Kusaal Grammar Agolle Dialect David Eddyshaw 2020 i Contents Preface...................................................................................................................... iv Abbreviations............................................................................................................. v Sources...................................................................................................................... vi References.............................................................................................................. viii 1 Introduction............................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Kusaal and the Kusaasi.......................................................................................1 1.2 Related languages...............................................................................................4 1.3 Grammatical sketch............................................................................................6 2 Sound system...........................................................................................................12 2.1 Consonants........................................................................................................12 2.2 Vowels............................................................................................................... 13 2.3 Syllables and tonemes......................................................................................15 2.4 Standard orthography.......................................................................................18 3 Word structure......................................................................................................... 19 3.1 Word boundaries...............................................................................................19 3.2 Apocope............................................................................................................ 21 3.3 Segmental structure.........................................................................................26 3.3.1 Root allomorphy.........................................................................................27 3.3.2 Morphophonemic rules..............................................................................29 3.4 Tone Patterns....................................................................................................33 3.4.1 Nouns and adjectives.................................................................................34 3.4.2 Verbs.......................................................................................................... 37 3.4.3 Derivation..................................................................................................39 4 External sandhi........................................................................................................ 40 4.1 Prosodic clitics..................................................................................................40 4.2 Liaison............................................................................................................... 42 4.3 M spreading...................................................................................................... 49 4.4 M dropping.......................................................................................................50 4.5 Segmental contact............................................................................................52 5 Noun flexion............................................................................................................. 54 5.1 Noun classes.....................................................................................................54 5.2 Stem levelling...................................................................................................56 5.3 Paradigms......................................................................................................... 57 6 Adjective flexion....................................................................................................... 66 7 Verb flexion.............................................................................................................. 69 ii 8 Stem conversion....................................................................................................... 74 8.1 Verbs from nominals.........................................................................................74 8.2 Nominals from verbs.........................................................................................75 8.2.1 Gerunds......................................................................................................75 8.2.2 Concrete nouns..........................................................................................77 8.3 Nominals from nominals...................................................................................77 9 Derivation by suffixes...............................................................................................79 9.1 Verbs from verbs...............................................................................................79 9.2 Verbs from nominals.........................................................................................82 9.3 Nominals from verbs.........................................................................................83 9.3.1 Agent nouns...............................................................................................83 9.3.2 Adjectives...................................................................................................85 9.3.3 Instrument nouns.......................................................................................87 9.3.4 Gerunds......................................................................................................88 9.3.5 Other derivatives.......................................................................................89 9.4 Nominals from nominals...................................................................................89 10 Noun prefixes......................................................................................................... 91 11 Loanwords.............................................................................................................. 93 12 Noun phrases.........................................................................................................95 12.1 Number........................................................................................................... 98 12.2 Gender............................................................................................................ 99 12.3 Pronouns.......................................................................................................100 12.3.1 Personal.................................................................................................100 12.3.2 Demonstrative........................................................................................102 12.3.3 Indefinite................................................................................................103 12.3.4 Interrogative..........................................................................................104 12.3.5 Personifier..............................................................................................105 12.3.6 Other pronouns......................................................................................106 12.4 Proper names................................................................................................108 12.5 Kinship terms................................................................................................112 12.6 Quantifiers....................................................................................................113 12.6.1 Numbers................................................................................................114 12.7 Predependents..............................................................................................116 12.7.1 Unbound noun phrases..........................................................................117 12.7.1.1 With postpositions...........................................................................120 12.7.2 Combining forms....................................................................................122 12.8 Postdependents.............................................................................................124 12.8.1 Adjectives...............................................................................................125 12.8.2 Lā and ṉwà.............................................................................................128 13 Prepositions......................................................................................................... 130 iii 14 Verb phrases........................................................................................................ 132 14.1 Aspect...........................................................................................................133 14.2 Tense............................................................................................................. 138 14.2.1 Discontinuous past.................................................................................139 14.2.2 Periphrastic futures...............................................................................139 14.2.3 Implicit tense and narrative...................................................................140