Beside the particles with their several grammatical functions, the stems of the language divide in two major grammatical classes: intransitive and transitive.
I have begun adding to the Cv-Ok Roots & Stems the label of the grammatical class of each transitive stem (stems ending in +nt, +st, +ɬt, +xit, +tuɬt); middle stem; nominalized transitive stem (stems with a transitivizer and a word-final +m) and nominalized middle stem (stems with double intransitive person marking, and obligatory final +m).
The following chart exemplifies this part of the system.
grammatical class | label | form | analyzed form | translation |
---|---|---|---|---|
Transitive | Tstem | captíkʷɬtsən | captíkʷ+ɬt-s-n | I’ll tell you the story of ... |
Nominalized transitive | nTstem | ixíʔ kʷ ikscaptíkʷɬtəm | ixíʔ kʷ i-ks-captíkʷ+ɬt+m | This is the story I’m going to tell you. |
Middle | Mstem | uɬ p captíkʷləm | uɬ p captíkʷl+m | And you told Indian legends. |
Nominalized middle | nMstem | ixíʔ ikscaptíkʷləm | ixíʔ i-ks-captíkʷl+m | This is what I am going to tell you. |
A few words to further explain the chart:
This is how Cv-Ok turns transitive into intransitive forms and intransitive into transitive forms, thus marking the two principal grammatical classes of the language in a sort of syntactic dance.
Inflectional proclitic particles (represented with a following tie-under ( ‿ ), are part of the paradigms (or sets) that mark person inflection. These paradigms include not only particles, but also prefixes and suffixes. These classes are:
Intransitive | Transitive | |||
---|---|---|---|---|
Intransitive | Double intransitive | subject | object | |
object 1 | object 2 | |||
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Some explanations about the chart, with examples:
Intransitive stems. Intransitive stems add person marking with the kn‿ set of forms given above, in the first colums.
From an English point of view, these forms are inflected predicate verbals, predicate nominals, and predicate adjectivals. Okanagan tells us that these are intransitive forms.
Double intransitives. What I now call double intransitives, are similar to the intransitives, but with two person markings, as exemplified here.
Transitive subject. +nt stems. Transitive forms by definition include a subject and an object person marker. I start with a chart of a weak stem (stress falls on the suffix) because each form of the paradigm shows a root, a transitivizer (here +nt) and the suffix that marks person subject. +nt is the most common transitivizer found in the language.
+nt stem | weak +nt stem (suffix-stressed) | root | transitivizer | object marker | subject marker | full form | translation |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
cxʷ | +nt | Ø | -in | cxʷntin | I held/petted it. |
cxʷ | +nt | Ø | -ixʷ | cxʷntixʷ | You held/petted it. |
cxʷ | +nt | Ø | -is | cxʷntis | (S)he held/petted it. |
cxʷ | +nt | Ø | -im | cxʷntim | We held/petted it. |
cxʷ | +nt | Ø | -ip | cxʷntip | You all held/petted it. |
cxʷ | +nt | Ø | -is-lx | cxʷntislx | They held/petted it. |
Here is a chart of the forms based on the strong stem ciqnt "dig something" (with third person object). Again, the third person object marker is unmarked (Ø). These forms are stem-stressed, and the suffixes are vowelless. In addition, strong transitive stems do not display the transitivizer in the first and third person singular and in the third person plural.
+nt stem | strong +nt stem (stem-stressed) | root | transitivizer | object marker | subject marker | full form | translation |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
ciq | Ø | Ø | -n | ciqn | I dug it. |
ciq | +nt | Ø | -xʷ | ciqntxʷ | You dug it. |
ciq | Ø | Ø | -s | ciqs | (S)he dug it. |
ciq | +nt | Ø | -m | ciqntm | We dug it. |
ciq | +nt | Ø | -p | ciqntp | You all dug it. |
ciq | Ø | Ø | -s-lx | ciqslx | They dug it. |
Transitive subject. +st stems. The +st transitivizer occurs with some roots that do not take the+nt transitivizer (e.g. pul+st-xʷ "you beat him up." It also forms causative stems (e.g. xʷuy+st+n "I took it (there)." and, together with the prefix c-, customary stems (e.g. c-wik+st-xʷ "you used to see it (customarily)" -- vs wikntxʷ "you saw it." Here I chart the forms of the weak stem wy̓+st "to finish something."
+st stem | weak +st stem (suffix-stressed) | root | transitivizer | object marker | subject marker | full form | translation |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
wy̓ | +st | Ø | -in | wy̓stin | I finished it. |
wy̓ | +st | Ø | -ixʷ | wy̓stixʷ | You finished it. |
wy̓ | +st | Ø | -is | wy̓stis | (S)he finished it. |
wy̓ | +st | Ø | -im | wy̓stim | We finished it. |
wy̓ | +st | Ø | -ip | wy̓stip | You all finished it. |
wy̓ | +st | Ø | -is-lx | wy̓stislx | They finished it. |
The root √wy̓ happens to be a root that participates in the formation of both weak and strong stems, each with subtle semantic differences. More on this topic later. Here is the chart of stem-stressed forms:
+st stem | strong +st stem (stem-stressed) | root | transitivizer | object marker | subject marker | full form | translation |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
wiy̓ | +st | Ø | -n | wiy̓stn | I quit it. |
wiy̓ | +st | Ø | -xʷ | wiy̓stxʷ | You quit it. |
wiy̓ | +st | Ø | -s | wiy̓sts | (S)he quit it. |
wiy̓ | +st | Ø | -m | wiy̓stm | We quit it. |
wiy̓ | +st | Ø | -p | wiy̓stp | You all quit it. |
wiy̓ | +st | Ø | -s-lx | wiy̓stslx | They quit it. |
The variants of the transitive subject pronouns correlate with the valence of the transitive stems. Strong stems (with stress on the stem) take vowelless person markers; weak stems take the variants with the (stressed) vowel. The -t variant of the first person plural subject occurs after -m the second person singular object of second set of object markers.
Here I give some examples of forms with 1st person object (strong stems).
1st object | strong stem | subject marker | full form | translation | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
kʷu | wik | +nt | -xʷ | kʷu wikntxʷ | You saw me |
kʷu | wik | Ø | -s | kʷu wiks | (S)he saw me |
kʷu | wik | Ø | -s-lx | kʷu wikslx | They saw me |
kʷu | wik | +nt | -p | kʷu wikntp | You all saw me/us |
Here I give some examples of forms with 1st person object (weak stems).
1st object | weak stem | subject marker | full form | translation | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
kʷu‿ | ɬc | +nt | -ixʷ | kʷu‿ ɬcntixʷ | You petted me |
kʷu | ɬc | +nt | -is | kʷu ɬcntis | (S)he petted me |
kʷu | ɬc | +nt | -is-lx | kʷu ɬcntislx | They petted me |
kʷu | ɬc | +nt | -ip | kʷu ɬcntip | You all petted me/us |
Here I chart the way Cv-Ok differentiates between first person singular object (me) and first person plural object (us) with third person subject forms (strong stem):
1st object | strong stem | subject marker | full form | translation | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
kʷu | wik | +nt | -s-lx | kʷu wikslx | They saw me |
kʷu | wik | +nt | -m | kʷu wikntm | They saw us |
Here I chart the way Cv-Ok differentiates between first person singular object (me) and first person plural object (us) with third person subject forms (weak stem):
1st object | weak stem | subject marker | full form | translation | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
kʷu | ɬc | +nt | -is-lx | kʷu ɬcntislx | They petted me |
kʷu | ɬc | +nt | -im | kʷu ɬcntim | They petted us |
Transitive subject. +ɬt stems
Transitive subject. +x(i)t stems