Possessives with Adjectives

Possessive pronoun clitics can attach to any of the words in a string of noun-modifications.

 wiin es faaxu we		        ‘the my good people’
 wiin faaxu es we

 rew es daduk xoju mosu we	        ‘the two thin beautiful women’
 rew daduk es xoju mosu we
 rew daduk xoju es mosu we	
 rew daduk xoju mosu es we

 ataaya fa ñaayu es fe			‘the my spicy tea’		
 ataaya es fa ñaayu fe				

 ataaya es ñyaayu ke			‘the my spicy teas’
 ataaya ñyaayu es ke

 fañiik fambarʄu fe			        ‘the ugly elephant’
 fañiik es fambarʄu fe		        ‘the my ugly elephant’
 fañiik fambarʄu es fe

 fañiik es fambarʄu famaak es fe	‘the my ugly big elephant’		
 fañiik fambarʄu es famaak fe			
 fañiik fambarʄu famaak es fe			

 pañiik es parʄu maak ke 		‘the my ugly big elephants’
 pañiik parʄu es maak ke
 pañiik parʄu maak es ke						

 pañiik es parʄu maak saƭku es ke	‘the my ugly big strong elephants’

When this happens, in some word-final phonological environment there is contraction of the possessive clitic:

ojafes oɗomu le ‘the my painful leg’ ojaf odomes ole ojaf odoms ole

There are some modifiers for which the possessor clitic attachment cannot occur:

fideles sumu fe ‘the my hot fire’

• fidel sumes fe

Interestingly, the possessive morpheme can attach to multiple of the modifiers and to the noun itself:

xa nafad es xa lakas es axe ‘the my other shoes’

rew es daduk es xoju mosu we ‘the thin beautiful women’ rew daduk es xoju mosu es we ?rew es daduk es xoju es mosu we

1. rew es daduk es xoju es mosu es we

It is unclear what the maximum threshold for repeated clitic attachment is, but the consultant confirms that a clitic on ever element in the phrase is not acceptable.