Imperatives and Hortatives

Imperatives

Imperatives for singular listeners are formed with a suffix -i, e.g. geenoox-i "stand up!" (079).

Imperatives for plural listeners are formed with a suffix -yo', e.g. jaw-yo'! "cook (pl)!" (103). It is unclear whether this is analyzable as a combination of the imperative morpheme -i and the plural marker -yo'.

A negative imperative (prohibitive?) is formed as follows:

bar + o/nu + V stem

e.g. bar o ret! "don't go (sg)!", bar nu ndet! "don't go (pl)!" (103). This can be contracted to ba + V stem on occasion, e.g. ba ret! "don't go (sg)!", ba ndet! "don't go (pl)!" (103)

Hortatives

Hortatives, at least for 1PL subjects, are expressed by way of the following:

aca + i + V stem

e.g. aca i ndet! "let's go!" (103). aca can perhaps be analyzed as a free-standing hortative particle; it can be used on its own as an utterance meaning roughly "let's!".