Lesson 2 — Grammatical Topic — Verbs and person markers

The class of words called "verbs" isn't quite the same in Samala as in English. First let's look at verbs and adjectives as we understand them in English.
In English, a verb is traditionally described as an action word, like “to go” or “to walk,” but it can just as easily describe a feeling (“to love”) or appearance (“to seem”) or a state (“to be”). to go white deer
In English, an adjective tells you something about a noun; it modifies or qualifies your understanding of the noun, like “a cute child” or “a white deer.”
Samala verbs include action words, of course, just as in English, but Samala also treats states and conditions as verbs — such as
  cc "to be sharp" sharp, to be sharp black, to be black
  lukumel    "to be straight; go straight"
  oyin "to be dark, black" cc oyin
  tisn "to be smart, shrewd" straight; to be straight, to go straight crooked, twisted; to be crooked, twisted
  woyo "to be crooked, twisted" lukumel woyo
You probably think of these as adjectives in English, but in Samala you put the person markers in front of them just like any other verb. You wouldn’t say “the knife sharps” or “the arrow crookeds” in English, but this is how Samala does it:
In English, words like “sharp” or “crooked” are considered adjectives. To talk about the state or condition that these words describe, English generally uses some form of the verb “to be,” as in “it is sharp.” Samala treats these concepts as verbs. So Samala uses its verb “to be” much less often than English does.
Samala you put the person markers in front of these words just like any other verb. You wouldn’t say “the knife sharps” or “the arrow crookeds” in English, but this is how Samala does it:
Of course, Samala also uses words like these to modify nouns, so that you can put together phrases like “straight arrow,” “black paint,” or “smart child.” But in Samala it’s a bit more complicated than just sticking an adjective in front of a noun the way you do in English. You’ll learn how to put such phrases together in Lesson 8.

Person Markers
Top

Person is the grammatical term for who's doing what when you refer to some action or condition. Just like English, Samala makes a distinction of first, second and third persons:
first person "I" or "we" — the person speaking
  second person "you" — the person you're speaking to
  third person "he," "she," "it," or "they"  — the person you're speaking about
Samala tells you about person by using person markers, which are prefixes that go in front of verbs and nouns to show what person you mean.
  k–   "I" k–itaq    "I hear"   to hear, listen
  p–   "you" p–itaq    "you hear"
itaq
  s–   "he," "she" or "it"    s–itaq    "he/she/it hears"  

Person Markers with Verbs
Top

When one of these person markers k–, p– or s– shows up with a verb, it marks the subject of the verb. The subject of the verb tells you who or what is doing the action that the verb describes.
Here are examples of a couple of Samala verbs with the three person markers:
k–lkn "I sit" to sit  
  p–lkn "you sit"
lkn
  s–lkn "he/she/it sits"  
And with the verb icumu "to point"   to point, point to/at
  k–icumu "I point"
icumu  
  p–icumu "you point"  
  s–icumu "he/she/it points"  
And with the verb aqt "to be full, sated"   full; to be full
  k–aqt "I'm full"
aqt  
  p–aqt "you're full"  
  s–aqt "he/she/it is full"  

To keep in mind about person markers with verbs
Top

Here are a few points to remember about person markers with verbs.
About gender:  by itself the third-person marker s– doesn't tell you anything about gender.
  A Samala verb with the third-person marker s– may be translated with “he,” “she,” or “it” in English, but Samala does not spell this out.
About complete sentences:  a Samala verb with one of the person markers qualifies as a complete sentence.
  A sentence can be far more complex, of course, but a simple verb plus person marker is a one-word sentence in its own right, as in I'm full k–aqt
    k–aqt "I'm full (from eating)
    k–lkn   "I sit, I'm sitting"
    p–tisn "you're smart"  s–kuti
    p–icumu "you point, you're pointing"
    s–cc   "it's sharp"
    s–kuti "he/she/it sees, looks, is watching" p–icumu
About implied objects:  When you use a Samala verb — such as kuti "to see/look" or icumu "to point" — an object may be implied. English often requires that you mention who or what the action is directed toward, as in "I see it" or "she points at it."
  A Samala verb generally does not spell this out. So in these lessons you'll sometimes see verbs translated with "it" even though Samala doesn't include this. Here are some examples of alternative translations for some of the verbs that you've learned so far:
    k–itaq "I hear, I listen" I hear it
k–itaq
   
or  
 "I hear it, I'm listening to it" (e.g. the dog)  
    p–icumu   "you point, you're pointing" you point at it
   
or  
 "you point at it" (e.g. the fire) he looks at it
s–kuti
   
or  
 "you point it out"
    s–kuti "he/she sees, looks, watches"
p–icumu
   
or  
 "he/she sees it, looks at it" (e.g. the flower)  

Top