Maybrat
Verbs table
| gloss | stem phonology | layer | 1 sg | 2 | 3 sg m | 3 sg f | 1 pl | 3 pl |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| agree | V-initial | lexeme | tisil | nisil | yisil | misil | pisil | misil |
| hold | C-initial monosyllabic | lexeme | tpol | npol | ypol | mpol | ppol | 1mpol |
| refuse | C-initial polysyllabic | lexeme | xawe | xawe | xawe | xawe | xawe | xawe |
| vomit | C-initial monosyllabic | lexeme | tom | tom | tom | tom | tom | tom |
| agree | V-initial | prefix | t | n | y | m | p | m |
| hold | C-initial monosyllabic | prefix | t | n | y | m | p | m |
| refuse | C-initial polysyllabic | prefix | zero | zero | zero | zero | zero | zero |
| vomit | C-initial monosyllabic | prefix | zero | zero | zero | zero | zero | zero |
Maybrat notes
-
Verbs (and possessed nouns too) either take pronominal prefixes (subject or possessor) or lack them. This is largely predictable by stem phonology:
- V-initial stems take prefixes.
- C-initial monosyllabic stems take prefixes; this includes stems with a sequence of two vowels, which may be realized either as two syllables, or as one, with reduction of one of the vowels.
But some monosyllabic stems, apparently lexically specified, fail to take prefixes. - Dol (1999) distinguishes masculine (male animates) and unmarked gender. The latter is termed 'feminine' here, as this seems the more standard nomenclature.
References
Dol, Philomena. 1999. A Grammar of Maybrat: A Language of the Bird's Head, Irian Jaya. PhD thesis, Leiden University.