Kah has four parts of speech. There are two substantive forms and two smaller and very limited closed classes:
Substantive: | Other: |
-verbs -nouns | -conjunctions -interjections |
Verbs are the part of speech that can be modified by stative verbs in an adverbial manner, aspect and mood markers and canalize the grammatical roles of their arguments as the head of verbal clauses. There are two subclasses of verbs: active and stative verbs. Both subclasses can either be intransitive or transitive, which means they can either have one argument (a subject) or two or more (a subject and one or more objects).
Active verbs solely denote actions and occurrences and never states in Kah. Examples of active verbs and their use are:
tonen - to improve
soza - to drink
tu - to cut
pau - to give
titom tonen
weather improve
the weather is improving
ubu soza binso
man drink beer
the men drank beer
Merih tu seki
mary cut meat
Mary cut the meat
Haik pau wa apa
hayk give i money
Hayk gave me money
Stative verbs are the words that modify nouns in an attributive and often adjectival way. They often express a state like a quality or result.
nia yam
car be red
red car
simwana nyeka
girl be happy
happy girl
Stative verbs function as fullblown verbs. This is even more visible when an adjective is topicalized and put in front of a noun. In this construction the modifying adjective is emphasized to a point it is better translated with a predicate construction:
yam nia
be red car
the car is red
nyeka simwana
be happy girl
the girl is happy
There is a large group of stative verbs denoting a resultative state:
unga okaiza
animal be trapped
trapped animal
apa ominza
money be stolen
stolen money
Stative verbs rarely are accompanied by aspect markers:
nia la yam
car be at be red
the car is being red
simwana denu nyeka
girl go be happy
the girl will be happy
Also, Kah stative verbs with an adjectival meaning can modify verbs just as easily in a manner that would require an adverb in English. Compare:
fanyo wezai
parents loving
loving parents
fanyo tizia wezai simbu
parents raise loving boy
the parents raised the boy lovingly
The following example shows how adjectival stative verbs can have objects:
fanyo wezai yu
parents be loving him
the parents are loving towards him
Nouns in Kah are a lexical category made up by words that can be modified by stative verbs, the possessive marker or deictic pronouns in an attributive manner and can serve as an argument to verbs. In semantic aspect this means nouns express items, persons, places, events, actions and such:
kaiko - book
ubu - man
ala - place
In Kah oblique phrases describing things like location, time and such circumstances are made up of nouns also:
ninye ben denu kwando
yesterday child go school
the children went to school yesterday
meo nyau tila ape ye
cat be stuck be on top tree that
the cat is stuck in top of that tree
Conjunctors connect clauses and phrases and describe the nature of this relationship:
ai - and
eom - or
en - that
eno - in order that
esto - but
eta - when
In many instances these conjunctions are coordinating:
Dik ai Jen
dick and jane
Dick and Jane
zano eom yino
right or left
right or left
keju de esto nong tengi
want come but not can
I wanted to come but I wasn't able to
Then there are subordinating ones:
ka wa tonto de
say me if come
Tell me if he comes
papau yu eno pau
pay he that give
pay him so he gives it
Interjections are words that can show up anywhere and often coincide with emotions:
eo - yes, indeed
nong - no, not
wu - how very, what
nye - yay!
ha - question particle
Examples of their use are:
bukim eo de
king yes come
the king has arrived indeed
eo za!
yes take!
gotcha!
aki shu ha?
food be sweet q.
is the food nice?
nong keju
not want
I don't want it
wu nenyun kuku!
how very be pretty face
what a pretty face!