Miskito Grammar - Lexicon - Lexical Compounds

Lexical Compounds

Miskito has a large number of light-verb constructions or compound verbs which consist of two words but express meanings that are lexically determined for the construction as a whole, e.g.
  • aisi kaikaia 'read' ("speak and see")
  • bri balaia 'bring' ("have and come")
  • bila walaia 'obey' ("hear word")
  • kupya baikaia 'get angry' ("split heart")

A similar construction is used in verbs that are loans from English: the borrowed lexeme is an invariable element (ilp, wark, want...) followed by a Miskito verb, e.g.
  • ilp munaia 'help' ("do help")
  • wark takaia 'work' ("go out work")
  • want kaia 'want' ("be want")

Nominal compounds are much less common.
  • bip mairin 'cow' ("beef/bovine female")

Read more about this topic:  Miskito Grammar, Lexicon

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