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
- 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.
