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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
Most sentences in Ganggalida have a Clitic which expresses information about Subjects, Object and Goals, and about when the action happens: in the past, present or future. The
Clitic has no stem. Instead, it is made entirely from endings, and then it attaches itself to the end of other words. The Clitic has three main parts:
• Part A expresses information about the Person and Number of the Goal. • Part B expresses information about the Person and Number of Subject and Objects.
• Part C expresses information about when the action happens, and whether it really
happens or it only could have or should have happened. These ideas can be called Tense and Mood. Part III also expresses information about whether the sentence is Transitive
or not.
To make the complete Clitic, you put the parts A, B and C together. This section goes though each part: A, B and C.
The forms for Part A of the Clitic Part A of the Clitic expresses information about the Goal. If there is no Goal in the sentence,
then the Clitic does not have part A, only parts B and C. If the sentence does have a Goal, and
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it is Singular, then the form of Part A of the Clitic is given in Table 30. The symbol ‘ø’ means “nothing”.
Goal: 1sg ‘me’
‐thu‐
2sg ‘you’ ‐ba‐
3sg ‘him, her, it’ ‐rna‐ or ø
Table 30. Part A of the Clitic, for singular Goal An example of a sentence with a First Person singular Goal is 5. You can see that the Clitic
begins with ‐thu. 5 Dathina=thu‐ganda mirralaya ngijuwa miyarl‐da.
That=1sgG‐TR.PST makeIND 1sg.DAT spear‐ABS
‘That man made a spear for me.’ If the Goal is Non‐singular, then the form of Part A of the Clitic depends on the Goal’s Person
and Number, and on whether the Subject of the sentence is Singular or Non‐singular.
Subject: Singular
Non‐singular Goal: 1inc.du ‘me and you’
‐gurruwa‐ ‐gurra‐
1inc.pl ‘me and you lot’ ‐guluwa‐
‐gurra‐ 1exc.du ‘us two, not you’ ‐ngarrawa‐ ‐ngarra‐
1exc.pl ‘us lot, not you’ ‐ngalawa‐
‐ngarra‐
2du ‘you two’ ‐rrawa‐
‐rrawa‐
2pl ‘you lot’ ‐lawa‐
‐rrawa‐
3du ‘them two’ ‐wurruwa‐ ‐wurra‐
3pl ‘them lot’ ‐wuluwa‐
‐wurra‐
Table 31. Part A of the Clitic, for Non‐singular Goal The forms for Part B of the Clitic
Part B of the Clitic expresses information about the Subject and, if the sentence is Transitive, about the Object. We can begin with cases where the sentence is Transitive. In
those sentences, if the Subject is Singular, then the form of part B of the Clitic is given in Table 32. The grey square in Table 32 tells you that the combination of Third Person
Singular Subject and First Person Singular Object never occurs, so the Clitic does not need to have a form for it.
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Subject: 1sg ‘me’
2sg ‘you’ 3sg ‘he, she, it’
Object: 1sg ‘me’ ‐nga‐
‐nki‐
2sg3sg ‘you, he, she, it’ ‐nga‐
‐yi‐ ø
2du3du ‘you two, them two’ ‐ngarrngu‐ ‐rrnguyi‐ ‐rrngu‐
2pl3pl ‘you lot, them lot’ ‐nganbunga‐ ‐nbuyi‐
‐nbu‐
Table 32. Part B of the Clitic for Transitive sentences, for Singular Subject Table 33 shows the forms of part B of the Clitic if the Subject is Non‐singular. The ‘?’ symbol
shows a combination of Subject and Object which has not been recorded. The final line of Table 33 is an alternative form which can be used when the Object is Second or Third
Person Non‐singular.
Subject: 1inc.du
‘me you’ 1inc.pl
‘me you lot’ 1exc.du
‘us two not you’ 1exc.pl
‘us lot not you’ Object: 1sg ‘me’
2sg3sg ‘you, he, she, it’
‐gurr‐ ‐gul‐
‐ngarr‐ ‐ngal‐
23nonsg ‘youthem twolot’
‐gurr‐ ‐gul‐
‐ngarru‐ ‐ngalu‐
alternative ‐gurru‐
‐gurru‐ ‐ngarru‐
‐ngarru‐
Subject: 2du
‘you two’ 2plu
‘you lot’ 3du
‘them two’ 3pl
‘them lot’ Object: 1sg ‘me’
‐nkurr‐ ‐nkul‐
2sg3sg ‘you, he, she, it’ ‐wurr‐
‐wul‐ ‐rr‐
‐l‐ 23nonsg ‘youthem twolot’ ‐wurru‐
? ‐rr‐
‐l‐
alternative ‐wurru‐
‐wurru‐ ‐rru‐ ‐rru‐
Table 33. Part B of the Clitic for Transitive sentences, for Non‐singular Subject Table 34 shows the forms of part B of the Clitic in a Transitive Imperative sentence, where
the Subject will be Second Person: ‘you’, ‘you two’ or ‘you lot’.
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Subject: 2sg ‘you’ 2du ‘you two’ 2pl ‘you lot’
Object: 1sgO ‘me’ ‐nki
? ‐nkul‐
3sgO ‘him, her, it’ ø ‐rr‐
‐l‐
3duO ‘them two’ ‐rrngu
‐rru ‐rru‐
3plO ‘them lot’ ‐nbu
‐rru ?
Table 34. Part B of the Clitic for Transitive Imperative sentences Table 35 shows the forms that are recorded, for part B of the Clitic in a Transitive Hortative
sentence.
Object: 3sg ø 3du ‐yarr‐
3pl ‐yal‐
Table 35. Part B of the Clitic for Transitive Hortative sentences In Intransitive sentences, a different set forms are used for part B of the Clitic. If the Subject
is Singular, then the forms depends on what the TenseMood is, shown in Table 36.
Subject: 1sg ‘me’ 2sg ‘you’ 3sg ‘he, she, it’
TenseMood: Present ‐ga‐
‐nyi ‐ngga‐
Past ‐ga‐
‐nyi‐ ø
Past Irrealis ‐ga‐ ‐nyi‐
‐rni‐ or ‐ni‐
Future ‐tha‐
‐yini‐ ‐rni‐ or ‐ni‐
Table 36. Part B of the Clitic for Non‐transitive sentences, for singular Subject If the Subject is Non‐singular, then the form of part B of the Clitic depends whether the
Sentence has a Non‐singular Goal or not. The forms are shown in Table 37.
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Subject: 1inc.du
‘me you’ 1inc.pl
‘me you lot’ 1exc.du
‘us two not you’ 1exc.pl
‘us lot not you’
with Non‐singular Goal ‐gurr‐ ‐gurr‐
‐ngarr‐ ‐ngarr‐
otherwise ‐gurr‐
‐gul‐ ‐ngarr‐
‐ngal‐
Subject: 2du
‘you two’ 2plu
‘you lot’ 3du
‘them two’ 3pl
‘them lot’
with Non‐singular Goal ‐wurr‐ ‐wurr‐
‐rr‐ ‐rr‐
otherwise ‐wurr‐
‐wul‐ ‐rr‐
‐l‐
Table 37. Part B of the Clitic for Non‐transitive sentences, for Non‐singular Subject If the sentence is Imperative, then the Subject will be Second Person: ‘you’, ‘you two’ or ‘you
lot’, and the form of part B of the Clitic will depend on the Number of the Subject, and on whether the sentence has a Non‐singular Goal or not. The forms are shown in in Table 38.
Subject: 2sg ‘you’ 2du ‘you two’ 2pl ‘you lot’
with Non‐singular Goal ø ‐wurr‐
‐wurr‐
otherwise ø
‐rr‐ ‐l‐
Table 38. Part B of the Clitic for Non‐transitive Imperative sentences Table 39 shows the forms that are recorded, for part B of the Clitic in a Transitive Hortative
sentence.
Subject: 3sg ‐ø
3pl ‐yal‐
Table 39. Part B of the Clitic for Intransitive Hortative sentences Under specific circumstances — when the Goal is Non‐singular, and the Subject is
Non‐singular and Second or Third Person — Ganggalida optionally allows parts A and B of the Clitic to be replaced with the alternative forms shown in Table 40.
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Subject: 23nonsg ‘youthem twolot’
Goal: 1inc.du ‘me and you’ ‐gurruwa‐
1inc.pl ‘me and you lot’ ‐guluwa‐
1exc.du ‘us two, not you’ ‐ngarrawa‐ 1exc.pl ‘us lot, not you’
‐ngalawa‐ 2du ‘you two’
‐rrawa‐ 2pl ‘you lot’
‐lawa‐ 3du ‘them two’
‐wurruwa‐ 3pl ‘them lot’
‐wuluwa‐
Table 40. Alternative to Parts A B, for certain combinations of GoalSubject The forms for Part C of the Clitic
Part C of the Clitic expresses information about TenseMood. Table 41 shows the forms for Transitive sentences. Table 42 shows the forms for Intransitive and Semi‐transitive
sentences. In both cases, the forms can depend on the last sound of the first two parts of the Clitic.
Mood Tense
After a After i, u or ø After l or rr
Indicative Desiderative Present ‐rri
‐garri ‐garri
Past ‐nda
‐ganda ‐ganda
Irrealis Past ‐ndi ‐gandi
‐gandi
Future ‐ndi
‐gandi ‐gandi
Imperative Hortative Present
ø ø
‐a
Table 41. Part C of the Clitic for Transitive sentences Mood
Tense After i After a, u or ø After l or rr
Indicative Desiderative Present ø
ø or di ‐a or ‐adi
Past ‐ngga
‐yingga ‐ingga
Irrealis Past ‐nggi ‐yinggi
‐inggi
Future ‐nggi
‐yi ‐ayi
Imperative Hortative Present
ø ø
‐a
Table 42. Part C of the Clitic for Non‐transitive sentences
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3 How to make sentences
This section describes how sentences are made in Ganggalida. The section is divided into many individual topics, starting with some simple cases, and gradually working up to the
most complex sentences in the language. Throughout this section you will see many example sentences. Each sentence is numbered, so that it’s easy to talk about them. In the
sentences, each word is broken into its parts and labeled, and there is a translation of the Ganggalida sentence into English at the bottom. The meanings of the labels are listed in
Table 43, and you can read more about many of those ideas in sections 1 and 2.
ABL Ablative
O Object
ABS Absolutive
PRIV Privative
ALL Allative
PROP Proprietive
DAT Dative
nonsg Non‐singular Number DES
Desiderative Mood NTR
Non‐transitive DIR
Direct NEG
Negative DUAL Dual Number
pl Plural Number
du Dual Number
PAST Past Tense
ERG Ergative
PRES Present Tense
exc Exclusive Person
PROP Proprietive
FUT Future Tense
PRIOR Prior Tense G
Goal REL
Relative clause GEN
Genitive S
Subject HORT Hortative Mood
sg Singular Number
inc Inclusive Person
STAT Stative
IND Indicative Mood
TR Transitive
IMP Imperative Mood
1 First Person
IRR Irrealis Mood
2 Second Person
LOC Locative
3 Third Person
Table 43. Labels for endings and word forms
3.1 Describing what something is