Honorific
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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’
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‘I (Hon.)’
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netum |
ne-li-tum |
‘we (Excl.)’
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‘we (Excl.) (Hon.)’
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etum ~ itum |
e-li-tum ~ i-li-tum |
‘we (Incl.)’
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‘we (Incl.) (Hon)’
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e-li ~ i-li |
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‘we (Incl.) (Hon.)’
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na |
na -li |
‘you (sg.)’
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‘you (sg.) (Hon.)’
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na-tum
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na-li-tum |
‘you (pl.)’
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‘you (pl.) (Hon.)’
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ala |
ala-li |
‘he, she’
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‘he, she (Hon.)’
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alatum |
ala-li-tum |
‘they (Hum.)’
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‘they (Hum.) (Hon.)’
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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.
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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.
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Quantifiers
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an ‘all’, mena ‘some’, pene ‘some’, ali ‘any, kadukave ‘all’, bichi, ke?o ‘more’are used as quantifiers in Karbi.
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