Tatari Faran Grammar


Adjectives

Adjectives follow the nouns they modify, preceding the case clitic attached to the noun. This position is called the adjectival position of a given noun phrase. For example:

san
person
busan
fat

A fat man

san
person
busan
fat
sa
CVY.M
duum
sleep
imim.
FIN

The fat man is sleeping.

Prototypical Adjectives

The adjectives kirat (tall and swift) and jini (tall and thin) belong to a group of polysemous adjectives that are commonly used in Tatari Faran. Native speakers regard certain combinations of attributes as prototypical of a certain ideal, and use a single word to describe them whenever they occur together. These prototypical adjectives are preferred over adjectives that refer to single attributes.

san
person
kirat
tall_and_swift

A tall and swift man

san
person
jini
tall_and_thin

A tall and thin woman

The adjective kirat is cognate with kiran young man, and refers to a prototypical young man who's tall and swift.

Intensified Adjectives

An adjective may be intensified by reduplication. For example:

buara
volcano
baasa
large

A large volcano.

buara
volcano
basa-baasa
very~large

A very large volcano.

The reduplicated stem is prefixed to the base adjective, and has any long vowels or glides in its last syllable reduced to a corresponding short vowel, and the final consonant, if present, is dropped:

esei → ese-esei
long; very long

tsat → tsa-tsat
fast; very fast

airis → airi-airis
young; very young

tihai → tiha-tihai
old; very old

The reduplicated stem is unstressed; the accent remains on the base adjective:

basa-baasa
[basaˈbaːsa]

ese-esei
[ɛsɛʔɛˈsej]

tsa-tsat
[ʦaˈʦat]

tiha-tihai
[tihaˈtihaj]


Last updated 24 Mar 2023.

Valid CSS Valid HTML 5!