| the
second vowel that is dropped («
is treated as a for this purpose, cf.
1.4..4.). The vowel (as mentioned above) is dropped only if (a) its
immediately preceding consonant is not a trill, a lateral or a semi-vowel
and (b) its immediately preceding consonant is not a trill, a lateral
or a semi-vowel and (b) its immediately following consonant is not
h. |
| Examples: |
| i) C1 V1 C2
V2 (C) à
C1 C2 V2 (C) |
|
kµrµy
|
à
krµy
|
‘not’
|
|
b«lay
|
à blay
|
‘leaf’
|
& hipi
|
à
 &hpi
|
‘sesane’
|
k nr
|
à
knr
|
‘move’
(V)
|
|
|
| ii) C1 V1
C2 V2 C3 V3 (C) à C1
V1 C 2 C3 V3 (C) |
|
|
à
bEkr
|
‘bone’
|
|
bukhumur
|
à
bukhmur
|
‘fur’
|
|
|
|
‘horn’
|
k«&«ra
|
à
k«&ra
|
‘active’
|
|
|
| * This rule is not
strictly a morphophonemic rule but as it shows alternate shapes, it
is discussed here. |
| MORPHOLOGY
3.1. The Nominal:
|
| The nominal may be
defined as the base morpheme that is capable of taking the morphemes
for case. The nominals may be classified into three sub-groups, viz.,
pronouns, Nouns and Numerals. They have the following formal characteristics. |
| Pronouns show
the distinction of person and occur as pronominal prefix before the
nouns and adjectives. |
| Nouns take
pronominal prefix and carry the distinction of gender and number. |
| Numerals take
the classifiers, which classify the nouns into semantic categories. |
| 3.1.1.
Pronounsf: |
| 3.1.1.1.
Personal Pronouns: |
| The personal pronouns
show a three-fold distinction of person in Kokborok. They are the
first person (the speaker), the second person (the listener) and the
third person (others). Number in these pronouns is indicated by addition
of the collective adjective rk
(to be discussed later) except in the first person where two distinct
words for singular and plural are used. |
