Blackfoot VI
Nov. 21st, 2005 09:54 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stoutfellowOn reflection, I think that this will be my last post on Blackfoot. I'm leaving out a fair bit that would be important to anything like a full understanding of the language, but most of it strikes me as not all that interesting. This last bit, though, does strike me as worthy of note.
I mentioned before that Blackfoot nouns may be readily converted into verbs, in several different ways. The reverse process - the conversion of verbs into nouns - is even more extensive, and results in constructions quite different from those of English.
There are a number of distinguishable types of nominalization in Blackfoot.
First, there is simple reclassification: an intransitive verb stem can be treated as a noun, referring to the subject of the verb. For example, the verb "áyo'kaa" ("sleep") gives rise to "áyo'kaiksi" ("ones who are sleeping"). The "á-" indicates the durative; hence the sleep is considered as ongoing. If, instead, the future tense marker "áak-" is used, we get "ones who will sleep"; similar constructions, with other affixes, yield words translatable as "ones who are trying to sleep", or (with other verbs) "reader" or "non-dancer".
Second, there are abstract nominalizations. An intransitive verb stem can take the suffix "-n/-hsiN"[1]. The resulting noun may mean the state or process of the verb - "okstaki" means "read", while "okstakssiN" means "reading" - or the result of the verb - the verb meaning "make images/draw/write" becomes a noun meaning "pictures" or "writings".
Next, there are instrumental nominalizations. For a limited number of intransitive verbs, the suffix "-a'tsiS" (see note [1]) indicates the object with which one performs the action; such nouns as "drum" (from "to drum"), "scissors" (from "to cut in strips"), and "playing cards" (from "to gamble") are derived in this way.
There is a broad class of "conjunctive nominals", related to a verb construction which I haven't described; these allow the formation of nouns of location ("to eat" > "restaurant", or with a different affix "table"; but also, from the transitive verb "to see", together with appropriate subject and object markers, "the place where I saw you"); temporal nominals ("to sleep" > "when he sleeps", or "to gather wood" > "November" - the time when one gathers firewood for the winter); instrumental nominals (a more common alternative to the form mentioned above, especially used to coin words for new technology: "to eat" > "fork", "to speak" > "telephone", "to buy" > "money", "to look a long distance" > "telescope"); nouns of manner ("the way I swim"); and a variety of others, involving e.g. the secondary objects of ditransitive verbs ("what I fed him").
Finally, there are constructions which turn a transitive verb into its subject (one suffix) or its object (another suffix): "the one who drew this", or "the ones we saw".
It's worth noting that this nominalizations are used, among other things, where English would normally use a relative clause ("who/what/where/when/that..."). Here are two examples of complete sentences, with glosses and English translations:
"Oma nínaawa áyo'kaawa nóoma."
That-3sg man-3sg durative-sleep-3sg 1sg-husband-3sg.
"That man who is sleeping is my husband."
("That sleeping man is my husband" might be a more felicitous translation, but I'm quoting from Frantz.)
"Nítssksinoayi anniksi ikkááyiiksi sahkómaapiiksi."
1sg-know-direct-3pl that-3pl run.fast-3pl boy-3pl
"I know those boys who are fast runners."
(Or perhaps "I know those fast-running boys"?)
[1] The "N" indicates that the suffix is "-hsin" if what comes next begins with a vowel; otherwise, it is "-hsi".
So that's it. Hope you - or some of you! - have enjoyed it.
I mentioned before that Blackfoot nouns may be readily converted into verbs, in several different ways. The reverse process - the conversion of verbs into nouns - is even more extensive, and results in constructions quite different from those of English.
There are a number of distinguishable types of nominalization in Blackfoot.
First, there is simple reclassification: an intransitive verb stem can be treated as a noun, referring to the subject of the verb. For example, the verb "áyo'kaa" ("sleep") gives rise to "áyo'kaiksi" ("ones who are sleeping"). The "á-" indicates the durative; hence the sleep is considered as ongoing. If, instead, the future tense marker "áak-" is used, we get "ones who will sleep"; similar constructions, with other affixes, yield words translatable as "ones who are trying to sleep", or (with other verbs) "reader" or "non-dancer".
Second, there are abstract nominalizations. An intransitive verb stem can take the suffix "-n/-hsiN"[1]. The resulting noun may mean the state or process of the verb - "okstaki" means "read", while "okstakssiN" means "reading" - or the result of the verb - the verb meaning "make images/draw/write" becomes a noun meaning "pictures" or "writings".
Next, there are instrumental nominalizations. For a limited number of intransitive verbs, the suffix "-a'tsiS" (see note [1]) indicates the object with which one performs the action; such nouns as "drum" (from "to drum"), "scissors" (from "to cut in strips"), and "playing cards" (from "to gamble") are derived in this way.
There is a broad class of "conjunctive nominals", related to a verb construction which I haven't described; these allow the formation of nouns of location ("to eat" > "restaurant", or with a different affix "table"; but also, from the transitive verb "to see", together with appropriate subject and object markers, "the place where I saw you"); temporal nominals ("to sleep" > "when he sleeps", or "to gather wood" > "November" - the time when one gathers firewood for the winter); instrumental nominals (a more common alternative to the form mentioned above, especially used to coin words for new technology: "to eat" > "fork", "to speak" > "telephone", "to buy" > "money", "to look a long distance" > "telescope"); nouns of manner ("the way I swim"); and a variety of others, involving e.g. the secondary objects of ditransitive verbs ("what I fed him").
Finally, there are constructions which turn a transitive verb into its subject (one suffix) or its object (another suffix): "the one who drew this", or "the ones we saw".
It's worth noting that this nominalizations are used, among other things, where English would normally use a relative clause ("who/what/where/when/that..."). Here are two examples of complete sentences, with glosses and English translations:
"Oma nínaawa áyo'kaawa nóoma."
That-3sg man-3sg durative-sleep-3sg 1sg-husband-3sg.
"That man who is sleeping is my husband."
("That sleeping man is my husband" might be a more felicitous translation, but I'm quoting from Frantz.)
"Nítssksinoayi anniksi ikkááyiiksi sahkómaapiiksi."
1sg-know-direct-3pl that-3pl run.fast-3pl boy-3pl
"I know those boys who are fast runners."
(Or perhaps "I know those fast-running boys"?)
[1] The "N" indicates that the suffix is "-hsin" if what comes next begins with a vowel; otherwise, it is "-hsi".
So that's it. Hope you - or some of you! - have enjoyed it.
