Re: Ong Rokbeigalmki (A Rokbeigalmki Chant)

On Thu, 30 Sep 1999, Thomas R. Wier wrote:

> From the human brain? I doubt it.  There are plenty of languages
> that make negation an integral part of the verb morphology.  The
> language I'm studying right now, Atkan Aleut, has a whole series
> of paradigms for negation on the verb itself.  I believe Japanese
> has similar inflections.
>
Indeed, Nepali has a completely separate negative verbal paradigm:

 to be (location)

person    postive               negative
1s        ma chu                ma chaina
2sLGH     ta chas               ta chainas
2sHGH     pai hunuhuncha        tapai hunuhunna
3sLGH     yo cha                yo chaina
3sMGH     uni chan              uni chainan
1p        hami(haru) chau~      chainau~
2pLGH     timi(haru) chau       chainau
3pLGH     yiniharu chan         chainan
3pHGH     yahaharu hunuhuncha   hunuhunna

The Nepalese verbal system is quite complex, and what's mostly
used are participles, not finite verb forms. The simple indefinite
tense suffixes are derived from the verb 'to be', and every verb
is this inflected with either affirmative or negative suffixes.

_ma garchu_ 'I do' vs. _ma gardina~_  'I do not'.

And there are alternative negative suffixes for another class of
verb:

_ma ja:nchu_ 'I know' vs. _ma ja:nna_, 'I don't know'.

(There's no really good Nepali grammar available - the best one can do
is Matthews' A Course in Nepali, published by the School of Oriental
and African Studies, from which I've taken this paradigm.)

Of course, in Denden, negation is expressed by a prefix to the finite
verb: _sero tajonire_ 'I didn't know', so that's an integral part of
verbal morphology, too.

Boudewijn Rempt  | http://denden.conlang.org/~bsarempt