The Miskito language, the language of the Miskito people of the Atlantic coast of Nicaragua and Honduras, is a member of the Misumalpan language family and also a strongly Germanic-influenced language. Miskito is as widely spoken in Honduras and Nicaragua as Spanish, it is also an official language in the Atlantic region of these countries. With more than 8 million speakers, Miskito has positioned in the second place in both countries after Spanish. Miskito is not only spoken in Central America, but in Europe (United Kingdom, Germany, Sweden, Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, France and Italy), the USA, Canada and in many other Latin American countries. Miskito used to be a royal state language in the 16th to 19th dynasties of the Miskito Kingdom.
Noun phrase Determiners and quantifiers + Common determiners and quantifiersSome determinersSome quantifiers ba definite article na proximal definite article kum indefinite article kumkum plural indefinite article naha 'this' baha 'that' naura 'close by' bukra 'over there' ani 'which' dia 'what' kumkum 'some' uya, ailal, manis 'many' wala 'other' sut 'all' an 'how many' kumi, wan 'one' wal, tu 'two' yumhpa, tri 'three' walhwal, for 'four' matsip, faip 'five'
The demonstratives naha, baha, naura, bukra and the interrogative determiners ani and dia precede the noun they determine and require the ligature (see below). naha araska 'this horse' baha araska 'that horse' ani araska? 'which horse?'The indefinite article and most quantifiers follow the noun and do not require a ligature. aras kum 'one horse, a horse' aras kumkum 'some horses' aras an? 'how many horses?' aras yumhpa 'three horses'The general article ba and the proximal article na stand at the end of the noun phrase and require no ligature. The proximal article expresses proximity. aras ba 'the horse' utla na 'the house' papiki atkan araska na 'this horse that my father bought'Optionally the article may be combined with other determiners or quantifiers, and with the ligature (which seems to convey a greater degree of definiteness). naha araska na 'this horse' baha araska ba 'that horse' aras kum ba 'there is one horse' araska ba 'the horse in question, the horse which...'The determiners are used sometimes with pronouns to emphasize the subject in question. Witin ba patkira sa. 'He is guilty.'
Ligature
Ligature is a term (with precedents in other languages) for describing a grammatical feature of Miskito traditionally referred to with less accuracy in the Miskito context as 'construct'. A ligature is a morpheme (often -ka) which occurs when a noun is linked to some other element in the noun phrase. In Miskito, most of the elements that require the presence of ligature are ones that precede the head noun:
+ Elements triggering linkingTypeExampleDeterminers baha araska 'that horse'Adjectives araska karna ba 'the horse is strong'Dependent possessors Johan araska 'Johan's horse'Relative clauses Kati atkan araska ba 'the horse that Kati bought'
Ligature takes a variety of forms:
+ Forms of ligatureFormExamples-ka suffix aras 'horse' → araska kabu 'sea' → kabuka piuta 'snake' → piutka-ika suffix kipla 'rock' → kiplika-ya suffix tasba 'land' → tasbaya tala 'blood' → talia-a- INFIX silak 'needle' → sialaka (< *si-a-laka) utla 'house' → watla (< *w-a-tla)-ka suffix + -a- INFIX duri 'boat' → duarka (< *du-a-r-ka)-ya suffix + -a- INFIX sula 'deer' → sualia (< *su-a-l-ia)irregular plun 'food' → pata diara 'thing' → dukia
Some nouns take no ligature morpheme; these mostly denote parts of the body (e.g. bila 'mouth', napa 'tooth', kakma 'nose') or kinship (e.g. lakra 'opposite-sex sibling'), although there is only an imperfect correlation between membership of this morphological class and semantic inalienability (see also relationals below).
Possession
A noun phrase possessor precedes the possessed noun with ligature (unless inalienable, see above). Mark araska 'Mark's horse' Mark napa 'Mark's tooth'The possessor may be a personal pronoun if it is emphasized. yang araski 'my horse' mannan nampa 'your (pl.) tooth'Such pronouns may be omitted. In either case, personal possessors are grammaticalized as morphological indices. araski 'my/our (exc.) horse' nampa 'your (sg./pl.) tooth'
+ Possessive indices preposed particle suffix form infix form 1 -i -i- 'my, our (exc.)' 2 -m -m- 'your (sg./pl.)' 3 ai 'his, her, its, their' 1+2 wan 'our (inc.)'
Ai and wan precede the noun, with ligature unless inalienable.(aras→araska)
(bila) ai araska 'his... horse' ai bila 'his mouth' wan araska 'our (inc.) horse' wan bila 'our (inc.) mouth'The indices for first or second person are generally suffixed to the -ka or -ya ligature when either is present (with loss of final -a before -i):(aras→araska)
(tasba→tasbaya) araski 'my... horse' tasbayi 'my land' araskam 'your horse' tasbayam 'your land'Otherwise they are mostly infixed after the infixed ligature -a-:(utla→watla:)
(sula→sualia:) waitla 'my house' suailia 'my deer' wamtla 'your house' suamlia 'your deer'Nouns of the inalienable class (with no ligature) take the same possessive indices, which may again be either suffixed:(bila) bili 'my/our (exc.) mouth' bilam 'your mouth'...or infixed:(napa) naipa 'my/our (exc.) tooth' nampa 'your tooth'Some nouns infix in the first person but suffix in the second, and there are some other miscellaneous irregularities.(kakma)
(duri→duarka) kaikma 'my/our (exc.) nose' duairka 'my/our (exc.) boat' kangmkma 'your nose' duarmka 'your boat'
The plural
Number is not a morphological category in Miskito. Plural number is indicated in noun phrases by the particle nani or -nan placed after the noun or pronoun. Nani is optional with numerals. yang nani or yangnan 'we (exc.)' baha nani or bahanan 'those' naha watla nani na or naha watlanan na 'these houses' uplika karna nani ba or upla karnanan ba 'the strong people' aras (nani) yumhpa 'three horses'
Adjectives
Adjectives used attributively usually follow the head noun and do not require a ligature: aras pihni ba 'the white horse'but some (including past participles) precede it, in which case the noun, unless inalienable, takes its ligature: aras karna ba 'the strong horse' upla pruannan ba 'dead people'
Pronouns and adverbs The personal pronouns differentiate three persons and also have an exclusive/inclusive distinction in the first person plural. The general plural morpheme nani or -nan is added to form plurals (except with yawan). Use of these pronouns is optional when person is indexed in the possessed form, relational or verb group.
+ Personal pronounsSingularPluralyang 'I/me'
man 'you'
witin (neutral) 'he/him, she/her, it'yang nani or yangnan 'we/us (exclusive)'
man nani or mannan 'you'
witin nani or witinnan 'they/them'
yawan 'we/us (inclusive)'
The pronouns are not case-specific, and may, under comparable conditions, be marked by the same postpositions as other noun phrases.
+ Other pronouns and deictic adverbsPronounsPlace adverbsOther adverbsDemonstrativenaha 'this' baha 'that'nahara, naura 'here' bahara, bukra 'there'naku, nan 'like this' baku, ban 'like that, so' mahka, nanara, nawas 'now' bara 'then'Interrogativeya? 'who?' dia? 'what?' dikia? 'what? (construct)' ani? 'which one?'anira? 'where?'nahki? 'how?' ahkia? 'when?'Negative polaritydiara kumsin 'anything' upla kumsin 'anybody' kumsin 'any' (det.)plis kumsin 'anywhere'piu kumsin 'ever'
Postpositions
Dative complements are marked by the multi-purpose enclitic postposition ra, which is also a locative (doing duty for both dative and spatial meanings of English 'to', as well as 'in'). The same marker is also often used with direct objects. Locative ra: Nikaragua ra auna. 'I am going to Nicaragua.' Honduras ra iwisna. 'I live in Honduras.' Dative ra: Yang Joly ra buk kum yabri. 'I gave Joly a book.' "I Joly-ra book one gave.' Accusative ra: Yang Joly ra kaikri. 'I saw Joly.' "I Joly-ra saw."
This and other postpositions are placed after the last element in a noun phrase, e.g. aras ra 'to the horse' aras pihni ra 'to the white horse' aras pihni kum ra 'to a white horse'
+ Some postpositions ra (enclitic) 'to, in, at...'(see above) kat
wina 'to, as far as'
'from'Bilwi wina Lempira kat 'from Bilwi to Lempira' utla wina 'out of the house' wal 'with (general)'Piter tuktika ba wal 'with Piter's child' rais bins wal 'rice with beans' baha lalahka wal 'with that money' ni 'with (instrumental)'naha lalahka ni 'with this money' bip taya ni '(made) of leather ("cow skin")'
Relationals
Relationals are quasi-nouns expressing some relationship (often spatial) to their possessor complement. Many of the relationals perceivably originate in locatives (in -ra) of nouns designating parts of the body employed metaphorically to convey spatial or other relations.
For example, utla bilara literally means 'in the mouth of the house'. utla bila-ra 'inside the house'Relationals index pronominal complements in the same way as nouns index their possessors. ai bila-ra 'inside him/her/them' (yang) bili-ra 'inside me' (man) bilam-ra 'inside you' Some examples of relationals in use: Witin yang ninira balan. 'He came behind me.' Man nani kainamra Bilwi ra wamna. 'I will go to Bilwi before you (pl.).' Witin dur lamara takaskan. 'He paused near the door.' Naha batilka utla bilara mangkaisna. 'I will put this bottle inside the house.' Upla aihkika witin dukiara but munan. 'Most people voted for him.'
+ Some relationals Spatial relations Other relations bila-ra 'in, inside' pura(-ra) 'on, on top of' mununhta-ra 'under' kaina-ra 'in front of' nina-ra 'behind' tila-ra 'between, among' lama-ra 'near' dukia-ra 'for, about' mapa-ra 'for, against, as regards' watlika-ra 'instead of' tawan 'because of'
Verbal groups Overview
Verbs are conventionally cited with the infinitive suffix -aia. The stem of many such verbs (obtained by subtracting the infinitive ending) are monosyllabic (bal-, dim-, tak-, dauk-, kaik-, bri-, wi-, pi- etc.); a few are non-syllabic (e.g. w- 'go'). balaia 'come' waia 'go' dimaia 'go in' takaia 'go out' daukaia 'make' munaia 'do' briaia 'have' kaikaia 'see' aisaia 'speak' wiaia 'tell' walaia 'hear' piaia 'eat' yapaia 'sleep'
Finite forms include several tenses and moods, in each of which the person (but not number) of the subject is marked by suffixes. The tenses themselves have characteristic suffixes which combine with the subject-indexing suffixes.
In addition to synthetic (simple) tenses, there is also a considerable range of periphrastic (compound) tenses. These are formed with a non-finite form of the main verb followed by an auxiliary verb.
Some of the synthetic tenses represent original periphrastic tense structures that have become welded into single words. This helps to explain why there are two different forms each in the present, past and future. (The sample verb used is pulaia 'play', stem pul-, given here in the third-person form of each tense.)
IIIPresent tenses:puluyapulisaPast tenses:pulatapulanFuture tenses:pulaisapulbia
In addition to a subject index which form part of a verb's suffix, for transitive verbs the verb group includes an object index in the form of a preverbal particle marking the person (but not the number) of the object. The subject markers vary somewhat according to the tense, but the most usual forms are shown in the following table (see below for more details).
+ Subject and object indicesPersonSubject
suffixesObject
particles 1 -na ai 2 -ma mai 3-a — 1+2 wan
Presence of the personal pronouns (yang, man, witin, yawan, yang nani...) referring to the indexed subject or object is optional (i.e. there is pro-drop). Mai kaikisna. 'I see you.'The absence of an object index preceding a transitive verb signals a third person object: Kaikisna. 'I see him/her/it/them'