List of glossing abbreviations
This article lists common abbreviations for grammatical terms that are used in linguistic interlinear glossing of oral languages in English.
The list provides conventional glosses as established by standard inventories of glossing abbreviations such as the Leipzig Glossing rules, the most widely known standard. Synonymous glosses are listed as alternatives for reference purposes. In a few cases, long and short standard forms are listed, intended for texts where that gloss is rare or uncommon.
Conventions
- Grammatical abbreviations are generally in full or small caps to visually distinguish them from the translations of lexical words.
- * For instance, capital or small-cap glosses a grammatical past-tense morpheme, while lower-case 'past' would be a literal translation of a word with that meaning. Similarly, cap might be a locative suffix used in nominal inflections, prototypically indicating direction downward but possibly also used where it is not translatable as 'down' in English, whereas lower-case 'down' would be a direct English translation of a word meaning 'down'. Not all authors follow this convention.
- Person-number-gender is often further abbreviated, in which case the elements are in lowercase rather than in small caps.
- * e.g. 3ms, 2fp, 1di and 1pe rather than,, and.
- Glosses may be abbreviated more severely than is the norm, if the grammatical terms are particularly frequent within a text.
- *This helps keep the gloss graphically aligned with the parsed text when the abbreviations are longer than the morphemes they gloss. Such shortened forms may be ambiguous with other authors or texts and so are not presented as normative here.
- Glosses may also be less abbreviated than the norm if they are not common in a particular text, so as to not tax the reader.
- *At the extreme, glosses may not be abbreviated at all but simply written in small caps, e.g., or rather than, or. Such spellingse.g. in have been omitted from the list below, but are always possible.
- A morpheme will sometimes be used as its own gloss, either when it is the topic of discussion and the author wishes it to be immediately recognized in the gloss among other morphemes with similar meanings, or when it has multiple or subtle meanings that would be impractical to gloss with a single conventional abbreviation.
- *For example, if a passage has two contrasting nominalizing suffixes under discussion, ɣiŋ and jolqəl, they may be glossed and, with the glosses explained in the text. This is also seen when the meaning of a morpheme is debated, and glossing it one way or another would prejudice the discussion.
- Lexical morphemes are typically translated, using lower-case letters, though they may be given a grammatical gloss in small caps if they play a grammatical role in the text. Exceptions include proper nouns, which typically are not translated, and kinship terms, which may be too complex to translate. Proper nouns/names may simply be repeated in the gloss, or may be replaced with a placeholder such as "" or "". For kinship glosses, see the dedicated section below for a list of standard abbreviations.
- *For example, a gloss of the French 'le garçon mange la pomme' would include the words 'boy' and 'apple' rather than 'garçon' and 'pomme'.
- Lehmann recommends that abbreviations for syntactic roles not be used as glosses for arguments, as they are not morphological categories. Glosses for case should be used instead, e.g. or for A. Morphosyntactic abbreviations are typically typeset as full capitals even when small caps are used for glosses.
- *These morphosyntactic abbreviations include A, B, D or I, E, G or R, L, O or P, S, SA and SP or SO, Se and Sx, Su, and T.
- **Such abbreviations are, however, commonly used as the basis for glosses for symmetrical voice systems, such as,, .
- Glosses for generic concepts like 'particle', 'infix', 'tense', 'object marker' and the like are generally to be avoided in favor of specifying the precise value of the morpheme. However, they may be appropriate for historical linguistics or language comparison, where the value differs between languages or a meaning cannot be reconstructed, or where such usage is unambiguous because there is only a single morpheme that can be glossed that way. When a more precise gloss would be misleading, but glossing it as its syntactic category would be ambiguous, the author may disambiguate with digits. Such pseudo-glossing may be difficult for the reader to follow.
- Authors also use placeholders for generic elements in schematicized parsing, such as may be used to illustrate morpheme or word order in a language.
- *Examples include or 'head'; or 'root'; or 'stem';, or 'prefix';, or 'suffix';, or 'clitic' or 'enclitic'; 'preposition' and or 'postposition', 'person-number-gender element' and 'tense-aspect-mood element' etc. These are not listed below as they are not glosses for morphological values.
Lists
Nonabbreviated English words used as glosses are not included in the list below. Caution is needed with short glosses like,, and, which could potentially be either abbreviations or nonabbreviated English prepositions used as glosses.Transparent compounds of the glosses below, such as or 'remote past', a compound of 'remote' and 'past', are not listed separately.
Abbreviations beginning with are not listed separately unless they have alternative forms that are included. For example, is not listed, as it is composable from +. This convention is grounded in the Leipzig Glossing Rules. Some authors use a lower-case n, for example for 'non-human'.
Some sources are moving from classical lative terminology to 'directional', with concommitant changes in the abbreviations. Other authors contrast -lative and -directive.
Some sources use alternative abbreviations to distinguish e.g. nominalizer from nominalization, or shorter abbreviations for compounded glosses in synthetic morphemes than for independent glosses in agglutinative morphemes. These are seldom distinct morphosyntactic categories in a language, though some may be distinguished in historical linguistics. They are not distinguished below, as any such usage tends to be idiosyncratic to the author.
Punctuation and numbers
| Conventional Gloss | Variants | Meaning | Reference |
| - | separator for segmentable morphemes, e.g., Lezgian amuq’-da-č "will not stay" | ||
| = | ꞊, ‿ | separator for clitics, e.g., West Greenlandic palasi=lu niuirtur=lu "both the priest and the shopkeeper" | |
| . | when a morph is rendered by more than one gloss, the glosses are separated by periods, e.g., French aux chevaux "to the horses" A period is not used between person and number, e.g.,,, . | ||
| _ | when the language of the gloss lacks a one-word translation, a phrase may be joined by underscores, e.g., Turkish çık-mak "to come out" With some authors, the reverse is also true, for a two-word phrase glossed with a single word. | ||
| › | >, →, : | direction of polypersonal agreement in a single gloss, whether possession or transitivity " do you two want to spear?" A colon is used by some authors:, -poke. | |
| : | separates glosses where segmentation is irrelevant | ||
| ; | : | separates glosses that are combined in a portmanteau morpheme, as in aux chevaux "to the horses". Some authors use the colon indiscriminately for this convention and the previous. | |
| + | compound word or fused morpheme. vs 1+3 | ||
| & | cross-referencing: X&Y = X›Y or Y›X or both | ||
| / | alternative meanings of ambiguous morpheme, e.g. 2/3 for a morpheme that may be either 2nd or 3rd person, or for a suffix used for both dative and genitive. | ||
| \ | a morpheme indicated by or affected by mutation, as in Väter-n "to fathers" | ||
| indicates unmarked element. The null suffix -∅ may be used instead. | |||
| inherent category, such as covert gender | |||
| ~ | marks reduplication and retriplication | ||
| <...> | marks off an infix | ||
| ⟩...⟨ | -...-, >...< | marks off a circumfix or bipartite stem. The second element may be glossed the same as the first, or as, or $: ge⟩lauf⟨en run ge⟩lauf⟨en ⟩run⟨ ge⟩lauf⟨en ⟩run⟨ ge-lauf-en -run- ge-lauf-en -run- | |
| $ | |||
| √ | used by some authors to mark which element is the root | ||
| ? | ??, | ||
| ∅ | 0, Ø | zero (null) morpheme. Brackets may be used instead. | |
| 0 | zeroth person | ||
| 0 | epenthetic segment | ||
| 1 | first person : speaker-honorific, speaker-humiliative/humble | ||
| 2 | second person | ||
| 3 | third person | ||
| 12, 13 | inclusive, exclusive person | ||
| 3sp | impersonal 'space' subject | ||
| 4 | fourth person | ||
| 4 | first person inclusive | ||
| 4 | indefinite person | ||
| etc. | noun classes / genders | ||
| > ≥ < ≤ | older and younger: 'I', 'you', 's/he' speaker or | ||
| = ≠ | same and different generations: 'they two', = 'we' | ||
| ≈ | varies with |
Grammatical abbreviations
| Conventional Gloss | Variants | Meaning | Reference |
| athematic | |||
| associating | |||
| addressee authority | |||
| from. May be equivalent to or. Compounded for,, etc. if a single morpheme, as, or, etc. if not. | |||
| , | above deictic center | ||
| , | abessive case Lehmann recommends using privative or aversive instead | ||
| , | ability or capability | ||
| ablative case | |||
| ablative-modalis case | |||
| , | absolutive case | ||
| absolute | |||
| cn | abstractive; abstract | ||
| abstract | |||
| absentive | |||
| about | |||
| motion across | |||
| animacy classifier | |||
| accusative case | |||
| accompanier | |||
| achievement | |||
| , | accomplishment | ||
| , cn? | actor role | ||
| active voice | |||
| action | |||
| actual | |||
| actualizing | |||
| activity | |||
| near, by. May be equivalent to or. Compounded for,, etc. if a single morpheme, as,, etc. if not. | |||
| agent demotion | |||
| anti-deictic | |||
| adaptive | |||
| additive case; additive focus | |||
| ,, | adessive case. See. | ||
| adelative | |||
| adjective | |||
| adjunct | |||
| adjectivizer | |||
| admonitive mood | |||
| , | addressive; addressee-anchored/orientated/perspective | ||
| adverb(ial) ; adverbial case | |||
| advancement | |||
| adverb marker | |||
| ,, | adversative | ||
| , | adverbializer | ||
| ,, | aequalis (equalis) case, equational particle, equative | ||
| , | affirmative | ||
| affectionate | |||
| aforementioned | |||
| affective case | |||
| a | argument-focus marker | ||
| away from water | |||
| aggregate, collective | |||
| ,, | agent nominalization/noun | ||
| , | agreement affix Lehmann recommends avoiding and specifying agreement categories. | ||
| agentive case | |||
| adjacent | |||
| cn? | alienable possession | ||
| , | allative case | ||
| allocutive | |||
| alterphoric, = | |||
| ambiphoric pronoun | |||
| amplifier | |||
| , | animate gender | ||
| ,, | action noun, action nominalizer | ||
| , | adnominalizer | ||
| , | anaphoric | ||
| action narrowly averted | |||
| andative | |||
| adnominal verb | |||
| anterior tense | |||
| Antecedent | |||
| , | anticipated, anticipating | ||
| in front of. May be equivalent to or. Compounded for,, etc. if a single morpheme, as,, etc. if not. | |||
| anteelative | |||
| antessive case, anteessive | |||
| , | anticausative | ||
| anticipatory | |||
| , | ,,, | antipassive voice | |
| antelative, antedirective | |||
| agent-orientated verb | |||
| attributive oblique | |||
| aorist | |||
| adverbial particle | |||
| adjective prefix | |||
| ,, | applicative | ||
| apposition, appositional mood | |||
| approbation | |||
| apprehensive mood, apprehensional | |||
| ,, | active participle, present participle | ||
| approximative | |||
| near, in the vicinity of. May be equivalent to or. Compounded for,, etc. if a single morpheme, as,, etc. if not. | |||
| , | areal | ||
| argumentative | |||
| article | |||
| aseverative | |||
| actor | |||
| ,, | associative case | ||
| ,, | associative plural | ||
| ,, | associative mood | ||
| ,, | compounds, e.g. associated motion | ||
| aspect, aspectual Lehmann recommends avoiding 'aspect' as a gloss and specifying the aspect. | |||
| ,, | assertive mood | ||
| asserted past participle | |||
| , cn? | assumptive mood, assumed evidential | ||
| assistive | |||
| asymmetric | |||
| at | |||
| attention-calling | |||
| , | attributive, attributor | ||
| , | attenuative | ||
| auditory evidential, auditive | |||
| augmentative | |||
| augment | |||
| augmented number | |||
| auxiliary verb Per Lehmann, this should only be used if it uniquely identifies the morpheme | |||
| ,, | agent/actor voice/focus/trigger | ||
| avertive | |||
| aversative, aversive | |||
| , | 'be' verb | ||
| below deictic center | |||
| benefactive case | |||
| background | |||
| bivalent | |||
| bottom | |||
| , | boundary | ||
| bound root | |||
| boundary tone | |||
| beneficiary voice/focus/trigger | |||
| common gender | |||
| current evidence | |||
| conceptualizer | |||
| 'compass', in languages where relative position is based on cardinal direction rather than left, right, front and behind | |||
| complementizing | |||
| ceased existence | |||
| caritive case | |||
| cardinal numeral | |||
| , | causal-final case; causal | ||
| ,, | causative | ||
| conditional converb | |||
| clause-chain marker | |||
| core development | |||
| conjunct dubitive neutral | |||
| conjunct dubitive preterite | |||
| continued event | |||
| celerative | |||
| centric case | |||
| centrifugal | |||
| centripetal | |||
| certainty | |||
| cessative | |||
| contrastive focus | |||
| at X's place, at the home of | |||
| chômeur | |||
| cohortative | |||
| contrary information flow | |||
| , | circumstantive | ||
| , | circumstantial voice | ||
| , $ | |||
| circumferential | |||
| circumessive | |||
| , | cislocative | ||
| citation form ending | |||
| conjoint | |||
| close link | |||
| nominal class | |||
| clause-level, e.g. clause-level 'and', completive clause marking | |||
| ,, | classifier . Some distinguish classifier from class marker. The category of classifier should be specified, e.g. ":round" or "" | ||
| conjugation marker | |||
| noun-class marker | |||
| concatenative marker | |||
| compound | |||
| ,,,,, | completive aspect - normally = | ||
| ,,, | comparative | ||
| , | commitment, committal | ||
| common noun | |||
| conjunct nominal | |||
| ,, | connegative | ||
| , | conjunction | ||
| ,, | construct state/form | ||
| ,, | consequential | ||
| ,,, | counterfactual conditional, contrafactuality | ||
| ,,, | contrastive, contranstive focus, contrasted topic | ||
| continuer | |||
| counter-assertive | |||
| counterexpectation | |||
| co-agency | |||
| concomitative-causitive | |||
| coherence | |||
| collective number/numeral | |||
| , | comitative case | ||
| ,, | complementizer | ||
| compassion | |||
| , | comparative case | ||
| compulsional | |||
| , | conative | ||
| concrete | |||
| , | concessive | ||
| concurrent | |||
| concord marker | |||
| , | conditional mood | ||
| , | confirmational, confirmative | ||
| , | congruent | ||
| conjunctive, conjunct person marking | |||
| conjectural | |||
| ,, | connective | ||
| , | connector | ||
| consecutive; concessive | |||
| , | consecutive mood | ||
| ,, | constant, constancy | ||
| ,, | continuous aspect, continuative aspect | ||
| on a vertical surface. May be equivalent to or. Compounded for,, etc. if a single morpheme, as, or, etc. if not. | |||
| continuous direction | |||
| contentive | |||
| cooperative | |||
| coordination, coordinative | |||
| copula, copulative | |||
| , | coreference, coreferential | ||
| conjunctive participle | |||
| complementizer phrase | |||
| content question | |||
| crastinal tense | |||
| , | cardinal pronoun | ||
| current relevance marker, currently relevant state | |||
| change of state marker | |||
| cosubordinator | |||
| circumstantial topic | |||
| contraexpectative | |||
| contingent mood | |||
| contiguous | |||
| ,,, | contemporative | ||
| control | |||
| ,, | customary | ||
| , | circumstantial/theme voice/focus/trigger | ||
| copula verbalizer | |||
| characteristic vowel | |||
| conveyance voice | |||
| ,, | converb | ||
| dative case | |||
| dectic center | |||
| downcoast | |||
| discourse definite | |||
| different event, change of event | |||
| discontinued event | |||
| -de | dual exclusive | ||
| deagentive | |||
| ,, | debitive / obligative | ||
| decausative | |||
| , | declarative mood | ||
| deductive evidential | |||
| definite | |||
| definitive | |||
| defocus | |||
| deferential | |||
| cn?,,,, | deixis, deictic | ||
| delayed imperative | |||
| delative case | |||
| , | delimiter, delimitative, delimiting | ||
| deliberative mood | |||
| demonstrative | |||
| denizen | |||
| denominal | |||
| deontic mood | |||
| deobjective | |||
| dependent, dependent clause marking | |||
| deportmentive | |||
| depreciatory, deprecative | |||
| derivation, derivational morpheme | |||
| derelational | |||
| cn?, | desiderative mood | ||
| destinative aspect or case | |||
| determiner | |||
| detransitivizer, detransitive | |||
| detrimental | |||
| default | |||
| downhill, seaward | |||
| -di | dual inclusive | ||
| direct information flow | |||
| diminutive | |||
| ,,, | direct evidential | ||
| directive, directional ; typically suffixed to another element such as. | |||
| , | direct case | ||
| , | direct voice | ||
| directed | |||
| dislocative | |||
| ,, | discourse marker | ||
| discursive connector | |||
| , | disjunction, disjunctive, disjunct person marking | ||
| dissatisfaction | |||
| ,,,, | distal, distant | ||
| ,, | distributive case | ||
| ,, | distributive plural | ||
| ,, | distributive aspect | ||
| ditransitive | |||
| diversative | |||
| deverbal noun | |||
| denizen | |||
| demonstrative marker | |||
| directive marker | |||
| DO | , | direct object | |
| do like a... | |||
| differential object marking | |||
| direct-object marker | |||
| donative | |||
| doxastic | |||
| distant past. = | |||
| discourse particle | |||
| destinative participle | |||
| direct past | |||
| distant past continuative | |||
| distant past completive | |||
| downriver | |||
| different reference | |||
| different-subject/actor/agent marker | |||
| , | discontinuative aspect | ||
| different taxis | |||
| detrimentary | |||
| , d | dual number | ||
| , | dubitative mood, dubiative | ||
| dummy affix | |||
| , | duplicative | ||
| durative aspect | |||
| direction voice/focus/trigger | |||
| , | downward | ||
| cn? | dyadic | ||
| dynamic aspect / eventive | |||
| epistemic authority | |||
| euphonic consonant | |||
| effector | |||
| extra-focal | |||
| egophoric | |||
| egressive | |||
| euphonic insertion | |||
| ,, | elative case | ||
| existential + locative + possessive + attributive | |||
| extension marker | |||
| evaluative marker | |||
| emotive | |||
| ,, | emphatic | ||
| ,, | emphasizer, emphatic marker | ||
| ,, | clause-final particle Per Lehmann, glosses as 'particle' should be avoided; instead translate/gloss the meaning. | ||
| endopathic | |||
| enunciative particle, as in Gascon | |||
| ,,, 0 | epenthetic morpheme, epenthetical | ||
| ,,,, | epistemic mood or modality | ||
| epithet | |||
| equative | |||
| ergative case | |||
| echo subject | |||
| essive case | |||
| ,, | evidential | ||
| euphonic vowel | |||
| experiencer voice | |||
| evitative case | |||
| eventual | |||
| exaltive/deferential | |||
| , | excessive | ||
| , | , e | exclusive person | |
| ,, | exclamative, exclamatory | ||
| excessive duration | |||
| executive | |||
| exessive case | |||
| extrafocal | |||
| exocentric case | |||
| , cn? | experiencer, experiencer case | ||
| , | experiential, eyewitness = direct evidential. experienced past. | ||
| expectational | |||
| , | expletive | ||
| expressive | |||
| extended, extendible; extension | |||
| extent | |||
| external evidential | |||
| extraversive | |||
| extended topic | |||
| ,, | ezafe = izafet | ||
| feminine gender | |||
| future actor | |||
| factive evidential/mood, factual | |||
| factitive | |||
| familiar, as for familiar register and familiar pronominal | |||
| future conjunct | |||
| facilitive | |||
| future disjunct | |||
| , | firsthand | ||
| feminine indefinite | |||
| , | morphological filler, sentence filler | ||
| finite verb | |||
| finalis | |||
| former, deceased, 'late' | |||
| first name | |||
| phrase-final suffix | |||
| focus | |||
| ,, | formal register | ||
| ,, | formal mood | ||
| ,, | formal case | ||
| future participle | |||
| , | far past | ||
| fraction, fractional (numeral) | |||
| , cn? | frequentative aspect | ||
| front | |||
| ,,, | frustrative | ||
| false start | |||
| factative tense | |||
| functional | |||
| functive case | |||
| , | future tense | ||
| , | future intention, intentional future | ||
| , | final/terminal vowel | ||
| ,,, etc. | etc. | gender / noun class | |
| generalized evaluative marker | |||
| , | genitive case, genitive form of pronoun | ||
| generalized | |||
| gerund, gerundive | |||
| given | |||
| general knowledge | |||
| gender marker | |||
| general non-finite | |||
| gnomic (generic) aspect | |||
| ,,,, | generic, general | ||
| general tense | |||
| ,, | associated motion. | ||
| general past | |||
| group numeral | |||
| g | given topic | ||
| , | goal voice/focus/trigger | ||
| head | |||
| hearer/reader | |||
| high variety/code, in adiglossic situation | |||
| human, anthropic gender | |||
| higher animacy, higher object | |||
| habitual aspect | |||
| habilitive | |||
| hypocoristic | |||
| hesitation, hesitation particle | |||
| hesternal tense | |||
| historic, as in historical present or past historic tense | |||
| number of hundreds | - | ||
| hodiernal tense | |||
| ,, | honorific | ||
| horizon of interest | |||
| horizontal | |||
| hortative | |||
| human plural | |||
| heard evidential | |||
| ,,, | hearsay/reported evidential | ||
| , cn? | humiliative, humble | ||
| , cn? | hypothetical mood | ||
| inflected | |||
| involuntary agent | |||
| IA | indirect agent | ||
| instrumental advancement | |||
| iamitive | |||
| involuntary causative | |||
| indirective copula | |||
| involuntary comitative | |||
| , | imperfective converb | ||
| , | identity, identical, | ||
| identificational | |||
| identifiable | |||
| , | ideophone | ||
| informal ending | |||
| indefinite future | |||
| ignorative | |||
| , | illative case | ||
| interrogative marker | |||
| impersonal infinitive | |||
| ,, | immediate, as in immediate imperative mood, near future tense, immediate past; immediate evidential | ||
| immediate past, = | |||
| imminent = | |||
| ,, | imperative mood | ||
| imparfait | |||
| ,,, | imperfect | ||
| implicated | |||
| modal impossibility | |||
| cn? | imprecative mood | ||
| ,, cn?,, | impersonal, impersonal verb | ||
| in a container. May be equivalent to or. Compounded for,, etc. if a single morpheme, as,, etc. if not. | |||
| , | impotential | ||
| inablative | |||
| inactive | |||
| inalienable possession | |||
| inanimate gender | |||
| increment | |||
| ,,, | inceptive | ||
| ,, | inchoative | ||
| , | inclusive person | ||
| , | incipient | ||
| indicative mood | |||
| indirect causative | |||
| indeclinable | |||
| ,, | independent | ||
| indeterminate | |||
| indefinite human | |||
| indirective ; indirect ; indirect evidential | |||
| individualizer | |||
| indefinite non-human | |||
| inelative case | |||
| ,,, | inessive case | ||
| infinitive | |||
| inflectional | |||
| ,, | inferential mood, inferred evidential | ||
| , | ingressive case | ||
| ,,,, | interjection, interjective | ||
| , | instrumental case | ||
| instantiated | |||
| , | interrogative ; content interrogative mood | ||
| internal evidential | |||
| within. May be equivalent to or. Compounded for,, etc. if a single morpheme, as,, etc. if not. | |||
| interessive | |||
| interpellative mood | |||
| interfix | |||
| , | intentional conditional, intentive future | ||
| complement of interest | |||
| introversive | |||
| ,,,,, | intensifier, intensive | ||
| intentive | |||
| inverse | |||
| inverse number | |||
| inward | |||
| IO | , | indirect object | |
| immediate past. = | |||
| indirective past | |||
| impeditive | |||
| impersonal passive | |||
| impersonalizer | |||
| indirect question, self-addressed question | |||
| irregular | |||
| cn?,, | irrealis mood | ||
| , | irrelevence | ||
| low variety/code, in adiglossic situation | |||
| local person | - | ||
| L2 | tags translation as code-switching. | ||
| lower animacy | |||
| lative case | |||
| limited control | |||
| locational | |||
| vowel or consonant emphasis lengthening | |||
| lexical-thematic, lexical | |||
| ligature, possessor ligature | |||
| limitative | |||
| likely | |||
| land gender | |||
| lower level | |||
| landmark | |||
| , | linking morph, linking interfix | ||
| last name | |||
| , | linker, linking element: an interfix or a ligature | ||
| locative case, locative verb | |||
| logophoric | |||
| delocutive | |||
| linking particle | |||
| limiting quantifier | |||
| lexical stem | |||
| locative/location voice/focus/trigger | |||
| linking vowel | |||
| lengthened vowel | |||
| masculine gender | |||
| modal case | |||
| marked | |||
| malefactive case | |||
| male speaker | |||
| manner; mood-aspect-negation | |||
| matutinal | |||
| modal clitic | |||
| , | meditative | ||
| multiple event | |||
| measure | |||
| mediative | |||
| medial | |||
| middle voice | |||
| maximal field of view | |||
| ,,, | middle voice, mediopassive | ||
| mimetic | |||
| minimal number | |||
| mirative / admirative | |||
| negative mirative | |||
| miscellaneous gender | |||
| mitigation | |||
| modal locative | |||
| , | modal case, e.g. certainty | ||
| , | mood, modal, modal particle | ||
| modifier | |||
| momentane, momentative | |||
| monofocal person | |||
| motion, mutative | |||
| movement | |||
| maximal scope | |||
| main speech-act participant | |||
| maṣdar | |||
| mental state | |||
| ,, | multiplicative case, numeral | ||
| multal | |||
| mover | |||
| , | neuter gender Sometimes = non-human. | ||
| N | noun | ||
| n-, | non-, in-, un-, a- | ||
| name | |||
| cn? | narrative tense | ||
| noncontrol | |||
| noun-class marker | |||
| ,,,,, | incompletive/noncompletive aspect | ||
| in contemporative | |||
| noncurative | |||
| ,,, | indefinite | ||
| necessitative | |||
| , | negation, negative | ||
| negatory, negator | |||
| final negator | |||
| negative nominalization | |||
| , | neutral aspect | ||
| non-extended | |||
| non-final form/marker | |||
| non-finite | |||
| non-finite conditional | |||
| cn? | non-finite | ||
| non-future neutral disjunct | |||
| non-future perfective disjunct | |||
| , n | non-human | ||
| , | non-masculine | ||
| ,,,,,,,,,,,,,, | nominalizer/nominalization | ||
| nominative case | |||
| S-only nominative | |||
| 'not yet' | |||
| noninstigational | |||
| neuter plural | |||
| noun particle | |||
| near past | |||
| non-past completive | |||
| noun-phrase delimiter | |||
| noun prefix | |||
| ,,,,,, | imperfective aspect | ||
| , | non-possessed | ||
| non-past progressive | |||
| near | |||
| non-subject | |||
| non-singular | |||
| , | new situation | ||
| non-speech-participant perspective | |||
| ,, | atelic | ||
| neutral direction | |||
| cn?,, | intransitive | ||
| non-topical subject | |||
| numeral, numerative | |||
| neutral version | |||
| nonvisual experiential | |||
| , | non-visual ; invisible | ||
| nominal cyclical expansion | |||
| , | nonvolitional, avolitional, involuntative/involitive | ||
| non-witnessed | |||
| non-experienced past | |||
| object, 3m 3m object, 2sg object | |||
| , | object(ive), object agreement ; objective case | ||
| oblique case, oblique form of pronoun | |||
| observation | |||
| obviative | |||
| object focus. = or | |||
| inverted object | |||
| object marker | |||
| onomatopoeia | |||
| object prefix | |||
| opposite | |||
| optative mood | |||
| orientation marker | |||
| open reference | |||
| ordinal numeral | |||
| ordinary | |||
| origin, originative | |||
| oblique stem | |||
| onstage region | |||
| non-main speech-act participant | |||
| outward | |||
| objective version | |||
| pre-, post- | |||
| proper article. | |||
| previous | |||
| possessor:, 3f, 3m. = etc. | |||
| past anterior | |||
| plural imperative | |||
| passive/imperative | |||
| ,, | passive voice | ||
| past absolutive | |||
| patientive Lehmann recommends avoiding, as it is not the value of a morphological category. | |||
| pausal, pause | |||
| , cn?, pc | paucal number | ||
| past completive | |||
| concord particle | |||
| perfective converb | |||
| 'polysemic clause linkage marker' | |||
| completive participle | |||
| participatory evidence | |||
| past, deferred realization | |||
| previous event, different subject | |||
| perpetuity | |||
| previous event | |||
| -pe | plural exclusive | ||
| pegative case | |||
| pejorative | |||
| perambulative | |||
| peripheral | |||
| cn?, | perlative case | ||
| permission, permissive mood | |||
| permanent | |||
| personal ; personal/proper article ; 'personal' affix | |||
| , | persistive | ||
| personal experience | |||
| pertensive | |||
| pervasive | |||
| , | perfective aspect | ||
| past habitual | |||
| phasal aspect | |||
| -pi | plural inclusive | ||
| progressive imperfective | |||
| past imperfective | |||
| physical inferential | |||
| personal knowledge | |||
| p, | plural | ||
| ,,,,,,, | pluperfect | ||
| , | ,,, | pluractional | |
| predicate marker | |||
| ,, cn | proper noun/name, personal name | ||
| PO | primary object | ||
| patient-orientated verb | |||
| postdirective | |||
| postelative case | |||
| , | postessive case | ||
| polite register | |||
| positive | |||
| ,, | possessive, possessor | ||
| , | possible, modal possibility | ||
| possessed | |||
| postlocative. May be equivalent to or. Compounded for,, etc. if a single morpheme, as, or, etc. if not. | |||
| , | postposition, postpositional case | ||
| post-terminal aspect | |||
| ,, | postlative case, or 'postdirective' | ||
| cn? | potential mood | ||
| predicative possessive particle | |||
| present progressive | |||
| past perfect | |||
| pragmatic particle | |||
| active perfect participle | |||
| post-terminal past | |||
| perfect participle | |||
| past perfective | |||
| past passive participle | |||
| past perfect participle | |||
| ,,, | passive participle, past participle | ||
| pseudo-passive | |||
| pragmatic | |||
| precedence | |||
| precative mood | |||
| , | precondition | ||
| , | precise, precision | ||
| predicative affix, predicative | |||
| prediction | |||
| preposition, prepositional case | |||
| preterite | |||
| previous | |||
| preventive | |||
| ,, | perfect | ||
| , | performative | ||
| , | prior, preceding | ||
| , | privative case | ||
| ,, | pronominal base, proform | ||
| probabilitive | |||
| procomplement | |||
| product verbalizer | |||
| , | progressive aspect | ||
| , | prohibitive mood | ||
| , | prolative case | ||
| prolonged action | |||
| proprietive case | |||
| proper-noun marker | |||
| , | propositive mood | ||
| prosecutive case | |||
| , cn? | prospective aspect or mood | ||
| protasis | |||
| pro-verb | |||
| , | proximal demonstrative; proximate | ||
| property predication | |||
| , | present tense | ||
| prescriptive | |||
| presentative | |||
| ps- | pseudo: ps pseudo-antipassive, ps pseudo-passive | ||
| passing state | |||
| passé simple | |||
| undergoer | |||
| previous same agent of v.t. | |||
| previous event, same subject of v.i. ; and previous event, same subject of v.i. and v.t. | |||
| , | possessum, possessed | ||
| possessor | |||
| ,,,, | past tense | ||
| past nominalization | |||
| past/present | |||
| potent case inflection | |||
| ,,,,,, | particle , particalizer | ||
| ,,,,,,,,, | participle, participial | ||
| path | |||
| ,,,,, | partitive case | ||
| ,,,,, | punctual aspect, punctiliar | ||
| , | purposive case/converb | ||
| ,, | patient/object voice/focus/trigger | ||
| pivot form/nominal | |||
| possessive verbalizer | |||
| ,, | preverb | ||
| post-verbal particle | |||
| possessive suffix | |||
| ,,, QP | question word or particle | ||
| quantity marker | |||
| ,, QM | question marker | ||
| qualifier | |||
| quantifier | |||
| , | quotative | ||
| quotative verb | |||
| rational gender | |||
| reflexive | |||
| relational | |||
| , | root extension | ||
| realis/assertive | |||
| repeated action | |||
| relative agreement | |||
| raritive | |||
| refactive | |||
| reactive | |||
| ,, | realis mood | ||
| , | recent, recent past | ||
| receptive | |||
| ,,, | reciprocal voice | ||
| ,,,, | reduplication, reduplicant | ||
| referential, referentive | |||
| ,,,,,, | reflexive | ||
| regal | |||
| regularity | |||
| regressive | |||
| relative clause marker or relativizer | |||
| relative pronoun affix | |||
| relational | |||
| relative case | |||
| e.g. relative past | |||
| relative future | |||
| relevance | |||
| relativizer | |||
| , | remote: or or remote past tense, or or remote future tense; also remote past tense | ||
| , | repetitive aspect | ||
| , | repetitive numeral | ||
| , | repeated word in repetition | ||
| , | resultative | ||
| resignative | |||
| residue class | |||
| returnative | |||
| revisionary | |||
| referential-focus | |||
| relational | |||
| , | resumptive marker, resumptive pronoun | ||
| respect | |||
| responsive | |||
| retrospective | |||
| reversative, reversive | |||
| reverential | |||
| reflexive/middle voice | |||
| relative marker | |||
| result nominalizer | |||
| , $ | |||
| royal | |||
| recent past, = | |||
| remote past, = | |||
| reflexive-possessive | |||
| remote past continuous | |||
| remote past inferred | |||
| remote past reported | |||
| remote past | |||
| ,,, | reported evidential ; reportative | ||
| remote past visual | |||
| , | rhetorical question | ||
| ,, | reflexive/reciprocal | ||
| reason | |||
| ,, | restrictive | ||
| roundtrip | |||
| reason voice/focus/trigger | |||
| subjective, 3f 3f subject | |||
| speaker authority | |||
| speaker-addressee authority | |||
| salient | |||
| speech-act participant | |||
| subelative case | |||
| self-benefactive | |||
| cn?, | subessive case | ||
| ,,,, | subject case, subject agreement | ||
| , | subjective, subjective speaker perspective | ||
| sceptical | |||
| sudden-discovery tense | |||
| simultaneous event, different subject | |||
| same event | |||
| second-hand | |||
| sejunct | |||
| , | semelfactive aspect | ||
| special evaluative marker | |||
| ,, | sensory evidential mood, = + | ||
| spatial separation, separative | |||
| sequential | |||
| serial marker | |||
| subject focus | |||
| stem formation | |||
| sentence-final marker | |||
| softener | |||
| sentence focus | |||
| , | sentence-final particle/suffix | ||
| s, | singular | ||
| ,,, | singulative number, singulative nominal | ||
| subject honorific | |||
| simultaneous aspect, simultaneity | |||
| , | similative | ||
| s | singular intransitive action | ||
| inverted subject | |||
| situative | |||
| ,,,,, | subjunctive mood | ||
| suck-teeth | |||
| same level | |||
| series marker | |||
| semblative | |||
| semeliterative | |||
| same reference | |||
| same object | |||
| sociative case | |||
| sociative causative | |||
| ,,, | specific, specifying | ||
| sentence particle. See usage note at particle and. | |||
| simple past, perfective past | |||
| subject prefix | |||
| speaker: speaker-proximate, demonstrative near speaker | |||
| spatial | |||
| specifier | |||
| speculative mood | |||
| speaker-anchored, speaker perspective | |||
| spotlighting | |||
| spontaneous | |||
| same referent | |||
| switch reference | |||
| , | source | ||
| self-reporting pronoun | |||
| same-subject/actor/argument marker | |||
| same-subject overlap | |||
| same-subject succession | |||
| simultaneous event, same subject | |||
| ,,, | stative aspect, stative verb | ||
| , $ | |||
| stimulative | |||
| strong | |||
| sublocative. May be equivalent to or. Compounded for,, etc. if a single morpheme, as, or, etc. if not. | |||
| , | subitive. | ||
| ,, | sublative case, also 'subdirective' | ||
| ,,, | subordinator, subordinate | ||
| subsequent | |||
| subsecutive mood | |||
| substitutive | |||
| , | substantivizer | ||
| successive | |||
| suggestive mood | |||
| supine | |||
| superlative | |||
| , cn?, | supplicative, supplication | ||
| , | superelative case | ||
| , | superlocative. May be equivalent to or. Compounded for,,, etc. if a single morpheme, as, or, etc. if not. | ||
| , cn?,,,, cn? | superessive case | ||
| ,,, | super-lative, superdirective | ||
| , | suppositive, presuppositive, presumptive, suppositional, presupposition | ||
| surprise | |||
| serial verb construction | |||
| switch | |||
| symmetric | |||
| trigger | |||
| thematic | |||
| , | temporal | ||
| tense/aspect | |||
| tag question | |||
| tense–aspect–mood | |||
| tense–aspect–mood plus person/number | |||
| telic aspect | |||
| contrastive emphasis | |||
| temporal case; temporal converb | |||
| temporarily | |||
| number of tens | |||
| tentative | |||
| , | terminative ~ terminalis | ||
| non-subject | |||
| ,,, | thematic element ; theme | ||
| trajector | |||
| teknonym | |||
| tense marker: hrs, days, yrs for events hours, days, years ago | |||
| tendency | |||
| ,, | tense Lehmann recommends avoiding this and specifying the tense. | ||
| , | topic marker | ||
| , | topicalizer | ||
| totalitative, totality | |||
| , | transitive verb ; transitive case | ||
| transitional sound | |||
| trajector | |||
| , | transformative case | ||
| ,,,, cn?,, translative, translocative | translative case | ||
| ,,,, cn?,, translative, translocative | translocative | ||
| , | trial number | ||
| retriplication | |||
| transmutative | |||
| transnumeral | |||
| plurative number | |||
| transfer of possession | |||
| transitivizer | |||
| thematic suffix | |||
| tense | |||
| thematic vowel | |||
| truth-value focus | |||
| uninflected | |||
| unit augmented | |||
| upcoast | |||
| uncertain future | |||
| ,,, cn? | undergoer role | ||
| uphill, inland | |||
| upper level | |||
| uncertain mood | |||
| unified | |||
| unspecified | |||
| 'unwillingness' marker | |||
| upward | |||
| upriver | |||
| usitative, for usual, customary or typical events | |||
| utilitive | |||
| undergoer voice/focus/trigger | |||
| uncertain visual | |||
| unwitnessed past | |||
| viewer | |||
| trigger | |||
| verbal adjective | |||
| intransitive animate verb | |||
| valency-increasing; valence marker | |||
| validator | |||
| V | verbal | ||
| ,,,,,,, | verbalizer | ||
| vespertinal | |||
| verb class marker / classifier | |||
| voluntary comitative | |||
| Vd | , v.d. | verb, ditransitive | |
| vegetable gender. Some authors distinguish gender from food affix. | |||
| venitive/ventive | |||
| veridical, veridical mood | |||
| verificative | |||
| versionizer; versative | |||
| vertical classifier | |||
| Vi | , v.i. | verb, intransitive | |
| vetitive / vetative mood | |||
| vialis case | |||
| intransitive inanimate verb | |||
| virtual mode | |||
| , | visual evidential | ||
| , | visible | ||
| verbal locative | |||
| verbal noun | |||
| verbal cyclical expansion | |||
| vocative case | |||
| volitive mood; volitional | |||
| verbal particle | |||
| Vr | , v.r. | verb, reflexive | |
| verb-stem marker | |||
| Vt | , v.t. | verb, transitive | |
| transitive animate verb | |||
| transitive inanimate verb | |||
| exclamatory wh- clause | |||
| interrogative pronoun, wh- agreement | |||
| wh- question | |||
| witnessed evidential | |||
| , | witnessed past | ||
| ? | |||
| ,,, | yes-no question, polar question/interrogative | ||
| zoic gender |
Kinship
It is common to abbreviate grammatical morphemes but to translate lexical morphemes. However, kin relations commonly have no precise translation, and in such cases they are often glossed with anthropological abbreviations. Most of these are transparently derived from English; an exception is 'Z' for 'sister'. A set of basic abbreviations is provided for nuclear kin terms ; additional terms may be used by some authors, but because the concept of e.g. 'aunt' or 'cousin' may be overly general or may differ between communities, sequences of basic terms are often used for greater precision. There are two competing sets of conventions, of one-letter and two-letter abbreviations:| 1-Letter Gloss | 2-Letter Gloss | Meaning | Equivalent sequence of nuclear relations |
| A | Au | aunt | = MZ or FZ / MoSi or FaSi |
| B | Br | brother | |
| C | Ch | child | = S or D / So or Da |
| Cu | cousin | = MZD, MZS, MBD, MBS, FZD, FZS, FBD, FBS = MoSiDa, MoSiSo, MoBrDa, MoBrSo, FaSiDa, FaSiSo, FaBrDa, FaBrSo | |
| D | Da | daughter | |
| e, E | o, el | elder/older | |
| Ego | ego | ego | |
| ex | ex | ex- | |
| F | Fa | father | |
| F | female kin | - | |
| G | Gr | grand- | e.g. GF = PF ; GS = CS e.g. GrFa = PaFa ; GrSo = ChSo |
| Gen | generation | ||
| H | Hu | husband | |
| LA | La | -in-law | e.g. BLA = WB or HB or ZH / BrLa = WiBr or HuBr or SiHu |
| M | Mo | mother | |
| M | male kin | - | |
| Ne | nephew | = BrSo or SiSo | |
| Ni | niece | = BrDa or SiDa | |
| P | Pa | parent | = M or F / Mo or Fa |
| S | So | son | |
| SI, G | Sb | sibling | = B or Z / Br or Si |
| SP, E | Sp | spouse | = H or W / Hu or Wi |
| st | step- | - | |
| U | Un | uncle | = MB or FZ / MoBr or FaBr |
| W | Wi | wife | |
| y, Y | y, yo | younger | |
| Z | Si | sister | |
| male speaking | |||
| female speaking | |||
| μ | ♂ | male ego | |
| φ | ♀ | female ego | |
| ∥ | ∥ | parallel | |
| + | + | cross | |
| os | os | opposite sex | is her brother and her brata |
| ss | ss | same sex | cf. os above |
These are concatenated, e.g. MFZS = MoFaSiSo 'mother's father's sister's son', yBWF = yBrWiFa 'younger brother's wife's father'. 'Elder/older' and 'younger' may affix the entire string, e.g. oFaBrSo, MBDy or a specific element, e.g. MFeZS 'mother's father's elder sister's son', HMeB 'husband's mother's elder brother'.
'Gen' indicates the generation relative to the ego, with ∅ for the same generation. E.g. Gen∅Ch ; ♂Gen+1F ; Gen−2M.
'Cross' and 'parallel' indicate a change or lack of change in gender of siblings in the chain of relations. Parallel aunts and uncles are MoSi and FaBr; cross-aunts and uncles are FaSi and MoBr. Cross-cousins and parallel cousins are children of the same. Parallel niece and nephew are children of a man's brother or woman's sister; cross-niece and nephew are the opposite. 'Elder' and 'younger' occurs before these markers: o∥Cu, y+Cu, and the gender of the ego comes at the very beginning, e.g. ♂o∥CuF, ♀y+CuM.
Literature
- Payne, Thomas E. 1997. Describing Morphosyntax.
- Summary of case forms: