Abstract

VINOGRADOV, Igor  and  GIL BURGOIN, Carlos Ivanhoe. The Irrealis Suffix in San José de la Zorra Kumiay. An. antropol. [online]. 2024, vol.58, n.1, pp.33-43.  Epub Oct 20, 2025. ISSN 2448-6221.  https://doi.org/10.22201/iia.24486221e.2024.58.1.85617.

This article presents a semantic and morphosyntactic description of the suffix -x in Kumiay, a highly endangered and scarcely described language that belongs to the Cochimi-Yuman family. The empirical data come from the variant spoken in San José de la Zorra (Baja California, Mexico). It is proposed that there is a grammatical opposition between the verb forms that bear the suffix -x, which we call “irrealis”, and the morphologically unmarked forms. Although the notion of “irrealis” or “status of (ir)reality” has been criticized in the typological literature for encompassing too heterogeneous meanings in individual languages, this study presents arguments to reconsider its validity, at least, for descriptive purposes. Based on an analysis of the uses of the suffix -x in narrative and conversational texts, as well as through direct elicitation, it is shown that its meanings are not limited to the future tense, as it has been proposed in some works on Yuman languages before, but can be attributed to the domain of irreal modality in general.

Keywords : yuman languages; verb structure; modality; future tense.

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