4 VERBAL INFLECTION 57
4. Transposition also occurs between verbs of different classes, in which case there is an unpredictable difference in meaning:
ala 1.ae- take
2.ao- popular, in demand asi
1.ae- like, love 2.ao- have pity with, care about
lembo 1.a- a. flow
b. urinate in bed during sleep
2.ae- wallow in mud-hole buffalo
4.5. Realis and irrealis
All the verb forms discussed so far can refer to either the past or the present. They can therefore be called the realis mood, to set them apart from
the irrealis, a differently inflected verb form. The irrealis has two primary uses:
1. it refers to the future, or it expresses a wish, a desire or an intention; 2. it is obligatorily used in negative clauses.
Examples of the usage of the irrealis will follow below; first the formal side of the irrealis will be dealt with. The most important difference between
the realis and the irrealis is the different set of subject markers that are prefixed to the verb.
The following chart shows the different sets of realis and irrealis subject markers for each of the three verb classes.
Class a- Class ae-
Class ao- REALIS
IRREALIS REALIS
IRREALIS REALIS
IRREALIS sg 1
a- a-
ae- ae-
ao- ao-
2 o-
o- ome-
ome- omo-
omo- 2p
to- ta-
te- tae-
to- tao-
3 no-
na- ne-
nae- no-
nao- du 1 inc
do- da-
de- dae-
do- dao-
pl 1 inc do-Vmu
da-Vmu de-Vmu
dae-Vmu do-Vmu
dao-Vmu 1 ex
ta- ta-
tae- tae-
tao- tao-
2 o-Vmu
o-Vmu ome-Vmu
ome-Vmu omo-Vmu
omo-Vmu 2p
to-Vmu ta-Vmu
te-Vmu tae-Vmu
to-Vmu tao-Vmu
3 do-
da- de-
dae- do-
dao- Notice that a number of subject markers are identical in the realis and in the
irrealis sg 1, sg 2, pl 2, pl 1 ex. For the ae-class and ao-class these irrealis subject markers can be directly
attached to the verb form, but this is not the case with the a-class. In the a- class the irrealis subject markers are prefixed to the so-called um-form. The
um-form is a bound form that is the result of the operation of a morphological process of which the most common form is the infix -um-. For a detailed
discussion of the allomorphy of -um-, see 2.8.1. For ease of reference the main points are summarized here:
58 A GRAMMAR OF THE MUNA LANGUAGE
a. p- and f- and sometimes w- change to m-; b. initial vowels get the prefix m-;
c. there is zero-allomorphy with initial nasals, prenasalized consonants, b, bh
and sometimes w; d. in all other cases the morpheme is realized as the infix -um-.
Examples illustrating the irrealis translated as future:
Realis Irrealis
A. Class a-: a-kala
a-k[um]ala I will go
o-foni o-[m]oni
you will go up no-horo
na-h[um]oro it will fly
ta-manda ta-manda
we ex will repent do-leni
da-l[um]eni they will swim
B. Class ae-: ae-gholi
ae-gholi I will buy
ne-ada nae-ada
she will borrow ome-rabu-umu
ome-rabu-umu you pl will make
de-basa dae-basa
we will read C. Class ao-:
ao-lowu ao-lowu
I will be drunk omo-gharo
omo-gharo you will be hungry
no-lodo nao-lodo
he will sleep do-bhalo-omu
dao-bhalo-omu we pl will answer
The partial similarity between the a-class and the ao-class has disappeared in the irrealis. Take for example the following two verb forms in the third person
singular:
27 a. no-hoda
he coughs 28
a. no-ghosa he is strong
In the realis these verb forms seem to belong to the same class. In the irrealis, however, it appears that they belong to different verb classes:
27 b. miina na-h[um]oda
he doesnt cough 28
b. miina nao-ghosa he isnt strong
In order to illustrate usage and meaning of the irrealis, clauses will be given in which irrealis forms occur. As mentioned above, there are two primary
usages: 1. To express futurity, a wish or an intention:
29 naewine a-k[um]ala we Raha
tomorrow I will go to Raha tomorrow 1sI-go loc Raha
4 VERBAL INFLECTION 59
30 naefie na-gh[um]use?
when will it rain? when.FUT 3sI-rain
31 na-k[um]ala we daoa nae-gholi kenta
3sI-go loc market 3sI-buy fish she will go to the market to buy fish
2. It is the only verb form that can be used in negative sentences, that is, in the presence of negators such as miina not, miina-ho not yet and pa
will not. The presence of a negator before the verb often triggers the clitic -a on the verb see 8.5 and 9.22:
32 miina na-mai-a
she didnt come not 3sI-come-CL
33 pa na-mai-a
she wont come FUT.not 3sI-come-CL
34 miina-ho na-r[um]ato-a
she hasnt arrived yet not.yet 3sI-arrive-CL
When the negator is placed after the verb for reasons of emphasis, the irrealis is also used:
35 na-k[um]ala we Arobhai miina
she didnt go to Arobhai 3sI-go loc Arobhai not
The realisirrealis distinction is only valid for subject-inflected verb forms. Derived constructions not having this property, such as nominalizations,
imperatives and participles, do not show this distinction. Thus, in addition to the nominalization ka-lente-ha birthplace, there is no noun ka-l[um]ente-ha.
When a verb is suffixed with the futurity suffix -ho, the realis form must be used see 9.7.1 and 10.2.13. The use of the realis and irrealis in conditional
clauses is not yet completely clear see 9.13.
4.6. The definiteness shift
