Inflectional Verbal Morphology

Person Marking

Subject Marking

Sereer verbs agree with subject, even if a subject is overtly expressed elsewhere in the sentence. Singular and plural forms for first, second, and third person are all distinguished from each other. The only distinguishing characteristic between singular and plural third person, however, is the stem-initial consonant mutation of the verb stem. Initial consonant mutation occurs with all plural subjects, regardless of subject agreement type.

The following table shows the basic subject marking paradigm, which occurs when no pre-verbal morphology is present:

Basic subject marking:

Gloss	Sereer	Gloss	Sereer
1SG	-m	1PL	i-[mut]
2SG	-'	2PL	nu-[mut]
3SG	a-	3PL	a-[mut]

This subject marking occurs with the proximal, past, and past progressive tenses (see Tense, below). For example, the proximal tense:

Gloss	Sereer	Gloss	Sereer
1sg- 'I run'	ʄuufaam	1pl- 'we run'	iƈuufaa
2sg- 'you run'	ʄuufaa''	2pl- 'you all run'	nuƈuufaa
3sg- 'he runs'	aʄuufaa	3pl- 'they run'	aƈuufaa

Subject agreement varies, however, and is conditioned (at least) by clause type, negation, focus, and presence or absence of auxiliaries. Most subject agreement morphemes within these paradigms are prefixes.

When the preverbal aspect marker xe/we 'progressive' is present, a different subject marking paradigm occurs:

Subject marking with xe/we:

Gloss	Sereer	Gloss	Sereer
	-xe		-we
1SG	me-	1PL	in-
2SG	we-	2PL	nuun-
3SG	a-	3PL	a-

For example, with the verb ʄuuf, 'run':

Gloss	Sereer	Gloss	Sereer
1sg- 'I am running'	mexe ʄuufaa	1pl- 'we were running'	inwe ƈuufaa
2sg- 'you are running'	wexe ʄuufaa	2pl- 'you all were running'	nunwe ƈuufaa
3sg 'he is running'	axe ʄuufaa	3pl- 'they were running'	awe ƈuufaa

With the auxiliary verb xan 'future', or special preverbal morph (clitic?) kan (which marks predicate focus), subject marking always occurs immediately before the verb stem:

Subject marking with xan or kan:

Gloss	Sereer	Gloss	Sereer
1SG	-m	1PL	i-[mut]
2SG	o-	2PL	nu-[mut]
3SG	a-	3PL	a-[mut]

For example, ʄuuf, 'run':

Gloss	Sereer	Gloss	Sereer
1sg- 'I will see him'	xam ~ xan ga' in	1pl- 'we will see him'	xani ng'a' in
2sg- 'you will see him'	xano ga' in	2pl- 'you all will see him'	xan nu nga' in
3sg 'he will see her'	xana ga' in	3pl- 'they will see him'	xan a nga' in

As seen in the paradigm, first person subject marker, -m, replaces the final /n/ of xan or kan, and alternates with a zero 1sg subject marker.

Object marking

Sereer object marking varies based on how the subject is marked (which in turn varies based on tense/aspect marking). When there is no pre-verbal morphology and the subject is 3S, 1P, 2P, or 3P, the 'basic' subject marking appears, which can the following objects:

Basic object marking:

Gloss	Sereer	Gloss	Sereer
1SG	-(ax)am	1PL	(a) 'in
2SG	-(o)ng	2P	(a) nuun
3SG	-(i)n	3P	(a) den

The singular objects are syntactically clitics, but phonologically suffixes. That is, they display morphophonological interactions with subject-marking suffixes, but do not always occur in the same place relative to the verb. Plural object markers are clitics as well, but are less bound than singular object markers. Plural object pronouns never interact phonologically with subject suffixes. Likewise, they are always preceded by the object marker a, and other words can intervene between them and the verb. For example:

<gl fontsize=11> anafana a Jegaan a den \gll a= naf-an-a a Jegaan a den 3sg.sbj= hit-ben-fv obj Jegaan obj 3pl \trans He hits them for Jegan (130) </gl>

This is evidence that the plural object series is not bound as the singular object series is. However, there is strong evidence that both singular and plural object markers are syntactic clitics. In subordinate clauses, object marker can appear attached to either the verb that is thematically associated with or with a higher verb:

<gl fontsize=11> bugaam owarong \gll bug-aam o-war-ong want-1sg.sbj infin-kill-2sg.obj \trans I want to kill you. (155) </gl>

<gl fontsize=11> bugaxong owar \gll bug-a-xong o-war want-fv-1sg>2sg infin-kill \trans I want to kill you. (155) </gl>

In (2), the object suffix appears on war 'kill', but in (3) it attaches to bug 'want'. This can also occur with the plural series:

<gl fontsize=11> buga (o)foon a in \gll bug-a o-foon a in want-2sg.sbj infin-kiss obj 1pl \trans You want to kiss us. (155) </gl>

<gl fontsize=11> buga (a) in owar \gll bug-a (a) in o-foon want-2sg.sbj obj 1pl infin-kiss \trans You want to kiss us. (155) </gl>

This clitic climbing cannot occur with a lexical object: *buga (a) Jegan ofoon 'You want to kiss Jegan'. Thus, we should conclude that both series are clitics that attach to their hosts in different ways. Plural object pronouns are less bound than singular object pronouns, which do not phonologically behave as clitics. This points to varying levels of grammaticalization and synchronic development between the two series of object markers.

Object pronoun allomorphy

Basic object marking is altered when the subject is 1sg or 2sg. This is because these subjects are marked as post-verbal suffixes, and so these suffixes interact with the the singular object suffixes:

Objects of a 1sg subject:

Gloss	Sereer	Gloss	Sereer
1SG>2SG	-xong	1SG>2P	(a) nuun
1SG>3SG	-num	1SG>3P	(a) den

In -xong, the -x- is analyzable as a 1sg marker, and -ong as marking for 2sg. Likewise, in -num, -n could mark for 3sg, and -um could mark 1sg.

The 2sg subject::object paradigm has similarly analyzable parts:

Objects of a 2sg subject:

Gloss	Sereer	Gloss	Sereer
2SG>1SG	-xamo	2SG>1PL	(a) 'in
2SG>3SG	-no'	2SG>3P	(a) den

The -xam- in -xamo marks for 1sg, and -o is a 2sg marker; -n in -no' marks for 3sg, and -o' marks for 2sg. For all of these markers, except -xong, 1sg>2sg, the object marking comes inside the subject marking. This is the opposite order than what is normally expected.

Reflexivity

Reflexive verbs are always marked by xoox-, which is synchronically or diachronically derived from the word xoox- ‘head’. When it acts as a reflexive pronoun, xoox- displays no consonant alternations between singular and plural forms (which is not the case for the normal noun), and is always marked for person with the regular nominal possessive markers:

Reflexive pronouns:

Gloss	Sereer	Gloss	Sereer
1SG	xooxes	1P	xoox'in
2SG	xooxof	2P	xooxnun
3SG	xooxum	3P	xooxden

Tense and aspect

Tense

Matrix verbs are obligatorily marked for either tense or aspect in Sereer, and are often marked for both. The three tense markers are suffixes:

Typical subject marking:

Gloss	Sereer
Simple past	-'a
Proximal	-aa
Progressive past	-eega

The proximal tense marks events that happened temporally close to the speech act, which includes the present or recent past. Events outside of the recent past-present time frame cannot be marked with -aa.

The future aspect when marked with xan, however, can take -aa marking to indicate future progressive. xan can also appear by itself without any suffix aspect marking, and is glossed as the simple future. Note: Another pre-verbal morph, kan, behaves similarly to xan with regards to subject marking and position relative to the verb, but whose semantic applications are quite different. So far, the best gloss of kan is as a marker of predicate focus.

The proclitic progressive aspect marker xe/we must co-occur with either proximal tense or progressive past tense. With proximal tense -aa, xe/we is glossed as present progressive, and is past progressive with -eega. xe/we has special person marking; see the section on subject marking above.

Proximal Tense

Sample proximal tense verbal paradigm:

Proximal tense:

Gloss	Sereer	Gloss	Sereer
1sg- 'I run'	ʄuufaam	1pl- 'we run'	iƈuufaa
2sg- 'you run'	ʄuufaa'	2pl- 'you all run'	nuƈuufaa
3sg- 'he runs'	aʄuufaa	3pl- 'they run'	aƈuufaa

Past Tense

Sample past tense verbal paradigm:

Past tense:

Gloss	Sereer	Gloss	Sereer
1sg- 'I ran'	ʄuuf'aam	1pl- 'we ran'	iƈuuf'aa
2sg- 'you ran'	ʄuuf'aa'	2pl- 'you all ran'	nuƈuuf'aa
3sg 'he ran'	ʄuuf'aa	3pl- 'they ran'	aƈuuf'aa

Past Progressive Tense

Sample past progressive tense paradigm:

Past progressive tense:

Gloss	Sereer	Gloss	Sereer
1sg- 'I was running'	ʄuufeegam	1pl- 'we were running'	iƈuufeega
2sg- 'you were running'	ʄuufeega'	2pl- 'you all were running'	nuƈuufeega
3sg 'he was running'	ʄuufeegaa	3pl- 'they were running'	aƈuufeega

Aspect

Two auxiliary verbs, xe/we 'progressive', and xan 'future', mark aspect in Sereer. The auxiliary xe/we takes special subject marking (see the section on Subject marking), and can occur with the proximal or past progressive tense. The auxiliary xan takes a different type of exceptional person marking, and can occur without a tense suffix or with the proximal tense suffix (for a future progressive reading).

Future aspect

Sample future aspect paradigm:

Future aspect:

Gloss	Sereer	Gloss	Sereer
1sg- 'I will see him'	xam ga' in	1pl- 'we will see him'	xani ng'a' in
2sg- 'you will see him'	xano ga' in	2pl- 'you all will see him'	xan nu nga' in
3sg 'he will see her'	xana ga' in	3pl- 'they will see him'	xan a nga' in

Progressive aspect

Sample progressive aspect paradigm:

Progressive aspect:

Gloss	Sereer	Gloss	Sereer
1sg- 'I am running'	mexe ʄuufaa	1pl- 'we were running'	inwe ƈuufaa
2sg- 'you are running'	wexe ʄuufaa	2pl- 'you all were running'	nunwe ƈuufaa
3sg 'he is running'	axe ʄuufaa	3pl- 'they were running'	awe ƈuufaa

TAM Combinations

The suffixal tenses and pre-verbal auxiliary aspects can be combined in the following ways:

TAM combinations:

Pre-verbal	Root	Post-verbal	Gloss
	_	-aa	proximal
	_	-'a	past
	_	-eega	progressive past
xe/we	_	-aa	present progressive
xe/we	_	-eega	progressive past
xan	_		future
xan	_	-aa	future progressive

Examples of TAM combinations

The following are examples of each attested TAM combination in Sereer thus far:

Present progressive: <gl fontsize=11> mexe laca \gll me-xe lac-aa 1s-PRG ask-PROX \trans I’m asking (065) </gl>

Proximal: <gl fontsize=11> ŋasaam \gll ŋas-aa-m play-PROX-1S \trans I play (096) </gl>

Future progressive: <gl fontsize=11> \gll xan nafaa aJegaan xan naf-aa a-Jegaan FUT hit-PROX OBJ-Jegan \trans I will be hitting Jegan repeatedly (108) </gl>

Future: <gl fontsize=11> \gll xan naf aJegaan xan naf a-Jegaan FUT hit OBJ-Jegan \trans I will hit Jegan (once) (108) </gl>

Past: <gl fontsize=11> \gll sob 'am sob ’a-m be.clumsy PST-1s \trans I was clumsy (068) </gl>

Progressive past (1): <gl fontsize=11> \gll feceegam fec-eega-m dance-PRG.PST-1s \trans I used to dance (133) </gl>

Progressive past (2): <gl fontsize=11> \gll mexe fooleega me-xe fool-eega 1s-prg. jump-pst.prg \trans I was jumping (repeatedly) (108) </gl>

ka-

Sereer allows a proclitic ka- to appear with tense and aspect morphology. The exact semantics of ka- are yet to be determined. Ka- often occurs with the progressive aspect -aa. However, it is not inherently linked to the progressive semantics like as the auxiliary "xe/we" is when combined with the proximal "-aa" suffix. Similarly, though, ka- also takes special subject marking (See section on Subject Marking).

Progressive KA- reading: <gl fontsize=11> \gll kam labaa ka-m lab-aa KA-1S drown-PROX \trans I'm drowning (166) </gl>

Non-progressive KA- reading: <gl fontsize=11> \gll kam lab ka-m lab KA-1S drown \trans I (already) drowned (166) </gl>

However, this progressive/non-progressive reading distinction only occurs with atelic verbs. The exact function of ka- is yet to be determined. This morpheme could also have focus/extraction function (See note in Focus section)

Stem-initial consonant mutation

See Phonological Alternations.