Re: Weekly Vocab 7 in Kash (part)

Herman Miller wrote:
> Head-first compounds are hard to get used to if your native language is
> English. One thing that I've never really been satisfied with in Lindiga
is
> the combination of head-first compounds with suffixes for declension. So
> you have to put the suffixes in the middle of the compound, and it doesn't
> really act like a contiguous word. And it doesn't seem right to put the
> case suffixes at the end. Example:
>
> Lindiga _lambi-nzélat_ "sky blue", locative case: _lambé-nzélat_ (_nzélat_
> is the genitive case of _nzéla_ "sky").
>
> If I wanted to put the case suffixes at the end, it would be something
like
> _lambinzélati_, _lambinzélaté_ (or _lambinzéli_, _lambinzélé_). This makes
> it look like "sky" is the head of the compound, since it has the suffix,
> plus nouns don't take the same case endings as adjectives.
>
Hmm, now that you mention this, it turns out that Kash has at least 2 types
of compounds-- (1) noun-noun in which the two words are written separately,
and case-marking would go on the first e.g. ace laca (leg table) 'table-leg'
(as in, Home Depot is having a sale on table-legs), pl. aceç laca
(structurally I think these are viewed as N-Adj.)

(2) noun-noun but usually bound together with phonological changes and
always written as one word, so case markings go on the end--

puna-nuwar (house-stay overnight) > punduwar 'hotel, inn' , pl. punduwaraç
(inanim.)
but also acepamba (ace 'leg' pamba 'thousand') 'k.o. millipede', pl.
acepambala (animate)

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