Kwerba

Language

Kwerba

Family

Tor-Kwerba

Ethnologue

kwe

ISO

kwe

glottolog_id

nucl1595

Verbs table

gloss	layer	1 sg dim	2 sg dim	3 sg dim	1 sg aug	2 sg aug	3 sg aug	1 du	2 du	3 du	1 pl	2 pl	3 pl
put into	lexeme	ikwaricam	ikwaricam	ikwaricam	ikwaricam	ikwaricam	ikwaricam	acikwaricam	acikwaricam	acikwaricam	ecikwaricam	acikwaricam	nanikwaricam
put into	prefix	a	a	a	a	a	a	ac	ac	ac	ec	ac	naN
slip	lexeme	nanisakatïm	nanisakatïm	nanisakatïm	isakatïm	isakatïm	isakatïm	anisakatïm	anisakatïm	anisakatïm	enisakatïm	anisakatïm	nanisakatïm
slip	prefix	naN	naN	naN	a	a	a	aN	aN	aN	eN	aN	naN
cry	lexeme	bangkwanam	bangkwanam	bangkwanam	bakwanam	bakwanam	bakwanam	bangkwanam	bangkwanam	bangkwanam	bekwasam	bakwasam	bakwasam
cry	prefix	naN	naN	naN	a	a	a	aN	aN	aN	e	a	a
go	lexeme	bangkum	bangkum	bangkum	bakum	bakum	bakum	bangkum	bangkum	bangkum	berakum	barakum	barakum
go	prefix	naN	naN	naN	a	a	a	aN	aN	aN	era	ara	ara

Kwerba notes

• The surface forms are subject to morphophonological rules (such as the deletion of prefix-final consonants before stem-initial consonants) that lead to further conflations, e.g. the collapse of singular and dual forms.
• Some verbs display a stem alternation for plurality of subject (intransitive) or object (transitive), as with 'cry'. This is not systematically described by de Vries & de Vries (1997), and so is not represented here.
• The diminutive ~ augmented distinction is sensitive to the size of the object, though in some cases the value seems to be lexically specified (e.g. 'airplane' and 'canoe' are always diminutive; p. 19).

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References

Vries, James A. de and Sandra A. de Vries. 1997. An overview of Kwerba verb morphology. In Andrew Pawley (ed.) Papers in Papuan linguistics 3, pp. 1-35. Canberra: Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University.