Main Page: Morphological Processes
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Aspect
Aspectual morphemes in Igala occur before a verb.
The morpheme a indicates imperfective aspect.
(1)
ēlì | lɛ̄ | ā | tʃè | mī | ôlū |
song | DEF.DIST | IPFV | do | 1SG.OBJ | sleep(N) |
‘The song is making me sleepy.’ |
The morpheme na indicates that an action is in progress.
(2)
ábʲá | lɛ̄ | nǎ | kò |
dog | DEF.DIST | PROG | bark |
‘The dog was barking.’ |
The morpheme ɲa has a similar meaning to 'go' in English. The morpheme indicates that an event/action will occur in the future.
(3)
ɛ̌ | ɲá | kpɔ̄ | ɔnà | lɛ́ | fɔ̄ | ɔ̀nâ |
2SG.IPFV | go | break | door | DEF.DIST | break | tomorrow |
‘You will break the door tomorrow.’ |
Aspect and Stative Verbs
If the aspect marker a is present in a sentence right after the subject, it will create a future reading for stative verbs (example 4), but a present progressive reading for eventive verbs (example 5).
(4)
nǎ | lʲ(i) | u |
1SG | see | 3SG |
“I will see him.” |
(5)
nǎ | fɛ̀dɔ̀ | mā |
1SG | love | 3PL |
“I love them.” |