Captative verbs: view article

Eeyritsxa: I hunt [mammals] from oritsxua, “mammal”
Eeymali’a: I hunt [birds] from mali, “bird”
Eeywola: I fish [used for small fish] from awola “fish”
Eeymwola: I fish [used for sharks, whales, huge fish]
Eeyrehama: I harvest [veggies, berries, etcetera] from ureyama, “edible plant”
Eeykuaro: I gather [eggs, etcetera] from ékuaro, “something which can be picked up.”
Eeytsunya: I trap [jellyfish], derived from the word for cage

They follow the same pattern: [pronomial infix] + [a root that could stand alone derived from an animal name]

These verbs mark their ergative arguments differently than other verbs: instead of using the particle rewa, use azuka. Depending on the clan, azuka is sometimes shortened to zuka, zuk, or even uka. It’s one of the few dialectal differences in Nolwynn.

Two’a azuka ikwee iikuaro.
“The children gather eggs.”

When used with a pronoun infix, azuka becomes -ku- as in this example:

Tšeemali eeykumali’a.
“I hunt a seagull.”

These can sometimes be used in a metaphorical sense where they mean “to look for” or “to search” for something, particularly eeyritsxa.

Eeyreyama can mean “capture” in a metaphorical sense – such as someone’s attention, gaze, etcetera.

Among Nolwynn tribes at sea, meat is scarce. Typical food sources include seaweed and other veggies, algae, and sea salt. Turtle eggs are gathered when the village is close to the shore. Fishing and hunting [of birds, whales, sharks, turtles, and jellyfish] is carried out in a highly ritualistic way. Azuka is derived from an ancient Nolwynn word that means “prayer of success.”

[edit] [top]Other Articles

Here are some other articles that describe other details about Nolwynn's verbs:

participles

intransitive verbs

indirect objects

grammatical moods

captative verbs

ergativity

converbs

✎ Edit Article ✖ Delete Article

Comments