# List of glossing abbreviations

This article lists common abbreviations for grammatical terms that are used in linguistic interlinear glossing of oral languages in English.
The list provides conventional glosses as established by standard inventories of glossing abbreviations such as the Leipzig Glossing rules, the most widely known standard. Synonymous glosses are listed as alternatives for reference purposes. In a few cases, long and short standard forms are listed, intended for texts where that gloss is rare or uncommon.

## Conventions

* Grammatical abbreviations are generally written in full or small caps to visually distinguish them from the translations of lexical words. For instance, capital or small-cap PAST (frequently abbreviated to PST) glosses a grammatical past-tense morpheme, while lower-case 'past' would be a literal translation of a word with that meaning. Similarly, (small) cap -DOWN might be a locative suffix used in nominal inflections, prototypically indicating direction downward but possibly also used where it is not translatable as 'down' in English, whereas lower-case 'down' would be a direct English translation of a word meaning 'down'. Not all authors follow this convention.
* Person-number-gender is often further abbreviated, in which case the elements are not small caps. E.g. 3ms or 3msg for 3SG.M, 2fp or 2fpl for 2PL.F, also 1di for 1DU.INCL and 1pe for 1PL.EXCL.
* Authors may more severely abbreviate glosses than is the norm, if they are particularly frequent within a text, e.g. IP rather than IMM.PST for 'immediate past'. This helps keep the gloss graphically aligned with the parsed text when the abbreviations are longer than the morphemes they gloss. Such shortened forms may be ambiguous with other authors or texts and so are not presented as normative here. Glosses may also be less abbreviated than the norm if they are not common in a particular text, so as to not tax the reader, e.g. TRANSTVZR for 'transitivizer' or SUBJUNCT for 'subjunctive'. At the extreme, glosses may not be abbreviated at all but simply written in small caps, e.g. COMPLEMENTIZER, NONTHEME or DOWNRIVER rather than COMP, NTH, DR. Such long, obvious abbreviations$^{e.g.in}$ have been omitted from the list below, but are always possible.
* A morpheme will sometimes be used as its own gloss. This is typically done when it is the topic of discussion, and the author wishes it to be immediately recognized in the gloss among other morphemes with similar meanings, or when it has multiple or subtle meanings that would be impractical to gloss with a single conventional abbreviation. For example, if a passage has two contrasting nominalizing suffixes under discussion, ɣiŋ and jolqəl, they may be glossed GN and JQ, with the glosses explained in the text. This is also seen when the meaning of a morpheme is debated, and glossing it one way or another would prejudice the discussion.
* Lexical morphemes are typically translated, using lower-case letters, though they may be given a grammatical gloss in small caps if they play a grammatical role in the text. Exceptions include proper nouns, which typically are not translated, and kinship terms, which may be too complex to translate. Proper nouns/names may simply be repeated in the gloss, or may be replaced with a placeholder such as "(name.F)" or "PN(F)" (for a female name). For kinship glosses, see the dedicated section below for a list of standard abbreviations.
* Lehmann recommends that abbreviations for syntactic roles not be used as glosses for arguments, as they are not morphological categories. Glosses for case should be used instead, e.g. ERG or NOM for A. Morphosyntactic abbreviations are typically typeset as full capitals even when small caps are used for glosses, and include A (agent of transitive verb), B (core benefactive), D or I (core dative / indirect object), E (experiencer of sensory verb), G or R (goal or recipient – indirect object of ditransitive verb), L (location argument), O or P (patient of transitive verb), S (single argument of intransitive verb), S$_A$ (Sa) and S$_P$ or S$_O$ (Sp, So) (agent- and patient-like argument in split-S alignment), Se and Sx (argument of equative/copular and existential verb), Su (subject of v.t. or v.i.), and T (theme – direct object of ditransitive verb).
    These abbreviations are, however, commonly used as the basis for glosses for symmetrical voice systems (formerly called 'trigger' agreement, and by some still 'focus' (misleadingly, as it is not grammatical focus), such as AV (agent voice), BF (beneficiary 'focus'), LT (locative 'trigger').
* Glosses for generic concepts like 'particle', 'infix', 'tense', 'object marker' and the like are generally to be avoided in favor of specifying the precise value of the morpheme. However, they may be appropriate for historical linguistics or language comparison, where the value differs between languages or a meaning cannot be reconstructed, or where such usage is unambiguous because there is only a single morpheme (e.g. article or aspect marker) that can be glossed that way. When a more precise gloss would be misleading (for example, an aspectual marker that has multiple uses, or which is not sufficiently understood to gloss properly), but glossing it as its syntactic category would be ambiguous, the author may disambiguate with digits (e.g. ASP1 and ASP2 for a pair of aspect markers). Such pseudo-glossing may be difficult for the reader to follow.
* Authors also use placeholders for generic elements in schematicized parsing, such as may be used to illustrate morpheme or word order in a language. Examples include HEAD or HD 'head'; ROOT or RT 'root'; STEM or ST 'stem'; PREF, PRFX or PX 'prefix'; SUFF, SUFX or SX 'suffix'; CLIT, CL or ENCL 'clitic' or 'enclitic'; PREP 'preposition' and POS or POST 'postposition', PNG 'person–number–gender element' and TAM 'tense–aspect–mood element' (also NG number–gender, PN person–number, TA tense–aspect, TAME tense–aspect–mood–evidential) etc. These are not listed below as they are not glosses for morphological values.

## Lists

Nonabbreviated English words used as glosses are not included in the list below. Caution is needed with short glosses like AT, BY, TO and UP, which could potentially be either abbreviations or (as in these cases) nonabbreviated English prepositions used as glosses.
Transparent compounds of the glosses below, such as REMPST or REM.PST 'remote past', a compound of REM 'remote' and PST 'past', are not listed separately.
Abbreviations beginning with N- (generalized glossing prefix for non-, in-, un-) are not listed separately unless they have alternative forms that are included. For example, NPST non-past is not listed, as it is composable from N- non- + PST past. This convention is grounded in the Leipzig Glossing Rules. Some authors use a lower-case n, for example nH for 'non-human'.
Some sources are moving from classical lative (LAT, -L) terminology to 'directional' (DIR), with concommitant changes in the abbreviations. Other authors contrast -lative and -directive.
Some sources use alternative abbreviations to distinguish e.g. nominalizer from nominalization, or shorter abbreviations for compounded glosses in synthetic morphemes than for independent glosses in agglutinative morphemes. These are seldom distinct morphosyntactic categories in a language, though some may be distinguished in historical linguistics. They are not distinguished below, as any such usage tends to be idiosyncratic to the author.

### Punctuation and numbers

| Conventional Gloss | Variants | Meaning |
| - | | separator for segmentable morphemes, e.g., Lezgian amuq’-da-č (stay-FUT-NEG) "will not stay" |
| = | ꞊, ‿ | [optional in place of hyphen] separator for clitics, e.g., West Greenlandic palasi=lu niuirtur=lu (priest=and shopkeeper=and) "both the priest and the shopkeeper" |
| . | | when a morph is rendered by more than one gloss, the glosses are separated by periods, e.g., French aux chevaux (to.ART.PL horse.PL) "to the horses" A period is not used between person and number, e.g. 1PL, 2SG, 1DU, 3NSG (nonsingular). |
| _ | | [optional in place of period] when the language of the gloss lacks a one-word translation, a phrase may be joined by underscores, e.g., Turkish çık-mak (come_out-INF) "to come out" With some authors, the reverse is also true, for a two-word phrase glossed with a single word. |
| › | >, →, : | [optional in place of period] direction of polypersonal agreement in a single gloss, whether (a) possession (1S›SG means 1S possessor and singular possessum) or (b) transitivity (2›3 means 2 acts on 3, as in guny-bi-yarluga (2DU›3SG-FUT-poke) "(who) do you two want to spear?" A colon is used by some authors: 1S:SG, 2DU:3SG-FUT-poke. |
| : | | [optional in place of period] separates glosses where segmentation is irrelevant (morphemes may be segmentable, but author does not wish to separate them) |
| ; | : | [optional in place of period] separates glosses that are combined in a portmanteau morpheme, as in aux chevaux (to;ART;PL horse;PL) "to the horses". Some authors use the colon indiscriminately for this convention and the previous. |
| + | | [optional] compound word or fused morpheme. (Also used in 1+2 (inclusive) vs 1+3 (exclusive) person; EMPH+ strong emphatic) |
| & | | [optional in place of period] cross-referencing: X&Y = X›Y or Y›X or both |
| / | | | alternative meanings of ambiguous morpheme, e.g. 2/3 for a morpheme that may be either 2nd or 3rd person, or DAT/GEN for a suffix used for both dative and genitive. |
| \ | | [optional in place of period] a morpheme indicated by or affected by mutation, as in Väter-n (father\PL-DAT.PL) "to (our) fathers" (singular form Vater) |
| [...] | | [optional in place of period] indicates unmarked element (such as fils (son[MSG], which has no suffix for MSG). The null suffix -∅ may be used instead. |
| (...) | | [optional in place of period] inherent category, such as covert gender (when glossed at all) |
| ~ | | [required in place of hyphen] marks reduplication and retriplication (e.g. Ancient Greek γέγρᾰφᾰ (gé~graph-a) PRF~write-1SG 'I have written', with word-initial reduplication) |
| ⟨...⟩ | <...> | [required in place of hyphen] marks off an infix (e.g. ⟨ITER⟩Vb is word-initial infixation that makes the verb iterative) |
| ⟩...⟨ | -...-, >...< | [optional in place of hyphens] marks off a circumfix or bipartite stem. The second element may be glossed the same as the first, or as CIRC, STEM or $: ge⟩lauf⟨en ⟨PART.PRF⟩run ge⟩lauf⟨en PART.PRF⟩run⟨PART.PRF ge⟩lauf⟨en PART.PRF⟩run⟨CIRC ge-lauf-en PART.PRF-run-PART.PRF ge-lauf-en PART.PRF-run-CIRC |
| $ | | (second part of a discontinuous lexeme) |
| √ | | [optional] used by some authors to mark which element is the root (in ⟨x-√y-z⟩, 'y' is the root) |
| ? | ??, X | (morpheme not understood, unidentified morpheme) |
| ∅ | 0, Ø | zero (null) morpheme (such as fils-∅ (son-MSG), with a 'zero' suffix for MSG). Brackets may be used instead. |
| | 0 | zeroth person ('one', as in Finnish, Keres) |
| | 0 | epenthetic segment (semantically null) |
| 1 | | first person (1msg, 1fpl, 1EXCL, DEM1 etc.): 1HON speaker-honorific, 1HML speaker-humiliative/humble |
| 2 | | second person |
| 3 | | third person (3SG.M or 3msg or 3ms; 3PL.F or 3fpl or 3fp; 3DU.N or 3ndu or 3nd; N3 or n3 non-3rd person) [occasionally 3sm, 3sn, 3sf, 3pm, 3pn, 3pf etc.] |
| | 12, 13 | inclusive, exclusive person (especially if not thought of as a form of 1pl) (rarely other digit compounds, e.g. 12 dual vs 122 plural inclusive, 33 vs 333 for 3du vs 3pl, etc.) |
| | 3sp | impersonal 'space' subject |
| | 3.3′.CJ | (3rd-person subj, 3rd-person obj conjunct–order verb) |
| | 4 | (a) fourth person (= OBV) (b) first person inclusive (c) indefinite person |
| I, II, III, IV etc. | | noun classes / genders |
| > ≥ < ≤ | | older and younger: 1SG> 'I' (speaker older than addressee), 2SG≤ 'you' (speaker addressing addressee of same age or younger), 3SG> 's/he' (referent older than (a) speaker or (b) addressee, depending on requirements of discourse) |
| = ≠ | | same and different generations: 3DU≠ 'they two' (of different generations, e.g. grandchild and great-grandchild), 1PL= 'we' (of same generation, e.g. me and my siblings) |
| ≈ | | varies with |

### Grammatical abbreviations

| Conventional Gloss | Variants | Meaning | Reference |
| | -A | athematic (TAMA athematic tense-aspect-mood, ANTA athematic antecedent, etc.) | |
| | A- | associating (prefix on case abbreviation) | |
| | AA | addressee authority (cf. SA) | |
| | AB | from. May be equivalent to ABESS or ABL. Compounded for ABE(SS), ABL(AT), ABEL etc. if a single morpheme, as AB-ESS, AB-LAT or AB-DIR, AB-ELA etc. if not. | |
| | AB, ABV | above deictic center | |
| ABESS | ABE, AB | abessive case (a.k.a. caritive case or privative case: 'without') Lehmann (2004) recommends using privative (PRV) or aversive (AVERS) instead | |
| ABIL | ABL, CAP | ability or capability (ACQ.ABIL acquired ability, INTR.ABIL intrinsic ability) | |
| ABL | ABLA | ablative case ('from') | |
| | ABM | ablative-modalis case | |
| ABS | ABSOL, AB | absolutive case | |
| | ABSL | absolute (free, non-incorporated form of noun) | |
| ABST | AB cn | abstractive; abstract | |
| ABSTR | | abstract (of nominal) | |
| ABSV | ABSN | absentive (occurring in a place displaced from the deictic centre) | |
| | ABT | about | |
| | AC | motion across (as opposed to up/down-hill, -river) | |
| | AC | animacy classifier | |
| ACC | AC | accusative case | |
| | ACCOM | accompanier | |
| ACH | | achievement | |
| | ACP, ACCMP | accomplishment | |
| | ACR, ACT cn? | actor role | |
| ACT | AC | active voice | |
| | ACT | action (verbal participle) | |
| | ACT | actual | |
| | ACTL | actualizing | |
| | ACTY | activity | |
| AD | | near, by. May be equivalent to ADESS or ALL. Compounded for ADE(SS), (irregular ALL), ADEL etc. if a single morpheme, as AD-ESS, AD-LAT, AD-ELA etc. if not. | |
| | AD | agent demotion | |
| | AD | anti-deictic | |
| | ADAP | adaptive | |
| ADD | ADDIT | additive case; additive focus | |
| ADESS | AD, ADE, ADES | adessive case ('at'; more specific than LOC). See AD. | |
| ADEL | | adelative | |
| ADJ | | adjective (ADJZ adjectivizer) | |
| | ADJ | adjunct | |
| ADJZ | ADJR | adjectivizer | |
| ADM | ADMON | admonitive mood (warning) | |
| ADR | ADDR, AD | addressive; addressee-anchored/orientated/perspective | |
| ADV | | adverb(ial) (ADVZ ~ ADVR adverbializer); adverbial case | |
| | ADV | advancement | |
| | ADVM | adverb marker | |
| ADVS | ADV, ADVRS, ADVRST | adversative (maleficiary, 'whereas') | |
| ADVZ | ADVR, ADVZR | adverbializer | |
| AEQ | EQ, EQL, EQTV | aequalis (equalis) case (like, as), equational particle, equative (adj in nominal clause; EQA, EQS = active, stative equative) | |
| AFF | AFFMT, AFFM AFFIRM | affirmative | |
| | AFFECT | affectionate | |
| | AFM | aforementioned | |
| AFFT | AFF | affective case | |
| | aFOC | argument-focus marker | |
| | AFW | away from water (= UH) | |
| | AGG | aggregate, collective (cf. COL) | |
| | AGN, AG.N, AGNR | agent nominalization/noun | |
| | AGR, AG | agreement affix (typically number–gender; cf. PNG) Lehmann (2004) recommends avoiding and specifying agreement categories. | |
| AGT | AG | agentive case (AGNZ agentive nominalizer) | |
| AJC | | adjacent | |
| AL | ALIEN cn? | alienable possession | |
| ALL | ADL, ADDIR | allative case ('to'; also 'aditive' [sic], 'adlative', 'addirective') | |
| ALLOC | AL | allocutive (addressee honorific) | |
| | ALTER | alterphoric, = N.EGO | |
| | AMBIPH | ambiphoric pronoun | |
| | AMP | amplifier | |
| AN | ANM, ANIM | animate gender (ANPL animate plural; cf R; may exclude human referents) | |
| | AN, ACNR, ACNNR | action noun, action nominalizer | |
| | AN, ADN | adnominalizer | |
| ANA | ANP, ANAPH | anaphoric (demonstrative, suffix) | |
| | ANA | action narrowly averted | |
| AND | | andative ('going towards', cf venitive) | |
| | ANP | adnominal verb | |
| ANT | | anterior tense (relative tense; used for PRF in some traditions) | |
| | ANT | Antecedent (ANTA athematic antecedent, ANTT thematic antecedent) | |
| | ANT, ANTC | anticipated (future), anticipating | |
| ANT | ANTE | in front of. May be equivalent to ANTESS or ANTL. Compounded for ANTE(SS), ANTL(AT), ANTEL etc. if a single morpheme, as ANT-ESS, ANT-LAT, ANT-ELA etc. if not. | |
| ANTEL | | anteelative (antelative) | |
| ANTESS | ANTE | antessive case, anteessive ('before') | |
| ANTIC, AC | ACAUS | anticausative | |
| | ANTIC | anticipatory (ANT.SU anticipatory subject) | |
| ANTIP, AP | APASS, APS, ANTI, ATP | antipassive voice | |
| ANTLAT | ANTDIR | antelative (ante-lative), antedirective | |
| | AO | agent-orientated verb | |
| | AOBL | attributive oblique | |
| AOR | AO | aorist (= PST.PFV) | |
| | AP | adverbial particle [note: better to gloss the actual meaning] | |
| | APF | adjective prefix | |
| APL | APPL, APP, AL | applicative (subtypes APL.INS etc.) | |
| APPOS | APP | apposition, appositional mood | |
| | APPROB | approbation | |
| APR | APPR | apprehensive mood, apprehensional ('lest') | |
| APRT | PRESP, PRPART, PRP | active participle, present participle | |
| APRX | APPR | approximative | |
| APUD | | near, in the vicinity of. May be equivalent to APUDESS or APUDL. Compounded for APUDE(SS), APUDL(AT), APUDEL etc. if a single morpheme, as APUD-ESS, APUD-LAT, APUD-ELA etc. if not. | |
| | AR, AREA | areal (place/time/situation) | |
| ARG | | argumentative | |
| ART | | article | |
| | AS | aseverative | |
| | AS | actor (agent-role subject) | |
| ASC | ASSOC, ASSC, ASS | (a) associative case ('with', 'à'; not = COM), (b) associative plural (also ASC.PL, ASSOC.PL, ASS.P), (c) associative mood (d) compounds, e.g. ASSOC.MOT associated motion | |
| | ASP | aspect, aspectual Lehmann (2004) recommends avoiding 'aspect' as a gloss and specifying the aspect. | |
| ASRT | ASS, ASST, ASSERT | assertive mood | |
| | ASSP | asserted past participle | |
| ASSUM | ASSU, ASS cn? | assumptive mood, assumed evidential | |
| | AST | assistive | |
| | ASYM | asymmetric (= NSYM) | |
| | AT | at (locative) [English preposition as a gloss] | |
| | ATN | attention-calling | |
| ATR | ATTR, AT | attributive (L.ATR attributive derived from place name), attributor | |
| ATTEN | ATT, ATTN | attenuative | |
| AUD | | auditory evidential, auditive | |
| AUG | | (a) augmentative; (b) augment (in Bantu noun classes) (c) augmented number (e.g. of imperative) | |
| AUX | | auxiliary verb Per Lehmann (2004), this should only be used if it uniquely identifies the morpheme (i.e., there is only one auxiliary morpheme in the language.) | |
| AV | AF, AT, A | agent/actor voice/focus/trigger (NAV, NAF non-actor voice) | |
| AVERT | | avertive | |
| AVR | AVERS | aversative, aversive | |
| | BE, TB | 'be' verb (a conflation of EXIST and COP) [cf. COP] | |
| | BEL | below deictic center | |
| BEN | BENEF | benefactive case ('for') | |
| BG | BCKG | background | |
| | BI | bivalent | |
| | BOT | bottom (presumably also 'BTM') | |
| | BOU, BOUND | boundary (a. boundary-emphasizing; b. geographic boundary) | |
| | BR | bound root | |
| | BT | boundary tone | |
| BV | BF | beneficiary voice/focus/trigger | |
| C | COMM | common gender (C.SG or cs common singular, C.PL or cp common plural) | |
| | C | current evidence | |
| | C | conceptualizer | |
| | -C | 'compass', in languages where relative position is based on cardinal direction rather than left, right, front and behind (ABLC compass ablative, ALLC compass allative) | |
| | C- | complementizing (prefix on case abbreviation) | |
| | C.EXIST | ceased existence | |
| CAR | CARIT | caritive case | |
| CARD | | cardinal numeral (morpheme or grammatical feature) | |
| | CAU, CSL | causal-final case; causal | |
| CAUS | CAU, CS, CSTVZR | causative | |
| | CC | (a) conditional converb, (b) clause-chain marker | |
| | CDM | core development | |
| | CDN | conjunct dubitive neutral | |
| | CDP | conjunct dubitive preterite | |
| | CE | continued event | |
| CEL | CELER | celerative | |
| CENT | | centric case | |
| | CENTRIF | centrifugal (motion) | |
| | CENTRIP | centripetal (motion) | |
| CERT | | certainty (evidential) | |
| CESS | | cessative | |
| | CFOC | contrastive focus | |
| CHEZ | | at X's place, at the home of (from the French preposition chez) | |
| | CHO | chômeur | |
| | CHR | cohortative (often = HORT) | |
| | CIF | contrary information flow | |
| CIRC | CIR, CIRCUM | (a) circumstantive ('in', 'by') (b) circumstantial voice (= CV) | |
| CIRC | CIRCUM, $ | (empty tag to mark second element of a circumfix) | |
| | CIRC | circumferential | |
| | CIRCUMESS | circumessive | |
| CIS | CISL, CISLOC | cislocative | |
| CIT | | citation form ending | |
| CJT | CJ | conjoint | |
| | CL | close link (necessary condition; temporal closeness) | |
| | CL | nominal class (in Bantu languages) | |
| | CL | clause-level, e.g. &CL clause-level 'and', COMPL.CL completive clause marking | |
| CLF | CL, CLASS, CLFSR | classifier (base or morpheme) (NCL noun class). Some distinguish CLF classifier from CL class marker. The category of classifier should be specified, e.g. "CLF:round" or "CLF.HUM" | |
| | CM | (a) conjugation marker; (b) noun-class marker; (c) concatenative marker | |
| | CMPD | compound | |
| CMPL | COMPL, CPL, CMP, COMP, CMPLT, COMPLET | completive (completitive) aspect (e.g. PAST.COMPL completed past) – normally = PFV | |
| CMPR | CMP, COMP, COMPR, CMPAR | comparative | |
| | CMT, COMM | commitment, committal | |
| | CN | common noun (e.g. CN.DET common-noun determiner) | |
| | CN | conjunct nominal | |
| | CNEG, CNG, CN | connegative | |
| CNJ | CONJ, CONJUN | conjunction | |
| | CNS, CONSTR, CNSTR | construct state/form | |
| | CNS, CNSQ, CONS | consequential (e.g. consequential mood) | |
| CNTF | CF, CTR, CTRFCT, CNTR.FACT | counterfactual conditional, contrafactuality | |
| CNTR | CONTR, CTR, CONT, CON | contrastive, contranstive focus (= CONTR.FOC), contrasted topic | |
| | CNTR | continuer | |
| | CNTR | counter-assertive | |
| CEXP | CNTREXP | counterexpectation | |
| | CO.AG | co-agency | |
| | COCAUS | concomitative-causitive |
| | COH | coherence | |
| COL | COLL | collective number/numeral | |
| COM | CMT, COMIT | comitative case ('together with', 'in the company of') | |
| COMP | CMP, COMPL, COMPLR | complementizer (= SUBR) | |
| | COMP | compassion | |
| | COMPV, COMP | comparative case (unequal comparison) | |
| | COMPUL | compulsional | |
| CON | CNA, CNTV | conative | |
| | CON | concrete | |
| CONC | CNCS, CONCESS | concessive ('although') (> CONCP concessive particle) | |
| | CONC | concurrent | |
| | CONC | concord marker [to be avoided in favor of specifying the agreement] | |
| COND | CND, CON | conditional mood ('if', 'would') (GCOND given conditional, GCCOND given concessive conditional) | |
| CONF | CFM, CONFIRM | confirmational, confirmative | |
| | CONGR, CNGR | congruent | |
| CONJ | CJ | conjunctive (interpropositional relation), conjunct person marking | |
| CONJC | CONJ | conjectural (evidential) (NCONJ negative conjectural) | |
| CONN | CN, CNN, CT | connective (particle, mood, case) | |
| CONR | CNCT, CON | connector | |
| | CONS | consecutive; concessive | |
| | CONSEC, CONS | consecutive mood ('so that') | |
| | CONST, CNS, CST | constant, constancy | |
| CONT | CNT, CTN, CONTIN | continuous aspect, continuative aspect | |
| CONT | | on a vertical surface. (From English contact.) May be equivalent to CONTESS or CONTL(AT). Compounded for CONTE(SS), CONTL(AT), CONTEL etc. if a single morpheme, as CONT-ESS, CONT-LAT or CONT-DIR, CONT-ELA etc. if not. | |
| | CONT | continuous direction | |
| | CONT | contentive | |
| COOP | | cooperative | |
| COORD | | coordination, coordinative | |
| COP | BE | copula, copulative (BE identity copula, BE.LOC locative-existential copula) | |
| COR | COREF, CO.REF | coreference, coreferential | |
| | CP | conjunctive participle | |
| | CQ | content question (= WH.Q) | |
| CRAS | | crastinal tense ('tomorrow') | |
| | CRD, CARD | cardinal pronoun | |
| CRS | | current relevance marker, currently relevant state (as in the perfect) | |
| | CSM | change of state marker | |
| | CSO | cosubordinator | |
| | CT | circumstantial topic | |
| | CTEXP | contraexpectative | |
| CTG | CNTG | contingent mood | |
| | CNTG | contiguous | |
| CTM | CTEMP, COTEMP, CONTEMP, CONT | contemporative (at that/the same time) | |
| | CTR | control | |
| CUS | CU, CUST, CUSTOM | customary (cf. USIT | |
| CV | CF, TF | circumstantial/theme voice/focus/trigger | |
| | CV | copula verbalizer | |
| | CV | characteristic vowel | |
| | CV | conveyance voice (cf. CV circumstantial voice) | |
| CVB | CONV, CNV, C | converb | |
| DAT | | dative case | |
| | DC | dectic center | |
| | DC | downcoast | |
| | DD | discourse definite | |
| DE | | different event, change of event (cf DS) | |
| | DE | discontinued event | |
| -de | DE | dual exclusive (= DU.EX) | |
| | DEAG | deagentive | |
| DEB | OBLG, OBLIG, OBL | debitive / obligative | |
| | DEC | decausative | |
| DECL | DEC, DCL | declarative mood | |
| DED | | deductive evidential | |
| DEF | DF | definite | |
| | DEFIN | definitive | |
| | DEFOC | defocus | |
| | DEFR | deferential (speaker-humble) | |
| | DEI cn?, DEIC, DEIX, DX, D | deixis, deictic (D12 deictic of 12 person) | |
| | DEL.IMP | delayed imperative (a command for later; cf. IMM) | |
| DEL | | delative case ('off of', 'down from') | |
| | DEL, DLM | delimiter, delimitative ('just, only'), delimiting | |
| | DEL | deliberative mood | |
| DEM | D | demonstrative (DEM1 proximate dem, DEM2 present/given dem, DEM3 remote dem; DEM.ADDR near addressee, DEM.DOWN lower than reference point, DEM.NEAR ~ DEM.NR near, DEM.SP near speaker, DEM.UP higher than reference point) | |
| | DEN | denizen | |
| DENOM | | denominal | |
| DEO | DEONT | deontic mood | |
| DEOBJ | | deobjective | |
| DEP | D | dependent (as in DEP.FUT), dependent clause marking (use SJV) | |
| | DEPO | deportmentive | |
| DEPR | | depreciatory, deprecative | |
| DER | DERIV | derivation, derivational morpheme (e.g. ADJ.DER adjective-derived) | |
| | DEREL | derelational | |
| DES | DESI cn?, DESID | desiderative mood (= OPT) (DESN desiderative noun) | |
| DEST | | destinative aspect or case ('to') (non-finite verb form = supine) | |
| DET | D | determiner | |
| DETR | DTRNZ | detransitivizer, detransitive | |
| | DETR | detrimental | |
| | DFLT | default | |
| | DH | downhill, seaward (cf DR) | |
| -di | DI | dual inclusive (= DU.IN) | |
| | DIF | direct information flow | |
| DIM | DIMIN | diminutive | |
| DIR.EV | DIREV, DIR, DR, DRCT | direct evidential (= EXP; DIR/INFR direct/inferred) | |
| DIR | DIREC | directive, directional (= LAT); typically suffixed to another element such as AD-, POST-, SUB-, SUPER-. | |
| | DIR, DR | (a) direct case (> NDIR indirect case), (b) direct voice (opposite of INV) | |
| | DIR | directed (DIRA athematic directed, DIRT thematic directed) | |
| | DIS | dislocative | |
| DISC | DM, DSC, D | discourse marker | |
| | DIS.CON | discursive connector | |
| DISJ | DIS, DJ | disjunction, disjunctive, disjunct person marking | |
| | DISSAT | dissatisfaction | |
| DIST | DIS, DS, D, DSTL, FAR | distal, distant (DIST.FUT, DIST.PST, D.PRF; DIST.IMPV distal imperative) | |
| DISTR | DSTR, DISB, DIST | (a) distributive case; (b) distributive plural (c) distributive aspect | |
| | DITR | ditransitive | |
| DIV | | diversative | |
| | DN | deverbal noun | |
| DNZ | | denizen | |
| | DM | a) demonstrative marker; directive marker (polite command) | |
| DO | DO, DOBJ | direct object(ive) | |
| | DO | do like a ... (verbalizing suffix) | |
| DOM | | (a) differential object marking; (b) direct-object marker | |
| DON | | donative (auxiliary of benefactive) | |
| DOX | | doxastic | |
| | DP | distant past. = REM.PST | |
| | DP | discourse particle [use actual gloss if possible] | |
| | DP | destinative participle | |
| | DPAST | direct past (evidentiality) | |
| | DPC | distant past continuative | |
| | DPP | distant past completive | |
| DR | | downriver (cf DH toward the water) | |
| | DR | different reference | |
| DS | DA | different-subject/actor/agent (change of subject) marker (cf DE) | |
| DSC | DISCNT, DISCONT | discontinuative aspect | |
| | DT | different taxis | |
| DTR | | detrimentary | |
| DU | DL, d | dual number (M.DU or md masculine dual, F.DU or fd feminine dual) | |
| DUB | DBT, DUBIT | dubitative mood, dubiative | |
| | DUMMY | dummy affix | |
| | DUPLIC, DV | duplicative | |
| DUR | | durative aspect (continuous aspect) | |
| DV | DF | direction voice/focus/trigger | |
| | DWN, DN DOWN | downward | |
| DY | DYAD cn? | dyadic (e.g. wife-DY 'man and wife') | |
| DYN | DYNM | dynamic aspect / eventive | |
| | -E | (used to form various essive cases) | |
| | EA | epistemic authority (= EGO) | |
| | EC | euphonic consonant (= EP) | |
| | EFF | effector | |
| | EFOC | extra-focal | |
| EGO | | egophoric (NEGO non-egophoric) | |
| EGR | | egressive | |
| | EI | euphonic insertion | |
| ELA | EL, ELAT, ELV | elative case ('out of') | |
| | ELPA | existential + locative + possessive + attributive | |
| | EM | a) extension marker; b) evaluative marker | |
| EMO | EMOT | emotive | |
| EMP | EMPH, EM, E | (a) emphatic (e.g. emphatic base of pronouns), (b) emphasizer, emphatic marker (ETOP emphatic topic) | |
| | END, FP, FIN | clause-final particle (joshi) Per Lehmann (2004), glosses as 'particle' should be avoided; instead translate/gloss the meaning. | |
| | ENDO | endopathic (= EGO) | |
| | ENC | enunciative particle, as in Gascon | , Marcus, Nicole Elise (2010). The Gascon Énonciatif System: Past, Present, and Future: A study of language contact, change, endangerment, and maintenance (PDF) (PhD). Retrieved 12 February 2023. |
| EP | E, EPENTH, EPENT, 0 | epenthetic morpheme, epenthetical | |
| | EPI, EPIS, EM, EPST, EPIST | epistemic mood or modality | |
| EPIT | | epithet | |
| | EQU | equative (= COP | |
| ERG | | ergative case | |
| | ES | echo subject | |
| ESS | | essive case ('as') | |
| EV | EVD, EVI, EVID | evidential (DIR.EV etc.) [per Lehmann (2004), the particular evidential should be specified] (PREV.EVID.EV previous-evidence evidential) | |
| | EV | euphonic vowel (= EP) | |
| | EV | experiencer voice | |
| EVIT | | evitative case (= aversive case) | |
| | EVT | eventual | |
| EXAL | DEF | exaltive/deferential (high-status register) | |
| | EXC, XS | excessive [cf. EXESS 'ex-essive', which is commonly misspelled 'excessive'] | |
| EXCL, EX | EXC, e | exclusive person (as in 1EX, 1PL.EX, 1e) | |
| EXCLAM | EXCLM, EXCL, EXC | exclamative, exclamatory | |
| | EX.DUR | excessive duration | |
| | EXEC | executive (auxiliary) | |
| EXESS | | exessive case | |
| | EXFOC | extrafocal (cleft subordinate clause |
| EXH | ADH | exhortative, adhortative | |
| | EXH.FOC | exhaustive focus | |
| EXIST | EXS, EXST, EXIS, EX, EX.BE | existential ('there is') | |
| EXO | | exocentric case | |
| | EXP, EXPER cn? | experiencer, experiencer case | |
| EXP | EXPER, EXP.EV | experiential, eyewitness = direct evidential (cf. WIT). EXPER.PAST experienced past. | |
| | EXPECT | expectational | |
| | EXPL, EXP | expletive (dummy / meaningless form) | |
| | EXPR | expressive | |
| EXT | | extended (aspect, demonstrative), extendible; extension (sound stretch) | |
| | EXT | extent | |
| | EXT | external evidential | |
| | EXTRV | extraversive (trz by addition of ugr) | |
| | EXTT | extended topic | |
| | EZF, EZ, IZAF | ezafe = izafet | |
| F | FEM | feminine gender (F.SG, FSG or fs feminine singular, F.PL, FPL or fp feminine plural) (FEM also 'female speaker') | |
| | FA | future actor | |
| FAC | FACT | (a) factive evidential/mood, factual; (b) factitive (A-FACT NP 'make NP A') | |
| FAM | | familiar, as for familiar register (as the T–V distinction) and familiar pronominal | |
| | FC | future conjunct (NFC non-future conjunct) | |
| | FCL | facilitive | |
| | FD | future disjunct | |
| | FH, FIRSTH | firsthand (NFH non-firsthand) | |
| | FI | feminine indefinite | |
| | FILL, SFL | morphological filler, sentence filler (expletive) | |
| FIN | | finite verb (NFIN non-finite) | |
| | FIN | finalis | |
| FMR | DCSC | former, deceased, 'late' | |
| | FN | first (= given) name | |
| | FNL | phrase-final suffix | |
| FOC | | focus (confusingly used both for symmetrical voice and for true grammatical focus: A.FOC, AGFOC agent/actor focus; P.FOC, PFOC patient focus; LFOC location focus, BFOC beneficiary focus, ACFOC accompanier focus, IFOC instrument focus, CFOC conveyance focus) | |
| FOR | FRM, FORM, FRML | (a) formal register (as the T–V distinction); (b) formal mood; (c) formal case ('in the capacity of...') | |
| FPRT | FP | future participle | |
| | FPST, FP | far past | |
| FRACT | | fraction, fractional (numeral) | |
| FREQ | FRQ, FR cn? | frequentative aspect | |
| | FRT | front | |
| FRUS | FRUST, FRST, FR, FRUSTR | frustrative | |
| FS | | false start | |
| FTV | FACT | factative tense (PRES if stative, PAST if not) | |
| | FUNC | functional | |
| | FUNC | functive case | |
| FUT | F, FT | future tense (FOBJ future objective) | |
| | FUT.INT, ITF | future intention, intentional future | |
| | FV, TV | final/terminal vowel | |
| G1, G2, G3, G4 etc. | GND etc. | gender / noun class (e.g. G4 = 4th gender; may be used alongside M, F etc.) | |
| | GEM | generalized evaluative marker | |
| GEN | GN, G | genitive case, genitive form of pronoun | |
| | GENZ | generalized | |
| GER | GRD | gerund, gerundive (for the latter, use obligative) | |
| GIV | | given | |
| | GKN | general knowledge (evidential) | |
| | GM | gender marker [or specify the gender] | |
| | GNF | general non-finite | |
| GNO | GNOMIC | gnomic (generic) aspect | |
| GNR | GENR, GNRL, GENER, GENRL, GEN | generic, general (e.g. classifier, tense; APPL.GEN general applicative) | |
| | GNT | general tense | |
| | GO&, AM, DK | associated motion. GO&DO (go to a place and perform the verb) (= ASC.MOT) | |
| | GPST | general past | |
| | GRP | group numeral | |
| | gTOP | given topic | |
| GV | GF, GT | goal voice/focus/trigger [how d this diff from PV?] | |
| | H | head | |
| | H | hearer/reader | |
| | H | high variety/code, in adiglossic situation | |
| H | HUM | human, anthropic gender (H.SG or hs human singular, H.PL or hp human plural, ALLH human allative) (cf. R) | |
| | H | higher animacy, higher object (cf. LA) | |
| HAB | HABIT | habitual aspect | |
| | HBL | habilitive | |
| HCR | | hypocoristic | |
| HES | HESIT | hesitation, hesitation particle | |
| HEST | | hesternal tense ('yesterday') | |
| HIST | | historic(al), as in historical present or past historic tense | |
| | HNDR | number of hundreds (in a numeral) |
| HOD | TOD | hodiernal tense ('today' in HOD.FUT/HODFUT hodernial future, HOD.PST/TODP hodernial past) | |
| HON | HNR, H, HS $^{[suffix]}$ | honorific (subject honorific) | |
| | HOR | horizon of interest | |
| | HOR | horizontal | |
| HORT | HOR [cn] | hortative (1st-person imperative) | |
| | HPL | human plural (H.PL) | |
| | HR.EV | heard evidential (= AUD) | |
| HRS | HSY, HS, HRSY, EH | hearsay/reported evidential | |
| HUM | HML, HBL cn? | humiliative, humble (low-status register) | |
| HYP | HYPO, HYPOTH cn? | hypothetical mood | |
| | I | inflected (AUX.I inflected auxiliary) | |
| | IA | involuntary agent | |
| | IA | indirect agent(ive) | |
| | IA | instrumental advancement | |
| IAM | | iamitive | |
| | IC | involuntary causative (natural or accidental events) | |
| | IC | indirective copula | |
| | ICOM | involuntary comitative | |
| | ICVB, IC | imperfective converb | |
| | IDENT, ID | identity, identical (~ NID), | |
| | IDENT | identificational | |
| | IDENTIF | identifiable | |
| IDEO | IDPH, IDEOPH | ideophone (≈ MIM) | |
| | IE | informal ending | |
| | IFUT | indefinite future | |
| IGN | IGNOR | ignorative | |
| ILL | ILLA, ILLAT | illative case ('into') | |
| | IM | interrogative marker | |
| | IMI | impersonal infinitive | |
| IMM | IM, IMD, IMMED | immediate, as in IM.IMP immediate imperative mood, IM.FUT near future tense, IM.PAST/IMPST immediate past; immediate evidential | |
| | IMMED | immediate past, = IMM.PST | |
| | IMN | imminent (future) = IMM.FUT | |
| IMP | IMPER, IMPV, IMPRT | imperative mood | |
| | IMPARF | imparfait | |
| IMPF | IMPERF, IMPRF, IMPFT, IM | imperfect (= PST.NPFV) | |
| | IMPL | implicated | |
| | IMPOSS | modal impossibility | |
| IMPR | IMPREC cn? | imprecative mood | |
| IMPRS | IMPERS, IMPR, IMPS cn?, IMPL, IMP | impersonal, impersonal verb | |
| IN | | in a container. May be equivalent to INESS or INL. Compounded for INE(SS), INL(AT), INEL etc. if a single morpheme, as IN-ESS, IN-LAT, IN-ELA etc. if not. | |
| | INAB, IMPOT | impotential | |
| | INABL | inablative | |
| | INACT | inactive | |
| INAL | | inalienable possession | |
| INAN | INANIM | inanimate gender | |
| | INC | increment | |
| | INCEP, INC, INCP, IP | inceptive (= inchoative or ingressive) | |
| INCH | INCHO, INC, INH | inchoative | |
| INCL, IN | INC | inclusive person (as 1IN or 1PL.IN) | |
| | INCP, INCIP | incipient (INCPA athematic incipient, INCPT thematic incipient) | |
| IND | INDIC | indicative mood | |
| | INDCAUS | indirect causative | |
| | INDEP, INDP, IND | independent | |
| | INDET | indeterminate | |
| INDH | | indefinite human ('somebody') | |
| | INDIR | indirective (motion inward); indirect(?) (INDIR.COP indirective copula); indirect evidential | |
| | INDIV | individualizer | |
| INDN | | indefinite non-human ('something') | |
| INEL | | inelative case ('from within') | |
| INESS | INE, INES, INSV, IN | inessive case ('in') | |
| INF | | infinitive | |
| INFL | | inflectional | |
| INFR | INFER, INFERN, INF | inferential mood, inferred evidential | |
| | ING, INGR | ingressive case | |
| INJ | INTERJ, INTRJ, INTJ, INT, INTER | interjection (incl. 'filler'), interjective | |
| INS | INST, INSTR | instrumental case | |
| | INS | instantiated | |
| INT | INTER, INTERR | interrogative (= Q); C.INT content interrogative mood | |
| | INT | internal evidential | |
| INTER | | within (a solid object). May be equivalent to INTERESS or INTERL. Compounded for INTERE(SS), INTERL(AT), INTEREL etc. if a single morpheme, as INTER-ESS, INTER-LAT, INTER-ELA etc. if not. | |
| | INTERESS | interessive | |
| | INTERP | interpellative mood | |
| INTF | | interfix | |
| INTL | INTEN, INT | intentional conditional, intentive future | |
| | INTRST | complement of interest | |
| INTRV | | introversive | |
| INTS | INT, ITS, INTN, INTNS, INTEN, INTENS | intensifier, intensive | |
| INTV | INTENTV | intentive | |
| INV | | inverse | |
| | INVN | inverse number (as in Kiowa: sg of default pl, pl of default sg) | |
| | INW | inward | |
| IO | IO, IOBJ | indirect object(ive) | |
| | IP | immediate past. = IM.PST | |
| | IPAST | indirective past | |
| | IPD | impeditive | |
| IPS | | (a) impersonal passive (passive w/o promotion to subject); (b) impersonalizer (AGIPS agent impersonalizer) | |
| | IQ | indirect question, self-addressed question | |
| | IR | irregular (compounded with other glosses, e.g. LOC.IR irregular locative) | |
| IRR | IRLS cn?, IRREAL, IR | irrealis mood | |
| | IRREL, IRRELEV | irrelevence (= NRELEV | |
| | IS | indirect speech | |
| | IS | impersonal subject | |
| | IS | immediate scope | |
| ITER | IT, ITE, ITR | iterative aspect | |
| | ITG | intangible | |
| | ITM | intermittent | |
| ITV | ITIV, IT | itive | |
| IV | IF | instrument voice/focus/trigger | |
| | IVC | impersonal verb construction | |
| | J | thematic | |
| JUS | JUSS | jussive mood | |
| KIN | | kinship suffix | |
| KNWN | | known | |
| | -L | (used to form various lative cases) | |
| | L | low variety/code, in adiglossic situation | |
| | L | local (exophoric) person (= 1/2) |
| L2 | B | tags translation as code-switching. | |
| | LA | lower animacy (cf. H) | |
| LAT | | lative case (= MVMT, direction) | |
| | LC | limited control | |
| | LCL | locational | |
| | LENGTH | vowel or consonant emphasis lengthening | |
| | LEX | lexical-thematic (affix), lexical | |
| LIG | | ligature, possessor ligature | |
| LIM | LMT | limitative | |
| | LKLY | likely (modality) | |
| | LL | land gender | |
| | LL | lower level (spatial deixis) | |
| | LM | landmark | |
| | LM, LI | linking morph, linking interfix | |
| | LN | last (= family) name | |
| LNK | LK, LINK | linker, linking element: an interfix or a ligature | |
| LOC | LCV | locative case (includes essive case), locative verb (EXIST) | |
| LOG | | logophoric (LOG.A speaker-logophoric PN, LOG.B addressee-logophoric PN) | |
| | LOQ | delocutive | |
| | LP | linking particle | |
| | LQ | limiting quantifier | |
| | LS | lexical stem | |
| LV | LF | locative/location voice/focus/trigger | |
| | LV | linking vowel | |
| | LV | lengthened vowel | |
| M | MASC | masculine gender (M.SG, MSG or ms masculine singular, M.PL, MPL or mp masculine plural) | |
| | M- | (a) modal case (prefix on case abbreviation, e.g. MABL modal ablative) (b) marked (e.g. MNF marked non-future) | |
| MAL | | malefactive case | |
| | MALE | male speaker | |
| MAN | MNR | manner; mood–aspect–negation (e.g. purpose-manner converb) | |
| | MATUT | matutinal (in the morning, upon waking) | |
| | MC | modal clitic | |
| | MDT, MEDIT | meditative | |
| | M.E. | multiple event | |
| | MEA | measure | |
| MED | | (a) mediative; (b) medial (e.g. medial past, medial demonstrative = GIV); (c) middle voice (= MID) | |
| | MF | maximal field of view | |
| MID | MD, MP, M, MDL | middle voice, mediopassive | |
| | MIM | mimetic (≈ IDEO) | |
| | MIN | minimal number | |
| MIR | ADM | mirative / admirative | |
| | MIRN | negative mirative | |
| | MIS | miscellaneous gender | |
| MIT | | mitigation | |
| | MLOC | modal locative | |
| | MOD, MO | modal case (modalis), e.g. certainty | |
| MOD | MDL, MP$^{(modalparticle)}$ | mood, modal, modal particle | |
| | MOD | modifier | |
| MOM | | momentane, momentative (single-event verb) | |
| MONO | | monofocal person | |
| | MOT | motion (combined with location glosses), mutative | |
| MOV | MVMT | movement | |
| | MS | maximal scope | |
| | MSAP | main speech-act participant (= 1st person in assertions, 2nd in questions) |
| MSD | MASD | maṣdar (verbal noun) | |
| | MT | mental state (classifier) | |
| MUL | MULT, MLT, MLTP | multiplicative case, numeral | |
| | MULT | multal | |
| | MVR | mover | |
| N | NEUT, NT | neuter gender (N.SG, NSG or ns neuter singular [cf. NSG non-singular], N.PL, NPL or np neuter plural) Sometimes = non-human. | |
| N | | noun (as a gloss in NZ nominalizer) | |
| N- | n-, NON- | non-, in-, un-, a- (e.g. NSG, nSG non-singular; NPST, nPST non-past; NPRS, nPRS non-present; NFUT, nFUT non-future; NF, nF non-feminine; NFIN, nFIN non-finite; NPOSS, nPOS non-possessed; N1, n1 non-1st person [i.e. 2/3], N3 non-3rd person; NPFV, nPFV imperfective) | |
| | -N | name (FN feminine name, GN geographic name, MN masculine name, PN proper name or place name, PLN place name, PSN personal name) | |
| NARR | NAR cn? | narrative tense | |
| | NC | noncontrol | |
| | NC | noun-class marker | |
| NCOMPL | ICP, INC, INCMP, INCPL, INCMPL, INCOMPL | incompletive/noncompletive aspect (normally = NPFV) | |
| NCTM | ICM | in contemporative (perfective appositional) | |
| | NCUR | noncurative | |
| NDEF | INDF, IDF, INDEF, IND | indefinite | |
| NEC | | necessitative | |
| NEG | NOT, NG | negation, negative (EX.NEG existential negation, ID.NEG identity negation) | |
| | NEGAT | negatory, negator | |
| | NEGF | final negator | |
| | NEGN | negative nominalization | |
| NEUT | NEUTR, NTR | neutral aspect | |
| | NEX | non-extended | |
| | NF | non-final form/marker (cf. non-feminine) | |
| | NF | non-finite (cf. non-feminine) | |
| | NFC | non-finite conditional | |
| NFIN | NF cn? | non-finite (nonfinite verb, non-finite clause) (NF may be ambiguous with non-feminine) | |
| | NFND | non-future neutral disjunct | |
| | NFPD | non-future perfective disjunct | |
| NH | NHUM, nH | non-human | |
| | NM, NMASC | non-masculine | |
| NMZ | NMLZ, NLZ, NOMZ, NOMZR, NM, NML, NMNL, NOM, NOMI, NOMIN, NOMN, NOML, NZR, NR, NZ | nominalizer/nominalization (e.g. PAT.NZ patient nominalizer) | |
| NOM | NM | nominative case | |
| | NOMS | S-only nominative (S case in tripartite system, = NTR) | |
| | NONDUM | 'not yet' | |
| | NONIN | noninstigational | |
| | N/P | neuter plural | |
| | NP | noun particle (cf. NP 'noun phrase') | |
| | NP | near past | |
| | NPC | non-past completive | |
| | NPDL | noun-phrase delimiter | |
| | NPF | noun prefix | |
| NPFV | IPFV, IPF, IMP, IMPFV, IMPERFV, IMPRF, IMPF | imperfective aspect | |
| | NPOSS, UNPOSS | non-possessed (marker of unpossessed noun) | |
| | NPP | non-past progressive | |
| | NR | near (as in NR.DIST 'near distal') | |
| | NS | non-subject (see oblique case) | |
| | NS | non-singular | |
| | NSIT, NEWSIT | new situation | |
| | NSP | non–speech-participant perspective (cf. NSP non-specific) | |
| | NTEL, ATEL, AT | atelic | |
| | NTL | neutral direction | |
| NTR | INTR cn?, INTRANS, ITR | intransitive (covers an intransitive case for the S argument, = NOMS) | |
| | NTS | non-topical subject | |
| NUM | NUMV | numeral, numerative (NUM.CL numeral classifier) | |
| | NV | neutral version (cf. SBV subjective version) | |
| | NVEXP | nonvisual experiential (evidential) | |
| NVIS | INVIS, NVSEN | non-visual (evidential: NVSEN non-visual sensory); invisible (deixis) | |
| | NVN | nominal cyclical expansion (cf. VNV) | |
| NVOL | AVOL, INVOL | nonvolitional, avolitional, involuntative/involitive | |
| | NW | non-witnessed | |
| | NX.PST (= UWPST) | non-experienced past | |
| | -O | object(ive) (ABLO objective ablative, EVITO objective evitative), 3mO 3m object, 2SG.O 2sg object | |
| OBJ | OBJV, OB | object(ive), object agreement (TOP.OB topical object); objective case | |
| OBL | O | oblique case, oblique form of pronoun | |
| | OBS | observation | |
| OBV | | obviative | |
| | OFC | object focus. = O.FOC or P.FOC | |
| | OINV | inverted object | |
| | OM | object marker | |
| ONOM | | onomatopoeia | |
| | OP | object prefix | |
| | OPP | opposite | |
| OPT | | optative mood (= DES) | |
| | OR | orientation (direction) marker | |
| | OR | open reference (not specifically DS or SS) | |
| ORD | | ordinal numeral | |
| | ORD | ordinary | |
| ORIG | | origin, originative | |
| | OS | oblique stem | |
| | OS | onstage region | |
| | OTHER | non-main speech-act participant (= 2nd or 3rd persion in assertions, 1st or 3rd in questions) | |
| | OUT | outward | |
| | OV | objective version | |
| | P | pre-, post- (P.HOD prehodiernal, P.CRAS postcrastinal) | |
| | P | proper (as opposed to common: ABS.P absolutitive proper case; GEN.P genitive proper case. Cf. PERS personal (proper) article. | |
| | P | previous (evidence) | |
| | -P | possessor: 1P, 2P, 3fP, 3mP (1st, 2nd, 3rd masc & fem possessor). = 1POSS etc. | |
| | P.ANT | past anterior | |
| | P.IMP | plural imperative | |
| | P/I | passive/imperative (= PAS/IMP) | |
| PASS | PAS, PSS, PSV | passive voice | |
| | PABS | past absolutive | |
| | PAT | patientive (= UND) Lehmann (2004) recommends avoiding, as it is not the value of a morphological category. | |
| PAUS | | pausal, pause | |
| PAU | PAUC, PA cn?, pc | paucal number (M.PAU or mpc masculine paucal, F.PAU or fpc feminine paucal; GPAUC greater paucal) | |
| | PC | past completive | |
| | PC | concord particle | |
| | PC | perfective converb | |
| | PCL | 'polysemic clause linkage marker' | |
| | PCP | (a) completive participle; (b) participatory evidence | |
| | PDR | past, deferred realization | |
| | PDS | previous event, different subject | |
| | PE | perpetuity | |
| | PE | previous event | |
| -pe | PE | plural exclusive (= PL.EX) | |
| PEG | | pegative case (a special case for the giver) | |
| PEJ | | pejorative | |
| PERAMB | | perambulative | |
| | PERI | peripheral | |
| PERL | PER cn?, PRL | perlative case | |
| PERM | | permission, permissive mood | |
| | PERM | permanent | |
| PERS | P | personal (PERS.EV personal evidential / personal experience, PERS.AG personal agency, PERS.EXP personal experience); personal/proper article (= PERS.ART); 'personal' affix (= 4th person) | |
| | PERS, PERSIS | persistive | |
| | PERSE | personal experience (= PERS.EV) | |
| | PERT | pertensive | |
| | PERV | pervasive | |
| PFV | PF, PERFV | perfective aspect | |
| | PHAB | past habitual | |
| | PHAS | phasal aspect | |
| -pi | PI | plural inclusive (= PL.IN) | |
| | PIMPF | progressive imperfective | |
| | PIMPV | past imperfective | |
| | PINF | physical inferential | |
| | PK | personal knowledge | |
| PL | p, PLUR | plural (but 1PL also 1p, 3PL.M also 3mp) | |
| PLUP | PLU, PPRF, PPERF, PLUPERF, PLUPRF, PLPF, PLPERF, PPF | pluperfect | |
| PLUR, VPL | PLU, PLR, PL, PLURAC | pluractional (= VPL verbal plural) | |
| | PM | predicate marker | |
| | PN, PROPN, PR cn | proper noun/name, personal name (e.g. PN.DET proper-noun determiner) | |
| PO | | primary object | |
| | PO | patient-orientated verb | |
| | PODIR | postdirective (= postlative) | |
| POEL | POSTEL | postelative case | |
| POESS | POSTE, POSTESS | postessive case ('after') | |
| POL | | polite register | |
| | POS | positive | |
| POSS | POS, PO, PSR | possessive, possessor (2POSS 2nd-person possessive; POSS.CL possessive classifier) | |
| POSB | POSSB, POSSIB | possible, modal possibility | |
| | POSSD | possessed | |
| POST | PO- | postlocative (behind). May be equivalent to POSTESS or POSTL. Compounded for POSTE(SS) (POESS), POSTL(AT) (PODIR), POSTEL (POEL) etc. if a single morpheme, as POST-ESS, POST-LAT or POST-DIR, POST-ELA etc. if not. | |
| | POST, POSTP | postposition, postpositional case | |
| | POST | post-terminal aspect | |
| POSTL | PODIR, POSTLAT, POSTDIR | postlative case, or 'postdirective' | |
| POT | POTEN cn? | potential mood (cf. VER) | |
| | PP | (a) predicative possessive particle; (b) present progressive; (c) past perfect; (d) pragmatic particle | |
| | PPA | active perfect participle | |
| | PPAST | post-terminal past | |
| | PPF | perfect participle | |
| | PPFV | past perfective (= perfect) | |
| | PPP | (a) past passive participle; (b) past perfect participle | |
| PPRT | PP, PPT, [cn] PPART, PASTP [cn] | passive participle, past participle | |
| | PPS | pseudo-passive | |
| | PR | pragmatic (in PR.PART pragmatic particle) | |
| | PRC | precedence | |
| PREC | | precative mood (requests) | |
| | PREC, PRECON | precondition (PRECA athematic precondition, PRECT thematic precondition) | |
| | PREC, PRE | precise, precision | |
| PRED | | predicative affix, predicative | |
| | PREDICT | prediction | |
| PREP | | preposition, prepositional case | |
| PRET | PRT | preterite (= PFV.PST) | |
| | PREV | previous (in evidentials) | |
| | PREVEN | preventive | |
| PRF | PFT, PF, PERF | perfect | |
| | PRFRM, PERFORM | performative | |
| | PRIOR, PR | prior, preceding | |
| PRIV | PRV, PRVT | privative case | |
| PRO | PN, PRN, PRON | pronominal base, (PRO only) proform | |
| PROB | PB | probabilitive | |
| | PROCOMP | procomplement | |
| | PROD | product verbalizer | |
| PROG | PRG, PROGR | progressive aspect | |
| PROH | PRH, PROHIB | prohibitive mood ('don't!') | |
| PROL | PROLAT, PRL | prolative case (= VIA) | |
| | PROL | prolonged action | |
| PROP | PROPR | proprietive case (quality of having X) | |
| | PROP | proper-noun marker | |
| | PROPOS, PROP | propositive mood (inclusive jussive) | |
| PROS | PROSEC | prosecutive case ('across', 'along') | |
| PROSP | PROS, PRSP cn? | prospective aspect or mood (PPROS past prospective) | |
| PROT | | protasis | |
| | PROV | pro-verb | |
| PROX | PX, PRX | proximal demonstrative; proximate (e.g. PROX.IMP proximate imperative) | |
| | PRP | property predication | |
| PRS | PRES, PR | present tense | |
| | PRSC | prescriptive | |
| | PRSV | presentative | |
| | ps- | pseudo: psAP pseudo-antipassive, psPASS pseudo-passive | |
| | PS | passing state | |
| | PS | passé simple | |
| | PS | undergoer (patient-role subject) | |
| | PSA | previous same agent of v.t. (PSS previous same subject) | |
| | PSS | previous event, same subject of v.i. (PSA previous same agent); PSSI and PSST previous event, same subject of v.i. and v.t. | |
| | PSSM, PSSD | possessum (impersonal), possessed | |
| | PSSR | possessor | |
| PST | PAST, PA, PS, P, PAS | past tense (e.g. PINDEF past indefinite, MPST modal past, SPST simple past) | |
| | PSTN | past nominalization | |
| | PST.PR | past/present (different readings on different word classes) | |
| | PT | potent case inflection | |
| | PTCL, PRT, PTC, PT, PTL, PCL, PART | particle (Lehmann (2004) recommends avoiding this and instead translating/glossing the meaning.), particalizer | |
| PTCP | PART, PCP, PPL, PTP, PPLE, PRTC, PTCPL, PARTIC, PARTICIP, P | participle, participial (mood) | |
| | PTH | path | |
| PTV | PRTV, PAR, PART, PRT, PTT, PARTVE | partitive case | |
| PUNC | PUNCT, PNC, PU, PNCL, PCT, PNCT | punctual aspect, punctiliar | |
| PRP | PURP, PUR | purposive case/converb (NPRP non-purposive) | |
| PV | PF, PT, OV | patient/object voice/focus/trigger | |
| | PV | pivot form/nominal | |
| | PV | possessive verbalizer | |
| PVB | PREV, PRV, PV | preverb | |
| | PVP | post-verbal particle (only particle so glossed) | |
| | PX | possessive suffix | |
| Q | QST, QUES, QUEST, QP | question word or particle (= INT) | |
| | QM | quantity marker | |
| | QU, QM, QM | question marker (usually = Q) | |
| QUAL | | qualifier | |
| QUANT | QNT | quantifier | |
| QUOT | QUO, QT | quotative (quotative case, quotative mood, quotation marker) | |
| | QV | quotative verb | |
| | R | rational gender (thinking beings) (R.SG or rs rational singular, R.PL or rp rational plural) | |
| -R | | reflexive (e.g. 3R 3rd-person reflexive) | |
| | R- | relational (prefix on case abbreviation) | |
| | R.EXT, RT.EXT | root extension | |
| | R/A | realis/assertive | |
| | RA | repeated action | |
| | RA | relative agreement | |
| RAR | | raritive | |
| | RE | refactive | |
| | REA | reactive (responding) | |
| REAL | RLS, RL, R | realis mood | |
| REC | RCT, R | recent, recent past (REC.PST, REC.P recent past tense, R.PRF recent perfect) | |
| | REC | receptive | |
| RECP | RCP, RECIP, RECIPR, REC | reciprocal voice | |
| | RED, RDP, REDUP, RDPL, DUP | reduplication, reduplicant (avoid if possible; instead gloss with meaning of reduplicated element) | |
| REF | RFR | referential, referentive | |
| REFL | RFL, RFLX, REFLX, REF, RFLEX, RX, R | reflexive (reflexive pronoun/possessive, reflexive voice; 'R' used with person-number-gender) | |
| REG | | regal (e.g. pronouns) | |
| | REG | regularity | |
| REGR | REG | regressive | |
| REL | R | (a) relative clause marker (RELZ relativizer); (b) relative pronoun affix; (c) relational (REL.CL relational classifier) (d) relative case (possessor + A role) (e) e.g. PAST.REL relative past | |
| | REL.FUT | relative future | |
| | RELEV | relevance | |
| REM | RM, RMT | remote: REM.PST or REM.P or REMP remote past tense, REM.FUT or REM.F or REMF remote future tense; also REM remote past tense | |
| REP | REPET, RPT | (a) repetitive aspect (cf ITER) (b) repetitive numeral (c) repeated word in repetition | |
| RES | RESU, RESULT | resultative (RES.N resultative noun) | |
| | RES | resignative | |
| | RESID | residue class | |
| | RETURN | returnative | |
| | REV | revisionary | |
| | RF | referential-focus | |
| | RLN | relational | |
| | RSM, RES | resumptive marker, resumptive pronoun | |
| RESP | | respect | |
| | RESP | responsive | |
| RET | RETRO | retrospective (recollection; synonym for 'perfect' in some traditions) (PRETRO past retrospective) | |
| REV | | reversative, reversive | |
| | REV | reverential | |
| | R/M | reflexive/middle voice | |
| | RM | relative marker | |
| | RNR | result nominalizer | |
| ROOT | R, $ | (empty tag to mark second element of a divided root) | |
| ROY | | royal (e.g. pronouns) | |
| | RP | (a) recent past, = REC.PST (b) remote past, = REM.PST | |
| | RP | reflexive-possessive | |
| | RPC | remote past continuous | |
| | RPI | remote past inferred | |
| | RPR | remote past reported | |
| | RPST | remote past | |
| RPT | RPRT, REP, RPR, REVID | reported evidential (= HSY); reportative | |
| | RPV | remote past visual | |
| RQ | RHET, RQT | rhetorical question | |
| | R/R, RR, R | reflexive/reciprocal | |
| | RSN | reason | |
| RST | REST, RES, RSTR | restrictive (restrictive numeral, adverbial) | |
| | RT | roundtrip | |
| RV | RF | reason voice/focus/trigger | |
| | -S | subjective (ABLS subjective ablative, EVITS subjective evitative), 3fS 3f subject | |
| | SA | speaker authority (cf. AA) | |
| | SAA | speaker-addressee authority | |
| | SAL | salient | |
| SAP | | speech-act participant (cf. MSAP) | |
| SBEL | SUBEL | subelative case ('from under') | |
| | SBEN | self-benefactive | |
| SBESS | SUBE cn?, SUBESS | subessive case ('under') | |
| SBJ | SUBJ, S, S/A, SBJT, SJ | subject case, subject agreement (NSBJ non-subject) | |
| | SBV, SUBJ | subjective, subjective speaker perspective | |
| SCEP | | sceptical | |
| | SD | sudden-discovery tense | |
| | SDS | simultaneous event, different subject | |
| SE | | same event (cf SS) (SE.DA same event, different argument/subject) | |
| SEC | | second-hand (SEC.EV secondhand evidential, IMP.SEC secondhand imperative) | |
| SEJ | | sejunct (opposite of conjunct) | |
| SEM | SMLF, SEMEL | semelfactive aspect ('once') | |
| | SEM | special evaluative marker | |
| SEN | SNS, SENS, SENS.EV | sensory evidential mood, = VIS+AUD (NVSEN non-visual sensory) | |
| SEP | | spatial separation, separative | |
| SEQ | SQ | sequential | |
| SER | | serial marker | |
| | SF | subject focus | |
| | SF | stem formation | |
| | SF | sentence-final marker | |
| | SFN | softener | |
| | SFOC | sentence focus | |
| | SFP, SFS | sentence-final particle/suffix | |
| SG | s, SING | singular (but 1SG also 1s, 3SG.M also 3ms) | |
| SGV | SGT, SING, SINGL, SGLT | singulative number, singulative nominal | |
| | SH | subject honorific | |
| SIM | SIMUL | simultaneous aspect, simultaneity | |
| SIMV | SIM, SML | similative (e.g. plural based on prototypical member of group) | |
| | sIN | singular intransitive action | |
| | SINV | inverted subject | |
| SIT | | situative (situational aspect) | |
| SJV | SBJV, SUBJ, SUBJV, SUB, SB, SU | subjunctive mood (SUB and SUBJ may be ambiguous with 'subject') | |
| SKT | KST | suck-teeth (= kiss-teeth) | |
| | SL | same level (spatial deixis) | |
| | SM | series marker | |
| SMBL | SEMBL | semblative | |
| | SMI | semeliterative | |
| | SMR | same reference | |
| | SO | same object | |
| SOC | | (a) sociative case (socialis); (b) sociative causative | |
| SP | SPC, SPEC, SPCF, SPECFC | specific, specifying (NSP, NSPC, NSPEC nonspecific: cf. also NSP entry) | |
| | SP | sentence particle (= FP). See usage note at particle and FP. | |
| | SP | simple past, perfective past | |
| | SP | subject prefix | |
| | SP | speaker: SP.PROX speaker-proximate, DEM.SP demonstrative near speaker | |
| | SPAT | spatial | |
| SPECFR | SPEC | specifier | |
| SPECL | SPEC | speculative mood | |
| SPKR | | speaker-anchored, speaker perspective | |
| | SPL | spotlighting | |
| | SPONT | spontaneous | |
| | SR | (a) same referent, (b) switch reference | |
| | SRC, SO | source | |
| | SRP | self-reporting pronoun | |
| SS | SA | same-subject/actor/argument marker (cf SE) | |
| | SSO | same-subject overlap ('while') | |
| | SSS | same-subject succession ('then') | |
| | SSS | simultaneous event, same subject (SSSI of intransitive clause, SSST of transitive clause) | |
| STAT | STV, ST, STA, STT | stative aspect, stative verb | |
| STEM | ST, $ | (empty tag to mark second element of a divided stem) | |
| | STIM | stimulative | |
| | STR | strong | |
| SUB | | sublocative (under). May be equivalent to SUBESS or SUBL. Compounded for SUBE(SS) (SBESS), SUBL(AT) (SBDIR), SUBEL (SBEL) etc. if a single morpheme, as SUB-ESS, SUB-LAT or SUB-DIR, SUB-ELA etc. if not. | |
| | SUB, SUBV | subitive. | |
| SUBL | SBDIR, SUBLAT, SUBDIR | sublative case ('down under'), also 'subdirective' | |
| SUBR | SUB, SUBORD, SBRD, SR | subordinator ('that'), subordinate | |
| | SUBS | subsequent | |
| | SUBSEC | subsecutive mood | |
| | SUBST | substitutive | |
| | SUBZ, SBST | substantivizer (= nominalizer) | |
| | SUC | successive ('then') | |
| | SUG | suggestive mood | |
| SUP | | supine | |
| SUP | [dbl check next] | superlative (most: cf. super-lative, super-essive) | |
| | SUP, SUPL cn?, SUPPL | supplicative, supplication | |
| SUPEL | SREL, SUPEREL | superelative case ('from on top of', 'from above') | |
| SUPER | SUP-, SPR | superlocative. May be equivalent to SUPERESS or SUPERL. Compounded for SUPERE(SS) (SUPESS), SUPERL(AT) (SUPDIR), SUPEREL (SUPEL), SUPERABL etc. if a single morpheme, as SUPER-ESS, SUPER-LAT or SUPER-DIR, SUPER-ELA etc. if not. | |
| SUPESS | SUP, SUPE cn?, SRESS, SPRESS, SUPER, SUPERESS cn? | superessive case ('above'; 'on') | |
| SUPL | SUPLAT, SUPDIR, SRDIR, SPR | super-lative, superdirective ('to above') | |
| SUPP | PSUP, PRESUPP | suppositive, presuppositive, presumptive, suppositional, presupposition | |
| | SURP | surprise | |
| | SVC | serial verb construction | |
| | SW | switch | |
| | SYM | symmetric | |
| -T | | trigger (used for AT, PT, GT etc.) [old fashioned; 'voice' is now standard] | |
| | -T | thematic (TAMT thematic tense-aspect-mood, ANTT thematic antecedent, etc.) | |
| | T, TMP | temporal | |
| TA | T/A | tense/aspect | |
| TAG | | tag question | |
| TAM | TMA | tense–aspect–mood | |
| TAMP | | tense–aspect–mood plus person/number | |
| TEL | | (a) telic aspect (cf PFV) (A:TEL anticipatory telic, C:TEL culminatory telic) (b) contrastive emphasis | |
| TEMP | TEM | temporal case; temporal converb | |
| | TEMP | temporarily | |
| | TENS | number of tens (in a numeral) |
| TENT | | tentative | |
| TER | TERM, TERMIN | terminative ~ terminalis ('up to') (case, aspect) | |
| | TERM | non-subject | |
| | TH, THM, THEM, THEMAT | thematic element (e.g. thematic consonant, suffix); theme | |
| | TJ | trajector | |
| TKN | | teknonym | |
| | TM- | tense marker: TMhrs, TMdays, TMyrs for events hours, days, years ago | |
| | TND | tendency | |
| TNS | T, TENS, TS | tense Lehmann (2004) recommends avoiding this and specifying the tense. | |
| TOP | TP, TPC | topic marker (TOPP topical patientive) | |
| | TOPZ, TOPR | topicalizer | |
| TOT | | totalitative, totality | |
| TR | TRANS, TRNS | transitive verb (TRZ, TRR transitivizer); transitive case (rare) | |
| | TR | transitional sound | |
| | TR | trajector | |
| | TRANSF, TRNSF | transformative ('becoming', dynamic equiv. of essive) | |
| | TRANSP | (transposition of deictic zero away from ego, e.g. 'uphill' from an object rather than from the speaker) | |
| TRANSL | TRA, TRAL, TRANS, TRNSL, TRANSLV cn?, TRANSLAT, TRL$^{translative}$, TSL$^{translocative}$ | (a) translative case (becoming, into); (b) translocative (across; may be compounded for e.g. ANT-TRANS pass in front of, POST-TRANS pass behind, SUB-TRANS pass under) | |
| TRI | TRL, TR | trial number | |
| | TRIP | retriplication [note: usually best to gloss with the meaning and ⟨~⟩] | |
| | TRM | transmutative | |
| TRN | | transnumeral (neither SG nor PL) | |
| | TRPOSS | transfer of possession | |
| TRZ | TZ | transitivizer | |
| | TS | (a) thematic suffix; (b) tense | |
| | TV | thematic vowel | |
| TVF | | truth-value focus | |
| | U | uninflected (AUX.U uninflected auxiliary) | |
| | UA | unit augmented | |
| | UC | upcoast | |
| | UF | uncertain future | |
| | UGR, UG, UND, U cn? | undergoer role (cf PAT) | |
| | UH | uphill, inland (= AFW. cf UR.) | |
| | UL | upper level (spatial deixis) | |
| | UNCERT | uncertain mood | |
| | UNIF | unified | |
| UNSP | UNSPEC | unspecified (person, tense) | |
| | UNW | 'unwillingness' marker | |
| | UP | upward | |
| UR | | upriver (cf UH away from the water) | |
| | USIT | usitative, for usual, customary or typical events | |
| UTIL | | utilitive | |
| UV | UF | undergoer voice/focus/trigger (= { PV + LV + CV }) | |
| | UV | uncertain visual | |
| | UWPST | unwitnessed past | |
| | V | viewer | |
| -V | | trigger (used for AV, PV, LV, CV etc.) | |
| | VA | verbal adjective | |
| | VAI | intransitive animate verb | |
| VAL | | valency-increasing; valence marker | |
| | VAL | validator | |
| VB | V | verbal (as a gloss in VBZ, VZ verbalizer, VPL verbal plural = PLUR, VCL verb class, VD verbal dative, VALL verbal allative, etc.) | |
| VBZ | VBLZ, VBLZR, VERB, VERBL, VBZR, VLZ, VR, VZ | verbalizer | |
| | VESPERT | vespertinal (in the evening) | |
| | VCL | verb class marker / classifier | |
| | VCO | voluntary comitative | |
| V$_d$ | VD, v.d. | verb, ditransitive (e.g. as a covert category) | |
| VE | VEG | vegetable (food) gender. Some authors distinguish VE gender from VEG food affix. | |
| VEN | VENT | venitive/ventive (coming towards; cf andative) | |
| VER | | veridical, veridical mood (certain conditional; cf. POT) | |
| | VERIF | verificative | |
| | VERS | versionizer; versative | |
| VERT | | vertical classifier | |
| V$_i$ | VI, v.i. | verb, intransitive (e.g. as a covert category) | |
| VET | | vetitive / vetative mood | |
| VIA | | vialis case | |
| | VII | intransitive inanimate verb | |
| VIRT | | virtual mode | |
| VIS | VS, VEVID | (a) visual evidential (PRES.VIS present visual, VIS.P previous visual evidence); (b) visible (demonstrative, e.g. $_{3vis}$) | |
| | VLOC | verbal locative | |
| VN | | verbal noun | |
| | VNV | verbal cyclical expansion (cf. NVN) | |
| VOC | | vocative case | |
| VOL | | volitive mood; volitional (cf. AVOL avolitional) | |
| | VP | verbal particle | |
| V$_r$ | VR, v.r. | verb, reflexive (e.g. as a covert category) | |
| | VSM | verb-stem marker | |
| V$_t$ | VT, v.t. | verb, transitive (e.g. as a covert category) | |
| | VTA | transitive animate verb | |
| | VTI | transitive inanimate verb | |
| | WH.EX | exclamatory wh- clause ('what a ...!') | |
| | WH | interrogative pronoun (wh-word), wh- agreement | |
| WHQ | WH.Q | wh- question | |
| WIT | | witnessed evidential (cf. EXP) | |
| | WP, WPST | witnessed past | |
| X | ? | (unidentified morpheme) | |
| | YNQ, PQ, P.INT, PI | yes–no question, polar question/interrogative (e.g. PC vs CQ) | |
| | -Z | -(al)izer (e.g. ADJZ adjectivizer, NZ nominalizer, TRZ transitivizer, VBZ verbalizer) | |
| ZO | | zoic gender (animals) | |

### Kinship

It is common to abbreviate grammatical morphemes but to translate lexical morphemes. However, kin relations commonly have no precise translation, and in such cases they are often glossed with anthropological abbreviations. Most of these are transparently derived from English; an exception is 'Z' for 'sister'. (In anthropological texts written in other languages, abbreviations from that language will typically be used, though sometimes the single-letter abbreviations of the basic terms listed below are seen.) A set of basic abbreviations is provided for nuclear kin terms (father, mother, brother, sister, husband, wife, son, daughter); additional terms may be used by some authors, but because the concept of e.g. 'aunt' or 'cousin' may be overly general or may differ between communities, sequences of basic terms are often used for greater precision. There are two competing sets of conventions, of one-letter and two-letter abbreviations:
| 1-Letter Gloss | 2-Letter Gloss | Meaning | Equivalent sequence of nuclear relations |
| A | Au | aunt | = MZ or FZ / MoSi or FaSi |
| B | Br | brother | [basic term] |
| C | Ch | child | = S or D / So or Da |
| | Cu | cousin | = MZD, MZS, MBD, MBS, FZD, FZS, FBD, FBS = MoSiDa, MoSiSo, MoBrDa, MoBrSo, FaSiDa, FaSiSo, FaBrDa, FaBrSo |
| D | Da | daughter | [basic term] |
| e, E | o, el | elder/older | (e.g. eB, eZ) |
| Ego | ego | ego (center of reference) | (EgoE = one's spouse) |
| ex | ex | ex- | (e.g. exH, exW) |
| F | Fa | father | [basic term] |
| | F | female kin |
| G | Gr | grand- | e.g. GF = PF (MF or FF); GS = CS (SS or DS) e.g. GrFa = PaFa (MoFa or FaFa); GrSo = ChSo (SoSo or DaSo) |
| | Gen | generation | (see below) |
| H | Hu | husband | [basic term] |
| LA | La | -in-law | e.g. BLA = WB or HB or ZH / BrLa = WiBr or HuBr or SiHu |
| M | Mo | mother | [basic term] |
| | M | male kin |
| | Ne | nephew | = BrSo or SiSo |
| | Ni | niece | = BrDa or SiDa |
| P | Pa | parent | = M or F / Mo or Fa |
| S | So | son | [basic term] |
| SI, G | Sb | sibling | = B or Z / Br or Si |
| SP, E | Sp | spouse | = H or W / Hu or Wi |
| | st | step- |
| U | Un | uncle | = MB or FZ / MoBr or FaBr |
| W | Wi | wife | [basic term] |
| y, Y | y, yo | younger | (e.g. yB, yZ) |
| Z | Si | sister | [basic term] |
| (m.s.) | (m.s.) | male speaking | (when kin terms differ by gender of speaker) |
| (f.s.) | (f.s.) | female speaking | (when kin terms differ by gender of speaker) |
| μ | ♂ | male ego | (when kin terms differ by gender of the person they are related to) |
| φ | ♀ | female ego | (when kin terms differ by gender of the person they are related to) |
| ∥ | ∥ | parallel | (across a brother–brother or sister–sister link) |
| + | + | cross | (across a brother–sister link) |
| os | os | opposite sex (of ego) | (some langs distinguish siblings of the same and opposite gender from the ego; e.g. for some Tok Pisin speakers, a woman's susa (osSb, from English 'sister') is her brother and her brata (ssSb, from English 'brother') is her sister) |
| ss | ss | same sex (as ego) | cf. os (opposite sex) above |
These are concatenated, e.g. MFZS = MoFaSiSo 'mother's father's sister's son', yBWF = yBrWiFa 'younger brother's wife's father'. 'Elder/older' and 'younger' may affix the entire string, e.g. oFaBrSo (an older cousin – specifically father's brother's son), MBDy (a younger cousin – specifically mother's brother's daughter) or a specific element, e.g. MFeZS 'mother's father's elder sister's son', HMeB 'husband's mother's elder brother'.
'Gen' indicates the generation relative to the ego, with ∅ for the same (zero) generation. E.g. Gen∅Ch (child of someone in the same generation, i.e. of a sibling or cousin); ♂Gen+1F (female one generation up, i.e. mother or aunt, of a male); Gen−2M (male two generations down, i.e. grandson or grandnephew).
'Cross' and 'parallel' indicate a change or lack of change in gender of siblings in the chain of relations. Parallel aunts and uncles are MoSi and FaBr; cross-aunts and uncles are FaSi and MoBr. Cross-cousins (+Cu) and parallel cousins (∥Cu) are children of the same. Parallel niece and nephew are children of a man's brother or woman's sister; cross-niece and nephew are the opposite. 'Elder' and 'younger' occurs before these markers: o∥Cu, y+Cu, and the gender of the ego comes at the very beginning, e.g. ♂o∥CuF, ♀y+CuM.

## Literature

* Leipzig Glossing Rules
* Payne, Thomas E. 1997. Describing Morphosyntax.
* Summary of case forms: Blake, Barry J. (2001) [1994]. Case (Second ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 195–206.