Verb Inflections in Nayi
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Date
2007-09
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Addis Ababa Universiy
Abstract
This study attempts to answer the necessity of language (in this case 'endangered')
documentation. The research focLises on the description of the grammar of Nayi, which is
one of the least known and endangered languages of Eth iopia. According to Bender (1976),
Nayi is an Omotic language whi ch is gro uped Linder the Northern branch of the Dizoid subgro
up. It is also one of the tonal languages in the group. It has three (high, mid and low)
phonemic tone levels.
This study is purely a desc riptive work on the spec ific parts of the grammar of Nayi,
particularly its verb inflection s. Therefore, most of the infl ections wh ich are born by the
verbs of the language are observed . This includes that argument agreements (li ke; person,
number, gender, and honorifi c), grammatical tense, aspect, and mood of the language. In
add iti on, th is research contains some notes on the voice and val ency change of Nayi.
Bes ide to identifying their morph ological reali zations of the inflections of the verbs of the
language, th eir nature and syntactic role in some secti ons of the study are also di scussed.
This is ma in ly because; inflectional morphology of a language has a lot to do with the
whole constru ct ion of a phrase and/or a sentence.
Regarding argument agreement, it depends on the moods of the language. Except in the
indicative mood, in other moods of Nayi, argument agreement is ex pressed through the
pronominal forl11s of the respec ti ve personal pronouns . However, in the indi cative mood of
the language, only gender is marked morphologically in the verbs of the construction s.
There are some exceptions. Gender is marked morphologically only in some tense and
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aspect fo rmations of the language. Moreover, in Nayi , tense, aspect and mood are marked
1ll0qJhoiogica ily in its verbs. There are, however, some ex ceptio nal cases. In relation to
this, the ind icat ive mood of the language is not tota lly marked. Moreover, in some aspects,
beside to morphologica l e lements, Nayi uses its copula verbs. By the same token, Nayi
appli es morpho logical element to change acti ve sentences into pass ive counterp arts.
Valency change is also expressed in the verbs of the la nguage morpho logically. To do th is,
Nayi uses some mechani sms for va lency dec rease and increase.
Description
Keywords
The grammar of Nayi, particularly its verb inflections.