Kaska language

Vowels

Kaska makes use of the vowels /a/, /e/, /i/, /o/, and /u/, which, through various combinations of inflection (high, falling, and rising tone), lengthening and nasalization, produce about 60 vowel sounds in total.

Morphology

Kaska is a polysynthetic language, commonly featuring sentence words. It is head-final, availing nine prefix positions to a given stem verb morpheme. Kaska does not mark for control or grammatical gender, the latter of which is often implied in narratives through contextual association with the prevalent gender roles of Kaska society, particularly with regard to warfare.

The Verb-Sentence

Verb-sentences, or single-word sentences consisting of a stem verb modified by inflectional, derivational and/or other types of affixes, commonly appear in Kaska. In these cases, a word-final verb morpheme may be accompanied by up to nine prefixes grouped into three categories: the disjunct, the conjunct and the verb theme. O'Donnell's Kaska verb structure diagram is shown below.

Verb Theme

The verb theme carries the stem verb morpheme, which is immediately preceded by one of four classifiers (-h-, -Ø-, -l-, -d-).

The -Ø- classifier primarily marks intransitive and stative verbs.

The classifier -h-, referred to as ł classification in Athabaskan literature, marks transitivity and/or causativity and deletes when preceded by the first-person singular subject marking s-. Though it is found in some intransitive clauses, as in sehtsū́ts ("clothlike object is located"), these generally bear the -Ø- classifier.

The -d- classifier serves a more complex function, accompanying self-benefactives, reflexives, reciprocals, iteratives (marked by the prefix ne-) and passives.

The -l- classifier combines the functions of the -d- and -h- (ł) classifiers.

Conjunct

The conjunct, which appears between the disjunct prefix group and the verb theme, carries inflectional information including subject, direct object and mood/aspect markings. In subject markings, Kaska syntactically differentiates between "subject I" and "subject II" morphemes (the latter represented in the gray boxes in the table below to the left).

Subject I markers occur conjunct-finally, while subject II markers occur conjunct-initially.

The direct object markings are given in the table at right. The marking for third-person singular direct object depends on the subject of the sentence: if the subject is in first- or second-person, then it is Ø-, but becomes ye- when the subject is in third-person.

Disjunct

The disjunct typically carries adverbial and derivational prefixes, including the negative marker dū- and the distributive plural morpheme né-, which pluralizes otherwise dual subjects and, in some cases, singular objects. The presence (or absence) of this feature bears most of the numerical marking that is not already indicated contextually or through the subject and object affixes themselves. The prefix ɬe- marks for dual subject in at least one verb phrase: "to sit." Postpositional morphemes, such as ts'i'- ("to") and yé- ("about"), also appear in the disjunct, along with the oblique object markings listed in the table below.

Space, Time and Aspect

In Kaska, time is expressed primarily through aspect marking, called modes when described in Athabaskan languages. These prefixes convey imperfective, perfective and optative aspect. Overt expressions for quantified units of time exist, such as tādet'ē dzenḗs ("three days"), but rarely appear in Kaska dialog.

The imperfective (prefix Ø-) expresses incomplete action, is used in instrumental marking, descriptions of static situations and to express irrealis mood. In Kaska narratives, imperfective verb forms commonly accompany a humorous tone.

The perfective mode (prefix n-) functions largely in complement to the imperfective, expressing complete action, is used in descriptions of kinetic events and establishing realis mood. Kaska narratives tend to express a more serious tone through perfective verb forms.

The optative mode (prefix u- in conjunction with suffix -í) expresses unrealized or desired activity.

Directional prefixes, stems and suffixes also index spatial relations in Kaska narratives. These include allatives, ablatives, areals and punctuals, with some examples listed below.

Syntax

When a sentence contains two independent nominals, it takes on Subject-Object-Verb (SOV) structure.

1. eskie ayudeni ganehtan
2. eskie ayudeni ga-Ø-ne-h-tan
3. boy girl at-3sg.Subj.-Mood/Aspect-Classifier-look
4. "The boy saw/looked at the girl"

When only one independent nominal is present, the subject and object are differentiated by the prefixes in the verb, shown using the same sample sentence.

1. eskie meganehtan
2. boy 3sg.Obj...
3. "The boy saw/looked at her"

Subordinate clauses are marked with an -i or -í suffix and appear before the independent clause, as in the following example:

"While he was eating he was watching us."

1. etsedzi gugā́nehtān
2. etsedz-i gugā́nehtān
3. 3sg.eat-[Sub. clause] 3.sg.was watching us

The available literature on Kaska makes no mention of applicatives, relatives or complements, and case marking appears restricted to nominative (subject), accusative (object) and the various forms of locative case marking conveyed through directional morphemes.

Endangerment

With around 300 speakers as of 2011, the Ethnologue lists Kaska as Status 7 (shifting), despite also listing four communities (Good Hope Lake, Lower Post, Watson Lake and Ross River) where the language is taught in schools.