The Ancestral Verb

Introduction

The canonical Ancestral verb is composed of two distinct but interlocking elements:

1. A biconsonantal semantic root
2. A bivocalic stative transfix (infix/suffix)

In other words, the basic Ancestral verb takes the form C1 + V1 + C2 + V1 where:

1. C1 _ C2 _ denotes the meaning of the verb
2. _ V1 _ V1 denotes the state of the verb

The Ancestral verb also makes extensive use of various forms of reduplication.

An interesting feature of Ancestral is that every noun is in effect a “frozen” verb, that is a “being” (animate or inanimate) at a particular moment in time or space.