Pronominal Prefixes I2

Pronominal Prefixes: Intransitive Plural

Next, we replace the singular with the plural prefixes (we, you (pl), they).

Nonpast	Meaning	Past	Meaning	Comment
karrire	we go	karriwam	we went	karri- means we (including the hearer), i.e. first-person plural inclusive
ngurrire	you (pl) go	ngurriwam	you (pl) went	ngurri- means you (pl), i.e. second-person plural
kabirrire	they go	birriwam	they went	birri- means they, i.e. the third-person plural

Note that when we translate karrire as 'we go', it also means 'we're going', 'let's go', and 'we will go'. (If you find it strange that a verb can indicate present or future tense, just think about these English phrases: we go today, we go next week). Let's see these prefixes again with bidbun and mankan.

Nonpast	Meaning	Past	Meaning
karribidbun	we (incl) climb	karribidbom	we (incl) climbed
ngurribidbun	you (pl) climb	ngurribidbom	you (pl) climbed
kabirribidbun	they climb	birribidbom	they climbed
karrimankan	we (incl) fall	karrimankang	we (incl) fell
ngurrimankan	you (pl) fall	ngurrimankang	you (pl) fell
kabirrimankan	they fall	birrimankang	they fell

Note that Kunwok has a special form of the plural which just concerns the case of two people or things. We will cover this case later. For now we'll make the simplifying assumption that any more than one is plural.

Next: Intransitive Verbs 3