Source: http://cinduworld.tripod.com/kashsyntax.htm
Timestamp: 2019-04-19 04:34:02+00:00

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1.1 Sentences. The basic word order in Kash sentences is subject - verb - (indirect object, if present) - direct object when the subject and objects are all nouns. Intransitive verbs, of course, will have no DO, but may have an IO. Verbs are marked with the personal prefixes to agree with their subject, whether noun or pronoun; subject pronouns are omitted, except for emphasis. Pronominal objects, however, precede the verb (in the order DO - (IO) - verb) in the short or clitic form, or in the full form when emphasized. (Note that the neuter singular object pronoun yu is usually omitted unless ambiguity would result.) The subject is always in the nominative case, IO in the dative; the DO may be dative or accusative (in a few cases, genitive). See §2 Use of the Cases.
1.1b. Questions. Yes-no questions, in correct usage, are simply declarative sentences with the question particle aka preposed, and rising intonation-- çenji yatimbat minaye 'Sheni knows Mina' > aka çenji yatimbat minaye? 'does Shenji know Mina?' (there are variants without aka in colloquial speech).
1.1c. "Passive", impersonal and subjectless sentences; physical sensations.
(?)minaye (~ne) yavele toye amani her father gave Mina (~her) money = Mina (She) was given money by her father.
Both sentences are felt to be awkward, and though written work shows examples of both, they are rare. The construction can be avoided by topicalizing the subject, though in that case a "passive" translation might not be appropriate. There is, of course, no problem with a pronoun subject--minaye yavele toye Mina was given money by him/her.
iii. Weather verbs. (1) A few nouns that describe conditions require yale ..., e.g yale lero, yale yanga, yale sucup, yale tandi piyal it's sunny, it's windy, it's muddy, it's full moon. (2) If the condition can be described with an adjective/verb, there are two ways of expressing it: (a) as a verb, with 3rd pers. sing.-- yafasan, yaronek it's hot, it's cold. Or (b) with lero(ni), e.g. leroni (ya)fasan, leroni (ya)ronek (3) A few nouns may be used in all three ways, especially (leroni,) yaripa ~yale ripa, (leroni,) yaçoteru ~yale çoteru it's rainy/raining, it's foggy. The sentences with leroni might also be translated "it was a hot day,...a foggy day".
iv. For the English construction with "one", Kash prefers to use a personal pronoun--1st or 2nd pers., singular or plural, as best fits the situation. Thus, ta makayapi (~hakayapi etc.) kar pila! I (you)(=one) hardly know what to think! However, there is a way to express "one"-- with subject ka&ccedl; and bare verb stem-- kaç ta kayapi kar pila! kaç kuna çañuke... one (lit., person) hardly knows what to think! one might hypothesize....-- but it is considered evasive, condescending, affected and high-flown.
- andum ye 'the/that little girl'; andum virik 'a pretty little girl'; andum ye virik 'that pretty little girl'; in e.g. the genitive: andumi ye, andumi ye virik; plural andumila nila, andumila (nila) virik, dative andumile nila virik.
Adjectival modifiers may themselves be modified with adverbials like niya 'very', uti 'rather, somewhat', lavi 'more', omban 'less', imik 'least', which are all postposed-- puna marok niya 'a very old house', payo mondes uti 'a rather shoddy cape'; also superlative krat 'most', which is preposed-- lero krat fasan 'the hottest day', payoni krat tevas 'his most elegant cape'-- though most speakers tend to relativize adjectivals with a preposed modifier.
lavi and omban may also be used as adjectivally, as in mipita añulin lavi 'we need more lumber'. Comparative sentences will be discussed in more detail in §6.2.
It should be noted that there is a growing tendency in colloquial speech to prepose all adverbial modifiers-- puna lavi velu, kaçut niya marok, payo uti mondes 'a newer house, a very old man, a rather shoddy cape'. However, such usage is still frowned upon by educated speakers, even though there is a reason for the change: in predicative sentences all modifiers precede the adjective form (e.g. puna yu lavi yavelu 'that house is newer') and this requirement has simply been extended to descriptive usage as well. See §6.
1.2b. No more than two adjectival modifiers may follow a noun, optionally connected with i 'and'-- puna marok (i) vanat 'an old white house'. When more than two modifiers occur, one or more of them must be rephrased as a relative clause or conjoined sentence, e.g. "he bought that old white stone house": yatraka puna yu cangar vanat i/re yamarok lit. he bought that white stone house and/that it is old. Presence of a genitive noun, also, frequently requires this rephrasing, since a genitive noun counts as a modifier.
Any adjectival modifier, in fact, may be phrased verbally as a relative clause, with little change in meaning or emphasis: thus, puna (yu) re yavanat 'house that is white' is equivalent to puna (yu) vanat; similarly, puna re yamarok (i) yavanat. This is also the preferred construction when the adjective has a preposed modifier like krat 'most' or sambat 'so..., such a...' -- so andi re krat yavital 'the tallest boy' (though NOUN krat ADJ is acceptable), puna re sambat yamarok 'such an old house' (NOUN sambat ADJ may occur colloquially but is considered substandard).
1. when the noun has more than two modifiers (not including a demonstrative), then the excess must be relativized; it does not matter which, although the relativized modifier can be interpreted as more important or more emphasized; so "that beautiful old white house" is puna yu marok (i) vanat re yavirik, or puna yu virik (i) vanat re yamarok, etc.-- or even, by choice, puna yu vanat re yamarok (i) yavirik.
2. when the modifier is a verbal base with some modifying material of its own; it is possible to say pumbik kumbor 'a collapsed barn' but pumbik re yakumbor pehan cosa 'barn that collapsed last year'; or sende çindi 'a/the spoken language' but sende re içindi keandolila 'the language spoken by Andolians', lit. '...that (it) they-speak Andolians'. The only exception is mepu 'make ~made' (and a few other verbs involving methods of manufacture) followed by a single noun denoting material, location, etc., as nimu mepu hece 'a pot made of iron', ñakiç volu holunda 'cars assembled in Holunda'; ...mepu pawu-ta '...made in Bau Da').
3. Relativization is also preferred for inchoative and causative modifiers-- better pumbik re yaçukumbor 'a barn (that is) about to collapse, in danger of collapsing' or pumbik re irungumbor 'a barn that is/was demolished ~pulled down', lit. '...that they demolished', than pumbik çukumbor or pumbik rungumbor (though these may occur, they are considered awkward and substandard.).
4. when the modifier is a phrase of some sort-- kaçut re mesa niyoñi 'a one-armed man, a man with one arm', lit., '...that (it is) one, his arm'; kaçut re aceni (ya)matra 'a man with a broken leg', lit., '...that his leg (it is) broken'; puna re nim atelni 'a five-room house, house with five rooms', lit., '...that five its room(s)'.
5. and usually when a genitive noun is present: for although puna virik çenjiyi 'Shenji's beautiful house' is acceptable, puna çenjiyi re yavirik is preferred by many. Relativization is required if more than two modifiers are present (and the genitive form counts as a modifier) puna virik çenjiyi re yamarok 'Shenji's beautiful old house' is acceptable, but puna çenjiyi re yavirik yamarok would be preferred.
1.2c. Nouns modified by other nouns. Such modifiers typically refer to the material of which something is made, its origin, brand-name, or some other characteristic. For example: nimu hece 'iron pot', puna cangar 'stone house', poren andoli 'Andolian wine', kofa -añol velu- 'New Star beer', prale toloti '(Mr.) Toloti's kiosk'. These may also be relativized, but then need some explanatory word: nimu re mepu hece, puna re mepu (or ningar 'built') cangar, poren re mepu andoli, kofa re mepu (or arañi 'its name') -añol velu-, prale re yapeña tolotiyi ~ re apeñani ('property of') toloti.
Generally allowed: kaçut yu marok me yacura liri eçevani 'that old man told me about his trip'. Or: yavele anaye virik kreki 'she gave the pretty child a cookie'.
- angunjo lero 'half a day, half of the day'-- just 10 hours; or about 3-4 if working hours are meant; angunjo lelero 'half-days'-- i.e. 10-hour periods, or 3-4 working hours per day; versus angunjo leroç 'half of the days' (in a given time period); similarly with other time words-- angunjo aro 'half an hour', angunjo aro-aro 'half of every hour, by half-hour periods, every half-hour', angunjo aroç 'half the hours (of the day or other time period)'. Or, angunjo kumus 'half of a/the cake', angunjo pipinal kumus 'half of every cake', angunjo kumuç 'half of the cakes'.
The variety of Kash being described here is a "syllable-timed" language, that is, every syllable is pronounced distinctly with approximately equal length. There is little rise and fall in the voice.
Topicalized: mi2^na2/, 2 yafilan pore2^ñi1 '(as for) Mina, she brought the wine'; with the object as topic 2pore2^ñi2/, 2mina (yu) yafi2^lan1 '(as for) the wine, Mina brought it'.
Counting/listing: fiyan yale? eya,...ke2^li2/, sor2^/, fa2^nu1. 'How many are there? Let's see...six, seven, eight'. 2mimaru mina2^ye2/, 2çenji2^ye2/, 2(i) 2ere2^ke1 'we invited Mina, Shenji and Erek'.
3.1 Nominative. This is the base form of the noun; there is no special case ending. It is used (a) as the subject of a sentence, and as the complement of the copular verbs ale 'to be' (whether present or not), ciyon 'to seem' and yukar 'to become'; and in topic position; (b) with some inflected titles, and in apposition with them; (c) in the so-called ni-construction, which has several uses: (i)as the (logical) object of compound prepositions and (ii) as "possessor" in the genitive construction noun+ni noun(nom.), used mostly with inanimate nouns, but in some cases with animates; (d) as direct object is certain verbal constructions; and (e) as subject (in certain cases for humans, all cases for non-human) of accidental caka-verb forms.
- (As subject/complement) çenji yale kandumbra 'Shenji is a doctor'. The copula ale is not usually omitted in sentences of the type NOUN is NOUN, but if it is, the subject then becomes a topic (see next).
- (As topic-- a very common construction) cenji, yale kandumbra '(As for) Shenji, he's a doctor'-- this sentence differs from the one above only in intonation, discussed above. Similarly with ale deleted-- çenji, kandumbra-- with topic intonation. Further: in çenji, ta ne matikassa 'As for Shenji, I didn't see him'-- "Shenji" is nominative, even though he is logically the object of tikas, as indicated by ne in the main clause.
- (Always without copula) riyena çenji? 'Where is Shenji?' lani çenji? 'Which one is Shenji?' arañi (aran+ni) çenji 'His name is Shenji'.
- (As complement) yamelo yukar kandumbra 'He wants to become a doctor'. sininji ya yaciyon kacivar 'That young man seems/appears to be a student'.
If, however, the name is in appostion with the title (in writing, set off with commas), then both nouns take case markers-- matikas kandumbraye, alikaye 'I saw the doctor, Alika;' maçindi pambane, minjere 'I spoke to Pamban, the Deputy'. Similarly with a pronoun, "we doctors..." mila kandumbrala..., (gen.) mili kandumbrali.
3.1c. In a very common, and very important usage, the nominative occurs instead of the genitive in what might be called a "pseudo-genitive" construction [noun/verb/adj.]a+ni + NOUNb(nom.). (Since our purpose in this section is to illustrate the uses of the nominative case, more detailed discussion of some of these "ni-constructions" will be deferred until §4.) Formerly, many such cases were considered colloquial, and were frowned upon in "proper" speech and writing; but they are now acceptable not only in speech but in all but very formal or technical written work.
3.1c.i. It occurs especially with compound prepositions, where it has always been considered correct. "Compound" prepositions are of the sort ri vaka/ni... 'under...', ri ciniye/ni... 'to the middle of..., into the midst of...', ri ondeni... 'in the interior of..., inside...' etc., alo ondeyi/ni... 'from the inside of..., out of...', and many others. Grammatically, vaka, cini, onde etc. are the object of their preposition, and carry any necessary case-markings, but the noun that follows (in the nom.) is the logical object.
There are cases where a human or other animate noun can occur in this construction, but they will be dealt with in §4. For example, similar to the "genitive" use, many verbs and adjectives can be "nominalized" or topicalized with -ni (and with the lst and 2nd person suffixes as well). Some of these are long-established and completely acceptable-- e.g. such things as vitalni çenji, vitalmi 'çenji's height (is...), my height (is...)'; others are considered somewhat colloquial (and subject to over-use), but have become acceptable in almost all situations.
Thus, a sentence like mapila ~çenji yapila re hanjayi hacosa 'I think ~Shenji thinks (that) you ought to go' can be transformed to: pilami ~pilani cenji, hanjayi hacosa with essentially the same meaning, except that pilani/mi is now technically a noun (though indeclinable)and has topic intonation-- we might interpret this as 'my ~Shenji's thought/thinking is...'or 'what I think ~Shenji thinks is, you ought to go'.
- irumaran sim tolotiye tekangaya 'they named/appointed Mr. Toloti(dat.) Senior Professor(nom.)' ~sim tolotiye irumaran tekangaya but not *tekangaya irumaran sim tolotiye.
- mina yalepes çenjiye -çiçi- 'Mina calls Shenji "Shishi"
- milepes ele yu uku 'we call that plant(acc.) uku(nom.)' ~ iyu ilepes uku 'that's called uku' (lit., that(acc.) they-call uku(nom.)-- the nearest equivalent to a passive in Kash). Given the identity of the neuter nom/acc. cases, the case assignments here are based on analogy of sentences with animate objects.
- mina yavele aran erek anayeni 'Mina named her child Erek.' Note that the apparent direct object aran (+erek) precedes the indirect object anaye (technically incorrect!); however, in this case vele aran is considered a unit, with the name 'Erek' in apposition (note too, only a proper name may follow aran in this construction). Thus, anayeni is the true direct object and as such may be fronted, while aran+erek may not be. It is possible to say, with normal word order, mina yavele anayeni aran erek as a somewhat literal translation of "Mina gave her child the name Erek" (with expected IO-DO order, though Erek in apposition remains in the nominative)-- acceptable but odd, since most Kash would have an immediate mental picture of Mina somehow handing the name over as if it were some tangible object. Still, it is correct to say yavele anayeni aran ehas/tarambik 'she gave her child a strange/unsuitable name,' or yavele anayeni aran otamayini 'she gave her child his grandfather's name ~she named him after his grandfather', but never *yavele aran ehas/otama anayeni which could only mean "she named her child 'Strange' or 'Grandfather'".
Some of the others like mepu honder 'to attack', mepu tenar 'to battle', vele tropa 'to warn', and irumale keti(ç) 'impose a condition/conditions on...'-- are also verb + noun, and like vele aran are considered "double accusatives", with honder, tenar, tropa viewed as accusatives. Similarly, (verb + verb), rumuwik mepu (lit., expel work) 'to fire, dismiss from a job', vele nanguça (lit., give consume-by-fire) 'to cremate', and vele/kota rapinda (lit., give/say welcome) 'to welcome'-- all these verbal expressions take a human object either in the dative (vele tropa, vele/kota rapinda, irumale keti(ç)) or accusative (the others, since they are seen as directly affecting their object), and non-human/neuter objects in the accusative, as expected. (mepu honder ri... and mepu tenar yam... can also occur with prepositional phrases, meaning more literally 'make an attack on...' and 'engage in/do battle with...').
- lopa ya yakici minan 'The/that lopa bit Mina'. yen yakici 'It bit her'.
- erek yakepak çenjin 'Erek hit Shenji' [with his fist]. erek yan yakepak 'Erek hit him'.
- man ikrahar 'they tortured me'.
- erek yasorom nim lopan 'Erek sold 5 lopas'. nin yasorom 'he sold them (anim.)'.
- mina yatarupat tingas cika 'Mina refuses to watch TV'. ta (yu) yalisam 'she doesn't like it'.
The other use of the accusative case is with prepositions, principally ri and its compounds, indicating location in, at, or on: yale ri puna 'he's in the house' (or, 'at home'); (yu) matraka ri fale 'I bought it at the market'; hakukkapo ri laca yu 'just put it on that table'; kandri hatikas ri ondeni puna? 'what did you see in(side) the house?'; ne matikas ri kandini fale 'I saw him in front of the market'; mina (yu) yatromat ri vakani laca 'Mina found it under the table'.
Colloquially, the verb ale is often omitted in short sentences: çenji, ri puna(ni)/opor; indemi, ri fale 'Shenji's at home/outside; my mother's at the market.' Note also the question word riyena '(at) where?' (considered to be an accusative form)-- riyena çenji? 'where is Shenji'; riyena eyalaç poren? 'where are the wine-glasses?'.
- mina yavele andine kreki 'Mina gave the little boy a cookie'; mina ne yavele kreki 'Mina gave him a cookie'-- an indirect object is generally required with di-transitive verbs like "give, lend" and may not be deleted.
- sovandrulaye yarumopor karun 'Sovandrula was exiled by the karun' (with fronted object, the sentence corresponds to an English passive, but structurally it is active; rumopor lit. cause to (go) out < opor 'out(side), away'). Note that similar rumuwik 'to banish, drive out' (lit., cause to flee/run away) by convention takes an accusative object; it refers mainly to the ancient punishment for taboo-violation.
If the context is unclear, a confused listener may ask kandri filañi/copiñi? 'what did he take/fetch?', and the speaker will have to clarify.
- yacopin indeyeni mambreñi 'he fetched his brother for his mother'.
If we keep in mind that causative verbs have an underlying structure something like [SUBJ a cause [SUBJb verb OBJc]] which becomes [SUBJa rumcaus+verb DATb ACCc], the resulting sentence is clear; in effect, the subject of the original sentence becomes the indirect object of the causative verb. Thus basic sentence mina yanunji çenjiye 'Mina met Shenji' > [my father cause [mina met shenji]] > amami rundunji minaye çenjin 'my father introduced Mina to Shenji' (note that the case structure of the Kash sentence is the reverse of the English); and likewise if the objects are pronouns: ...ne rundunji çenjin; ...yan rundunji minaye; ...yan ne rundunji. It would also be possible to say amami nile rundunji (liya-liya) 'my father introduced them (to each other)'. It is also possible to omit the accusative form: amami rundunji minaye 'my father introduced Mina [e.g. to the group at large]'.
The synonymous verb rundimbat 'to introduce' (<timbat 'to know s.o., be acquainted with s.o.') has somewhat more formal connotations, and differs from rundunji in that it must always have both noun/pronoun objects-- i.e. neither *...nile rundimbat (liya-liya) nor *...ne rundimbat is possible.
The causative of copin, runjopin 'cause/send s.o. to fetch s.o/s.t.' behaves in the same way: yacopin mambreyeni 'he fetched his brother' > indeni ne yarunjopin mambreñi 'his mother had him/sent him to fetch his brother'. And likewise with rundikas 'to show, exhibit' (<tikas 'to see'): mile yarundikas memeñi 'she showed us her baby'; it may occur without indirect object in karun yarundikas anakasiñi 'the karun exhibited his first-born [understood: to the people]' (a formal ceremony), and of course in a sentence like ketrafun yarundikas kraçeteçni 'the artist exhibited his paintings'.
With the verbs cosa, rata, fosi 'go, come, sail' (and one or two others), instead of using ri + dat. the location may be treated as a "direct object", with the animate acc. ending -n, even though the noun is inanimate: yacosa falen 'he went to the market'; mirata holundan 'we arrived at Holunda'; ifosi kandrokon 'they sailed to Kadrok'; also in the expression fosi roçen 'to sail the seas, to go to sea'. Far from being colloquial, this is a survival of a much older and more widespread usage.
- yapondam ri vakayeni kopak 'it fell (to)under the box'-- contrast yapondam ri vakaye kopaki 'it fell to the bottom of the box'.
- minaye yale etengi 'Mina has a book' (most likely interpretation: with her at the moment-- she may or may not own it). minaye yale pando etengiç 'Mina has a lot of books' (either 'with her' or 'she owns many'-- similarly in case of definite etengini ~etengi yu); but minaye yale pando etengiç ri pilusni 'Mina has a lot of books in her bag' quite clearly refers only to temporary possession.
-- and in some cases to integral parts of inanimates: yuno ñakiye yale ro forici 'all cars have 2 headlights'; lacaye tayu yale ket ace 'this table has 6 legs'; punayeni yale nim atel 'his/the house has five rooms'. However, most speakers consider these cases odd, and prefer other phrasings, for example (1) topicalization (yuno ñaki, foricini ro lit., all cars, their headlights (are) two; laca tayu, aceni ket; (2) a ni-phrase (see §4.3), optionally topicalized, foricini yuno ñaki(,) ro; aceni laca tayu(,) ket; (3) a prepositional phrase, yale ro forici ri yuno ñaki lit., there are 2 headlights on all cars; or (4) (somewhat formal) a genitive, yale ket ace lacayi tayu, lit., there are 6 legs of this table. Generally, possession involving inaminates is best expressed with the ni-construction.
In fact, even the examples above relating to human possession may be phrased in these same ways, with the exception of (2), the ni-construction. There may be slight differences in their connotations, however; thus, "X(nom.,topic), yale Y-ni" is usually taken to mean "X has Y at the moment ~available for use", e.g. yale ñakini 'he has his/the car [with him]; mina, ta yale etengini 'Mina doesn't have her book', etc. This should be kept in mind especially when talking about money-- çenjiye/me yale toye can mean 'Shenji has/I have money' [i.e. we are rich]; it is better to say yale toyeni or yale toyemi 'he has money ~I have money' [at the moment, he/I will pay]. The Kash consider it gauche to discuss one's own, or others', financial status except with family, very close friends, or perhaps one's financial advisor.
3.4 Genitive case. The genitive case is used (1) to show possession, (2) as the object of prepositions indicating motion from, out of, away from, etc.; and as the "standard of comparison" in comparative sentences (3) as the direct object of certain verbs; (4) to indicate the "agent/cause" of caka-verbs; and (5) in colloquial speech, as a partitive.
3.4a.Possession by humans. This is the principal use of the genitive; It is also used in certain cases for non-human animates, but much less often in cases involving inanimate possessors-- the restrictions are similar to those governing use of the "dative of possession", §3.3d above. The genitive form follows the thing possessed (with a single exception: the question-word kariyi 'whose?' which normally is the first word of its sentence).
- nilusmi, nilusti etc., 'my hand, your hand'.
- ñaki mambreyini 'his/her brother's car'. Note that the 3rd person suffix -ni can be ambiguous-- "his, her, their", even "the"; if necessary, the ambiguity can be avoided by using a name, or the alternate forms iyani(tu) 'his (own)', iyeni(tu) 'her (own)', nili(tu) 'their (own)', or a demonstrative pronoun for "the"; thus, ...mambreyi iyeni 'of her brother'.
- riyena niç ini ~iyani 'where are his (things)?
- matimbat amayeni, ta mowa ine hati 'I know his father, but not yours [i.e., I don't know your father (subj+verb deleted)]'-- contrast matimbat amayeni, ta mowa ya hati 'I know his father, but yours doesn't [i.e., your father doesn't know his father (verb+object deleted)]; this would more likely occur with emphasis on "I" and/or "yours", mam timbat amayeni, ta mowa ya hati.
Note that edible animals and their parts undergo grammatical changes; first of all, animals as food are inanimate. Thus, at the slaughterhouse there are aceçni lopa(la) 'lopa legs'; with further processing, by the time it reaches the market or one's oven, it is ace lopa 'lopa leg, leg of lopa'.
In comparative sentences, alo + genitive expresses the "standard of comparison", that is, "than" in 'more...than X (alo X)', "of/in" in 'most...in the X (alo X)', and "as" in 'as...as X (alo X)'. The preposition may be deleted if 'X' is a noun, but not if it is a pronoun or indeclinable form-- see §6.2 for further discussion and examples.
Note also the question word riyeni '(from) where?', with genitive -i: riyeni iya? 'where is he from?'; riyeni irundata yawunduni? 'from where do they import their oil?'.
3.4f. Partitive. Mainly with reference to food items, some speakers use the genitive in a partitive sense: meloka ukuwi? '(do you) want some uku?'; pitani samosi 'it needs salt'; tambelo poreni 'I don't want (any) wine'. However, as these examples show, it is a very colloquial and informal usage, generally viewed as inappropriate outside one's intimate circle.
3.4g. English and other languages have many expressions with "of" either with a partitive or some other sense-- these usually have a different structure in Kash. For example, londo sawu 'full of water', mepu hece 'made of iron'; me yarungaya kracalni 'he informed/told me of the problem', lit., caused me to know the problem; mapori lirini 'I'm tired of it', lit., with respect to it.
Likewise, Kash does not distinguish "objective vs. subjective" genitive; sisa minayi 'love of Mina' does not mean *'(someone's) love of Mina'-- that would be e.g. sisa çenjiyi liri Minan 'Shenji's love of Mina'-- it means only "Mina's love (of someone)"; angamon minayi means only 'Mina's birth (Mina's being born)', not *Mina's (act of) giving birth'-- that would require rephrasing, perhaps mina rakop yarungamon 'Mina gave birth with difficulty'. In other words, Kash has only the subjective use.
Aside from its use as 3rd person possessive suffix, it has three other important and very frequent functions. (Far too frequent, in the opinion of many grammar-school teachers, who have coined the term nini-nini, cakanini to point up and criticize their students' overuse and/or misuse of -ni). Its use is somewhat colloquial, often idiomatic-- it is one of those aspects of the language (to evade the issue!) that is best acquired by experience.
4.2 As a nominalizer. Not unrelated is the use of -ni (or one of the other possessive suffixes) to nominalize verbs/adjectives. With respect to verbs, we mentioned this briefly in §3.1c.ii above-- viz., the transformation of sentences like mapila re [Sentence]; çenji yapila re [Sentence] 'I think that..., Shenji thinks that...' to pilami, [Sentence]; pilani çenji, [Sentence] with essentially the same meaning, except that topicalized pila+poss. is now technically a noun (as shown by the possessive suffix). Note that the actual nominalized form ambila refers more to the process or ability of thinking, and would not be appropriate here-- *ambila(-mi,-ni) [Sentence].
- tengeni yapita ro aro 'the washing [i.e., his/her/the act of washing (something)] took two hours' (note that the true nominal andenge refers to the things to be washed, the laundry). Also topicalized (colloq.) tengeni, pitani ro aro. We could view these as derived from yapita ro aro vara (ma-, ya-...)tenge 'it took two hours in-order-that (I, he...)wash (something)' ~more freely, 'it took (me, him...) two hours to do the washing'.
- sakundri ne yayukar yarakop 'swallowing is becoming difficult for him' (sakurale 'to swallow, swallowing' would be ultra-correct)-- there is no form atukar attested. Alternatively, less colloquial: yayukar yarakop re yasakur lit., it becomes it is difficult that he swallows.
The ni-forms of adjectives are also nominalizations, and may occur by themselves-- e.g. navani ri holundaye, nipola cili 'the distance to Holunda is 50 cili ("km")' (<nava 'far')-- this is colloquial, however, and synonymous andava(ni) could be used. (Note that these ni-forms, while nouns, are indeclinable, and their exact meaning with prepositions must depend on context: ri navani 'in the distance, at a distance' or 'into the distance'; alo navani 'from a/the distance'.) Or, kunironi niya katrayi 'his/her/the [subtly bi-colored (fur)] is very attractive'. More often, however, nouns and adjectives with -ni occur with a noun complement, in what we have been calling "the ni-phrase or construction".
- vitalni (~amitalni) çenji, mesa kik fanu li 'Shenji is 1.8 li tall, Shenji's height is 1.8 li'. Colloquial vitalni is used far more often than the nominal; even in official documents. Alternatively, the name may be topicalized: çenji, vitalni mesa kik fanu li. Note that while çenji yavital means 'Shenji is tall'-- there is no way to include the number in that sentence.
- fiyan vitalni... 'how tall is...?'; fiyan vitalti 'how tall are you?'; also possible fiyan yavital 'how tall is he ~are you?' etc.
and many similar uses, especially in colloquial speech.
ca- before initial /k/ and /h/ (which changes to /k/); and before bases of three or more syllables; also, variably, before initial /c/ and /ç/, and sometimes if there is a /k/, /c/ or /ç/ within the base-- these may depend on the speaker's feeling for euphony.
cak- before initial vowels and /r/.
caka- in all other cases.
These verbal derivatives have an essentially passive meaning; they describe actions or states that affect or characterize their subject, usually without any control on the subject's part-- "SUBJ. is overcome by..., afflicted with..., affected by..., obsessed with..., is...by nature" etc., and the experience is viewed as unexpected, unpleasant (broadly speaking) or culturally negative. Most often, the base is an adjective or intransitive verb; but transitive verbs, and even nouns, may occur. Since the base generally indicates the cause of the experience, there is no need to indicate an actual "agent/cause", but it is possible to do so with e.g. a noun in the genitive case, a prepositional phrase or sentence complement.
As has been mentioned above, the human subject of a caka-form is either in the dative case (see §3.3e above)-- if the state is viewed as inherent, chronic, serious or permanent-- or in the nominative (see §3.1e above)-- if it is only temporary, or less serious. Dative subjects are more common, and over time, have come to be used with some "temporary" conditions-- one might speculate that the "when in doubt, use the dative" rule has operated here; but the converse is true, too.
Non-human animate subjects may also be either dative or nominative, with the same conditioning, but there is a tendency in colloquial speech to use the nominative most of the time. Inanimate subjects are always in the nominative case. Nominative subjects may in all cases be indicated with a pronominal prefix in addition to the noun or pronoun subject.
Caka-forms do not generally use tense markers, nor do they generally occur with the modal auxiliaries. They may, however, be modified with adverbials like niya, kundak, kunak, uti etc. 'very, not very, perhaps, rather...'; and some may have a noun complement, e.g. cakonji toye means specifically 'swindled financially, swindled out of one's money'. They may sometimes be translated as nouns, e.g. cakambo 'acting superior, snobbish': yanda sambat cakambo! 'don't be so snobbish ~don't be such a snob!'.
The prefix is very productive; in addition to the well-established forms listed in the dictionary, whose meanings are familiar through long usage, forms are often created on the spur of the moment-- for example, from cika 'TV' one could form cakacika to describe someone who spends altogether too much time watching TV; or from fanu 'eight' perhaps cakafanu 'obsessed with the number eight'; or cakanini(-nini) 'to over-use/mis-use the ni suffix', mentioned above, coined by schoolteachers. Such nonce-forms may or may not find wider usage. Thus it can happen that the actual meaning of a caka-form sometimes seems quite far removed from the meaning of its base.
6.1a. In §1.2 above, we discussed the usage of adjectives as modifiers (attributes) of nouns; the correct word order is noun + adjective. Adjectives themselves may be further modified with qualifiers like niya, uti 'very, rather', most of which follow the adjective. And adjectives may be used nominally ("the...one") in combination with forms of the demonstrative pronouns, e.g. yu vanat 'the white one (inanim.)', taye vital 'this tall one (fem.)'; and nominalized with the -ni suffix or añ- prefix, e.g. nuroni, anduro 'depth'. In many cases, the añ-form may have acquired a specific meaning-- e.g. from vanat 'white' we find amanat 'whitewash; (modern usage) white paint'.
- çenji lavi yavital aloni (~alomi, [alo] ereki, alo yunoni) 'Shenji is taller than him (~me, Erek, than everyone/all of them)'-- without the alo phrase, çenji lavi yavital is colloquial for 'Shenji is taller [than someone, understood]' and also for çenji yale kaç/ya vital lavi 'Shenji is the taller one', e.g. when pointing out Shenji in a group of people.
- çenji lavi yasisa minaye aloti 'Shenji loves Mina more than [he loves] you' (emphatic ...alo hati) vs.
- lavi malisam poren pambara aloni troçe 'I like red wine more than white' vs.
- çenji yayama (picikni) lavi yahuluñ alomi 'Shenji ran (a little bit) faster than me'-- note that technically this should be ...alo re mam, but colloquial usage has prevailed in these constructions.
However, because re generally indicates a change of subject, çenji lavi yavital alo re yapila 'Shenji is taller than he thinks' will generally be taken to mean '...taller than he (someone else) thinks', though it could be misread as '...than he (Shenji) thinks'. Unambiguous would be: ...alo re (iya/iye/nila/amani etc.) yapila '...than he/she/they/his father thinks', as well as ...alo pilani amani (but not *pilani iyani etc.-- these pronoun forms do not co-occur with ni-forms).
- çenji (i) erek ikuwa ivital 'Shenji and Erek are the same height, are equally tall'.
It also possible to substitute ni-forms: ...yakuwa vitalni alo...; pilani çenji, pole yayama lavi (ya)huluñ alo...; vitalni çenji i erek, yakuwa etc.
and many others; see also §7 Adverbial modifiers.
6.3. Miscellaneous uses of the comparative.
6.3a.lavi, krat 'more, less', and less commonly omban, imik 'less, least' may be used by themselves as adjectival modifiers, and (usually with -ni) as nouns in their own right; e.g.
- lavini: 'more often, by and large, in a majority of cases' etc.
- kratni: 'mostly, most often, for the most part' etc.
7. Adverbial and sentential modifiers.
These include independent lexical items (usually classed as "hambiyaç" 'pieces', or particles); compounds, reduplications and derived forms; and prepositional phrases. They modifiy the verb (or in some cases the entire sentence) with respect to quality or quantity, time, location, or manner; some can function in more than one category.
7.2 Adverbs of time. Included here are a number of particles, and some derived forms; prepositional phrases also function as time-adverbs. In simple sentences, the particles and derivatives tend to occur pre-verbal; in more complex sentences their placement is freer, as is the placement of prepositional phrases in all cases.
- mesa-mesa 'one by one, singly', loro 'two by two, by twos' etc.
Prepositional phrases, of course, can also indicate time, as for instance, ri lusni pehan yu... 'at the end of that year...', riyanjuni açuprót 'during 10th Month'.
7.3 Adverbs of location. Mostly particles, a few derivatives, and prepositional phrases.
8.1 Prepositions. Bear in mind that ri and its compounds vary in meaning depending on the case of the following noun-- accusative for location, dative for movement.
These combine with location nouns (in the appropriate case form and usually with -ni) to form compound prepositions; the "object" of these prepositional expressions is in the nominative case.
- ri (dat.) ri (dat) (formal) 'from (noun) to (noun)' e.g. ri angeye ri angeye 'from tree to tree'; in less formal speech/writing, the second ri is omitted, and -ni added: ri angeye angeyeni 'from tree to tree'; the construction implies random movement. When the movement is from one specific place to another, or involves a specific distance, alo (+gen.)...ri (+dat.)... would be used: yanecu alo angeyi yu ri ine liyani 'it jumped from that tree to the/that other one'; alo punayimi ri (ine ~punaye) çenjiyi, navani kuna mesa cili 'from my house to Shenji's (house) is about 1 cili ("km.".)' (There are some colloquial usages, in which ri may be omitted altogether, such as (ri) mesani liyani 'from (the) one to the other ~from one to another' and (ri) kasini lusni 'from beginning to end').
8.2 Conjunctions and other sentence connectors.

References: §2
 §6
 §6
 §4
 §4
 §4
 §3
 §6
 §3
 §3
 §3
 §1
 §7