Mankanya language
The Mankanya language (Portuguese: Mancanha; French: Mancagne) is spoken by approximately 86,000 people in Guinea-Bissau, Senegal and Gambia primarily belonging to the ethnic group of the same name.
Mancanha is spoken east of the Manjak language area and to the north of Bissau Island.
The name 'Mankanya' is thought to have been conferred upon the people and their language by colonialists who mistook the name of their chief at the time of colonisation for the name of the people-group itself.
A small number of nouns, mostly kin terms, can be possessed through the use of a pronominal suffix for certain possessors.
[18] Demonstratives follow after these elements and alienable possessors, also agreeing with the head, and display 3 degrees of distance, as well as a fourth form used in narratives.
[28] Verbs (and clauses) are marked for negation by prenasalising the initial consonant of the stem, and lengthening the vowel of the subject prefix, along with a distinct intonation,[29] though relative clauses are instead negated with a copula taking the relative clause morphology, along with negative nasalisation, followed by the lexical verb which takes subject agreement.
[31] There are derivational suffixes including a benefactive applicative and reciprocal which are homophonous for most verb roots, being distinguished by context.,[32] two causative suffixes,[33] an instrumental applicative,[34] a middle voice suffix which functions like a reflexive when used alone but like a passive when combined with the reciprocal,[35] as well as reduplication which can indicated continuity or completeness, along with recent past with past marked verbs.
[36] There is an infinitive prefix that is required in some subordinate clauses, auxiliary constructions, and can function as an action nominal on its own,[37] while a participle suffix can derive nouns or adjectives from verbs.
They take subject agreement prefixes, along with negation or selectional markers, and trigger different morphology on the lexical verb following them.
Past tense is expressed with auxiliary "come", and the lexical verb is a bare stem.
Whichever of the three is used in the future construction, the lexical verb is marked with the imperfective and serial prefixes.
[46] The progressive uses the copula, followed by the proximal interior locative particle, and the lexical verb takes a nominal prefix.
In terms of modal meanings, the obligative mood uses the copula, followed by the genitive particle, and a lexical verb marked serial imperfective.
[48] Auxiliaries can be combined in some cases, the combination of the ingressive, built from "make/do" - elsewhere meaning "until" - and the past, yield a past "already" meaning, continuing to present if the lexical verb is marked serial imperfective.
Ditransitive clauses show no difference in marking between the direct and indirect objects, with the theme most commonly preceding the recipient.
[52] Adjectives may be underlyingly derived from verbs, or stem unspecified for part of speech, in which case they take the completive suffix when used as a predicate, while nominal derive adjectives do not, and use the copula.
Both independent words, and bound verbal morphology can serve to link clauses together.
[63] In addition to the grammaticalised auxiliaries discussed prior, like the obligative, verbs meaning "begin", "stop", "make" (to form causatives), "know", "see", "hear", "think", and "say", can introduce complement clauses, with either complementisers, or infinitive or serial marking on the verb in the complement clause.
