Affixation 101
1.1.2 Actor voice a-, /a/
The actor voice prefix a- works in much the same way as ng- to derive verbs in
the actor voice. Many active intransitive and some active transitive verb roots
take the a- prefix.
(14) root actor voice
bala ‘say’ abala
lonca' ‘jump’ alonca'
berka' ‘run’ aberka'
jelling ‘watch’ ajelling
berri’ ‘give’ aberri’
Verbs are derived from a variety of nominal (or precategorial) roots. Some are
instruments or locations for (work).
(15) root actor voice
sapedha ‘bicycle’ asapedha ‘ride a bicycle’
jala ‘net’ ajala ‘fish with a net’
motor ‘car’ amotor ‘ride in a car’
saba ‘rice paddy’ asaba ‘work in a rice paddy’
tane ‘farm’ atane ‘farm’
sakola ‘school’ asakola ‘go to school’
This derivation is quite common for articles of clothing.
(16) root actor voice
sapatu ‘shoe’ asapatu ‘wear shoes’
sorban ‘turbin’ asorban ‘wear a turbin’
kalambi ‘shirt’ akalambi ‘wear a shirt’
kaos ‘t-shirt’ akaos ‘wear a t-shirt’
Affixing the iterative -an to any of these indicates that the subject regular-
ly/habitually wears this item of clothing, e.g. akaosan ‘usually wear a t-shirt’.
The iterative suffix is discussed in section 1.1.9.
Verbs indicating that an action has been performed or in some cases is in
the process of being performed take the a- prefix. The state of affairs described
is explicitly agentless, which makes these quite different from other uses of a-,
and the meaning is a stative result of an action. There is an inchoative quality to
these although they differ from predicates taking prefix ka-, discussed in section
1.1.5, which also sometimes have an inchoative quality.