Kinuk'aaz Grammar
Kinuk'aaz is an agglutinative language.
Pronouns
Personal pronouns in Kinuk'aaz decline for three persons and two numbers, singular and plural. The third person pronouns differentiate between the animate and inanimate class, and there is also a relative pronoun with this distinction. Kinuk'aaz pronouns have standalone (subject) forms with corresponding affixal (object) forms, which have different forms depending on if they attach to the end of a word (i.e. are true suffixes) or if they follow a k'u prefix (where they effectively become infixes). The different pronoun forms are outlined in the following table:
| Standalone Form | Affixal Form | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Non-k'u Form | K'u Form | ||||||
| Singular | Plural | Singular | Plural | Singular | Plural | ||
| First Person | t'ep | kiin | -i | -in | -t | -k | |
| Second Person | uraz/ras/as | vaal | -az | -al | -s/-z | -v | |
| Third Person | Animate | ts'ov | ts'orik | -uu | -ii | -ts | |
| Inanimate | bet | barik | -et | -ii | -p/-b | ||
| Relative | Animate | dzüv | -üü | -ts/-dz | |||
| Inanimate | dzüt | -üt | |||||
The full form of the second person singular pronoun is uraz, while ras and as are shortened forms. This is not necessarily a formality distinction, although it can be; uraz is typically used in more formal situations. This is context-dependent, however: uraz does not necessarily sound formal in casual situations. In quicker speech, the short forms are preferred. The different pronoun forms are shown in the following example:
- T'ep maadaz. "I love you."