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 naayu es fe			‘the my spicy tea’		
 ataaya es fa naayu fe				

 ataaya es nyaayu ke			‘the my spicy teas’
 ataaya nyaayu es ke

 faniik fa mbarju fe			        ‘the ugly elephant’
 faniik es fa mbarju fe		        ‘the my ugly elephant’
 faniik fa mbarju es fe

 fannik es fa mbarju fa maak es fe	‘the my ugly big elephant’		
 faniik fa mbarju es fa maak fe			
 faniik fa mbarju fa maak es fe			

 paniik es parju maak ke 		‘the my ugly big elephants’
 paniik parju es maak ke
 paniik parju maak es ke						

 paniik es parju maak satku 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

1. 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.