Ďomün verbs: Subject/Object Agreement and Transitivity: view article

All verbs mark subjects and objects explicitly via a system of prefixes. These prefixes differentiate person, number, and subclass gender in the 3rd person only. Naturally, they are affected by vowel harmony, adopting the class of the base verb morpheme. The following is a table of all suffixes:

	Subject		Object
	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
1P	to-/ta-	otto-/atta-	v-	iv-/ïv-
2P	po-/pa-	oppo-/appa-	n-	in-/ïn-
3P masc	gi-/gï-	igi-/ïgï-	l-	il-/ïl-
3P fem	so-/sa-	osso-/assa-	q-	iq-/ïq-
3P tan	mü-/mu-	bol-/bal-	ś-	iś-/ïś-
3P intan	vo-/va-	ke-/kë-	y-	üy-/uy-

Object prefixes occur closer to the stem than do subject prefixes, e.g.:

vï- eat
Taïśvï. (ta-ïś-vï)
I eat them.

Epenthesis and sound changes occur for singular object prefixes in places where they would violate phonological constraints:

l- changes to o-/a-:

r- see
Gïar. (gï-l-r)
He sees him.

When the addition of an object suffix causes a disallowed sequence of consonants, an epenthetic vowel e/ë will be added in one of two places:

If the cluster is at the end of a word, the epenthetic vowel occurs at the end of the word:

ta-r → tar "I see"
ta-n-r → tanrë "I see you"

If the cluster is at the beginning of a stem, the epenthetic vowel occurs between the suffix and the root:

to-rge → torge "I walk"
to-ś-rge → tośerge "I walk (along) it"

Recall that dz is not considered a cluster, and does not trigger the insertion of an epenthetic vowel:

to-ś-dzi → tośdzi "I make it"

Certain sequences of prefixes involve juxtaposing two like vowels. In Kilit and Wai dialects, these are realized as long vowels. In the Inzo dialects all long vowels merge with short vowels, resulting in a failure to distinguish between singular and plural objects in some cases. This affects transitivity, which will be described in detail below.

Transitivity
In Wai and Kilit dialects, transitivity is explicitly indicated via the inclusion or exclusion of object prefixes:
1. tar (ta-r)"I see"
2. taśrë (ta-ś-r) "I see it"

Example 1 is identifiably intransitive based on the lack of object prefix, while example 2 is identifiably transitive based on its inclusion.

However, in the Inzo dialect, the merger of short and long vowels resulted in the loss of distinctiveness of some pairs. cf.:

ta-r → tar /tɑr/ "I see"
ta-l-r → taar /tɑr/ "I see him"

gïǧël /gɨɢæl/ "He knows"
gïyǧël /gɨɢæl/ "He knows it"

Because of this, Inzo Ďomün evolved a system of suffixes applied to ditransitive verbs that differentiate them into transitive and intransitive pairs, something which does not occur in other dialects. These stems are used not only in places where ambiguity occurs; rather, transitive/intransitive pairs unilaterally replace the bitransitive verbs of other dialects.

As a general rule, verbs that are more commonly used transitively will take a suffix on the less common intransitive form, while ones that are more often used intransitively will get a suffix on the transitive stem.

Examples with the transitive-prominent verb r "see":

		Kilit/Wai	Inzo
1a	"I see him"	taar	tar
1b	"I see"	tar	tarnak
2a	"He sees him"	gïar	gïar
2b	"He sees"	gïr	gïrnak
3a	"You see me"	pavar	pavar
3b	"You see"	par	parnak

The purpose of the suffix -nak is clear when comparing 1a and 1b in Inzo Ďomün, as it is t he only means of differentiating the two forms. However, it is also required in 2 and 3, i.e. whenever r is used intransitively, even though it its presence is redundant. In essence, r "see" (vt) and rnak "see" (vi) are two completely different words. Wai and Kilit Ďomün do not use -nak at all, and its meaning would not be understood by speakers of those dialects.

Examples with the intransitive-prominent mret "stand":

		Kilit/Wai	Inzo
4a	"I stand"	tomret	tomret
4b	"I stand him (up)"	toomret	tomretwe
5a	"He stands"	gimret	gimret
5b	"He stands him (up)"	giomret	giomretwe

Whereas in the case of the verb r, the base form became the Inzo transitive verb, and the intransitive verb was derived from it, the base form of mret is intransitive in Inzo, and the transitive form is derived from it. This is due to the frequency with which the two are used; the less common form being the one that takes the derivational suffix. Thus, there are two distinct forms in Inzo: mret "to stand" (vi), and mretwe "to stand" (vt).

Verbs that are only transitive or intransitive do not take any sort of ending, such as omi "touch" (vt) and men "live; be alive" (vi):

		Kilit/Wai	Inzo
6a	"I touch him"	talomi	talomi
6b	"He touches you"	ginomi	ginomi
7a	"I live"	tamen	tamen
7b	"He lives"	gimen	gimen

There is also a limited set of archaic transitive pairs, like English raise/rise and lay/lie that also don't take suffixes. Here are examples of nun "change" (vi), nunat "change" (vt), zer "break" (vt), zeres "break" (vi). These are used in all dialects:

		Kilit/Wai	Inzo
8a	"I change"	tanun	tanun
8b	"I change him"	talnunat	talnunat
9a	"He changes"	gïnun	gïnun
9b	"He changes him"	gïlnunat	gïlnunat
10a	"it breaks"	müzeres	müzeres
10b	"it breaks it"	müśzer	müśzer

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