Marking of the agent (Surgut Khanty)

NPPnonobl: The agent may optionally be marked with an explicit pronoun or noun.

Agr: Morphosyntactic agreement on the verb is used to mark the agent.


(1a) mīša ʌī-taɣə jə-ɣ. (ʌüw) ńāń ʌī-ʌ.

Misha eat-inf begin-pst.3sg ő bread eat.prs.3sg

‘Misha is hungry. He is eating bread.’


(2a) (mā) ńāń ʌī-ʌ-əm.

I bread eat-prs-1sg

I’m eating bread.’


(2b) (məŋ) ńāń ʌī-ʌ-əw.

we bread eat-prs-2sg

‘We are eating bread.’


In Surgut Khanty, the verbal suffix reflects the number (sgdupl) and the person (1. 2. 3.) of the agent. Both nominal and pronominal agents can be omitted, if the agent is identifiable from the context. Thus, Surgut Khanty is a pro-drop language.

Author: 

Márta Csepregi