p.18
Comments welcome e.rounduq.edu.au. Please do not cite without permission.
1 1exc ‘me’ ‘us‐not‐you’
1inc ‘you and me’
2 ‘you’
3 ‘he, she, it, they’
Singular nganhma nyima
nima
Dual ngarrma
ngagurrma girrma birrma
Plural ngalma
ngagulma gilma
bilma
Table 24. Stative Direct forms of personal pronouns
2.4 Stems and endings for Verbs
The verb expresses what kind of action is happening. Ganggalida verbs can be Transitive, like balatha ‘hit’ and gurrija ‘see, or look at’, or Intransitive like thaatha ‘go walkabout’
and jawija ‘run’, or Semi‐transitive like lardija ‘wait for’ and gamburija ‘talk to’.
In Ganggalida, verb stems all end with the sounds th or j. The endings that come
after the stems are used to show that a sentence is a statement telling you about something or a question, or a command or request to do something, or a wish or desire.
The Indicative forms of verbs Indicative forms are used for making statements and asking questions. The Indicative form
of a verb is made either by adding the ending ‐a or by removing the final th or j sound from the stem. For example, with the stem balath‐ ‘hit’, you can make the Indicative form either
by adding ‐a, to get balatha, or by removing the final th sound, to get bala. Examples are shown in Table 25.
meaning full Indicative verb stem ending
Transitive ‘hit’
balatha or bala balath‐ ‐a, or remove th
Transitive ‘look at’
gurrija or gurri gurrij‐
‐a, or remove j Semi‐transitive ‘wait for’ lardija or lardi
lardij‐ ‐a, or remove j
Intransitive ‘go’
thaatha or thaa thaath‐ ‐a, or remove th
Intransitive ‘run’
jawija or jawi jawij‐
‐a, or remove j
Table 25. Indicative verb forms, for statements The Imperative forms of verbs
The Imperative form of a verb is for telling people what to do — for making commands. The Imperative form is made by adding the ending ‐ga to Transitive verb stems, or by adding ‐a
to Semi‐transitive and Intransitive verb stems. The g in the ‐ga ending replaces the final th or j sound of the stem. For example, if you add ‐ga to balath‐ ‘hit’, you get balaga.
p.19
Comments welcome e.rounduq.edu.au. Please do not cite without permission.
meaning full Imperative verb stem ending
Transitive ‘hit’
balaga balath‐ ‐ga
Transitive ‘look at’
gurriga ngudij‐ ‐ga
Semi‐transitive ‘wait for’ lardija lardij‐
‐a
Intransitive ‘go’
thaatha thaath‐ ‐a
Intransitive ‘run’
jawija jawij‐
‐a
Table 26. Imperative verb forms, for commands The Hortative forms of verbs
The Hortative form of a verb is for making polite commands. The Hortative form is made by adding the ending ‐gi to Transitive verb stems, or by adding ‐i to Semi‐transitive and
Intransitive verb stems. The g in the ‐gi ending replaces the final th or j sound of the stem.
meaning full Hortative verb stem
ending Transitive
‘hit’ balagi
balath‐ ‐gi
Transitive ‘look at’
gurrigi ngudij‐
‐gi
Semi‐transitive ‘wait for’ lardiji
lardij‐ ‐i
Intransitive ‘go fishing’
ngagathi ngagath‐
‐i
Intransitive ‘go hunting’ wambalmaji
wambalmaj‐ ‐i
Table 27. Hortative verb forms, for polite commands The Desiderative forms of verbs
The Desiderative form of a verb is for expressing wishes, desires and possibilities. It is made by adding the ending ‐da to the verb stem. The d in the ‐da ending replaces the final th or j
sound of the stem.
meaning full Desiderative verb stem
ending Transitive
‘hit’ balada
balath‐ ‐da
Transitive ‘look at’
gurrida ngudij‐
‐da
Semi‐transitive ‘wait for’ lardida
lardij‐ ‐da
Intransitive ‘go fishing’ ngagada
ngagath‐ ‐da
Intransitive ‘go’
warrada warraj‐
‐da
Table 28. Desiderative verb forms, for desires and possibilities
p.20
Comments welcome e.rounduq.edu.au. Please do not cite without permission.
Negative forms Verbs can also have specifically Negative endings, to describe what doesn’t, won’t, can’t or
shouldn’t happen. The Negative forms of balath‐ ‘hit’ and warraj‐ ‘go’ are summarised in Table 29 together with the positive forms. There are no Negative Hortative forms.
‘hit’ ‘go’
Positive Indicative
balatha or bala warraja or warra
Imperative balaga
warraja
Hortative balagi
warraji Desiderative balada
warrada
Negative Indicative balatharri
warrajarri
Imperative balana
warrana Desiderative balanada
warranada
Table 29. Summary of Positive and Negative verb forms
2.5 The main Clitic