Proto-Turkic/Optatives, necessitatives and questions

Welcome to the nineth lesson of Proto-Turkic!

Optatives
Optative is a controversial subject in Proto-Turkic, as they only exists in some languages.

*-gA (Shaz)
The optative meaning is used by the suffix -gA. In some languages including Old Uyghur and Tuvan, this suffix were further compounded by the archaic demonstrative pronoun *I (follows vowel harmony) to form -gAy (it originally inflected for numbers and persons, but later become an uninflected tense). In Old Turkic, this suffix was repurposed as the future tense suffix. The optative suffixes only exist in some Turkic languages, including Turkish, Khorasani Turkic, and Tuvan.


 * *seb- (“to love, like”) → *sebge(y) (“may (s/he) love, like”)


 * *bar- (“to go”) → *barga(y) (“may (s/he) go”)

*-gIttI (Lir)
Attested as -ӗччӗ in Chuvash, this optative suffix is reconstructed through regular sound changes (note with the sporadic geminates).

Necessitatives
The meaning of necessity is provided by *-lig and *-me, which we mentioned in the last two lessons.

*-mAlIg
This suffix somehow lives only in Oghuz and Oghur languages.


 * *seb- (“to love, like”) → *sebmelig (“(s/he) should love, like”)

It is a noun clause for Turkmen and Chuvash languages. Therefore, it takes the suffixes that make the noun clause negative.
 * *bar- (“to go”) → *barmalïg (“(s/he) should go”)
 * *sebmelig (“(s/he) should love, like”) → *sebmelig ermeŕ (“(s/he) should not love, like”)


 * *barmalïg (“(s/he) should go”) → *barmalïg ermeŕ (“(s/he) should not go”)

*kẹr-
You can give the same meaning with this root. *kẹr-lig for Lir, *kẹr-ge-k for Shaz.


 * I need a bow and sword. - Benke kïlï̄č bi(r)le yā(y) kẹrgek.

*-mI
Where interrogative pronouns are absent, questions are provided with *-mI interrogative suffix. This appendix asks questions that can be answered with yes or no and asks for the item before it.

A: Do you have a younger sister? - A: Seniŋ siŋiliŋ bār mï? (Literally is there any younger sister belongs to you?)

B: Yes, I have/No, I don't. - B: Bār/yōk. (Literally there is/there is not)

A: Is what you have younger sister? - A: Seniŋ siŋiliŋ mi bār?

B: Yes, it is/no, it's not. - B: Ide/yōk.

A: Are you nine years old? - A: Sẹ tokuŕ yāĺta mï?

B: Yes, I am/No, I am not. - B: Ide/yōk.

A: Are you the one who is nine years old? - A: Sẹ mi tokuŕ yāĺta?

B: Yes, I am/No, I am not. - B: Ide, bẹ/Yōk, bẹ ermeŕ.

When there is a negative interrogative sentence, the answer is different than in English.

A: Aren't you nine years old? - A: Sẹ tokuŕ yāĺta ermeŕ mi?

B: Yes, I am nine years old. - B: Yōk, tokuŕ yāĺta bẹ. (literally no, i am nine years old).

Since it is a preposition, it is written separately in some Turkic languages, but not in others. Prepositions such as with, for, until... are written separately in most of the Turkic languages ​​if they do not have a sound change. However, since the preposition 'mi' has a sound change, there are differences between languages. (i.e. Turkmen barmy?, Kazakh bar ma?)

Questions: Interrogative Pronouns

 * 1) what - *nē(me)
 * 2) who - *kem
 * 3) why - *nē(me) üčün (Literally for what?)
 * 4) how much, how many, how old - *nēnče, *kanča

*nē(me)
It is put in the blank part whose answer is expected in the sentence.

A: What is your name? - A: Seniŋ ātïŋ nē(me)?

B: My name is Tou-man. - B: Beniŋ ātïm Tou-man.

A: What did you do? - A: Nē(me) ēttiŋ?

B: I did sit and waited - B: Oltur tum, kǖt düm.

*kem
It is put in the blank part whose answer is expected in the sentence.

A: Who are you? - A: Sẹ kem?

B: I am Tou-man. - B: Bẹ Tou-man.

A: Who did this? - A: Bunï kem ētti?

B: I did (this). - B: (Bunï) bẹ ētti(m).

*nē(me) üčün
It is put in the blank part whose answer is expected in the sentence.

A: Why are you there? - A: Sẹ nē(me) üčün anda?

B: Because I am Tou-man. - B: Tou-man bolganïm üčün anda. (*-gan may not have been used in this sense in Proto-Turkic. In Old Turkic inscriptions there is only -duk.)

A: Why did you do this? - A: Bunï nē(me) üčün ēttiŋ?

B: To feel joy. - B: (Bunï) bẹ̄kenmek üčün ēttim.

*nēnče, *kanča
We have already mentioned this pronoun in our lesson 1: Pronouns and numbers, and we even gave an example. So we won't be doing this again. The remaining details about it will be in lesson 11: Equative and instrumental.

Other interrogative pronouns that you can create with suffixes
You can turn case suffixes into interrogative pronouns by adding them to question roots. (for example: *nēnte/*kanta, *nēnten/*kantan, *nēnke/*kanka, *nēni/*kanï, *nēniŋ/kanïŋ, *nēnče/*kanča...). To add endings to them, add -n- into the case endings except in accusative and genitive cases (*nēnte; but *nēni, the case suffix itself already contain -n-). In many of modern Turkic languages, the -n- allomorph is now removed from those. Next lesson: Vocabulary 2