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6.Possessive Pronoun Prefixes

Only one set of prefixes may be combined with the noun. These are the possessive pronoun prefixes.

           

Person	Singular	Dual	Distributive
1	shi-	nahi-	daanahi-
2	ni-	nah-	daanah-
3	bi-	bi-	daabi-
3a	go-	go-	daago-
Indef	'i-	'i-	daa'i-

It is clear that these forms differ in only two respects from the independent personal pronouns [see part 2, above]: the possessive prefixes are all bound forms whereas the independent pronouns are free morphemes, and the possessive prefixes have neutral tone whereas the independent pronouns have inherent tone. In addition, one of the persons recognized in the possessive series, the indefinite third person, does not occur independently. This prefix is used either of an unknown third person possessor or where it is not necessary to emphasize the possessor.

The variation between nahi- and nah- in the first and second persons dual and distributive cannot be explained. As indicated, the dual third person is generally expressed by the third person singular prefix bi-. In some cases, however, a separate dual prefix is found, gobi-.

Parts of the Verb

The verb may be divided into two parts: the theme, which is composed either of a classifier plus stem or of a thematic prefix plus classifier plus stem; and the prefix complex.

The thematic prefixes do not vary in form but remain the same in all the forms of the verb. Stems, however, are inflected for mode and aspect.