ünite yedi The nominal as adjective; comparison of the adjective; possessive adjectives; superlative intensifiers; the morpheme /-lă/.

UNIT SEVEN

The nominal as adjective; comparison of the adjective; possessive adjectives; superlative intensifiers; the morpheme /-lă/.

The Nominal as Adjective

There is little formal difference between the various subclasses of nominals: hence, there are no formal characteristics, as endings, which mark the Chuvash adjective, or rather, the nominal used adjectivally. As previously remarked, the same Chuvash word may be identically used as noun, adjective and adverb, for instance:

 shură şămarta   a white egg
 şămarta shurri   egg its white egg = white, albumen

 jyvăş şurt   wooden house 
 chul kĕper   stone bridge

 asha    warm, warmth, warmness
 asha sămah   a warm word, friendly  greeting

 pĕr pysăk tipĕ juman   a big dry oak-tree
 hamăn syltăm hălha shătakne  into my right earhole (folktale) 

Comparison of the Adjective

In the absence of any feature of form to distinguish the adjectival subclass, a feature or function of adjectives may be mentioned, that of comparison. In Chuvash, as in other languages, it is possible to distinguish three degrees of intensity in an attribute, the positive or normal degree, the comparative degree, greater than the preceding, and the superlative degree, denoting the greatest amount of that quality possible. A few words, by their very nature, do not admit of comparison, e. g., timĕr ‘iron‘ (as in timĕr vitre ‘iron pail‘). Something cannot be more iron or less iron, it can only be iron in nature.
The positive or normal degree of the adjective has no marker or ending to note it.

 sară chechek  yellow flower
 şülĕ hĕr  a tall girl

The comparative degree, denoting a greater or lesser amount of degree of the quality or attribute of an object (as compared with another object) is expressed in two ways The first is a syntactic means employing the ablative morpheme:

 juman şăkaran jyvăr  oak frorn linden is heavy = oak is heavier than linden
 kilten pysăk   larger than a house (‘from a house, big‘)
 ylttăn kĕmĕlten haklă  gold is more valuable than silver

The second means employs the comparative morpheme {.rAh}, which has several allomorphs:

A. Stems ending in vowels, or in consonants except -r, use the allomorphs –rah/-reh.

 sarărah   yellower, more yellow
 hitrerex  more beautiful, prettier

B. Stems in -r employ the allomorph -tarah/-tereh.

 jyvărtarah  heavier

Note also:

 numajtarah  more, greater amount (207, 36)
 nachartarah    worse

C. Stems ending in -l and -n have free variation between allomorphs A and B.

 avan   good
 avantarah  better

Additional instances of comparatives are the following examples.

 pysăkrah   bigger
 pysăkrah kil   a rather large house
 
 haklă    expensive
 haklăran haklă   more and more expensive

 hytarah    harder, more vigorously
 şultrarah hăjarsene tatrămăr we picked bigger cucumbers
 
 lajăhrah   better
 ilemlĕreh   more beautiful
 pĕchĕkreh   smaller

Not only may nominals and adjectives take the comparative morpheme, this may be found with still other forms.

 kaş    evening
 kaşchen    towards evening (‘up to the evening‘)
 kaşchentereh   more on into the evening,  more towards evening

 pürt    house
 patne    towards (‘to its direction‘)
 pürt patnereh   a bit more towards the house

 kurăk    grass, weeds
 kurăkrah yrash   rye with quite a bit of grass in it (‘grassier rye)

 kunta    here
 kuntarah   closer this way

 kilelle    towards the house
 kilellereh   more towards the house

Both the above ways of forming the comparative may also be combined, e.g.,

 juman şăkaran jyvărtarah oak from linden is heavier = oak is heavier than linden

Adjectival words, when used in the plural, function just like other nominals, e. g.‚ pujansem ‘the rich ones, the rich men.‘

Superlative Intensifiers

The superlative degree, or its equivalent~ may be formed by using special words to indicate “very, much, most“ and the like, placed before the word to be intensified. The word most used is chi, and other words of similar function are pit, pitĕ ‘very,‘ ytla ‘more, beyond, further,‘ majsăr ‘immeasurably,‘ săv teri‘quite, as it were, so to say,‘ mala ‘more,‘ etc.

 chi şivĕch  very sharp, sharpest
 chi lajăh  very good, the best
 mala ilemlĕ  more beautiful
 ytla avan  more good, better, very  good
 pitĕ lajăh  very good, best

Reduplication in whole or in part also plays a considerable role in forming a superlative in Chuvash. This type of formation, well-known in other Turkic and Altaic languages, is of several sorts.

A. The entire stem may be reduplicated, as

 sară-sară  very yellow, exceptionally yellow
 shură-shură  most white, white as white can be

B. The adjective may be preceded by an intensifying partly reduplicated prefix, in the form CVC-, where the first consonant is that of the word involved, the vowel usually the one of that word (but sometimes another one, but in vowel harmony with it), and the second consonant is -p, but sometimes -m or even other consonants. Hence,

 hup-hura  jet-black
 jem-jeshĕl  green as green can be
 jĕp-jĕpe  soaking wet
 shap-shura  snow-white (note prefix!)
 hĕp-hĕrle  red as all get-out
 tak-takăr  absolutely flat
 tăp-tulli  chockful, brimful

C. In a few cases, the reduplicated syllable is not based on that word being intensified, but on some other stem, e. g.,

 vĕr-şĕnĕ  brand-new
 sĕm-tĕttĕm  pitch-dark

Possessive Adjectives

Since the Chuvash adjective is essentially a substantive, it may express possession, although by its nature only possession of and by things, hence, it occurs only with the 3rd p. suffix, -i. Very frequently, this -i is added to the locative morpheme {.RA}, yielding the following allomorphs:

A. After /l n r/, -ti

 jalti   what is in the village, local
 kilti   domestic, what is in the home
 vărmanti  pertaining to the forest, in the woods
 kunti   (from kunta ‘here‘) local
 hirti   on the field

B. After other consonants except /l n r/, -ri

 anat   lower, Lower Chuvashia
 anatra   in the lower part1 in Lower Chuvashia
 anatri   one who is in or from Lower   Chuvashia (name of one of
     the two major Chuvash dialects)
 puşri kalpak  the hat on the head
 şirĕmri şyn  a man in his twenties
 uramri   on the street
 sămahri sasăsem  the sounds which are in words
 alfavitri saspallisem the letters in the alphabet
 Gor‘kiri avtozavod the automobile factory in Gorky

C The allomorph -~i is bund after the prothetic -n- of the possessive locative

 pürt patĕnchi.  the one in the vicinity or direction of the house

A very similar morpheme ja /-hi/ meaning approximately “the one which is in.‘ It may be added after any consonant.

 şul   year
 şulhi   yearly, what is in a year, annual
 şurhi   vernal spring what is in the springtime
 irhi   morning, pertaining to the morning
 kaşhi   evening, in the evening (as adjective)
 ülemhi   future, what is in the future
 lajăhhi   the one who is good
 vărşă   war
 vărşăchchen  before the war, up to the time of the war
 vărşăchchenhi  pre -war
 unchchenhi  the former (Ger. damalige), ‘the one tip to it‘
 hal‘   now, at present
 hal‘hi   contemporary, the ones at present

The Morpherne /.lă/

The function of adjectives may also be performed by the extremely common suffix –lă/-lĕ. It is very similar to the English suffix -like as in childlike birdlike etc it has the essential meaning of “having possessing, having the nature off and its allomorphs are -lă/-lĕ after consonants and -llă/-illĕ alter vowels. It may be affixed to any nominal stem. Note there are two similar morphemes, one -la/-le with full grade vowel (to be discussed below), and another morpheme. -la-/-le -‚ which occurs only with verb stems.

 chap  fame
 chaplă  famous, having fame
 jat  name
 jatlă  named (so-and-so), having the name - - -
 ut  horse
 utlă  having a horse
 ilem  beauty
 ilemlĕ  beautiful
 vărmală  wooded, having woods
 tullă  mountainous, hilly
 shămă  bone
 shămăllă bony
 ash  meat, flesh
 ashlă  meaty, fleshy
 harpăr  each
 harpărlă own, individual, unique

There are many, many other formations with this morpheme. It may also be used with borrowed words.

 aktivlă  active, having activity
 talantlă talented, having talents
 intereslĕ interesting, of interest

Note the difference between simple juxtaposition and the use of –lă.

 chul pĕve a stone dam, a dam made out of stones (not wood)
 chullă pĕve a rocky dam, a dam with loose rocks lying about
 tăvar külli a salt-lake, lake salty by nature
 tăvarlă shyv salted water, salty water (but not salt water),
   water to which salt was mistakenly added

Note also these examples:

 tăvat ura  four legs (that is, not three or five)
 tăvat urallă  a four-legged one, quadruped, four -footed
 ike vitre  two pails, two buckets
 ikĕ vitrellĕ sămavar a two-pot samovar
 jită puşĕ  a dog-head (not a moose head)
 jită puşlĕ upăte the dog-faced baboon

The morpheme -săr/-sĕr is the antonym to -lă/-lĕ.
In addition to the morpheme -lă/-lĕ, there is a very similar morpheme -la/-le with full vocalism. Its meaning essentially duplicates the former, and is used chiefly with stems denoting nationalities but also with some other stems especially borrowed words. No instances of contrast have been found, nor of free variation.

 chăvashla kĕneke  a Chuvash book
 chăvashla-vyrasla slovar‘  A Chuvash-Russian Dictionari
 tutarla    Tatar
 bol‘shevikla   Bolshevik, Bolshevistic
 stahanovla juhăm  the Stakhanovite movement
 fashistla zahvatchiksem  the fascist usurpers

 kapitalistla tata  the capitalistic and land
 pomeşikla pusmăr  owner‘s yoke