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Enclitics in Igbo and Chinese: A Comparative Analysis 

 
Ebele Nwamaka Anajemba1, Davidson Ugochukwu Mbagwu2 

Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka 

en.anajemba@unizik.edu.ng1, du.mbagwu@unizik.edu.ng2  

 

 

Abstract 

Clitic as a linguistic element is neither a word nor an affix; this has 

not been easy for scholars to cosign a singular grammatical 

category. The principle of its operation is universal but the 

parameters with which it operates is specific among languages. 

Clitic classifications of proclitic, mesoclitic, enclitic and endoclitic 

exist in many languages but this work centres on enclitics in Igbo 

and Chinese. The data used for this work is secondary as they are 

elicited from already existing studies on the clitics of Igbo and 

Chinese. This is a comparative study, the enclitics are descriptively 

analysed and used to highlight the universality of human languages 

that is displayed by enclitics of both languages despite that both 

languages are very distinct from each other and belong to different 

language phyla. The findings confirm that, enclitics in both 

languages take hosts that belong to different linguistic categories, 

semantically, their presence in sentences is not mandatory but they 

influence the meaning of the sentences in which they occur. 

Phonologically, their tonal dependency on hosts and level of 

attachment to host in both languages is specific. Morphologically, 

Igbo enclitics occur on the word level whereas Chinese enclitics 

take the form of phrasal affixation. This study concludes that though 

the concept of enclitic is universal, therefore making it a general 

principle; languages are diverse in ways of operation. Enclitic in 

mailto:en.anajemba@unizik.edu.ng1


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both languages is language specific as what obtains in Igbo is not 

completely obtainable in the Chinese language. 

 Keywords: enclitics, universals, principles, parameters 

 

 

1. Introduction  

The manifestation of clitic in human languages as a linguistic 

element that borders between words and affixes varies as they 

influence meaning, and can attach to different linguistic categories. 

Their features span across phonology, morphology, syntax, and 

semantics, while it is obvious that their absence do not render a 

sentence ungrammatical. From already existing studies on clitic 

classifications, there are proclitic, mesoclitic, enclitic and endoclitic 

in many languages of the world which includes the languages under 

study. The Igbo language is an agglutinating language. In 

accordance to Williamson (1989) language classification, it belongs 

to the Kwa group of languages under the Niger-Congo family. It is 

one of the most widely spoken languages in West Africa with a 

population that is not less than 7 million speakers. Indigenous 

speakers of the language are found in the South eastern part of 

Nigeria in states like Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu, and Imo. 

Other speakers are also found in Delta, Edo, Rivers, Akwa-Ibom, 

and Cross River states. The Chinese language is an Isolating 

language which belongs to the Sinitic branch of the Sino-Tibetan 

family of languages. There are various dialects of the Chinese 

language. It is the language with the largest population through-out 

the world with about 30 million speakers. It is a graphematic 

pictographic language; however it has the pinyin which is the 

alphabetic representation of the language. In the Chinese language, 

each unit usually a Chinese character Hànzì (汉字) corresponds to a 

syllable.  



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Globalization has provided opportunity for people to learn 

other languages in order to interact with others on their daily 

activities. Chinese government in their bid to reach out to the whole 

world is investing enormously in the study of their language and as 

such China is indirectly influencing the world. The study of Chinese 

language within Africa is on the increase, and Nigeria is not an 

exception as this is evident in the number of Universities that study 

Chinese now; unlike what was obtainable in the past. Within the last 

decade, the ties and relationship between Nigeria and China has 

increased tremendously. This spans through economy, 

industrialization, education and others. Igbo speakers are deeply 

involved in this move as many have embraced the learning of 

Chinese language, greater percentage of who are youths because of 

the opportunities that abound from it. With this development, it is 

justified that studies involving both languages be carried out in order 

to understand the principles and parameters with which both 

languages operate. Studies already carried out between Igbo and 

Chinese include but not limited to Phonology of Igbo and Chinese 

(Eme & Odinye, 2008), DP in Igbo and Chinese (Anajemba & 

Mbagwu, 2015), Igbo and Chinese tonal Systems (Odinye & 

Udechukwu, 2016), Chinese and Igbo proverbs: analysis of sexism 

(Okafor, 2020), Interrogative patterns of Igbo and Chinese 

(Anajemba, 2016), Grammatical errors of students learning Chinese 

(Odinye, 2011), Error analysis of Igbo learners of Chinese 

(Anajemba, 2021) and others.  

 

1.1 Statement of Research Problem 

Owing to the growing interest in the Chinese language by Igbo 

speakers and the studies that abound, it is important to examine the 

clitic of both languages narrowing it down to the enclitics. The 

objective is to demonstrate the universality that exists between both 



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languages despite being distinct and not belonging to the same 

language phyla. This is done by showing the features of enclitics 

that is common to both languages and also specifying those that are 

language specific.  

 

1.2 Methodology  

Descriptive analysis here anchors on comparative framework in 

order to specify language common and language specific parameters 

that boost the universality of human languages. Data used for the 

study is secondary as all of them are sourced from already published 

works by scholars in Igbo and Chinese. Both languages are tonal, 

therefore all tones are properly marked save for those that bear 

neutral tone as in the case of Chinese.  

 

2. Review of Literature  

Clitic originates from a Greek word klitikos which interprets as 

‘leaning’; its root word is actually klinein ‘to lean’. The traditional 

grammarians’ approach to the notion of clitics is that they are ‘little 

words’, especially in reference to that which does not bear an 

independent accent and have to lean accentually on an adjacent word 

(Anderson 2005). In the Igbo language, various linguistic elements 

have been identified as clitics, their typologies, and possible places 

of attachment to hosts are illustrated in (Anagbogu 2001, Nweze 

2009, Egenti 2011, Nweze & Ikegwuonu 2012, Anyanwu 2012, 

Mbah et al 2012, Emenanjo 2015 and Udemmadu & Anidobe 2017).  

Clitics in Chinese come after any word class. They mainly 

function at the phrasal level. It can be equated to phrasal affixation 

in accordance to Klavans (1985), Anderson (1992), Liu (1998) and 

others. Chinese clitics are toneless function words which are always 

unstressed such as structural particles (结构助词) de 的， de 得， 

de 地 ，aspectual particles (动态助词) le 了, zhe 着，guo 过and 



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sentence particles (语气助词), ne 呢, ba 吧, ma 吗, a 啊,  and ou呕 

(Huang, 1989, Třísková, 2014).  

The rules responsible for the placement of clitic can be 

specified in terms of parameters such as scope (it is located in the 

scope of some constituents), anchor (located by reference to first vs. 

last vs. head) and orientation (proceeds or follows its anchor) 

(Klavans, 1985). With regard to the placement of clitics on their 

host; scholars have identified three different types as proclitic, 

mesoclitic, and enclitic. Enclitics are elements that follow the 

host/words that they depend on. It occurs at the object position or 

after the main verb. They may not attach to the word just like some 

auxiliaries in the English, French, Spanish, and Italian do. 

Anagbogu (2001) defines enclitic as the object clitics which are 

positioned between the main verb and the sentence final position. 

Some of these clitics are bụ/bu, cha, fụ, kwa, nnọọ, tụ, rị, zị and 

others.  Ngoesi (1989) describes enclitics as elements that add 

meaning to sentences and occur in any position in the sentence 

structure but in most cases they attach to verbs, nominal and nominal 

modifiers. When following verbs, enclitics combine with the verb 

as a word but when it follows other linguistic categories, it is written 

separately.  

 

2.1 Theoretical Framework 

Comparative method in linguistics is used to show similarity in 

languages based on four dimensions namely; chance, universality, 

borrowing (contact) and geographical/social contacts. Comparing 

languages based on universal is arrived at in part by comparison that 

is typologically inspired and how widespread a feature is cross-

linguistically. This type of comparison is not genealogically 

oriented rather based on universality of languages (Joseph, 

2016:40). Based on the above notion, the comparative framework as 



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used in this study is a comparative framework with a contrastive 

implication in order to identify similarities in the enclitics of both 

languages that establish universality of languages as well as the 

differences that portray their language specific parameters.   

 

2.2 Empirical Studies 

Nwankwere et al (2014) describe enclitic as linguistic elements that 

follow hosts anywhere in a construction. In their study of 

morphology of clitics in Òwèrè satellite dialect (OSD) of Igbo, they 

assert that the position of enclitics in constructions varies which 

includes preverbal subject positions (before the main verb). These 

enclitics may or may not be phonologically and/or syntactically 

attached to their hosts. They attach to verbs, nouns, pronouns, 

adjectives and so on.  

 

1) Ńdé     èkóówukó      tàátà!  

 Pl. psn det ecl be ecl babies 

 ‘So, these are also babies! 

 

They can also form long clusters and can be seen below: 

 

2) Ì      jé   –má –ná     –àrí   (ríì/rí hè) (dáā) 

 2sg go – inc  –prog –vwl ecl (ecl)   (ecl) 

 ‘good bye/safe journey (to you) my darling’ [Nwankwere 

et al 2014: 90] 

           

The ordering of the enclitics in OSD is mostly Subj (-ecl) –pcl –host 

–ecl –suf –(ecl) as shown above. The enclitic ‘rí’ is believed to have 

evolved from the verb rí (be) as in the example above. This enclitic 

can be reduplicated severally with the reduplicants on a low tone as 



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in ríì/rírì/rírìírì/rírìíhè/rírìírìí hè. These reduplicants show different 

degrees of emphasis on endearment or derision. Syntactically, 

enclitics add to the phrasal structure and semantically modify the 

meaning of their host and in other cases, they modify the meaning 

of the entire construction in which they appear.  Contrary to earlier 

researchers on Igbo enclitics, Udemmadu and Anidobe (2017) show 

that prepositions can equally host enclitics just like other linguistic 

categories as can be seen below. 

 

3) Há     biàrà       gbàsáránnoọ̀ọ́        ókwú áhụ̀ 

They come-pst prep (about) –encl talk   that  

‘They came because of the matter’ 

 

4) Nneka na-  eche         banyereri ihe ahu e mere ya 

  Nneka aux-pref-think prep (about) encl thing that someone 

do-pst her 

  Nneka is thinking just about the thing done to her   

[Udemmadu & Anidobe 2017:9] 

 

According to the data below, the function of enclitics is primarily 

semantically oriented as they add meaning to an expressed meaning 

of a sentence as in the instances below; 

 

5) E-so-kwu                     m 

 Pref-follow-encl(also) me 

 ‘I am also included’ 

 

6) Ndeewo nụ 

Hello     all  

 ‘greeting to more than one’   [Udemmadu & 

Anidobe, 2017:9] 



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Mbah et al (2012:179) discussing the enclitics in Igbo add that 

enclitics can be separated from hosts as can be seen below: 

 

7) Nyè-tụ́ ḿ ńchà 

Give –cl 1sg soap  

‘(please) give me a little soap’ 

 

8) Ònyé –zí kà í kpọ̀rọ̀? 

Who –cl that 2sg call pst 

‘who then did you call?’ 

 

3. Data Presentation and Analysis 

3.1 Enclitics in Phonology 

Igbo and Chinese languages are both tonal. Here we consider the 

prosodic effects on the enclitics as shown in the data following: 

 

9)   Ńdị́ à      -chà bù ǹkè   yá 

      Pl.   Dem-Cl   be poss 3sg 

    ‘All these are his’      

  

10)   Àtọ́   -chá dì  n’    ímé       yá 

      Num –Cl  be prep inside 3sg 

     ‘As many as three are inside it’  [Udemmadu & 

Anidobe, 2017: 11] 

 

11)    Gà tú ̣              

       Go Cl                   

       ‘go a little’        

 

12) Ǹyè-tụ́    ḿ   ńchà 



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       give Cl   1sg soap  

      (please) give me a little soap    [Mbah 

et al., 2012: 184, 179] 

 

13)   Òbí  rì  kà    m    síírì                ńrí 

        Obi  Cl that 1sg cook Apl pst food 

       ‘Obi is the one I really cooked for’ 

     

14)   Égǒ          rì kà     ó    nyèrè     Ùjú 

         Money –Cl that 3sg give pst Uju 

         ‘money is even what s/he gave Uju’ 

 

15)    Ákwà     rì   kà     ó    nyèrè     Ùjú 

         cloth     –Cl that 3sg give pst Uju 

        ‘Cloth is even what s/he gave Uju’   

 [Mbah et al., 2012:185] 

 

16) Ákwáà rị́ị ̀  kà     ọ́   nà-èbé 

 Cry    –Cl  that  3sg aux Pref cry 

‘s/he is even crying’ 

 

17) Újúù rị́ị̀ kà   ḿmádụ̀ ǹchá nà-èché 

Uju –Cl that person all    aux-Pref wait  

‘It is even Uju that everybody is waiting for’  

 [Mbah et al., 2012:187] 

 

The tones for –cha in (9 & 10) depend on the host for prosodic 

interpretation, while in (11 & 12) the tones for tụ́, and rì in (13-15) 

are specific, they do not depend on their hosts. (8 – 9) show the use 

of rị́ị ̀as it enforces the introduction of a tone bearing unit, so that it 

maintains their tones without change, and this shows that they 



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comply with obligatory contour principle, they affect the tones of 

their hosts in order to comply with their tonal prosody. So, some 

clitics in Igbo are host dependent, some are tone specific while 

others conform to obligatory contour principle.  

Here we consider the following Chinese examples: 

18)  去        吗？ 

      Nǐ      qù      ma? 

      2sg     go     Cl 

      ‘Do you go?’ 

 

19)   我   马  上     就 去，你 呢？ 

       Wǒ mǎ shàng jiù qù    nǐ ne? 

       1sg horse-up then go 2sg Cl. 

      ‘I will go immediately, and you?’   

 [Chaofen, 2006: 76, 77] 

 

From the data (10 – 11), the enclitics ma 吗and ne 呢 are neutral, 

they bear no tones irrespective of what tones their hosts might bear.  

 

3.2 Enclitic in Semantics 

In this section we try to investigate the influence of enclitics on the 

semantics of the sentences where they are found in both languages. 

20)        Bị̀á-nụ́  

             come Cl 

            ‘you(please) come’     

 

21)        Bị̀á-nụ̀  

             come Cl 

           ‘you(Pl.) come’     [Udemmadu & 

Anidobe, 2017:10] 



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22)  （你）来 !            

               Nĭ    lái  

      (you) come 

‘You come here’ 

          

23) (你）来   啊/呀 

        Nĭ    lái    a/ya! 

       (you) come Cl  

      ‘You come here!’               [Li & 

Thompson, 1981: 315] 

 

The imperative as specified above in (22 & 23), equally employ the 

use of enclitics to influence the meaning of the sentences. In (20) nụ́ 

is used to add some form of politeness to the command, but in (21), 

nụ̀ is used to mark pluralization, to show that the command is meant 

for more than one person, therefore, the difference in their tone 

realization. In the case of Chinese, without the enclitic a/ya啊/呀, 

the command becomes very strict as in (22) above, but with the 

addition of the enlitic, the speaker shows some kind of politeness in 

the command. The enclitics both come at the end of the imperative 

sentences. So, we see universality in the use of enclitics to influence 

meaning of sentences as well as their positions in the sentences in 

both languages. 

More instances on other enclitics and their tonal behaviour in both 

languages: 

 

24)   Hẹ́ kwá bịàrə 

        3sg Cl come 

       ‘They also came again’ 



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 [Nweze & Ikegwuonu, 2012:611] 

25) Kèdụ́ fụ̀ ǹ ke ka     mmā ? 

Wh-   Cl that pass beauty 

‘Which one is even better?’    [Mbah 

et al., 2012: 186] 

 

26) Ònyé – dụ́ tụ̀rụ̀         gì   òkwutē? 

Wh-     Cl  throw-Pst 2sg stone 

‘Who was that that threw stone on you?’        

[Udemmadu & Anidobe, 2017:7] 

 

27) Ndị à      -cha ́ bụ̀ nke   ya 

Pl.   Dem-Cl   be Poss 3sg 

‘All these are his’           

[Udemmadu & Anidobe, 2017:11] 

 

28)    她      很     好     看      吧？ 

         Tā     hěn   hǎo   kàn     ba 

         3sg(f) very  good look  Cl 

        ‘She is very good looking, don’t you agree?’ 

 

29)    好    好   做    功课              呕 

          hǎo hào zuò gǒng kè            ou 

          good good do exercise-work Cl 

         ‘Do homework carefully, ok?’ 

 

30) a. 我   喝     了   三      杯   咖啡 

            Wǒ hē      le    sān    bēi  kā fēi 

            1sg drink PFV three cup coffee 



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           ‘I drank three cups of coffee’ 

 

     b. 我   喝     了   三      杯   咖啡   了 

            Wŏ hē      le    sān    bēi  kā fēi    le 

            1sg drink PFV three cup coffee Cl  

             ‘I have drank three cups of coffee’   

[Chaofen, 2006:244] 

 

31)     来       呀！你  呀，还  是   去吧！ 

           Lái      ya!    Nǐ  ya,   hǎi shì qù ba! 

           come   Cl    2sg  Cl     still be go Cl 

          ‘Come!’     ‘You, you should go!’     

 

32)  他     放   了 一 本  书    在  那 张      桌子     上 

       Tā    fàng   le   yī  běn shū  zài  nèi zhang zhuōzi shang 

      3sg put  Asp one CL book at that CL      table    Cl  

      ‘He put a book on that table’     

   

 

33)  李四  卖   得  那   张       桌子      上 

         Lisi    mǎi  de nèi  zhang zhuōzi  shang 

         Lisi    buy  Cl   that CL       table      Cl 

         ‘On the table that Lisi bought’    

 [Lui, 1998: 63] 

 

In the data (24-27), the clitics -kwá -dụ, -fụ, and -cha, imposed 

additional meanings of emphasis, inclusion and surprise to the 

sentences. Without the inclusion of the clitics, the sentences would 

still be meaningful. In (28-32), the use of enclitics ba吧, ou呕, le了, 

ya呀, de得, and shang上 also imposed additional meanings to the 



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sentences. This agrees with the universal assertion that clitics are 

straightforward function words because they do not have meaning 

on their own; rather have to lean on another word in order to add 

meaning to the phrase or sentence. Their presence or absence in a 

sentence contributes to the total meaning of the utterance. Clitics are 

semantically like the independent word because they express 

notions similar to those of words. They are not obligatory for 

grammatical acceptability of any sentence in both languages. 

However, their usage is specific in both languages. 

 

3.3 Enclitics in Morphology and Syntax 

The combination of enclitics and words in sentences is considered 

in both languages with the following examples; 

 

34)   Bị̀á-nụ́  

      come Cl 

      ‘you(please) come’ 

35) Nyè-tụ́ ḿ ńchà 

Give –cl 1sg soap 

‘(please) give me a little soap’ 

 

36) Égǒ          rì kà     ó    nyèrè     Ùjú 

Money –Cl that 3sg give pst Uju 

‘money is even what s/he gave Uju’ 

 

37)  Ńdị ́à      -chà bù ǹkè   yá 

      Pl.   Dem-Cl   be poss 3sg 

     ‘All these are his’      

  

38)  Àtọ́   -chá dì  n’    ímé       yá 

      Num –Cl  be prep inside 3sg 



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‘As many as three are inside it’ 

 

39)  Kèdụ – zị –nnọọ –kwa –zị  ihe   m   mèrè  gị.  

        what  - Cl – Cl – Cl   - Cl thing 1sg do pst 2sg     

       ‘What then really have I done to you again?’  

 [Mbah et al., 2012: 181] 

 

40)  我   告诉   他         那    件    事       了 呕 

        wǒ  gaosu ta          nei   jian  shi      le   ou 

        1sg  tell    3sg(m)  that  CL   matter Cl  Cl 

       ‘I  told him about that matter’ 

 

41)   他          当然         是   了  啊/呀! 

         Ta           dangran   shi   le    a! 

          3sg(m)   of course be   Cl     Cl 

         ‘Of course he is!’ 

42) 来       呀！你  呀，还  是   去吧！ 

         Lái      ya!    Nǐ  ya,   hǎi shì qù ba! 

        come   Cl    2sg  Cl     still be go Cl 

          ‘Come!’     ‘You, you should go!’   [Li & 

Thompson, 1981:316] 

 

In (34-39), the enclitics are attached after the host words, this 

implies that the affixation process is on the word level in Igbo; the 

enclitics can equally come in clusters of up to four as shown in (31), 

however with the Chinese data in (40-42) the enclitics attached to 

phrases (VP, NP and others) and not more than two clusters as in 

(42). Enclitic in Chinese takes the form of phrasal affixation. 

 

 



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3.4 Similarities in Igbo and Chinese Enclitics 

From the discussions above, we have been able to show that in Igbo 

and Chinese, enclitics just as it is obtained in other languages, attach 

to different word categories as can be seen below: 

 

43)  Ńdị ́à      -chà bù ǹkè   yá 

      Pl.   Dem-Cl   be poss 3sg 

    ‘All these are his 

44) Àtọ́   -chá dì  n’    ímé       yá 

      Num –Cl  be prep inside 3sg 

‘As many as three are inside it’ 

 

45)  去        吗？ 

       Nǐ      qù      ma? 

      2sg     go     Cl 

      ‘Do you go?’ 

 

46)   我   马  上     就 去，你 呢？ 

       Wǒ mǎ shàng jiù qù    nǐ ne? 

       1sg horse-up then go 2sg Cl. 

      ‘I will go immediately, and you?’   

 [Chaofen 2006: 76, 77] 

 

3.5 Differences in Igbo and Chinese Enclitics 

Tonal behaviour of enclitics in both languages are specific, hence 

this is illustrated with given examples:  

 

47)   Hẹ́ kwá bịàrə 

        3sg Cl come 

       ‘They also came again’ 

         



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48) Kèdụ́  fụ̀ ǹ ke ka     mmā ? 

Wh-   Cl that pass beauty 

‘Which one is even better?’  

   

49)   他          当然         是   了  啊/呀! 

         Ta           dangran   shi   le    a! 

          3sg(m)   of course be   Cl     Cl 

         ‘Of course he is!’ 

 

50) 来       呀！你  呀，还  是   去吧！ 

         Lái      ya!    Nǐ  ya,   hǎi shì qù ba! 

        come   Cl    2sg  Cl     still be go Cl 

          ‘Come!’     ‘You, you should go!’ 

 

Morphologically, enclitics attach to words in Igbo but in Chinese it 

displays a kind of phrasal affixation as can be seen below: 

 

51) Nyè-tụ́ ḿ ńchà 

Give –cl 1sg soap 

‘(please) give me a little soap’ 

 

52) Égǒ          rì  kà     ó    nyèrè     Ùjú 

Money –Cl   that 3sg give pst Uju 

‘money is even what s/he gave Uju’ 

 

53)     她      很     好     看      吧？ 

         Tā     hěn   hǎo   kàn     ba 

         3sg(f) very  good look  Cl 

        ‘She is very good looking, don’t you agree?’ 

 



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54)    好    好   做    功课              呕 

          hǎo hào zuò gǒng kè            ou 

          good good do exercise-work Cl 

         ‘Do homework carefully, ok?’ 

 

4. Findings  

The phonological features of clitic in both languages show that in 

consonance with the universal features of clitic, both languages 

partially depend on hosts for tonal prosody of their enclitics. In 

Chinese, the tones of the enclitics are always dependent on their 

hosts and in such cases, the enclitics all have neutral tones. But in 

the Igbo language, the tonal prosody varies. Some enclitics are 

totally dependent on their hosts for their tonal representation; some 

have specific tones no matter the tones of their hosts, while others 

obey the obligatory contour principle. In this situation, the clitics 

affect the tones of their hosts in order to comply with their own tonal 

prosody. Semantically, the presence of enclitics in sentences in both 

languages is not mandatory but they influence the meaning of the 

sentences in which they occur. Morphologically, it was observed 

that enclitics in both languages take hosts that belong to different 

linguistic categories. For Chinese, enclitics are attached to phrases 

as it comes at the end of NP, VP, AdjP or even the AdvP. In the Igbo 

language, enclitics are attached to words and they can have up to 

five clusters while Chinese rarely have clitic clusters. This shows 

that the level of attachment to host in both languages is specific.  

 

5. Summary and Conclusion  

Comparative studies help to bring out the universality among 

languages by showing enclitics as a principle that exists in both 

languages. In the case of phonology, tonal prosody is not totally 

universal as the enclitics in Igbo are not completely dependent on 



          Awka Journal of Linguistics and Languages, Special Edition 1,  2022 

 

103 

 

their hosts. In the morphology of enclitics in both languages, enclitic 

in Chinese takes the form of phrasal affixation. This study concludes 

that though the concept of clitic is universal, therefore making it a 

general principle; languages are diverse in ways of operation. 

Enclitic in both languages is language specific as what obtains in 

Igbo is not completely obtainable in the Chinese language.   

 

 

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List of Abbreviations 

1sg  First person singular pronoun 

2pl  Second person plural pronoun 

2sg  Second person singular pronoun 

3pl  Third person plural pronoun 

3sg  Third person singular pronoun 

AdjP  Adjectival phrase 

AdvP  Adverbial phrase 

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Asp   Aspectual marker 

Aux  Auxiliary 

Cl  Clitic 

CL  Classifier 

Dem  Demonstrative 

Ecl  Enclitic 

f  female 

NP  Noun phrase 

Pfv  Perfective marker 

Pl  Plural marker 

Poss  Possessive marker 

Pref  Prefix 

Pst  Past tense suffix 

Psn  Person 

Suf   Suffix 

VP  Verbal phrase 

 

 


