(Meadow Mari)
SuffT & PerifT
SuffT: Tense is expressed through the use of a special suffix.
PerifT: Tense is expressed periphrastically.
| (1) | məj | marij | el-əšte | il-em. |
|---|
| I | Mari | land‑INE | live‑1SG |
| ’I live in Mari El.’ (Riese et al. 2022: 205) |
| (2) | vate-m | er | kočkəš-əm | jamdəl-əš. |
|---|
| wife‑1SG | morning | food‑ACC | make‑PST1.3SG |
| ’My wife made breakfast.’ (Riese et al. 2022: 214) |
| (3) | məj | jal-əšte | šoč-ən-am. |
|---|
| I | village‑INE | be_born‑PST2‑1SG |
| ’I was born in the countryside.’ (Riese et al. 2022: 220) |
| (4) | jəngərtə-me-t | godəm | kofe-m | šolt-em | əl-e. |
|---|
| phone‑PTCP.PASS‑2SG | during | coffee‑ACC | cook‑1SG | be‑PST1.3SG |
| ’I was making coffee when you called.’ (Riese et al. 2022: 224) |
| (5) | samərək | godəm | te | počelamut-əm | voz-eda | ul-maš. |
|---|
| young | during | you | poem‑ACC | write‑2PL | be‑NMLZ |
| ’You wrote poems when you were young, it turns out.’ (Riese et al. 2022: 226) |
| (6) | mal-aš | voz-ən-am | vele | ə-le, | alakö | omsa-š | tüškalt-əš. |
|---|
| sleep‑INF | lie‑PST2‑1SG | only | be‑PST1.3SG | someone | door‑LAT | knock‑PST1.3SG |
| ’I had just gone to sleep when someone knocked on the door.’ (Riese et al. 2022: 229) |
| (7) | nuno | ümašte | japon-əške | mij-en-ət | ul-maš. |
|---|
| they | last_year | Japan‑ILL | go‑PST2‑3PL | be‑NMLZ |
| ’(I heard) they went to Japan last year.’ (Riese et al. 2022: 232) |
| (8) | məj | mur-aš | tüŋal-am. |
|---|
| I | sing‑INF | begin‑1SG |
| ’I will sing.’ (Bereczki 1990: 54) |
| (9) | ves | keŋež-əm | joškar-ola-ške | kudal-əna. |
|---|
| other | summer‑ACC | Yoshkar‑Ola‑ILL | travel‑1PL |
| ’We’re going to Yoshkar-Ola next summer.’ (Riese et al. 2022: 205) |
| (10) | kušk-ən | šu-meke | təj | kö | lij-at? |
|---|
| grow‑CVB | arrive‑CVB.PRI | you | who | COP.FUT‑2SG |
| ’What will you be when you grow up?’ (Riese et al. 2022: 300) |
There are seven tenses in Meadow Mari: three synthetic ones (derived using a suffix or a zero morpheme) (1)–(3), and four analytical (4)–(7) (Riese et al. 2022: 199; Alhoniemi 1985: 110–122). In addition to this, the present forms of the verb tüŋalaš ‘begin’ can combine with the infinitival form of certain verbs to express future meanings (8) (Bereczki 1990: 53–54). Only the copula lijaš ‘be, become’ has non-periphrastic future forms, however, it has a present tense inflectional paradigm, so the future meaning is not expressed by means of a distinct set of future inflectional endings (10) (Riese et al. 2022: 300).
Author: Bogáta Timár
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