Morphology of intransitive verbs in the Agar dialect of Dinka

Abstract This article describes the morphology of intransitive verbs in the Agar dialect of Dinka, a Western Nilotic language which exhibits an extreme degree of non-concatenative morphology. Intransitive verbs comprise three groups: verbs that are clearly simple, i.e. underived, verbs that are clearly derived, and verbs whose derivational status seems indeterminable synchronically. The basic form of an intransitive verb (and other verbs), whether simple or derived, is an inflectionally unmarked monosyllable. Derivation does not involve affixation but is expressed by phonological alternations in the root, involving vowel length, vowel quality, voice quality of the vowel and/or tone. Derivational categories of intransitive verbs with an intransitive base include centrifugal, centripetal and plural. Derivational categories of intransitive verbs with a transitive base include antipassive, reciprocal, antipassive centrifugal, antipassive centripetal, antipassive iterative, and middle, the latter having meanings which include anticausative and reflexive. Inflection of intransitive verbs is also to a large extent non-concatenative, with the same types of alternation in the root as in derivational processes. Both derivation and inflection are to a large extent predictable.