Kusaal Grammar Agolle Dialect David Eddyshaw 2020 i Contents Preface...................................................................................................................... iv Abbreviations............................................................................................................. v Transcriptions........................................................................................................... vi Sources..................................................................................................................... vii References.............................................................................................................. viii 1 Introduction............................................................................................................... 1 1.1 The Kusaasi people.............................................................................................1 1.2 The Kusaal language...........................................................................................3 1.2.1 Related languages........................................................................................4 1.2.2 Grammatical sketch.....................................................................................7 2 Sound system...........................................................................................................14 2.1 Consonants........................................................................................................14 2.2 Vowels............................................................................................................... 15 2.3 Syllables and tonemes......................................................................................17 2.4 Standard orthography.......................................................................................20 3 Word structure......................................................................................................... 21 3.1 Word boundaries...............................................................................................21 3.2 Apocope............................................................................................................ 23 3.3 Segmental structure.........................................................................................28 3.3.1 Root allomorphy.........................................................................................29 3.3.2 Morphophonemic rules..............................................................................31 3.4 Tone Patterns....................................................................................................35 3.4.1 Nouns and adjectives.................................................................................36 3.4.2 Verbs.......................................................................................................... 39 3.4.3 Derivation..................................................................................................41 4 External sandhi........................................................................................................ 42 4.1 Prosodic clitics..................................................................................................42 4.2 Liaison............................................................................................................... 44 4.3 M spreading...................................................................................................... 51 4.4 M dropping.......................................................................................................52 4.5 Segmental contact............................................................................................54 5 Noun flexion............................................................................................................. 56 5.1 Noun classes.....................................................................................................56 5.2 Stem levelling...................................................................................................58 5.3 Paradigms......................................................................................................... 59 6 Adjective flexion....................................................................................................... 69 7 Verb flexion.............................................................................................................. 72 ii 8 Stem conversion....................................................................................................... 77 8.1 Stative verbs and nominals...............................................................................77 8.2 Nominals from verbs.........................................................................................78 8.2.1 Gerunds......................................................................................................78 8.2.2 Concrete nouns..........................................................................................80 8.3 Nominals from nominals...................................................................................80 9 Derivation by suffixes...............................................................................................82 9.1 Verbs from verbs...............................................................................................82 9.2 Verbs from nominals.........................................................................................85 9.3 Nominals from verbs.........................................................................................86 9.3.1 Agent nouns...............................................................................................86 9.3.2 Adjectives...................................................................................................89 9.3.3 Instrument nouns.......................................................................................90 9.3.4 Gerunds......................................................................................................91 9.3.5 Other derivatives.......................................................................................93 9.4 Nominals from nominals...................................................................................93 10 Noun prefixes......................................................................................................... 95 11 Loanwords.............................................................................................................. 97 12 Noun phrases.........................................................................................................99 12.1 Number......................................................................................................... 102 12.2 Gender..........................................................................................................103 12.3 Pronouns.......................................................................................................105 12.3.1 Personal.................................................................................................105 12.3.2 Demonstrative........................................................................................106 12.3.3 Indefinite................................................................................................107 12.3.4 Interrogative..........................................................................................108 12.3.5 Personifier..............................................................................................109 12.3.6 Other pronouns......................................................................................110 12.4 Proper names................................................................................................112 12.5 Kinship terms................................................................................................116 12.6 Quantifiers....................................................................................................117 12.6.1 Numbers................................................................................................118 12.7 Predependents..............................................................................................120 12.7.1 Unbound noun phrases..........................................................................121 12.7.1.1 With postpositions...........................................................................124 12.7.2 Combining forms....................................................................................126 12.8 Postdependents.............................................................................................128 12.8.1 Adjectives...............................................................................................129 12.8.2 Lā and ṉwà.............................................................................................132 13 Prepositions......................................................................................................... 134 iii 14 Verb phrases........................................................................................................ 136 14.1 Aspect...........................................................................................................137 14.2 Tense............................................................................................................. 142 14.2.1 Discontinuous past.................................................................................143