This section discusses the various types of coordination constructions in Skerre. Coordination brings together two clauses that could just as easily be separate sentences, but for pragmatic reasons are cast together as a single sentence. This section covers the following:
In Skerre, it is possible to conjoin phrases by just stacking them together. Each conjunct is characterized by a intonation break after it, but otherwise there are no formal markers. Though possible with verbs, this is much more common with noun phrases, especially multiple noun phrases, such as in the following example:
However, it is also possible in Skerre to conjoin phrases with overt coordinators. I now turn to these kinds of constructions.
E’okin-ha a Tsotar, Karak, Riyosir. PFV-see-TR=1SG.NOM ABS (name) (name) (name) I saw Tsotar, Karak, and Riyosir.
Noun phrases (including those just made up of a single noun) are conjoined by ni, and, which is homophonous (and diachronically related to) the comitative syntactic marker ni, with. The conjunction ni goes in between the two nouns or noun phrases it is joining. An example:
Eyowor a ana ni keriyosir ya tseren. PFV-to-go ABS mother and boy DAT home The mother and the boy went home.
Observe that the conjoined NPs are only marked for case once, at the beginning of the NP.
Other (verbal) units are joined by a different word for and: ir. Like ni, ir goes between the units it is joining. Some examples:
Esiisa ir e’orko a keriyosir. PFV-smile and PFV-laugh ABS boy The boy smiled and laughed.
Ewes a Tsotar ir ewor a Karak ya tseren. PFV-sleep ABS (name) and PFV-go ABS (name) DAT home Tsotar slept and Karak went home.
Ya wek tir, rotsaa-wo ya toora ee rosotakin-wo a tseren. DAT day this FUT-go=1PL.NOM DAT market or FUT-clean-TR=1PL.NOM ABS home Today, we will go to the market or clean the house.
Ee can also coordinate noun phrases.
Tor-ha ya yere ee seha. want=1SG.NOM DAT dog or cat I want a dog or cat.
As with conjunction, disjoined NPs only have one case marker for the whole NP.
The adversative coordinator in Skerre is on, which means but, or yet. Syntactically, it behaves just like ir, ni, and ee, going between the units. Here's an example:
Etoran-ti a Swiiwitowar ta sihar, on eyaquen-ti ta siharok. PFV-have.victory=3PL.NOM ABS (demonym) LOC NMLZ-fight but PFV-lose=3PL.NOM LOC battle-AUG The people of Witowar won the battle, but lost the war.
On, however, cannot be used to coordinate NPs.
Parts of coordination constructions can be omitted yet they can still be understood to be semantically present. This occurs most often in conjunction, but can occur in the other kinds of coordination as well. In Skerre, both NPs and verbs can be omitted (elided). The next two sections detail some of the rules concerning this.
Nouns phrases can be elided from both conjuncts. The following examples show ellipsis from the right conjunct, and one of the examples above illustrates ellipsis from the left conjunct. The elided NP is usually the subject of one of the two conjuncts, but does not need that have the same grammatical relation in both clauses. There is, however, a great preference for the elided constituent to be topical. Some examples:
Erahan a Tsotar ya ekori ir etsosin a yat. PFV-hunt ABS (name) DAT bear and PFV-kill-TR ABS one Tsotar hunted for bear and killed one.
Rotsaren a tiyat tsa Tsotar ir rohanin tsa Karak. FUT-pick-TR ABS berry ERG (name) and PFV-gather-TR ERG (name) Tsotar will pick the berries and Karak will gather (them)
However, subject markers can't be elided at all. They must appear in both conjuncts, as in:
Erahan-ha ya ekori ir etsosin-ha a yat. PFV-hunt=1SG.NOM DAT bear and PFV-kill-TR=1SG.NOM ABS one I hunted for bear and killed one.
Verbs can also be elided (this is called gapping). This is shown below, where the verb rahan, hunt doesn't appear in the second conjunct.
Karahan-ha ya ekori ir a Tsotar ya teera. PROG-hunt=1SG.NOM DAT bear and ABS Tsotar DAT moose I'm hunting for bear and Tsotar for moose.
Verbs can only be elided from the right conjunct.