| Description |
Six recordings relating to the grammar of the Wancho language of Kamhua Noknu; -06 Discussion of adjectives, the kə- form and the root form; "kə- cannot be used in the sentence, sometimes it may be, but not always'; -07 The words for dirty, that demonstrates some stem alternation. kəmã³ kətã³ ‘dirty’ is a noun form, literally ‘dirty’ things; kəmã² is ‘dirty’. Two sentence examples were given. mã² pʰəi¹ pən¹dek Lit: 'stale / dirty fruit' (with the past marker), and kəmã³ kətã³ tʰə-saʔ ''Avoid this dirty things / bad foods (i.e. drugs, cigarettes &c)'. This also demonstrates the prohibitive tʰə- 'don't' as in tʰə-pau¹ (don't go); -08 About the word 'happy' , discussing the forms moŋ¹məi¹ ‘happy’ and moŋ¹məi³ ‘happy’. Examples included nəŋ² moŋ¹məi¹ ʤa¹ 'are you happy' and moŋ¹məi³ gəŋ¹dən¹ 'Happy New Year' (Literally 'happy new sky'); -09 About the words for 'ripe'. Some possible examples of vestiges of verb stem alternation. In Wancho, the word for ‘ripe’ is given both as kəʤum² (with the mid tone, numbered 2) and kəʤum³ (with the high tone numbered 3). In sentences, the kə- prefix is usually dropped. Banwang Losu explained the difference between these two forms as follows, (kə)ʤum³ would be used if you have an unripe fruit and you want to say ‘let it ripen’ and you are speaking to a person who has possession of the fruit (i.e. still on the tree, or already picked in his hand). In this circumstance once would say ʤum³ ən³ ‘let the fruit be ripened. The 2nd tone form would be used in the form ʤum² ən³ , but if this was used it would mean that you were speaking to the fruit; -12 About the kə- prefix (also written ku-) which is used with adjectives. The 'citation' form of the adjective was made with kə- but when it is used in a sentence kə- is removed. Discussion of kõ³, əkõ³ and kəkõ³ 'empty'. When referring to the bag 'it is empty' əkõ³ will be used; -15 Discussion of initial w- and v-. After the discussion, Banwang felt that v- was more appropriate to write the words as he speaks them in Kamhua Noknu; -16 |
