100 Chapter 4 Morphology
As discussed in Chapter 3, whether these should be considered noun roots or
precategorial roots is open to debate. Regardless, affixation of ng- to this class
of roots derives an actor voice verb.
Related to this last set are cases in which ng- is affixed to noun roots de-
noting an occupation or workplace, as in
(10) root actor voice
barung ‘small shop’ marung ‘run a barung’
tokang ‘artisan’ nokang ‘work as an artisan’
sopir ‘driver’ nyopir ‘work as a driver’
toko ‘store’ noko ‘run a store’
Also related are cases in ng- is affixed to nouns (and some adjectives) and
derives a verb which means ‘be like’.
(11) beddhi ‘sand’ meddhi ‘be gritty’
caceng ‘worm’ nyaceng ‘be scrawny’
These derivatives seem distinct from the other examples, which are clearly
agentive. However, interpreting nyaceng as ‘be scrawny’ may be a semantic
narrowing of the conceivable, more general interpretation ‘act like a worm’,
similar to nyake’ ‘act sick’ in (13).
Finally, there are a few specialized cases of verbs derived from noun roots
with ng-.
(12) root actor voice
teppe ‘edge’ neppe ‘go along the edge’
sese ‘edge/side’ nyese ‘give way’
penggir ‘edge’ menggir ‘step aside’
pettong are ‘7th day mettong are ‘hold a 7th day ceremony’
ceremony’
Affixed to adjectival roots, ng- again derives a verb meaning ‘displaying
the quality of’ or ‘be/act like’.
(13) root actor voice
songar ‘conceited’ nyongar ‘act conceited’
sala ‘wrong’ nyala ‘make a mistake’
seppe ‘quiet’ nyeppe ‘grow quiet’
sake' ‘sick’ nyake' ‘act sick’