136 Nora C. England
The only adjectives that can be used with another adjective without a conjunction
are ni 'small' and nimaal great, important'. When used like this, they are a diminu-
tive and intensifier, respectively:
(50) jun ni nuxh yiin
one DIM small ATT
'one that is a little small'
(51) Luu-qa nimaal tal t'iiw.
DEM-PL INTENS small eagle
"The small eagles were there.'
QUANTIFIERS, like NUMBERS, can precede other adjectives with no conjunction:
(52) t-uj juu'n nimaq tnom
A3sg-RN:in each big town
'in each town
(53) Nn-0-eel ch'iin ni q-chiky'eel ky-u'n-jal
pROG-I>3sg-go.out a.little small Aipl-blood A3pl-RN:by-CLAS:non-human
"They take a little of our blood.'
They can also take the distributive morpheme -chaq, like NUMBERS:
(54) ch'iin-chaq nimaq t-b'aan-al b'ix ch'iin-chaq nimaq
a.little-oiST big A3sg-good-ABST N and a.little-DiST big
t-naach-al
A3sg-bad-ABST N
'to each a little good and a little bad'
Adjectives can also be modified by other attenuators and intensifies, especially the
attenuator yiin and the borrowed (from Spanish) puura 'very' and weena 'very'. Yiin
and weena are used after the adjective, while puura precedes it:
(55) juunni nuxh yiin b'ix juun matijyiin
one DIM small ATT and one big ATT
'one somewhat small one and one somewhat big one'
(56) jun nimaal lab'aj matiij weena
one INTENS snake big very
'a very big snake'
(57) Jun qlo'n-0 pere puura k'ook'j.
one fruit-I>3sg but very delicious
'It's a fruit that's very delicious.'
Puura can be used in combination with one of the other intensifies: