User:A R King/private area/Basque grammar (DRAFT)

• lih 'turtle'
• naha 'this'
• pihni 'white'
• banhta 'roof'
• walhwal 'four'
• banghkaia 'to fill'

Syllables may have up to two consonants preceding the vowel nucleus, and two following it. This may be represented by the formula (C)(C)V(C)(C). Examples of monosyllabic words:

• ba 'definite article'
• yâ? 'who?'
• an? 'how many?'
• wal 'two'

• plun 'food'
• puls! 'play!'
• praks! 'close it!'

Within words of more than one syllable interior clusters may therefore contain more than two consonants (rarely more than three), but in such cases there is generally a morpheme boundary involved:

• wamtla 'your house'
• alkbia 'he will take it'

Note that simplification of underlying consonant clusters in verb forms take place, with stem consonants disappear disappearing when certain suffixes are added to verb stems of certain phonological shapes:

• sab-aia 'perforate' → Imperative sa-s, Negative imperative sa-para, Future II 2 sa-ma, 3 sa-bia, Different-subject participle 3 sa-ka

• atk-aia 'buy' → Imperative at-s, Negative imperative at-para, Future II 2 at-ma, 3 at-bia, Different-subject participle 3 at-ka

The articles -a, -ak, -ok, -(r)ik, demonstratives hau, hori, hura and some of the quantifiers follow the noun they determine or quantify.

• etxea '(the) house'
• etxeak '(the) houses'
• etxe hau 'this house'
• etxe horiek 'those houses'
• etxe bat 'one/a house'
• etxe batzuk 'some houses'

Other determiners and quantifiers, including beste 'other', the interrogatives and numerals above one or two (depending on dialect) precede the noun.

• zein etxe? 'which house(s)?'
• zenbat etxe? 'how many houses?'
• zenbait etxe 'some houses'
• hiru etxe 'three houses'

A normal noun phrase with a common noun as head must contain either one (and only one) determiner or one (and only one) quantifier, and not both. See the above examples. However, the numerals may co-occur with a determiner.

• hiru etxeok 'these/those (nearby) three houses'
• hiru etxe haiek 'those (distant) three houses'
• zein hiru etxe? 'which three houses?'

The items beste 'other' and guzti 'all', however, do not 'fill' the determiner or quantifier position and therefore require an article, other determiner or quantifier.

• beste etxea 'the other house'
• beste etxe bat 'another ("one other") house'
• etxe guztiak 'all houses', 'all the houses'

The article -a, -ak acts as the default determiner, obligatory with a common noun in the absence of another determiner or quantifer (even in citation forms in popular usage). Being a syntactic filler, it lacks any intrinsic meaning. (Traditional grammars identified it as a definite article, and were then forced to list the 'exceptions' in which the sense is not definite.)

• etxea 'house'
• etxeak 'houses'
• Nola esaten da euskaraz "house"? — "Etxea". 'How do you say "house" in Basque? — "Etxe(a)".'

The article -(r)ik, traditionally called a partitive suffix (cf. French de), replaces -a, -ak in negative polar contexts, especially with indefinite noun phrases in negative sentences.

• etxerik 'any house(s)'
• Ba al daukazu etxerik? 'Have you got a house?'
• Hemen ez dago etxerik. 'There is no house here, There aren't any houses here.'

A noun phrase with a proper noun or a pronoun as head need not and usually does not contain either a determiner or a quantifier.

• Andoni 'Anthony'
• Tokio 'Tokyo'
• Wikipedia 'Wikipedia'
• ni 'I, me'
• nor? 'who?'

The absence of any determiner or quantifier from a common-noun-head noun phrase is only possible in certain specific contexts, e.g. in certain types of predicate or in some adverbial expressions.

• Lehendakari izendatuko dute. 'They will appoint him (as) president.'
• Bilbora joan zen irakasle. 'He went to Bilbao (to work) as a teacher.'
• eskuz 'by hand'
• sutan 'on fire'

• Koldoren etxea 'Koldo's house'
• nire etxea 'my house'
• basoko etxea 'house in ("of") the forest'

The possessed noun phrase retains the same determination and quantification features described above for noun phrases generally.

• Koldoren etxeak 'Koldo's houses'
• Koldoren etxe hori 'that house of Koldo's'
• Koldoren etxe bat 'one house of Koldo's'
• Koldoren zein etxe? 'which house of Koldo's'

The head noun of a possessed noun phrase may be omitted. In this case the article or other determiner is still retained, now attached to the genitival element.

• Koldorena 'Koldo's (e.g. house)'
• Koldorenak 'Koldo's (e.g. houses)'
• Etxe hau Koldorena da. 'This house is Koldo's.'
• Nireak gorriak dira. 'Mine are red.'

Noun phrases are turned into genitives by the addition of one of two genitive case suffixes, -(r)en or -ko (see below on declension suffixes).

• Koldo → Koldoren
• Paris → Parisko
• etxe-a 'house' → etxearen

The genitive formation of personal pronouns is irregular.

• ni 'I, me' → nire 'my'

-Ko (or -go) can be suffixed to a wide range of other words and phrases, many of them adverbial in function, to form adjectival expressions which behave syntactically just as genitive phrases do.

• atzoko lana 'yesderday's work' (atzo 'yesterday')
• hemengo etxeak 'the houses here' (hemen 'here')
• oinezko bidaia bat 'a journey on foot' (oin-ez 'on foot')
• Tokiorako bidaia bat 'a journey to Tokyo' (Tokio-ra 'to Tokyo')
• bi urteko haur hori 'that two-year-old child' (bi urte 'two years')

• etxe gorri bat 'one red house'
• etxe txikia '(the) little house'
• etxe zuriak '(the) white houses'
• nire etxe txikia 'my little house'

When adjectives, adjectivals or genitives are used as predicates, they usually take the article (singular -a, plural -ak).

• Etxe hau txikia da. 'This house is small.'
• Etxe hauek txikiak dira. 'These houses are small.'
• Ogi hau atzokoa da. 'This bread is yesterday's.' (atzo-ko-a)
• Etxe hau nirea da. 'This house is mine.' (ni-re-a)

Basque has two numbers, singular (unmarked) and plural. Plural markers occur in two parts of Basque grammar: in some pronouns, determiners and quantifiers, and in participant indexes on verbs (see Basque verb link here). Nouns and adjectives are strictly invariable for number: for example, etxe means indifferently 'house' or 'houses'. Since, however, a noun such as etxe rarely occurs alone and normally appears within a noun phrase containing either a determiner or a quantifier, its number is likely to be indicated by this element:

• etxea 'house' (singular because of -a)
• etxeak 'houses' (plural because of -ak)
• etxe hau 'this house' (singular because of hau)
• etxe hauek 'these houses' (plural because of hauek)
• etxe bat 'one/a house' (singular because of bat)
• etxe batzuk 'some houses' (plural because of batzuk)
• hiru etxe 'three houses' (plural because of hiru)

Most determiners, including the article, have distinct singular and plural forms (the latter ending in a k in the absolutive case). Most quantifiers (except bat versus batzuk) do not show such morphological variation, but many (including the numerals) have intrinsically singular or plural lexical meanings.

Singular:

• -a (article)
• hau, hori, hura (demonstratives)
• bat (quantifier)

Plural:

• -ak, -ok (articles)
• hauek, horiek, haiek (demonstratives)
• batzuk (quantifier)
• bi, hiru, lau... (numerals)

Sometimes the grammatical number of a noun phrase can only be deduced from general context or from verbal indexing,

• zein etxe? 'which house?' or 'which houses?'

or from the lexical or semantic noun type:

• zenbat esne? 'how much milk?' (esne is a mass noun)
• zenbat etxe? 'how many houses?' (etxe is a countable noun)

Basque postpositions follow their complements, often requiring the complement to adopt a particular case form, and often taking a case suffix themselves too. Their structure and function in Basque is comparable to that of English prepositional expressions such as on top of, according to and so on. E.g.

• harriaren gainean 'on top of the stone' ("stone-GENITIVE top-INESSIVE")
• legearen arabera 'according to the law' ("law-GENITIVE rule-ALLATIVE")
• euriari esker 'on account of the rain' ("rain-DATIVE thank")
• diruari dagokionez 'as regards money' ("money-DATIVE as-it-is-to-it")

One subset of postpositions that express spatial relationships (exemplified by gainean) is characterised by more specific features. Their lexical stems are items whose syntactic behaviour is roughly noun-like but limited to a much narrower range of possible patterns (in the grammars of some non-European languages such elements are called relational nouns or relationals). E.g.

• arte 'between, among'
• atze 'behind, rear'
• aurre '(in) front'
• azpi 'below, underside'
• barru 'inside'

• erdi 'middle'
• gain '(on) top, above'
• inguru 'around'
• ondo 'next to, beside'

These generally enter into two possible relations with the preceding complement: (1) the complement is a noun phrase in a possessive genitive relation, e.g.

• mendiaren gainean 'on top of the mountain'
• mendien gainean 'on top of the mountains'
• mendi txiki honen gainean 'on top of this small mountain'
• nire gainean 'on (top of) me'

(2) the complement is an unsuffixed noun (not a noun phrase) in a relation resembling a lexical compound, e.g.

• mendi gainean 'on top of the mountain, on the mountain top'

Most often postpositions of this kind bear the set 1 (singular) inessive case suffix:

• mendi(aren) gainean 'on top of the mountain'
• mahai(aren) azpian 'under the table'
• etxe(aren) barruan 'inside the house'
• begien erdian 'between the eyes'

But other local case suffixes may occur instead of the inessive as sense or usage conventions require:

• etxe(aren) barrura 'into the house'
• nire atzetik 'behind me (i.e. following me)'
• mendi(aren) gaineko gurutzea 'the cross on top of the mountain'

These postpositions are often used in an adverbial function without a preceding complement, e.g.

• barruan dago 'he/she/it is inside'
• barrura doa 'he/she/it is going inside'
• Aurrera! 'Forwards! Onwards!'
• atzetik aurrera 'backwards, back-to-front' ("from the back to the front")

• Many of the Basque verbal categories are expressed morphologically (i.e. through suffixes, prefixes or stem changes), giving rise to morphological complexity.

→ In the form g-en-e-ra-ma-z-ki-zu-e-ke-ela-ko-an meaning 'in the belief that we would take them to you (pl.)', -ma- is the lexical stem and all the other parts are grammatical prefixes or suffixes!

• Nevertheless, periphrastic (or compound) tense formations are so predominant in Basque verbal usage that a knowledge of these constructions and their part in the system is every bit as important as knowledge of the morphology of the simple tenses. (However, the morphology of auxiliary verbs is of course a necessary part of the periphrastic tenses.)

→ In ikusten bagaituzte 'if they see us', bagaituzte is an auxiliary which may combine with any other transitive verb, e.g. ezagutzen bagaituzte 'if they know us', gonbidatzen bagaituzte 'if they invite us', etc. The auxiliary ba-g-a-it-u-z-te is a complex morphological form.

• The fact that up to three arguments (subject, direct object and indirect object) can be indexed morphologically on single verb forms is not only "exotic" for speakers of Indo-European languages, but makes for some very large paradigms and extensive paradigm tables.

→ Just the present tense of one verb, ekarri 'bring', has twenty-eight forms with two arguments (dakart 'I bring it', dakarzu 'you bring it', dakartzat 'I bring them', nakarzu 'you bring me'...) and a further fifty-six forms with three arguments (dakarkiot 'I bring it to him', dakarkiozu 'you bring it to him', dakarkizut 'I bring it to you', dakarzkiot 'I bring them to him'...), not counting familiar and allocutive forms.

• The existence in colloquial usage of further sets of synthetic allocutive forms to mark the social relationship between the speaker and the hearer leads to still more complex morphology.

→ Not only are there special informal second person indices (like tu in French, tú or vos in Spanish), e.g. dakark 'you bring it', but special alternative non-second-person forms too, e.g. zekarreat 'I bring it'. These forms also vary depending on the gender of the person being addressed.

• Not all elements and all combinations of elements in this system are used with equal frequency or are familiar to all speakers. Consequently, judgments may vary, depending on the theoretical or practical purpose, about which parts of the system to focus on and which to place first; the purposes of providing a pratical initiation or a comprohensive overview of the system as a whole may require conflicting emphases.

→ The form generamazkizuekeelakoan mentioned above is rather unlikely to occur although not altogether impossible. (Out of context, however, even a grammatically untrained but fluent native speaker may have difficulty deciphering it.)

• Both the synthetic morphology and the periphrastic syntax are subject to some dialectal variation.

→ 'I am' may be naiz, naz or niz, depending on the dialect. 'I have it' may be dut, düt, dot or det. 'He had it' may be zuen, zuan, zun, zon, zian, zin or eban.

• Focus rule: Whichever constituent of a sentence is in focus immediately precedes the verb.
• Topic rule: A topic is emphasised by placing it at the beginning of the sentence.

TXAKURREK hezurrak jaten dituzte.

'Dogs eat bones.'

• Verb: jaten dituzte '(they) eat (them)'
• Focus: hezurrak 'bones'
• Topic: txakurrek 'dogs'

HEZURRAK txakurrek jaten dituzte.

'Bones are eaten by dogs,' 'It is dogs who eat bones.'

• Focus: txakurrek 'dogs'
• Topic: hezurrak 'bones'

The most notable verb-focusing strategy in Basque grammar is use of the affirmative prefix ba-. Attached to a synthetically conjugated finite verb, this has the effect of putting that verb (or its affirmation, if one prefers) in focus, thereby implying that whatever (if anything) precedes the verb is not in focus. Thus the use of ba- looks as if it blocks application of the general focus rule which assigns focus to an element in pre-verbal position.

Berak daki.

'He knows,' 'He's the one who know.'

• Verb: daki '(he) knows (it)'
• Focus: berak 'he'

Badaki.

'He knows.'

• Verb/Focus: daki '(he) knows (it)'

BERAK badaki. (or: Badaki BERAK.)

'(As for) him, he knows,' 'He knows, (he does).'

• Verb/Focus: daki '(he) knows (it)'
• Topic: berak 'he'

To place a compound verb form (or its affirmation) in focus, it may be enough to place the main sentence stress (which normally goes on the focused item) on the first component of the verbal compound expression. Here it seems that the auxiliary part of the expression is treated as representing the "verb" in the general focus rule, thereby predictably throwing the focus onto the preceding component, which is now the main verb. In western dialects an alternative procedure used to emphasise the placement of focus on the verb is to make this a complement of the verb egin 'do' (this construction is not to be confused with compound verbs in which egin functions as a light verb).

Bérak ikusi du.

'He has seen it,' 'He's the one who has seen it.'

• Verb: ikusi du '(he) has seen (it)'
• Focus: berak 'he'

Ikúsi du.

'He has seen it (he has indeed!).'

• Verb/Focus: ikusi du '(he) has seen (it)'

BERAK ikúsi du. (or: Ikúsi du BERAK.)

'(As for) him, he has (indeed) seen it.'

• Verb/Focus: ikusi '(he) has seen (it)'
• Topic: berak 'he'

Western Basque alternative:

(Berak) ikusi egin du. (cf. English dialectal 'He('s) done seen it.)

Heavy constituents may be placed after an unfocused verb even when they are (pragmatically) focused.

Atzo ikusi nuen asto bat betaurrekoekin. 'Yesterday I saw a donkey with (i.e. wearing) glasses.'

Imperative verbs often precede other constituents (except for topics).

• Ekarri hona bi botila ardo mesedez! 'Bring two bottles of wine here please!'
• Bihar arratsaldean zatoz nire etxera. 'Tomorrow afternoon come to my house.'

Some subordinate clauses are exempt from certain rules. For example, an unfocused verb is allowed to occur without any focused clause constituent in such clauses.

• datorren astean 'next week' (lit. 'the week that is coming', 'the coming week')
• dakigunez 'as we know'

A finite verb form (a synthetically conjugative verb or auxiliary) cannot stand in absolute clause-initial position unless: (1) it is preceded by affirmative (verb-focusing) ba-...

Badakit. 'I know.'

(2) it is preceded by negative ez...

Ez dauka dirurik. 'She hasn't got any money.'

(3) it is imperative (or optative)...

• Zatoz hona! 'Come here!'
• Datorrela bihar. 'Let him come tomorrow.'

(4) certain subordinate clauses...

datorren astean 'next week'

A compound verb form (a verb in a compound tense or a compound verb construction) may also be clause-initial in cases of verbal focus:

• Ikusi (egin) du. 'He has seen it.'
• Maite nau. 'He loves me.'

Negation is expressed by ez preceding the finite verb form, if there is one in the sentence.

• John ez dator or Ez dator John. 'John is not coming.'

If there is no finite verb in the clause, ez precedes a non-finite verb.

• Ez etorri! 'Do not come!'
• Esan nion ez etortzeko. 'I told him not to come.'

There is a strong tendency for other sentence constituents to follow a negated finite verb, except when topicalised. (In John ez dator above, John is the subject and topic.) In other words, the general focus rule does not apply with negated finite verb forms, as it doesn't with verbs with the ba- prefix (see above).

• Ez dauka dirurik. 'She hasn't got any money.'

cf. Dirurik ez dauka. 'Money she hasn't got.'

Compound tense forms of verbs, and also compound verbs, are negated by placing ez in front of the finite auxiliary (or light verb, if finite); the other components of the verbal construction are normally placed after the negated finite form.

• Ez du ikusi. 'He hasn't seen it.'
• Johnek ez nau maite. 'John doesn't love me.'

In this construction the postposed verb component(s) may be separated from the finite auxiliary or light verb. Focused constituents, unless somewhat heavy, will be placed between the two.

• Ez dut inor ikusi hemen. 'I haven't seen anyone here.'
• Berak ez du John maite. 'He doesn't love John.'
• Ez dut irakurri liburu hori. 'I have't read that book.'

An indefinite subject of an intransitive verb, or an indefinite direct object of a transitive verb, usually take the suffix -(r)ik instead of the article in negative (or other negative-polar) sentences.

• Ez dut dirurik ikusi hemen. 'I haven't seen any money here.'
• Ez dago urik. 'There is no water.'
• Badago urik? 'Is there any water?'

There are no true negative pronouns (or adverbs, etc.) as such. The negative-polar pronouns etc. are used in negative contexts (and other negative-polarity contexts too). All such words may be combined directly with ez (or gabe 'without', which also has an intrinsically negative meaning). Some speakers do accept uses of negative-polar words in isolation, with ez implicit.

• Ez dut inor ikusi hemen. 'I haven't seen anyone (I have seen no one) here.'
• Ez dut ezer nahi. 'I don't want anything.'
• Ez dago inon. 'It isn't anywhere.'
• Ba al dago inor? 'Is there anyone (there)?'
• Inor (ez)! 'No one!'
• Ezer gabe etorri da. 'He has come without anything.'

Yes-no questions either take the same form as the corresponding statement, or incorporate a question marker. (There are two such general question markers but both are limited to particular dialect areas; see the modal particles below.)

• John ikusi duzu? or John ikusi al duzu? 'Have you seen John?'
• Badaki? or Ba al daki? 'Does he know?'

See Negation above concerning the use of negative polarity items; these may occur in yes-no questions.

• Badator inor? 'Is anyone coming?'
• Ardorik edan duzu? 'Have you drunk any wine?'

In choice questions, 'or' is either ala or edo, although the former is generally taught as more correct.

• Zer nahiago duzu, beltza ala gorria? 'What do you prefer, red wine or rosé?' (lit. 'black or red')

Consequently, such wh-expressions must immediately precede the verb, and none of the verb-focusing constructions are possible (since these would more focus away from the wh-expression).

• Zer da hau? 'What is this?'
• Nora joango zara? 'Where will you go?'
• Non bizi da zure laguna? 'Where does your friend live?'
• Zenbat etxetan bizi izan zara zure bizitzan? 'How many houses have you lived in in your life?'

As in other sentences, topics may be fronted (and therefore precede the wh-expression).

• Hau zer da? 'What is this?'
• Eta zure laguna non bizi da? 'And your friend, where does she live?'
• Zure bizitzan zenbat etxetan bizi izan zara? 'In your life how many houses have you lived in?'

All these particles occupy a single "slot" in the verbal group, which is immediately preceding a finite verb form. They may be inserted between a focused constituent or affirmative ba- or negative ez and the verb.

• Nora ote doaz? 'I wonder where they're going.'
• Berak ba omen daki. 'He claims to know' or 'People say that he knows.'
• Ez al duzu ikusi? 'Haven't you seen it?'

• Kumi ba sirpi kan bara wala ba tara kan. 'One was small and the other was big.'
• Juan an Pedro talia sa. 'Juan and Pedro are similar.'
• Ai aisika, apia kaka ai yaptika wal aisaia sa. 'It is necessary to talk to his father or his mother.'
• Witin aisan sakuna yang tanka briras. 'He spoke but I didn't understand.'

In the external head strategy there is no subordination marker of any kind and the relative clause precedes the head noun, which takes a ligature, beside which it usually has an article too.

• María atkan watla ba Bilwi ra sa. 'The house that María bought is in Bilwi.'
• Naha tawanka ra truk kum bri uplika manis bara sa. 'In this town there are a lot of people who own a car.'

If the head is not expressed, an article following the relative clause serves to identify and delimit it.

• Aras ra alkan nani ba bui asiki ra brih wan. 'Those who caught the horse took it to my father.'

In the internal head construction, the head noun is not extracted from the place it underlyingly occupies in the relative clause, which is bounded by an article as in headless external head clauses.

• María watla atkan ba Bilwi ra sa. 'The house that María bought is in Bilwi.' (as if to say: "The María bought the house is in Bilwi.")

In the 'headless' counterpart of the internal construction, the place of the head within the relative clause is occupied by an interrogative pronoun.

• Dia makama ba, yang maikamna. 'I will give you what you ask.'

A complement clause may bear no subordination marker but merely be followed by the article ba functioning in practice as a nominalizer.

• Yang nahwala waitna kum ra ikan ba nu takri. 'I have heard the news that a man was killed yesterday.'

Indirect questions end in saba (i.e. sa 'is' + ba article).

• Witin wan dia daukan saba kaikaia. 'He went to see what he had done.'

The tense of complement clauses does not follow that of the matrix clause, but directly expresses a time relation in reference to the matrix.

• Witin nani walan Pedro ba raya sa. 'They heard that Pedro was alive.' ("...that P. is alive")

Complement clauses that have no autonomous time reference ('irrealis') take Future II.

• Juan want kan Maria balbia. 'Juan wanted María to come.'

Conditional ('if') clauses add kaka and precede the consequence clause. (Kaka is the third-person different subject participle of kaia 'be', literally "it being (the case that)".)

• Man naha apilka pima kaka, man pruma. 'If you eat this apple, you will die.'
• Yang naha tasba wina katna kaka, aiklabaia kapri. 'If I were from this land, I would fight.'
• Witin nahwala sula kum kaikan kan sa kaka, ikaia kan. 'If he had seen a deer yesterday, he would have killed it.'

Concessive ('although') clauses may end in sin 'also, either, even', or in sakuna 'but'.

• Aisikam nani balbia apia, yang witin nani ra bik takamna sin. 'Your parents will not come, even if I beg them to.'
• Pedro win takaisa, witin saura pali sa sakuna. 'Pedro will win, even though he is very bad.'

Circumstantial clauses generally end in a subordinating conjunction of some sort. Sometimes the article ba precedes the conjunction, which may take the form of a preposition...

• * Witin plun atkaia auya kan bara, ai yaptika ba balan. 'When he was about to buy food, his mother came.' (bara = ba + ra)

a relational...

• Baha daukaia dukiara diara manis nit sa. 'In order to do that, many things are needed.'
• Plawar abalkaisna brid daukaia mata. 'I am going to mix flour in order to make bread.'
• Plun piras kainara ai mihta sikban. 'Before eating food he washed his hands.'

or a noun.

• Yang buk kum aisi kaiki kapri taim, man bal dimram. 'When I was reading a book, you came in.'

Miskito has a large number of light-verb constructions or compound verbs which consist of two words but express meanings that are lexically determined for the construction as a whole, e.g.

• aisi kaikaia 'read' ("speak and see")
• bri balaia 'bring' ("have and come")
• bila walaia 'obey' ("hear word")
• kupya baikaia 'get angry' ("split heart")

A similar construction is used in verbs that are loans from English: the borrowed lexeme is an invariable element (ilp, wark, want...) followed by a Miskito verb, e.g.

• ilp munaia 'help' ("do help")
• wark takaia 'work' ("go out work")
• want kaia 'want' ("be want")

Nominal compounds are much less common.

• bip mairin 'cow' ("beef/bovine female")