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Basque Center
BASQUE STUDIES
Tutorial Ph D
Minor
Online
Course Syllabi
Language
Lesson
1
Lesson
2
Lesson
3
Lesson
4
Verbs
Negatives
English
Ergative
Answers
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Ni or nik?
Basque Language Lesson 4 · 4garren
ikasgaia
The Ergative
Ergativity is one of the features of the Basque language
that makes it so attractive to linguists. Ergativity is a
linguistic term that means that the subject of a transitive
verb carries a special marker (to distinguish it from the
subject of an intransitive verb). In Basque that marker is
“k”.
In practical terms, this means that any subject in
Basque can have both an ergative form and a non-ergative
form. We see this clearly in this lesson about
verbs.
Take a look at the “recent past” phrases
from our lesson. You will see that when we use a subject
pronoun (in this case, NI) with verbs that take IZAN (naiz)
as an auxiliary verb, there is no “k” on NI.
That’s because IZAN (to be) is an intransitive verb,
that is, it does not take a direct
object.
But later, when we get to “Nik kafea hartu
dut” we find a “k” on NI. It still means
“I”. The “k” does not change the meaning
of the subject. But because HARTU is a transitive verb, we
must use the transitive auxiliary UKAN, and therefore we
must mark the subject with a
“k”.
Read through the phrases below again and make note of
which main verbs (the verbs that carry the meaning in the
sentence, like ESNATU, for “woke up” and PIZTU,
for “turned on”) require which auxiliary verbs
(IZAN or UKAN, that is, NAIZ or DUT). Remember that the
verbs used with UKAN and UKAN itself are all transitive and
require the ergative marker “k” on the
subject.
Note: The ergative usage in our lessons thus far is
for singular subects only. We’ll look at plurals in a
later lesson.
Using NI or NIK
Zer egin dut? (Or: Zer egin dut nik?) (Note: The pronoun
can be omitted in Basque!)
(What did I do?)
Gaur goizean esnatu naiz.
Jaiki naiz. Ni jaiki naiz.
Sukaldera joan naiz. Ni sukaldera joan naiz.
Komunera joan naiz. Ni komunera joan
naiz.
Kafea hartu dut. Nik kafea hartu dut.
Gosaldu dut. Nik gosaldu dut.
Telebista piztu dut. Nik telebista piztu dut.
Papera hartu dut. Nik papera hartu dut.
Gutuna idatzi dut. Nik gutuna idatzi
dut.
Gaur goizean ez naiz esnatu. Gaur goizean ni ez naiz
esnatu.
Ez naiz jaiki. Ni ez naiz jaiki.
Ez naiz sukaldera joan. Ni ez naiz sukaldera joan.
Ez naiz komunera joan. Ni ez naiz komunera
joan.
Ez dut kafea hartu. Nik ez dut kafea hartu.
Ez dut gosaldu. Nik ez dut gosaldu.
Ez dut telebista piztu. Nik ez dut telebista piztu.
Ez dut papera hartu. Nik ez dut papera hartu.
Ez dut gutuna idatzi. Nik ez dut gutuna
idatzi.
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