I didn't really want to work on that morphology paper anyways!
Anyways, nouns may be
animate or
inanimate in Sayə́m, and this only partially reflects reality: while it's true that
ṭoḍ 'stone' is inanimate and
khew 'woman' is animate, you also have pairs like animate
súthu 'deciduous tree' and inanimate
úṣo 'conifer'.
Animates in Sayə́m are allowed to take more inflection than inanimates: they may be marked for
obviation and
number:
Singular proximate animates aren't marked: yámak 'dolphin', weḍó 'wizard'.
Plural proximate animates are marked with an -(a)d: yámak-ad 'dolphins', weḍó-d 'wizards.'
Singular obviative animates are marked with a suffix -(y)am: yámak-am 'dolphin.OBV', wedó-yam 'wizard.OBV'
Plural obviative animates are marked with a suffix -(ə)dam: yámak-ədam 'dolphins.OBV', wedó-dam 'wizards.OBV'
The main new changes are in the verb.
Sayə́m verbs pay attention to a
topicality hierarchy:
2 > 1 > 3AN.PROX > 3AN.OBV > IN
That is, second person is ranked higher than first person, which is ranked higher than proximate animates, which are ranked higher than obviative animates, which are ranked higher than inanimates.
Transitive verbs pay attention to the topicality hierarchy in two ways:
Transitive verbs mark for the number of the core argument that is higher on the topicality hierarchy, whether that's a subject or object, if it's animate. Intransitive verbs just mark for the number of the main argument. (Subjects of transitive sentences must be animates.)
Transitive verbs also choose their voice according to the topicality hierarchy. If the subject is higher on the hierarchy than the object, the verb is in direct voice. If the object is higher than the subject, the verb is in direct voice.
We'll use, again,
yamá 'to appear, see' as our example verb.
In the intransitive 'to appear', we have inflection for the gender and number of the subject:
Inanimate | Animate Singular | Animate Plural |
---|
-Ø | -i/-y | -(a)t |
yamá | yamáy | yamát |
In the transitive, things get a bit more complicated. Since transitive verbs inflect for the number of the highest argument on the topicality hierarchy, and inanimates can't be agents, transitive verbs do not have inanimate forms. They do, however, distinguish direct from inverse forms.
Singular, Direct | Plural, Direct | Singular, Inverse | Plural, Inverse |
---|
-(ə)n | -(ə)k | -(ṣ)in | -(ṣ)ik |
yamán | yamák | yamáṣin | yamáṣik |
Sayə́m has, again, a distinction between nouns and verbs, but not verbs and adjectives, which are stative verbs. There is no copula. For example:
ṣakflower
'flower'
chəw-Øbe.white-IN
'IN is white'
chə́w-i ṣakbe.white-ANsg flower
'The flower is white'.
míṣəgdandelion
'dandelion'
ṣak míṣəgflower dandelion
'the flower is a dandelion'
(Normally verbs and their main arguments are free order-wise, but when you're equating two nouns you generally put them in the above order.)
ṣák-ad chə́w-atflower-pl be.white-ANpl
'The flowers are white.'
ṣák-ad míṣəgflower-pl dandelion
'The flowers are dandelions.'
mísəg ṣákdandelion flower
'The dandelion(s) are flower(s).' (Here, because 'dandelion' has no number marking, 'flower' can't either- predicates can't specify number more precisely than their subjects do.)