Saturday, October 29, 2016

Ŋʒädär: Residing and Wearing

Ŋʒädär conflates 'wearing' and 'residing' in one single lexeme. As an intransitive verb, it takes the location, or the clothing as an instrumental argument:
saətaŋux-rukkäŋüt-s
Isheep skininstrumenalwearintransitive
Isheep skin
wear
I wear sheep skin
With transitive marking, it can mark 'to clothe' or 'to house':
sulkast'osmıg-arkäŋüt-siqö-jüt
villagefifteenanimate
plural
wear/reside3pl/3sgindirect
villagefifteen(people)houses

the village houses fifteen people / has fifteen inhabitants
yajot'äne-qikäŋüt-hiqö-z
motherdaughterobviativeclothe3sgobv/3sgproxdirect
motherdaughter
dresses

the mother dresses (her) daughter
The origin of this verb is the PŊĆ root *kɛŋüst-, signifying 'protect, cover, hold'.

A few nouns are derived from this verb, e.g.
käŋürti - clothes
käŋüsmö - settlement
käŋele - anything that forms a natural protection against weather
There is a Ćwarmin cognate, keŋəc,  signifying 'fabric, cloth'.

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