lpetrich
Contributor
Looking at the Massachusett language itself, it has some interesting grammatical features. Massachusett grammar
Possession is indicated with affixes, and some kinds of nouns have an obligatory possessor, like kinship terms, body parts, and "body" itself. There is a prefix for an unspecified possessor, mu- ("someone's").
Possession prefixes and independent pronouns are built from first-person n- and second-person k-, and the language distinguishes between inclusive and inclusive "we": ("you and I" and "we without you").
The language have two grammatical genders, animate and inanimate, though some inanimate objects have animate gender. The animate-plural suffix is -ak and the inanimate-plural one -ash. Some words come in both genders, like mehtog (muhtuq) "tree". Its animate plural mehtogquog (muhtuqak) means "living trees", and its inanimate plural mehtogquosh (muhtuqash) means "dead trees" or more properly "wood".
Along with the locative suffix -et, in all those New England place names, there is an absentative suffix -ay (singular) -uk (plural), an obviative suffix -ah, and a diminutive suffix -îs.
Absentative - for an animate entity, indicates that it has died, and for an inanimate entity, that it is lost or destroyed or irreparably broken.
Obviative - for the proximate (main or primary subject) / obviate (peripheral or secondary subject). Proximate nouns are unmarked.
Diminutive - "little <noun>"
Possession is indicated with affixes, and some kinds of nouns have an obligatory possessor, like kinship terms, body parts, and "body" itself. There is a prefix for an unspecified possessor, mu- ("someone's").
Possession prefixes and independent pronouns are built from first-person n- and second-person k-, and the language distinguishes between inclusive and inclusive "we": ("you and I" and "we without you").
The language have two grammatical genders, animate and inanimate, though some inanimate objects have animate gender. The animate-plural suffix is -ak and the inanimate-plural one -ash. Some words come in both genders, like mehtog (muhtuq) "tree". Its animate plural mehtogquog (muhtuqak) means "living trees", and its inanimate plural mehtogquosh (muhtuqash) means "dead trees" or more properly "wood".
Along with the locative suffix -et, in all those New England place names, there is an absentative suffix -ay (singular) -uk (plural), an obviative suffix -ah, and a diminutive suffix -îs.
Absentative - for an animate entity, indicates that it has died, and for an inanimate entity, that it is lost or destroyed or irreparably broken.
Obviative - for the proximate (main or primary subject) / obviate (peripheral or secondary subject). Proximate nouns are unmarked.
Diminutive - "little <noun>"
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