons.
The Optative mood has all possible person-number forms. It expresses either
imperative ot optative meaning, cf.:
Special impersonal imperative forms marked with the circumfix e-...-e/te are
also used to express imperative meaning:
Intention may be also expressed by means of the Optative mood, e.g.: m-jqet-rk-n
(opt,1sg) now I shall sleep!,
The Conjunctive mood can be used in both parts of CONJitional sentences, e.g.:
The imperfective form is used to denote an imperfective aspect for all the moods.
E.g.:
The imperfective forms may express actual present actions, they are used mostly
in dialogues:
naqam req-rkni-tk
(conj.) do.what-IPF-2PL
Well, what are you doing?
amn , mt-itew-rk-n
(conj.) 1PL-wash-IPF-1PL
Here, we are washing
This form can be also used to denote a action under consideration in the past, that
follows another past action:
The words cit earlier, eci as soon as, used with the imperfective form, denote
an uncarried action, e.g.:
With oblique moods habitual aspect is expressed by the imperfective forms, e.g.:
The continuous aspect is usually expressed by the imperfective form for all the
moods. E.g.:
q-qametwa-rk-n
OPT:2SG-eat-NRES-2SG
Eat! (=continue to eat!)
The perfective form usually expresses the perfective aspect for all the moods.
E.g.:
jew-jew , m-ajm-ak
(int.) OPT:1SG-bring-water-PF:1SG
Oh, wait, let me bring some water!
nmjop-m n--iw-n
earlier-PTL 2SG.S-CONJ-say-PF:3SG.O
If only [thou] have told this earlier
In the narration such form denotes a completed action that took place in the past:
The perfective form of certain lexical items may express the ingressive aspect,
e.g. jqet-i (he) fell asleep, tipeje-i (he) began to sing, terat-i (he)
began to cry, Such verbs are usually intransitive and stative or durative.
The perfective form of certain lexical items may express the terminal aspect, e.g.
wi-i (he) died, kjew-i (he) woke up, jet-i (he) came, t-nin (he) poured
[it] out,
A durative action may be expressed by the perfective form with those lexical
items that denote durative actions themselves, e.g.:
But more often the non-resultative forms refer to the past (see below).
Durative or iterative actions referring to the past are usually expressed by the non-
resultative form:
m nkam n-atc-egyt
I-NOM and NRES-hide-2SG
Yesterday thou constantly ran away from me and hid
When the speaker wants to distinguish an action from a series of other past
actions, he usually uses the resultative form. E.g.:
The perfect form may also express a durative action that took place for some time:
A past situation that has present relevance may be expressed by both the
perfective and resultative forms. The resultative form is used here when the speaker
wants to express the cause of the situation. E.g.:
t a-pea-jt
thou:NOM RES-leave-2SG
You were left
ton a-nm-en
he:NOM RES-kill-RES:3SG
He was killed
But in many cases perfect and imperfect forms agree both with an ergative case
noun phrase (subject) and a nominative case noun phrase (object) and have an active
meaning, the construction thus being active and ergative:
-nan m -ine-u-jt
thou-ERG I:NOM RES-1SG.O-see-2SG.S
You saw me
The subject of the active may be expressed in the passive construction by means
of an ergative case noun phrase, irrespective whether it is agentive or not:
In the subordinate clause the same tenses may be used as in the main clause, but
more often non-finite forms are used here.
61
Subject and object are usually coded in the Chukchi verb when not incorporated
(for incorporation see further).
The subject must be coded in all types of verbal finite forms, whether the verbal
form is impersonal, intransitive, transitive or bitransitive. The only exception are some
transitive resultative / non-resultative adjectival forms, in which the subject is not marked
at all (and that may be an argument to consider these forms passive). The subject is not
marked on non-finite forms.
Of different objects only the direct object, i.e. the nominative case form referent,
is obligatory marked on verb.
The agreement is marked only on finite verbal forms by means of prefixal and
suffixal items.
In general, the subject of a canonical verbal form (i.e. perfective/imperfective
forms) is marked in a different way than that of an adjectival form.
The zero subject of an impersonal verb is coded like the 3rd person singular of an
intransitive verb.
The subject of an intransitive verb is usually marked both by prefixal and suffixal
items (which may be considered circumfixes), in adjectival forms only by a suffixal
item.
The subject of a transitive (or bitransitive) verb is marked mainly by a prefixal
item, in some rare cases both by prefixal and suffixal items; in adjectival
resultative/non-resultative forms the subject of a transitive verb is usually not expressed,
but in some cases it is expressed by means of a prefix ine-, suffix -tku and/or suffixal
items.
The object of a canonical verbal finite form is usually marked by a suffixal item,
in some rare cases by a prefix ine-.
The object of an adjectival form is usually marked by a suffixal item.
The only features of subject and object that are coded in the verb are person and
number. There is a great difference in marking subject and object in canonical and
adjectival verbal forms, that is why they are listed here in different tables.
In canonical verbal forms these meanings are fused into items, forming an
extremely complicated system of markerage, because these items vary not only according
to subject-object distinction, but also to their combinations and to tense-mood
distinctions. This system consists of the two main sets of items, traditionally called
subject conjugation (for intransitive verbs) and subject-object conjugation (for transitive
verbs). In the subject conjugation the subject person-number marker is a circumfix
consisting of two parts prefixal and suffixal and occupying the ultimate word-initial
and word-final positions. In the subject-object conjugation, as a rule, the subject person-
number marker is a prefix and the object person-number marker is a suffix, both
occupying the ultimate positions in a word. The only two classes of exceptions are the
following:
1) when the object is in the sg and the subject is in the 2sg, 2pl or 3sg, the object
(1sg) is expressed by a prefix ine-, which precedes the stem, and a person-number suffix
62
codes not the object, as it is in all other forms of this conjugation, but the subject, the
marker being identical to the subject conjugation;
2) when the object is in thepl and the subject is in the 2sg or 2pl, the object is
expressed by a suffix -tku, which follows the stem, and a person-number suffix expresses
not the object, but the subject.
These exceptions are not registered in the tables given below.
Since prefixal parts of subject markers in the subject conjugation are often
identical to prefixes of the subject-object conjugation, it is more convenient to list
prefixal and suffixal parts in separate tables. Thus, we have four tables of items for
canonical verbal forms: Table 6 prefixal parts of subject markers (subject conjugation),
Table 7 suffixal parts of subject markers (subject conjugation), Table 8 subject
prefixes (subject-object conjugation, Table 9 object suffixes (subject-object
conjugation).
* The item -t may be treated as the plural marker for the 3rd person form (compare the
nominal pluralizer -t).
number sg pl
person aspect
1 -m* -mk
2 -t -tk
3 ipf -n -ne-t
pf -e-n*, -n -ene-t*, -t
____________________________________
* In some cases the prefixal marker is used to express the 1st singular see above.
** The part -e may be omitted.
Two kinds of adjectival forms are used in Chukchi: imperfect forms, marked with
n-...[qin(e)], and perfect forms, marked with e-...[in(e)] . The suffixal part of these
markers is used only for the 3rd person; it it followed by the 3rd person markers -0 for
singular and -t for plural, identical with nominal number markers. For the 1st and 2nd
person the usual person-number items are used:
64
number sg pl
person
1 -jm -muri
2 -jt -turi
3 - -t
Intransitive verbs, naturally, have only subject marking. Only the suffixal items
are used here, e.g.: n-ktntat-em (I) run, n-ktntat-qena-t (they) run, a-
ktntat-et (thou) ran, a-knntat-en (he) ran.
Transitive verbs have a more complicated system of markerage which is different
for imperfect and perfect forms. Two more markers are used here: the prefix ine- and the
suffix -tku, which precedes the person-number marker (compare the canonical verbal
forms see above).
In case of perfect forms the prefix ine- is used to express thesg object when the
subject is in the 2sg, 2pl or 3sg (thus, the only exception is 3pl), and the suffix -tku is
used to express the 1pl object when the subject is in the 2sg. Since the distrubution of this
prefix is ather complicated, we prefer to treat such forms as inverse froms (see also
[Comrie 1980; Comrie 1983]). In such cases a common person-number suffix codes the
subject. In all other cases a common person-number suffix codes the object. E.g.:
In case of imperfect forms the suffix -tku is used to express the 1pl object when
the subject is in the 2sg or 2pl. The prefix ine- is used more widely, practically in all
other cases except the following: 3sg subject 1pl or 2pl object, 3pl subject any object.
Some traces of the hierarchy of persons may be seen here too (cf. canonical verbal
forms). When the object is expressed by the markers ine- or -tku, the common person-
number suffix codes the subject, but when there is no ine- or -tku, the common person-
number suffix codes the object. E.g.:
There are several non-finite forms in Chukchi, but they do not distinguish aspects
and moods. Nor do they agree in person and number with any of the actants. The non-
finite forms and their markers are given below.
The infinitive is marked with -k, e.g. wa-k to be, to stay, imti-k to carry,
uwicwet-k to play, miciret-k work, The subject of an infinitive may be co-
referent or non-coreferent to the subject of the dominant word.
The supine has the marker -nw (2) (cf. the nominal suffix -nw- in 2.2.), e.g.
rea-nw (stem rie- ) in order to fly, ajaw-nw (stem ejew-) in order to call,
The subject of a supine may be either co-referent or non-coreferent to the subject of the
dominant finite verbal form.
There are several adverbial participles converbs in Chukchi. The subject of an
adverbial participle may be either co-referent or non-coreferent to the subject of the
dominant finite verbal form. Most of adverbial participle markers are homonymous to the
corresponding case markers.
The following participles are used here:
1. The converb of simultaneous action, marked with -ma, a-...-ma (cf. the
associative case marker), -t/-et (cf. the dative case marker). E.g.:
2. The converb of preceding action, marked with -k (cf. the locative case marker),
-ine-u (cf. the nominal suffix -ine, denoting an instrument, and the designative case
marker -u). E.g.:
3. The converb of cause, marked with -p/-jp (cf. the ablative case marker), -
e/-te (cf. the ergative case marker), em-...-e/-te (cf. the prefix em- only and the
ergative case marker). E.g.:
5. The converb of purpose, em-re-...--e (cf. the prefix em- only, the future
form marker re-...- and the ergative cade marker -e ), -jut. E.g.:
6. The converb of accordance, marked with -jit (cf. the orientative case marker).
E.g.:
8. The converb of impossibility, marked with aqa-...- (cf. the qualitative stem
eqe- bad). E.g.:
The converb of impossibility may also express the negative potential meaning,
e.g.:
2.1.4. Adverbs
2.1.4.1. Types of adverbs
Adverbs are divided in several groups, among them qualitative, relative and some
others (for details see [Inenlikej 1966]).
Some adverbs are not derived from any other part of speech, e.g. : ir today.
Qualitative adjectives are usually derived from qualitative stems by means of the
circumfix n-...-ew which marks the part of speech, e.g. n-erm-ew strongly, n-itc-
ew heavily, Some qualitative adjectives are marked with the suffix -et, e.g.: kor-et
merrily.
Most relative adverbs are denominal.
Different degrees of comparison may be expressed with the prefixes ptq- and
ja-, e.g.:
69
jq- quickly ptq-jq- much more quickly ja-jq- even much more
quickly.
The comparative degree and the superlative degree (see below) may be expressed
with some other semantic groups of adverbs as well, e.g.:
The superlative degree is expressed by means of the prefix nan- and the suffix -
, e.g.:
Large measure is expressed in the same way as in case of adjectives (see 2.1.2.),
i.e. by means of the prefix i- preceded by another marker n-, e.g. n-i-n-me-ew
very well.
Small measure is expressed with the same prefixes as in case of adjectives, e.g.:
2.1.5. Numerals
2.1.5.1. Cardinal numerals
The native terms of Chukchi are based on finger-counting (for details see [Moll
1947]). There are only eight elementary non-compound numerals. The first four terms are
likely to be original. They are: nnen one, ire-q two, ro-q three, ra-q four,
The last -q of some numerals may be considered a special cardinal numeral marker, since
it is omitted in some other types of numeral forms (see below). The other four elementary
terms originate from nouns. They are: mt-en five (cf. mn-tnn (2) a hand),
mnt-ken ten (cf. mn-t hands), kn-ken fifteen (cf. k-k to mark),
qik-kin twenty (cf. qik- man, male). These numerals have adjectival markers -in(e)
and -kin(e) which are omitted in some types of numeral forms.
All other terms are either synthetic or analytic compounds.
Numerals from six to nine are synthetic compounds, they consist of an
elementary numeral from one to four as the first component and the numeral
mten five as the second component, the final /q/ turning into // and then changing
its position with the preceding vowel (see 1.3), e.g.: nnan-mten six, era-
mten (< ireq-mten) seven. Numerals eight and nine have alternative way
of expressing: amrootken eight (= only three from the other [hand]),
qonacnken nine (= one apart).
Numerals from eleven to fourteen are analytic compounds, they consist of the
elementary term mntken ten as the first component, an elementary numeral from
one to four as the second component and the word paro the rest, extra as the third
component, e.g.: mntken nnen paro eleven, mntken roq paro thirteen,
The first component of these numerals may be omitted. Thus, ynnen parol means eleven,
ireq paro (or ire paro in the fluent speech) twelve and so on.
Numerals from sixteen to nineteen are analytic compounds too. They consist
of the elementary term knken fifteen, an elementary term from one to four and
the word paro, e.g.: knken nnen paro sixteen. Numerals preceding the
elementary terms may be expressed alternatively:
All other numerals have the numeral twenty as the basis of numeration. Thus,
numeral thirty is an analytical compound consisting of the elementary term twenty,
elementary term ten and the word paro: qikkin mntken paro; thirty-five is
expressed like qikkin (20) knken (15) paro. All numerals with a multiple
twenty from 20 up to 400 are expressed by means of a synthetic compound with the
first element showing the number of twenties (the elementary numerals loose their
adjectival suffixes in this position), e.g.: ireq-qikkin forty (=4x20), mt-qekken
one hundre (=5x20), qik-qikkin four hundred (=20x20), Any other numeral after
twenty comsists of the synthetic compound with the first part showing the number of
twenties and the rest, expressed with elementary terms, e.g.: ireq-qiqqin (2x20)
knken (15) ireq (2) paro fifty-seven, roq-qekken (3x20) mntken (10)
raq (4) seventy-four.
Numeral four hundred is the last in the original Chukchi counting. Numbers
more than that are called jiw-ten the border of the known. To express larger
numbers (and also numbers with a multiple 100) the Russian terms sto one hundred and
tsjaca one thousand are used. The system of counting using these two Russian terms is
taught at school together with the native one. But both these system are being supplanted
nowadays by the Russian system of counting.
All these terms are used only for counting objects. To express abstract
mathematical figures noun-participles with the suffix -c (instead of -) are used,
derived from the numeral stems: nnen-c-n 1, mt-c-n 5.
Here are the original Chukchi numerals listed:
Any cardinal numeral may be used as attribute. The grammatical binding of the
numeral and the dominant noun is expressed either by the word order and agreement
(semantic) in number or by incorporation. Thus, cardinal numerals have two grammatical
representations: autonomous and incorporated (see below).
When the dominant noun is a nominative case noun phrase, the cardinal numeral
is always expressed as a separate word: nnen oraweta-n one man, ireq
oraweta-t two men, nanmten jara-t six houses, knken nnen paro
riquke-t sixteen polar foxes.
When the dominant noun is an oblique case noun phrase, the cardinal numeral is
always incorporated (see further).
When cardinal numerals are used as attributes with adjectival denominal forms
(possessive or relative), they are always incorporated, e.g.: ron=tt-en renre the
food of three dogs, ran=waam-ken nne-en the fish from four rivers.
Any cardinal numeral in Chukchi (except one) may be used as predicate. In this
case they are inflected for person and number (only for plural). For the 1st and 2nd
person the items are the same as with nouns and adjectives, but for the 3rd person a
special marker is used, see Table 11 below:
number pl
person
1 -muri
2 -turi
3 -reri
Elementary numeral lose the final -q and adjectival markers before person-
number markers. The interrogative pronoun ter how many? also acquires person-
number markers. E.g.:
73
tr-i eramt-rare
they-NOM seven-3PL
They are seveN
The same person-number form is used when the numeral is a component of the
oppositional construction with a personal pronoun as the other component, e.g.:
Ordinal numerals are derived from cardinal ones by means of the suffix -qew.
Elementary numerals lose the marker -q and adjectival suffixes before -qew , e.g. nnen-
qew the first, ire-qew the second, mt-qew the fifth, In case of the analytic
compound the marker is added to the last component: qikkin nnen paro-qaw the
twenty-first.
Ordinal numerals are usually used as attributes. Being used attributively, they
may be either autonomous or incorporated. When the dominant element is a nominative
case noun phrase, the numeral is not incorporated, e.g.: nnenqew jara- (abs.) the
first house, mntken nnen paro-qaw jatjo (abs.) the sixteenth fox, When the
noun is in plural, the numeral is marked for plural as well: nnenqew-t jara-t the first
houses, mntken nnen paro-qaw-t ii-t the sixteenth mittens.
When the dominant element is an oblique case noun phrase, the ordinal numeral is
usually incorporated (for details see below).
Ordinal numerals may be also used as predicates, or as attributes to predicative
nouns. In this case they are marked for person and number. For the st and 2nd person the
common person-number markers are used. E.g.:
74
ter-qaw-it ro-qaw-em
how.many-ORD-2SG three-ORD-1SG
Which are you? (=What is your number?) am the third
The 3rd person has no special marker, but numerals are inflected for number in
the usual way: - for singular, -t for plural, e.g. mt-qaw the fifth (he)
mtqaw-t the fifth (they).
Ordinal numerals may have possessive and relative adjectival forms (see also
2.1.2). The possessive form is usually used when the dominant noun is a person and is
not expressed at all, e.g. ire-qew-in t-n the father of the third (person), ro-
qaw-ren tw-t the boat of the third (persons), Being used as attribute to a
predicative noun, this form may be inflected for person and number, e.g.:
The relative form is usually used to express the order of referential objects, e.g.
ro-qaw wkw-n the third stone ro-qaw-ken wkw-n the third stone (of
those ones).
These adjectival forms are used either as autonomous or incorporated. When the
dominant noun is a nominative case noun phrase, the adjective is always expressed as a
separate word. When the dominant noun is an oblique case noun phrase, the adjective is
usually used autonomously and, as a rule, does not agree in case with the noun. But it
may sometimes agree with the noun in the ergative or locative case. E.g.:
Numerals may have also disjunctive forms. The disjunctive form is marked with
the circumfix em-...-jut with an amount of ... (each), e.g. em-ire-jut with two
75
(each), am-mnt-jot with ten (each), In case of an analytical compound the prefixal
part is added to the first component and the suffixal part to the last, e.g. am-
mntken nnen paro-jot with eleven (each), This form is used as attribute to a
nominative case noun phrase. E.g.:
When the dominant noun is an oblique case noun phrase, the cardinal numeral is
always incorporated. This incorporation is of the syntactic type. The following additional
rules are observed here:
1) elementary numerals ending in -q loose this marker and acquire a new one
the marker -n ; thus, the incorporated variant of ireq is iren-, of roq ron- and
of raq ran-, e.g. ran-poj-a (instr.) by three spears, a-ron-tom-a
together with three friends;
2) numerals with adjectival suffixes loose these markers when being incorporated,
e.g.: mt-en five mt-orw-et to five sledges;
3) in case of the analytic compound only the last element is incorporated, e.g.
mntken nnen paro-orw-a by sixteen sledges;
4) when the numeral is an analytic compound and the case marker is a circumfix,
the prefixal part of it is added to the first component of the compound, the last component
is incorporated, and the suffixal part is added to the nominal stem; such compounds are
called analytic incorporative complexes, e.g. e-qikkin roq paro-aakka-ta with
twenty three daughters.
An ordinal numeral is usually incorporated when the dominant element is an
oblique case noun phrase, e.g.: roqaw-na-a (instr.) by the third fell, a-
mtqaw-jatjo-a with the fifth fox, e-qikkin nnen paro-qaw-jatjo-a with
the twenty-first fox, But when the numeral is emphasised and the case marker is not
prefixal, the numeral may be not incorporated. In this case it may agree with the
dominant word in case and number, e.g.:
An ordinal numeral used without the dominant word is inflected for case and
number like an ordinary noun, e.g.:
76
a-ro-qaw-ena-cakett-a
COM-three-ORD-POSS-sister-COM
with the sister of the third
a-ro-qaw-kena-mem-ma
COM-three-ORD-REL-seal-COM
with the third seal
2.1.6. Pronouns
2.1.6.1. Personal pronouns
2.1.6.1.1. General
Free pronouns for the 1st, 2nd and 3rd person, both singular and plural, occur in
Chukchi. They are usually optional as subject or direct object in situations when these
arguments are expressed by verbal inflection, but are obligatory for indirect object in
oblique cases. E.g.:
m-nan t t-u-t
I-ERG thou:NOM 1SG.S- see-PF:2SG.O
I saw thee
aw-et t-pkir-ek
herd-DAT 1SG-come-PF:1SG
I came to the herd
aw-et t-niw-tk
herd-DAT 1SG.S- send-PF:2PL.O
I sent you to the herd
-n-ma m-iwini-cqiw-k
ASC-he- ASC OPT:1SG -go.hunting- PF:1SG
Let me go hunting with him
77
Free pronouns for the 2nd and 3rd person singular may be used to disambiguate
between 2nd and 3rd person singular inflections when these fall together in some of the
verbal forms:
t ktntat-rk-n
thou:NOM run-IPF-2SG
Thou is running
ton ktntat-rk-n
he:NOM run-IPF-3SG
He is running
m npnac-em
I:NOM old.man-1SG
I am an old maN
In constructions with numerals, marked for person and number, the personal
pronouns are optional:
ter-turi ra-more
how.many-2PL four-1PL
How numerous are you? We are four
There are no special anaphoric pronouns in Chukchi. The 3rd person pronouns
ton he and tri they are used in the anaphoric sense. Unlike nouns and some other
groups of pronouns, these pronouns have no person/non-person distinction, see:
There is an opposition between the 1st, 2nd and 3rd person pronouns, expressed
by different pronominal stems for singular and plural, cf. m I muri we, t thou
turi you, ton he tri they (the pronouns are given here in the nominative case
form).
All personal pronouns have plural forms which are obligatory. The number
distinction in pronouns is expressed mainly by the difference of the pronominal stems
(see above). Besides, in the nominative case plural the personal pronouns are marked by a
special pluralizer -i : mur-i we, tur-i you, tr-i they.
A personal pronoun in the nominative case plural may be used in combination
with a numeral, the latter being marked for person and number by means of the suffixes -
muri 1pl, -turi 2pl, -reri 3pl, see: ra-more we-four, ro-rare they-three,
If a numeral consists of more than one component, the marker is added to the last one:
knken roq paro-tore you-eighteen. Personal pronouns are optional in such
constructions. E.g.:
There is no obvious limit to the size of the numerous component, though high
numbers are rarely found in these constructions. Besides, large numbers are usually loan-
words.
A personal pronoun in plural may be combined with an oppositional nominative
case noun phrase in plural, the combination having the same reference as the pronoun.
Such combinations are used with no restrictions for pronouns, but only
when the pronoun is in the nominative or ergative case, i.e. subject or direct object. The
noun phrase is marked for person in such constructions. E.g.:
mur-i kawaw
we-NOM Kawaw-NOM:SG
me/we together with Kawaw
tur-i mein
you-NOM who-NOM:SG
you with whom ?
mur-i tum-tum
we-NOM friend-NOM:SG
me/we together with my friend
mur-i ytlon
we-NOM he:NOM
me/we together with him
All personal pronouns are inflected for case. There is some divergence from the
case system of nouns as regards both realisation and the set of cases. The dative-
directional case of nouns corresponds to two different pronominal cases: the dative case,
marked by - (or -rk for plural forms in some groups of demonstrative pronouns),
which is a strong morpheme and changes weak vowels, and the directional case, marked
in the same way as nouns. The ergative case has a different marking a special
80
pronominal ending -nan ; besides, it may refer only to animate objects and has no
instrumental meaning, so it would be more correct to call it "ergative". The instrumental
meaning for the 3rd person may be expressed by demonstrative pronouns, e.g. otqena-
ta by this, In the nominative case plural personal pronouns have a pluralizer -i. All
other cases have the same meanings and markers as in the nominal declension. Unlike
nouns denoting persons, personal pronouns may be used in the comitative and associative
cases, being marked by the items of the type.
The personal pronouns have the following stems: 1sg m-, 2sg n- (but t
in the nominative), 3sg n- (but ton in the nominative),pl mur-, 2pl tur-, 3pl
r- (but tri in the nominative, with the geminate /r/). In the ergative case the 2sg and 3sg
stems are cut off to - and -, and the plural stems are enlarged by - . In all cases
except nominative, ergative and locative, the stem bases are enlarged by -k (dative,
comitative, associative, designative) or -ke (directional, ablative, coordinative); since -
ke is a weak morpheme, it changes into -ka according to the harmony rule under the
influence of the dominant morphemes -t and -jp in the directional and ablative cases;
besides, k changes into before m in the associative.
In the paradigms given below the strings enlarging the original stems and
epenthetic segments // are are separated here by hyphens; later on we will write them
together with the adjacent morphs.
Here are the paradigms:
Singular
person 1 2 3
case
1. Nominative m t ton
2. Ergative m-nan -nan -nan
3. Locative m--k n--k n--k
4. Dative m-k- n-k- n-k-
5. Directional m-ka-t n-ka-t n-ka-t
6. Ablative m-ka-jp n-ka-jp n-ka-jp
7. Coordinative m-ke-jit n-ke-jit n-ke-jit
8. Comitative e-m-k-e e-n-k-e -n-k-e
9. Assiciative a-m--ma a-n--ma -n--ma
10. Designative m-k-u n-k-u n-k-u
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Plural
person 1 2 3
case
1. Nominative mur-i tur-i tr-i
2. Ergative mor--nan tor--nan r--nan
3. Locative mur--k tur--k r--k
4. Dative mor-k- tor-k- r-k-
5. Directional mor-ka-t tor-ka-t r-ka-t
6. Ablative mor-ka-jp tor-ka-jp tor-ka-jp
7. Coordinative mur-ke-jit tur-ke-jit r-ke-jit
8. Comitative e-mur-k-e e-tur-k-e -r-k-e
9. Assiciative a-mor--ma a-tor--ma -r--ma
10. Designative mur-k-u tur-k-u r-k-u
There are two more categories expressed in personal pronouns. They are the
limiting form and the sequence form.
The limiting form is marked by the prefix em- added to the case form: em-m-
k only at my place, Unlike nouns, the limiting prefix cannot be combined with the
nominative case form of the pronouns, the ergative case form being used instead. E.g.:
The prefix em- may be also combined with the possessive forms: em-murin
only our.
The sequence form is marked by suffixes -ram (singular) and -nram (plural),
added to the stems used in the locative case form: m-ram now me, n-ram now
him, t-nram them, This form is used only instead of the nominative case form, i.e.
both as subject and direct object. E.g.:
The word nram is also used in the meaning of an adverb now in combination
with all other pronominal case forms:
There are also parallel forms of "positive" possession, marked by the circumfix
e-...[-in(e)], but they are not represented in personal pronouns.
Since all types of possessive pronouns are marked by adjectival suffixes, they are
usually used adjectively, either as an attribute or as a predicative. When the dominant
noun is omitted, they are substantivized and are declined like nouns (see above).
When the dominant noun is a nominative case noun phrase, only the autonomous
representation of a possessive pronoun is used. It is usually marked only for number of
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the possessed (and sometimes for case and number, see below): -- singular, -t
plural. Number of the possessor is expressed by the pronominal stem. E.g.:
m-nin mier
I-POSS:3SG gun:NOM:SG
my gun
mn-ine-t mier-t
I-POSS-3PL gun:NOM:PL
my guns
rke-kin umq
they-REL:3SG polar.bear-NOM:SG
a polar bear, related to them
rke-kine-t umqe-t
they-REL-3PL polar.bear-NOM:PL
polar bears, related to them
When the dominant noun is an oblique case noun phrase, a possessive pronoun is
usually incorporated into a nominal stem without any category marking (see further).
When the dominant noun is omitted, the possessive pronoun is substantivized and
is then marked for case like an ordinary noun, e.g.:
When the dominant noun is marked for person and number (this happens when it
is used as a predicative and in some other positions), a possesive pronoun is also marked
for person and number and agrees with the dominant noun, e.g.:
m -nine-jm ekke-jm
I:NOM thou-POSS-1SG son-1SG
I am thy son
When the dominant noun is an oblique case noun phrase, a possessive pronoun is
usually incorporated into a nominal stem without any category marking:
m=mier-e
I:POSS=gun-ERG
by my gun
nk=tum-et
his:POSS=friend-DAT
to his friend
mork=orw-k
our-POSS=sledge-LOC
on our sledge
nka-kena=mear-et
thou-REL=gun-DAT
to the gun, related to you
torka-kena=orw-k
you-REL=sledge-LOC
on the sledge, related to you
a-m=mear-ma
ASC-I:POSS=gun-ASC
with my gun
a-nka-kena=mear-ma
ASC-thou-REL=gun-ASC
with the gun, related to you
The following demonstrative pronouns are used in Chukchi (the final vowel of the
demonstratives is lost in word-final position):
otqen(a)- this near to both the speaker and the hearer or at least
nearer to the speaker than to the hearer; visible to
both of them or at least to the speaker
nqen(a)- that not very near to the speaker, nearer to the hearer
than to the speaker; visible to both of them or at
least to the hearer
anqen(a)- that over there ar from both the speaker and the hearer; visible to
both of them
aanqen(a)- that over there very far, more far than oonqen(a)-
wajqen(a)- that over there far from both the speaker and the hearer; visible to
both of them; the nearest of the two objects
otqen(a)- that over there located at the side or behind the speaker, but before
the hearer
rajqen(a)- that over there located at the side or behind the hearer
The demonstrative pronoun anqen(a)- that (far from both the speaker and the
hearer) vary iconically according to the degree of long distance: the second degree after
anqen(a)- is expressed by prolonging the stem vowel /a/, which results in long /aa/
aanqen(a)-, the third degree by prolonging original the stem vowel and changing its
quality into a more closed segment /o:/, which gives oonqen(a)-, the forth degree by
prolonging the original stem vowel accompanied by changing a nasal consonantal
segment // into a noised one //, which gives aanqen(a)-.
88
otqen inqej
this:3SG boy:NOM:SG
this boy
otqena-t inqe-ti
this-3PL boy:NOM:PL
these boys
When the dominant noun is marked for person and number (this happens when
the dominant noun is used as a predicative and in some other situations), the
demonstrative pronoun is also marked for person and number:
When the dominant noun is omitted, the demonstrative is marked for case and
number (or for person and number) as an ordinary noun:
otqen-na ne ejmew-ke
this-DAT not come.up-NEG
Do not come up to this [one]
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otqen ewcqet
this:3SG woman:NOM:SG
this womaN
otqena-t ewcqet-ti
this-3PL woman-NOM:PL
these womeN
When the demonstrative is marked for person and number, the means of
expressing number are also the same as with adjectives. When the demonstrative pronoun
is marked for number and case, it has the same fused case-number items as nouns. Before
endings beginning with // the final /a/ is usually lost: Notqena-yna => otqen-na at
this (loc.).
The demonstrative is optionally marked for case when it is emphasized and the
dominant noun is a person and obligatory when the dominant noun is omitted.
Demonstrative pronouns are inflected by the same items as nouns, which belong to the
type 1 or 2 according to the noun they modify, cf.:
When the demonstrative is an attribute and the dominant noun is an oblique case
noun phrase, the demonstrative pronoun is usually incorporated into a nominal stem
without any category marking. The incorporated variant for otqen(a)- is utin-and for
nqen(a)- nin-, e.g.:
utin=inqej-k
this=boy-LOC
at this boy's
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nin=npnac-k
that=old.man-LOC:SG
at that old mans
When a case form has a prefix (such are the comitative and associative cases), the
incorporation is obligatory:
e-utin-inqej-e
COM-this=boy-COM
with this boy
But if the demonstrative is emphasized and the dominant noun phrase denotes a
person and has no prefixal marking, the demonstrative is not incorporated and appears as
a separate word. In such situations the demonstrative is marked only for number or for
case and number, e.g.:
otqen-na inqej-k
this-LOC:SG boy-LOC
at this boys
There are two principal interrogative pronouns in Chukchi: mein who? and
renut what?.
There are also some other question words, they are:
Singular Plural
mein mik-nti
who:NOM:SG(3SG) who-NOM:PL(3PL)
who (he, she) ? who (they) ?
91
mik-it mik-turi
who-2SG who-2PL
who (thou) ? who (you) ?
renut renute-t
what:NOM:SG(3SG) what-NOM:PL(3PL)
what (it) ? what (they) ?
The interrogative pronouns mein who? and renut what? display the same
person/non-person distinction as other nouns and some groups of pronouns. The pronoun
mein refers to persons, the pronoun renut to non-persons (both animate and
inanimate). Animals well-known to the speaker by their names and personified objects
are qualified as persons. This distinction is marked by the type of declension.
When the interrogative pronouns mein and renut are used as separate words,
they are inflected for case and number like nouns.
The interrogative pronouns are inflected for case by the items of the type 1 or 2
according to the person /non-person distinction. The pronoun renut is inflected by the
items of the type. It has the variant renute- in the nominative plural. That means that the
stem of the nominative should be treated as renut(e)-, with the vowel lost in word-final
position. In the oblique case forms the variant req- is used, that changes into re- in
syllable-final position (see 1.3.6). The pronoun mein is inflected by the items of the
type 2, it has the stem mik- (in some cases miky) in the oblique cases and in the plural
forms.
Here are the paradigms.
The interrogative pronoun mein who? and renut what? have two types of
possessive adjectival forms:
1. possessive forms proper mik-nin(e)- whose? (the possessor is in singular),
mik-rin(e)- whose ? (the possessor is in plural), req-in(e)- belonging to what? (the
possessor may be either in singular or in plural);
2. relative-possessive forms mike-kin(e)- related to whom?, rekin(e)-
related to what?.
Like other denominal adjectival forms, each of these forms can be used either as a
separate word or as an incorporated stem, the latter when the dominant noun is an oblique
case noun phrase (see below).
There are also two other forms, derived from the interrogatives: forms of
"positive" possession (= with whom? with what?) and of "negative" possession (=
without whom? without what?). These forms are exocentric by their meaning, because
they denote or modify the possessor and the referent of the pronoun is only the object of
the possession the possessed. The "positive" possession form is an adjectival form,
inflected by the circumfix e-...[-in(e)], with the suffixal part used only for the 3rd
person in combination with nominal number markers and the canonical person-number
markers used for the 1st and 2nd persons. E.g.:
e-mik-im
SUB-who-1SG
with whom am I?
ra=war-n
what=life-NOM:SG
what life?
req=orw-k
what=sledge-LOC
on what sledge?
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re=ni-k
what=belt-LOC
on what belt?
mik-nine=ni-k
who-POSS=belt-LOC
on whose belt?
re-kine=ni-k
what-REL=belt-LOC
on the belt related to what?
The word ter is incorporated when used as attribute of an oblique case noun
phrase.
In Chukchi there are two pronouns that are usually called "pronouns of
remembering", becase they are used when the speaker cannot remember the name of a
person or the word for an object. These pronouns may be qualified as specific indefinite
pronouns. They demonstrate the same person/non-person distinction as nouns: nirke-
(Nsg nirkut) that one (a person), nike- (Asg nikut) that one (an object), They
are declined like interrogative pronouns. E.g.:
There are no special reflexive pronouns as such. This function is performed by the
common noun uwik body, which is used pronominally for all persons and has the same
set of case-number forms as an ordinary noun, e.g.:
Chukchi also has some groups of words belonging to auxiliary parts of speech.
There are no prepositions in Chukchi, but there are several postpositions used to
specify the type of location. They are:
qaca near
cmce close to
ttjoca in front of
rmat behind
jaa further
roca over, above
ewyca under
ranaw opposite
All these postpositions are used in combination with a locative case noun phrase
(see 2.1.1).
There are also a lot of parttocles, some of them with vague meaning.
The only obvious clitic in Chukchi is the particle m in fact, really , which is
sometomes written together with the preceding word, e.g.:
renut-m
what:NOM:SG-PTL
Well, what ?
There are a lot of interjections in Chukchi. Some of them do not conform the
regular principles regarding the phonological structure of words in various aspects.
Interjections may contain long vowels that do not occur in ordinary words, e.g. iii
(expressing pain), oooj (expressing regret). The phonological structure of interjections
may be of the type CV or CVCV, which is rare with ordinary words, see a (expressing
pain), uuuu (expressing disgust). Besides, many original interjections are likely to have
no stress at all, since they are affective in their meaning (see also vocative forms 2.1.1).
Some interjections distinguish mens and womens language, e.g.: kako
(expressing astonishment with men) kke (expressing astonishment with women).
95
In order to derive a new word Chukchi uses mostly affixation, but sometimes
conversion too. Affixation is used for deriving words both within one category
(intracategorial derivation) and of another category (intercategorial derivation).
Nominal suffixes may express some types of location. These forms represent very
productive models and have no restrictions regarding the type of stems they are attached
to, so may be considered case-markers of the second range (see also [Muravyova
1994c]). The locative markers are (the nominative singular endings are given in
brackets):
Collective nouns are derived from ordinary nouns by means of various collective
suffixes (the nominative singular ending is given in brackets):
Some aspectual meanings are expressed by means of verbal affixes. Here we will
enumerate some of them (others are shown in the dictionary).
The ingressive aspect may be expressed by the ingressive suffix -o, e.g.:
The terminal aspect may be expressed by the aspectual suffix -ptku, e.g.:
m jawrena t-re-keitku-ptku-e
I:NOM next.year 1SG-POT-study-finish-PF:1SG
I shall finish to study next year
The iterative aspect can be expressed either by certain lexical items or by the a
series of suffixes: -et (foe details see [Nedjalkov, Muravyova, Rakhtilin 1997]), e.g.:
Intention may be expressed by the desiderative form marked with the circumfix
te-...- , e.g.:
When the same affix is added to an intransitive verb, the verb remains
intransitive:
There are several causative affixes that increase the valency of an intransitive
verb. All of them have a prefixal part with the alternating variants r-/-n-, of which r
occurs word-initially, and n word-medially. E.g.:
Nominalized verbs of the type "nomena actionis" are marked with the suffix -
r (with - in the nominative singular), e.g.: qiwriet-k hurry up qiwri-et-
r- hurry.
Nominalized verbs of the type "nomena agentis" are noun-participles, so they are
marked with the suffix -- (with - in the nominative singular), e.g. tew-k to run
away tew-- the one who is running away, a runner; cejw-k to walk by
foot cejw-- the one who is walking by foot, a walker.
Nominalized verbs with passive meaning are marked with -jo (with a zero ending
in the nominative singular), e.g.: kur-k to buy kot-jo what is bought, a purchase.
All these nouns have all nominal forms.
The noun-participle form marked with the suffix -q (with the ending -n in the
nominative singular) can express the debitive meaning, e.g.:
tipej--n the one who is singing tipejn--q the one who must sing
jet--n the one who is coming jet--q the one who must come
This form can be derived from both positive and negative noun-participles, e.g. e-
winret-k--q the one who must not help,
The debitive forms may be used predicatively:
t winret--q-it npnac-et
thou:NOM help-NP-DEB-2SG old.man-DAT
Thou must help the old maN
tundras animal, animal from the tundra, ee-kin ewir-n winter clothes, clothes
for winter.
Possessive and relative denominal adjectives may be used either as separate
words or incorporated. Denominal forms of negative possession are inflected by the
circumfix e-...-ke for type 1 and also for type 2 sungular (of the possessor), e-...-rke
for type 2 plural (of the possessor). E.g.: e-inqej-ke without a boy/boys, a-rrka-ka
without a walrus/walruses, a-jeo-ka without an uncle, a-jeo-rka without
uncles.
Besides, there are two more regular denominal forms that modify not the
possessed, but the possessor. One of them is an adjectival form with the meaning having,
possessed of , which is similar to the verbal perfect form and is inflected by the
circumfix e-...[-in(e)], with the second part used only for the 3rd person. The final
vowel of the suffixal part is lost in word-final position. E.g.: a-poj-en (he) having a
spear, -ekke-jm (me) having a son.
One more nominal form derived from nominal stems is the so-called "participle-
noun". This form may be derived not only from nouns, but from other parts of speech as
well. It is inflected like nouns, but, unlike nouns, it may be used as an oppositional noun
phrase with some other noun phrase. In this case it agrees with the dominant noun in case
and number or in person and number (cf. adjectives that usually do not agree with the
dominant noun in case and number ). The participle-noun form has two variants: positive
and negative. Participle-nouns of positive possession are inflected by the suffix --,
followed by the nominative case ending -n and other case-number or person-number
inflections. Participle-nouns of negative possession are inflected by the suffix e-...k--
[in(e)], with the last morph used only for the 3rd person and person-number items used
for the 1st and 2nd persons. The circumfix e-...-k may be treated as a medium-word
variant of a negative nominal marker e-...-ke (see below). The 3rd person inflection may
be followed by a zero nominative case marker and other case-number items. The final
vowel of the morph -in(e) is lost in word-final position. E.g.: mier--n the one
having a gun, ekke--n the one having a son, ekke--im (me) having a soN; e-
mier-k--in the one who has no gun, ekke-k--in the one who has no son,
ekke-k--im (me) having no son.
Negative possession may be also expressed by a denominal adverbial form
marked with e-..-ke, e.g. e-mier-ke without a gun, a-poj-ka without a spear,
This form should be treated as adverbial, because it does not agree with the noun and is
likely to modify a verbal form.
A special form derived from nominal stems is the so-called "participle-noun" (see
also 2.1.2). This form may be derived not only from nouns, but from other parts of speech
as well. It is inflected like nouns, but, unlike nouns, it may be used as an oppositional
noun phrase with some other noun phrase. In this case it agrees with the dominant noun
in case and number or in person and number (cf. adjectives that usually do not agree with
the dominant noun in case and number ). The participle-noun form has two variants:
positive and negative. Participle-nouns of positive possession are inflected by the suffix
100
-, followed by the nominative case ending -()n and other case-number or person-
number inflections. Participle-nouns of negative possession are inflected by the suffix e-
...k--[in(e)], with the last morph used only for the 3rd person and person-number
items used for the 1st and 2nd persons. The circumfix e-...-k may be treated as a
medium-word variant of a negative nominal marker e-...-ke (see below). The 3rd person
inflection may be followed by a zero nominative case marker and other case-number
items. The final vowel of the morph -in(e) is lost in word-final position. E.g.: mier-
-n the one having a gun, ekke--n the one having a son, ekke--im (me)
having a soN; e-mier-k--in the one who has no gun, ekke-k--in the one who
has no son, ekke-k--im (me) having no son.
Negative possession may be also expressed by a denominal adverbial form
marked with e-..-ke, e.g. e-mier-ke without a gun, a-poj-ka without a spear,
This form should be treated as adverbial, because it does not agree with the noun and is
likely to modify a verbal form.
The relativized form of a verb is marked with -kin (cf. the relative adjective
marker), e.g.:
q-qrir-n pac-en
OPT:2SG.S-look.for-PF:3SG.O old.man-POSS:3SG
paw-ken koj-n
drink-REL:3SG mug-NOM:SG
Look for the mug the old man uses for drinking
Verbs can be easily derived from nominal and quality adjectival stems, the most
common affixes are -at and -aw (see the Dictionary).
Extent is usually expressed by a denominal adverbial form marked with the suffix
-mi like, to a given extent:
CHAPTER 3. SYNTAX
In the present chapter we will consider some of the important topics of the
syntactic structure in Chukchi.
The main problems discussed in the sketch are: basic syntactic structures found in
simple sentences, including the nominative and the ergative strategies of marking verbal
arguments, sentences with a verbal predicate, sentences with a nominal predicate
(taxonomic, identification sentences and some other types), the verbal valency and
argument derivation (including causative and antipassive constructions), relative
constructions, word order in different syntactic groups, compound and complex
sentences. Special attention is paid to incorporation, which plays an important role in the
syntactic structure of Chukchi sentences.
A transitive verb has two core arguments: a subject argument (S-argument) and an
object argument (O-argument). An S-argument is inflected for the ergative and controls
the prefix agreement slot of polypersonal conjugation, while an O-argument is inflected
for nominative and controls the suffix agreement slot of polypersonal conjugation. In
monopersonal conjugation it is the O-argument of a transitive verb that controls the suffix
agreement slot.
t a-pela-jt
thou:NOM RES-leave-2SG.O
You were left
Since in nominal clauses this verb is not used as an auxiliary verb, there are
grounds to consider existential clauses as verbal ones.
Taxonomic clauses indicating the membership of a nominal argument in a class of
objects have two main patterns.
The first pattern, the most natural one, is a combination of two adjacent noun
phrases, one of them being the S-argument, the other the predicate, cf.:
The second pattern uses the verb it-, that in this context has the meaning serve
as. This verb is compatible with all categorial values in accordance with semantics of a
clause. In predicate position the noun is inflected for the designative, cf.:
wjo-o n-it-qin
servant-DESG NRES-be-NRES:3SG.S
He was a servant
Identification clauses have the same structure as the other nominal clauses do:
they consist of two adjacent noun phrases being in the relation of referential identity. The
auxiliary verb it- be, be found inflected for resultative is also possible here. Cf.
Labile verbs license one-place as well as two-place government pattern, the first
one realising an intransitive and the latter a transitive usage, without adding any
markers to the verb. Thus, such verbs allow two diatheses intransitive and transitive
ones.
The most typical example is the frequently used verb iw- say that has two
government patterns: with one S-argument and with two arguments: an S-argument and
an O-argument (the latter expresses the addressee), cf.
req-rk-n, kimew-rk-n.
what.do-IPF-3SG.O cause.delay-IPF-3SG.O
What are you doing, you are causing him to be late!
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Chukchi is a language with a typical morphological causative. That means that the
causativization itself is expressed by the affix. There are different causative affixes in
Chukchi, but all of them start with the prefix
All of them have a prefixal part with the alternating variants r-/-n-, of which r
occurs word-initially, and n word-medially. Both intransitive and transitive verbs can
be made causative ones. The causer, that is the S-argument, is marked for the ergative,
while the causee becomes the O-argument, it is marked for the nominative, cf.
kaa-t -ine-neikew-it.
kele-DAT RES-1SG.O-make.marry-RES:2SG.S
You made me marry a demon
Since the Chukchi verb always agrees with the object, a causative transitive verb
always agrees with the causee, so it can be omitted, cf.:
The omittance of the causee for a bitransitive verb is not registered, since the
causee is usually expressed here by a dative or locative case noun phrase:
Increasing the syntactic status of a noun phrase is possible in the context of multi-
place verbs due to the fact that the single argument of a one-place verb initially occupies
the highest position the position of a nominative case noun phrase. Increasing is marked
by the antipassive marker ine-, identical to the agreement marker 1SG.O. In most cases
it increases the status of an S-argument of a transitive verb, cf.:
t-n ine-rir-i
father-NOM:SG ANTI-look.for-PF:3SG.S
The father did some seaching
The past participle marked with the suffix -jo can also be used here, cf.
3.4. Reflexivization
In verbal clauses the word order is either SOV or SVO, but the first one is more
frequent, cf.
A subject noun phrase usually occupies the initial position, but it can also follow
an onject noun phrase, cf.
In noun phrases the modifier either precedes or follows the head of the noun
phrase, the first order is more frequent, cf.
imcecu-kin ne.qe-ti
ermine-REL:3SG skin.little-NOM:PL
little skins from ermines
mur-i cawcwa-more
we-NOM reindeer.breeder-1PL
We are reindeer breeders
2. The head personal pronoun of the oppositional construction must stand before
the oppositional modifier, e.g.:
ajwana.j-n a-ktmat-en,
aywan-NOM:SG RES-extend.hands-RES:3SG.S
enmen cawcwa-ta penr-ne-n.
then reindeer.breeder-ERG assault-3SG.S:3.O-3SG.O
The Aywan extended his hands, the the reindeer-breeder assaulted him.
3.7. Incorporation
3.7.1. Types of incorporation
According to the subordinate stem and its syntactic function, the following types
of verb incorporation occur with verbal complexes:
1) subject incorporation (incorporation of the 1st actant);
2) direct object incorporation (incorporation of the 2nd actant);
3) direct object incorporation (incorporation of the 2nd actant);
4) adverb incorporation;
5) verb incorporation;
All these cases demonstrate incorporation of the semantic type.
The subject incorporation is attested for only one-actant intransitive verbs, and
with a non-agentive noun subject. This type is usually observed in situations when the
noun denotes an entity belonging to nature and the verbal construction describes an event
typical for this entity. Besides, in case of incorporation the subject is not the theme of the
utterance, and the speaker wants to describe the situation as a whole. E.g.:
When the subject is expressed as a separate word, it is an nominative case noun
phrase and the verb agrees with the subject. In case of incorporation the verb looses its
only actant, the construction becomes impersonal and the verb agrees in person and
number with a zero subject as if it were a 3rd person singular actant. E.g.:
tirk-tir amecat-e
sun-NOM:SG rise-PF:3SG.S
The sun rose
terk=amecat-e
sun-rise-PF:3SG.S
It sun-rose
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ji-n inini-i
moon-NOM:SG appear-PF:3SG
The moon appeared
ji=inini-i
moon=appear-PF:3SG
It moon-appeared
we-ti inini-e-t
grass-NOM:PL appear-PF:3PL
The grass appeared
wej=inini-i
grass=appear-PF:3SG
It grass-appeared
The direct object incorporation is observed both for transitive and bitransitive
verbs.
When the direct object of a two-actant (=transitive) verb is used as a seperate
word, the verb agrees both with the subject (an instrumental case noun phrase) and the
direct object (an nominative case noun phrase) and the construction is personal and
ergative. But when the direct object is incorporated, the verb becomes one-actant
(=intransitive) and agrees only with the subject (an nominative case noun phrase), so the
construction becomes nominative. E.g.:
m t-qora-nret-ak
I:NOM 1SG-reindeer=guard-PF1SG
I reindeer-guarded (= I was engaged in guarding reindeers)
ataw wa m-mne-rk-n
let(int.) knife-NOM:SG OPT:1SG.S-sharpen-IPF-3SG.O
Let me sharpen the knife
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ataw m-waa-mna-rkn
let(int.) OPT:1SG.S-knife-sharpen-IPF
Let me do knife-sharpening
In case of a bitransitive verb (i.e. a verb having a direct and some other object)
only the direct object may be incorporated. In this case the syntactic structure of the
whole sentence may be changed (see further).
Incorporation also takes place when the direct object is a possessed of an indirect
object (or some other element), e.g.:
m t-jkr=w-ek
I:NOM 1SG.S-mouth-burn-PF:1SG.S
I mouth-burnt
qnwer m t t-re-wiu-cwitku-t
look(intj. I-NOM thou:NOM 1SG.S-POT-ear-cut-2SG.O
)
Look, I will cut you the ear/ears
m-nan t t-ra-awt-rkp-t
I-ERG thou:NOM 1SG.S-head=strike-PF:2SG.O
I'll head-strike you
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When the direct object is incorporated, some other noun phrase may be promoted
to its syntactic position (see further).
inqe-ti n-kanm=peca-qena-t
boy-NOM:PL NRES-palm-clap-NRES-3PL.S
The boys applauded
mur-i mt-qep-uwicwet-rkn
we-NOM 1PL.S-ball=play-IPF
We are ball-playing
inqej t=qt-e
boy:NOM:SG lake=go-PF:3SG.S
The boy lake-went
m aw-et t-ekwet-ek
I:NOM herd-DAT 1SG-go-PF:1SG
I went to the herd
m t-aw=akwat-ak
I:NOM 1SG-herd=go-PF:1SG
I herd-went (= I went to some herd)
t pi-e t-rkn
thou:NOM throat-ERG ache-IPF
You are not well with your throat
t pi=t-rkn
thou:NOM throat=ache-IPF-2SG
You are throat-aching
aa-t n-rie-ekwet-qine-t
bird-NOM:PL NRES-fly=go-NRES-3PL
Birds are fly-going away
mur-i n-nanq=t-more
we-NOM NRES-belly=ach-1PL
We belly-ache
t-n qora-we-e
father-NOM:SG reindeer=die-PF:3SG
Father reindeer-died
ej-k - t-i
hill-LOC snow-NOM:SG melt-PF:3SG
The snow melted on the hill
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e-n --i
hill-NOM:SG snow=melt-PF:3SG
The hill snow-melted
When the direct object of a bitransitive verb is expressed as a separate word, the
verb agrees both with the subject (an instrumental case noun phrase) and the direct object
(a nominative case noun phrase), so the construction is ergative.
When the direct object of a bitransitive verb is incorporated, the verb becomes
two-actant. In this situation there are two different ways of expressing the non-
incorporated syntactical object:
1) it may preserve its status of the indirect object (an oblique case noun phrase);
in this case the verb is two-actant, but intransitive, the subject is in the nominative case
and the verb agrees only with the nominative case noun phrase, so the construction is
nominative;
2) it may be promoted to the status of a "new" direct object (a nominative case
noun phrase); in this case the verb is two-actant and transitive, the subject is in the
instrumental case and the verb agrees both with the subject and the "new" object, so the
construction is ergative.
Both possibilities may be realized in Chukchi. E.g.:
Together with the head noun it may be used in different oblique cases (but not
prepositional cases comitative and associative, when the participle-noun is incorporated
into the head noun form), e.g.:
Other actants are usually incorporated into a participle-noun word form, e.g.:
When the dominant noun is a nominative case noun phrase and the adjective is
used autonomously, this means that the characteristic feature of the object is stressed and
the autonomy of the adjective expresses its thematic or rhematic prominence. In case of
the incorporated variant the adjective is merely a semantic extension of the notion
expressed by the noun. Thus, such examples demonstrate incorporation of the semantic
type. E.g.:
In all other cases, when the dominant element is an oblique case noun phrase,
incorporation may be judged syntactic, since it is determined mostly by the syntactic
position of an adjective.
Incorporation is obligatory for prefixal cases, that is for the comitative and
associative cases. This type of incorporation is undoubtedly syntactic. E.g.:
t-pkir-ek a-ta=tom-ma
1SG.S-arrive-PF:1SG.S ASC-good=friend-ASC
I came with [my] good friend
m n-wae-jm a-otqen-nena=cakett-a
I:NOM NRES-sew-1SG.S COM-this(person)-POSS=sister-COM
I sew together with this person's sister
If the dominant element is some other oblique case noun phrase, the qualitive and
relative adjectives are usually incorporated, e.g.:
emnu-kine=nmnm-k n-twa-qen
tundra-REL=settlement-LOC NRES-stay-NRES:3SG
He stays in the tundra's settlement
But when the feature expressed by the adjective is emphasized, the autonomous
variant should be used. This is more typical for the instrumental and locative cases and
mostly for relative adjectives. E.g.: