|
ba-hay
|
‘how’
|
|
bu-suk
|
‘how
much’
|
|
|
The
two exceptions to this are sa-b ‘who’
and ta-m
‘what’ where the interrogative pronouns are different and
they are combined with third person pronouns. (It shows the pronouns
b
and m
are also basically nouns like phuru ‘time’etc, meaning ‘person’
and ‘thing’.). Note that the animate and inanimate are not
distinguished in the interrogative pronoun, both using tam ‘what’. |
| 3.1.2.
Nouns: |
| The nouns are made
of one or more morphemes. |
3.1.2.1. The monomorphemic
nouns are mostly borrowings from other languages [e.g.,chNc&ar
‘world, universe’, sagr
‘sea’, kac&him
‘tortoise’ (Bengali), d ga
‘bull’ (Assamese) etc.]. There are, however, about sixty
native Kokborok nouns which are monomorphemic (e.g.,c&«ray
‘boy’, gEguma
‘wolf’, rm
‘pestle’, gayri
‘field hut,’ r sam
‘mortar’ etc.). All the generic nouns (discussed below)
which are the first member of the polymorphemic noun can occur independently
also and hence they may be called mono morphemic nouns. All other
nouns in Kokborok are polkymorphemic.
|
| 3.1.2.2. Polymorphemic
Nouns: The polymorphemic nouns of Kokborok may be classified into
three types: |
| (i) The nouns
whose first member is a pronominal prefix, |
| (ii)The nouns
whose first member is a generic noun, and |
| (iii)The nouns
where a derivative is added to the base noun. |
| 3.1.2.2.1.
The first set of nouns take a pronominal prefix. Of the three categories
of nouns, the human nouns (as defined above) are preceded by the third
person human pronoun bV-. (But the kinship
nouns are preceded by all the three personal pronouns.) The animate
nouns (as defined above) are preceded by the third person animate
pronoun mV-. And the adjectives and the inanimate nouns like
fan, hailstones etc., except the ones exempted above and the ones
which are derived with generic nouns are preceded by the inanimate
pronoun kV-. |
| Examples: |
| (1) Kinship
Terms: |
|
a-ma
|
‘my mother’
|
a-hik
|
‘my
wife’
|
n-ma ’
|
‘your
mother
|
ni-hik
|
‘your
wife’
|
|
bu-ma
|
‘his mother’
|
bi-hik
|
‘his wife'
|
|
|
| (These
pronominal prefixes are different from the genitives since the genitive
can occur with these forms: e.g., bini bihik ‘his wife’) |
| (2)
Human Nouns : bV- |
|
|
‘head’
|
bu-pha
|
‘tree’
|
b-dk
|
‘branch’
|
|
bi-thi
|
‘medicine’
|
bu-mu
|
‘name’
|
|
bu-bagra
|
‘king’
|
|
|
