Akachenti Verbs

Verbs, Round 2

The Verbal Template

Slots

1 (req.)	2 (opt.)	3 (opt.)	4 (usu req.)	5 (opt.)	6 (req.)	7 (opt.)	8 (opt.)	9 (usu req.)
question particle topic	light verb auxiliary verb modal/numeral prefix	negation of verb	recipient/patient/agent (if separate from topic)	incorporated noun/adj./verb	verb stem	recipient/patient/agent (in trivalent expressions)	verb suffix	recipient/patient/agent (if separate from topic)

Verbs, Round 1

Verbal Agreement Case Marking

Akachenti's pronominal case agreement system is similar to that of natlang Kotiria, where argument/slot order initially determined case and marked case eventually permitted free order constrained by topicalization.

Unmarked Order

Synchronically, unmarked order is:

topic/patientive + VERB ROOT + agentive

In cases where topic is not conflated with one of the first two core arguments—nominative or accusative—the default order shifts to:

topic + patientive + VERB ROOT + agentive

indicating a diachronic conditioned merger of the topic and patientive slots. Significantly, this order is only valid for intransitive and transitive verbs. Verbs with more than two referents marked on the verb utilize various hierarchical combinations of person and case marking across all available slots to indicate multiple objects.

Even in cases where only two core arguments are marked on the verb, unmarked order is not always possible.

Accusative-Possessive

The modern accusative-possessive is marked by a glottalic accent vowel in the case of simple markers. This is a reduced form of the original accusative-possessive affix.

Patientive-Oblique

The modern patientive-oblique is marked by a raised mid-tone vowel. This may be an actual alternation fallback or a reduced form of an original dative affix. In its marking of relative clauses, there is evidence it may have also reduced from a genitive affix.

The Copula

Thus far, we posit Pre-Modern Akachenti copular forms of se:, "to be", and the nominalized sen, "what (one) is". The fact that the copula almost always takes alternate vowel forms rather than glottalic tone indicates an underlying long vowel affecting neighboring syllables despite being mutable, pronounced with a mid-tone and short.

Diachronic Reconstruction

lexeme	gloss	part of speech
se:	to be	verb
se:n	what (one) is	nominalized verb

Synchronic Examples

lexeme	sample	definition	translation	alignment
se:	hese:	how are (you)?	how be?	denuded
se:	ise: ganche	it is beautiful	it's beautiful	i-agentive
se	ise ganchá	it, I am (experiencing), (it) does beauty (to) me.PAT	it's beautiful to me	e-patientive, á-patientive
se	isikachan evagonchan	it is, Kachan, my home voice	Kachan is the language I speak at home	e-patientive
se	igonar isiganchanta	it, my home, it is beautiful	my home is beautiful	i-agentive
se	sa gudá	I am an experiencer of home-want	I'm a shut-in OR I don't get out much	á-patientive
se	usa iba:sh	(with) you, I am that, a lover	with you, I am a lover	i-patientive
se	huede esef (huede esev)	and that is (going to be)?	and that is too?	e-patientive
sen	isen ís	it.AGT, what (it) is, (it) is that.PAT	it is what it is	í-patientive
sen	hesen	what is (it)?	what is it?	denuded