PossAff~NonАff: The use of personal possessive affixes on the possessed noun is always optional, with no semantic distribution.

(1) qō ʌājəm

man axe

’the man’s axe’

(2) äwi säm-ɣən

girl eye-du

’the girl’s two eyes’

(3) ma säm-ɣəʌ-am

I eye-du-1sg

’my two eyes’

(4) ma jēj-em

I brother-1sg

’my brother’

(5) jūwan jēji

Ivan brother

’Ivan’s brother’

(6) jūwan qūt-əʌ ťətti

Ivan house-3sg here

’Ivan’s house is here.’

In Surgut Khanty, marking the person of the possessor is semantically optional if the possessor is expressed by a noun phrase, so it does not depend on the lexical properties of the possessed entity. However, if the possessor is expressed by a personal pronoun, it is compulsory to mark the person of the possessor on the possessed entity.