A linguistics quiz, using Cheyenne data

Morphological Analysis

Name: _____________________________________ Date: ________________________

(Note to Web page readers: this quiz was given to students in a linguistics class which Wayne Leman taught. It is possible for others to take this quiz without having had any linguistics classes and also without knowing any Cheyenne. Basicallly, just use common sense logic to analyze the data. Be patient and you will likely be able to find many of the answers.)

Identify all morphemes (meaning parts) in the following Cheyenne data. Attempt an explanation for the distribution of the person-indicating affixes (prefixes and suffixes) in the transitive verbs. Describe how an interrogative verb is formed. At the end of the quiz, predict the spelling of 'I drank' and 'Did you see him?'

(Key to orthographic symbols: /ts/ is phonemically /t/; /'/ (apostrophe) is a glottal stop; /x/ is a voiceless velar fricative (as in German ch); /š/ is the standard phonetic symbol for the voiceless alveopalatal grooved fricative (as English sh); /^/ indicates a voiceless vowel; tone is omitted here since it would unnecessarily complicate this problem).


navoomo  'I saw him.'

navooma  'He saw me.'

nevoomâtse  'I saw you.'

nevoome  'You saw me.'

nevooma  'He saw you.'

namehoto  'I love him.'

nemehoxe  'You love me.'

nemehotâtse  'I love you.'

namehota  'He loves me.'

nave'hoomo  'I looked at him.'

nave'hooma  'He looked at me.'

naheto  'I told him.'

naheta  'He told me.'

neheše  'You told me.'

nehetâtse  'I told you.'

nemehotaehe  'Does he love you?'

neve'hoomehe  'Did you look at me?'

neoomaehe  'Did he hit you?'

nemehoxehe  'Do you love me?'

nemanehe  'Did you drink?'

naoomo  'I hit him.'

nakoka'a'xe  'I jumped.'

ekoka'a'xe  'He jumped.'

nekoka'a'xehe  'Did you jump?'

neoomohe  'Did you hit him?'

neve'hoomohe  'Did you look at him?

nehetaehe  'Did he tell you?'

napevetano  'I'm happy.'

nepevetanohe  'Are you happy?'

I predict that the spelling of 'I drank' would be _____________________________.

I predict that the spelling of 'Did you see him?' would be ______________________.

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