Grammar
Aranda has fairly free word order but tends towards SOV. It is generally ergative, but is accusative in its pronouns. Pronouns may be marked for duality and skin group.
| suffix | gloss |
|---|---|
| +aye | emphasis |
| +ewe | stronger emphasis |
| +eyewe | really strong emphasis |
| +ke | for |
| +le | actor in a sentence |
| +le | instrument |
| +le | location |
| +le-arlenge | together, with |
| +nge | from |
| -akerte | having |
| -arenye | from (origin), association |
| -arteke | similarity |
| -atheke | towards |
| -iperre, -ipenhe | after, from |
| -kenhe | belongs to |
| -ketye | because (bad consequence) |
| -kwenye | not having, without |
| -mpele | by way of, via |
| -ntyele | from |
| -werne | to |
| +ke | past |
| +lhe | reflexive |
| +me | present tense |
| +rre/+irre | reciprocal |
| +tyale | negative imperative |
| +tye-akenhe | negative |
| +tyeke | purpose or intent |
| +tyenhe | future |
| Ø | imperative |
Read more about this topic: Arrernte Language
Famous quotes containing the word grammar:
“The new grammar of race is constructed in a way that George Orwell would have appreciated, because its rules make some ideas impossible to express—unless, of course, one wants to be called a racist.”
—Stephen Carter (b. 1954)
“Syntax is the study of the principles and processes by which sentences are constructed in particular languages. Syntactic investigation of a given language has as its goal the construction of a grammar that can be viewed as a device of some sort for producing the sentences of the language under analysis.”
—Noam Chomsky (b. 1928)
“Grammar is a tricky, inconsistent thing. Being the backbone of speech and writing, it should, we think, be eminently logical, make perfect sense, like the human skeleton. But, of course, the skeleton is arbitrary, too. Why twelve pairs of ribs rather than eleven or thirteen? Why thirty-two teeth? It has something to do with evolution and functionalism—but only sometimes, not always. So there are aspects of grammar that make good, logical sense, and others that do not.”
—John Simon (b. 1925)