Order of verbal affixes (Surgut Khanty)

Possible order of affixes:

Subjective (indeterminate) conjugation of verbs with singular objects, present tense:

T–Subj~Obj

(1a) pan-ʌ-əm, pan-ʌ-em

put-prs-1sg put-prs-obj.1sg

‘I put (something/it)’


(1b) pan-əʌ, pan-ʌə-təɣ

put-prs.3sg put-prs-obj.3sg

‘he/she puts (something/it)


Passive conjugation in singular, dual and plural, first and second person, present tense

T–GV–Subj

(2) pan-ʌ-oj-əm, pan-ʌ-o-təɣ

put-prs-pass-1sg put-prs-pass-2pl

‘I’m put, you are put (somewhere)’


Passive conjugation of verbs with second person singular and third person dual or plural subjects, present tense

T–GV~Subj

(3) pan-ʌ-o, pan-ʌ-i, pan-ʌ-at

put-prs-pass.2sg put-prs-pass.3sg put-prs-pass.3pl

‘you are put, it is put, they are put’


Objective (determinate) conjugation of verbs with dual or plural objects, present tense

T–Obj–Subj

(4) pan-ʌə-ɣəʌ-am, pan-ʌə-ʌ-am

put-prs-du.obj-1sg put-prs-pl.obj-1sg

‘I’m putting those two, I’m putting them (somewhere)’


Subjective (indeterminate) conjugation of verbs with singular objects, second person, imperative form

M~Subj~Obj

(5) pan-a, pan-ittən, pan-itəɣ, pan-e

put-imp.2sg put-imp.2du put-imp.2pl put-imp.obj.2sg

‘(you, the two of you) put something (somewhere)!’


Objective (determinate) conjugation of verbs with dual or plural objects, imperative form:

Obj–M~Subj

(6) pan-ɣəʌ-a, pan-ʌ-a

put-du-imp.obj.2sg put-pl-imp.obj.2sg

‘put those two, them (somewhere)!’


In Surgut Khanty, verbs can take tense (T) and passive (GV) affixes, and also indicate the number of the object (Obj) and the person of the subject (Subj) (1)–(4). Mood marking is analytic but in the imperative, suffixes of the second person are different from the rest of the paradigm (5)–(6). Since the past tense is unmarked, there is no tense affix (T) on these forms. Thus the morpheme order pattern of the examples (1)–(4) could be duplicated, since all of them could be used without the tense marker. The active verbs in the subjective (indeterminate) conjugation in the past tense with third person singular subjects do not require any suffixes (pan put.pst.3sg ‘he/she put (something)’). Aspect is not marked systematically in the verbal paradigm.

Author: 

Márta Csepregi