Re: Negation?

On Thu, 8 Jul 1999, Carlos Thompson wrote:

> Probably this is not quite what you were asking but Colombian Signed
> Language has two different words (signs) for "can" and "cannot".  This
> feature among many other positive-negative modal pairs are being borrowed
> into Chleweyish.
Tokana has the same thing: "Can" is expressed by the suffix "-ampa",
while "cannot" is expressed by the suffix "-amot":

        Ami kespyinte   "I am carrying them"
        Ami kespampate  "I can carry them"
        Ami kespamohte  "I cannot carry them"

There are also suppletive forms meaning "to not know" and "to not be
important" - "fala" and "oita", respectively:

        Inai Tsione iona mioh mai       "John knows who I am"
        Inai Tsione fala mioh mai       "John doesn't know who I am"

        Tai aulina      "That's important"
        Tai oita        "That's not important"

Matt.