Cärähə morphology
- Main article: Cärähə
This page gives an extensive description of Cärähə morphological features.
Nouns
Nouns in Cärähə language end predominantly in a vowel. A certain amount of nouns, however, ends in a consonant; in this case a euphonic vowel, mostly -ə-, is added at the end of noun before the normal declension endings.
Nouns display neither gender nor class distinction. There are, however, two morphological numbers for almost all nouns, singular and plural. Whether a noun is deemed as definite or indefinite, a form of article is generally used and placed before it, with a few exceptions.
There is no case system.
Articles
There are two articles, the indefinite article, xah, and the definite article, äs. The definite article agrees with the noun in number, while the indefinite article displays only the singular form.
| xah | - | |
| äs | äsən |
Both articles are always placed before the noun.
The definite article, both in its singular and plural forms, can merge with some prepositions to form the so-called articled prepositions. Such forms will be analyzed in a following section.
Plural
Nouns are declined in number by adding the following ending to the base form of the noun:
| - | -nə |
Some examples are shown below: bäb́ə, father, and sohə, house.
| bäb́ə | bäb́ənə | sohə | sohənə |
Nouns ending in a consonantin their base form, mostly loanwords, usually add a euphonic vowel before the endings of the other cases. This vowel is generally -ə-, but other vowels are also possible, like -ü-.
Some irregular nouns, conversely, change their last vowel in the root before adding the plural ending. The commonest change is ə → u. A lot of these nouns display both irregular and regular forms, especially in earlier texts. In modern texts the amount of irregular forms is extremely limited, with a strong tendency towards regularization by analogy.
sing. bäb́ənə → plur. bäb́unə.
Adjectives and pronouns
Adjectives closely resemble the noun form, usually showing the same exceptions of nouns. Pronouns, instead, may exhibit different forms in the root form.
Adjectives
Attributive adjectives are always placed after the nouns they specify, with a few exceptions, while predicative adjectives are always placed after the verb.
äs wīrə çoba the young man
äs wīrə cän çoba the man is young
All adjectives agree in number with the noun they specify, being declined with the nominal ending.
Declension of qualifying adjectives
Adjectival declension follow the same rules as the nominal declension, with the same exceptions.
Example: xürü, big, with sohə, house
| sohə xürü | sohənə xürünə |
Numerals
The numeral system relies on a decimal base.
Cardinal numerals
The first ten cardinal numbers are noun-like forms on their own:
| xahə | |
| hähü | |
| mügo | |
| gori | |
| sehi | |
| türä | |
| xäsä | |
| cuhi | |
| ɕoçə | |
| pehə |
Numerals from 11 to 19 are built with the construction NUM + nä + pehə, with some irregularities:
| xanäpehə | |
| hähünäpehə | |
| mügonäpehə | |
| gorinäpehə | |
| sehinäpehə | |
| türänäpehə | |
| xäsänäpehə | |
| cuhinäpehə | |
| ɕoçunäpehə |
The numerals for (one) hundred and (one) thousand are noun-like forms on their own:
| naćə | |
| wüha |
The numerals for the multiples of tens, hundreds and thousands are built with the construction NUM + ped́unə / naćunə / wühad́unə, with some irregularities:
| hähüped́unə | hähünaćunə | hähüwühad́unə | |
| mügoped́unə | mügonaćunə | mügowühad́unə | |
| goriped́unə | gorinaćunə | goriwühad́unə | |
| sehiped́unə | sehinaćunə | sehiwühad́unə | |
| türäped́unə | türänaćunə | türäwühad́unə | |
| xäsäped́unə | xäsänaćunə | xäsäwühad́unə | |
| cuhiped́unə | cuhinaćunə | cuhiwühad́unə | |
| ɕoçuped́unə | ɕoçunaćunə | ɕoçuwühad́unə |
The numerals for “million” and “billion” are nominal forms on their own (both are adapted loanwords from Iðâɣ language):
| sürentə (from I. šúrěntu) | |
| mesürentə (from I. mêšúrěntu) |
These forms are treated as regularly declinable nouns:
| mügo sürentənə | |
| türä mesürentənə |
Nouns adjoining such numerals are introduced by the preposition cär, or, in some dialectal variants, directly without any preposition:
hähü sürentənə cär pühänə two millions people
mügo mesürentənə pühänə three billions people (dialectal variant)
Composite numbers are built by just putting them beside, without any conjunction, in descending order:
- 1985: wüha ɕoçənaćunə cuhiped́unə sehi
When cardinal numbers have an adjective-like function, or when they are used as as simple count forms, they are meant as indeclinable forms (except for "million" and "billion").
äs sohə cäsən mügo maɟudünə çərä my three friends' house
xahə, hähü, mügo, gori, ... one, two, three, four, ...
Every numeral, however, can also have a pronominal function. In this case, it is possible to use them without an adjoining noun, by using the article, usually the definite one.
äs sohə cäsən mügo the house of those three (people)
äsən wüha the one thousand
There is, moreover, an additional pronoun-like irregular numeral, hähühü, meaning "both". It is meant as an indeclinable form, and it is never used with any article. The verb agrees with this form in the plural number.
äs sohə cär hähühü the house of both (of them)
hähühü süxähun they both walked out
In the earlier modern period mathematicians conceive and introduce the idea of “zero”, and its digit form. The noun for this new numeral, xesüɕä, is created from the Biwdiw word xēsjušɛ, nothing. This name is then quickly shortened to its first two syllables. This numeral is however usually limited to mathematics:
| xesü |
Cardinal numerals
Ordinal numerals are formed by adding the ordinal ending -ro to the cardinal numeral form, with some irregularities:
| xahuro | |
| hähüro | |
| mügoro | |
| goriro | |
| sehiro | |
| türäro | |
| xäsäro | |
| cuhiro | |
| ɕoçuro | |
| pehuro | |
| xanäpehuro | |
| hähünäpehuro | |
| hähüped́unuro | |
| türäped́unuro |
Ordinal numerals for “millionth” and “billionth” are slightly irregularly formed from their corresponding cardinal forms, while their multiples are formed by unifying the separated forms in an only adjectival word:
| sürenturo | |
| mesürenturo | |
| mügomesürenturo |
If the numeral form is composite, the ending is added only to the last numeral form:
- 25th: hähüped́unə sehiro
Verbs
The verbal system of Cärähə language displays the following features:
- tense:
- simple tenses: present, past
- compound tenses: present continuous, past continuous, perfect, pluperfect, future, anterior future, future in the past
- mood:
- definite moods: indicative, subjunctive, optative, potential
- indefinite moods: infinitive, active participle, passive participle
- diathesis: active, passive
Each verb has two roots, the present root (Rpres) and the past root (Rpast). The base form is the present root, while the past root is usually derived fromt he present one. . The perfective root is usually derived from the imperfective one through an introflexive process of vowel switching:
CV1CV2C → CV2CV1C
Example:
Rimp = moɕäd- → Rprf = mäɕod-
This process may give rise to irregular root forms.
Rpres = ǵärug- → Rpast = guŕäg-
In disyllabic verbal root, all vowels are involved in the switching process.
However, multisyllabic verbal roots can be formed through morphological derivation by adding prefixes or suffixes or both of them. These morphological affixes are usually not involved in the switching process. The vowel involved are those belonging to the original disyllabic root:
Rpres = secerun- → Rpast = securen-
Rpres = sühisuh- → Rpast = sihüsuh-
Rpres = x́äsähirih- → Rpast = x́äsihärih-
Some verbs, many of them neologisms or loanwords, derive their past root from the present one by adding the suffix -ig, without any vowel switching:
CV1CV2C → CV1CV2Cig
- Example:
Rpres = çurühuh- → Rpast = çurühuhig-
The verb cänühä, to be, display a totally irregular past root:
Rpres = cän- → Rpast = häcän-
Likewise, other monosyllabic verbs are treated as irregular verbs.
The citation form of verbs is the present infinitive, marked by the ending -ühä. From such form the present verbal root can be inferred and can be changed in every other verbal form.
All verbs are divided in two classes, depending on the outcome of the third singular person. In the first class (class I), the ending -äh is used, with some possible irregularities, while in the second class (class II), a null ending is used, with a more regular outcome. Verbs with a past root built with the suffix -ig- belong always to the class II, creating thus a subgroup, known as class IIg.
In simple tenses the following personal endings are added to the verbal root. In this way, verbs show their agreement with the clause subject in person and number:
| 1st sing. | ||
| 2nd sing. | ||
| 3rd sing. | ||
| 1st plur. | ||
| 2nd plur. | ||
| 3rd plur. |
The different moods are formed by adding the following infixes to the verbal root, before the personal endings:
- indicative: Ø
- subjunctive: -ün-
- optative: -us-
- potential: -äɕ-
The non-finite verbal forms are meant as nominal/adjectival forms of the same verbs. They do not add the personal endings, but they are declined as nouns or adjectives with the nominal declension endings. As verbal forms can, however, be formed on both roots.
The non-finite endings are:
- infinitive: -ühä
- active participle: -īdə
- passive participle: -́uhi
The passive particle ending may cause irregularities to arise in the roots.
