| Closed
syllable : (c)vc |
|
vc
|
i
|
‘go’
|
|
cvc
|
ko
|
‘one’
|
|
cvc
|
hi
|
‘three’
|
|
|
| Disyllabic
Words : |
|
vcv
|
ude
|
‘house’
|
|
cvcv
|
k le
|
‘river’
|
|
cvccv
|
pinta
|
‘pot’
|
|
cvcvc
|
botel
|
‘bottle’
|
|
vcvc
|
agu
|
‘language’
|
|
-----------------
|
|
|
| A word in Apatani is
defined as minimum free form consisting of one or more than one phoneme.
The phonetic pause between two items in an utterance is taken as the
basis for determining the word boundaries. There are cases where syntactic
behavior is taken as the determining factor of the free forms when
phonetic pause fails to give a correct indication in deciding bound
Vs. free forms. The case is indicated through independent word. One
of the reasons for considering it as independent word is that it takes
the phrase final position when adjectives which follow the head noun
occur with it. See the examples given below : |
|
myu aya mi
|
‘good man (acc.)’
|
|
man good acc
|
|
|
aki atu mi
|
‘small dog (acc.)’
|
|
dog small acc
|
|
|
|
| Secondly,
there is a tendency among the Apatani speakers to posit a semi-pause
between the head noun and case word. This also speaks in favor of
considering them as separate words |
| The word
classes that can be set up in Apatani are nouns, pronouns, verb and
adverbs. Among them verbs and nouns out number other word classes.
Suffixation, prefixation, reduplication and compounding are the morphological
process found in Atapani. |
