Tayap language: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 23:37, 20 February 2021

Revision as of 20:15, 27 March 2021

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==Grammar==

Like many Sepik languages, Tayap is a [[synthetic language]]. Verbs are the most elaborated area of the grammar. They are complex, [[fusional verb|fusional]] and massively [[suppletive]], with opaque verbal morphology including unpredictable [[conjugation classesclass]]es, both in terms of membership and formal marking.

There is a fundamental distinction in verbal morphology between [[realis]] and [[irrealis]] stems and suffixes. Grammatical relations are marked by verbal suffixes, which distinguish Subject/Agent (S/A) and Object (O). In some conjugations S/A is marked by discontinuous morphemes. Free pronouns and noun phrases mark the [[ergative]] case (A) compared to unmarked forms for the [[absolutive]] (S/O). As in many Papuan languages which have an ergative case, the ergative marker is optional and is frequently omitted.

===Nouns===

Nouns generally do not mark number themselves, although there is a small class of largely human nouns which mark plural, and a smaller class which mark [[dual (grammatical number)|dual]]. These categories, where marked, are largely marked by partial or full suppletion. [[Oblique casescase]]s, largely local, are marked by clitics[[clitic]]s attached to the end of the oblique NP[[noun phrase]].<ref name="Kulick-Terrill"/>

===Gender===

Like many languages of the [[Sepik]]-[[Ramu]] basin (particularly the [[Sepik languages]]), Taiap has masculine and feminine genders.

There are two genders, masculine and feminine, marked not on the noun itself but on deictics[[deictic]]s, the ergative marker, suppletive verbal stems and verbal affixes. The unmarked, generic form of all nouns, including animate nouns, even humans, is feminine: however, a male referent may be masculine. Another criterion is size and shape: long, thin and large referents tend to be masculine; short, stocky and small referents tend to be feminine. This type of gender-assignment system is typical of the Sepik region. Gender is only ever marked in the singular, never in the dual or plural.

==Lexicon==