Predicative Particles
There's a limited set of particles that interact with copulas and sometime replace them.
| Cheatsheet | ||
| ❓ | question particles: у, йа | уцци ҡил у? is brother home? |
| 💭 | modal particles: ҡьал, ккотте | уцци ҡил ҡьал surely brother is home |
Glossary
| ча | who |
| коцци | where |
| ду | me |
| и | you |
| уцци | brother |
| ҡил | at home |
| цянне | coming |
1 Inventory
There're only a few such particles. Two for questions:
- polar questions — у;
уцци ҡил у?
is brother home? - content questions — йа / ей.
ҡил ча йа?
who is home?
And two more with modal meaning:
- expressing assurance — ҡьал;
уцци ҡил ҡьал
of course brother is home - expressing assumption — ккотте (variant кко).
уцци ҡил ккотте
brother is home [right?]
2 Copula Placement
The predicative particles always come after any copulas.
- и цянне де ➡️ и цянне де ҡьал
you are coming ➡️ surely you are coming - и ҡил вел де ➡️ и ҡил вел де у
you are still home ➡️ are you still home? - и коцци де йа?
where are you?
Importantly, the 3rd person form of "to be" це always gets replaced by the particles.
- уцци цянне це ➡️ уцци цянне ҡьал
brother is coming ➡️ of course brother is coming - уцци ҡил це ➡️ уцци ҡил у?
brother is home ➡️ is brother home?
TIP
That's why question almost never contain the copula це.
3 Emphasis
As the copulas put emphasis on the word they come after:
- ду ҡил да
I'm home (not e.g. at work) - ду да ҡил
I'm home (not e.g. brother)
The predicative particles inherit this property as well:
- и ҡил де у
are you home? (e.g. not somewhere else) - и де у ҡил
are you home? (e.g. not someone else)