ri koe |
‘forty’ |
ri koe
doso |
‘fifty’ |
ti:ni koe |
‘sixty’ |
sa:ri koe |
‘eighty’ |
pa:so koe |
‘hundred’ |
|
5.2.3.4
|
When the third person sg. plu. number-gender suffix is added to the
bound forms ro--and ri--we get nouns.
|
ro?esi |
‘a/one man’ |
ri?eri |
‘two men’ |
|
5.3.
|
Interrogative Adjectives:
|
When the third person-number gender suffixes are added to the bound form
emmin -the interrogative adjectives are formed.
|
emminayi ---which one |
(s.g. non. masc.) |
emmina?i ---which ones |
(pl.non. masc.) |
emminasi----which one |
(sg. masc.) |
emminari----which ones |
(pl. masc.) |
|
5.4.
|
Nominal Adjectives:
|
5.4.
|
Besides adjectives, other word classes may also modify nouns and thus
function as adjectives. They are given below.
|
5.4.1.
|
Words which are basically nouns function as adjectives in endocentric
compounds with other nouns.
|
gorri u:ńga |
‘mutton’ |
mellu leńńuņi |
‘peacock’s tail’ |
|
5.4.2.
|
Numerals with or without classifiers can occur as attributes to nouns. |
roņi
illu |
‘one house’ |
sa:rijaņa
o:lahâ |
‘four boys’ |
ti:nigoţţa
melka |
‘three peacocks’ |
|
5.4.3.
|
Other quantifiers may be used attributively
|
eccoro
ţakka |
‘how many rupees’ |
ha:runa ga:yihĩ |
‘many cows’ |
habbaņjaņa |
‘all people’ |
a:hine kamma |
‘much work’ |
|
5.5
|
Pronominal Predicates: |
Descriptive, possessive or qualitative adjectives, nouns used in the
genitive, and oblique stem forms of personal pronouns are pronominalized in
Kuvi by the suffixation of variants di, ayi and vi, a?i of the third person
singular and plural non-human demonstrative pronouns respectively. These
forms indicate possession.
|
The occurrence of the variants is phonologically conditioned, di, vi
occurring with stems ending in a long vowel and ayi, a?i occuring with stems
ending in a short vowel when the semi-vowel v is inserted between the vowel
of the stem and the vowel of the suffix as a sequence of vowels is not
allowed in the language.
|
Syntactically these pronominalized
forms function as predicates in the verb less or equation type of
sentences and are called pronominal predicates. They are co-referential
with the subject which is always non-human and, which may or may not be
overtly expressed, and agree with it in number and gender. For example, |