Negation
Non-verbal phenomena
Adjectival and Adverb "negation"
For antonymic derived modifiers and agentive nouns, see Derived Modifiers.
In the case of the antonymic derivational suffix -eer, the shape is suspiciously similar to that of the verbal negative morph -i(r). More research is needed to conclude whether or not these are actually the same morph, which is entirely feasible given the verbal character of most "modifiers" in Sereer.
Prohibitive
For the semantically related prohibitive mood, see Imperatives and Hortatives.
The prohibitive is expressed by way of a preverbal, uninflected particle ba(r), which superficially resembles the negative prefix in its coda -r. It is unclear if the historical origins of the prohibitive particle are actually amenable to this proposed connection, however.
Verbal negation
Verbal negation is expressed by an affix that generally takes the shape -i(r). Its allomorphy is complex and will be examined in further detail immediately, while syntactic restrictions on its usage are gathered in the following section.
Morphological exponence
See Negative paradigms for the full attested range of subject-object agreement paradigms with negation.
The negative morph exhibits complex allomorphy and at times coalesces with neighboring vowels. It also irregularly presents a final segment -r that appears in certain contexts; in final position with the negative morphs of the shape -ee, use of -eer is seen as a characteristic of older generations' speech, and there is essentially free variation between usage of -ee and -eer in these contexts.
| Gloss | Sereer | Gloss | Sereer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1SG | -im | 1PL | i [mut]-ee(r) |
| 2SG | -iro' | 2PL | nu [mut]-ee(r) |
| 3SG | -ee(r) | 3PL | [mut]-ee(r) |
There is also an allomorph -eer of -ee', the former being seen as archaic. More investigation of this alternation is needed, however.
More coming Faytak 01:20, 15 December 2012 (UTC)'
