Editing Chukchi language (section)

== Grammar ==
Chukchi is a largely [[polysynthetic]], [[agglutinative]], [[direct-inverse language]] and has [[Ergative–absolutive language|ergative–absolutive alignment]]. It also has very pervasive [[Incorporation (linguistics)|incorporation]]. In particular, the incorporation is productive and often interacts with other linguistic processes.<ref name="Spencer 1995">{{Cite journal|last=Spencer|first=Andrew|date=1995|title=Incorporation in Chukchi|journal=Language|volume=71|issue=3|pages=439–489|doi=10.2307/416217|jstor=416217}}</ref> Chukchi allows free incorporation of adjuncts, such as when a noun incorporates its modifier.<ref name="Spencer 1995"/> However, besides the unusual use of adjuncts, Chukchi behaves in a typologically normal manner. The language of Chukchi also uses a specific verb system. The basic locative construction of a sentence in Chukchi contains a single locative verb, unlike many other languages.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Dunn|first=Michael|date=2007|title=Four Languages From The Lower End Of The Typology Of Locative Predication.|journal=Linguistics|volume=45|issue=5/6|doi=10.1515/ling.2007.026|hdl=11858/00-001M-0000-0013-18B0-4|s2cid=27120598|hdl-access=free}}</ref>

In the ''nominals'', there are two numbers and about 13 morphological cases: absolutive, ergative/instrumental, equative (copula), locative, allative, ablative, orientative, inessive, perlative, sublative, comitative, associative, and privative.<ref>{{Cite thesis|last=Dunn|first=Michael John|date=1999|title=A Grammar of Chukchi|type=PhD Thesis|chapter=Nominal Inflection|publisher=Australian National University|hdl=1885/10769 |url=http://hdl.handle.net/1885/10769}}</ref> Nouns are split into three declensions influenced by [[animacy]]: the first declension, which contains non-humans, has plural marking only in the absolutive case; the second one, which contains personal names and certain words for mainly older relatives, has obligatory plural marking in all forms; the third one, which contains other humans than those in the second declension, has optional plural marking. These nominal cases are used to identify the number of nouns, as well as their purpose and function in a sentence.<ref name="Spencer 1995"/>

''Verbs'' distinguish three persons, two numbers, three moods (declarative, imperative and conditional), two voices (active and [[antipassive]]) and six tenses: present I (progressive), present II (stative), past I ([[aorist]]), past II ([[perfect (grammar)|perfect]]), future I (perfective future), future II (imperfective future). Past II is formed with a construction meaning possession (literally "to be with"), similar to the use of "have" in the perfect in English and other Western European languages.

Both subject and direct object are cross-referenced in the verbal chain, and [[person agreement]] is very different in intransitive and transitive verbs. Person agreement is expressed with a complex system involving both prefixes and suffixes; despite the agglutinative nature of the language, each individual combination of person, number, tense etc. is expressed in a way that is far from always straightforward. Besides the [[finite verb|finite forms]], there are also infinitive, [[supine]] (purposive), numerous [[gerund]] forms, and a present and past participle, and these are all used with auxiliary verbs to produce further analytic constructions.

The word order is rather free, though [[Subject–object–verb|SOV]] is basic. The possessor normally precedes the possessed, and [[postposition]]s rather than prepositions are used.

Chukchi as a language often proves difficult to categorize. This is primarily due to the fact that it does not always follow a typical linguistic and syntactical pattern. These exceptions allow Chukchi to fit into more than one linguistic type.<ref name="Spencer 1995"/>

Chukchi has periodic tense: it can incorporate the noun {{lang|ckt|nәki-}} to build a nocturnal verb form.<ref>{{cite journal|author=[[Guillaume Jacques]]|year=2023|title=Periodic tense markers in the world's languages and their sources.|journal=Folia Linguistica |volume=57|issue=3|pages=539–562|doi=10.1515/flin-2023-2013|url=https://shs.hal.science/halshs-04239547}}</ref>

{{fs interlinear|abbreviations=NOCT:nocturnal|indent=4|lang=ckt
|мын-ныки-урэ-ӄэпл-увичвэн-мык
|myn-nyki-urè-ḳèpḷ-uvičvèn-myk
|1PL-NOCT-long.time-ball-play-IMP:1PL
|‘Let’s spend a lot of time playing ball at night.’ (Skorik 1977: 241)}}