-TĄ́
Navajo
Etymology
From Proto-Athabaskan *tan ~ *tən (“to handle stick-like objects or vessels”), probably one of the most polysemous root across all Athabascan languages.
Cognate root found in Ahtna taan, where it serves as a classificatory stem for elongated objects alongside a host of other meanings.
Occurs in Navajo as momentaneous perfective -TĄ́ or -TĄ́Ą́ʼ, in themes related to the handling of stick-like objects (SSO), to raining, to teaching, to the galloping of a horse, and also acts as the suppletive neuter stem of -BIN (plural S sit).
Root
-TĄ́
1. to handle a slender stiff object
| Theme | Category | Bases | Transitive bases (O + ł) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| O + ∅ | motion |
S handles SSO |
|||||
| ∅ | positional |
SSO is in position |
S keeps SSO in position
|
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| hi / di + yíní + ∅ |
positional |
SSO hangs, dangles or protrudes
|
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| ∅ | positional |
it hangs in mid-air
|
2. to rain
| Theme | Category | Bases | Transitive bases (O + ł) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ho + ł | motion/operative? |
it rains
|
|||||
| ni + ł | conversive? |
it mists, clouds hangs in the air
|
3. to teach; to understand, to guess
| Theme | Category | Bases | Transitive bases (O + ł) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ni + ∅/ł |
S teaches
|
||||||
| di + ∅ |
S understands, guesses
|
4. plural S sit
| Theme | Category | Bases | Transitive bases (O + ł) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| d | positional |
plural S sit |
Stem set
The stem set of this root shows a great deal of variation and irregular alternations across the various meanings and aspects.
| Aspect | Imperfective | Perfective | Future | Iterative | Optative |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Momentaneous | -tįįh | -tą́ | -tį́į́ł | -tį́į́h | -tį́į́ł |
| Continuative | -tin | -tą́ | -tį́į́ł | -tį́į́h | -tą́ą́ʼ |
| Distributive | -tįʼ | -tą́ | -tį́į́ł | -tį́į́h | -tą́ą́ʼ |
| Continuative | -tį́į́h | -tą́ | -tį́į́ł | -tį́į́h | -tį́į́ł |
| Reversitative | -tį́į́h | -tą́ | -tį́į́ł | -tį́į́h | -tį́į́ł |
| Transitional | -tį́į́h | -tą́ | -tį́į́ł | -tį́į́h | -tį́į́ł |
| Neuter | — | -tą́ | — | — | — |
See also Appendix: Roots and stems derivation.
Synonyms
Derived terms
References
- Young, Robert; Morgan, William; Midgette, Sally (1992), Analytical lexicon of Navajo, Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, →ISBN, page 473