-GIZH
Navajo
Etymology
From Proto-Athabaskan *ɢəž (“to act with a stick, to be forked”).
Cognate root found in Ahtna delggez (“it is forked”), gges (“skewer”).
Found in Navajo in a number of disparate themes related to cutting, to forked or gapped shape, to seeping/spreading, and to acting with a stick or gestures.
Also found in a base related to flashing, probably a corruption of the root -GĘSH, of similar meaning (see -KĘ́Ę́Z/-KÉÉZ for a similar situation).
Root
-GIZH
1. to cut, to incise; to be forked, to have a gap
| Theme | Category | Bases | Transitive bases (O + ł) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| O + ł | motion |
S cuts O
|
|||||
| O + ∅ | successive |
S cuts O
|
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| ł | adjectival |
S is forked, gapped, has a pass |
|||||
| ∅ |
S breaks, gaps out (a dam) |
S breaks O
|
2. to soak, to seep, to spread
| Theme | Category | Bases | Unspecified (+ʼa) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| si + d |
S soaks, seeps
|
||||||
| si + ∅ |
S spreads
|
3. to act with a stick or gestures
| Theme | Category | Bases | Transitive bases (O + ł) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| O + ∅ | successive |
S stirs O
|
|||||
| ʼa + ∅ | successive |
S makes signals to P
|
4. to flash
| Theme | Category | Bases | Transitive bases (O + ł) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| dzi + l |
S flashes |
Stem set
| Aspect | Imperfective | Perfective | Future | Iterative | Optative |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Momentaneous | -géésh | -gizh | -gish | -gish | -géésh |
| Momentaneous | -gíísh | -gizh | -gish | -gish | -gíísh |
| Continuative | -gizh | -gizh | -gish | -gish | -gizh |
| Reversitative | -gish | -gizh | -gish | -gish | -gish |
| Semelfactive | -gish | -gish | -gish | -gish | -gish |
| Neuter | -gizh | -gizh | — | — | — |
| Neuter | — | -giizh | — | — | — |
See also Appendix: Roots and stems derivation.
Synonyms
to cut:
action of water:
Derived terms
References
- Young, Robert; Morgan, William; Midgette, Sally (1992), Analytical lexicon of Navajo, Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, →ISBN, page 209