Atong Grammar Lesson: Chym does not mean Past Tense
Channel: Atongmorot
Date: 2022-06-03

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Creator and Speaker: Dr Seino van Breugel
https://independent.academia.edu/SeinovanBreugel
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In this video, we will look at the meaningful part chym in Atong, as in the word re'engnichym. We will see examples of different situations in which it is used, and find out what its meanings are. We will see that, contrary to what some people say, chym does not indicate past tense in Atong.

In linguistic terms, the morpheme chym is called the irrealis enclitic. It is a predicate enclitic, which means that it can be attached to the last element of the predicate of a clause. This enclitic only occurs on independent clauses. This morpheme  has several meanings or functions, among which are indicating that something is imaginary or in vain/without result. The morpheme chym is a modality enclitic, which means that its appearance relates to the status of the proposition that describes the event or situation denoted by the clause (see Palmer 2001:1). More detailed information about this enclitic can be found in van Breugel (2014: Section 22.11).

There is no grammatical category of tense in Atong, but this will be the the topic of another video.

References:
van Breugel, Seino. 2014. A grammar of Atong. Leiden, Boston: Brill.
Palmer, F.R. Mood and modality. Second edition. Cambridge: Cambridge University press.
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This video is about the Atong language as spoken in India.
For more information ,see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atong_language_(Sino-Tibetan)
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All Atong language examples in this video are in Atong spelling.

The Atong Spelling Guide can be downloaded from the webpage https://independent.academia.edu/SeinovanBreugel

To learn the names of the letters in the Atong alphabet, watch Atong Spelling Lesson 1. Link: https://youtu.be/XDBQEl1i1kc

To test your knowledge of Atong spelling and maybe make it into a competition, paly the Atong Spelling Game. Link: https://youtu.be/UOCtvE08KA4
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