Pwekish is an agglutinative language. It uses wide range of affixes extensively to construct words and support different grammatical functions. We have learnt some of the affixes in previous lessons, like the PVIM markers, tense prefixes, adjectivizer and nominalizer. In this part, we will be focusing on a few super useful suffixes.
Until now, we still haven't talked about how to "say no" in Pwekish. It is because to achieve negation, we need to use a suffix "-ne".
Before learning how to use that suffix, let's see how to say "Yes" and "No" first.
✅ pé /ˈpe/ yes
❌ né /ˈne/ no
"pé" is used to agree with a statement while "né" is used to disagree with a statement. Note that when spelling these words, accent marker is required because without it, they would mean differently.
Now, let's move on to talk about the negative marker "-ne". What it does is to negate the meaning of a word. It can be applied to verbs, nouns, adjectives and adverbs of manner, which is equivalent to "don't", "no", "not", "un-", etc. in English.
One exception is the negation of verb "to be", the correct spelling is "pne" but not "pene".
| Sentence | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Ņra yenmor sile sanone. | I don't have a big car. |
| Ņra yenmorne sile sano. | I have no big car. |
| Yenmor ņrae nsilne. | My car is not big. |
| Ņra yenmor silne sano. | I have an unbig (small) car. |
| Yenmor hmor tyerne. | The car goes unquickly (slowly). |
Note that when "-ne" is applied to an adjective root or adverb of manner, we no longer add the "-e". Like in example 4, "sil" becomes "silne" but not "silene", and "tyer" becomes "tyerne" but not "tyerene".
In English, we usually add "-s" or "-es" to a word to make it plural. In Pwekish, although maintaining plurality is not mandatory, we do have a plural marker when we want to emphasize that there is more than one thing, especially when the amount is large. Using plural marker is easy, we always add the suffix "-res" to a word. Interestingly, the plural marker can also be applied to nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs of manner.
| Sentence | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Ņra bimbores dip. | I eat (a lot of) apples. |
| Ņra bimbo dipres. | I eat apples a lot. |
| Ņra bimbo silres dip. | The apple is very big (huge). |
| Ņra bimbo dip tyerres. | I eat apples very quickly (rapidly). |
The first example emphasizes the number of apples that I eat while the second example emphasizes the frequency of eating apples. When the plural marker is used on an adjective like the third example, it acts like the word "very".
Note that when "-res" is applied to an adjective root, or adverb of manner, we no longer add the "-e" just like when using the negative marker "-ne".
We just learnt that adding plural marker "-res" to an adjective intensifies the meaning. In fact, we have another intensifier "-os" which is for verbs, adjectives and adverbs of manner only.
| Sentence | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Ņra bimbo nukeos. | I really like apples. |
| Bimbo nsilos. | The apple is so big. |
| Yenmor hmor tyeros. | The car goes so quickly. |
There is a nuance between "-os" and "-res". "-os" is more subjective and emotional, while "-res" is more objective and neutral. Usually, we consider "-os" as a stronger version of "-res".
Same as "-ne" and "-res", we no longer add "-e" to adjective root and adverb of manner.
We can further intensify the meaning by repeating the words without using the suffix "-os".
| Sentence | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Ņra bimbo nuke nuke. | I really really like apples. |
| Bimbo nsil nsil. | The apple is super big. |
| Yenmor hmor tyere tyere. | The car goes super quickly. |
Though, for words with more than 2 syllables, we usually just use "-os" for simplicity.
1. Translate the following sentences to English.
a. Nrow yesin hmolnukene.
b. Mornres nhwiorleeos.
c. Ntyus dos ngex pekene.
d. Awú ņrae vurún h'wipteptepres.
e. TolotenPwék hhayae hhayae.
a. (S)He (always) doesn't like working.
b. The roads were so clean.
c. You don't keep the plants well.
d. My dog chases the mouse a lot.
e. Pwekish is super hard.
2. Translate the following sentences to Pwekish. Use "-res" for plural nouns.
a. I am not a dog.
b. No one is reading the book.
c. He will be unhappy.
d. You talk very loudly.
e. The cats will not break your chairs.
a. Ņra awú pne.
b. Nurne baln nkutbal.
c. Nrow hnishwinkene.
d. Ntyu(s) htolo pilansilperes.
e. Mawres 'yizokres ntyu(s)e hnisismane.