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Derivational Morphology

There are two basic processes for deriving words from other words, compounding and morphological derivation. The first process combines the meanings of two other words to form a new, composite meaning, while the second process derives a new meaning from an other, often by a shift in the class the word belongs to, e.g. from verb to noun or vice versa.

Compounding is relatively regular and frequent process in Denden, while morphological derivation is more irregular and infrequent.

Nomen agentis or agent participle

As discussed in the section on gender, there are certain suffixes that can form nouns from verbs. Nouns formed with agent participle in <­(d)an> denote agents of whom the action is viewed as characteristic. The most typical use is for occupations.

In the next two examples the nomen agentis is used to refer to a characteristic of the people or person denoted; indeed supposing the ferocity of the villagers in the next example to be temporary would be felt as a slight.

.   Nenoi  naya tan adan.dan.yi shame.ni e.serir    nenoi
    vilage near GEN man.pl.DIM  say.HAB  POSS.1pHGH village

    tan adan.dan.zi ga  nothaz.dan nothir.dan ju
    GEN man.pl.AUG  NOM kill.AGP   hack.AGP   real

    Those guys from the next village always say our men are real killers,
    slayers.

.   Tan lauyè purgat.dir cyun.cyun gelaw tayde   Hamal ga  zunga.dan
    GEN  well god.p      very.DUP  angry because Hamal NOM curse.AGP
    The gods of the well are extremely angry because Hamal is one who 
    curses.

However, there also exist compound nouns of verbs and the noun adan, human, as for instance in demdaradan singer ( < colloquial demdar, to sin)

Object participle

The object participle is formed from the verb by suffixing either <­in> or <­om>. At present it is not clear whether there is any semantic difference between the two.

.   Do    ga  adanyi    etand.alei mo   qishen.om
    1sMGH NOM young_man be.PT3     then write.thing

    tau.etand.alei, dingaral qeden
    NEG.be.PT3      brush    name

    When I was a young men, we didnt have these writing things, 
    brushes they are called.

Instrumental participle

Locative participle

Verb-forming affix