1. Noun inflection

2. Postpositions

3. Adjectives, possessives, relational forms

4. Numerals

5. Determiners

6. Modifier Incorporation

Cases:

Pronouns have a Dative case.

NB. No gender, even in pronouns. No definiteness marking.

Agreement features: no possessive agreement

Person agreement with predicative use

Skorik distinguishes three 'declensions' on the basis of whether number is distinguished just in the absolutive (1^st declension), in all cases obligatorily (2^nd declension) or in non-absolutive cases optionally (3^rd declension). This distinction is clearly derived from animacy hierarchy considerations.

1st Declension: nonhumans. Sing. not distinct from plural except in Abs.

[NB: req- has regular alternation q Þ ?/_____C; see chapter two]

Note Erg = Instr

2nd Declension: human proper names, older relatives, pronouns referring to people.

Singular

	meñin 'who?'	ymmemy, 'mummy'	rintyn '(proper name)'
Abs	meñin	ymmemy	rint-yn
Erg/Loc	mik-yne	ymmeme-ne	rint-yne
Abl	mek-gypy	ymmama-jpy	rent-epy
All	mek-yna	ymmama-na	rent-yna
Orient	mik-ygjit	ymmeme-gjit	rint-ygjit
Desig	mik-ynu	ymmeme-nu	rint-ynu

Plural

Abs	mik-ynti	ymmeme-nti	rint-ynti
Erg/Loc	mik-yryk	ymmeme-ryk	rint-yryk
Abl	mek-yrgypy	ymmama-rgypy	rent-yrgypy
All	mek-yryky	ymmama-ryky	rent-yryky
Orient	mik-yrygjit	ymmeme-rygjit	rint-yrygjit
Desig	mik-ynu	ymmeme-nu	rint-ynu

Role of Comitative cases taken over by postposition reen + Loc.

Note: Erg. = Loc.

3rd Declension: humans other than older relatives. May decline like 1st decl. nouns or take special plural forms similar to 2nd decl. for emphasis. Ex. tumg- 'friend'.

NB. Comitative case form exists but no Designative for meñin.

Erg = Loc for meñin, i.e. like 2^nd declension, while Erg = Instr for tumgytum (1^st declension).

Personal pronouns

Singular

Plural

Absolutive stem allomorphy. (Abs. sg. and pl. forms given.

Zero affixation:

Stems ending in consonant clusters:

Affixation.

Plural formation:

Excursus: Kin terms

2nd declension:

3rd declension:

(for Absolutive, Ergative see chapter five)

Instrumental

Locative

Ablative

Allative

Orientative

Comitative I

Comitative II

Designative

With nouns used as predicates:

'To have' = 'to be with'

Also found appositively (quite common textually):

No PREpositions. Postpositions mainly derived from adverbs. Usually take Loc. case.

reen 'with'

qaca 'near'

gyrgoca 'over' (cf. gyrgol 'upper part, top')

ewyca 'under' (iwtyl 'bottom, underside')

?ytt?yjoca 'before, in front of' (?ytt?yjol 'front')

jaacy 'behind' (jaal 'back')

Examples:

Inflected postpositions

Adverbs and nouns used as postpositions:

cymce 'near'

rymagty 'further on, beyond'

wytwyr 'interval'

Formed by circumfix n- ... -qin. Inflect for P/N when used predicatively. Don't usually agree in case/number when used attributively. (See also under Incorporation).

'Conjugation' (predicative forms. - Cf. predicative use of nouns).

(I:374) Adjectives are often found in an analytic construction with the -l?- form of the verb wak 'to be'. The adjective is in what is formally an Allative suffix attached to the adjective root.

miñkyri wal?yn 'what kind of, what like?'

armagty wal?yn 'strong'

The -l?- form of an adjectival root can also be used as a predicative or attributive modifier. See under the appropriate section.

These all appear in the full set of case/number forms.

Adjective roots regularly incorporate into the noun stems which they modify. See section below on incorporation.

Comparative form: add -*ñ to stem. The comparative is found in the analytic construction with wal?yn.

arma-ñ wal?yn 'stronger'

jylqy-ñ wal?yn 'faster'

Source of comparison is in Loc.:

Comparison can be modified by various prefixes (Skorik gives most of these in their dominant form because that's the form they appear in when in construction with dominant suffix -ñ. I give them in their basic forms):

mec/mac- 'fairly, cik- 'comparatively', lygi- 'significantly', *kyt- 'very', pytqy- 'extremely', j?a- 'a good deal (more)', ynan 'most'

mac-elg-y-ñ	'a little whiter'
cek-elg-y-ñ	'comparatively whiter'
lyg-elg-y-ñ	'significantly whiter'
kyt-elg-y-ñ	'much whiter'
pytq-elg-y-ñ	'far whiter'
j?-elg-y-ñ	'a good deal whiter'
ynan-elg-y-ñ	'whitest'

Some examples:

(36)	tumge kylgenninent jyq-ety wa-l?-yt qaa-t
	friend harnessed quick-ALL be-l?-ABS.PL reindeer-ABS.PL
	The friend harnessed the quick reindeer'
(37)	jic?emittumgyn qytg?i kyt-jyq-y-ñ wa-l?-ety qaa-gty
	brother went.after more-quick-COMPAR be-l?-ALL reindeer-ALL
	'The brother went after the quicker reindeer'

(I:423) Degree prefixes also attach to ordinary adjectives in their n-...-qin form: mec/mac- 'a little', cig/ceg- 'comparatively', *kyt- 'fairly', nylgi- 'very'.

[The cig/ceg- and kyn- forms given by Skorik here are phonologically conditioned allomorphs of cik/cek- and kyt- given above. Note that the glosses for kyt- are slightly different in the two accounts.]

(I:225f) Used attributively or predicatively

-(n)in added to stem: mik-yn(in) 'whose?', reqin 'of what?'

ytlygin waly	'father's knife'
?ytt?in renreñ	'the dog's food'
w?ejin kinmyqej	'the grass's root'

-nin allomorph suffixed to singular stem of Proper Nouns, interrogative and indefinite pronouns, common nouns referring to older relatives, -in found elsewhere:

More common form of interrog: mikyn

Added to plural stems of human nouns:

Not possible with non-humans (I:227)

Cf. anthropomorphic use (I:227):

Implies inalienable possession or individual level predication when applied to inanimates (Skorik I:249):

(44) weem-in pyc?yc?yn 'the river's flow, current', but not

(45) *weem-in wykwylgyn 'the river's rock, the rock in the river'

With animates can express alienable or inalienable possession:

Can also express material out of which thing is made (note that this appears to be a predicative use of the possessive form):

Note that the possessive form has to be distinguished from the relational adjective form in -kin, e.g. (Skorik I:286, fn. 213):

Possessives don't agree in case/number with head:

(cf also Skorik I:229)

Incorporates obligatorily in Com. I, II (like other modifiers):

Incorporates optionally when modifying N in any case except Absolutive:

Abs. pl. (and oblique case) agreement possible when head is elided:

Otherwise agreement is rare. Note: genuine case inflected forms don't incorporate, and don't take adjective-like agreement morphology, which means that it is incorrect to think of the possessive form as a kind of genitive case.

Predicative use:

(Skorik I:268-280) Generally used with inanimates, signals alienable possession or stage level predication -kin(e):

Possible with animates only in comparative constructions (in locative, orientative) (Skorik I:268 fn. 205)

Syntax - basically similar to Possessive form. Usually agrees for number with Absolutive case head:

Comitative cases always incorporate (Skorik I:270):

Other oblique cases usually incorporate:

Predicative use (Skorik I:275f):

Has inflectional and derivational uses: derivational when deriving forms of non-nouns, function words, or indeclinables:

Chukchee has a vigesimal system.

1	ynnen (e1)	21	qlikkin ynnen parol
2	ñireq	22	qlikkin ñireq parol
3	ñyroq	23	qlikkin ñyroq parol
4	ñyraq	24	qlikkin ñyraq parol
5	*mytlyñyn	25	qlikkin mytlyñyn parol
6	ynnanmytlyñyn	26	qlikkin ynnanmytlyñyn parol
7	ñer?amytlyñyn	27	qlikkin ñer?amytlyñyn parol
8	ñyr?omytlyñyn	28	qlikkin ñyr?omytlyñyn parol
	amñyrootken	29	qlikkin ñyr?amytlyñyn parol
9	ñyr?amytlyñyn	30	qlikkin myngytken parol
	qonacgynken	35	qlikkin kylgynken parol
10	*myngytken	40	ñireqqlikkin
11	myngytken	45	ñireqqlikkin mytlyñyn parol
12	myngytken	50	ñireqqlikkin myngytken parol
13	myngytken	60	ñyroqqlekken
14	myngytken	70	ñyroqqlekken myngytken parol
15	*kylgynken	80	ñyraqqlekken
16	kylgynken	90	ñyraqqlekken myngytken parol
17	kylgynken	100	mytlyñqlekken
18	kylgynken	200	myngytqlekken
19	kylgynken	300	kylgynqlekken
20	qlikkin	400	qlikqlikkin

Traditionally, counting didn't go beyond 400.

Note interrogative numeral t?er/t?ar

Forms for 'two', 'three', 'four', 'five' have combining forms ñiren-, ñyron-, ñyran-, mytlyñ- resp. with other numerals, and 'two', 'three', 'four' have ñire-, ñyro-, ñyra- in other combinations (e.g. with person agreement affixes). Combining forms for the numerals ending in -kin/ken remove that ending.

There are two forms for 'eight', 'nine'. The transparently formed '3 + 5', '4 + 5' are perhaps less frequent than the alternatives (I:388) which etymologically mean 'relating only to three (fingers on the other hand)' and 'one (finger) at its side'.

Person marking: take person suffixes when used predicatively or appositively (except for ynnen 'one'): (turi) t?er-turi 'how many of you are there?' (muri) ñiremuri/ñer?amytlyñmore/amñyrootmore/ñireqqlikkin myngytken ñyroq parolmore/cigt?ermuri 'There are two/seven/eight/fifty-seven /a (fair) number of us'

3^rd person forms have special plural suffix -rgeri: t?er-y-rgeri 'How many of them are there?' kylgynken ñyroq parol-y-rgare 'There are eighteen of them'.

Circumfix em-/am-...-jut/jot.

em-t?et-jut 'how many each?' [Russian: 'po skol'ko?']

am-ynnanmytlyn-jot 'six each'

em-cig-t?et-jut 'a (fair) number each'

em-qlikkin ynnen parol-jot 'twenty-one each' [NB vowel harmony!]

Formed by adding -qew/qaw (to combining form)

ñireqqliq-qew 'fortieth'

myngytken ynnen parol-qaw 'eleventh'

Attributive use as with cardinal numerals:

[NB plural agreement]

Incorporate with oblique cases as for cardinals:

With null nominal head (or in nominalized form), they take case suffixes (like cardinals):

Predicate usage - as for cardinals, except that they can take plural marking.

Possessive and relative forms of ordinals

Relative forms almost identical in meaning to ordinary ordinals:

Chukchee seems to lack a determiner system as such. A number of quantifiers appear as incorporated elements or as prefixes (depending on how you chose to analyse them). Overall, Chukchee illustrates the A-type quantifier system as opposed to the D-type.

Skorik discusses these under noun derivation. See chapter ten, section 1.

This is the most productive type of incorporation in the language (see Spencer 1995 for further discussion; also Payne 1993).

Chukotkan languages permit incorporation of:

• adjectives (in various forms)
• - forms
• possessives (including possessives of -l?- forms)
• 'determiners', quantifiers etc., numerals (I:392; see especially Payne for interesting examples)
• verb stems as modifiers

Typologically, modifier incorporation by noun heads is probably rather different from noun incorporation. In Chukchee it has an important role in discourse structure (an unincorporated modifier bears a certain amount of focus so that incorporation is the unmarked state) and is obligatory under certain circumstances (e.g. with the Comitative case forms, which have a prefixal element). Moreover, although noun incorporation is being lost from the language under influence of Russian, adjective incorporation shows now signs of being lost (see discussion in Spencer, 1995). Finally, note that modifier incorporation is found in languages which lack proper noun incorporation. Thus, in Germanic we often find Adj-Noun compounds of the blackbird type, while in Latvian even some determiners (possessives) can be compounded with nouns (e.g. from musu 'our' mus-dien-as 'our-day-GEñ 'of our day, i.e. modern').

Last modified 16 July 1999.