Kambera language

The diphthongs /ai/ and /au/ function phonologically as the long counterparts to /e/ and /o/, respectively.

Kambera formerly had /s/, but a sound change occurring around the turn of the 20th century replaced all occurrences of former /s/ with /h/.

Negators are used in Kambera, and other languages, to make a clause or sentence negative in meaning. Kambera has several types of negators. There are six main types of negators listed below.

Ndia 'no' is used for general negation, and nda 'negative' or ndedi 'not yet' are predicate negators. Ndoku is used to emphasise the negation by being placed with the negator àmbu or nda.[4] Example:

Àmbu is used to express future negation, as well as negation in imperatives.[4]

Negators are elements in a clause that are deictic. They can be used to refer to time, space and discourse.[6] Shown below, the negator, ndia is used to refer to discourse.

Two of these negators nda and àmbu – with nda being a general negator, are used for nominal and verbal predicates.

The word pa in Kambera is derivational and can be added to few prepositional nouns, numerals and negators to create verbs. The emphatic negator ndia 'no' can become a verb through pa derivation. The translation of this verb then becomes "to deny".[9]

Example below of how ndia is constructed into a verb in a given phrase:

A nuclear clause has the predicate as the head in Kambera, and modifiers are positioned at the beginning of the clause. As nda is a modifier it is placed at the beginning of a clause, as a clause-initial negator, before the verb and the rest of the elements of a nuclear clause.[11]

You can distinguish nominal clauses from NPs is through the irrealis negator àmbu and the negator nda, which both never occur inside a possessed NP.[12]

The Kambera word nda is also considered to be a pro-clitic as well, as they do not conform to the minimal word requirement and must occur with a syntactic/phonological host.[13] A clitic is a type of bound morpheme which is syntactically free, but are phonologically bound morphemes. They can attach themselves to a stem, for example the negator nda. Nda appears before its host and is used to mark negation. It has a very simple phonotactic properties and cannot carry stress. [14]Nda as a clitic can only ever occur with a host.

Example:

In the example above, the negator nda becomes nda u- [ndaw], with nda attaching itself to the allomorph u- .[16] Nda is a proclitic that marks an embedded clause in Kambera.

Negators are also included in relative clauses, but are not a part of the noun phrase.

Example:

Personal pronouns are used in Kambera for emphasis/disambiguation and the syntactic relation between full pronouns and clitics is similar to that between NPs and clitics. NPs and pronouns have morphological case.

Kambera, as a head-marking language, has rich morpho-syntactic marking on its predicators. The pronominal, aspectual and/or mood clitics together with the predicate constitute the nuclear clause. Definite verbal arguments are crossreferenced on the predicate for person, number and case (Nominative (N), Gentive (G), Dative (D), Accusative (A)). The four main pronominal clitic paradigms are given below.

Examples:

(1)	apu-nggu
	granny-1SG.GEN
	"My granny."

(2)	ana-na
	child-3SG.GEN
	"His child."

(3)	Kau	pa.ta.lunggur-ya	na	wihi-na
	scratch	CAU.be sore	ART	leg-3SG.GEN
	"He scratched his leg sore." (lit. "He scratched and caused his leg to be sore")

(4)	Na-tari-bia	nahu	angu-na
	3SG.NOM-watch-MOD	now	companion-3SG.GEN
	"He just watches his companion."

(5)	Ningu	uma-nggua
	be.here	house-3SG.GEN
	"I have a house." (lit. "Here is a house of mine.")

(6)	Nyuda-ha-ka	nahu	da	ana-nda
	they-3PL.ACC-PRF	now	ART	child-1PL.GEN
	"They are our children now."

The items in the table below mark person and number of the subject when the clause has continuative aspect.

Examples:

(1)	Lunggur-nanya	na	Ihi-na
	scratch-3SG.CONT	ART	body-3SG.GEN
	"He is scratching his body."

(2)	"Laku-nnguya	ina",	wa-na
	go-1SG.CONT	mother	say-3SG
	"'I am going, mother," he said.'"

Kambera has a possessive or reflexive noun wiki 'self/own', which can be used to mark possession (1).

(1)	Uma	wiki	-nggu
	house	self/own	-1sG
	'My own house'

Wiki has the structural properties of a noun and can be used as a nominal modifier (compare 2 & 3), unlike pronouns which must be cross-referenced on the noun with a genitive clitic (3).[18]

(2)	Uma	witu	-nggu
	house	grass	-1sG
	'My hut'

(3)	Uma	-nggu	nyungga
	house	-1sG	I
	'My house'

As (3) is a possessed noun phrase, the enclitic attaches to the noun. In possessed and modified noun phrases, the genitive enclitic attaches to the noun modifier (4).[19]

(4)	Na	uma	'bakul	-nggu
	ART	house	be big	-1sG
	'My big house'

In Kambera, where cross-referencing is used, the noun phrase is optional. A verb along with its pronominal markers constitutes a complete sentence. Pronominal clitics are a morphological way of expressing relationships between syntactic constituents such as a noun and its possessor.[20]

Possessors can be relativised with a ma- relative clause.[21] There are three types of clauses used in the relativisation of possessors.

The first is when the embedded verb is derived from a relational noun such as mother or child. These derived transitive verbs express relations between the subject and the object (5).

(5)	Na	anakeda	[na	ma-	ina	-nya]
	ART	child	[ART	RmS-	mother	-3sD]
	'the child whose mother she is'/'the child she is the mother of'

The second clause type is where the possessor is the head of the ma- relative clause and the possessee is the subject of the embedded verb (6).

(6)	Ita	-nggu	-nya	[na	tau	na	ma-meti	kuru uma	-na]
	See	-1sG	-3sD	[ART	person	ART	RmS-die	wife	-3sG]
	'I saw [the man whose wife died]

The final type is where the relative clause contains the verb ningu 'be' and the incorporated argument of this verb. The head of the relative construction is the possessor (7).

(7)	Na	tau	na	ma-	ningu	ihi	woka	.ng
	ART	person	ART	RmS-	be	content	garden	.ng
	'the person that has crops' (lit.: 'the person whose garden content is')

*N.B: the morpheme .ng marks the edge of incorporation

Normally, the possessor pronoun nyuna 'he/she' follows the possessed noun (8), though it can also be the head of a relativised clause (9).

(8)	Na	marihak	[na	kalembi	-na	nyuna]
	ART	be dirty	[ART	shirt	-3sG	he]
	'His shirt is dirty'

(9)	Nyuna	na	[ma-	marihak	na	kalembi	-na
	He	ART	RmS-	be dirty	ART	shirt	-3sG
	'He whose shirt is dirty'

Possessors can also be relativised in the same way as subjects. For example, in the following headless relative clause (no possessor NP is present), a definite article is present (10).

(10)	Na	ma-	rabih	karaha	kalai	-na
	ART	RmS-	trickle	side	left	-3sG
	'The (one) whose left side trickles (i.e. lets water through)' (mythological character that is the source of rain)