Tigrinya Verbs - Object Suffixes

Object Suffixes

Like other Semitic languages, Tigrinya has object pronoun suffixes that can appear on verbs in any tense-aspect-mood. As discussed under personal pronouns, there are two sets of such suffixes in the language, a set used for direct objects and a "prepositional" set used for dative, benefactive, locative, or adversative meanings ('to', 'for', 'against'); only one object suffix is permitted on a given verb.

As in some other Ethiopian Semitic languages, there are separate "light" and "heavy" suffixes for all but the second person and first-person plural prepositional object forms. The light suffixes (-ni, -xa, etc.) are characterized by initial ungeminated consonants and the heavy suffixes (-nni, -kka, etc.) by initial geminated consonants. For the third person direct object suffixes, there is a third form with no initial consonant at all (-o, -a, etc.). Roughly speaking, the light suffixes are used with verbs whose subjects are second or third person plural, the third person vowel-initial suffixes are used with verbs that have no agreement suffix, and the heavy suffixes are used in other cases. In the jussive/imperative, the vowel-initial suffixes cause the gemination of the preceding consonant. When an object suffix beginning with a consonant is added to a verb ending in a consonant (either a root or a suffix consonant), a vowel is inserted to break up the cluster, the particular vowel depending on the subject and object. The details are quite complicated; most of the possibilities are illustrated in the following table for two different object and four different subject categories, using the verb fälät'ä (3A) 'know'.