Kusaal Grammar Agolle Dialect David Eddyshaw 2020 i Contents Preface...................................................................................................................... iv Abbreviations............................................................................................................. v Sources...................................................................................................................... vi Bibliography............................................................................................................. vii 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..............................................................................28 3.4 Tone patterns....................................................................................................32 3.4.1 Nouns and adjectives.................................................................................33 3.4.2 Verbs.......................................................................................................... 36 3.4.3 Derivation..................................................................................................37 4 External sandhi........................................................................................................ 38 4.1 Segmental contact............................................................................................38 4.2 Word-initial toneme changes............................................................................39 4.3 Prosodic clitics..................................................................................................43 4.4 Liaison............................................................................................................... 45 5 Flexion..................................................................................................................... 51 5.1 Nouns................................................................................................................ 51 5.1.1 Paradigms..................................................................................................54 5.2 Adjectives.......................................................................................................... 63 5.3 Verbs................................................................................................................. 66 ii 6 Stem conversion....................................................................................................... 70 6.1 Verb to nominal.................................................................................................70 6.1.1 Gerunds......................................................................................................70 6.1.2 Others........................................................................................................72 6.2 Nominal to nominal...........................................................................................72 6.3 Nominal to verb................................................................................................74 7 Derivation by suffixes...............................................................................................75 7.1 Verbs................................................................................................................. 75 7.2 Nominals...........................................................................................................78 7.2.1 Agent nouns...............................................................................................78 7.2.2 Verbal adjectives........................................................................................81 7.2.3 Instrument nouns.......................................................................................82 7.2.4 Gerunds......................................................................................................83 7.2.5 Others........................................................................................................84 8 Prefixes.................................................................................................................... 86 9 Loanwords................................................................................................................ 88 10 Noun phrases.........................................................................................................89 10.1 Structure and categories................................................................................89 10.2 Pronouns.........................................................................................................94 10.2.1 Personal...................................................................................................94 10.2.2 Demonstrative..........................................................................................95 10.2.3 Indefinite..................................................................................................96 10.2.4 Interrogative............................................................................................97 10.2.5 Personifier................................................................................................98 10.2.6 Others......................................................................................................99 10.3 Proper names................................................................................................101 10.4 Kinship terms................................................................................................105 10.5 Quantifiers....................................................................................................106 10.5.1 Numbers................................................................................................107 10.6 Predependents..............................................................................................109 10.6.1 Unbound noun phrases..........................................................................110 10.6.1.1 Before postpositions.......................................................................113 10.6.2 Combining forms....................................................................................115 10.7 Postdependents.............................................................................................117 10.7.1 Adjectives...............................................................................................118 10.7.2 Lā and ṉwà.............................................................................................121 iii 11 Verb phrases........................................................................................................ 123 11.1 Aspect...........................................................................................................124 11.2 Tense............................................................................................................. 129 11.2.1 Discontinuous past.................................................................................129 11.2.2 Periphrastic futures...............................................................................130 11.2.3 Implicit tense and narrative...................................................................130 11.2.4 Tense-slot adjuncts.................................................................................134 11.3 Mood and negation.......................................................................................136 11.4 Independency................................................................................................141 11.5 Subverbs....................................................................................................... 144 11.6 Complements and adjuncts...........................................................................145 11.6.1 Objects...................................................................................................146