Morphophonology
Yalbi words are formed by concatenating affixes in a predefined pattern.
Formative
Formatives are the nouns and verbs of Yalbi. All formatives are composed by filling in various slots in the morphophonological formula below:
| I | II | III | IV | V |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| (Ve) | C1 | Vr | C2 | VxC… |
| Context + Perspective + Essence | Root 1 | Stem + Pattern + Designation | Root 2 | Suffixes |
- Slot I may be omitted; all other slots are required
- Slot V may be repeated
Pronouns
Pronouns can take one of two forms; a “long” form, which allows an Essence marking and multiple suffixes, and a single-syllable “short” form, which only allows a single case suffix.
Long form
| 1 | 2 | 3 |
|---|---|---|
| Vs | Cp | VxC… |
| Essence | Referent | Suffixes |
- All slots are required
- Slot 3 may be repeated
Short form
| A | B |
|---|---|
| Cp | VxC |
| Referent | Suffix |
- All slots are required
- Slot B may not be repeated