| minush | cat | minushat | cats |
| niminushim | my cat | ||
| minushiss | little cat | ||
| uminushima | her/his cat | ||
| akushu | s/he is sick | akushipan | s/he was sick |
| tshitakushin | you are sick | ||
| iakushini | when you are sick | ||
| apu akushian | I am not sick | ||
| akushińua | that one is sick | ||
| uapameu | s/he sees her/him | uapameu | s/he sees her/him |
| nuapamau | I see her/him | ||
| tshuapamin | you see me | ||
| tshuapamitin | I see you |
Minush, akushu and uapameu are variable words. In Innu, variable words are words that take grammatical markings, or inflections. A variable word is made up of two parts: a part that is stable, or that doesn’t usually change, which we call the stem, and a part that changes (the inflections that are added). ni- and -im in the word niminushim are inflections, and minush is the noun stem. n- and -au are the inflections of the verb with the stem uapam-. Nouns, pronouns, demonstratives, and verbs are variable.
ROOT OR STEM
Each word is made up of a stable part (the core of the word, which either never changes or changes very little) and the variable parts that can be added to it, which are called morphemes. It’s the core that gives the meaning of the word, for example minush in niminushim or akush- in tshitakushin, uapam- in uapameu, and so on, while the morphemes that are added give additional types of information, mostly grammatical.
Roots and stems serve similar purposes. They both form the base of a word and carry the meaning of the word, and grammatical morphemes can be added to both. A stem can even be a root. So, how can they be distinguished from one another? If the base form of the word cannot be broken down into smaller pieces and still carries meaning, it is a root. If the base form of the word has been formed from a base to which non-grammatical morphemes have been added, and if this “enhanced” root is now a base that can take grammatical markings, it is a stem:
| [root + morpheme] | + | grammatical markings | = | stem | + | grammatical markings |
| ([UAPA]root+mmorphème)stem+eu = uapameu | s/he sees her/him |
| ([UAPA]root+tmorphème)stem+amu = uapatamu | s/he sees it |
| ([MIKU]root+amorphème)stem+u = mikuau | it is red |
| ([MIKU]root+shimorphème)stem+u = mikushiu | s/he is red |
The root of a word, which carries the meaning, is lexical, while inflections are grammatical.
Starting with a root, we can form a stem by adding derivational material. We call morphemes that serve to create new words derivational morphemes, as in the following examples:
| [atusse-] + -pań- = [atusssepań]u | s/he works quickly |
| [atusse-] + -ssin = [atusseussin] | work boot |
| [ueńut-] + -ishi- = [ueńutishi]u | s/he is rich |
| [ueńut-] + -apat- = [ueńutapat]amu | s/he sees more of them than s/he can use |
| NOTE |
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As for grammatical morphemes used to mark, among other things, number, person, gender, mode, tense, etc., we call these inflectional morphemes or simply inflections. For verbs, inflectional morphemes can also be called endings. However, as in Innu, inflections can also precede roots and stems (for example, personal prefixes) so the term inflection is probably more accurate. Words that take inflections are called inflected forms. The following words are inflected
| minushat | cats |
| niminushim | my cat |
| atusseu | s/he works |
| nitatussen | I work |
ROOT
When the core of a word cannot be broken down any further and still carry meaning, it is called a root, as with miku- and auass in the following examples:
| miku- | red | mikuau | it’s red |
| mikushiu | s/he, it (anim) is red | ||
| mikuekan | it (sheetlike) is red | ||
| mikuieu | s/he dyes something red | ||
| mikukasheu | s/he has red nails | ||
| miku-ashini | brick | ||
| auass | child, youth | auassiu | s/he is young |
| auassikashu | s/he acts cuddly | ||
| auassiunakuan | it has a young appearance | ||
| auass-pimi | baby oil | ||
| utauassimu | s/he has a child or children |
Words with the same core, or root, belong to the same family of words. For instance, mikuau, mikushiu, mikuekan are all in the same family, as are auass, auassiu and utauassimu.
However, in innu, roots are not always easy to identify. This is because there is often variation in their form, that is, in the ending of the root. These variations are historical and are the result of phonological causes (linked to pronunciation). For example, many roots ending in -t alternate with forms ending in -tsh, like ueńut- or ueńutsh-; similarly, roots ending with -shk alternate with -ss, like atushk- ou atuss-. These changes are often the result of contact between the end of the root and the beginning of what’s added to the root, for example the vowels i and e that modify the k.
| ueńut- / ueńutsh- | rich, plentiful | ueńutan | it is plentiful |
| ueńutishiu | s/he is rich | ||
| ueńutishiun | wealth, riches, abundance | ||
| ueńutshieu | s/he is rich in something | ||
| ueńutshi-mitshishu | s/he has plenty of food | ||
| ueńutshitau | s/he has plenty of something | ||
| atushk- / atuss- | work | atushkan | work, job |
| atushkanan-tshishiku | weekday | ||
| atushkatamu | s/he works at something | ||
| atushkueu | s/he works for someone | ||
| atusseu | s/he works | ||
| atusseshtamu | s/he works at something | ||
| atusseun | work, job, tool | ||
| atusseu-miush | toolbox | ||
| atusseutshuap | workshop |
Words that can’t be broken down into smaller parts (for example, nipi water, piku powder, ush canoe, etc.) are at the same time both words and roots (that is, root words). Root words can be nouns, pronouns, demonstratives or invariable words: mitshuap house, kun snow, auen who, ne that one, ute here. On the other hand, verbs are always formed with a core to which other mophemes must be added.
| DEFINITION : ROOT |
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| The central part of the base of a word, to which other morphemes are attached. This core cannot be broken down into smaller meaningful units and is called the root. Words that share a common root are therefore related to each other and make up a family of words. |
STEM
Verbs illustrate well how a stem is formed from a root, since it’s easy to find several verbs with the same root:
| pashteu | it’s dry | pashu | it (anim) is dry |
| pashamu | s/he dries something | pashueu | s/he dries something (anim) |
| uapatamu | s/he sees something | uapameu | s/he sees someone |
| mikuau | it’s red | mikushiu | s/he, it (anim) is red |
The material added to a root to form a stem can be broken down into several parts or morphemes, but we won’t discuss this here.
| DEFINITION : STEM |
|---|
| A stem is made up of a root to which morphemes have been added to form a base that can take grammatical inflections. For example, to conjugate a verb, inflections are added to the verb stem to indicate person, number, mode, tense, etc. |
| Sometimes, a stem can be used to form new words, which can in turn become new stems that can be inflected. |
The concept of the stem is important in order to understand the conjugation of verbs, because for each conjugation there will be a base stem. This topic is also discussed in verb stems. See also verb classes.
INFLECTIONS
Inflections are morphemes that provide grammatical, rather than lexical, information. For example, in minushat cats, -at is an inflection or grammatical morpheme that does not give the meaning of the word, but rather indicates that the word is plural.
In innu, a noun can take a certain number of different inflections, which indicate gender, number, possession, obviation, the locative, etc. Verbs take some of the same inflections as nouns, but have a much larger inventory of verb inflections.
| DEFINITION: INFLECTION |
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| Inflections are grammatical markers that are added to words or stems. They provide grammatical information such as gender, number, person, possession, obviation, tense, mode, order, etc. Inflections can be either prefixes or suffixes or even a change to the vowel in the first syllable (changed forms). |
| DEFINITION: PREFIX |
|---|
| A prefix is an inflection that comes before the stem or root: niminushim my cat, tshiminushim your cat, uminushima her/his cat; nitatussen I work, tshitatussen you work. |
| DEFINITION: SUFFIX |
|---|
| A suffix is an inflection that follows the stem or root. Several suffixes can be added one after the other: tshitatusse+t+akupan = tshitatussetakupan you should have worked; atusse+u+at = atusseuat they work. |
More information about Personal prefixes can be found in the sections on possessed nouns and on personal prefixes on verbs.