Editing Kaska language (section)

==Morphology==
Source:<ref>{{cite journal |url=http://coyotepapers.sbs.arizona.edu/CPXIII/odonnell.pdf |access-date=2014-02-10 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305105334/http://coyotepapers.sbs.arizona.edu/CPXIII/odonnell.pdf |archive-date=2016-03-05 |last=O'Donnell |first=Meghan |title=Inflectional Affixes & Clitics in Kaska (Northern Athabaskan) |journal=Coyote Papers |volume=XIII: Papers Dedicated to the Indigenous Languages of the Americas |pages=41–74 |publisher=University of Arizona |year=2004 |hdl=10150/126635}}</ref>

Kaska is a polysynthetic language, commonly featuring sentence words. It is head-final, availing nine prefix positions to a given stem verb morpheme. Kaska does not mark for control or grammatical gender. (Sexual gender is often implied in narratives through contextual association with the prevalent gender roles of Kaska society, particularly with regard to warfare.)

===The Verb-Sentence===
Verb-sentences, or single-word sentences consisting of a stem verb modified by inflectional, derivational and/or other types of affixes, commonly appear in Kaska.  In these cases, a word-final verb morpheme may be accompanied by up to nine prefixes grouped into three categories: the disjunct, the conjunct and the verb theme. O'Donnell's Kaska verb structure diagram is shown below.

{| class="wikitable" border="1"
|-
! colspan="3" | Disjunct Prefixes
! colspan="4" | Conjunct Prefixes
! colspan="3" | Verb Theme
|-
| Oblique Object || Postposition || Distributive Plural
| Subject Agreement II || Direct Object || Mood/Aspect || Subject Agreement I
| Thematic Prefix || Classifier || '''Verb Stem'''
|}

====Verb Theme====
The '''verb theme''' carries the stem verb morpheme, which is immediately preceded by one of four ''classifiers'' (-h-, -Ø-, -l-, -d-).

The ''-Ø-'' classifier primarily marks intransitive and stative verbs.

The classifier ''-h-'', referred to as ''ł'' classification in Athabaskan literature, marks transitivity and/or causativity and deletes when preceded by the first-person singular subject marking ''s-''. Though it is found in some intransitive clauses, as in ''se'''h'''tsū́ts'' ("clothlike object is located"), these generally bear the ''-Ø-'' classifier.<ref name="Moore">{{cite thesis |last=Moore |first=Patrick James |title=Point of view in Kaska historical narratives |publisher=Indiana University |year=2003 |id={{ProQuest|305335008}}}}</ref>

*etsén segan 'the meat is dried'
*etsén se'''h'''gan 's/he dried the meat'

The ''-d-'' classifier serves a more complex function, accompanying self-benefactives, reflexives, reciprocals, iteratives (marked by the prefix ''ne-'') and passives.

The ''-l-'' classifier combines the functions of the ''-d-'' and ''-h-'' (''ł'') classifiers.

====Conjunct====
The '''conjunct''', which appears between the disjunct prefix group and the verb theme,  carries inflectional information including subject, direct object and mood/aspect markings. In ''subject'' markings, Kaska syntactically differentiates between "subject I" and "subject II" morphemes (the latter represented in the gray boxes in the table below to the left).

{| border="1" class="wikitable floatleft"
|+ Subject Markers in Kaska
! 
! Singular
! Plural
|-
! 1st person
| s- || style="background: silver" | dze-
|-
! 2nd person
| n-
| ah-
|-
! 3rd person
| style="background: silver" | Ø-
| style="background: silver" | ge-
|}

{| border="1" class="wikitable floatright"
|+ Direct Object Markers in Kaska
! 
! Singular
! Plural
|-
! 1st person
| se- || gu-
|-
! 2nd person
| ne-
| neh-
|-
! 3rd person
| Ø-/ye-
| ge-
|}
Subject I markers occur conjunct-finally, while subject II markers occur conjunct-initially.

The ''direct object'' markings are given in the table at right. The marking for third-person singular direct object depends on the subject of the sentence: if the subject is in first- or second-person, then it is ''Ø-'', but becomes ''ye-'' when the subject is in third-person.

====Disjunct====
The '''disjunct''' typically carries adverbial and derivational prefixes, including the negative marker ''dū-'' and the '''distributive plural''' morpheme ''né-'', which pluralizes otherwise dual subjects and, in some cases, singular objects. The presence (or absence) of this feature bears most of the numerical marking that is not already indicated contextually or through the subject and object affixes themselves. The prefix ''ɬe-'' marks for dual subject in at least one verb phrase: "to sit." Postpositional morphemes, such as ''ts'i'-'' ("to") and ''yé-'' ("about"), also appear in the disjunct, along with the oblique object markings listed in the table below. 
{| border="1" class="wikitable"
|+ Oblique Object Markers in Kaska
! 
! Singular
! Plural
|-
! 1st person
| es- || gu-
|-
! 2nd person
| ne-
| neh-
|-
! 3rd person
| me-
| ge-
|}

===Space, Time and Aspect===
Source:<ref name="Moore"/>

In Kaska, time is expressed primarily through aspect marking, called ''modes'' when described in Athabaskan languages. These prefixes convey imperfective, perfective and optative aspect. Overt expressions for quantified units of time exist, such as ''tādet'ē dzenḗs'' ("three days"), but rarely appear in Kaska dialog.

The ''imperfective'' (prefix ''Ø-'') expresses incomplete action, is used in instrumental marking, descriptions of static situations and to express irrealis mood. In Kaska narratives, imperfective verb forms commonly accompany a humorous tone.

The ''perfective'' mode (prefix ''n-'') functions largely in complement to the imperfective, expressing complete action, is used in descriptions of kinetic events and establishing realis mood. Kaska narratives tend to express a more serious tone through perfective verb forms.

The ''optative'' mode (prefix ''u-'' in conjunction with suffix ''-í'') expresses unrealized or desired activity.

Directional prefixes, stems and suffixes also index spatial relations in Kaska narratives. These include '''allatives''', '''ablatives''', '''areals''' and '''punctuals''', with some examples listed below.

*kúh- 'distant location (known to both speaker and addressee)'
*de- 'distant location (known exclusively to speaker)'
*ah- 'distant location (determined by non-focal character)'
*júh-, jah- 'nearby location'
*degé- 'up ahead' (also used to mean 'in the future')
*nā́né- 'across'
*-áné 'to the side' (often used in conjunction with ''ah-'' prefix)