- 1 Nominal modifiers 255
c. n-ajrdw addinaet [s t-ajiw-en fukk]
lPlS-get.Reslt people [Instr Fe-direction-FePl all]
'We have gotten people from all directions (=areas).'d. kail ae-rojj ya ly-asd
people.of Sg-bush Emph one-Pi
war arhe-n α-s-irad fukk
Neg want.PerfN-3MaPlS Sg-Caus-bathe.VblN all
'Some nomads, they don't like bathing at all.' [K]fukk is best translated 'all' and often has emphatic sense. The dialectal
equivalents have the same range of uses.
Distributive hak 'each, every' precedes a NP. In A-grm, hdk appears to
induce Prefix Reduction of the following noun], but this is not the case in T-ka
or the other dialects checked. Thus 'each head' is unreduced hdk e-vaeff (Gao
T-ka) or reduced hak ""ae-raeff (A-grm).
'Many' or 'much' is expressed by participles of the verb -vjjvt- 'be
many'; see §7.3.2.2 for the forms. Example: atay 0-zejje-n 'lots of tea',
ara-taen aejjo-t-nen 'many children'. One can also use a more complex
partitive expression: ά 0-£ejje-n daer "ai-dfar 'a lot of pillow covers' (K
dialect).
'Few' or 'little (amount)' is expressed by any of the participles meaning
'small'; see §8.5.7. Adverbial 'a little' can be expressed by the term abaennan
(variant ambaennan), or its reduplication ambsennan-baennan. These forms
are related (irregularly) to baennan 'for nothing, freely; in vain'.
Another way to say 'a few X's' is to use a phrase with PerfP -ala- 'have'
in a relative clause with minimal demonstrative ά as head, and the quantified
NP as the source of subject agreement (242.a-d). Another common
construction is hzeraet '(some-)thing' with following possessed NP (hence
literally 'a little [bit] of...'), most often a mass or abstract noun, but sometimes
a countable noun (242.e).
(242) a. α als-naet ύΐΐί
Dem have.PerfP-3FePlS goats
'a few goats'
b. α alae-n "a-lyad-aen
Dem have.PerfP-3MaPlS Pl-child-MaPl
'a few children'c. ά i-ΐα udi
Dem 3MaSgS-have.PerfP butter
'a little butter' [K]