9 Şubat 2009 Pazartesi

ünite yedi The nominal as adjective; comparison of the adjective; possessive adjectives; superlative intensifiers; the morpheme /-lă/.

UNIT SEVEN

The nominal as adjective; comparison of the adjective; possessive adjectives; superlative intensifiers; the morpheme /-lă/.

The Nominal as Adjective

There is little formal difference between the various subclasses of nominals: hence, there are no formal characteristics, as endings, which mark the Chuvash adjective, or rather, the nominal used adjectivally. As previously remarked, the same Chuvash word may be identically used as noun, adjective and adverb, for instance:
 shură şămarta   a white egg
şămarta shurri egg its white egg = white, albumen

jyvăş şurt wooden house
chul kĕper stone bridge

asha warm, warmth, warmness
asha sămah a warm word, friendly greeting

pĕr pysăk tipĕ juman a big dry oak-tree
hamăn syltăm hălha shătakne into my right earhole (folktale)


Comparison of the Adjective

In the absence of any feature of form to distinguish the adjectival subclass, a feature or function of adjectives may be mentioned, that of comparison. In Chuvash, as in other languages, it is possible to distinguish three degrees of intensity in an attribute, the positive or normal degree, the comparative degree, greater than the preceding, and the superlative degree, denoting the greatest amount of that quality possible. A few words, by their very nature, do not admit of comparison, e. g., timĕr ‘iron‘ (as in timĕr vitre ‘iron pail‘). Something cannot be more iron or less iron, it can only be iron in nature.
The positive or normal degree of the adjective has no marker or ending to note it.
 sară chechek  yellow flower
şülĕ hĕr a tall girl

The comparative degree, denoting a greater or lesser amount of degree of the quality or attribute of an object (as compared with another object) is expressed in two ways The first is a syntactic means employing the ablative morpheme:
 juman şăkaran jyvăr  oak frorn linden is heavy = oak is heavier than linden
kilten pysăk larger than a house (‘from a house, big‘)
ylttăn kĕmĕlten haklă gold is more valuable than silver

The second means employs the comparative morpheme {.rAh}, which has several allomorphs:

A. Stems ending in vowels, or in consonants except -r, use the allomorphs –rah/-reh.
 sarărah   yellower, more yellow
hitrerex more beautiful, prettier

B. Stems in -r employ the allomorph -tarah/-tereh.
 jyvărtarah  heavier

Note also:
 numajtarah  more, greater amount (207, 36)
nachartarah worse

C. Stems ending in -l and -n have free variation between allomorphs A and B.
 avan   good
avantarah better

Additional instances of comparatives are the following examples.
 pysăkrah   bigger
pysăkrah kil a rather large house

haklă expensive
haklăran haklă more and more expensive

hytarah harder, more vigorously
şultrarah hăjarsene tatrămăr we picked bigger cucumbers

lajăhrah better
ilemlĕreh more beautiful
pĕchĕkreh smaller

Not only may nominals and adjectives take the comparative morpheme, this may be found with still other forms.
 kaş    evening
kaşchen towards evening (‘up to the evening‘)
kaşchentereh more on into the evening, more towards evening

pürt house
patne towards (‘to its direction‘)
pürt patnereh a bit more towards the house

kurăk grass, weeds
kurăkrah yrash rye with quite a bit of grass in it (‘grassier rye)

kunta here
kuntarah closer this way

kilelle towards the house
kilellereh more towards the house

Both the above ways of forming the comparative may also be combined, e.g.,
 juman şăkaran jyvărtarah oak from linden is heavier = oak is heavier than linden

Adjectival words, when used in the plural, function just like other nominals, e. g.‚ pujansem ‘the rich ones, the rich men.‘

Superlative Intensifiers

The superlative degree, or its equivalent~ may be formed by using special words to indicate “very, much, most“ and the like, placed before the word to be intensified. The word most used is chi, and other words of similar function are pit, pitĕ ‘very,‘ ytla ‘more, beyond, further,‘ majsăr ‘immeasurably,‘ săv teri‘quite, as it were, so to say,‘ mala ‘more,‘ etc.
 chi şivĕch  very sharp, sharpest
chi lajăh very good, the best
mala ilemlĕ more beautiful
ytla avan more good, better, very good
pitĕ lajăh very good, best

Reduplication in whole or in part also plays a considerable role in forming a superlative in Chuvash. This type of formation, well-known in other Turkic and Altaic languages, is of several sorts.

A. The entire stem may be reduplicated, as
 sară-sară  very yellow, exceptionally yellow
shură-shură most white, white as white can be

B. The adjective may be preceded by an intensifying partly reduplicated prefix, in the form CVC-, where the first consonant is that of the word involved, the vowel usually the one of that word (but sometimes another one, but in vowel harmony with it), and the second consonant is -p, but sometimes -m or even other consonants. Hence,
 hup-hura  jet-black
jem-jeshĕl green as green can be
jĕp-jĕpe soaking wet
shap-shura snow-white (note prefix!)
hĕp-hĕrle red as all get-out
tak-takăr absolutely flat
tăp-tulli chockful, brimful

C. In a few cases, the reduplicated syllable is not based on that word being intensified, but on some other stem, e. g.,
 vĕr-şĕnĕ  brand-new
sĕm-tĕttĕm pitch-dark


Possessive Adjectives

Since the Chuvash adjective is essentially a substantive, it may express possession, although by its nature only possession of and by things, hence, it occurs only with the 3rd p. suffix, -i. Very frequently, this -i is added to the locative morpheme {.RA}, yielding the following allomorphs:

A. After /l n r/, -ti
 jalti   what is in the village, local
kilti domestic, what is in the home
vărmanti pertaining to the forest, in the woods
kunti (from kunta ‘here‘) local
hirti on the field

B. After other consonants except /l n r/, -ri
 anat   lower, Lower Chuvashia
anatra in the lower part1 in Lower Chuvashia
anatri one who is in or from Lower Chuvashia (name of one of
the two major Chuvash dialects)
puşri kalpak the hat on the head
şirĕmri şyn a man in his twenties
uramri on the street
sămahri sasăsem the sounds which are in words
alfavitri saspallisem the letters in the alphabet
Gor‘kiri avtozavod the automobile factory in Gorky

C The allomorph -~i is bund after the prothetic -n- of the possessive locative
 pürt patĕnchi.  the one in the vicinity or direction of the house

A very similar morpheme ja /-hi/ meaning approximately “the one which is in.‘ It may be added after any consonant.
 şul   year
şulhi yearly, what is in a year, annual
şurhi vernal spring what is in the springtime
irhi morning, pertaining to the morning
kaşhi evening, in the evening (as adjective)
ülemhi future, what is in the future
lajăhhi the one who is good
vărşă war
vărşăchchen before the war, up to the time of the war
vărşăchchenhi pre -war
unchchenhi the former (Ger. damalige), ‘the one tip to it‘
hal‘ now, at present
hal‘hi contemporary, the ones at present


The Morpherne /.lă/

The function of adjectives may also be performed by the extremely common suffix –lă/-lĕ. It is very similar to the English suffix -like as in childlike birdlike etc it has the essential meaning of “having possessing, having the nature off and its allomorphs are -lă/-lĕ after consonants and -llă/-illĕ alter vowels. It may be affixed to any nominal stem. Note there are two similar morphemes, one -la/-le with full grade vowel (to be discussed below), and another morpheme. -la-/-le -‚ which occurs only with verb stems.
 chap  fame
chaplă famous, having fame
jat name
jatlă named (so-and-so), having the name - - -
ut horse
utlă having a horse
ilem beauty
ilemlĕ beautiful
vărmală wooded, having woods
tullă mountainous, hilly
shămă bone
shămăllă bony
ash meat, flesh
ashlă meaty, fleshy
harpăr each
harpărlă own, individual, unique

There are many, many other formations with this morpheme. It may also be used with borrowed words.
 aktivlă  active, having activity
talantlă talented, having talents
intereslĕ interesting, of interest

Note the difference between simple juxtaposition and the use of –lă.
 chul pĕve a stone dam, a dam made out of stones (not wood)
chullă pĕve a rocky dam, a dam with loose rocks lying about
tăvar külli a salt-lake, lake salty by nature
tăvarlă shyv salted water, salty water (but not salt water),
water to which salt was mistakenly added

Note also these examples:
 tăvat ura  four legs (that is, not three or five)
tăvat urallă a four-legged one, quadruped, four -footed
ike vitre two pails, two buckets
ikĕ vitrellĕ sămavar a two-pot samovar
jită puşĕ a dog-head (not a moose head)
jită puşlĕ upăte the dog-faced baboon

The morpheme -săr/-sĕr is the antonym to -lă/-lĕ.
In addition to the morpheme -lă/-lĕ, there is a very similar morpheme -la/-le with full vocalism. Its meaning essentially duplicates the former, and is used chiefly with stems denoting nationalities but also with some other stems especially borrowed words. No instances of contrast have been found, nor of free variation.
 chăvashla kĕneke  a Chuvash book
chăvashla-vyrasla slovar‘ A Chuvash-Russian Dictionari
tutarla Tatar
bol‘shevikla Bolshevik, Bolshevistic
stahanovla juhăm the Stakhanovite movement
fashistla zahvatchiksem the fascist usurpers

kapitalistla tata the capitalistic and land
pomeşikla pusmăr owner‘s yoke

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