Verbal Elements

tʃɛ/tʃe

The morphemes tʃɛ and tʃe appear as verbal elements in Igala. tʃɛ adds the meaning that something has already been done to a sentence.

ū	gbɔ̋	kàkīnī	ɛ̀	tʃɛ̀	wā	mɛ̂
1SG	hear	C	2SG	already	come	now
‘I heard that you have already come' (D:225).

The morpheme tʃe is a copular element translated as do/does.

ido	e	ta	tʃe	ɛŋʷu	ɔla	mi
dance(N)	NMLZ	dance(V)	do	thing	body	1SG.OBJ
‘Dancing is my favorite thing (to do)' (D:193).

In certain cases tʃ(e) seems to note additional emphasis in a situation.

i	tʃe	uwɛ	dʒɛ	ɔda	lɛ	i	n	:
3SG.NEG	do.EMPH	2SG.STR	eat	pear	DEF.DIST	EMPH	NEG.SFP	?
‘Are you not the one who ate the pear?’(D:?).

fV/mv

The morphemes fi and fu in Igala "appears in sentences describing completed action" (Celone 2021).

òná	nǎ	f(i)	ɔ̀dʒ(ɛ)	àbǎtʃà	hì
tomorrow	1SG.IPFV	PERF1	morsel	cassava	cook
Tomorrow, I will have cooked o.a

Celone (2021) notes that fV cannot be used to describe events that are ongoing, or that occur habitually.

u	fi	ɔdʒɛ	ɔabatʃa	hi
I	PERF1	morsel	cassava	cook
Tomorrow, I will have cooked o.a

One of the most recognizable properties of fV is its influence on word order. By default, Igala has SVO word order (Celone 2021). However, in the presence of fV, this is modified. This morpheme appears to surface in the usual verb slot, while the matrix verb appears sentence-finally.

Example sentence with SVO word order.

ú	lí	òhìmìnì
1SG	see	ocean
I have seen the ocean.

Example sentence wit fi which shifts the word order.

ú	f(u)	òhìmìnì	lí
1SG	PERF1	ocean	see
I have seen the ocean.