kǝʃtɛmpa
Если что, я ничего не знаю
If French was an unwritten language and a field linguist would purport to describe it, one of the predictable outcomes would be its description in terms of a polysynthetic language rather than of a basically analytical language with some elementary nominal inflection, as we know it from standard textbooks. In case of the cited phrase, we would in fact have a typically WC-type polysynthetic verbal form, containing two agreement (subject and object) markers, as well as subordinating and negation markers:
(36) kǝ-ʃ-t-ɛm-pa
SUB-1SG-2SG-love:PRES-NEG
(37) cf. Abx: bzәja bә-šә-zә-m-ba-wa
well 2SG:FEM-SUB-1SG-NEG-see-PRES:DYN:NFIN
‘The fact that I don’t love you’
Reconstructing Proto-West Caucasian: From North Caucasian to West Caucasian via “Chinese”?
Viacheslav Chirikba
If French was an unwritten language and a field linguist would purport to describe it, one of the predictable outcomes would be its description in terms of a polysynthetic language rather than of a basically analytical language with some elementary nominal inflection, as we know it from standard textbooks. In case of the cited phrase, we would in fact have a typically WC-type polysynthetic verbal form, containing two agreement (subject and object) markers, as well as subordinating and negation markers:
(36) kǝ-ʃ-t-ɛm-pa
SUB-1SG-2SG-love:PRES-NEG
(37) cf. Abx: bzәja bә-šә-zә-m-ba-wa
well 2SG:FEM-SUB-1SG-NEG-see-PRES:DYN:NFIN
‘The fact that I don’t love you’
Reconstructing Proto-West Caucasian: From North Caucasian to West Caucasian via “Chinese”?
Viacheslav Chirikba