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Honorific
 
Honorific distinction is made inhuman personal pronouns both in the singular and plural in all the three persons. The honorific marker is -li and it is added directly to the singular forms. The plural marker follows the morpheme for honorific it is present.
 
ne ne-li
‘I’
 
 ‘I (Hon.)’
 
netum  ne-li-tum
‘we (Excl.)’
 
‘we (Excl.) (Hon.)’
 
etum ~ itum e-li-tum ~ i-li-tum
‘we (Incl.)’
 
‘we (Incl.) (Hon)’
 
  e-li ~ i-li
  ‘we (Incl.) (Hon.)’
 
na na -li
‘you (sg.)’
 
 ‘you (sg.) (Hon.)’
 
na-tum na-li-tum
‘you (pl.)’
 
‘you (pl.) (Hon.)’
 
ala ala-li
‘he, she’
 
‘he, she (Hon.)’
 
alatum  ala-li-tum
‘they (Hum.)’
 
‘they (Hum.) (Hon.)’
 
The first person singlular honorific pronoun neli is used by the speaker whenever the person addressed to or referred to are marked with honorific. Among third person pronouns, only ala takes -li because only this pronoun is used exclusively for human.
 
There is concord between the subject and predicate in honorific. When the subject pronoun takes honorific -li the verb takes an honorific -ik- immediately after the base. The honorific in the verb is added only optionally.
 
Quantifiers
 
an ‘all’, mena ‘some’, pene ‘some’, ali ‘any, kadukave ‘all’, bichi, ke?o ‘more’are used as quantifiers in Karbi.
 
palo an
 
 ‘all cots’
 
hem an
 
‘all houses’
 
monit an
 
 ‘all men’
 
la mena
 
 ‘some water’
 
menaataka
 
 ‘some money’
 
kitap mena an
 
‘some books’
 
kitap mena an
 
‘many books’
 
kitap pena an
 
‘many books’
 
mena an kitap
 
‘many books’
 
penaan kitap
 
 ‘many books’
 
kitap ali
 
‘any book’
 
monit ali
 
 ‘any man’
 
la abichi
 
‘more water’

 

la ke?o
 
‘more water’
 
kadukave amonit
 
‘all people’
 
 
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