Difference between revisions of "Topic marking"
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== Form of the topic markers == | == Form of the topic markers == | ||
Both main topic markers are ultimately descended from ''su'', the third person pronoun. | |||
=== The basic topic marker === | |||
Mirja's most basic and simple topic marker—glossed as simply 'TOP'—usually surfaces only as a modification to the final consonant of the word it attaches to. Specifically, it takes whatever the last consonant of that word is and converts it to a voiceless fricative. The specific results are shown by the table below. | Mirja's most basic and simple topic marker—glossed as simply 'TOP'—usually surfaces only as a modification to the final consonant of the word it attaches to. Specifically, it takes whatever the last consonant of that word is and converts it to a voiceless fricative. The specific results are shown by the table below. | ||
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EXAMPLE. | EXAMPLE. | ||
=== The contrastive topic marker === | |||
The contrastive topic marker is a simple suffix ''-s''. | |||
{{interlinear|top=''noro'''sa''' karu'' | |||
|no-rV-'''s''' karu | |||
|1sg-OBL-'''CTOP''' be.visible | |||
|'I at least can see it'}} | |||
Revision as of 16:59, 21 April 2023
Topic marking is a fundamental part of Mirja grammar, and participates in some fairly fundamental systems. There are two main topic markers in Mirja—the 'simple topic marker' and the 'contrastive topic marker'—and a couple of other things (such as -si 'also') also behave like topic markers.
Form of the topic markers
Both main topic markers are ultimately descended from su, the third person pronoun.
The basic topic marker
Mirja's most basic and simple topic marker—glossed as simply 'TOP'—usually surfaces only as a modification to the final consonant of the word it attaches to. Specifically, it takes whatever the last consonant of that word is and converts it to a voiceless fricative. The specific results are shown by the table below.
| Original | Topicalised |
|---|---|
| h m w | ɸ~w̥ |
| v | f |
| t d n | θ |
| l | ɬ |
| r | ɾ̥ |
| j | j̥~ç |
| k g | x |
| θ s ɬ ɾ̥ x | (segmental marker) |
In morpheme-by-morpheme glosses, this feature bundle is transcribed as '*'.
no-rV-*
1sg-OBL-TOP
karu
be.visible
'I can see it'
Those sounds marked as requiring a segmental marker don't get transformed, but instead what is otherwise the contrastive topic marker -s is attached to the end of the word.
EXAMPLE.
The contrastive topic marker
The contrastive topic marker is a simple suffix -s.
no-rV-s
1sg-OBL-CTOP
karu
be.visible
'I at least can see it'