Topic

Beside the particles with their several grammatical functions, the stems of the language divide in two major grammatical classes: intransitive and transitive.

• Intransitive and middle stems take intransitive person inflection;
• transitive stems take transitive subject and object inflection;
• nominalized transitive and nominalized middle stems take double intransitive person inflection.

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:

• captíkʷl is the intransitive stem (kn‿ person inflection)
• captíkʷlm is the middle stem (kn‿ person inflection, here with p‿ “you pl.”)
• captíkʷ+ɬt is the transitive stem (here with -s object person inflection, and -n subject person inflection “you I”)
• kʷ i-ks-captíkʷ+ɬt+m is the nominalized transitive form (stem + inflection: kʷ‿i- double intransitive person inflection, here with “you my”; ks- future; and the required final+m)
• kʷ i-ks-captíkʷ+m in the nominalized middle form (stem + inflection: kʷ‿i- the double intransitive person marker ‘you my...’; ks-future, and the required final+m).

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.

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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 subject
• double intransitives
• transitive subject
• transitive object (two sets)

Intransitive		Transitive
Intransitive	Double intransitive	subject	object
			object 1	object 2
kn‿ kʷ‿ Ø kʷu‿ p‿ Ø stem -lx	kʷu‿ i(n)-set form kʷ‿ i(n)-set form Ø stem i(n)-set form kʷu‿ i(n)-set form p‿ i(n)-set form Ø stem i(n)-set form -lx	-(í)n -(í)xʷ -(í)s -(í)m / -t -(í)p -(í)s stem -lx	kʷu‿ -s Ø kʷu‿ -ɬ(úl)m Ø	kʷu‿ -(ú)m Ø kʷu‿ -ɬ(úl)m Ø

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.

• kn‿ilmixʷm "I am (a/the) chief."
• kʷ‿ʔayx̌ʷt "You are tired."
• xʷuy "(S)he went."
• kʷu‿wy̓cin "We finished eating."
• p sysyus "You (all) are smart."
• ʔaɬʔíɬn "They ate."

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.

• kʷ‿in-lmixʷm "You are my chief."
• kʷu‿an-lʔíw "I am your father."
• tkɬmilxʷ-s "(She is) his woman."
• kʷ‿in-x̌mínk "I like you (lit. you are my "liking")."

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):

The -(i)m affix of these forms can be labeled "impersonal." More on the subject later.

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