Akachenti Verbs
Contents
Verbs, Round 2
Verb Classes
Potential verb classes:
- Transitive, e.g. "I eat food"
- Intransitive, e.g. "I eat"
- Causative, e.g. "I want (to eat)"
- Indirect, e.g. "I (have) want"
- Ditransitive, e.g. "I give them that"
- Stative/Adjectival, e.g. "She is beautiful"
The Verbal Template
| 1 (req.) |
2 (opt.) |
3 (opt.) |
4 (usu req.) |
5 (opt.) |
6 (req.) |
7 (opt.) |
8 (opt.) |
9 (usu req.) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|
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) |
Slot 1. Question/Topic
Slot 2. Verbal Prefix
Slot 3. Verbal Negation
Slot 4. Pronominal Prefix
Slot 5. Incorporated Stem
Slot 6. Verb Stem
Slot 7. Pronominal Infix
Slot 8. Verbal Suffix
Slot 9. Pronominal Suffix
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.
