Habyela: Difference between revisions

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 These are conflated, so will be discussed together.
-Habyela verbs do not inflect for tense at all, but [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telicity Telicity] is very important. Marking of telicity is conflated with subject person / number agreement. Telic verbs take suffixes, and atelic vebs take either prefixes or circumfixes (depending on the person). There is also an irrealis mood that is used for suggestions, commands and hypothetical situations. In the irrealis mood, telicity is not marked, and some forms are identical to the atelic forms.
+Habyela verbs do not inflect for tense at all, but [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telicity Telicity] is very important. Marking of telicity is conflated with subject person / number agreement. Telic verbs take suffixes, and atelic vebs take either prefixes or circumfixes (depending on the person). There is also an irrealis mood that is used for suggestions, commands, hypothetical situations, and whenever a verb is negated. In the irrealis mood, telicity is not marked, and some forms are identical to the atelic forms.
 {| class="wikitable"
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 | 3rd person plural / nonhuman || ... -wɨ || ɫə̀- ... -wɨ || ɫə̀- ... -wɨ
 |}
 ===Switch Reference===
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 dog-ERG man.PL RESTR.REL.NONHUM-bite-3PS.NONHUM.TEL=SR.SUBJ
-"The dog that bit the man"
+"The dog that bit the men"
 The verbal prefix /wə-/ marks a restrictive relative clause, where the head noun is either human plural or nonhuman. The enclitic /ɟʷə/ indicates that the head noun is the subject of the verb.
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 "The water that I fell in".
+To say "on ...", Habyela speakers would say "...'s back" e.g.
+/saʔə̀ pʲatɕaɴʈa paʔà-qʷɨ/
+grass back.3PS.NONHUM.POSS fall-1PS.SG.TEL
+I fell on the grass
+===Comparative Constructions===
+/pʲatɕə/ - "back" can also take a possessive suffix to mean "more than ..." e.g.
+/qənə̀bəɴ-qa ʔàɟʷɨnəɴ pʲatɕaɴʈa ɫə̀-nama-wɨ/
+dog.PL-ERG men.PL back.3PS.PL.POSS ATEL-sleep-3PS.NONHUMAN
+Dogs sleep more than men do.
+==Demonstratives==
+Habyela's demonstrative system is very much like English. There is a two-way distance contrast, and no contrast between pronominal and adnominal demonstratives.
+{| class="wikitable"
+|-
+!  !! Singular !! Plural
+|-
+| Near || jɨsə || jɨnə
+|-
+| Far || wɨsə || wɨnə
+|}
+==Syntax==
+Habyela sentences are strictly verb final. SOV is much more common than OSV. Noun phrases have the word order [Demonstrative] [Number] [Adjective] Noun.
+===Adverbs===
+Adverbs are formed by reduplicating the last syllable of a bare root e.g.
+dəməqə̀ - loud
+dəməqə̀qə - loudly
+In a sentence, adverbs come immediately before the verb e.g.
+qənə̀bə dəməqə̀~qə ɫə̀-pənʷa-wɨ
+dog loud~ADV 3PS.NONHUMAN.ATEL-bark
+The dog barked loudly.
+==Copula==
+To combine two nouns A and B to make a sentence meaning "A is B", Habyela would say /A B-ça/ (if the subject is singular) and /A B-çaɴ/ (if the subject is plural). No matter whether or not A is singular or plural, the singular form of B is always used. For example:
+jɨsə banàw-ça
+this beach-COP.SG
+This is the/a beach
+jɨnə banàw-çaɴ
+these beach-COP.PL
+These are (the) beaches.
+Note that -ça(ɴ) is the suffix for a predicate adjective e.g.
+/ʔàtə qanʷə̀-ça/
+night black-COP
+The night is black.
+-ça(ɴ) can also attach to a relational noun, to express location. Like English, Habyela conflates nominal and locational predication e.g.
+/qənə̀bə paɲɨ pʲəʈaɴʈa-ça/
+dog water belly.3PS.NONHUM.POSS-COP.SG
+The dog is in the water.
+==Predicative Possession==
+Habyela has no verb corresponding to English "have". Where English speakers would say "A has B", Habyela speakers simply say "B is on A" (even if B is not technically "on" the object, Habyela speakers still use this construction) e.g.
+/qənə̀bə ʔàɟʷɨnəɴ pʲatɕaɴʈa-ça/
+dog man.PL back.3PS.PL.POSS-COP.SG
+The men have a dog (literally "a dog is on the men")
+[[Category:Languages]]
+[[Category:Afroasiatic languages]]
+[[Category:Habyela]]