Kipin/Morphology/Copulas

Kipin Copulas

There are three copulas in Kipin, which attach to nouns or adjectives as clitics. These are the gnomic copula, the temporal copula and the inchoative copula.

Gnomic copula

The gnomic copula attaches to either nouns or adjectives and expresses permanent states.

la

/la/

A, weak

le, lo

/le/, /lo/

gnomic copula

*la

Nouns marked with the gnomic copula are in the unmarked case. They may be marked for possession or deixis, or for number. Nouns and adjectives marked with this copula take the place of a verb, but do not take any verbal marking.

Temporal copula

The temporal copula attaches to nouns only and expresses a temporary state. The noun thus marked is then treated like an intransitive verb and takes appropriate marking.

sil

/sil/

I, strong

sel, swil

/sel/, /swil/

temporal copula

*sil

koarsel

koar	=sel
kufor	=sil
man	=COP

He is a man

pyersilbir

pyer	=sil-	bir
kufor	=sil-	gnur
man	=COP-	REC.PST

He was a man.

Inchoative Copula

The inchoative copula attaches to either nouns or adjectives and indicates becoming.

inti

/inti/

I, strong

ente, fintwi

/ente/, /ɸintwi/

inchoative copula

*hinti

cepyesinti

ce-	pyes	=inti
ce-	kufor	=inti
FUT	man	INCH

He will become a man.