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Roots and words in Leki
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This public article was written by [Deactivated User], and last updated on 24 Jan 2017, 19:51.

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Menu 1. Roots 2. Words
Roots may have the following structures: V, CV, VC, CVC, VCV, CVCV, where V denotes a vowel (a, e, i, o, u) and C a consonant (b, c, d, f, g, h, j, k, l, m, n, p, r, s, t, w, x, y, z); e.g. i "river", ha "not", us (aorist stem) "think", gul "ten", abo "hot", ceka "feather".

Final w and y are written, respectively, u and i after a, e or o, e.g. dou < *dow (or *dowo, *dowu, see below) "forest", pei < *pey (or *peye, *peyi, see below) "yellow".

W and y are dropped after u and i, e.g. sia < *siya "ash", rue < *ruwe "fog".

Several clusters involving w and y are simplified: *aye, *ayi > ai; *awo, *awu > au; *eya > ea; *eye, *eyi > ei; *eyo, *eyu > eu; *iyi > i; *owa > oa; *owe, *owi > oi; *owo, *owu > ou; *uwu > u.

In a number of roots containing two identical vowels, the first vowel is subject to syncope, e.g. the plural of mapa "wing" is impa < *i-mapa.

A few roots have an unstable a, e.g. mat < m-at "you (sg.) are", but tor < *at-or "we are".


There are two main categories of words: nouns and verbs.

Nouns, adjectives and pronouns have no gender. They are inflected for number (singular/plural) and case (absolutive/agentive/dative/adverbial). There are two morphological classes of nouns, adjectives and pronouns: the GA-agentive class and the U-agentive class. All nouns, adjectives and pronouns ending in -Cu, -au or -ou (e.g. roku "flower") belong to the GA-agentive class. All those ending in -ai or -ei (e.g. pei "yellow") belong to the U-agentive class. The morphological class of the other nouns, adjectives and pronouns is not predictable, e.g. tol "lake" and hal "bottle":
GA-AGNU-AGN
SGABS tolhal
AGN tolgahalu
DAT tolehald
ADV tolmhalis
PLABS itolihal
AGN itolgaihalu
DAT itoleihald
ADV itolmihalis


Verbs are inflected for aspect (aorist/perfect/imperfect) but not for tense, voice nor, except for the imperative, mood. There are two morphological classes of verbs: the KO-perfect and reduplicated imperfect class, and the L-perfect and H-imperfect class. All V verbs (e.g. e [aorist stem] "throw") and all verbs ending in -ei or -ou (e.g. sou [aorist stem] "push") belong to the L-perfect class. The morphological class of the other verbs is not predictable, e.g. juha (aorist stem) "cut" and pika (aorist stem) "burn":
KO-PERFL-PERF
AOR stem juhapika
PERF stem juhakopilka
IPF stem juhuhapikah


Verbs vary according to person (1SG/2SG/3SG/1PL/2PL/3PL) and agree with all their arguments, e.g. wipokor "I give them to you", from the stem pok "give"

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