Proto-East Pygmy

PEP vocabulary

=Predicate Prefixes=

In the prefixes which have three forms, the second form is used when the first syllable of the predicate contains /ɑ/ and the third form if used when the first syllable of the predicate contains a velar fricative.

Some combinations of agent and patient prefixes result in the two blending together. Below is a table showing how each prefxi combines.

Inanimate Patient Prefixes

Oblique Prefixes
There are a set of oblique prefixes which attach after predicate prefixes to mark a patient as oblique.

However thanks to sound changes, when these prefixes occur after person marking prefixes some fusion takes place which is shown in the table below.

Example:
 * wizanxir wī̃DzStan wixiũɣuvv savis wizeamf savis wɯɣuzanxir wialī̃Zu wəlamxuSvv (-father -squeel -hunt- -family  -father -belong- -give- "the father hunted a boar for his family"

=Possession=

Possession in PEP is made with a subordinate clause following the possessed noun, a construction roughly meaning "X which to Y belongs". The possessed noun is followed by the subordinator *savis which is followed by the possessor, marked for the locative, followed by the verb *alī̃Zu- ("to belong to", intransitive form of *alīn-):


 * wɯsɘNuaZ savis wɯɣuvuain wɯsɘNualī̃Zu (-stick -son -belong-) "the son's stick"