Imperatives and Hortatives

Imperatives

Imperatives for singular listeners are formed with a suffix -i and (if the focus of the command is plural) a plural marker -o':

V stem + -i + -o'

e.g. geenoox-i "stand up!" (079).

The plural imperative appears to surface with a suffix -yo', e.g. jaw-yo'! "cook (pl)!" (103). I analyze this here as a combination of the imperative morpheme -i and the plural marker -yo' seen elsewhere on verbs.

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). bar can perhaps be analyzed as a free prohibitive morpheme; it is not clear if it can be used on its own as an utterance as can hortative aca (see below).

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!".