Bench language

Plurals may optionally be formed by adding the suffix [-n̄d]; however, these are rarely used except with definite nouns. E.g.: [wű īŋɡn̄d] "her relatives"; [ātsn̄dī bá ka̋ŋɡ] "all the people".

The word [bá] goes slightly beyond being a reflexive pronoun; it can mark any third person that refers to the subject of the sentence, e.g.:

[jȉsī	bá	dōr	ɡȍtùē]
he.S	own	sheep	sell.he.Fin

"he sold his (own) sheep"

[bȍdám	hāŋkʼá	bājístāɡùʂn̄	pāntsʼà	ěz]
road.abl	go.self	self.be.stat.det.when	leopard-NPMk	big	see.he.Fin

"when he was going along the road, he saw a big leopard"

The oblique form is basic, and serves as object, possessive, and adverbial. The subject form has three variants: normal (given above), emphatic - used when the subject is particularly prominent in the sentence, especially sentence-initially - and reduced, used as part of a verb phrase. The "locative" term means "to, at, or for one's own place or house", e.g.:

[kȁrtá	tȁtʼn̄	tā	hāŋkʼùē]
return.I	to.my.house	I	go.I.Fin

"I went home"

The main determiners are "that, the" (masc. [ùʂ], fem. [èn], pl. [ènd]) and "this" (masc. [hàʂ], fem. [hàn], pl. [hànd]). As suffixes on a verb or an ablative or locative phrase, they indicate a relative clause. E.g.:

[ātsn̄dà]	[hàndīs]	[hǎrám]	[bād]	[átsn̄dȁ?]
person.pl.NPMk	these.O	what.abl	separate	make.fut.Intl?

"how can I separate these people?"

[átsín	kétn̋	jískèn]
woman	house.loc	be.that

"the woman who is in the house"

The demonstratives include [háŋ] "here", [ēk] "there (nearby)", [jìŋk] "there (far away)", [nēɡ] "down there", [nèk] "up there". Alone, or with the determiner suffixes [ùʂ] or [àʂ] added, these function as demonstrative pronouns "this person", "that person", etc. With the noun phrase marker [-à], they become demonstrative adjectives. E.g.:

[hàŋ	nás	dȁdn̄	àtāɡùʂn̄]
here	man	near	reach.stat.det.when

"when he came near to the man..."

[njāʔà	nēɡà	hàndī]
boy.NPMk	down.there.NPMk	det.S

"these boys down there"

The numbers are:

20, 30, etc. are formed by adding [tàm] "ten" (with tone change) to the unit. In compound numbers, [-á] is added to each 'figure, thus:

13 [ta̋má kázá]

236 [nám bǎlá kāztàmá sàpm̄á]

When a cardinal number functions as an adjective, the suffix [-ās] can be added (e.g. [njāʔà kázās] "three children"). Ordinal numbers are formed by suffixing [-nás] to the cardinal, e.g.: [ódnás] "fourth".

Adjectives are sometimes intensified by changing the tone to top; e.g. [ěz] "big" → [e̋z] "very big".

Verbs with monosyllabic roots can have three different forms of their active stems: the singular imperative, which is just the root; the past stem, usually identical to the root but sometimes formed by adding -k (with changes to the preceding consonant); and the future stem, usually identical to the root but sometimes formed by changing the tone from mid 3 to high 4 or from bottom 1 to top 5. Some have causative (formed by adding [-ās] or [-̏s], and changing mid tone to high) and passive (formed by adding [-n̄], [-t], or [-̏k] to the causative) forms. Verbal nouns are formed from the stem, sometimes with tone change or addition or [-t].

Verbs with polysyllabic roots have at least two forms, one with an intransitive or passive meaning and one with a transitive or causative meaning; the former ends in [-n̄], the latter in [-ās]. A passive may be formed by ending in [-āsn̄]. Verbal nouns are formed by taking the bare stem without [-n̄] or [-ās].

Compound verbs are formed with [màk] "say" or [màs] "cause to say", a formation common among Ethiopian languages.

The primary tenses are simple past (formed from the past stem), future (future stem plus [-n̄s-]), present perfect (from present participle stem); negative (future stem plus [-árɡ-].) E.g.: [hām] → [hāŋkʼùē] "he went"; [hámsm̄sùē] "he will go"; [hāŋkʼńsùē] "he has gone".

There are four corresponding participles: past (formed from the past stem), present perfect (formed from the past stem with the suffix [-ńs-], [-ńɡ], or [-áŋkʼ-]), imperfect (formed from the future stem with the stative suffix [-āɡ-]), and negative (formed from the future stem with the negative suffix [-árɡ-] or [-ù-] or a person/number marker.) The order of affixes is: root-(tense)-(negative)-(foc. pn.)-person/number-marker.