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A Grammar of the Mende Language

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 April 2026

Ethel G. Aginsky
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Language , Volume 11 , Issue 3-Part2: Language Dissertation No. 20: A Grammar of the Mende Language , September 1935, pp. 7 - 111
Copyright
Copyright © 1935 Linguistic Society of America

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References

1 The nasalisation of the i disappears here, where i, the definite suffix, is contracted with it.

2 For classes of verbs, see page 30.

3 For postpositions, see page 88.

4 See page 73, for use of lɔ 3 as an auxiliary verb.

5 For its use as preposition, see page 89.

6 Transitive verbs in Mende are those verbs which take a direct object.

7 Intransitive verbs in Mende are those verbs which do not take a direct object.

8 The tones of this suffix and the other suffixes used in forming the various tenses are not given here because they vary according to the different classes of verbs. Their tones appear in the conjugation of sample verbs, pages 33–63.

9 These pronouns are used also as subjects of verbs of existence, section B, pp. 63–4.

10 All the verbs in the list on pages 66-7, except gbe 4 ‘to leave off’, may take this form of the verbal object. gbu 4la 2 ‘to miss’ and kpɔ 2yɔ 4 ‘to finish’ usually take some other form of verbal object, but they may, and sometimes do, take this form.

11 For its use as preposition, see page 89.