Tlingit grammar

The Tlingit language is a Na-Dene language spoken by the Tlingit people who are indigenous to most of Southeast Alaska. Its grammar has features similar to that of other languages belonging to the Northwest Coast Sprachbund, including SOV word order, a rich aspectual system, and optional plural marking. The grammar is also similar to other Na-Dene languages like Eyak and the Athabaskan languages, for instance in their shared complexity of verb morphology.

Nouns

Possession and alienability

Nouns in Tlingit can be divided into two classes, possessable and unpossessable. This division is based on whether a particular noun may have a possessed relationship with another noun. In Tlingit the names for people and places (proper nouns) are unpossessable, while other nouns may be either optionally or obligatorily possessed (called alienable and inalienable, respectively).

Alienable nouns may be used alone or may be possessed by another noun or pronoun. In the latter case, the possessed noun takes the suffix -ÿi, and, if the possessor is a pronoun, the possessive pronominal is used. In contrast, inalienable nouns cannot appear without a possessor. Inalienable nouns commonly refer to kinship terms and body parts. Inalienable nouns are not normally marked for possession; that is, they do not take the possessed -ÿi suffix. However, if the possessed suffix is used on an inalienable noun, the meaning changes from being part of a body to a body part that is somehow separated from the rest of the body. Thus xóots shá means "a bear's head", but xóots shayí means "a bear's head (detached from its body)".

Suffixes

There are three nominal suffixes that do not function as postpositions: the possessed, the plural, and the diminutive. The possessed suffix -ÿi has eight allomorphs. After a vowel, it will appear with an initial consonant (either y or w), whereas if it appears after a consonant, it will only surface as a vowel (-i or -u). Its tone is the opposite of the stem vowel, so that a low-toned stem vowel will trigger a high tone on the suffix (i.e. yí) while a high-toned stem vowel will do the reverse. Roundedness from a vowel or final consonant spreads to the suffix, so it will be pronounced as [wu] or [u].

The nominal plural suffix -xʼ (-xʼw after central vowels) may be attached to most nouns, but it is optional. For example, ḵaa/ḵaaxʼw means "man"/"men", ax̱ yádi/ax̱ yátxʼi means "my child"/"my children". Kinship terms are pluralized using the hás or ÿán enclitics, which are postnominal modifiers. Meanwhile, the diminutive suffix has the form -kʼ (-kʼw after central vowels) and can also attach to verbal phrases.

Adnominal modifiers

Adnominal modifiers can be prenominal (before the noun) or postnominal (after the noun). Prenominal modifiers include numerals, demonstratives, and some descriptive modifiers like yées ("young"). Postnominal modifiers are all descriptive, including words like tlein ("big"), and many are derived from verbs. The descriptive modifiers are analogous to adjectives in English, although they cannot be predicates.

The order of the adnominal modifiers in relation to the noun according to Constance Naish is given below. Although she gives six different orders for the modifiers, she notes that not more than three at once are typically found in a single phrase and there are usually at most two modifiers if one of them is expressed as a phrase construct.

	Prenominal						Postnominal
No.	+5	+4	+3	+2	+1	Noun	-1
Type	ldakát "all"	Demonstrative	Numeral	Possessive	Descriptive		Descriptive

Pronouns

Tlingit has a complex system of pronouns which vary depending on their relationship to syntactic categories including the verb, in addition to agency and saliency in the third-person pronouns. The subject pronouns are incorporated into the verb in its subject slot. The object pronouns are divided into three forms: the verbal object, nominal object, and postpositional object. The independent pronouns are separate from the verb and occur in independent noun phrases for emphasis.

The pronouns can be visualized in the following table.

		Subject	Object			Independent
			VO	NO	PO
1	SINGULAR	x̱a-	x̱at, ax̱	ax̱	x̱a-	x̱át
	PLURAL	too-	haa	haa		uháan
2	SINGULAR	ee-	i-	i		wa.é
	PLURAL	yi-	yee-	yee		yeewáan
3	NEUTRAL	Ø-	a-, Ø-	du	u-	hú
	RECESSIVE		a-, Ø-	a	a-
	SALIENT		ash	ash
REFLEXIVE			sh-, Ø-	chush
RECIPROCAL			woosh	woosh
Indefinite	HUMAN	du-	ḵu-, ḵaa-	ḵaa	ḵu-
	NON-HUMAN		at-	at
PARTITIVE			aa

The first and second person pronouns both have a distinction between singular and plural. The third person pronouns, which in object form are distinguished as neutral, recessive, and salient, communicate agency and salience. A human third person may be pluralized by the addition of the proclitic has before the verb, although the plural is often communicated in other ways. Non-human referents are pluralized with the proclitic dax̱, which can also be a distributive plural. The indefinite pronouns are a type of fourth person and distinguish between human and non-human referents.

The subject pronouns are all incorporated into the verb. Thus, when the subject is represented as a pronominal, the syntactic subject position of the sentence is empty. Object pronouns are divided into three classes: the verbal (VO), nominal (NO), and postpositional (PO). The verbal object pronouns act as the direct object of a verb are incorporated into the verb. The nominal object pronouns are used as possessive pronouns and are often referred to as such. Leer calls them nominal objects because they are almost identical in shape to the VO pronouns and they act as the object to an incorporated inalienable noun. Postpositional object pronouns are the complement of a postposition.

Third person pronouns

There is only one class of third person subject in Tlingit, but there are three classes of third person object (neutral, recessive, and salient). This system of object pronouns exist in parallel to similar systems (called "anaphora") in many Athabaskan languages, including in Navajo. All these anaphora have roots in Proto Na-Dene, although Tlingit has a particularly complex system.

In the system, a referent can be either an agent or a non-agent. Agents can only be humans, supernatural beings, natural forces, or personified animals; by contrast, a non-agent is anything else, including other animals, inanimate objects, plants, places, and ideas. Non-agents may only be referred to using the recessive pronouns, while the pronominal for an agent is determined by the presence and situation of saliency.

Saliency is only considered when the following criteria are met:

1. the subject is also third-person
2. both subject and object are agents
3. the subject and object are opposed (or contrasted) in the discourse

If saliency is not considered, then the neutral pronominal is used for the agent object. If it is considered, then relative agency is used to determine which pronominal to use for the object. If the object has less agency than the subject, then the recessive pronominal is used; if it has more agency, then the salient pronominal is used. Relative agency is determined both by the degree of control the actors have over a situation and how well the speaker identifies with each of the actors (for instance, whether they are part of the same clan). However, although the agency of the actors may shift in the discourse, the use of anaphora is generally consistent throughout a narrative.

For instance, in a situation where the protagonist of a story is the object of a sentence, while someone else with less agency is the subject, a translation of "He found her" would be:

Ash wootʼee

ash

3.SAL.OBJ

ø-

3.SUB-

wu-

PFV-

i-

STV-

tʼi

find

ash ø- wu- i- tʼi

3.SAL.OBJ 3.SUB- PFV- STV- find

"He found her"

In the opposite situation, where the subject has more agency than the object, a translation of the same sentence would be:

Aawatʼee

a-

3.REC.OBJ

ø-

3.SUB

wu-

PFV-

i-

STV-

tʼi

find

a- ø- wu- i- tʼi

3.REC.OBJ 3.SUB PFV- STV- find

"He found her"

Conversely, if a human speaker were to sit on a chair (which is inanimate), one could say:

A kát x̱wanuk

a

3.REC.OBJ-

ká-

surface-

t

to

wu-

PFV-

x̱a-

1S.SUB-

ÿa-

CL-

nuk

sit

a ká- t wu- x̱a- ÿa- nuk

3.REC.OBJ- surface- to PFV- 1S.SUB- CL- sit

"I sat down on it"

But if that same speaker sat on another person, one would say:

Du kát x̱wanuk

du

3.NEU.OBJ-

ká-

surface-

t

to

wu-

PFV-

x̱a-

1S.SUB-

ÿa-

CL-

nuk

sit

du ká- t wu- x̱a- ÿa- nuk

3.NEU.OBJ- surface- to PFV- 1S.SUB- CL- sit

"I sat down on him/her"

There is no distinction of agency in the verbal object pronouns. So, the neutral and recessive object prefixes of the nominal and postpositional objects correspond to just one non-salient object prefix for the verbal object pronouns. This prefix, a-, is only pronounced when required by the theme, the subject is also third-person, and it is used for an indefinite object. Otherwise, it is null. It is also unpronounced if the subject is a noun phrase with the ergative suffix -ch and the noun phrase is adjacent to the verb.

Postpositions

Nominal cases in Tlingit are designated by postpositions, however they usually behave morphologically like suffixes.

Case	Form	Use	Example
Ergative	-ch	Marks the agent of a transitive verb with a definite object. The meaning is roughly "by means of" and is consistent with other split ergative languages. When discussing the two arguments of the verb in an ergative sentence, the marked agent is called the "ergative argument" and the definite object is called the "absolutive argument". Note that Tlingit lacks an absolutive case, instead the absolutive argument is not marked.	Tách x̱at uwajaḵ tá-ch sleep-ERG x̱at 1SG.OBJ u-ÿa-jaḵ PFV-STV-kill tá-ch x̱at u-ÿa-jaḵ sleep-ERG 1SG.OBJ PFV-STV-kill "I fell asleep." (lit. "Sleep has killed me")
Punctual	-t	When used with a positional imperfective it designates physical position, roughly meaning "(resting) at". When used in a telic derivative it means "(coming) to", "(arriving) at"; while in an atelic na-aspect derivative it means "(moving) about".	Nadáakw kát x̱a.áa naadáakw table ká-t surface-PUNCT x̱a-áa 1SG.SUBJ-sit naadáakw ká-t x̱a-áa table surface-PUNCT 1SG.SUBJ-sit "I am seated on top of the table."
Pertingent	-x̱	Can mean an extended physical location or extended contact with an object, e.g. "(usually or always) at". In another sense it indicates repetitive physical arrival, as in "repeatedly arriving at", "always coming to". In a third sense it indicates physical status, i.e. "in the form of".	Lingítx̱ haa sateeyí (lingít) Lingít-x̱ Tlingit-PERT haa 1PL.OBJ sa-tee-ÿi APL-be-REL (lingít) (person/people) Lingít-x̱ haa sa-tee-ÿi (lingít) Tlingit-PERT 1PL.OBJ APL-be-REL (person/people) "We who are Tlingit"
Locative	-xʼ	May indicate physical location, such as "at a place", "by a place", "in a structure". It can be extended by analogy to temporal location, such as "at a time", "by a time".	Aangóonxʼ yéi x̱at yatee Aangóon-xʼ Angoon-LOC yéi thus x̱at 1SG.OBJ ÿatee be Aangóon-xʼ yéi x̱at ÿatee Angoon-LOC thus 1SG.OBJ be "I am/live in Angoon." Sándixʼ yéi ḵwagút Sándi-xʼ Sunday-LOC yéi thus [ga-u-g̱a]-x̱a-ÿa-gút [ASCN-IRR-DESCN]-1SG.SUBJ-STV-come Sándi-xʼ yéi [ga-u-g̱a]-x̱a-ÿa-gút Sunday-LOC thus [ASCN-IRR-DESCN]-1SG.SUBJ-STV-come "I will come on/by Sunday."
Adessive	-g̱aa	Indicates physical adjacency to place or object, such as "around", "by". By extension of this concept it may indicate physical succession, "(go) after something" or "(follow) something", as well as the temporal associations of "(waiting) for something" and "about (a time)", "around (a time)".
Ablative	-dax̱	Marks the physical origin of an action, translated as "from (a place)" or "out of (a place)". By temporal extension it means "since (a time)" or "from (a time)".
Prolative	-náx̱	Marks a course of physical translation by some action, translated as "along (a way)" or "via (a path)". Temporal extension indicates the translation of an action along a duration of time, or the inclusion of a period of time, thus "during (some period)", "including (some time)".	Lingít x̱ʼéinax̱ waa sá duwasáakw? Lingít Tlingit x̱ʼéi-nax̱ mouth-PROL waa how sá Q ∅-du-wa-sáa-kw ∅.OBJ-INDH.SUBJ-PFV-name-REP Lingít x̱ʼéi-nax̱ waa sá ∅-du-wa-sáa-kw Tlingit mouth-PROL how Q ∅.OBJ-INDH.SUBJ-PFV-name-REP "How is (it) called in Tlingit?" (lit. "How is it named by the Tlingit mouth?")
Allative	-dei	Marks a physical or temporal destination, translated as "to, toward" and "until", respectively. It may also describe an analogical motion, "in the manner of".	sgóondei yaa nx̱waagút sgóon-dei school-ALL yaa along na-x̱a-u-ÿa-gút PROG-1SG.OBJ-PFV-STV-go sgóon-dei yaa na-x̱a-u-ÿa-gút school-ALL along PROG-1SG.OBJ-PFV-STV-go "I went towards school"
Comitative-instrumental	-tin	May describe either the instrumental "with (a utensil)", "by means of (something)", or the comitative "with (something, someone)", "along with (something, someone)".
Locative-predicative	-u	Functions as a postposition plus a nonverbal predicate.

Other postpositions function as separate words, and include:

• g̱óot — "without"
• náḵ — "away from"
• yís — "for"
• yáx̱ — "like, as much as, according to"
• yánáx̱ — "more than"
• ḵín — "less than"

Directionals

In Tlingit, directionals are a semantic category which indicate direction relative to some stated position. The stated position can be some element of the natural environment, a structure, or a person or group of people. Syntactically, directionals are a subcategory of nouns because, like nouns, they can be arguments of verbs and objects of postpositions. Some examples of directionals can be seen below.

	Noun	N-dei	N-naa	Adverb (+15)
up above	(di-)kée	(di-)kín-dei	(di-)kee-naa	kei, kéi
down below	(di-)yée	(di-)yín-dei	(di-)yee-naa	yei, yéi, yaa
upstream	naakée	nán-dei	naa-nyaa ~ naa-naa	–
downstream	ix-kée, éex	íx-dei	ixi-naa	–
from landshore, interior	dáaḵ	dáḵ-dei	daḵi-naa	daaḵ
from seashore, out to sea	dei-kí	dák-dei	daki-naa ~ diki-naa	daak
inside	neil	neil-dei	—	neil
outside	gáan	gán-dei	—	—

Verbs

Tlingit verbs are highly complex and are frequently termed polysynthetic as a single verb can be the equivalent of a whole English sentence. They are often the only element of a verb phrase, and include information relating to its argument(s), tense, mood, and qualities of the object(s), among other specifications.

Verbs consist of lexical groupings called themes plus inflectional and derivational strings. Themes consist minimally of a root, classifier, the transitivity class and aspectual category (the last of which may be unspecified depending on the theme), and optionally thematic affixes. Verb roots undergo predictable stem variation that determines their pronunciation. The classifier, also termed extensor by Gillian Story and Constance Naish, has functions related to valency, voice, and stativity. The verb theme is the foundation from which lexically identical verbs are built. Derivational and inflectional strings are added to the theme to create a surface verb form.

The order of the affixes in verbal (thematic), derivational, and inflectional strings is commonly expressed using template morphology, as is typical with polysynthetic languages. James Crippen has criticized verb templates in analyses of Tlingit grammar as they fail to explain interdependencies between morphemes. The issue of template morphology has also been addressed for the Athabaskan languages, and some Athabaskanists as well as Crippen have argued that the verb word in Na-Dene languages should be examined as a syntactic structure rather than an arbitrary sequence of affixes.

Template

Domain	Position	Description	Example morpheme(s)
Preverb	+17H-A	preverbs	g̱unayéi, "beginning"
	+16	reciprocal and distributive	woosh, "each other"
	+15	plural	has
Disjunct	+14	objects	yee- "you guys"
	+13	areal	ḵu-
	+12	outer incorporates	ḵee-, "day"
	+11	inner incorporates	x̱ʼe-, "mouth"
Conjunct	+10	y-qualifiers	ÿ-, ~ "face"
	+9	k-qualifiers	k-, ~ "horizontal surface"
	+8	self-benefactive	g-
	+7	outer conjugation	g-
	+6	irrealis	u-, w-
	+5	conjugation and aspect	ø, n-, g̱-, wu-, u-
	+4	modality	g̱-
	+3	inner distributive	dag̱-
	+2	subjects	x̱- "I"
Classifier	+1	classifier	ÿa-
Stem	0	ROOT
	-1	stem variation	Vː, Vʰ, Vˀ, -ÿ, -n
	-2	repetitives and derivation	-kw, repetitive
	-3	modality suffixes	-ní
	-4	tense	ín, past tense
	-5	clause type	-í, subordinate clause
	-6	auxiliaries	nooch, "always"

Stem variation

Verb roots are classified as either variable or invariable. Variable roots are of the form CV(C) and alternate in vowel length, tone, and sometimes quality (apophony). This is called stem variation and is conditioned by root type, aspect, mood, modality and polarity, as well as other considerations. Invariable roots include all roots not of the form CV(C) in addition to a few CV(C) roots that are lexically specified to be invariable. They are not affected by stem variation, so their vowel length, tone, and quality remain constant.

Five root types are specified by Jeff Leer: CVC, CVCʼ, CVʼC (the closed roots), CV, and CV` (the open roots). Their stem variation in Northern Tlingit is given in the following tables. In the tables, ⟨C⟩ represents any consonant and ⟨V⟩ represents any vowel, which is indicated for tone (⟨V́⟩ or ⟨V̀⟩) and length (⟨:⟩ or ∅). ⟨X⟩ represents an obstruent suffix other than ⟨n⟩ or ⟨ÿ⟩.

Closed roots

	CVC	CVCʼ	CVʼC
Reduced	CV́C	CV́Cʼ	CV́C
Lengthened	CV́:C	CV́:Cʼ	CV́:Cʼ
Fading	CV̀:C	CV́:Cʼ	CV́:C

Open roots

	CV	CV`
X-stem	Cé:X	Ce:`X
n-stem	Cé:n	Cé:n
ÿ-stem	CV́:	CV́:
Lengthened	CV́:	CV́:
Fading	CV`/CV́	CV`/CV́
Glottalized	CV́	CV́

Open roots undergo apophony when suffixed with X or n (not ÿ) from /a u/ > [eː] as demonstrated above. Root vowels other than /a u/ are not affected. For example, the root .i "cook" is not affected, but the root x̱a "eat" is affected by apophony when suffixed with -x̱ (repetitive).

1a.

X̱asa.éex̱ [χà.sà.ˈʔíːχ]

x̱-

1SG.SUB-

s-

CAUS-

.ée

cook.VAR

-x̱

-REP

x̱- s- .ée -x̱

1SG.SUB- CAUS- cook.VAR -REP

I repeatedly cook it.

1b.

X̱ax̱éix̱ [χa.ˈχéːχ]

x̱-

1SG.SUB-

x̱éi

eat.VAR

-x̱

-REP

x̱- x̱éi -x̱

1SG.SUB- eat.VAR -REP

I repeatedly eat it.

In the X-stem forms, the CV` roots surface as low toned whereas the CV roots surface as high toned. This results in alternations such as x̱asatéix̱ "I am repeatedly boiling it" and x̱ateix̱ "I am repeatedly sleeping". The roots for "boil" and "sleep" are homophonous in other forms. The fading stems only appear in a particular kind of imperfective. There are a few irregular open roots.

Classifier

The classifier is a shared and defining feature of the Na-Dene languages. In all members, it has functions related to valency and voice, while in Tlingit it has the additional function of communicating stativity. The classifier has a misleading name, as its function is not primarily a classificatory one. However, the terminology is conventional in both Tlingit and Athabaskan linguistics.

The table below represents the sixteen base forms of the Tlingit classifier, each of which is assigned a positive or negative value of S, D, and I (called components). A positive value represents presence of the component, while a negative value represents absence of the component. The broad functions of these components, respectively, are valency (S), voice (D), and stativity (I).

		-D		+D
		-I	+I	-I	+I
-S	ø	ø-	ya-	da-	di-
+S	l	la-	li-	l-	dli-
	s	sa-	si-	s-	dzi-
	sh	sha-	shi-	sh-	ji-

-xʼ, the nominal plural suffix, can also be used on verbs as part of a plural verb theme. This triggers the use of the D component, whereas the singular equivalent does not use the D component. However, it is not used in the comparative forms of these themes. For instance:

a.

Yagéi

ya-

-S -D +I-

géi

big.VAR

ya- géi

-S -D +I- big.VAR

It is big.

b.

Digéixʼ

di-

-S +D +I-

géi

big.VAR

-xʼ

-PL

di- géi -xʼ

-S +D +I- big.VAR -PL

They are big.

c.

Ax̱ yáanáx̱ kudigéi

ax̱

1SG.OBJ

yáanáx̱

more.than

k-

COMP-

u-

IRR-

di-

-S +D +I-

géi

big.VAR

ax̱ yáanáx̱ k- u- di- géi

1SG.OBJ more.than COMP- IRR- -S +D +I- big.VAR

They are bigger than me.

d.

*Ax̱ yáanáx̱ kudigéixʼ

ax̱

1SG.OBJ

yáanáx̱

more.than

k-

COMP-

u-

IRR-

di-

-S +D +I-

géi

big.VAR

-xʼ

-PL

ax̱ yáanáx̱ k- u- di- géi -xʼ

1SG.OBJ more.than COMP- IRR- -S +D +I- big.VAR -PL

*They are bigger than me.

Particles

Particles function as delimiters to a clause or phrase. They are syntactically inert, meaning they are not inflected and do not affect syntactic selection; i.e., a particle added to a noun phrase still results in a noun phrase. Some particles are also termed clitics because they are phonologically bound to a phrase.

Focus particles

The focus particles follow the left periphery of a sentence. Many of them may be suffixed with a demonstrative (-yá, -hé, -wé, -yú), and they may also be combined with the interrogative (-gé ~ -gí). For example:

• á — focus
• ágé — interrogative (< á + gé)
• ásgé — second hand information, "I hear...", "they say..." (< ásé + gé)
• ḵu.aa — contrastive, "however"
• óosh — hypothetical, "as if", "even if", "if only"

The focus particle sá is obligatory in forming wh-question phrases.

Phrasal particles

Phrasal particles may be either pre-phrasal or post-phrasal, meaning they are restricted to a position either before or after the phrase they modify, respectively. For example:

• tsú — "also"
• déi — "now", "this time"
• chʼas — "only", "just"
• tlax̱ — "very"

Mobile particles

These particles may occur before or after any phrase in a clause. For example:

• tlei — "just," "simply," "just then"
• déi — "already," "by now"
• tsu — "again", "still", "some more"

Note that both the sentence káaxwei tsu eetéenax̱ x̱at yatee "I need more coffee" and the sentence káaxwei tsú eetéenax̱ at yatee "I also need coffee" are acceptable, with tsu and tsú differentiated only on the basis of tone.

Sentence-initial particles

These particles may only occur at the front of a sentence. For example:

• tléik, l — negative, "not"
• gwál — dubitative, "perhaps"
• gu.aal — optative, "hopefully"
• ḵaju, x̱aju — contrary, "actually", "in fact"
• ḵashde — "I thought..."

Syntax

Word order

Tlingit is by default an SOV language, but nevertheless word order is quite flexible. The SOV order is most apparent when object and (non-pronominal) agent phrases both exist in the sentence. However, there is a tendency to restrict the arguments of the verb phrase to a single non-pronominal noun phrase, with any other arguments being integrated into the verb. This can cause the appearance of an OSV word order, but it has been shown that this is not a correct analysis of Tlingit syntax.

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