RcprNonRefl: Reciprocity is expressed with a single verb; the grammatical encoding of reciprocity is different than that of reflexivity.

(1a) paɣ-ət ńūʌ wäʌ-ʌ-ət.

boy-pl together kill-prs-3pl

‘The boys are fighting.’ (L. N. K.)

(1b) paɣ-ət ńūʌ ńūl-nam wäʌ-ʌ-ət.

boy-pl together together-apr kill-prs-3pl

‘The boys are fighting.’ (L. N. K.)

(2a) ʌin ńūʌ ʌaŋq-ʌə-ɣən.

they_two together love-prs-3du

‘They love each other.’ (L. N. K.)

(2b) ʌüw tōp ʌüwə ʌüw-at ʌaŋq-əʌ.

he/she only he/she-pcl he/she-acc love-prs.3sg

‘He/she only loves himself/herself.’ (L. N. K.)

(3a) mīša pānə sāša ńūʌ-nam pӯt-ʌ-əɣən.

Misha and Sasha together-apr angry-prs-3du

‘Misha and Sasha are angry with each other.’ (L. N. K.)

(3b) mīša sāša-nam pӯt-ʌ.

Misha Sasha-apr angry-prs.3sg

‘Misha is angry with Sasha.’ (L. N. K.)

(4) ʌin ʌin küt-in-nə pɔ̄ritə-ʌ-ɣən.

they_two they_two between-3du-loc argue-prs-3du

‘The two of them are arguing with each other.’ (L. N. K.)

(5) ʎēwət-ʌə-təɣ qūntə, nəŋ məta küt-in-nə ʎīwt-itəɣ.

argue-prs-2pl when you somebody between-2pl-loc argue-imp-2pl

‘If you want to quarrel, do it with each other.’ (Csepregi 1998: 64.)

In Surgut Khanty, mutual actions are expressed by the ńūʌ ‘together, each other’ verbal modifier, which sometimes behaves as a verbal prefix, sometimes as an adverbial. Its original meaning was together e.g.

(6) jɔ̄ɣ ńūʌ-a əkm-ət.

people together-lat gather-pst.3pl

‘The people came together.’

In the first example, the verbal prefix ńūl changes the meaning of the verb (kill > fight, beat each other). A similar phenomenon can be observed in the case of the wu- ‘see’ and the ńūʌ wu- ‘meet’ verb pairs, too. According to the language informant (L. N. K.), the reduplication of the verbal prefix can emphasize mutuality in the spoken language (1b). In example (2b), the verbal prefix only extends the meaning of the verb ‘love’ with the notion of mutuality. The ńūʌ word may take case endings, usually the -nam approximative suffix (3a). As the complement of the verb (3b), it may not express mutuality. A mutual relationship can also be indicated with the küt- ‘between’ postposition, which accompanied by an appropriate personal pronoun, a personal suffix and locative suffix can express the meaning ‘among us, with each other’ (4), (5).

The ńūʌ- element, however, cannot be used to code reciprocity. Reciprocity can be expressed by the personal pronoun + emphatic particle construction (2b).