Lesson 4 — Grammatical Topic — Command forms

You can turn most verbs into command forms:  "Come in!" "Please have some coffee!"
In both English and Samala, command forms are based on a form of the verb with "you" as the implied subject, such as
"you come in" "come in!"    
  "you are quick" "be quick!"    
  "you point it out" "point it out!"    
  "you put away your clothes" "put away your clothes!"    
The Samala equivalents of these sentences are    
  p–tap "come in!" come in!  
  p–towi "be quick!"  
  p–icumu "point it out!"  
  p–sinay ha p–haxwi   "put away your clothes!"    
  psinay ha paxwi      

How to make command forms

To turn statements into command forms,
Drop off the p– that means "you."
Add glottal stop at the end of the verb.
  p–tap tap "come in" / "go in"    
  p–yxkht yxkt "wake up!"    
  p–towi towi "be quick!" / "do it fast!"    
Adding glottal stop at the end of the verb really means that you glottalize the last consonant, so glottal stop goes before a certain set of consonants: the liquids m, n, l, w, y. get out! put it away!
  p–kitwon kitwon "come out!" / "go out!"
  p–sinay sinay "put it away!"
      kitwon! sinay!

After you drop off the  p– that means "you," the sequence that's left may start with a vowel.
Add glottal stop to the beginning of any command form that starts with a vowel:
  p–aqmil aqmil "drink!"   sit down, have a seat!
  p–itaq itaq "listen!"  
  p–lkn lkn "sit down," "have a seat!"  
If there's a plural or dual marker, add glottal stop to it in the written form when you drop off the p–. In the spoken form of the command you automatically add a glottal stop when you say a word that starts with a vowel — at least when there's no other word before it.
  p–iy–tap itap "come in, all of you!"    
  p–iy-towi itowi "be quick about it, you all!"   wash it, you two!
  p–i–nukum inukum "bring it, you two!"  
  p–i–uxmaniwon iuxmaniwon "wash it, you two!"  

Minor Sound Rule — Command forms when verbs end in vowels or glottal stop

When a verb end in a vowel or glottal stop, a glottalized Ll —shows up in the command form. This is easier to hear when there is a vowel after it, which is the situation when ha follows and the h is dropped off because it comes after a consonant.
kuti– ha sxamin kutil ha sxamin "look at the ocean!"    
  it ha aphan itl ha apan "find the town!"    
  icumu ha p–wop icumul ha pwop "point out your son!"    

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