Marking of nominal conjunction and comitative (Northern Mansi)

JuxtaN&DM: Juxtaposition (zero­marking) is used to express nominal conjunction; dependent marking (DM) is used to express the comitative.


(1) oma-m aγmǝŋ jaγ-ǝm aγmǝŋ.
mother-1sg sick father-1sg sick
‘My mother is sick and my father is sick.’ (Kálmán 1976: 67)


(2) oma-m jaγ-ǝm aγmǝŋ-yγ.
mother-1sg father-1sg sick-du 
‘My mother and my father are sick’ (S. D.)


(3) oma-m ōs jaγ-ǝm aγmǝŋ-yγ.
mother-1sg and father-1sg sick-du 
‘My mother and my father are sick.’ (S. D.)


(4) ti pājp-ǝl χumus am oj-ēγ-ǝm?
this basket-ins how I escape-prs-1sg
‘How can I run away with this basket?’ (Popova 2001: 62)


In Northern Mansi, the traditional way of coordination is the repetition of the predicate with each nominal (1). Nowadays, the bare juxtaposition of the coordinated elements (2) and conjunctions (3) are also used. On the other hand, the comitative suffix -ǝl/-tǝl can express instrumental function, too (4).

Author: 

Szilvia Németh