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The table below contains simple and possessed nouns in Kazakh.
| IPA | English Gloss | IPA | English Gloss | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | qalam | 'pen' | 9. | ormanymyz | 'our forest' |
| 2. | ormanyŋyz | 'your (form.) forest' | 10. | ʒol | 'road' |
| 3. | qolym | 'my hand' | 11. | ʃopanyŋyz | 'your (form.) shepherd' |
| 4. | qoly | 'his/her hand' | 12. | qol | 'hand' |
| 5. | ɵlym | 'my boy' | 13. | ʃopany | 'his/her shepherd' |
| 6. | ʒolymyz | 'our road' | 14. | ʃopan | 'shepherd' |
| 7. | qalamy | 'his /her pen' | 15. | ɵl | 'boy' |
| 8. | orman | 'forest' |
Step 2: Inspect the forms
Compare the forms in each column, then compare the forms in each row. Think about how you might want to divide words into morphemes.
Note: the symbol /q/ represents a voiceless uvular stop, and /ɵ/ represents a mid central rounded lax vowel.
| 'pen' | 'hand' | 'forest' | 'shepherd' | 'road' | 'boy' | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| simple form | qalam | qol | orman | ʃopan | ʒol | ɵl |
| my 'X' | qolym | ɵlym | ||||
| your (form.) 'X' | ormanyŋyz | ʃopanyŋyz | ||||
| his/her 'X' | qalamy | qoly | ʃopany | |||
| our 'X' | ormanymyz | ʒolymyz |
Keep in mind the following points:
- Constancy of sound usually represents constancy of meaning (after all, morphemes represent correlations of meanings and sounds). Do you find the same sounds across multiple words that contain that meaning?
- Morphemes often change their shape when attached to other morphemes, but they generally do this in predictable ways that are phonetically conditioned