5 Adjectives in Mam 143Some may refer to position alone, or to physical characteristics alone, and a few
refer to neither (quiet, alone, accustomed). In addition to the fact that the main
derivation from positional is the positional predicate adjective, a great many reg-
ular adjectives (attributive or predicate) are also derived from positional. They
refer to the physical characteristics described by the root.
Most words for human AGE are nouns or the related noun classifiers that are
quite specific with regard to age. Because noun classifiers are used pronominally,
there are then ways to indicate the age of a person with or without using the spe-
cific nominal lexeme. Common nouns for developmental stages with their related
classifiers and related adjectives, if any, are:
(76) Noun: Classifier: Related adjective:
nu'xh 'baby' nu'xh nuxh 'small'
xhlaaq' 'child' xhlaaq'
q'aa 'young man' q'a
txiin 'young woman' txin
q'apooj 'young woman' — q'apooj 'young, of a woman
— 'man' ma matiij 'big, old'
xu'j 'woman xu'j
swe'j 'old man swe'j
yaab'aj grandmother' xhyaa' 'old woman'
xiinaq 'man' xnuq 'old man, respect'
xu'j 'woman' xuj 'old woman, respect'
Spanish borrowings provide additional VALUE terms, such as boniit 'pretty' or ga-
laanlwalaan 'handsome'.
Terms for SPEED are adverbs with no derivations. They include joraat 'quickly'
(possibly a borrowing from Spanish un rato 'a moment'), cheeb'a 'slowly', b'aaka 'lit-
tle by little', and e'lakyim 'as quickly as possible'. The PHYSICAL PROPERTY adjective
kyiw 'hard' is extended to mean 'difficult' as well. I know of no other DIFFICULTY
terms, nor of adjectives for SIMILARITY or QUALIFICATION. There is a particle, aax,
for 'the same' and a derivation of the number one,junti, for 'other/another'.3.2. DERIVATIONS
The most important source for derived adjectives is positionals. Of over 600 ad-
jectives in the sample (not including positional adjectives or participles), 150 are
surely derivations from positionals, and another 100 or so are probably deriva-
tions from positionals. In addition, there are the derived positional adjectives, the
predicate adjective form of each of the over 250 positional roots. Verbs provide the
next most important source of derived adjectives, with the participles of transitive
verbs (over 250) and intransitive verbs (about fifty) constituting the most numer-
ous category of adjectives derived from verbs. Approximately fifty adjectives in the
sample are derived from verbs through other processes, and some of the unknown
derivations probably also come from verbs. Nouns and adjectives are the sources