Salasaka Kichwa is an SOV language, meaning that the word order of any sentence will be ‘subject, object, verb’. It is an agglutinative language, which means that, rather than using many independent words to convey meaning and build sentences, suffixes are added to a root that change the meaning or part of speech of a root (derivational), or express a grammatical function (inflectional).
Some of the more common morphemes observed in dictionary entries include the following.
Deverbatives (a means by which verbs are formed from a verb root)
-chi – causative
llukshichina – to cause to leave
llukshi chi na
leave to cause infin.
-ya – becomes
lapujyana – to become wet
lapuj ya na
wet to become infin.
-ya + chi – to cause X to become Y
lapujyachina – to make wet (cause to become wet)
lapuj ya + chi na
wet to cause infin.
-ri – reflexive
maillarina – to wash one’s skin
mailla ri na
wash ref.l infin.
-nuku – reciprocal
tandanukuna – to reunite oneselves
tanda nuku na
join recipr. infin.
Tense and Aspect
-na – infinitive
tarbuna – to plant
tarbu na
plant infin.
-lla – just
ashalla – just a little; hardly any
asha lla
little bit just
shta – completely
ichkashtana – to completely close; to slam shut
ichka shta na
close compl. infin.
Nominals (nouns and adjectives form by attaching morphemes to a verb root)
-shka – past participle
wañushka – dead, deceased
wañu shka
dead past part.
-k – agentive
k’atuk – seller
k’atu k
sell ag.
-i – action nominalizer
kiuyi– love (noun)
k’uy i
love nom.
