Kuku Yalanji MEGA Grammar Cheat Sheet

Version: 1.3 — 2026-07-03 UTC (batch-003: noun-POSS agreement with non-zero heads, IMP -ka on derived stems, kari+NONPAST≠prohibitive, §3.4 exhaustive; batch-002: retroflex-r-only allomorph conditioning ⚠, exhaustive §3.3 class, particle classes, -ri- licensing, yungal frame; batch-001 lessons: redup-hyphen + clitic-spacing conventions; pitfalls 13–14; [A 268] Nganjiny→nganjin OCR correction) Purpose: the single working grammar reference for hand-authoring synthetic English ↔︎ Kuku Yalanji sentence pairs (Claude-authored, no generator scripts). Built from a full structured study of Patz, A Grammar of the Kuku Yalanji Language of North Queensland (270 pp; local dictionaries/kuku_yalanji/grammar.md), the 2,688-headword community dictionary (dictionary.yaml), ~795 interlinear grammar examples (examples.xigt.json), and the elder/DB parallel corpora. Supersedes the v1 and v2 working cheatsheets.

Conventions: [A] = attested verbatim in Patz (with § or example number). V in a suffix = the harmony vowel (§2). Dialects: Y = Yalanji (our base dialect — the dictionary's), N = Nyungkul. :pt = potent inflection. Patz forms are hyphenated at morpheme boundaries; surface forms are not.

0. STYLE & ORTHOGRAPHY CONTRACT — "elder-Patz style"

Register: write like the elder-shared sentences (natural, everyday, connected) — never Bible translationese. The Bible corpus is reference only (for checking that a word/pattern is in real use), not a style model and not training data.

Grammar authority: Patz. Every generated sentence must parse cleanly against this sheet.

Spelling authority: the community dictionary (dictionary.yaml word: fields) for lexemes; this sheet for suffix shapes. Surface conventions from the elder/DB gold:

Every DB row stores BOTH: kuku (surface) and analysis (Patz morphemes + gloss). The analysis makes each row auditable; the surface matches the gold data.

1. Phonology — the illegal-string guardrails (§2.1–§2.2)

13 consonants: b d j k m n ny ng l rr r w y (digraphs ONLY ny ng rr). No voicing contrast — the velar stop is always written k (loans/names may keep g: Godungku, gilaja). rr = trill, r = retroflex continuant.

3 vowels: a i u. No long vowels, no diphthongs (ay, uy = vowel + y).

Root shape: C(VC)ⁿV(C), minimum disyllabic (no monosyllabic words except interjections ba, ma, yah).

• Word-initial: only b d j k m n ny ng w y. NEVER l rr r (except loans: landin).
• Word-final: only a vowel or n ny l rr r y. NEVER a stop, m, ng, or w.
• Medial clusters: homorganic nasal+stop (mb nd nyj ngk); n+peripheral (nb nj nk nm nng); y+non-apical (yb yj yk ym ymb yngk); l/rr/r+peripheral (lb lj lk lm lng lmb lngk, rrb rrk rrm rrng rrmb rrngk, rb rk rm rn rng rmb rnd rngk).
• Forbidden: geminates (CC-identical reduces to one); rhotic + palatal (rrj rrny rj rny).

Minimal-pair anchors [A]: bubu 'place/ground', dudu 'blunt', juju 'bum', kuku 'word/language'; bama 'Aboriginal person', bana 'water'; maral 'girl', marral 'dry'.

2. Morphophonology (§2.5)

THE VOWEL HARMONY RULE — for every suffix written with V (ERG, DAT, LOC, PERL, verbal -nkV, -nyV, clitic -ngVrr):

stem's last vowel u          → suffix V = u        jalbu-ngku, bubu-ku, waju-nku
stem's last vowel a or i     → suffix V = a        bama-ngka, mayi-ka, kulji-nga, dama-nka
(i NEVER yields an i-vowel suffix)

Invariant suffixes (never harmonise): neutral ERG/INST -bu, PERL -burr, ABL -muny, ABESS -mundu, PRIV -kari, COMIT -ji/-nji, KPL -karra, -bulal, IRR -nyaku.

Catalytic -mun- (§3.2.3.1): inserted between stem and any NON-ZERO inflection on trisyllabic+ stems and English loans: [A] bulkiji-mun-ku 'pipi-DAT', kunjuri-mun-du 'shield-INST', school-mun-bu, car-mun-ji. Optional on loans (Toyota-nga attested).

/y/ deletion: after i, word-final or preconsonantal y is not written/pronounced — y-conjugation verbs in -i surface bare (badiy → badi 'cries').

Fixed partial reduplications (use these, never full-root, for the six frequent verbs) [A §2.5.3]: kankaday 'keep coming', bundanday 'keep sitting / stay', wunanay 'keep lying / sleep', janjanay 'keep standing', banbadiy 'keep crying', wanarriy 'keep running'; also nukalkal 'keep eating'.

3. The two alignment systems — the #1 correctness rule

Nouns = ERGATIVE/ABSOLUTIVE. Pronouns = NOMINATIVE/ACCUSATIVE. (§3.2, §3.5, §4.1.4)

NOUN  intransitive-subject S → ABS (zero)       Kadar warriy.            'The wallaby runs.'
NOUN  transitive-object   O → ABS (zero)        Dingkarangka kadar kunin. 'The man killed the wallaby.'
NOUN  transitive-subject  A → ERG               Dingkarangka ...          (man-ERG)
PRON  S or A               → NOMINATIVE          ngayu, nyulu, jana ...
PRON  O                    → ACCUSATIVE          nganya, nyunguny, yununy ...

Mixed clauses are natural and common [A]: Ngayu minya milbil bujinda 'I show the meat to the cat' (pron-NOM A + noun-ABS O); Dubungku nyunguny makunyajin 'The ghost met him' (noun-ERG A + pron-ACC O).

4. Case: allomorphy (§3.2.1–3.2.2, Table 3.1)

Eight cases. ERG, DAT, LOC, ABL have neutral vs potent allomorph sets.

POTENT (referent has its own agency): humans, personal names, kin terms (but see §5 kin exceptions), dogs, spirits/ghosts, active or threatening animals (sharks, snakes-as-threat, crocodiles), police. NEUTRAL: plants, food, tools, artifacts, places, body parts, fire/water/ground, weather, abstracts, quantifiers (always), possessive stems (always). Mid-animacy animals may take either — the choice is meaningful (potent = credited with agency): [A] Dingkar-angka 'a man (I saw him)' vs Dingkar-abu 'some man (I suppose)'; kulngu-ku wawu 'like bandicoot (to eat)' vs kulngu-nku wawu 'like [my pet] bandicoot'.

⚠ The /r condition = RETROFLEX r ONLY (batch-002 correction): trill-rr stems take the 'elsewhere' allomorph — balarr-da (ERG), diburr-bu (LOC), wujurr-ku (DAT, [A 428a] verbatim yinil wujurr-ku). Retroflex-r examples: kadar-aka, kukur-uku, bibar-a, wungar-abu.

Attested anchor forms — copy these patterns [A]:

• ERG:pt — kaya-ngka dog, jalbu-ngku woman, warru-ngku young man, ngamu-ngku mother, babi-ngka granny, dingkar-angka man, karrkay-angka child, maral-angka girl, buliman-angka police, nganjan-angka father, Kubirri-ngka (name).
• ERG/INST neutral — juku-bu stick/tree, kulji-bu stone, mili-bu stinging tree, naybu-bu knife, jina-bu foot, mara-bu hand, wungar-abu sun, jalun-du sea, muyar-abu wind, jarba-bu snake(INST), yinba-bu 3-prong spear, marra-∅→marra but INST nganjirr-da grass-tree.
• DAT neutral — mayi-ka food, minya-ka meat, bana-ka water, bayan-ka camp/house, bubu-ku place/land, kuku-ku language, balji-ka dillybag, dukul-ku head, kambi-ka clothes.
• DAT:pt — jalbu-nku woman, bama-nka person, ngamu-nku mother, kaya-nka dog, jarba-nka snake, kiju-nku crab, yaba-nka eB, karrkay-anka child, nganjan-anka father, yaburr-unku shark, bilngkumu-nku crocodile.
• LOC neutral — bayan-ba camp/house, bana-nga water, juku-ngu tree/log, maja-nga scrub, baya-nga fire, jikan-ba grass, balji-nga bag, baral-ba road, manjal-ba mountain, burrir-a island, wawubaja-nga river.
• LOC:pt — bama-nda person, jana-nda them, buji-nda cat, dunyu-ndu husband, ngamu-ndu mother, yaba-nda eB, yarraman-anda horse, maral-anda girl, buliman-anda police, dingkar-anda man, babi-nda granny, bulki-nda cattle, wara-nda groper.
• ABL — bayan-muny from camp, jalun-muny from the sea, manjal-muny from the mountain, bubu-muny from the ground, Cairns-muny; potent buliman-andamuny from the police, kurriyala-ndamuny from the carpet snake, babarr-andamuny from eZ, ngamu-ndumuny from mother.
• ABESS — bayan-mundu from the house (staying in it), juku-mundu from up the tree, jikan-mundu.

5. Case: functions — which case says what (§4.1.4)

• ABS — S and O. [A] Kaba kaday 'Rain is coming'; Nganjan wunanay 'Father is resting'.
• ERG — volitional A. [A] Warrungku ngawuya daman 'The young man speared a sea turtle'.
• INST — implement/body part; OR an inanimate uncontrolled cause acting on O. [A] Dingkarangka yawu daman yinbabu 'The man speared the stingray with a three-pronged spear'; Nganya jukubu bakan 'A stick poked me'; Jana jalbu jinabu dungay 'The women go on foot'; Karrkay milibu wajun 'A stinging tree burnt the child'.
• DAT — purpose/goal ('for'), beneficiary, cause of action/emotion, object of wawu want/like, yinil fear, binal knowledge, topic of ask/tell-about, standard of comparison. [A] Ngayu bubu kidal-kidal bayanka 'I sweep the ground for a camp'; Nyulu dingkar ngamunku badin 'The man cried because of his mother'; Karrkay yinil kijunku 'The child is afraid of crabs'; Ngayu Mabelanda babajin bayanka jirakalka 'I asked Mabel about her new house'; Ngawuya ngujayngka yalbay-bajaku 'A sea turtle is much bigger than a freshwater turtle'.
• LOC — place at/in/on; goal of motion; recipient/addressee of give/show/tell/send. [A] Maral-maral bananga janjil 'The girls bathe in the water'; Nganjin burrira marijin 'We swam to the island'; Nyulu marrkin dajin yabanda 'He gave the gun to his elder brother'; Ngayu minya milbil bujinda 'I show the meat to the cat'; Majangka kuku yungan bulimananda 'The boss sent word with the policeman'.
• ABL — 'from' (place/time), source, material, cause of physical state, a threat one avoids. [A] Jalbungku kaya kangal bayanmuny 'The woman chases the dog from the house'; Jalbungku balji wukurril jilnganmuny 'The woman weaves a bag from reed grass'; Ngayu bambay minyamuny buyunmuny 'I am sick from the bad meat'; Nyulu ngakijiy bulimanandamuny 'He is hiding from the police'.
• ABESS — doing something from a place without leaving it. [A] Mabel yirrkay bayanmundu 'Mabel is calling out from the house'; Jana jukumundu mayi yilbal 'They throw fruit down from the tree'.
• PERL — through/along (Nyungkul; Yalanji uses LOC). [A] Dingkar baraldarr dungan-dungay 'The man goes along the road'.

6. Noun-phrase structure (§4.1.1)

• All NP constituents agree in case (possessives exempt within a continuous NP). [A] Yinya-ngka kubarr-angka yalbay-ngka maral baykan 'That big eel bit the girl' — ERG on demonstrative + noun + adjective.
• Order: modifier normally follows the head (dubal murrumurru 'rough bark'); quantifier precedes, adjective follows when both occur (jambul kaya kuliji 'two vicious dogs'); demonstrative precedes or follows (yinya karrkay / karrkay yinya); possessive either side (ngayku bayan, badur ngamumu); pronoun before noun (jana bama 'the Aborigines', bula ngamu 'the two mothers').
• Generic + specific (classifier): mayi wukay 'yam (food)', minya ngangkin 'porcupine (meat)', juku buyku 'paperbark (tree)'.
• Inalienable part in apposition, part follows whole, same case: [A] Nyulu dukul yalbay 'he [has a] big head'; Nyulu kuyu biji kayin 'He hooked the fish by the tail'.

7. Nominal derivation (§3.2.3)

• Possessive (alienable): Y -mu/V, -Vmu/C (ngamu-mu mother's, dingkar-amu the man's); before a further case suffix → -ndVmun-/-VndVmun- (dingkar-andamun-du 'the man's-ERG', bama-ndamun-ku 'the people's-DAT'). Possessives ALWAYS take neutral onward inflection.
• Comitative 'with/having': neutral -ji (-iji after rhotic), potent -nji/-Vnji; +-rr before a further suffix. [A] kuli-ji 'angry/vicious', walarr-iji 'bearded', nganka-ji 'having flowers', kalka-ji 'with a spear', maji-ji 'having matches', kaya-nji 'with a dog', bimay-anji 'with aunt', kalka-jirr-ka 'spear-COMIT-DAT'.
• Privative 'without': -kari — mungka-kari 'bald', kiru-kari 'stupid', dirra-kari 'toothless', bayan-kari 'homeless', marrkin-kari 'without a rifle', mani-kari 'no money'.
• Plural: reduplication (juku-juku 'trees', maral-maral 'girls', wulman-wulman 'old men'); kin plural -karra (yabujukarra 'younger brothers', jawunkarra 'friends/relations'); -bulal 'pair (linked)' (jalbubulal 'the two women').
• -(w)arra 'people of' (wujalwujalarra 'Bloomfield people', jalunjiwarra 'seaside people').
• -baka 'excessive/characteristic (negative)': ngirraybaka 'crybaby', kulibaka 'grumpy one'.
• mala- 'expert': mala-minya 'good hunter', mala-mayi 'good cook'.
• Degree: jarra- 'rather/more' (jarra-yalbay 'rather big'); -baja-ku 'very' (dakuy-bajaku 'very hungry', yalbay-bajaku 'very big') — always ends in -ku; a case suffix goes before -ku: bambay-baja-nka-ku.
• KIN EXCEPTIONS (§3.2.4): seven kin terms take NEUTRAL inflection: kangkal 'own child' (always: kangkal-da ERG), manyarr 'wife', babarr 'eZ', jinkurr 'yZ', biwul, ngalayan, kujiway. All other kin terms are potent-only (dunyu-ngku husband-ERG, yaba-nda eB-LOC).
• Quantifiers (always neutral): nyubun 'one', jambul 'two', kulur 'three/a few', kanbal 'some', wubul 'many', yambayamba 'everything', jirray 'much/plenty', buban 'a little'. 'One'/'two' special set: ERG nyubuninja, DAT nyubuningka, LOC nyubunimba, COMIT nyubuninji.

8. Pronouns (§3.5, Tables 3.6–3.8) — Yalanji forms

• Possessive stems agreeing with a case-marked head: sg -wun- (ngayku-wun-du kaya-ngka 'my dog-ERG', yunu-wun-ku ngamu-nku 'your mother-DAT'), non-sg -ndamun- (jana-ndamun-muny bayan-muny 'from their house').
• Uninflected possessive with an ABS head: ngayku bayan 'my house', yunu kaya 'your dog', nyungu kalka 'his spear'.
• ngali = 1du EXCLUSIVE (me + him/her), ngaliny = INCLUSIVE (me + you). Inc/exc is weakening; default to the exclusive form if unsure.

9. Demonstratives & interrogatives (§3.6–3.7)

Demonstratives: yanyu 'this/these' · yinya 'that/those' · yaluy 'here' · yinyay 'there'. Case forms ('this' uses base yalu-): ERG yalungku / yinyangka; DAT:pt yaluyunku / yinyayanka; LOC yaluy / yinyay(mba); ABL yalamuny / yinyamuny. Human plural: yalurriny 'these people', yinyarriny 'those people'. [A] Yalungku jalbungku nganya binal-bungan 'This woman taught me'.

Interrogatives: wanya 'who' (ERG wanyangka, DAT wanyanka, COMIT wanyanji); wanyu 'what' (oblique stem wanyurri-: DAT wanyurringku 'why', INST wanyurrinju); wanjabu 'where' (ABL wanjamuny 'where from'); wanjawanja 'when' (sentence-initial); wanjarr(ku) 'how'; wanjarrinya 'how many'; wanjaku 'which one'; wanyunguy 'what kind'. 'why' is always clause-initial. [A] Wanyangka ngayku dambal wundin? 'Who took my shoes?'; Yundu wanyu mumban baljinga? 'What did you put in the bag?'; Nyulu wanjamuny? 'Where is he from?'.

10. Verbs (§3.8)

10a. Conjugations

• l-conjugation (NONPAST -l): ~92% transitive. nukal eat, wajul cook/burn, manil get, nyajil see/hear, dajil give, kunil hit/kill, baykal bite, damal spear, bakal dig/poke, kangal chase, karrbal grab/hold, wundil take/bring, milbil show, yakal cut, balkal speak/tell/make, yungal send/put, kujil look after, julurril wash, dindal roast, yilbal throw, mumbal put in, dumbarril break, ngakil hide, nandal close, kidal sweep/scrape. Intransitive l-conj exceptions: janjil swim/bathe, dakal climb, walal enter, kaljil vomit, wandil rise/come out/wake, kadabal break(itr), jalamal jump, walngkal hang.
• y-conjugation (NONPAST -y): all intransitive. dungay go, kaday come, bunday sit, janay stand, wunay lie/sleep, badiy cry, warriy run, yirrkay shout/sing out, daray fall, nyunbay turn back, mariy/marijiy swim(across), wuriy dance.

10b. Inflections (Table 3.16–3.17). Surface past = -n (§0).

Model paradigms [A]:

kunil 'hit':   kunil · kunin · IMP kuni  · kuninka · kuninyji · kuninyjiku · kuninyaku · kuninya
bunday 'sit':  bunday · bundan · IMP bunday · bundanka · bundanyji · bundanyjiku · bundanyaku · bundanya
dungay 'go':   dungay · dungan · IMP dungay · dunganka · SUCC dunganyjiku
wajul 'cook':  wajul · wajun · IMP waju · PURP wajunku      (u-stem → -nku)
nukal 'eat':   nukal · nukan · IMP nuka · PURP nukanka

Suppletive imperatives (memorize): dajil give → daya!; nyajil see/look → nyaka!; manil get → mana! (also in causatives: daraymana! 'drop it!').

10c. Verb derivation (§3.8.5)

• State-causative -bunga-l 'make X' (adj/noun base): dandi-bungal make hard, yarkin-bungal kill, binal-bungal teach, manyarr-bungal marry, ngulkurr-bungal make good, wumbul-bungal heat up. IMP = zero: wumbul-bunga!. Variant -kanga-l 'stir up X' (emotion/commotion): yinil-kangal frighten, ngirray-kangal make cry, kuli-kangal anger.
• Action-causative -(y)-mani-l (itr verb → tr): dara-y-manil drop (make fall), warndi-manil make get up, jana-y-manil stand (something) up. IMP ...-mana.
• Inchoative -ma-l 'become X' (itr; IMP -ka): yalbay-mal grow, bambay-mal fall ill, binal-mal learn, ngulkurr-mal get better, dandi-mal harden, kuwa-mal go west.
• Reflexive/intransitiviser -ji- (tr → y-conj itr): julurri-ji-y wash oneself, yaka-ji-n cut oneself. Also passive (O→S; agent → LOC, optional): Warru (yaburrundu) bayka-ji-n 'The young man was bitten (by a shark)'; Store nanda-ji-y nyiku 'The store is closed today'; Yanya mayi ngulkurr nuka-ji-y 'This food tastes good (is good to eat)'. Also antipassive (A→S; O → LOC; diffuse action, verb usually reduplicated): Jalbu wukay-mba nubi-nubi-ji-y 'The woman is searching around for yams'.
• Reciprocal -wa-y: kuni-wa-y fight, nyaji-wa-y see each other, balka-wa-y chat.
• Plural-subject -ri- (optional, with plural S): dunga-ri-y go(pl), kada-ri-n came(pl).
• Reduplication ('keep V-ing'): link -l- (l-conj) / -n- (y-conj): dindal-dindal keep roasting, dungan-dungay keep going; derived stems reduplicate root only (kunin-kuniwa-y keep fighting).

11. Sentence patterns (§4.1.5–4.1.6)

Word order: free in principle (case does the work) but unmarked = S V and A O V; peripheral NPs (LOC/ABL/INST/DAT) usually after the verb; pronouns early; temporal words and 'why' sentence-initial. Fronting = topicalisation. Generate unmarked order unless deliberately topicalising.

Verbless sentences (no copula — the bread-and-butter frames)

NP + ADJ        Nyungu kalka dudu.        'His spear is blunt.'          [A 300]
NP + NP         Nyulu yinya ngayku jinkurr. 'That one is my younger sister.' [A 293]
NP + LOC        Kami bayanba.             'Granny is at home.'           [A 296]
NP + locword    Jana karrkay badabada.    'The children are down there.' [A 297]
NP + ABL        Ngayku ngamu kunamuny.    'My mother is from Shiptons Flat.' [A 298]
NP + NUM        Ngayku kangkal kulur.     'I have three children.'       [A 301]
NP + COMIT      Juku ngakun ngankaji.     'The flame tree has flowers.'  [A 303]
NP + COMIT?     Yundu majiji?             'Do you have matches?'         [A 304]
NP + PRIV       Nyulu wulman mungkakari.  'The old man is bald.'         [A 306]
NP + walu ADJ   Nyulu walu nganjay.       'He is ugly.' (appearance)     [A 307]
NP + yala NP    Nyulu yala nyungu nganjan. 'He is just like his father.' [A 604]

Verbal sentences

S V             Kadar warriy.                       'The wallaby runs.'
S V LOC         Maral-maral bananga janjil.          'The girls bathe in the water.'      [A 275]
S V LOC(goal)   Nganjin burrira marijin.           'We swam to the island.'             [A 268]
A O V           Warrungku ngawuya daman.            'The young man speared a sea turtle.' [A 233]
A O V INST      Dingkarangka yawu daman yinbabu.    'The man speared the stingray with a spear.' [A 242]
A O V LOC(rcpt) Nyulu marrkin dajin yabanda.        'He gave the gun to his elder brother.' [A 272]
S wawu DAT      Kaya wawu bajibayngka.              'The dog wants a bone.'              [A 313]
S yinil DAT     Maral yinil jarbanka.               'The girl is afraid of snakes.'      [A 312b]
S binal PURP    Jalbu binal balji wukurrinka.       'The woman knows how to weave dillybags.' [A 585]
S V DAT(cause)  Nyulu dingkar ngamunku badin.       'The man cried because of his mother.' [A 257]
S V ABL(threat) Nyulu ngakijiy bulimanandamuny.     'He is hiding from the police.'      [A 286]

Negation, imperatives, questions

• kari 'not' before the negated element: [A] Ngayu jungkalu kari dumbarrin 'I did not break the billycan'; Kari kanga! 'Don't chase [it]!'; Ngayu binal kari 'I don't know' (postposed with particles). kariku 'not at all/not yet', karirrku 'not really'.
• balu 'desist': Balu dungay! 'Let him go!'; governs DAT/PURP: Ngayu balu kuniwanka 'I don't want to fight'.
• Imperative: verb in IMP form, optional initial 2nd-person pronoun. [A] (Yundu) yinya daraymana! 'Drop that!'; (Yurra) julurrijika! 'Wash yourselves!'; encouragement: Kadarikada! 'Come on, let's go!'. Urgency clitics: -da 'now', -ngVrr 'straight away' (Nukangarr! 'Eat up first!').
• Yes/no question = statement + rising intonation (just ? in text): [A] Nyulu kadanbaja? 'Did he come back?'. Content question: interrogative in the queried slot (§9), 'why'/'when' initial.

12. Subordination (§4.4) — for Tier-6 rows

• Purposive -nkV: 'in order to; must; want to'. [A] Warru dungan wawubajanga, kuyu damanka 'The young man went to the river to spear fish'; Nyulu wawu nukanka 'He wants to eat'; Ngayu wawu jana ngawuya maninka 'I want them to get turtle'; main-clause obligation: Ngayu mayi wajunku 'I'd better cook food'. Abbreviated relative: Yanya bana nukanka 'This is drinking water'.
• Precautionary -nyji 'lest': [A] Mayi kari waju, buyun-damanyji 'Don't cook the food lest you spoil it'; Kari kaya kuliji karrba, baykanyji 'Don't touch the vicious dog lest it bite'.
• Successive -nyjiku 'just before': [A] Jalbu mara julurrijiy, mayi damba dingkanyjiku 'The woman washes her hands before kneading damper'. (Elder corpus: dunganyjiku 'before leaving'.)
• Simultaneous -nyV 'while ...ing' (verb usually reduplicated; watching/hearing someone do something): [A] Ngayu yununy nyajin, mayi yurmbil-yurmbinya 'I heard you chewing food'; same-subject: Karrkay wanarriy, banbadinya 'The child runs crying'.
• Causal -nyV 'from ...ing': [A] Janjinya, nyulu bajaburray 'He is tired from bathing'.
• Prior wawu-V-nyV-muny 'after ...ing': [A] Wawu-janjinyamuny, jana wunanay 'After bathing, they rest'; with a noun: wawu-kambimuny julurrin 'after washing clothes'.
• 'if/when' = particle kaki (clause-initial): [A] Kaki yundu yinya kaya jukubu kunil, yununy baykal 'If you hit that dog with a stick, it will bite you.'

13. English loans (§2.3, §3.12)

• Nouns: optionally + catalytic -mun- before suffixes: school-mun-bu at school, car-mun-ji with a car, truck-mun-bu, store-mun; bare loan + native suffix attested too (Toyota-nga). Adapted loans already IN the dictionary (prefer these): bikibiki pig, naybu knife, mayngku mango, maji matches, marrkin gun/rifle, waybala white person, jukijuki chicken, bulawu flour, muduka motorcar, jarruja trousers, bujika pussycat, damba damper, dubayku tobacco, yarraman horse, bulki cattle, buliman police, wulman old man, wulbuman old woman, mijiji Mrs/white woman, jungkalu billycan.
• Adjectives: -bala (drunk-bala, blue-bala).
• Verbs: itr → -ma-l (travel-mal); tr → -im-bunga-l (fix-im-bungal, push-im-bungal).
• Keep loans occasional and everyday (school, store, car/truck, tea, money, teacher) — the elder/DB corpus does this naturally (dayim 'time', singmanda 'sang').

14. COMMON PITFALLS — check every sentence against these

1. Potent/neutral mismatch — kaya dog is potent (kayangka not *kayabu); mayi food is neutral (mayika not *mayinka); the 7 kin exceptions (esp. kangkal) take NEUTRAL.
2. Vowel harmony after i → a (never i/u): kulji-nga, mayi-ka, kami-ngka.
3. Pronoun object must be ACC: nganya, nyunguny, yununy — never NOM in O slot.
4. Conjugation: dungay/kaday/bunday never take -l; nukal/wajul/manil never take -y.
5. Recipient of give/show/tell = LOC(:pt), not DAT: dajin yabanda.
6. Object of want/like/fear = DAT, not ABS: mayika wawu, yinil jarbanka.
7. No copula — never render 'is/are' with a verb.
8. A O V order unmarked; put INST/LOC/ABL after the verb by default.
9. Quantifiers & possessives always neutral onward inflection.
10. Surface past -n, analysis -ny — keep both fields consistent.
11. Only dictionary words (or §13 loans). Never invent a root; never invent a suffix not on this sheet; respect §1 phonotactics absolutely.
12. Discontinuous/emphatic devices (topicalisation, clitics) — avoid until Tier 6+.
13. 'tell/say to someone' — the addressee is LOC:pt (Ngayu Chris-anda balkan 'I said to Chris'; elder Bamanda balkan). A bare ABS addressee with balkal reads as 'make'! The ABS-addressee frame is licensed ONLY in the jussive with a purposive complement: [A 415] Babi-ngka maral balka-ny, ngawa kuji-nka 'Grandmother told the girl to look after the baby'. Same logic for yalamal 'say'. (Batch-001 adjudication, seq 31.)
14. Every English quantifier/adverb ('all', 'also', 'again', 'still', 'very', 'well') needs a Kuku exponent — or trim the English. Elder gold: 'all' = wubulku, 'very' = bajaku (separate word). (Batch-001 seq 21; batch-002 seq 5/27.)
15. The §3.3 location-word closed class is EXHAUSTIVE (wangkar(wangkar), bada(bada), walmbi, jakuy, kungkarr, kuwa, jibarr, naka, yuba, ngundu, kalakalbay, wuyar, ngubar, yiringkurr, kudamundu, yarra). kana 'inside' and ngalkal 'outside' are NOUNS → LOC required: kananga, ngalkalba (dict-usage-attested). Never extend the class by analogy. (Batch-002.)
16. Adverbial vs adjectival particles: adverbial particles (§3.8.6.1 — murruji 'cannot', nguymal, kanban...) modify a FINITE verb and take no complement (Ngayu murruji maraji); only adjectival particles (§3.9.1 — binal, wawu, yinil, juburr, balu) govern DAT/PURP.
17. -ri- plural-subject needs an overtly plural subject — plural pronoun or reduplication (Jana bama ... wandi-ri-ny [A 188]); a quantifier alone does not license it.
18. Don't transfer case frames between verbs: yungal 'send' + LOC:pt = intermediary ('send WITH', [A 273–274]); the recipient frame belongs to dajil/milbil/balkal.
19. NOUN possessives agree with a non-zero head (batch-003): -Vmu/-mu is the ABS-context form ONLY; before an ERG/DAT/LOC head the possessor takes -(V)ndVmun- + the agreeing neutral case: [A 515] Dingkar-andamun-du yaba-ngka, [A 126] babarr-andamun-du kaya-ngka 'elder sister's dog-ERG'. (Pronoun possessives: agreement optional within a continuous NP, §4.1.1(h) — ngayku kangkalda [batch-001 seq 30] and ngayku-wun-du ngamu-ngku [A 247a] both licensed.)
20. Imperative -ka applies to ALL stems over two syllables including -ji- derived stems: marajika! 'swim!', julurri-ji-ka!, wukurri-ka! — zero-IMP is disyllabic l-conj roots only (+causative compounds); kari + NONPAST = declarative negation ('does not V'), a prohibition needs kari + IMP ([A 436] Mayi kari waju!). 21d. LOCATIVE allomorph is vowel-conditioned AND rhotic-sensitive (Patz §2.5.1 + locative-allomorph table §3.2.3.1; ⚠ CORRECTED 2026-07-03 — the earlier "rr → -a" was WRONG). Every allomorph vowel-harmonises (a-form after a/i-final, u-form after u-final):
    • vowel a/i → -nga (kulji-nga, bana-nga); vowel u → -ngu (bubu-ngu, buyku-ngu).
    • ⭐ TRILL /rr/ + stops/nasals/l (the -bV "elsewhere" allomorph) → -ba / -bu: bayan-ba, nyabil-ba, manjal-ba · trill: wabarr-ba 'in the shade' [A6930], dimbirr-ba, kungkarr-ba, makarr-ba (a/i-final → -ba); but diburr-bu 'egg-LOC', wujurr-bu 'in the dark' [A2507/5313], dukurr-bu 'inside', ngulkurr-bu, junkurr-bu (u-final → -bu).
    • SINGLE retroflex /r/ (the -V long-vowel allomorph) → -a / -u: bibar-a, burrir-a, wungar-a, wangkar-a, jukar-a (a/i-final → -a); bujur-u, dungur-u (u-final → -u).
    • y → -mba / -mbu (kiway-mba, wakuy-mbu).
    • ⚠ THE TRAP: trill /rr/ takes -ba/-bu, single /r/ takes -a/-u — they are OPPOSITE. So wujurr (rr, u) → wujurr-bu NOT *wujurr-a; wangkar (r, a) → wangkar-a NOT *wangkar-ba.
    • NEVER consonant/rhotic + -nga. Potent LOC (pronoun/animate) = -nda (yunu-nda, jana-nda, maral-anda). 21c. TEMP3 'first' -(ng)Vrr ATTACHES to its host ([A 3881] duda-ny-arr 'pounded first', wulman-angka-ngarr 'old man-ERG first'): after a vowel → -ngarr/-ngurr (V-harmony); after the past -ny the ng drops and the ny reappears → surface -nyarr (daman → damanyarr 'speared first'). NEVER a standalone word. 21b. PURPOSIVE = verb-stem + -nka (drop the -l) — mani-nka 'to get' [A 1995 verbatim], nyaji-nka, balka-nka, wundi-nka, daji-nka. NEVER verb-l-ka. (Distinct from noun -ka DAT: kalka 'spear', jambul-ka, kalbal-ka 'remedy-DAT' are nouns+DAT, not purposives.) 21a. Adjective agreement takes the HEAD's class (batch-016 ruling): in a potent-headed NP every modifier takes POTENT allomorphs regardless of its own semantics — [A 51] Warru-ngku kuli-ji-ngka, [A 237] kubarr-angka yalbay-ngka, [A 543] walarr-iji-ngka. 'The little dog-ERG' = kaya-ngka buban-angka.
21. The §3.4 time-word closed class is also exhaustive (nyiku, yilayku, wunkun(y), juma, ngadiku...); other temporals are lexicalized -ny forms — 'at daybreak' = muduwajuny (attested 2×), never bare muduwaju. Same never-extend logic as pitfall 15.

15. Clitics (§3.10) — full extraction 2026-07-02

All enclitics (word-final) except proclitic wawu-. Slot order: temporal > EMPH1-3 > -ji; temporals never co-occur; EMPH order -ku > -lu > -bi; -baja(verbal) and -(V)rrku combine with nothing.

• -da TEMP1 'then' (final action of a sequence): [A] Jana kadan, kuyu manin, wajun, nukanda. 'They came, caught a fish, cooked and then ate it.' Also urgency on imperatives (§11).
• -ngVrr/V, -Vrr/C TEMP3 'first of all': [A 210] Nyulu kuyu-ngurr manin, ngawuya damanda. 'He caught a fish first, then speared a turtle.' Reduced -rr on imperatives: daya-rr 'give it first', julurri-ka-rr 'wash it first'.
• -kuda TEMP2 'meanwhile' (meaning uncertain — avoid in generation).
• wawu- TEMP4 proclitic 'since/after' + ABL only: wawu-yinya-muny 'after that', wawu-mayi-muny 'after the meal'.
• -ku EMPH1 general emphasis: yalbay-ku 'really big', wubul-ku 'really a lot' (elder gold's 'all' exponent).
• -lu(Y)/-la(N) EMPH2 'pay attention'; -bi EMPH3 surprise 'lo and behold' — narrative devices, Tier 7+.
• -rrku/V, -Vrrku/C EMPH4 'totality/only' (verbs, pronouns, kari, yala only): [A 211] Maralangka kambi julurrinyarrku 'washed ALL the clothes thoroughly'; [A 212] Bayan kidarrku! 'Sweep the whole house!'; [A 215] Ngayurrku bundanday 'I live by myself'. → exponent for 'all/whole/only' (pitfall 14).
• -baja on verbs: state verbs = 'quite' ([A 216] Nyulu bambaymalbaja 'getting quite sick'); action/motion = 'again' ([A 218] Ngayu wawu kadankabaja 'I want to come back'). Surface: separate word baja per elder gold. Never followed by -ku on verbs.
• -ji(Y) 'in turn' (pronouns ONLY): [A 221] Yunduji bunday, ngayu bubu kidal 'Your turn to sit; I sweep.'
• Interjections (§4.10): yuwu yes · kari no · ba come on · ma go ahead · kaku wait · ngay I see · yalada that's settled · yala OK let's · juyuy nonsense · wumba never mind · yah hey.

16. Sources & provenance

• Patz reference grammar: dictionaries/kuku_yalanji/grammar.md (§ citations throughout).
• Community dictionary: dictionaries/kuku_yalanji/dictionary.yaml (spelling authority).
• Interlinear examples: experiments/pdftomd/extract/output/examples.xigt.json.
• Elder gold pairs: sources/elder-shared-sentence-pairs-2026-07-02/ (style authority).
• DB usage examples: datasets/kuku_yalanji_mobtranslate_usage_examples_v0.1.0/.
• Bible corpus: reference only (attestation lookups), per project direction 2026-07-02.
• Chapter extractions from this session's four-agent deep study (phonology; nominal morphology; pronouns/verbs; syntax) + clitics/discourse/appendix study.

21e — Reflexive/middle NONPAST surface = -ji (y-deleted), not -jiy

The reflexive/middle suffix -ji- (Patz §3.8.5.4) intransitivises a transitive verb and yields a y-conjugation stem. Its NONPAST is therefore underlyingly -ji-y, but the elder-spelling word-final y-deletion after i (E-017 / §2.5.2) drops that y, so the surface NONPAST = -ji:

• julurri-ji 'washes/bathes oneself' (NOT julurri-jiy) · kakawarri-ji 'heals oneself' · nanda-ji 'covers oneself' · ngaki-ji 'hides oneself'.
• Keep the morphemic -ji-y in the analysis field; write -ji on the surface.
• IMP of a derived -ji- stem takes -ka: mara julurri-ji-ka! 'wash your hands!' (Patz ex. 154).
• Other -ji forms are unaffected: SUB julurri-ji-nya, PURP julurri-ji-nka, LOC-nominal julurri-ji-nga. Also: yilay-yilay 'afternoon' is y-final — if inflected for LOC it takes -mba, but as a bare temporal adverb ('in the afternoon') it stands uninflected. (batch-032 lint fixes)

22 — Comparative, degree & number (Patz §3.2.3.8, §3.9.2)

The comparative has NO dedicated 'than' verb; it is built from case + degree morphology:

• Comparative = standard in ablative -muny + adjective with DEG2 suffix -baja: ngaya-muny yalbay-baja 'bigger than me', yilayku-muny dingkar yalbay-baja 'a bigger man than yesterday', jana wubul-muny kalbay-baja 'taller than all of them'. DEG2 -baja ≈ 'more/-er/to a greater degree': ngulkurr-baja 'better', wubul-baja 'more', buban-baja 'less/smaller', mukul-baja 'older', dandi-baja 'harder/heavier'.
• Superlative = adjective + bajaku 'most' (often + wubulmuny 'of all'): yalbay bajaku 'biggest', buban bajaku 'smallest', mukul bajaku 'oldest', ngulkurr bajaku 'best'.
• DEG1 prefix jarra- = 'rather, somewhat' (jarra-kaykay 'rather small').
• Comparison particle yala = 'like, as' (equality): yala kulji 'like a stone'.
• Numbers: nyubun 1 · jambul 2 · kulur 3 · wubul 'many' (no higher cardinals; count by hand or say 'many'). -bulal = 'two who belong together' (dual derivation) vs plain jambul 'two'.
• ⚠ TWO bajas (do not confuse): the DEG2 degree suffix -baja ATTACHES (hyphenated, ngulkurr-baja); the emphatic/coordinating clitic baja 'again/too/back' is a SEPARATE word (kadan baja 'came back'). The lint enforces this: hyphenated -baja legal, unhyphenated fused ...baja flagged. (batch-034)

24 — Precautionary -nyji & TEMP3 'first of all' -(ng)Vrr (Patz §3.8.4.5, §3.10.1)

• PRECAUTIONARY -nyji = an undesirable event that should be avoided/prevented. The -nyji clause is subordinate to a main clause that states the precaution taken. English "lest / in case / or [it will]". Jujubala waju, jarramali kada-nyji! 'Burn ironwood lest the storm come!' · bayka-nyji 'lest it bite'. Stack freely: baya dunga-nyji, jikan-ba wanda-nyji 'lest the fire spread, lest it rise in the grass'. ⚠ Distinct from SUCCessive -nyjiku ('after/then') — same-looking, opposite job.
• TEMP3 first-of-all -(ng)Vrr = the first in a sequence / the first to do or be affected. Clitic on verb, noun, or pronoun. kuyu-ngurr mani-ny 'caught a fish first, then...' · nuka-ngarr! 'eat first (before anything else)!' · duda-ny-arr 'pounded [it] first'.
  • Vowel harmony: -ngarr after a/i-final · -ngurr after u-final · -arr after past -ny.
  • ⚠ Attach ONLY to vowel-final stems. For a consonant-final stem, use the free adverb ngadiku 'first' instead (binal ngadiku 'know first', NOT *binal-ngarr).
  • Derived nyaji-ngarr = 'precaution / foresight' (look-ahead) — a transparent productive coinage.

25 — Kinship terms & their morphology (Patz §3.2.4, §3.2.3.5)

Core vocabulary: ngamu 'mother' · nganjan 'father' · yaba 'ELDER brother' (NOT a generic sibling) · yabaju 'younger brother' · babarr 'elder sister' · jinkurr 'younger sister' · kami 'grandfather (FF/MM)' · ngaji 'mother's father' · babi 'grandmother' · jija/kaminjarr 'grandchild' · kangkal 'own child' · kalnga 'uncle (MB)' · bimay/bimakay 'aunt (FZ)' · bangunji 'cousin' · jawun 'relative, friend' · kuban/manyarr/biwar 'wife' · dunyu 'husband' · warru 'young man' · juway 'great-grandfather' · mula 'blood' · biwul 'mother-in-law' · ngalayan 'father-in-law/son-in-law' · kujiway 'daughter-in-law'.

• Kin PLURAL = derivational -karra (NOT reduplication): yaba-karra 'brothers', babarr-karra 'sisters', jawun-karra 'relatives, family'. Excludes kangkal 'own child'.
• Kin DYAD -manda = 'X and their paired relative': ngamu-manda 'mother & child', nganjan-manda 'father & son'. ⚠ Homophonous on the surface with INCHO -ma-n-da 'became…then' — context decides.
• The SEVEN neutral-inflecting kin terms — kangkal, manyarr, babarr, jinkurr, biwul, ngalayan, kujiway — take case/COMIT from the neutral set (like inanimates) though they are human (kangkal-da ERG, not *kangkal-angka; jinkurr-bul-undu LOC). kangkal is always neutral; the other six prefer neutral but allow potent. All OTHER kin take POTENT only: yaba-nda LOC (elder brother), NOT *yaba-nga; dunyu-ngku ERG, not *dunyu-bu.
• POSS of these kin terms in the Yalanji dialect is often identical to the LOC form.

26 — RECIPROCAL -wa- & REFLEXIVE -ji- (Patz §3.8.5.4)

Both are intransitivising derivations: they take a transitive (l-conjugation) verb and turn it into an intransitive (y-conjugation) stem. The single most important consequence:

• ⭐ The RECIPROCAL/REFLEXIVE SUBJECT IS ABSOLUTIVE, NOT ERGATIVE. Because the verb is now intransitive, its subject takes the absolutive (zero) case — dingkar jambul nyaji-way 'the two men see each other' (NOT *dingkar-bu jambul-bu). Getting this wrong is the classic error.

RECIPROCAL -wa- ('… each other', mutual action):

• Surface: -wa-y → -way (NONPAST), -wa-ny → -wan (surface PAST -n, E-013). Attach to the transitive root: nyaji-l 'see' → nyaji-way 'see/meet each other'; kunja-l 'call' → kunja-way 'call to each other'; balka-l 'talk' → balka-way 'talk together'; kuni-l 'hit' → kuni-way 'fight each other'; daji-l 'give' → daji-way 'give to each other / share / trade'; milbi-l 'show' → milbi-way 'teach each other'; mara-daji-l 'help' → mara-daji-way 'help each other'; karrba-l 'hold' → karrba-way 'embrace'.
• Co-participant ('do it WITH X') = COMITATIVE -nji/-ji on the other party: balka-n-balka-way warru-warru-nji 'talking with the young men' (grammar.md:2169). nyubun-nyubun-ji 'with/toward each other' is the reflexive-pronoun-in-COMIT that pairs with the reciprocal.
• Reduplicate the root for 'keep V-ing each other / all V each other': balka-n-balka-way.

REFLEXIVE / general-intransitive -ji- ('… oneself'; also middle/spontaneous):

• Makes a y-conjugation stem. Surface NONPAST -ji-y → -ji (E-017 y-deletion after i): wumbul-ma-ji 'warm oneself', julurri-ji 'wash oneself'. PAST -ji-ny → -jin. Also does general-intransitive duty (detransitivised 'V happens') and pairs naturally with the reciprocal as its self-directed twin.

⚠ Three -nga-final VERB ROOTS are NOT locatives (they surface identically to a LOC allomorph but are lexemes; verified this batch): jurrnga-l 'push' (gram ex.41), yunga-l 'send' (ex.273–274), murrnga-l 'break off' (dict). A word ending -nga is a locative ONLY if it parses as stem+LOC under the 21d allomorphy — otherwise check the lexicon. (The lint now flags LOC-allomorphy errors — consonant+nga should be -ba/-a, u+nga should be -ngu — with these three verbs whitelisted.)

27 — Movement & the directional system (Patz §3.3, dict)

⭐ The LOCATIVE doubles as the ALLATIVE (goal of motion) — there is no separate 'to' case. wawubaja-nga dunga-y 'go to the river' [A37–38], bubu-ngu kada-ny 'came to the country', bayan-ba dunga-y 'go to the house'. Same suffix marks 'from' via ABL -muny: bayan-muny dunga-ny 'went from the camp', kuwa-muny kada-ny 'came from the west', ngubar-muny 'from the other side'. ABESSIVE -mundu = a locational source 'from (a fixed vantage), acting from a place the actor does NOT leave' (grammar l.1550) — bayan-mundu 'shouting from the camp (while staying in it)', wangkar-mundu 'from up high', kungkarr-mundu 'from the north (as a vantage)'. ⚠️ NOT 'toward' (toward = DAT -ka / particle maku) and NOT 'without' (that is PRIVATIVE -kari). Corrected batch-104 — see Rule 62.

Motion verbs (conjugation): dunga-l go (NONPAST dunga-y, PAST dunga-ny, IMP dunga) · kada-y come (PAST kada-ny, IMP kada; kada-ny-baja 'came back') · jilba-y walk · daka-l climb · warri run (REDUP wanarri-y) · wandi-l / warndi-y rise/get up · wuna-y lie down · wala-l enter · wukurri-l follow · mariji-y swim · nyunba-y return · jurrnga-l push · jajirri-l stand (sth) up.

Cardinals (geographic, Bloomfield coast): kungkarr 'north/NW' · kuwa 'west/NW' · naka 'seaward / east / south-coast'. Directional INCHOATIVE -ma-l 'move in X direction': kuwa-ma-l 'move westward', kungkarr-ma-l, naka-ma-l. (LOC of a cardinal follows 21d: kungkarr-ba, since kungkarr is trill /rr/.)

Travel compounds (dict): juru-warri 'go after/pursue' · juru-manil 'catch up with' · maku-warri 'go to meet' · maku-wukurril 'follow to meet' · kurrka-nyaji-ji / kurrka-wabaji 'look back' (REFL) · muku-muku 'go backwards' · kurrkal-warri 'go by a shortcut' · juru-kulbaway 'walk single file' · jilba-dunga-y 'go for a walk' · jilba-burra 'a slow walk' · yimba-l 'come too close'. Direction/place: baral road · bubu country/ground · ngubar other side of river · naka-naka / ngubar-ngubar 'across' · wurril 'crossways' · kala-kalbay 'far away' · wanjabu 'where (to)'. Corrected lexemes: jiri 'sky', dawar 'star', wabarr 'shade', jukar 'sand' (⚠ CORRECTED 2026-07-06 batch-062: the earlier janyul 'sand' is UNATTESTED — absent from dict + grammar; sand = jukar, dict 10254), jina 'foot/track'.

28 — Conditional & irrealis (Patz §3.8.4.1, particle table)

Real conditional = particle kaki 'when/if' + NONPAST in the condition clause: kaki yundu nyaji …, yundu binal … 'if you see …, you know …'. Chain freely (2–3 kaki clauses). Negative conditional = kaki … kari … 'if [you] don't …'. (Distinct from precautionary -nyji 'lest', rule 24, and from SUB -nyV used for 'when'-backgrounding.)

Irrealis -nyaku (§3.8.4.1(iv)) = an action that should have / could have / would have happened but did NOT. It attaches to the verb stem (drop the -l/-y conjugation marker): dunga-nyaku 'should have gone' [A158], bawa-nyaku 'should have left' [A2750], wukurri-nyaku 'should have followed', milbi-nyaku 'should have taught/shown', kada-nyaku 'would have come', bina-nyaku 'should have known'. It carries no tense of its own — time is inferred. It stands in an independent clause, most naturally coordinated with a clause giving the reason it was prevented: Ngayu nganjan wukurri-nyaku …, yambada ngayu warru … 'I should have followed my father …, but I was young …'. This is the canonical regret/counterfactual frame. ⚠ CORRECTED 2026-07-06 (batch-062): the earlier example ngara-nyaku 'should have listened' was WRONG — ngara-l = 'build / set up (camp) / spread' (grammar 234/416/449), NOT 'listen'. There is no simple 'hear/listen' verb; use milka-bu nyaji-l or milka-janay.

29 — Fire, hearth, cooking & food (dict, batch-041)

Fire: baya fire · jimal fire-stick · dama-murni-l twirl the fire-drill · jakalamba-l start a fire · wula flames · kubu smoke · ngunjil charcoal/coals · wumbul hot · ngalku bush-fire · jirra burnt. Cooking verbs: waju-l cook/burn (PAST wajun) · dinda-l roast · balamu / nyama-l boil (incl. stone-boiling: hot stones dropped in a bark trough) · baka-l / munja-l / bangka-l dig/gather · nyurrba-l grind. Earth oven kurrma: pit → dry wood + stones → burn down → rake coals → wet-leaf bed → food → wet leaves → earth seal → cook slow. Food: balja / mayi / minya / kuyu food/veg/meat/fish · damba damper · kawar honey-bread · wunba honey · wandul fat · wuynkurr broth · kulbul ripe · jani well-cooked · nganja taste/smell · dakwuy hungry · yajin full. Watch the lexemes (rule 21d + errata 2026-07-03): 'wet' = duna/yaru (not bibi 'breast'); 'evening' = kunarangkal (kambar = white clay); 'red' = mula-mula / ngala-ngala (dalku = archer fish, kubarr = eel); jinbal = 'fast' (not 'green'); 'rainforest' = majaji (never the loan 'scrub'). The hearth is the domain's moral center: the guest fed first, the catch divided before eating, no one eats while another watches hungry, nothing wasted, the fire never refused to a traveller.

30 — Successive / sequential narrative (Patz 3.8.4.1(vii), 4.4.3; batch-042)

The native way to tell a connected multi-event story is a chain of plain PAST verbs where the FINAL verb carries the TEMP1 clitic -da 'and then': Jana kadan, kuyu manin, wajun, nuka-ny-da — 'they came, caught a fish, cooked it, and then ate it' (ex.209). Nyulu dingkar bundan, minya-nga nuka-ji-ny, wunana-ny-da — 'the man sat down, had a good feed, and then rested' (ex.385). Surface: V-ny-da → V-n-da (jarrakulba-ny-da → jarrakulbanda, wuna-ny-da → wunanda, daya-ny-da → dayanda).

• SUCC -nyjiku — the latter of two successive events with no causal link, in a subordinate clause (main clause holds the earlier event): …dunga-nyjiku 'and then went'.
• TEMP3 -ngurr/-ngarr 'first' marks the first of a sequence (ex.210 kuyu-ngurr mani-ny 'caught a fish first'). See rule 24. This construction is the 2–4-clause micro-narrative the corpus needs; use it for concrete event-chains (a hunt, a fishing trip, building, cooking) to balance the gnomic elder-quote register.

31 — Comitative -ji/-iji (with/having) vs Privative -kari (without/lacking) (Patz 3.2.3.3-4)

COMITATIVE 'with, having, characterised by': -ji after a vowel (juku-ji 'with a stick', kaka-ji 'painful', maja-ji 'with rainforest' → majaji), after l (milbal-ji 'tearful', ngalkal-ji 'with woodland'), after n (jalun-ji 'with sea'); -iji after a rhotic (bulbur-iji 'dusty', jukar-iji 'sandy', walarr-iji 'bearded'). (An alternant -nji also occurs on some vowel stems: yala-nji 'this-COMIT'.) PRIVATIVE 'without, lacking, -less': -kari, uniform on any stem: bayan-kari 'homeless', binal-kari 'unaware/careless', kaya-kari 'dog-less', daga-kari 'toothless', baya-kari 'fireless', bana-kari 'waterless', ngamu-kari 'motherless'. Use for contrastive pairs — put both in one sentence: bama binal-ji vs bama binal-kari 'a person with knowledge vs without'; bubu bana-ji vs bubu bana-kari 'a country with water vs without'. Tag COMIT/PRIV in the analysis so the exporter's grammar-probe counts them.

Rule 32 — Interrogatives / questions (§3.5) + register note

The interrogative-pronoun paradigm (grep-verified, grammar.md §3.5 + dict). Pronouns head the clause and, in these uses, do not inflect for case: | Q-word | gloss | | Q-word | gloss | |---|---|---|---|---| | wanya (wanju/wanhu) | who | | wanjaku | which one | | wanyu (wanyubaja what-else) | what | | wanjarr | how | | wanja | where | | wanjarrinya | how many | | wanjamuny | where from | | wanja-wanja | when | | wanjabu | where to | | wanyurrinku (wanyurrimun) | why | | wanjaburr | which way | | yala | what about? |

• babaji-l = 'ask'; a question can be direct (ends in ?, EN and KU) or embedded/indirect (rides subordinate machinery: kari X yambada Y 'not X but Y'; ...-nya SUB clause).
• Answer-with-a-question and rhetorical Q-chains are natural elder-teaching frames.
• Register: questions are a distinct SENTENCE-TYPE the corpus was thin on (it leaned gnomic- declarative). Build them as teaching dialogues, riddles, and Q-chains to stay long-form while diversifying type. The export question probe fires on ? / wanya / wanyu / wanja-wanja / wanyurringku / babaji.
• Lexemes confirmed this batch: dukul-wuri 'anger', kadil 'sharp sound', kaki 'if' (COND).

Rule 33 — Kinship + the NEUTRAL vs POTENT case split (§3.2.2 / §3.2.4)

Kin terms & human nouns take POTENT inflection; inanimates/lower animals take NEUTRAL: | case | NEUTRAL (inanimate) | POTENT (human/kin) | |---|---|---| | ERG | -bu/V- · -Vbu/r- · -njV/y- · -dV/else | -ngkV/V- (ngamu-ngku, kami-ngka) · -VngkV/C- (nganjan-angka, mukul-angka) | | DAT | -ngkV/y- · -VkV/r- · -kV/else | -nkV/V- (jija-nka, ngaji-nka, bama-nka) · -VnkV/C- (buban-anka, mukul-unku, karrkay-anka) | | LOC | -ngV/V- · -V/r- · -mbV/y- · -bV/else | -ndV/V- (dunyu-ndu) · -VndV/C- (nganjan-anda, mukay-anda) | | ABL | -muny (all) | potent-LOC + muny (ngamu-ndumuny, maral-andamuny) |

• POSSESSIVE (alienable, ABS): -mu/V- ~ -Vmu/C- — ngamu-mu mother's, nganjan-amu father's, kaya-mu dog's, dingkar-amu man's. (+non-zero infl: -ndVmun- / -VndVmun-, e.g. kami-ndamun-bu.)
• DYADIC -manda = a related pair: ngamu-manda mother-and-child, nganjan-manda father-and-son.
• Catalytic -mun- before a non-zero inflection on trisyllabic/loan stems: bimakay-mun-ungku.
• Kin lexicon: ngamu/mama mother · nganjan father · yaba/yabaju elder/younger.brother · babarr/jinkurr elder/younger.sister · kami grandfather(FF) · babi grandmother · ngaji MF · juway great-grandfather · jija/kaminjarr grandchild · kalnga MB/uncle · mukul/bimay FZ/aunt · mukay MZ-elder · dunyu husband · biwar/kuban wife · ngaybirr spouse · biwul MIL · ngalayin FIL · banji BIL · warrin SIL · bangunji cousin · kambanmu cross-cousin (joking-kin) · karrkay/bayin child · kukujida (just-learned- to-talk) · yuyku bereaved father.
• No native 'moiety' → circumlocute bama-jambul 'the two-fold people'. Culture facts: right marriage = opposite moiety, children = father's moiety; deceased's name tabooed → substitute ngalba, refer by kin term; mother-in-law avoidance vs cross-cousin joking are the two poles of kin conduct.

Rule 34 — CAUSATIVE vs INCHOATIVE and their TENSES (§3.8.5; batch-048)

KY has only ~170 verb roots — change-of-state predication leans on the two verbalisers. Both attach to NOMINALS (adjectives/nouns), never to inflected verbs.

• INCHOATIVE -ma-l (intr, 'become X'): NONPAST -mal ([A 516] binal-ma-l 'is learning'), PAST -many (elder surface -man: binalman; [A] bambay-ma-ny 'fell ill', wumbul-ma-ny 'grew hot'), IMP -maka (binal-ma-ka 'learn!'), SUB 'while becoming' -manya, 'after becoming' -ma-ny-muny. Directional INCHO on cardinals: kuwa-ma-l 'move westward' (rule §cardinals).
• ⚠ -ma-nda = -ma-n(PAST) + TEMP1 -da 'became X, then…' — legal ONLY in narrative past chains (elder nukanda 'then ate' pattern). It is NOT a present tense: a gnomic 'becomes X' MUST be -mal. TEMP1 -da never stacks with ABL (-ma-nda-muny is ill-formed → -ma-ny-muny). Homophony warning (rule 33): kin DYAD ngamu-manda — context + analysis segmentation decide.
• CAUSATIVE -bunga-l (tr, 'make X'; agent in potent ERG): NONPAST -bungal, PAST -bungany (elder -bungan), IMP zero -bunga; reduced -bal (kima-bal 'soften'); also -mani-l 'render X' (yindu-mani-l 'change (tr)', junkurr-mani 'overpower'). Attested pairs: wumbul-ma-ny 'the water grew hot' / wumbul-bunga-ny 'she heated it'; binal-ma-l learn / binal-bunga-l teach; dandi-mal harden / dandi-bunga harden!; kakawarri-ma-l get well / kakawarri-bunga-l heal. ⚠ CORRECTED 2026-07-06 (batch-064): the earlier examples kija-ma-ny 'water grew cold' / kija-bunga-ny 'cooled it' were WRONG — kija = 'moon, month' ONLY (grammar 2509/719; see rule 38 line, already correct), never 'cold'. Cold = kiway (dict noun); kiway-ma-l 'become cold', kiway-bunga-l 'cool (tr)'. The lint's kija-guard caught this at authoring. (yukil = 'swear' per dict, not 'heal'; use kakawarri 'well' for heal; warmba is not a dict headword.)
• 'Become a NOUN' takes the noun/compound as base: daya-l-bama-ma-l 'become a giver', jawun-karra-ma-l 'become kin', ngurrban-ma-l 'become cloud', dubar-ma-ny 'became a plain'; COMIT+INCHO is legal: nganka-ji-ma-l 'become flower-having', jikan-ji-ma-ny 'became grassed'.

Rule 35 — ROLE→CASE map (the -mundu ban) + no verb-INST nominalizations (batch-048)

⚠️ CORRECTED by Rule 62 (batch-104): -mundu is the ABESSIVE 'from a fixed vantage' (grammar l.1550), NOT 'without'. 'Without' = PRIVATIVE -kari. The "ban" still holds in spirit — don't use -mundu as a catch-all for toward/into/through (those are DAT/PERL) — but the 'without' row below is corrected.

• NO verb+INST nominalizations (balka-l-bu 'by telling' ✗). Use a SUB clause (-nya, [A 462] baka-l-baka-nya), a noun-INST (kuku-bu 'by words', jina-bu 'on foot'), or a finite clause.
• Surface /y/-deletion check applies to fixes too: warri-y → surface warri; nanda-ji-y → nandaji.
• Phantom-lexeme discipline: every content word must be grepped in dictionary.yaml AND grammar.md at AUTHORING time — phonotactically-legal coinages are invisible to the lint. The lint now carries DENY_ALWAYS / DENY_NEW(≥049) phantom lists; the errata carries the reconciliation watchlist.

Rule 36 — The BODY lexicon + the attribute-compound system (batch-049)

Attested body terms (all dictionary headwords): dukul head · miyil eye · milka ear · ngandal mouth · dirra tooth · nyabil tongue · yimbi lips · bari chin · kangkul/nyumbul cheek · munju forehead · walu face · jakay neck · manu throat · binda shoulder · wakuy arm · jinbar wrist · mara hand · birri fingernail · damu chest · bibi breast · mirrimar rib · jibar stomach (single-r: LOC jibar-a, ERG jibar-abu, DAT jibar-aka) · julbi guts · jiba liver · ngungumurr kidneys · kiru brains · muku back · waba thigh · jandal leg · ngarri lower legs · bibar shin · wulu ankle · jina foot/track · bajibay bone · bangkarr body/flesh · mula blood · mungka hair · kabari armpit · wurra navel · nyumba saliva.

• Part-whole = double-ABS apposition: whole and part share the same case, no possessive (warru-ngku jina nyungu-nyungu baka-ny 'the young man pierced his own foot').
• The attribute-compound system (Patz §2.4.2, ATTESTED and productive — the model class for legal transparent compounds): miyil-burra blind (eye-stale) · miyil-dudu illiterate · miyil-kaban-ji literate (eye-paper-COMIT) · miyil-wujurr-wujurr dusk · milka-dudu deaf · milka-bujar homesick (ear-raw) · milka-marri contented · milka-dandi good memory · milka-kari deaf/heedless · walu-dandi stubborn (face-hard) · mara-jalajala generous OR clumsy (hand-loose — polysemous, context decides) · manu-buray squeamish (throat-spring.water) · jakay-dandi stingy (neck-hard) · jina-baji sore-foot (nickname pattern).
• Cognition/perception verbs are ear-built: milkabu nyajil hear · milka-janay listen · milkabu baykal think about · milka-binalku remember · milka-bakal remind.
• Body verbs: jila-warri-y sweat · ngirray-warri-y burst into tears · muru-kada-y be ashamed · maraji swim · julurri-l wash (IMP julurri-ka) · kunja-l call/name · yulmbarri-l welcome/praise. Pronoun cells verified: yubal 2du, yurra 2pl, ngayku 1sg POSS.
• ⚠ Homophone trap: wubul 'heart' (organ) collides with wubul 'many' — use wawu for heart/breath/life; avoid wubul-as-organ entirely.

Rule 37 — The MODAL system: IRR / PRECAUT / SUCC / PURP / prohibitive (§3.8.4.1; batch-050)

Three unrealized-event inflections + purposive + prohibition. All replace the conjugation -l (daya-nyji, kuni-nyji, mani-nyjiku — never *daya-l-nyji) and attach cleanly to derived stems: INCHO (binal-ma-nyji), CAUS (daray-mani-nyji), ITR (nanda-ji-nyjiku).

• IRR -nyaku — 'would/should/could have V-ed but does/did not'; independent clauses; NO tense of its own (context supplies it). [A 158] dunga-nyaku 'would go fishing [but can't]'; [A 159] Ngayu nuka-nyaku minya, kari yinya minya kabu 'I'd have eaten it, but it was rotten'; [A 2750] ngalkal-ba bawa-nyaku 'you should have left it outside'.
• PRECAUT -nyji — 'lest X happen'; subordinated to a main clause that states the PRECAUTION taken. [A 163] milkabujar-ma-nyji 'lest I get lonely'; [A 164] Jujubala waju jarramali kada-nyji! 'Burn ironwood lest the storm come!'.
• SUCC -nyjiku — the LATER of two successive events, no causal link ('before X'). [A 165] mayi kunba-y-mani-ny nganjan wandi-nyjiku 'finished the food before father woke'; [A 166] yirrka-ny wula-nyjiku 'cried out before he died'.
• PURP -nkV (harmony -nka/a,i · -nku/u) — 'want/intend to V'; also 'know how to': [A 160] waju-nku 'wants to cook'; [A 161] binal dama-nka 'knows how to spear'; [A 162] makarr wundi-ny ... bangka-nka 'took the net to catch a lot'.
• Prohibitive = kari + IMPERATIVE with the full IMP allomorphy: [A 149] kari kanga! 'don't chase!'; [A 152] kari yirrka-y!; [A 157] kari daray-mana! 'don't drop it!' (CAUS stems take ZERO IMP + mani→mana suppletion; -ka only counts the syllables of the SECOND compound element).
• Teaching mnemonic (batch-050.49): -nyaku looks back at a ghost; -nyji looks ahead at a snake.

Rule 38 — WEATHER, SEASONS & SKY lexicon (batch-051; post-kija-sweep truth table)

Seasons (name them by what the country does; all temporals usually BARE): wangariji hot season · jarramali-wungar storm time (transparent) · bana-wungar wet season · bulur-iji cold season (dew-COMIT, [A 540]) · bulur early-morning chill/dew. The two-count (wet/dry) is the waybala frame; the corpus teaches the five-room year (051.43). Sky & weather: kaba rain · jiri sky · ngurrban cloud · ngurrbal fog · muyar wind · jarramali thunderstorm/thunder · jabulbina thunder · balbay lightning · wadjal cyclone · jalungkarr flood · yiril rainbow · kubu smoke · wabarr shade/shadow · bulur dew · kiway cold (n; [A 443] kiway kada-nyji 'lest the cold come') · kiway-kiway cold (adj) · wumbul hot · marral dry · yaru wet · duna wet (n). ⚠ kija = MOON, MONTH ONLY (grammar 2509; creation being 719). Never 'cold'. The lint carries a sense-guard: any kija must have moon/month in the row gloss. Moon idiom: kija-bu yira kulba-l 'the moon pulls the tide' (batch-30 heritage row). Sun & stars: wungar sun/day/time · wungar daka-l sunrise ('sun climbs') · wungar daray sunset ('sun falls') · dawar / mulawajarr star · kurrubijal morning star · muduwaju(ny) dawn(-at) · miyil-wujurr-wujurr dusk · kunarangkal middle of the night · wujurr darkness/night. Sea & coast: yira tide · balar high tide · ngajal low tide · mulngku wave · yalmba seashore · kajul mangrove · walngka/daburri swamp · jalkar high bank · wuyar top.

• Composition checklist (the ONLY recurring slip class): scan drafts for -rba (single-retroflex-r stems take LOC -a: wangkar-a, wungar-a, jukar-a, balar-a, wuyar-a, kulur-a) and -unga (u-final stems take -ngu: bubu-ngu, juku-ngu, damu-ngu, wunbu-ngu, wulngku-ngu) BEFORE banking.

Rule 39 — THE PERSONAL PRONOUN PARADIGM (batch-066; Patz Table 3.6, grammar l.2581)

Pronouns inflect NOM/ACC/DAT/LOC/ABL/COMIT/POSS. Nouns use ERGATIVE–ABSOLUTIVE; pronouns use NOMINATIVE–ACCUSATIVE (so a pronoun subject is the bare NOM whether the verb is transitive or not).

• ⚠ THE #1 PRONOUN ERROR — non-core endings split by NUMBER. SINGULAR pronouns build DAT/LOC/ABL on the POSS stem with -nku / -ndu / -ndumuny (ngayku→ngaykunku, ngaykundu, ngaykundumuny). DUAL & PLURAL build them on the NOM base with -nka / -nda / -ndamuny (bula→bulanka, bulanda, bulandamuny; jana→jananka, jananda). Never carry the singular -nku/-ndu onto a non-singular — *bulanku, *jananku, *yubalandu, *nganjinandu, *ngananku are all wrong (they cost 9 rows in batch-066). Mnemonic: singular = -ndu/-nku (built on POSS); non-singular = -nda/-nka (built on NOM).
• Clusivity: ngali = 1du EXCLUSIVE (not you), ngaliny = 1du INCLUSIVE (you+me); nganjin = 1pl EXC, ngana = 1pl INC. (dict's 'inclusive' gloss on ngali is an error — batch-002 ruling.)
• 1sg ACC nganya is suppletive (not built on any other stem).
• POSS normally agrees in case with its head noun (ngayku kaya-ngka … karrba-l 'my dog bit…', ex.120) — but the bare uninflected POSS stem is legal when the head noun is ABSOLUTIVE (ngayu nyungu yaba nyaji-ny 'I saw his elder brother', ex.119).
• Non-singular pronouns are the NOM base in every core position (S/A/O alike take bula, jana, ngana …; only the non-core cases add the -nka/-nda/… endings).

Rule 40 — INTERROGATIVE PRONOUNS (batch-068; Patz §3.6, Table 3.10/3.11)

Three roots: who = wanya, what = wanyu, where = wanja/wanjabu. 'Who' and 'what' inflect on the NOMINAL case system (not the pronoun NOM/ACC system): 'who' takes the POTENT set, 'what' the NEUTRAL set.

• 'what' stem before any non-ABS case = wanyurri(y)- + neutral suffix. Vowel harmony matches the ROOT-final vowel, not the suffix (wanyurri-nju, not *-njV).
• 'why' = wanyurringku (the DAT of 'what', lit. 'for what'); wanyurrimbu (LOC) asks the reason for a CHOICE OF LOCATION ('why the house and not elsewhere?', Patz 127a).
• 'where' = wanjabu (has replaced bare wanja); ABL wanjamuny 'where from', ABESS wanjamundu. Yundu wanjabu? 'Where are you (going)?' is itself the everyday greeting.
• Built on the 'where' base: wanja-wanja 'when', wanjarrinya 'how many'. Also yala 'what about?' and junjuy 'something' (indefinite, inanimate/non-human — there is no 'someone' word).
• The interrogative fills the slot it asks about and may sit anywhere in the clause; only 'why' is clause-initial (Patz 4571). A polar (yes/no) question is intonation-only, answered yuwu / kari.
• ⚠ A pronoun answer to a 'who' (ERG) question is NOM (ngayu), NEVER ngayangka — pronouns are NOM/ACC (r.39); only the noun-interrogative 'who' takes ERG.
• ⚠ 'whose' = wanyamba (canonical, Table 3.10). The regularized wanya-mu (POSS -mu) appears in the corpus but wanyamba is the attested form.

Rule 41 — COMPARISON & DEGREE (batch-070; grammar §3.2.3.8, l.2109-2154)

Degree markers attach ONLY to adjectives/quantifiers (grammar l.1522).

• jarra-ADJ = 'rather / fairly ADJ' (DEG1, hyphenated prefix): jarra-yalbay 'rather big', jarra-ngiki 'rather cold', jarra-kulbul 'rather ripe', jarra-bambay 'rather sick'.
• COMPARATIVE: jarra-ADJ + the STANDARD in DATIVE = 'more ADJ than X' (grammar ex.81: Minya ngawuya jarra-kima minya-ka bulki-ka 'sea-turtle meat is softer than beef'). The DAT allomorph follows the neutral/potent split (Rule 33): things & lower animals → -ka (kuyu-ka 'than fish', waja-ka 'than the crow'); people → -nka; pronouns → the -nku cell (ngaykunku 'than me', yununku 'than you'). "Much more" = add -baja (jarra-jinbal-baja 'much faster').
• INTENSIFIER: ADJ-baja-ku = 'very ADJ' — DEG2 -baja MUST carry the emphatic clitic -ku (grammar ex.82 dakwuy-baja-ku 'very hungry'). Any case suffix slots BETWEEN baja and ku: yalbay-baja-mu-ku 'very big-POSS' (ex.94), mukul-baja-ji-ku 'very old-COMIT' (ex.95), bambay-baja-nka-ku 'very sick-DAT' (ex.85). (With verbs bare -baja = 'again'; only with an adjective is it the 'very' degree suffix.)
• SUPERLATIVE is periphrastic — comparative against the whole set: jarra-ADJ + wubul-ku 'more ADJ than all' (= the -est), or the fixed jarra-jarra(-baja) 'highest'. There is no dedicated superlative affix.
• EQUALITY = yala 'like, as' / nyubun yala 'like one (= the same)': kulbal kurrbal nyubun yala nyajil 'the brolga and native companion look alike'.
• ⚠ Lexical gaps this domain: NO 'bad'/'dangerous' (use yinil 'feared' or yarkin-bunga-l 'kill'), NO 'life' (wungar-kadal 'years'), NO 'axe' (kalka = spear/tool); 'break' = dumbarri-l (dict) / kadaba-l (grammar ex.94), NOT the 'finish' root kunba-/kunbayn.

Rule 42 — THE VERBAL INFLECTION PARADIGM: purposive, precautionary, irrealis, successive, conditional (batch-072; grammar §3.8.4, Table 3.16/3.17)

The eight verbal inflections (Table 3.16). Except NONPAST & IMP-on-disyllables, suffixes are IDENTICAL for both conjugations. Root = citation minus the -l/-y conjugation marker. ⭐ The mood suffixes (PURP/PRECAUT/SUCC/SUB) attach to the ROOT, replacing the conjugation marker — NOT stacking on -l.

• ⚠ PURPOSIVE = -nkV, NEVER -l-ka. The purposive is waju-nku (cook), dama-nka (spear), bangka-nka (catch) — grammar ex.160-162. The corpus-wide -l-ka → -nkV sweep (batch-072, 305 rows) corrected this systematic error (it had been stacking the noun-DAT -ka on the conjugation -l). Do NOT confuse with: noun DATIVE -ka/-nka/-nku (Rule 33, marks a noun complement — binal-ka 'to knowledge', jawun-ka 'to kin'); verb+-l-kari privative 'without Ving' (a distinct, legitimate form, NOT a purposive — left untouched by the sweep).
  • Purposive ex.: Ngayu mayi waju-nku 'I want to cook food'; Nyulu binal dama-nka 'He knows how to spear'; Jana makarr wundi-ny kuyu wubul bangka-nka 'They took a net to catch lots of fish.'
• CONDITIONAL kaki 'if/when' (particle; §4.3.2, l.5091): co-ordination particle introducing a conditional clause; the kaki-clause is usually FIRST. ⚠ Conditional structures cannot occur in the PAST tense (non-past only). Ex.: Kaki yundu yinya kaya juku-bu kuni-l, … 'If you hit that dog with a stick, …'; Kaki ngayu ngiki-ji, ngayu yangka 'If I am cold, I …'.
• PRECAUTIONARY vs SUCCESSIVE (near-homophones -nyji / -nyjiku): both share 'following event'. PRECAUT = an expected undesirable event to avert (jujubala waju jarramali kada-nyji! 'burn ironwood lest the thunderstorm come'); SUCC = an actual later event (nyulu yirrka-ny wula-nyjiku 'he cried out before he died').
• IRREALIS -nyaku = 'would/should/could have Ved but didn't': Ngayu badur-iji dunga-nyaku 'I would go fishing [but can't]'; Ngayu nuka-nyaku minya, kari yinya minya kabu 'I would have eaten that meat, but it was rotten.'

Rule 43 — REFLEXIVE -ji- & RECIPROCAL -wa- (batch-074; grammar §3.8.5.4, ex.181-187)

Two syntactic detransitivising derivations. BOTH turn a transitive l-conjugation verb into an intransitive y-conjugation stem, and the participant(s) appear in intransitive SUBJECT function — NOM/ABS, NO ERG. (This is the load-bearing point: dingkar julngka-ji 'the man paints himself', NOT dingkar-angka.)

• REFLEXIVE / general-intransitive -ji- — agent acts on itself; the coreferential object is OMITTED. Root(−conj marker) + -ji-y (NONPAST) / -ji-ny (PAST). ⚠ Elder surface drops the final -y after i: -ji-y → surface -ji (analysis keeps Patz -ji-y); e.g. yaka-l 'cut' → surface yaka-ji / analysis yaka-ji-y 'cut oneself'. Productive: julngka-ji 'paint oneself' (ex.185), julurri-ji 'wash oneself' (ex.154), wumbul-bunga-ji 'warm oneself', bambay-bunga-ji 'hurt oneself', nyaji-ji 'look at oneself', ngakiji 'hide oneself', jana-y-mani-ji 'make oneself stand' (ex.187). Also intransitivises passive/antipassive (glossed ITR).
  • LEXICALISED reflexives (semantic shift, separate lexemes): balka-ji-y 'get born' (← balka-l 'make'), jika-ji-y 'stretch oneself' (← jika-l 'straighten a spear'; ex.186), jurrki-ji-y 'move camp' (← jurrki-l 'move something'), murni-ji-y 'spin/take a detour' (← murni-l 'stir'), nubi-ji-y 'be lost' (← nubi-l 'search for').
• RECIPROCAL -wa- — two+ participants act on each other; they CONJOIN in one NP in intransitive subject function. Root(−conj marker) + -wa-y (NONPAST) / -wa-ny (PAST). (-wa-y keeps its -y: the y-deletion rule is only after i.) nyaji-l 'see' → nyaji-wa-y 'see each other/meet'; kunja-l 'call' → kunja-wa-y; binal-bunga-l 'teach' → binal-bunga-wa-y; murru-kanga-l 'scold' → murru-kanga-wa-y; kaja-l 'tie' → kaja-wa-y 'wrap around each other (i.e. mate)' (ex.181); mara-daji-l 'help' → mara-daji-wa-y 'help each other'; kuji-l → kuji-wa-y 'look after each other'. Reduplicate for abnormally-long continuity: balka-n-balka-wa-y 'keep chatting' (ex.184).
  • LEXICALISED reciprocals (used outside explicit reciprocity): kuni-wa-y 'fight' (← kuni-l 'hit'; ex.183), balka-wa-y 'chat' (← balka-l 'talk'; ex.184).
• ⚠ These clauses are INTRANSITIVE, so an ERG only appears if a SEPARATE transitive clause is present (e.g. mukul-dingkar-angka balka-ny 'the old man said…' + reciprocal complement in NOM).

Rule 44 — INTERROGATIVES & QUESTIONS (batch-076; grammar §3.6 Tables 3.10/3.11, ex.127-135; §2.6.3/4.8)

Three interrogative roots — wanya 'who' · wanyu 'what' · wanja 'where' — the last also the base for 'when/how/how-many/which'. Crucially the two personal ones inflect on OPPOSITE case patterns (§3.6): 'who' takes the POTENT set (like humans/pronouns), 'what' takes the NEUTRAL set (like inanimate nominals).

• WHO = wanya (Yalanji; Nyungkul wanju). POTENT paradigm (Table 3.10): ABS wanya · ERG wanya-ngka (transitive-A: Wanyangka kuyu nukany? 'Who ate the fish?') · DAT wanya-nka ('to/for whom') · LOC wanya-nda · ABL wanya-nda-muny ('from whom') · COMIT wanya-nji ('with whom') · POSS (zero-inflection) wanya-mba 'whose'.
• WHAT = wanyu (ABS), underlying oblique stem wanyurri(y)- + NEUTRAL inflections. Key derived senses:
  • wanyurri-ngku (DAT) = 'why' (lit. 'for what [purpose]'; ex.127b) — reason that prompted an action.
  • wanyurri-mbu (LOC) = 'why' with a LOCATION focus (ex.127a: 'why the house and not elsewhere?').
  • wanyurri-nji (COMIT) = the fixed way to ask the nature of an illness (ex.128 wanyurrinji bambay? 'ill with what?').
  • wanyu-nguy = 'what kind of' (ex.135); wanyu-baja = 'what else'. wanyu has NO possessive (inanimates can't own — use wanja-muny 'where-from' for 'belongs to what').
• WHERE = wanja → modern wanja-bu (location words, LOCAL cases only; Table 3.11): general LOC/ALL wanja-bu ('where at / where to'; ex.129/130 — Yundu wanjabu dungay? is also the everyday greeting) · ABL wanja-muny 'where from' · ABESSIVE wanja-mundu. wanja(bu) is ALSO indefinite 'somewhere' (ex.131). Derived from wanja: wanja-wanja 'when' · wanjarr(-ku) 'how' (ex.132-133; the -ku ADV is usual but optional with intransitives) · wanjarr-inya 'how many' · wanjinya/wanjaku 'which one' (ex.134, freely interchangeable).
• POLAR (yes/no) questions carry NO interrogative particle — same word order as a statement, marked only by rising/level intonation and a raised pitch (§2.6.3; ex.42 Yundu kaday? 'Are you coming?'). In the corpus they appear as a declarative clause + ?. Alternative ('X, or Y?') just juxtaposes, often with -baja 'instead/else' or clause-final kari 'or not'.
• Indefinites: junjuy = 'something' — but INANIMATE / non-human ONLY (§3.6). There is NO dedicated 'someone' pronoun; the generic bama 'person' fills the indefinite-human slot ('someone took my spear' = bama-ngka … wundiny). 'What kind' stem -nguy attaches to wanyu or wanja.

Rule 45 — NEGATION & CONTRAST/COMPARISON PARTICLES (batch-078; grammar §3.2.3.4, §3.9.2, §4.9.2; ex.24,54-59,86,90,205-208)

Kuku Yalanji negates with particles (not verbal morphology) plus a nominal privative derivation.

• Sentential NEG = kari ('not', glossed NEG) — placed immediately before the predicator and attracts clause stress (§2.6.3; ex.24 Ngayu diburr kari nukany 'I did not eat the X'). Also the interjection 'no' (vs yuwu 'yes'). ⚠ dictionary glosses kari='False' / yuwu='True' (a boolean-import artifact) — the grammar sense is the real one.
• PROHIBITIVE ('don't V!') = kari + verb-IMP (ex.90 Kari dunga-y yinya-nji kamu-baka-nji "Don't go with that drunkard!"). The verb keeps its normal imperative (Rule 42: ∅ / -y / -ka; CAUS-stem ∅ wandi-mani!).
• PRIVATIVE -kari = 'without N / N-less' (§3.2.3.4) — suffixed to a NOMINAL; stress on the first syllable only marks it one word. milka-kari 'deaf' (ex.54), mani-kari 'no money' (ex.55), nganka-kari 'flowerless' (ex.56), bajibay-kari 'boneless' (ex.58), kaya-kari 'dogless' (ex.57), kangkal-kari 'childless' (ex.86), miyil-kari 'blind', ngamu-kari 'orphan', bama-kari 'empty of people', yamba-kari 'nothing'. Non-zero inflections attach AFTER -kari-: ERG -kari-ngka (ex.57), DAT -kari-ka/-nka (ex.58), LOC -kari-nda (ex.59), COMIT -kari-ji (ex.86). (Privative and POSSESSIVE can't co-occur — paraphrase 'without X's Y' as 'not with X's Y': negate + comitative, §4.6.2.) Same -kari also = the everyday state words mayi-kari 'hungry', kulbul-kari 'unripe', junjuy-kari 'empty', yindu-kari 'alike', kada-kari 'not returning'.
• kari + clitics: kariku (kari+ku) = 'not all' / 'not yet' (temporal); karirrku (kari+rrku) = 'not really, not altogether' (ex.208 Ngayu karirrku warngku-wunany 'I didn't really sleep, I just dozed').
• NEG2 = balu 'desist, give up' — tell someone to stop what they're doing; baluda (balu+da) = 'let it be, don't do what you're about to do'. As a discourse particle balu = 'wrong (assumption)'.
• Related discourse/modal particles (clause-initial): yamba/yambada 'but' (contrasting STATE) — cf. kari 'but' (contrasting EVENT); nguba 'maybe, perhaps'; kunka 'in case' (specified hypothetical); nganganjirrka 'just in case' (unspecified); kaki 'when/if' (Rule 42).
• COMPARISON yala '(be) like, (be) the same' (COMP; related to demonstrative yala 'this'). For appearance it co-occurs with walu 'face': ex.205 Nyulu yala walu-walu yala bikibiki 'He looks like a pig'. yala-rrku (yala+rrku) = 'just the same; also' (ex.206-207 …yala-rrku manyarr-anka badi-ny 'also cried for his wife').

Rule 46 — KINSHIP MORPHOLOGY & DERIVATION (batch-079; grammar §3.2.3.5, §3.2.4, §3.2.3.7)

Kin terms are a special noun subclass with their own plural, dyadic, pair, and case behaviour.

• Kin-PLURAL -karra (§3.2.3.5) — kin terms do NOT reduplicate for plural; they take -karra- instead: dunyu-karra 'husbands', yabaju-karra 'younger brothers', ngaji-karra 'maternal grandfathers', manyarr-karra 'wives' (ex.63), ngamu-karra nganjan-karra 'the parents/mothers-and-fathers' (ex.64). In KY -karra = plain plural (unlike Guugu Yimidhirr where it means 'several related to one'). jawun 'relative, friend' takes it; kangkal 'own child' does NOT (the one kin term excluded).
• PAIR -bulal (< bula '3du') — 'the two X who belong together / act together': jalbu-bulal 'the two women (a pair)' (ex.65), dingkar-bulal 'the two men (who always hunt together)', juku-bulal 'a pair of trees'. Contrast plain jambul 'two' which implies NO connection (ex.66-67). Often co-occurs with muru 'together'.
• DYADIC -manda — a kin PAIR named by ONE relationship term: ngamu-manda 'mother and daughter', nganjan-manda 'father and son'. (Distinct from the interrogative/niche manda 'niece' and mandi 'moiety'.)
• -(w)arra 'inhabitants of' (§3.2.3.7) — on a place name or comitative stem, = 'people/native(s) of X' (always plural): jalun-ji-warra 'seaside people' (sea-COMIT-inhab), maja-ji-warra 'scrub people' (ex.70), kubirri-warra 'Mossman people', wujalwujal-arra 'Bloomfield people' (ex.69). Allomorphs -warra/V, -arra/C.
• CASE class (§3.2.4): most kin terms take the POTENT set (ERG dunyu-ngku ex.100, LOC yaba-nda ex.101), but SEVEN take the NEUTRAL set: kangkal (always: ERG kangkal-da ex.96), manyarr (manyarr-dal-angka ex.97), babarr, jinkurr (LOC jinkurr-bul-undu ex.98), biwul (COMIT biwul-jil-unji ex.99), ngalayan, kujiway. Kin POSSESSIVE (Yalanji) = a LOC-form suffix: babarr-bal-amu 'elder sister's', kujiway-mbal-amu 'daughter-in-law's'.
• Number system (§3.2.5): nyubun 1 · jambul 2 (old-fashioned synonym mamarra) · kulur 'a few/three' · kanbal 'some' · wubul 'many' · kankur 'half' · yambayamba 'everything' · yamba-kari 'nothing' · jambul-jambul 'four (two-two)' · mara 'five (=hand)'.
• Culture (for authentic content): correct marriage = OPPOSITE mandi 'moiety'; children inherit the FATHER's moiety (§1.2). Descent groups named by country via -warra; sacred site = yirmbal 'story place'. Deceased-name taboo: the name is replaced (substitute ngalba) and family refer to the deceased only by a KIN term (§1.4).

Rule 47 — DEMONSTRATIVES & SPATIAL DEIXIS (batch-080; grammar §3.7 Tables 3.12-3.14, ex.29,138-143; §3.3)

Two demonstrative PRONOUNS + two demonstrative LOCATION words, all on a two-term this/here ↔︎ that/there axis (Yalanji dialect forms below; Nyungkul differs for 'this'/'here').

• Demonstrative pronouns (case-marked like nominals; imply sg/pl by context; animate or inanimate):
  • 'this/these' = yanyu (ABS). Suppletive base yalu-/yala-: ERG:pt yalu-ngku (INST yalu-bu), DAT yaluy-ngku, LOC yaluy-mbu (often replaced by yaluy), ABL yala-muny, COMIT yala-nji, POSS yalu-mbu. (2nd base vowel is a in ABL/ABESS/COMIT, u elsewhere.)
  • 'that/those' = yinya (ABS). ERG:pt yinya-ngka, DAT:pt yinyay-anka (ex.139), LOC:pt yinyay-anda (ex.140), LOC/POSS yinya-mba, ABL yinya-muny, COMIT yinya-nji.
  • Used attributively beside a noun, in apposition and agreeing in case: yinya jalbu 'that woman' (ex.29), yalu-ngku jalbu-ngku … binal-bunga-ny 'this woman taught…' (ex.138).
• Demonstrative LOCATION words (occur ALONE, local cases only):
  • 'here' = yaluy (LOC/general); ABL yaluy-muny (ex.141), ABESS yaluy-mundu, PERL yala-ngkarr.
  • 'there' = yinyay (LOC); also yinyay-mba (ex.142); ABL yinyay-muny, ABESS yinya-mundu.
  • Bare yaluy/yinyay also serve the ALLATIVE ('to here/there') — they do NOT take DAT -ka.
  • 'sit on that rock' is paraphrased 'sit there, on the rock': yinyay-mba bunda-ny … kulji-nga (ex.143).
• PLURAL demonstratives (HUMAN reference, ABS only): suffix -rriny → yalu-rriny 'these people', yinya-rriny 'those people'. (Legit word-final -ny; lint now allowlists -rriny.)
• -arra 'inhabitants' on the local demonstratives: yaluy-arra 'people of this place', yinyay-arra 'people of that place' (and these inflect: yaluy-arra-ngka ERG, yinyay-arra-nda LOC).
• The language name itself = kuku ya-la-nji 'language-with-"this"' (kuku 'word' + yala 'this' + -nji COMIT).
• Spatial words (relational nouns/adverbs): bada 'down/below', wangkar 'up/above' (LOC wangkar-a, single-r → -a), karangkal 'alongside', kudamundu 'behind/away', ngundu 'this side / near', yarra 'that way'. Coast-relative cardinal terms (naka, kuwa) are imprecise/dialectal — use with care, not codified.

Rule 48 — PERSONAL PRONOUNS & SPLIT-S ERGATIVITY (batch-082; grammar §3.5 Table 3.7, ex.32,50,118-120)

Free pronouns for animate/human reference. Three numbers (SG · DUAL · PLURAL) and, in non-singular 1st person, an INCLUSIVE vs EXCLUSIVE distinction (inc = 'you and I/we'; exc = 'they and I/we, not you'). The inc/exc contrast is weakening — where not made, the exclusive form is used as unmarked (esp. dual).

• ⭐ SPLIT-S (the key typological fact): pronouns follow a NOMINATIVE–ACCUSATIVE pattern — the SAME form (NOM) for intransitive subject S and transitive subject A, a DISTINCT form (ACC) for object O. This is the MIRROR of nominals, which are ergative–absolutive (ERG for A, ABS for S/O; Rule on case). So in one clause you get pronoun-NOM + noun-ERG both marking the agent: ngayku kaya-ngka … bayka-ny '(my) dog-ERG bit', but ngayu … nyunguny nyaji-ny 'I(NOM) saw him(ACC)'. Object pronouns MUST take the ACC form — never NOM.

Paradigm (Yalanji), the load-bearing cells:

• Base-form split (§3.5.1): non-singular pronouns use the NOM form as base for all cases (ngali → ngali-nka, ngali-nda…). Singular pronouns have distinct NOM vs POSS bases, with all other cases built on the POSS base (ngayku- → ngaykunku, ngaykundu…); 1sg ACC nganya is suppletive. ABL = LOC + -muny (ngaykundu-muny).
• POSSESSIVE (§3.5.2): the POSS forms above are used adjectivally, before the possessed noun and agreeing in nothing (ngayku kalka 'my spear', nyungu ngamu 'his mother' ex.119, ngananga bubu 'our country'). The 3sg POSS nyungu also serves the inanimate possessor 'its' (nyungu wawubaja 'its river'). Do NOT add a further -mu — the pronoun POSS is already possessive (write ngananga bubu, never *ngananga-mu bubu).
• Homophone alert: jana = 3pl pronoun 'they' AND is easily confused with jana-y 'stand' (janay) — disambiguate by context/gloss.

Rule 49 — SUBORDINATE CLAUSES: the seven types (batch-084; grammar §4.4, Table 3.16/4.3)

A subordinate clause cannot stand alone; it is adjoined to a main clause. Co-referential S/A and O NPs are obligatorily DELETED in the subordinate clause. Kuku Yalanji has SEVEN subordinate types; types 4–7 are all built on verb + -nyV (-nya after a/i, -nyu after u). Since KY has no present/future tense split, these future-oriented subordinators (purposive/precautionary/successive) do real temporal work.

1. PURPOSIVE -nkV ('(in order) to V'). -nka (a/i), -nku (u). Main clause + purposive clause = 'X does Y in order to do Z': Warru dunga-ny wawubaja-ka, kuyu dama-nka 'The young man went to the river to spear fish' (ex.406). Composes with RECIP/INCHO/CAUS (balka-wa-nka to chat, ngulkurr-ma-nka to get well ex.410). INDIRECT COMMAND = speech-verb + PURP: Babi-ngka maral balka-ny, ngawa kuji-nka 'Grandmother told the girl to look after the baby' (ex.415/417). Standalone -nku = 'had better' (waju-nku ex.401).
2. PRECAUTIONARY -nyji ('lest V' / 'V might'). An undesirable event to be prevented; clause follows the main action taken against it: ...yununy bayka-nyji 'lest [it] bite you' (ex.437), kabu-ma-nyji 'lest [it] rot' (ex.444). Standalone = 'might' (Yinya kuyu kabu-ma-nyji 'that fish might rot').
3. SUCCESSIVE -nyjiku ('before V'). The MAIN event precedes the successive one: Ngayu ... jarba kuni-ny, nganya bayka-nyjiku 'I killed the snake before it might bite me' (ex.445); ...mayi damba dingka-nyjiku 'before kneading the damper' (ex.447).
4. SIMULTANEOUS -nya ('while/as V-ing'). Same time as main clause; the main verb is typically perception (nyaji-l see/hear). REDUP is very common on the SUB verb: ...mayi maja-l-maja-nya '[you] chewing food' (ex.457), wanarri-nya 'while running' (ex.460). PARTICIPLE (S co-ref, no ERG): ...daka-l-daka-nya dara-ny 'climbing the tree, [he] fell' (ex.476); Karrkay wanarri-y, banbadi-nya 'the child runs crying' (ex.479). ⭐ ERG-marked SUB -nya-mun-du disambiguates: it forces the SUB action onto the MAIN clause's A/S NP, not the O — ...kuni-ny, wanarri-nya-mun-du 'shot him while HE (the shooter) was running' (ex.474/470).
5. CAUSAL -nya ('because / from V-ing'): Janji-nya, nyulu bajaburray 'he is tired FROM bathing' (ex.485); ...kari nyaji-ny, warngku-wuna-nya 'did not see [me] because [he] was asleep' (ex.487).
6. PRIOR EVENT wawu-…-nya-muny ('after V-ing'). SUB verb takes the prefix wawu- (TEMP4) + -nya + ABL -muny: ...nyaji-ny, wawu-wala-nya-muny 'saw [her] after [she] came in' (ex.492). Also wawu-NOUN-muny 'after N': wawu-kambi-muny julurri-ny 'after washing clothes' (ex.494), wawu-jukijuki-muny 'after [feeding] the chickens' (ex.495). NOT usable when the main A = subordinate A/S (use wawu-yinya-muny 'after that', or a noun-ABL, instead).
7. HYPOTHETICAL REASON -nya-mun-ku ('in case / for fear that'): ...kaba kada-nya-mun-ku 'in case the rain comes' (ex.498); often introduced by the particle kunka 'in case' (ex.501).

• RELATIVE clauses (§4.4.5): a -nya SUB clause can relativise a main-clause NP: mukul-dingkar ... bundanda-nya 'the old man [who was] sitting [there]' (ex.466). Former possession = -mali (ngayku-ndu mali dunyu 'my former husband' ex.527); attributive 'having N' = COMIT -ji (kaya kuli-ji 'a vicious dog', dingkar walarr-iji 'a bearded man' ex.531/535).

Rule 50 — VOICE: the -ji- intransitivizer (reflexive / passive / antipassive) (batch-086; grammar §4.2)

The single suffix -ji- detransitivizes a transitive verb: the resulting clause is intransitive and its S NP is a former A or O. Which reading applies is fixed by the surrounding NPs, not by the verb. Surface: NONPAST -ji-y → elder X-ji (the /y/ deletes after /i/ — never write X-jiy, the lint bars it); PAST -ji-ny → elder X-jin (solid past -n); 'keep V-ing' = REDUP X-n-X-ji(n). The analysis field keeps -ji-y/-ji-ny.

1. REFLEXIVE (§4.2.3) — S is BOTH agent and patient ('V oneself'). Karrkay julurri-ji 'the child washes itself' (ex.336); Warru julngka-ji warrma-ka 'the young man paints himself for the corroboree' (ex.185); REDUP for repeated/durative: Bunjil yaka-n-yaka-jin 'the widow kept cutting herself' (ex.337), yirrba-n- yirrba-ji 'keeps scratching himself' (ex.338). A DAT NP adds a beneficiary: yaka-jin dunyu-nku 'cut herself FOR [her] husband' (ex.340). An affected body-part is a plain ABS/LOC NP (mara-nga kuni-jin 'hit self on the hand').
2. CHANCE PASSIVE (§4.2.4.3) — an UNINTENTIONAL event ('happened to V', 'got V-ed'). AGENT → LOC:pt, PATIENT → S, verb takes -ji. Dingkar-anda ngayu jina narri-jin 'the man happened to step on my foot' (ex.349); Babi-nda wukay dirka-bunga-jin 'grandmother happened to smash the yam' (ex.350); ...kuni-jin jalbu-ndu 'the woman happened to hit [him]' (ex.387). An inanimate agent keeps INSTRUMENTAL -bu, NOT LOC.
3. TOPIC PASSIVE (§4.2.4) — patient topicalized as S, agent LOC:pt, verb -ji (intentional, unlike chance pass). Yinya bama buliman-anda karrba-jin 'that Aborigine was grabbed by the police' (ex.357).
4. AGENTLESS PASSIVE — no agent expressed. Bayan nanda-ji nyiku 'the store is closed today' (ex.359); Mayngku nyaji-ji, mana! 'if any mangoes are seen, bring [them]!' (ex.362); baya ... bawa-jin 'the fire was left [burning]'.
5. ANTIPASSIVE (§4.2.4.4) — detransitivize by DROPPING the O or demoting it to DAT; typical of 'keep V-ing'. nuka-n-nuka-ji 'keep eating' (l.971); wukay-ku baka-n-baka-ji 'keep digging FOR yams' (O→DAT); kaya-nka yajarri-ji 'keep laughing AT the dog'.

• kanban 'by mistake' (ex.339) marks a TRANSITIVE clause where the action is intentional but its effect is not (kaya yindu kanban kunin 'hit the wrong dog by mistake') — CONTRAST the chance passive, where the action itself is unpremeditated. kanban also combines with a reflexive (kanban ... kuni-jin 'hit himself by mistake').

Rule 51 — COORDINATION & CLAUSE-CHAINING (batch-088; grammar §4.3)

Kuku Yalanji has no word for 'and'. Independent clauses and NPs are simply JUXTAPOSED, and this — not subordination — is what builds long narratives. The reader recovers the links from case-marking and context.

• Simple conjoining (§4.3.1): two clauses side by side, co-referential S/A/O deleted after first mention. Ngayu jilba-dunga-ny, nyulu bayan-ba bundanda-ny 'I went for a walk and he stayed home' (ex.379); Babarr-angka mayi waju-l, jinkurr-ungku ngawa nyaji-l-nyaji-l 'elder sister cooks and younger sister watches the baby' (ex.380).
• Sequential action chains — one subject, several verbs; the shared O is stated once then dropped: ...nambarr kulba-ny, kaja-ny, dunga-ny-baja 'pulled out the bamboo, wrapped it, and went on again' (ex.384); ...bunda-ny, minya-nga nuka-ji-ny, wunana-ny-da 'sat, had a feed of meat, and then rested' (ex.385). Two narrative CLITICS drive these: -baja 'again / on / back / too' and -da (TEMP1) 'and then', both on the (past) verb.
• Adversative 'but' (§4.3.2; grammar l.3835/5072): two particles, freely interchangeable but with a nuance — kari introduces an event that HINDERS the first clause (...dunga-ny, kari muyar junkuji 'went out, but the wind was strong', ex.388; note kari is also the plain NEG), while yamba (also yambada/yambala) marks a neutral contrast (Yinya budmandu karrkay, yamba kulngkul 'that suitcase is small, but heavy', ex.392). 'but…not' = yamba … kari ….
• NP conjoining: juxtaposition (nganjan, ngamu baja, karrkay-karrkay 'father, mother too, and the children') or COMITATIVE -ji 'with' (warru jambul-ji, kaya kulur-ji 'with two young men and three dogs').
• Discourse connectives: yala 'OK, let's' (precedes a suggestion) and yalada 'and so / that's settled then' (l.6292-6293) chain turns and episodes; baja as a free word = 'too, also, as well'.
• Contrast with Rule 49 (subordination): subordinate clauses embed one event inside another with a dedicated suffix (-nkV, -nyji, -nya…); coordination just lays equal clauses in sequence. KY narrative uses both.

Rule 52 — CONTENT QUESTIONS & INTERROGATIVES (batch-090; grammar §3.6 / §4.8)

All Kuku Yalanji interrogatives descend from one proto-Australian root *waNH-, reinterpreted as three disyllabic roots — wanya 'who', wanyu 'what', wanja 'where' (Table 3.9) — plus derivatives.

• wanya 'who' inflects with the POTENT case set (like a person): ABS wanya · ERG wanyangka (who did it) · DAT wanyanka (for/to whom) · LOC wanyanda · COMIT wanyanji (with whom) · POSS wanyamba 'whose'. So the case marks the queried role: Wanyangka kuyu daman? 'Who [erg] speared the fish?'
• wanyu 'what' inflects with the NEUTRAL set on an underlying stem wanyurri(y)-: ABS wanyu · INST wanyurrinju · DAT wanyurringku = 'WHY' (lit. for what purpose, ex.127b) · LOC wanyurrimbu = 'why (that place)' (ex.127a) · COMIT wanyurrinji = 'sick with what' (Yundu wanyurrinji bambay? ex.128). Prompt clitic: wanyu-baja 'what else'. wanyu has no possessive (inanimates can't own).
• wanja 'where' is a location word (local cases only), now mostly replaced by wanjabu 'where at / where to' (Yunu ngamu wanjabu? 'Where's your mother?' ex.129; Yundu wanjabu dunga-y? doubles as the everyday greeting, ex.130) · ABL wanjamuny 'where from'. wanja(bu) also means 'somewhere' (indefinite, ex.131).
• Derived from wanja (the 'general interrogative' root): wanjawanja 'when' · wanjarr (usu. wanjarr-ku with adverbial -ku) 'how' (ex.132/133) · wanjarrinya 'how many' · wanjinya / wanjaku 'which one' (free variants, ex.134) · wanyunguy / wanjanguy 'what kind' (stem-forming -nguy, itself case-inflectable: wanjanguy-ngku DAT, ex.135-137). Generic indefinite 'something' = junjuy.
• Syntax (l.4571): the interrogative word fills the slot of the queried constituent and may appear anywhere in the clause (it carries clause stress) — EXCEPT 'why' which is always clause-initial. In reported questions the wh-clause simply follows the speech verb (babaji-l 'ask', ex.101): ...warru babaji-ny, wanyangka ....
• POLAR (yes/no) questions have NO question particle — a statement said with rising/question intonation (Yundu kaday? 'Are you coming?' ex.42; the predicator is stressed). Answered yuwu 'yes' / kari 'no'.

Rule 53 — NEGATION, PROHIBITION, IMPERATIVE & PRIVATIVE (batch-092; §3.9.2 / §3.8.4.1 / §3.2.3.4 / §4.7)

Kuku Yalanji keeps four distinct "not/without/don't" devices apart — learn which is which.

• Clause negation — particle kari 'not' placed immediately before the predicator (it takes clause stress): Ngayu diburr kari nuka-ny 'I did NOT eat the seed' (ex.24). kari is also the interjection 'no' (answer). Clitics: kariku = 'not yet / not all', karirrku = 'not really, not altogether'.
• Prohibition = kari + verb-IMPERATIVE: Yarraman kari kanga! 'Don't chase the horse!' (ex.149); Kari yirrka-y! 'Don't shout!' (ex.152); Kari dunga-y yinya-nji kamu-baka-nji! 'Don't go with that drunkard!' (ex.90).
• The IMPERATIVE inflection (§3.8.4.1) has three allomorphs by conjugation + syllable count:
  • -l conjugation, disyllabic root → ZERO (bare stem): kanga (chase!), wundi (take!), mani (get!), bunda (sit!), nuka (eat!), karrba (hold!), bawa (leave!), daji (give!), nanda (cover!).
  • -y conjugation → -y (= the nonpast form): dunga-y (go!), kada-y (come!), yirrka-y (shout!).
  • Root/stem of 3+ syllables → -ka: yijarri-ka (put!, ex.153), julurri-ji-ka (wash yourself!, ex.154).
  • A 1du/1pl subject + IMP = HORTATIVE 'let's…!' (§4.7): Ngali … dunga-y! 'Let us two go!'.
• Irrealis -nyaku = 'should (have) / ought': bawa-nyaku 'should have left' (ex.127b); dunga-nyaku 'should go'.
• NEG2 balu = 'desist, give up' (stop what you're doing); baluda = 'let it be, don't do what you're about to do'. In discourse-initial position balu flags a 'wrong assumption'.
• Two 'without' markers — keep them apart:
  • PRIVATIVE -kari (nominal derivation, §3.2.3.4): noun-kari = 'X-less, without X' as an inherent PROPERTY, mostly equational, 1st-syllable stress: milka-kari 'deaf' (earless, ex.54), kaya-kari 'dogless' (ex.57), bana-kari 'waterless', kuku-kari 'wordless', ngamu-kari 'motherless', minya-kari 'meatless'. (Homophonous with the NEG particle kari — but here it's a suffix on a noun.)
  • ABESSIVE -mundu (case, §3.2.1): 'without X' circumstantially / for a particular event: kalka-mundu 'without a spear', bana-mundu 'without water', bilangkurr-mundu 'without a blanket'.
  • Possessive and privative cannot co-occur — 'without the man's spear' is paraphrased as 'did NOT [go] with the man's spear' (comitative + kari).
• -baka 'excessive' = 'too much X, excessively X' (always negative): kamu-baka 'drunkard' (grog-excess, ex.90), mayi-baka 'greedy' (food-excess), kuku-baka 'talks too much', dukul-wuri-baka 'too angry'.

Rule 54 — POSSESSION & THE GENITIVE (batch-094; grammar §3.2.3.2 / §4.5)

KY draws a line English erases: alienable vs inalienable possession are marked differently, and the alienable marker changes shape with the case of the whole NP.

(A) ALIENABLE possession (clothes, spears, dogs, food, country) — possessed + possessor-POSS. Word order is flexible (both kambi ngamu-mu 'clothes mother-POSS' and possessor-first are attested, ex.44). The POSSESSIVE suffix in the absolutive conditions on the possessor's final segment, exactly parallel to ergative -bu/-Vbu:

• V-final possessor → -mu: ngamu-mu mother's, kaya-mu dog's, babi-mu, jalbu-mu, warru-mu, bama-mu, yaba-mu, kami-mu.
• C-final possessor → -Vmu (echo/linking vowel): dingkar-amu man's, buban-amu, nganjan-amu.
• Attested exx. (§3.2.3.2): kambi ngamu-mu 'mother's clothes', mayi kaya-mu 'the dog's food', bayan dingkar-amu 'the man's house'.

(B) ALIENABLE with a NON-ZERO case on the possessed NP — the possessor takes the special stem -ndamun- + neutral case:

• ex.44: Jalbu-ndumun-du dunyu-ngku bikibiki kuni-ny 'The woman's husband[ERG] shot a pig.' (POSS-ERG)
• ex.45: bayan-ba kami-ndamun-bu 'to granny's house[LOC].' (POSS-LOC)
• -ndamun- appears ONLY when the possessed noun is ergative/locative/dative/etc.; it always takes neutral-set allomorphs. (Possibly = potent-LOC + catalytic -mun-.)

(C) INALIENABLE possession (body parts, close kin) — simple JUXTAPOSITION, NO affix (§4.5.2):

• warru mara 'the boy's hand', dingkar miyil 'the man's eye', warru buban ngamu 'the little boy's mother'.
• Very often with a pronoun possessive: nyungu mara 'his hand', nyungu babi 'their grandmother'. A model must NOT insert -mu on 'his hand' / 'the boy's mother' — the bare juxtaposition is the possessive.

PRONOUN POSSESSIVES (§3.5.2): ngayku 'my' · yunu 'your' · nyungu 'his/her/their'. (Singular forms are rock-solid; plural pronoun possessives are OCR-uncertain — AVOID until reconciled, see errata watchlist.) ngayku alone = predicative 'mine'.

WHOSE = wanya-mba (who-POSS, from Rule 52): Wanya-mba kaya yinya? 'Whose dog is that?'.

FORMER possession — the ablative -muny carries a 'former/source' meaning (grammar l.4441):

• X-mu-muny 'formerly X's' (POSS + ABL): babi-mu-muny 'that was grandmother's', bama-mu-muny, kami-mu-muny.
• 'the dead X's' = a relative-clause possessive wula-nya-mu (die-SUB-POSS): nganjan wula-nya-mu 'of the father who died', dunyu wula-nya-mu.

Rule 55 — COMPARISON, DEGREE & SIMILARITY (batch-096; grammar §3.2.3.8 / §3.9.2)

KY marks degree on the adjective, splitting a MORE axis and a VERY axis, plus a particle for likeness.

(A) DEG1 prefix jarra- 'rather, more' — on adjectives / quantifiers only (l.1522): jarra-yalbay 'rather big', jarra-kulbul 'rather ripe' (ex.79), jarra-kuli-ji 'rather wild' (ex.80), jarra-buban 'rather small', jarra-ngiki 'rather cold'. (Stress falls regularly on the first syllable of jarra-.)

(B) COMPARATIVE = X jarra-ADJ Y-DAT 'X is more ADJ than Y' — the compared standard takes DATIVE (DAT = the "complement of comparison", l.1542). ex.81: Minya ngawuya jarra-kima minya-ka bulki-ka 'Sea-turtle meat is softer than beef.' So Baril-baril jarra-yalbay juku yindu-ka 'the fig is bigger than the other tree.' A model must produce BOTH jarra- on the adjective AND dative on the standard — not a bare English-style comparative.

(C) DEG2 suffix -baja-ku 'very' — obligatorily carries the emphatic -ku (ex.82-85): dakuy-baja-ku 'very hungry', kingkin-baja-ku 'very cute'. If the adjective is inflected, the case slots BETWEEN -baja- and -ku: junkurr-ji-baja-ngka-ku 'very strong-ERG' (ex.84), bambay-baja-nka-ku 'very sick-DAT' (ex.85).

⚠️ Bare -baja on an adjective is the INCOMPLETE form; -baja on a VERB = the 'again' clitic; bajaku written as a separate word = the SUPERLATIVE. 'very' and 'most' are the same -baja-ku morpheme, differing in attachment.

(D) SUPERLATIVE = ADJ + bajaku 'most / the -est': ngulkurr bajaku 'the best', jarra-jarra bajaku 'the highest', mukul bajaku 'the oldest'.

(E) SIMILATIVE particle yala '(be) like, (be) the same' (COMP) — yala-ku balka 'speak like this' (ex.201); warru warri yala nyungu nganjan 'the boy runs like his father'. For APPEARANCE it co-occurs with walu 'face' in either order (§3.9.2): walu yala 'looks like'.

(F) 'same' vs 'different': 'same' = yala (kari yala 'not the same'; yala-ka 'to the same'); 'different' = walu-yindu ('face-other', L25810); 'alike' = yala-karrajikur (L28864); 'another/other' = yindu. 'love a lot' = wawu jirray (jirray 'lots', ex.122). Guard: kaki = 'if', NOT 'long ago' (= kalbay-muny).

Rule 56 — NUMBER & QUANTIFICATION (batch-098; grammar §3.2.3.5 / §3.2.5 / §3.5)

⭐ RESTRICTED numeral system with only tightly attested extensions. The basic system is nyubun one, jambul two, kulur a few/three, then quantity words. Patz also gives the derived jambul-jambul 'four (two-two)' and lists mara 'five (hand)', but do not productively invent higher numerals or English arithmetic compounds. Beyond the attested forms, use quantity expressions such as wubul many.

CARDINALS: nyubun 1 · jambul 2 · kulur a few/3 · jambul-jambul 4. mamarra is an old-fashioned/stylish synonym for two. Quantity words commonly follow the noun (jarba jambul, bama wubul), but Patz also has preposed number examples (Ngayu jambul juku nyajin, jambul kaya kuli-ji), especially with adjective+number NPs. DISTRIBUTIVE = reduplicated numeral: nyubun-nyubun 'each, one apiece'.

QUANTIFIERS: wubul 'many' · jirray 'lots, plenty' · narmba 'all' · wubulku 'all, every' (emphatic) · yindu 'another, other'. Degree stacks: jarra-wubul 'more numerous' (DEG1 jarra- on a quantifier).

THREE PLURAL DEVICES (not interchangeable):

1. REDUPLICATION of the noun root = general plural: juku-juku 'trees', wulman-wulman 'old men', maral-maral 'girls', jalbu-jalbu 'women', buyi-buyi 'birds', kaya-kaya 'dogs', kulji-kulji 'stones', jina-jina 'paths', jarba-jarba 'snakes', bilngkumu-bilngkumu 'crocodiles' (ex.61).
2. KINSHIP PLURAL -karra — ONLY on kin terms + jawun 'relative/friend' (NOT on ordinary nouns): ngamu-karra 'mothers', nganjan-karra 'fathers', dunyu-karra 'husbands', manyarr-karra 'wives', babi-karra 'grandmothers', kami-karra 'grandfathers', yabuju-karra 'younger brothers', jawun-karra 'family/friends' (ex.62-64).
3. DUAL PAIR -bulal — 'a pair that BELONGS/ACTS together', NOT plain 'two': jalbu-bulal 'the two women (who go as one)', yarraman-bulal 'a mare and her foal', juku-bulal 'a pair of like trees close together'. Contrast jambul 'just two, unconnected' (ex.66: yarraman-bulal mare+foal vs yarraman jambul two unrelated horses). Often co-occurs with the dual pronoun bula '3du, they two' (§3.5.1) and/or jambul.

Reduplicated verbs (plural/repeated action): kankada-y 'come' (from kada-y), wanarri-y 'run' (from warri), janjana-y 'stand' (from janay), kunja-n-kunjaji-ny 'ask around'.

Rule 57 — EMOTION & COGNITION: body-part compounds + DATIVE stimulus (batch-099; grammar l.1476 / l.1506)

⭐ KY locates emotion and thought IN THE BODY. Affective/mental states are built as noun-verb compounds on a body part (grammar l.1506), or expressed as plain nouns (l.1476: warngku 'sleep', kaka 'pain', kuli 'anger', kuru 'love/lust'). A model must NOT map these to the English body-metaphor (heart for feeling, head for thought).

⭐ EMOTION STIMULUS = DATIVE (not accusative). The thing you fear / want / know / envy is in the DAT:

• yinil kaya-nka 'afraid OF the dog' (ex.47) · yinil kuli-baka-nka 'scared of the wild one' (ex.71)
• wawu bangkarr-ka 'want meat' (ex.58) · binal dingkar-anka 'know the man' (ex.52) · ngujan yaba-mu kalka-ka 'jealous of brother's spear'

INCHO vs CAUS on emotion nouns: kuli-ma-l 'get angry' (become) vs kuli-mani-l 'make angry' (cause); ngungul-ma-l 'go dark' (of a face in anger). Emotion verbs: yinil 'be afraid', yajarri-l 'laugh', badi 'cry', yararri 'shiver', binal 'know', binalku 'remember', manubaja-bunga-l 'believe'. SLEEP = noun warngku + wuna-l 'lie down' (warngku wunay; ex.37 reduplicated wunanany 'slept') — there is no wunga-l. HELP = mara-daji-l (hand-give).

Rule 58 — VERBAL ASPECT & REDUPLICATION (batch-100; grammar §3.8.5.5(ii), l.3581)

⭐ KY has NO tense-based progressive — ASPECT is carried by REDUPLICATION of the verb. A reduplicated verb = ongoing / repeated / habitual action, and/or intensity (l.3581: the redup of 'see' → 'examine thoroughly' OR 'keep looking').

SIX established partial-redup verbs (l.1238 — learn as FIXED forms; the fully-reduplicated alternants are now unacceptable):

MORPHOLOGY by conjugation: y-conj verbs INSERT /n/ between the two root copies (l.969: kada-y → kan-kada-y; warri → wa-narri-y; janay → jan-janay). l-conj verbs repeat the whole -l stem: nyaji-l-nyaji-l, waju-l-waju-l, kuni-l-kuni-l, murni-l-murni-l, kuji-l-kuji-l, balka-l-balka-l.

FOUR aspect devices:

1. CONTINUOUS 'keep V-ing' — stem reduplication (the table above; nyaji-l-nyaji-l 'keep looking').
2. HABITUAL 'used to / always' — (a) reduplicate + past: nuka-l-nuka-ny 'used to eat' (ex.203, with karrkay-nyja-ku 'as a child'); (b) the -nyV form: nuka-nya 'always eats / habitual eater', balka-nya 'always sings' (ex.68).
3. INTENSIVE 'thoroughly, hard' — same reduplication read as intensity (nyaji-l-nyaji-l 'examine', l.3581).
4. EXCESSIVE DURATION — NOT a reduplicated stem, but the whole finite verb simply repeated 2–3× (with the last vowel lengthened): daran daran daran 'kept falling and falling' (l.3581).

jururr(jururr) = adverbial particle 'repeatedly; (with motion verbs) one after another' (l.3709). kuji-l = 'look after, keep, mind' (ex.100/116) — its redup kuji-l-kuji-l = 'keep looking after'.

Rule 59 — SPEECH VERBS, THE ASK-FRAME & nyaji-l 'hear' (batch-101; grammar l.1476, ex.77/101/109)

⭐ babaji-l 'ask' — a distinct two-place case frame: the PERSON asked = LOCATIVE, the TOPIC asked about = DATIVE.

• Ngayu yaba-nda babaji-ny 'I asked my elder brother' (ex.101 — brother-LOC)
• Mala-balji-nda babaji-ka balji-ka 'Ask the dillybag expert about dillybags' (ex.77 — expert-LOC ask-IMP dillybag-DAT)
• So 'ask X about Y' = X-LOC babaji-l Y-DAT. Contrast: 'tell' balka-l takes the addressee in DAT; emotion verbs take the stimulus in DAT (Rule 57). Three different speech/mental frames — keep them straight.

⭐ nyaji-l = 'see' AND 'hear/perceive'. KY has NO separate hearing verb: wulngku nyaji-l 'hear a song' (ex.109); so 'listen', 'hear', 'be heard' all resolve to nyaji-l, the general perception verb.

CORE SPEECH VERBS: balka-l tell/talk/say · yalama-l say, do (l.2976) · babaji-l ask · yirrka-l shout/call · wulngku badi sing (lit. 'cry a song'; badi = both cry and sing-with-song) · jurri-l lie · murru-kanga-l scold · yayngkar whisper · kuwimbur (yirrka-l) whistle · yajarri-l laugh · badi cry.

KEY NOUNS: kuku = word / language / news / story / law (one highly polysemous noun; context disambiguates — the language name Kuku Yalanji itself is 'language-this') · wulngku/yukurr song · burri name · nyurra 'noise' (specifically of people shouting/laughing, ex.74) · manubaja truth · yukil true/truth · jurril/warmbiji lie (warmbiji-bama liar). ADJ: janka/wunbu quiet. mala-X = 'expert at X' (ex.75/77).

Rule 60 — SPATIAL CASES & THE DIRECTIONAL SYSTEM (batch-102; grammar §3.3.1, l.1462, l.641)

⭐ KY orients space on an ABSOLUTE geographic frame (up-inland / down-seaward + north), NOT body-relative E/W. The country rises from the Pacific coast to the Great Dividing Range, and the direction words track that gradient:

⚠️ THERE IS NO WORD FOR SOUTH — say bada 'down/seaward' or name the place. Do not invent a 'south' word, and do not reduce wangkar/bada to a purely vertical up/down.

RELATIVE POSITION: kudamundu behind · ngundu this side / near · karangkal alongside/beside · ngalkal outside; open (ground) · kana / dukurr inside · naka-naka across · maku towards.

LOCAL-CASE PARADIGM (location words occur ONLY in local cases, l.1462): | Case | Suffix | Meaning | |---|---|---| | LOC | -nga/-ba/-a/-ngu (vowel-harmony/allomorphy) | at, on, in | | ABL | -muny | from | | PERL | -burr | along, through | | ABESS | -mundu | away from; from a distance (ex.109 wulngku kalakalbay-mundu nyaji-l 'hear a song from far away') | | DAT/ALL | -ka (+ particle maku) | to(ward) |

⭐ -warra = 'INHABITANTS OF (X)' (l.641): wujalwujal-warra, jalun-warra 'sea people', jibarr-warra 'inland people'. yirmbal = 'story place, sacred site' (l.641). Deixis: yala 'here' vs yinyay 'there'. Allomorphy reminder: y-final stems take LOC -mba (kalbay-mba, yalbay-mba), never -ba.

Rule 61 — MOVEMENT & POSTURE VERBS (batch-103; grammar l.2932, l.2973, l.3008–3018)

KY verb roots denote observable actions with detailed semantic differentiation (l.2932) — do not collapse the motion field into one 'go'.

Syntax: jalama-l 'jump' takes its SOURCE in the ablative — Warru jalama-ny juku-muny kudamundu-muny 'the young man jumped out from behind the tree' (ex.112). Aspect (Rule 58) stacks on motion roots: bare-verb repetition warri warri = excessive 'ran and ran'; reduplication jalama-l-jalaman = intensive 'kept jumping up'.

⚠️ wandi-l is a REAL verb ('get up / wake / come out', dict + l.3014) — do not treat it as a phantom. Its imperative surfaces as wandi (the IMP wandi-y ends in -iy, and word-final -iy drops its y after i — the same elder rule as warri-y→warri).

Rule 62 — COMITATIVE / PRIVATIVE / ABESSIVE: the "having / without / from-a-vantage" system (batch-104; §3.2.3.3, §3.2.3.4, §3.2.1)

⭐ Three DISTINCT things English blurs but KY keeps apart. Do not conflate them.

-ji~-jirr free variation (l.1884): the final -rr comes and goes; use whichever reads naturally.

⭐ PRIVATIVE and COMITATIVE are STEM-FORMING — further case inflection attaches AFTER the derivation, over the derived stem (root‑DERIVATION‑CASE): kaya-kari-ngka 'the dogless one'-ERG (ex.57), mani-kari-nda 'to the girl with no money'-LOC (ex.59), bajibay-kari-ka 'meat without bones'-DAT (ex.58), kalka-jirr-nka 'to the one with a spear'-DAT (ex.52). The two are exact opposites over one root: bajibay-jirr 'with bones' / bajibay-kari 'boneless'; junkurr-jirr 'strong' / junkurr-kari 'weak'.

⚠️ ABESSIVE -mundu ≠ ABLATIVE -muny. ABL -muny = 'from (motion away, source left behind)'; ABESS -mundu = 'from (a fixed vantage the actor keeps)'. Minimal contrast: kungkarr-muny kada-ny 'came from the north (motion)' vs jamba-mundu nyaji-ny 'watched from the hill (vantage)'. This SUPERSEDES the old Rule‑35 '-mundu = without' and the earlier line '-mundu = toward' — both were errors. 'Without' = PRIVATIVE -kari; 'toward' = DAT -ka / maku.

Rule 63 — LAND MAMMALS & GAME ANIMALS (batch-105; dict + grammar ex.192/203/225/267/91)

⭐ Name the macropods precisely — do NOT conflate them.

Hunting vocabulary: balbi 'hunt' (balbi-bama 'hunter'), kuni-l 'hit, kill', dama-l 'spear', nguymal 'thoroughly, truly', maja 'boss' (ex.91 maja balka-n-balka-wa-y warru-warru-nji 'the boss talks with the young men').

Three attested hunting frames (memorise): kadar kuni-ny nguymal 'killed the wallaby with one shot' (ex.192) · minya kadar ngangkin nuka-l-nuka-ny 'as a child used to eat wallaby and porcupine' (ex.203) · julmbanu yala maja bubu-ku (ex.267). Habitual X-l-X-ny surfaces as nuka-l-nuka-n (kuku, elder -ny→-n) / nuka-l-nuka-ny (analysis, Patz).

Rule 64 — CASE & TRANSITIVITY: THE ERGATIVE SYSTEM (batch-106; §3.2.1, Table 3.1 l.1556–1643, Table 3.6)

⭐ Kuku Yalanji is SPLIT-ERGATIVE: NOUNS use ERGATIVE-ABSOLUTIVE, PRONOUNS use NOMINATIVE-ACCUSATIVE.

So a noun-agent is ergative-marked but a pronoun-agent is bare; the object is bare for nouns but marked for pronouns.

Ergative allomorphs (Table 3.1) — two sets by animacy:

• POTENT (:pt — animate/capable: people, kin, dogs, animals, spirits): -ngkV after vowel (kaya-ngka, kami-ngka, jalbu-ngku, warru-ngku, murramu-ngku, julmbanu-ngku, dubu-ngku), -VngkV after consonant (dingkar-angka l.1291, maral-angka l.965, ngangkin-angka l.1614, walkarr-angka).
• NEUTRAL (inanimate; = the INSTRUMENTAL): -bu/V (kalka-bu, kulji-bu, juku-bu, mara-bu), -Vbu/r (wungar-abu), -njV/y, -dV/elsewhere (jalun-du). Consonant-final also takes -bu in free variation (junkurr-bu, nyubun-bu — cf. grammar's wujurr-bu, wun-bu beside wun-du).

INSTRUMENTAL = neutral ergative (-bu, no potent split): dingkar-angka kadar kuni-ny kalka-bu 'the man killed the wallaby with a spear'.

Personal pronouns (Table 3.6): 1sg ngayu/nganya(ACC & DAT)/ngayku(POSS) · 2sg yundu/yunu · 3sg nyulu/nyungu · 1du ngali · 3du bula · 1pl.inc ngana · 2pl yurra · 3pl jana. Recipient of give/tell = LOC/DAT (mukul-dingkar-anda 'to the old man' LOC:pt; nganya 'to me'; karrkay-nka 'to the children' DAT). Vowel-harmony fills V: a after a/i, u after u.

Rule 65 — LEXICON: MATERIAL CULTURE — TOOLS, WEAPONS & ARTIFACTS (batch-107; dictionary.yaml + grammar l.685/1823/1913/5037/6433)

Weapons

Containers & cordage: ngunyin (also yinkar, balji 'bag') = dilly bag — woven from kaku 'lawyer cane'; ngunyin-ji 'with a dillybag' (COMIT, l.1913); balji-ka (DAT, ex.77). Rope/string = karra (also ngurran). Fish-net = makarr.

Cutting, digging & fire: warrbi (also kulbanmuku) = axe; naybu = knife (English loan, l.1061); ⭐ juwal = digging stick (ex.629 Babi-ngka juwal-da … dama-ny 'Grandmother missed [the fish] with the digging stick'); jidi = firestick/torch; kulji = stone (working stone). Grinding stone = kulji murni-nka 'stone for-grinding' (PURP).

Verbs of making: bunga-l make/build/weave; ⭐ kaja-l 'tie, wrap up' (l.5037 kaja-ny 'wrapped up' — used to bind the spear-head with cord; ⚠️ NOT 'light a fire' — making fire = baya bunga-l); murni-l grind/rub/twist; dama-l spear/throw-at; yaka-l cut; baka-l dig. Bonus: babi = grandmother (father's mother, ex.629). Register (l.685): "dillybags and fish and turtle spears are still made and used today."

Rule 66 — CONSTRUCTION: INTERROGATIVES & QUESTIONS (batch-108; grammar §3.6, Table 3.9/3.10 l.2688-2810; ex.126-134, 582-583)

Three interrogative roots — wanya 'who', wanyu 'what', wanja 'where' — and a question word takes exactly the case its answer would take.

wanya 'who' — inflects on the POTENT case set (a 'who' is by definition potent; mirrors the ergative animacy split, Rule 64). Interrogative sense ONLY.

wanyu 'what' — inflects on the NEUTRAL case set; no possessive (inanimate can't own). Interrogative only.

wanja 'where' = wanja/wanjabu (modern wanjabu is standard; ex.130 Yundu wanjabu dunga-y? 'where are you going?' = the everyday greeting). LOC wanjabu, ABL wanjamuny 'where from'. Also indefinite 'somewhere' (ex.131). It is the base for the derived interrogatives: wanjawanja 'when' (ex.582), wanjarr(-ku) 'how' (ex.132/133, usually +ADV -ku), wanjarrinya 'how many' (ex.583), wanjinya/wanjaku 'which one' (ex.134), wanyu-nguy/wanja-nguy 'what kind' (stem -nguy).

Indefinite 'something' = junjuy (non-human). YES = yuwu, NO = kari. Polar (yes/no) question = a plain statement with rising intonation — no particle (Yundu mayarriji kunin? 'did you kill the kangaroo?'). Content-Q: the interrogative pronoun is stressed and usually fronted, but may stand anywhere (l.1333/1339).

Rule 67 — LEXICON: BODY PARTS (batch-109; dictionary.yaml + grammar l.949/1834/2074/2232-2240/2458)

⚠️ Two homophones: wubul 'heart' = wubul 'many/all'; jiba 'liver' is the base of jiba-wulay 'sweet' and the seat of emotion (jiba-badi 'grieve'). ⚠️ miyil is 'eye' in the grammar's productive compounds (l.2232), though the dictionary glosses it 'tree' — grammar is authoritative.

Inalienable possession = JUXTAPOSITION (l.1834 §4.5.2): the possessor and the body-part noun sit side by side with NO -mu suffix — dingkar mara 'the man's hand', nyungu miyil 'his eye'.

Body-part terms are PRODUCTIVE compound bases (esp. miyil eye, milka ear; l.2232-2240, 949, 2074):

HEAR = nyaji-l (the same perception verb as 'see') or explicit milka-bu nyaji-l 'perceive with the ear'. LISTEN = milka-janay 'stand (with) the ear'. ⚠️ ngara-l 'hear' is UNATTESTED (ngara='root'). Healer/doctor = murri (rrunyuji l.689 also = doctor but violates the l/r/rr onset rule → prefer murri).

Rule 68 — CONSTRUCTION: NEGATION (batch-110; grammar §3.9.2/§4.9.2/§3.8.4.1; l.1329/1935/2310/3124-3141/3819-3827; ex.24/54-58/163/208)

kari = NEG 'not' — sits immediately before the predicate it negates and carries the clause stress (l.1329). ⚠️ The negated verb is fully inflected, never bare: kari nukan 'did not eat' (past), kari nukal 'does not eat' (nonpast), kari nyaji-l 'cannot see', kari dungay 'does not go' (corpus: kari dungay 6× vs bare 0×). kari also = the answer 'no' (vs yuwu 'yes') and, clause-initially, the discourse 'but' (contrasting event).

kari clitics:

• kari-ku = 'not yet' / 'not all' (emphatic/temporal, l.3821) — "the fruit is not yet ripe", "the men have not come back yet". ⚠️ NOT 'before/once' (a drifted sense; see errata watchlist).
• kari-rrku = 'not really, not altogether' (totality clitic; ex.208 kari-rrku warngku-wuna-ny 'I did not really sleep, I just dozed').

balu = NEG2 'desist, give up'; with clitic -da, baluda = the PROHIBITIVE 'let it be, don't do what you are about to do' (l.3827).

PRIVATIVE -kari 'without X / X-less' (l.1935; Rule 62) — inflection attaches AFTER -kari-: milka-kari deaf (ex.54), mani-kari 'no money' (ex.55), nganka-kari 'no flowers' (ex.56), kaya-kari-ngka 'the one without a dog' (ERG, ex.57), bajibay-kari-ka 'without bones' (DAT, ex.58). yamba-kari = 'NOTHING' (l.2310); bama kari = 'nobody' (no indefinite-person word exists).

PRECAUTIONARY -nyji = 'lest, in case' (negative purpose; Table 3.16/3.17 l.3124/3141) — the negative mirror of purposive -nka: bayka-nyji 'lest bite' (l.1143), kuni-nyji 'lest kill', bunda-nyji 'lest sit', kada-ba-nyji 'lest come' (y-conjugation disyllables insert -ba-, l.3141), dara-y-mani-nyji 'lest drop' (l.5385), and on inchoatives X-ma-nyji 'lest become X' (milkabujar-ma-nyji 'lest get lonely', ex.163; bambay-ma-nyji 'lest get sick'). Pairs with the prohibitive: "don't put your hand near the dog's mouth, lest it bite you."

Rule 69 — LEXICAL: TIME, SEASONS & CELESTIAL (batch-111; dictionary.yaml + grammar l.719/2509-2511/6032-6036; ex.280/541/582)

CELESTIAL & SKY:

• wungar = 'sun' AND 'day' (one word). wungar wangkar-wangkar / wungar jarra-jarra = 'midday' (sun-overhead). wungar daka-l = 'sunrise' (sun climbs).
• kija = 'moon' AND 'month' (l.2509). Counted reduplicated: kija-kija 'months'; kija jambul-muny 'after two moons/months' (ex.280 'from two moons'). ⭐ In Yalanji cosmology kija 'moon' is a creation being who made the first women at kijandaku 'Roaring Meg Falls' (l.719).
• dawar (also mulawajarr) = 'star'. ⚠️ NOT the old phantom jubuny.
• jiri = 'sky'; ngurrban = 'cloud'; balbay = 'lightning'; jarramali = 'thunder' (also jabulbina).

THE DAY CYCLE: balbal 'light/dawn' → wunkuwingku 'morning' → wungar wangkar-wangkar 'midday' → wungar bada dunga-nya 'afternoon' (sun going-down SUB) → wujurr-ma-nya 'dusk/evening' (become-night SUB) → wujurr 'night, darkness'.

TIME WORDS: niji 'now' · yilayku 'yesterday' · wunkun 'tomorrow' (⭐ the real word — do NOT circumlocute as wungar kada-nya) · yinyamun 'then' · nyiku-nyiku 'soon' · marri / ngadi / wuljal-wuljal 'a long time' · kalbay-muny 'long ago'.

SEASONS (attested as COMITATIVE -iji compounds, l.2510-2511/6032-6034):

• wungar-iji = 'HOT SEASON' (literally 'sun-COMIT', 'with sun'; ex.541 ngaji wungar-iji wula-ny 'his mother's father died in the hot season').
• bulur-iji = 'COLD SEASON' ('with morning-chill'; bulur = 'early-morning chill, dew').
• marral-wungar = 'dry time' (dry-sun); kaba = 'rain, the wet' (b87).
• ⭐ Season/time-of-year is stated with the -iji COMIT, not a bare noun. Also new kin term: ngaji = 'mother's father' (a specific grandfather).

Rule 70 — CONSTRUCTION: COMPARISON & SIMILATIVE (batch-112; grammar §3.9.2; l.3748/3809-3817/3902/4299/4398/4550/6254; ex.205-207/243/267/309/604)

yala = the COMP particle 'like, same' (same root as the demonstrative yala 'this'; l.3748). No copula — the yala-phrase IS the predicate.

• Similative X yala Y = 'X is like Y': julmbanu yala maja 'the kangaroo is like a boss' (ex.267); nyulu yala nyungu nganjan 'he is like his father' (ex.604); yala Eileen-anga kangkal 'like Eileen's child' (ex.309, yala + POSS).
• 'X looks like Y' = SUBJ yala walu-walu yala Y (literally 'SUBJ like [its] looks like Y'; walu 'face' → walu-walu 'appearance'): Nyulu yala walu-walu yala bikibiki 'he looks like a pig' (ex.205).
• 'like this, thus' = yala-ku (COMP + adverbial -ku): yala-ku dingka-l mara-bu 'squeeze it like this with the hand' (ex.243). The natural teaching form (hold it like this, turn your wrist like this).

'JUST THE SAME / ALSO' = yala-rrku (yala + totality/exclusive clitic -rrku, EMPH4, which attaches only to kari/yala/verbs/pronouns, l.3902): kanbal bubu yala-rrku 'some places are just the same' (ex.206); wulman yala-rrku … badi-ny 'the old man ALSO cried, just like the others' (ex.207).

'THE SAME / ONE' = nyubun 'one' does double duty as 'same' (the same face, the same blood). nyubun-bu (nyubun+INST) = 'as one, together' (thrown as one; two hands washing as one).

DIFFERENCE = the negated similative kari yala 'not like/different' (bubu … kari yala bubu ngayku 'a country not like mine'); yindu 'other/different', yindu-yindu 'differently'.

⚠️ DEGREE — NO morphological comparative/superlative, NO 'than'. Comparison of degree is done by JUXTAPOSITION + the intensifier bajaku 'very': yinya yalbay, yinya yalbay bajaku 'this big, that very big' = that is bigger; ladder buban / yalbay bajaku / yalbay wubulku-muny ('small / very big / big-beyond-all') = small→bigger→biggest. Comparison of worth = contrastive juxtaposed clauses ('a small gift with love is very big, a big gift thrown down without care'). Never coin a comparative morpheme — set two clauses side by side.

Rule 71 — LEXICAL: BUSH FOODS & PLANTS (batch-113; dictionary.yaml headwords; grammar ex.61/162/223)

YAMS & ROOTS: bambayal / biyangkal 'yam', banjay 'wild yam' (deep, twisting); ngara / bangkan 'root'; jurrbu 'shoots, young growth'. FRUITS: banabul pineapple · bulngkar (native) apple · junda wild plum · dukal / binanji fig · burrin-burrin breadfruit · banday cherry-tree. NUTS: bilar candlenut · bijalabay five-corner nut. ⚠️ barka = 'yellow water snake' (homophone), NOT a nut. TREES: juku (generic tree/wood) · baway black-bean · bijin tea-tree · dakumbar water-gum · dalban oak · babajaka bloodwood · baril-baril Moreton Bay fig · dari boxwood. PARTS: birra leaf · nganka flower (b110) · diburr seed · bukul bark · dakil branch · karra string/rope. SCRUB (madja) FAUNA: diwan scrub-turkey · jarruka scrub-hen · bimbarrbay scrub-wallaby · kalajarr scrub-goanna.

⭐ FOOD-GETTING VERBS — keep the senses apart (three of my own drifts corrected this batch, I3-safe):

• baka-l = 'DIG' (and 'poke') — ex.61 baka-ny 'dug up pipis', ex.223 juku-bu baka-ny 'a stick poked me'. NOT 'break'.
• dumbarri-l = 'BREAK, crack' (the correct word for breaking/cracking; e.g. cracking a candlenut).
• bangka-l = 'CATCH/GATHER (in quantity)' — ex.162 bangka-nka 'to catch a lot of fish'. NOT 'carry'. (⚠️ bangkan noun = 'root'.)
• jarra-kulba-l = 'CARRY, lift' (the correct word for carrying).
• mujal 'collect' · murni-l 'grind, rub, stir' (l.3545 + b107 kulji murni-nka 'grinding stone') · waju-l 'cook, roast'.
• ⚠️ kuka 'yam' is a PHANTOM (no source) — use bambayal/banjay. ⚠️ balmba/milbin/munjal unattested.

Season-signs from plant parts (LOC/SUB on plant nouns build a phenological calendar): nganka-ba 'when [it] is in flower' → yams ready; leaf jirakal 'fresh' → growing; leaf dara-nya 'fallen' → the time is nearly gone. Reduplication: baka-baka 'dig and dig', jurrki-jurrki 'twisting'.

Rule 72 — CONSTRUCTION: VERBAL ASPECT & DEGREE (batch-114; grammar §3.8.5.5 / §3.10.3 / §3.2.3.8; l.945/971/1236-1246/2109-2146; ex.79/82)

⭐ VERB REDUPLICATION = DURATIVE / ITERATIVE — 'keep V-ing', 'V for a while', 'V about, here and there'.

• General verbs redup wholly: nuril-nuril 'keep peeping' (l.945), nuka-l-nuka-l 'keep eating' (l.971), murni-murni 'keep grinding', baka-baka 'keep digging', nyaji-nyaji 'keep watching', yirrka-yirrka 'keep calling', balka-balka 'keep talking', jurrki-jurrki 'keep turning'.
• y-conjugation inserts -n- between the copies: warri-n-warri-y. (Geminate /nn/ → /n/.)
• ⭐ SIX common verbs use OBLIGATORY PARTIAL reduplication (the full form is now unacceptable, l.1241-1246): | surface | underlying | meaning | |---|---|---| | kankaday | kada-n-kada-y | keep coming | | bundanday | bunda-n-bunda-y | stay, keep sitting | | wunanay | wuna-n-wuna-y | keep lying, sleep | | banbadi | badi-n-badi-y | keep crying | | janjanay | jana-n-jana-y | keep standing | | wanarri | warri-n-warri-y | keep running, run about |
  • ⚠️ Elder surface drops final y after i: banbadi / wanarri (NOT *banbadiy/*wanarriy). The -ay forms keep -ay. (wanarri is also the everyday word for 'run'.)
• CAUS -bungal reduces to -bal in reduplication: dandi-bal-bal 'keep making hard', kima-bal-bal 'keep making soft' (l.1236).

-baja — split by word class (l.2139):

• on a VERB = 'again' (post-inflectional clitic): dama-ny-baja 'threw again', yudal-baja 'begin again', nyunba-baja 'return again'; stack for insistence balka-baja balka-baja 'tell again and again'.
• on an ADJECTIVE = DEG2 'very', and it MUST take -ku: X-baja-ku (dakuy-baja-ku 'very hungry', ex.82). ⭐ This is where the everyday intensifier bajaku comes from.
• DEG1 prefix jarra- = 'rather, more': jarra-yalbay 'rather big' (l.2113), jarra-kulbul 'rather ripe' (ex.79).

COMPLETIVE kunbayn 'finish' · INCEPTIVE yudal 'begin' — the whole shape of doing: begin (yudal) → keep at it (bundanday) → do it again (-baja) → finish (kunbayn).

Rule 73 — Fish & maritime fauna (the jalun-ji 'with-sea' domain) — batch-115 (LEXICAL)

The sea is a lexical world as deep as the scrub. The coastal Jalunji (the "with-sea people", grammar l.549) name it in full.

FISH. kuyu = the generic word for fish. Then by species: jirril small fish, dijarr freshwater fish, balarri queenfish, danbal/dawal kingfish, julaji/kanyaji catfish (spined — kill with a stick before you take it from the net), kalu garfish, dalku archer-fish (spits water), dukul-barangkal flathead (buried flat and sand-coloured), jingka-jingka silverfish, kubarr = the big black freshwater eel. SHARK/RAY: bilmbin/bububay black-tip shark (the "boss of the reef" — respect law: don't swim in dark water, don't carry bleeding fish through the deep channel), kilkirr tiger shark, badibu ray.

TURTLE & DUGONG (the big sea game): ngawiya (also yalnga) = sea turtle — hunted from the reef with a long spear; comes back to its own natal beach to make young; ngujay = freshwater turtle (caught by hand in swamp mud); kadan = turtle-shell (made into dishes/ornaments). biwuy (also kirbaji) = dugong — grazes wayul seaweed/sea-grass in warm shallows; the richest food of the sea, hardest to hunt (hears the least sound and is gone). A biwuy-balbi-bama 'dugong-hunter' must know the tides, the sea-grass beds and the moon.

REEF-GLEANING (at ngajal low tide): julul/juwarru oyster (prised off the rock with a sharp stone), darkay clam/cockle, kajarrbi clam-shell, dakaldakal trocus-shell (a good cup), jalan sea-urchin (black spines break off in the foot), kiju mudcrab (deep in its mangrove-mud hole), karruku fiddler/ghost crab (waves one big claw like men dancing). The reef dulngku (also karrangkal) is a mayi-bubu 'food-ground'; karrirrangkal = coral.

THE SEA, TIDE & SHORE. jalun sea, kalkil salt-water/salt, mulngku WAVE (⚠️ NOT wulngku 'song'), balar high tide vs ngajal low tide (yira = the tide itself; the biggest low tides come at the full and new moon — kija murru-murru / kija-kari — the time to glean), jukar sand/shore, kajul/kakaji mangrove (the "nursery of the sea"), dajali deep water. GEAR: makarr net (set across the creek-mouth), badur/mingu hook, kalka spear. VERB: maraji/mariji-y = swim. BIRDS: dirrmbay seagull (follows the fishermen), juril-juril shore plover.

SEA COMPOUNDS stay transparent + attested-rooted: kuyu-bama 'fisherman', biwuy-balbi-bama 'dugong-hunter', bana-mabi 'rock-pool' (water-hollow), julul-bubu 'oyster-bed', mayi-bubu 'food-ground', karrkay-bubu 'nursery' (child-ground). MORPH: the many single-r-final sea words take LOC -a — jukar-a, wangkar-a, balar-a (corpus: jukar-a 34× vs jukar-ba 0×).

⚠️ WRONG-SENSE TRAPS corrected this batch (all caught by grepping before banking): ngamu = 'mother' (there is NO word for 'egg'; use karrkay 'young' or kuyu ngamu 'mother fish'); jarba = 'snake' (no 'canoe' word — reword to swim / on-the-water); kulur = 'three' (not 'colour'); marra = 'tree' (ochre = murbuy 'red ochre'); kaban = 'paper' (not 'cover'); jukul/wandal/yanyul unattested (mud = kambal-kambal, dance = jurbu).

Rule 74 — Conditional & hypothetical (kaki / -nyaku / -nyji / nguba) — batch-116 (CONSTRUCTION)

Kuku Yalanji has a small, tidy system for conditions, counterfactuals, cautions and possibilities. (Rule 42 named the inflections in the paradigm table; this is their themed use.)

kaki 'if/when' — the CONDITIONAL particle (§4.3.2, l.5091). A co-ordination particle; the kaki-clause is usually FIRST of two clauses. ⚠️ A kaki conditional is NON-PAST only — Kaki kaba yalbay kaday, bana jalungkarr-ma-l 'If the big rain comes, the river floods'; Kaki yundu ngulkurr balbi minya daji, bayan narmba ngulkurr nuka 'If you hunt well and share the meat, the whole camp eats well.' This is the natural home of gnomic country-law (leave enough → it feeds you forever; be lazy → you go hungry; full moon → the reef is bare for gleaning). kaki may also stand in second position: Nyulu warngku-wuna-y, kaki nyulu baja-burray 'He has a sleep, if he is tired.'

PAST conditional/temporal = clause JUXTAPOSITION (l.5111) — no kaki. To say 'if it had not rained that year, we would all have gone hungry', juxtapose the past clauses and mark the consequence with the irrealis: Kaba … daray kari-nya, ngana narmba dakuy wuna-nyaku.

IRREALIS -nyaku — the COUNTERFACTUAL 'would/should/could have Ved (but didn't)'. Carries no tense; almost always paired with yamba 'but' + the frustrating reason: Ngayu minya nuka-nyaku, … minya kabu 'I would have eaten the meat, but it was rotten'; Nyulu danbal dama-nyaku, … kalka dumbarri 'He would have speared the kingfish, but the spear broke'; Ngana kadar-ka balbi-nka dunga-nyaku, yamba kaba yalbay daray 'We would have gone hunting for wallaby, but the big rain fell.'

PRECAUTIONARY -nyji 'lest' (root + -nyji, l.1143) — the undesirable event to avert: juku junkurr karrba … kiju … bayka-nyji 'hold the stick tight lest the mudcrab bite'; bana nyaji-nyaji … yira … mani-nyji 'watch the water lest the tide catch you'; INCHO+PRECAUT yalbay-ma-nyji 'lest he grow up (knowledge-less)' — exactly the grammar's dakuy-ma-nyji 'lest I get hungry' (l.5850). Two 'in case' particles provision against a hypothetical: kunka 'might be/in case' + nganganjirrka 'just in case' (l.3836) — buri-juku jarra-kulba … wujurr ngiki … kunka 'carry a firestick in case the cold night catches you'; kalka mani … jarba jina-ba wuna nganganjirrka 'take a spear just in case a snake lies on the track'.

nguba 'perhaps/maybe' = the PREFERRED possibility marker (l.5767; the hypothetical-reason -nyV+DAT clause is "cumbersome and avoided"). Nguba dingkar-dingkar wujurr niji-ba ngawiya-jirr kaday-baja 'Perhaps the men will come back tonight with a turtle.' nguba … nguba kari = 'perhaps … perhaps not'.

SUCCESSIVE -nyjiku 'before' (the latter of two events, no causal link): … jilba-nyjiku 'before walking', wujurr kaday-nyjiku 'before night comes', yira nyunba-nyjiku 'before the tide turns back'.

The whole hypothetical system in one line (row 50): kaki (real condition) · -nyji (condition to avert) · nguba/nguba kari (open possibility) · -nyaku (counterfactual) — "if you do this, that follows; do this lest that happen; perhaps it will, perhaps not — but always leave enough behind."

Rule 75 — Birds (the buyi world) — batch-117 (LEXICAL)

The bird world completes the fauna triad (Rule 63 land mammals · Rule 73 sea fauna · Rule 75 birds). GENERIC: buyi bird · nangki wing (and plumage — there is no separate 'feather' word) · banda tail · marra-warri to fly · yirrka to call/cry.

BUSH BIRDS (by call & habit): kuyir bush-curlew (night-wail), kururrungka kookaburra (the dawn-clock), jarruka scrub-hen (rakes a great mound and lays her young deep inside — no 'egg' word, use karrkay 'young'), diwan scrub-turkey, kurrbal plain-turkey, bulnja frogmouth (freezes like a dead branch — yala juku wula-nya), dawa-dawa magpie, kalbu black-crow (clever thief — binal-binal 'clever'), kalkuy owl.

RAINFOREST BIRDS (by colour & place): kurranji cassowary (buyi yalbay madja-mu, taller than a man, one kick can kill; the forest-planter — carries big seeds through the scrub), kadanji/kumurbina black-cockatoo (evening screech = rain-omen), karrambil king-parrot (ngala-ngala red), birrbirr lorikeet (drunk on nectar), jurriyan bower-bird (builds a decorated avenue — juku-jandu — and steals shining/dark things; ⚠️ jurriyan not jurriyam — a word cannot end in -m), dabuy/jiwal-jiwal kingfisher (dives yala kalka 'like a spear'). PIGEON/DOVE: bakamu green-pigeon, juku-juku bronzewing-dove, kuludu dove.

WATER & SHORE BIRDS: kulbal brolga (dances at the end of the wet, mates for life), jamarbina goose (migration), birmba straw-necked ibis, juril-juril seashore-plover, mabal swallow (mud nests under the rock overhang), jangkan swift. HUNTING BIRDS: jinabiju goshawk/chicken-hawk (hangs in the wind then stoops kulji yala 'like a stone'; the little birds all fall silent yirrka kunbayn when it comes), kalin-kalin kestrel/hawk (hovers).

BIRDS AS SIGNS (the register): the kookaburra's laugh = dawn; the cockatoos at dusk = rain coming; the bower-bird's display = the cold time near; the geese massing on the shrinking waterholes = the wet ending; the little birds falling silent = the hawk is near; the three night-birds (curlew + owl + frogmouth) calling together = a bad and frightening thing. And the leave-enough law again: never rob a nest of all its young — take one or two, leave the rest.

MORPH from this batch: the object of a transitive verb is ABSOLUTIVE (unmarked) for a common noun — 'chase the dog' = just kaya (no accusative; a -nha accusative is wrong and smuggles in an illegal /h/). Lexicalised reduplicated animal names are hyphenated in the elder surface like productive redup: dawa-dawa, juku-juku, juril-juril, jiwal-jiwal. LOC as usual: muyar-a (single-r → -a), yindu-ngu (u → -ngu).

NO Kuku Yalanji word for: egg · feather · nest · blue · green · thing · moth · trap · koel · brown · purple · slowly — each rendered by an attested near-term (karrkay young, nangki plumage, buyi-bubu nest, balbal bright, ngumbu dark, janka quietly) or reworded. Never an invented root.

Rule 76 — Complementation & catenative (want / know-how / try / teach / let / begin-finish) — batch-118 (CONSTRUCTION)

Kuku Yalanji builds its complement clauses on the PURPOSIVE -nkV (Rule 42): a complement-taking predicate governs a purposive verb (or a dative noun). The predicates fall into four groups.

DESIDERATIVE / ABILITY / CONATIVE. wawu 'want/like' (adjectival particle, §4.9.1) + PURP or DAT: wawu nuka-nka 'want to eat', wawu mayi-nka 'want food'. binal 'know how to' + PURP: binal bunga-nka 'know how to make'; negated binal-kari 'not know how'. babal 'try' + PURP: babal dama-nka 'try to spear'; redup babal-babal 'try and try'. Purposives stack: karrkay wawu balbi-nka binal-ma-nka 'the boy wants to learn to hunt'.

DIRECTIVE / MANIPULATIVE. binal-bungal 'teach' (literally 'make-know', CAUS) + PURP complement: karrkay ... nyaji-nka binal-bungal 'teach the child to read [tracks]'. balka 'tell (someone to)' — the addressee is DATIVE — + PURP: karrkay-karrkay-nka balka ... bunda-nka 'tell the children to sit'. yungal 'send' (a thing + the carrier in LOC, ex.273-274): kuku yunga-n bayan yindu-nka warru-anda 'sent a message to the other camp with the young man'.

CAUSATION & HELP. CAUS -bungal/-mal 'make/cause': dandi-bungal 'makes hard', marral-bungal 'makes dry', yararri-bungal 'makes (them) shiver'. mara-dajil 'help' (hand-give) + PURP, or -wari RECIP 'help each other'. balu 'let / leave alone / desist' (§4.9.2, ex.570 Balu dungay! 'Let him/her go!'): balu wuna 'let him sleep', balu bunda 'let it be'.

PHASAL & COGNITIVE. yudal 'begin' and kunbayn 'finish' bracket an action (... murni-nka yudal ... narmba kunbayn 'began to grind ... finished the whole lot'). milka-wulay 'forget' (ear-die) + PURP; binalku 'remember' + PURP — the cognitive complements of not-doing and doing.

⚠️ MORPH — the object/addressee of these constructions (re-affirming Rule 39 & the batch-117 lesson): the object of a transitive verb, and the addressee of balka, is ABSOLUTIVE (unmarked) for a COMMON noun — there is NO accusative case on nouns (and no -nha; /h/ is illegal). 'ask the girl' = jalbu; 'tell the children' = the dative karrkay-karrkay-nka. PRONOUNS do have a true accusative: nganya 'me' (1sg ACC, suppletive), yununy 'you' (2sg ACC), nyunguny 'him' (3sg ACC); 'tell him' = the dative nyungunku. Nouns are ergative-absolutive, pronouns nominative-accusative, and complement objects obey exactly that split.

Rule 77 — Reptiles, frogs & insects (the crawling world; completes the fauna quartet) — batch-119 (LEXICAL)

With b105 (land mammals), b115 (sea fauna) and b117 (birds), this batch completes the animal kingdom: the reptiles, amphibians and invertebrates. Reptiles are the dictionary's richest single field.

SNAKES — jarba/bubal snake (generic); to species: bindimu black snake, jinkalmu brown snake, kalkamuku green tree snake, bakay water snake, kabul rock python, jijirrbay whip snake. LIZARDS & CROC — bajuy lizard; jadi sand-goanna, kalajarr scrub-goanna, bajabaja blue-tongue, binanjal frill-neck, bilbil-bilbil gecko, jabil scrub-lizard; bilngkumu crocodile (the most-feared creature). FROGS — yirku-yirku frog, karrkurr green frog. INSECTS — biters kamu mosquito, diri-diri sandfly; food mujurr witchetty grub, kuja sugarbag (stingless) bee, dabu bee; useful/eaten munjurr green ant; malal spider, kurrmbal cicada, karrkil red-jumper-ant, jabarrangkul black-ant, durra caterpillar, kandal maggot, birinjil centipede, biringal scorpion, mulma hornet. ACTIONS — baykal bite, jalngkay itch, janku hole, walmba log, nandal close/shut.

⚠️ THE MINIMAL PAIR: mara-warri 'crawl' (single-r) vs marra-warri 'fly' (double-r). These differ only in /r/ (retroflex glide) vs /rr/ (trill), and they name two everyday motions — the snake mara-warri's through the grass, the fly marra-warri's over the meat. A spelling slip turns a crawling snake into a flying insect. Hold the contrast whenever either verb of motion is written.

⚠️ NO NOUN 'SKIN' exists (reword around it), and there is no plain /g/ onset in Kuku Yalanji (only /ng/) — so ganggal is doubly impossible. Object of a transitive verb / addressee of balka, for a common noun, is absolutive; for the 3pl pronoun it is the bare NOM base jana (Rule 39 — non-singular pronouns are NOM in ALL core positions), and the balka addressee is the dative jana-nka. There is no -nha accusative (illegal /h/ + no noun accusative).

Rule 78 — The -nya subordinate clause (four functions) — batch-120 (CONSTRUCTION)

Verb + -nya (SUB; -nyu after u) is the workhorse of Kuku Yalanji subordination (grammar §4.4.4). One suffix, four clause types.

1. SIMULTANEOUS ACTION (§4.4.4.1) — 'while / watched X V-ing'. The subordinate verb is OFTEN REDUPLICATED (an action must be ongoing to coincide with another), and it pairs with a perception main verb (nyaji-l see/watch, manubu-dama-l watch) so it reads like an English relative clause: Bama-ngka Chinaman nyaji-l-nyaji-ny, gold baka-l-baka-nya 'The man watched the Chinese digging for gold' (ex.458); dama-l-dama-nya 'spearing' (ex.459); nuka-nuka-nya 'feeding' (ex.461). REDUP surface: -l-conjugation verbs keep the -l inside the reduplication — baka-l-baka-nya, dama-l-dama-nya, muja-l-muja-nya — others double the bare root: janji-janji-nya, maraji-maraji-nya, jurbu-jurbu-nya.

2. CAUSAL (§4.4.4.2) — 'tired/sore FROM V-ing / because'. Verb + -nya, takes NO case; the action is understood as completed and prior. Janji-nya, nyulu bajaburray 'He is tired from bathing' (ex.485); warngku-wuna-nya 'because [he] was asleep' (ex.487); jabi-nya 'because [it] kicked' (ex.490). Where the caused NP is the main A or O, a clarifying anaphoric pronoun is preferred.

3. PRIOR EVENT (§4.4.4.3) — 'after having V-ed'. ⭐ The temporal proclitic wawu- (TEMP4, §3.10.1) + verb + -nya + -muny (ABL): wawu-janji-nya-muny 'after bathing' (ex.491), wawu-bayka-nya-muny 'after [it] bit [him]' (ex.493). With a noun instead of a verb: wawu-mayi-muny 'after the meal', wawu-yinya-muny 'after that' (l.3887). wawu- occurs only with the ablative.

4. HYPOTHETICAL REASON (§4.4.4.4) — 'in case'. Introduced by kunka 'in case' (specified event) or nganganjirrka 'just in case' (unspecified) + verb + -nya (l.3837): kunka jarba wuna-nya 'in case a snake is lying there'.

⚠️ THREE homophones of wawu: wawu 'want/like' (desiderative particle, Rule 76) · wawu 'breath/soul' (Rule 42-era) · wawu- 'since/after' (temporal proclitic, this rule, always + ABL). The obligatory ablative and context disambiguate; never conflate them.

Rule 79 — Kinship: the web of kin + the -karra plural — batch-121 (LEXICAL)

The semantic field that organises the social world. Kuku Yalanji names kin with fine precision.

PARENTS & their siblings. ngamu (~mama) mother · nganjan father · kalnga mother's brother (MB) · bimakay father's sister (FZ). The MB (kalnga) is not a lesser father but a figure of his own weight — he gives the boy his first spear, teaches the hard law, and speaks sternly where the father is gentle. SIBLINGS (split by relative age): yaba elder brother · yabaju younger brother · babarr elder sister · jinkurr younger sister. GRANDPARENTS (split by line): kami grandfather (FF) · ngaji mother's father (MF, distinct from kami) · babi grandmother. DESCENDANTS: kangkal (one's own) child · jija / kaminjarr grandchild · manda / ngujurr niece. SPOUSE: dunyu husband · biwar / kuban / manyarr wife. AFFINES: biwul mother-in-law · ngalayan father-in-law. WIDER: bangunji cousin · jawun friend / unspecified relative · mandi moiety · mulkal-mulkal totem · ngalba the taboo-name of a deceased person · kuru affection.

⭐ THE KINSHIP PLURAL = -karra (KPL), NOT reduplication (grammar l.1985). Ordinary nouns reduplicate (karrkay-karrkay 'children'), but kin terms take the derivational suffix -karra: yaba-karra 'brothers', babarr-karra 'sisters', manyarr-karra 'wives', dunyu-karra 'husbands', ngaji-karra 'maternal grandfathers', jija-karra 'grandchildren'; it extends even to jawun-karra 'friends'. The ONE exception is kangkal 'own child', which reduplicates like an ordinary noun.

CULTURE (linguistic facts). The moiety rule: marry the opposite mandi; children follow the father's moiety; everything — every animal and tree — belongs to one side (grammar l.653). Mother-in-law avoidance: a man never looks at or speaks directly to biwul. Name-avoidance: a dead person's name is not spoken; they are called only by the ngalba (l.699).

Rule 80 — Questions & interrogatives — batch-122 (CONSTRUCTION)

Two kinds of question, cleanly split.

CONTENT questions use an interrogative word (stressed, may stand anywhere; the verb keeps ordinary tense):

⚠️ MORPH insight: 'who' patterns with the NOUN case system (ergative/absolutive, potent set), not with the pronouns; 'what' takes the neutral set, and its case forms are the other interrogatives — DATIVE→why, LOCATIVE→why-there, COMITATIVE→ill-with. 'When' and 'how' are built on 'where'.

POLAR (yes/no) questions take NO particle and NO question word — the same word order as a plain statement, marked by INTONATION alone (in writing, only the ?): Yundu kada-y? 'Are you coming?', Minya waju-n niji? 'Is the meat cooked now?'.

INDEFINITES: 'who'/'what' are ONLY interrogative in Kuku Yalanji (never 'someone/something'). For an indefinite non-human 'something' use junjuy; wanja(bu) can double as 'somewhere'. Embedded questions reuse the interrogatives (binal wanya 'know who').

Rule 81 — Speech, sound, names & message-carrying — batch-123 (LEXICAL)

This batch covers the everyday discourse register: asking elders, calling children, carrying news between camps, naming people and places, singing, whispering, scolding, and distinguishing truthful speech from lies.

SPEECH / REPORT VERBS. balka-l 'say, tell' is the ordinary reporting verb; the addressee is DATIVE (karrkay-karrkay-nka balkan 'told the children'). balka-l-awa-y / balkalaway = 'talk together, discuss'. babaji-l 'ask' has the Rule-59 frame: person asked = LOCATIVE, topic asked about = DATIVE (ngamu-ndu babajin mayi-ka 'asked mother about food'). kunja-l = call/summon/invite. yunga-l = send; for a message, the word/news is the object and the carrier can be LOCATIVE (kuku yungan ... warru bila-anda). murru-kanga-l = scold/growl at. yayngkar-abu balka-l = speak in a whisper.

HEARING / PERCEPTION. nyaji-l is broad: see, hear, perceive. It does the hearing work when the object is audible (wulngku nyaji-l hear a song, kuku nyaji-l hear words, ngangkurr nyaji-l hear barking). yanday-nyaji-l = overhear. Do not invent a separate English-shaped 'listen' verb; build the hearing relation with nyaji-l and an audible object, or use a safer finite non-imperative clause until the imperative system is treated directly.

SOUND WORDS. wulngku badi-y = sing a song; badi-y also covers cry/wail/howl in context. yirrka-y = shout/cry out; kuwimbur yirrka-y = whistle. kadil is a sharp/crashing sound (axe cutting wood, tree falling). yanja is rustling noise, especially grass/wind-like noise, and should not be stretched to generic loud sound. ngangkurr = dog-bark/barking sound. nyurra-baka = too noisy, for human/camp noise.

NAMES, TRUTH & LIES. burri = name, also a corroboree-song sense; dalki-l = give a name / call by name. jurril = lie/untruth; warmbiji-y = lie/prevaricate; jurril-bunga-l = trick by lying. manubaja = truth; manubaja-bunga-l = believe. kuku is the central discourse noun: word, language, news, story, law. Avoid forcing an English one-word 'answer'; use balka-l 'say/tell' or rephrase the speech act.

MORPH traps from the batch. The kinship plural -karra stays in the kinship domain (Rule 79); do not use it as a general plural for objects such as spears. yanja is not a generic sound noun. The draft forms that treated binal as 'meaning' or used an unsafe nyaji imperative were rejected before acceptance.

Rule 82 — Antipassive — batch-124 (CONSTRUCTION)

Kuku Yalanji has a productive antipassive (§4.2.4.4), but its job is semantic rather than syntactic: unlike Dyirbal, it is not required just to coordinate clauses. It changes how the action is construed.

FORM. A transitive verb is intransitivized with stem-forming -ji-. In the elder surface, nonpast -ji-y is written -ji, and past -ji-ny is written -jin; keep the full analytic form only in the analysis field. The underlying A becomes surface S: a noun subject is bare absolutive, not ergative. The underlying O is no longer a bare absolutive object; it is demoted to LOCATIVE or, for 'through' in Nyungkul, PERLATIVE.

TOTAL-EFFECT antipassive = simple V-ji. A simple, unreduplicated antipassive can mean the patient is affected as a whole, especially with non-individuated food/property. Patz's model: Nyulu dingkar minya-nga nuka-jin 'The man had a good/full feed of meat'; Ngamu mayi-nga wambi-jin 'Mother shared out all the food'; Jalbu ngayku-wun-bu bayan-ba ngunja-jin 'The woman took over my house completely.'

GENERALIZED antipassive = reduplicated V-V-ji. Reduplication gives diffuse, repeated, or non-individuated action: mayi-nga nuka-n-nuka-ji 'keep eating at food'; wukay-mba nubi-nubi-ji 'look around for yams'; kuyu-ngu dama-n-dama-ji 'spear around for fish'; kaya-nda kuni-n-kuni-ji 'hit at the dogs around here'; bayan-ba nuri-nuri-ji 'peep around in houses'. This is not a normal transitive clause with a direct object.

Communication-like fixed stems. Patz treats kunjaji-y 'ask someone for something', walngkurriji-y 'pester someone for something', and babaji-y 'ask someone about something' as synchronically fixed intransitive stems with the same antipassive-like frame: actor as S, person addressed in LOC, requested/topic item in DAT. Examples: Dingkar ngayku-ndu mayi-ka kunjajin; Karrkay ngamu-ndu mayi-ka walngkurrijin; Maja warru-nda minya-ka babajin.

Allomorph discipline matters. The demoted object often carries a hard locative allomorph: wukay-mba (y-final), kuyu-ngu (u-final), makarr-ba (rr-final), kadar-a (single-r). Batch 124's lint catch was exactly the kind of surface/analysis leak this construction invites: write elder-surface walan, not analytic wala-ny, in the Kuku sentence.

Rule 83 — Fire & cooking — batch-125 (LEXICAL)

This lexical batch tightens the everyday fire, earth-oven, grinding, and meal-sharing field. It replaces an inherited operator-guide typo: fire/firewood is baya, not buri.

FIRE-MAKING. baya = fire/firewood; jimal = fire-stick; dama-murni-l = twirl a fire-drill; jakalamba-l = start a fire; kubu = smoke; wula = flames; ngunjil = charcoal/coals; wumbul = hot/warm; jirra = burnt. Bajar names Moreton Bay ash / white gum tree, not residue ash. Useful direct models:

• Ngayu baya waju-l, yundu wumbul-ma-nka = I light a fire so that you get warm.
• Baya waju-l-waju, kiway kada-nyji = keep the fire burning lest cold come.
• Jujubala waju, jarramali kada-nyji = burn ironwood lest thunder come. jarramali is thunder; do not over-gloss it as generic wind/storm.

COOKING VERBS. Patz writes waju-l for cook/burn/light a fire; the dictionary spelling is also recorded as wayjul. The elder-surface past is wajun. Keep it distinct from dinda-l roast, nyama-l boil, jani well-cooked/done, and jirra burnt. Good contrasts: Kuyu ngulkurr wajun ngunjil wumbul-ba 'the fish cooked well in the hot coals'; Minya kurrma-nga kari jirra 'the meat in the ground oven was not burnt'; Mayi kurrma-nga jani 'the food in the ground oven was well cooked'.

EARTH OVEN kurrma. The frame is locative-heavy, so allomorphy matters:

• kurrma-nga in the ground oven.
• bubu-ngu in the ground.
• ngunjil-ba / ngunjil wumbul-ba on/in the coals.
• baya-nga at/on the fire, but baya ngundu-ba near the fire.

The safe sequence is: dig kurrma; light it with waju-l; put food in with yijarri-l; cover with buyku paperbark; leave it with bawa-l; take/open it out with walnga-l. Batch examples: Jana kurrma wajun, minya kurrma-nga yijarrin; Jana minya dindan kurrma-nga; Minya wajun, jana minya walngan.

GRINDING, BREAD, AND FOOD. Use nyurrba-l grind, murni-l stir/rub/twist, dingka-l knead, duda-l pound, damba damper, kawar honey bread, wunba honey, wandul fat, kulbul ripe. Examples: Jalbu-jalbu-ngku diburr nyurrban damba-ka; Jalbu-ngku damba dingkan; Ngamu-ngku kawar murnin, kawar nganja ngulkurr.

SHARING AND EATING REGISTER. Do not invent moral vocabulary. Use the attested food-sharing/eating system: wambi-ji for sharing out all food, daji-l give, nuka-l eat, dakwuy hungry, yajin full from eating, nganja taste/smell. Ngamu kuyu jani-nga wambi-jin follows the Rule-82 total-effect antipassive: noun S is bare, cooked fish is demoted to LOC. The social register can be plain parataxis: Mukul-bama nukan, baja bama wubulku nukan 'the old person ate, then everyone ate.'

Batch-125 process traps. maku-janay was not used for English "wait" because the errata warns against treating it as a clean single wait verb; use bunda-l 'sit' plus purpose when that is what the Kuku actually says. The batch also kept duna wet, marral dry, and ngiki cool/cold in their verified senses, and kept out the old fire/cooking phantoms (buri, bibiny, jubaji, nyalbu, kuka, kubarr, kambar as color).

Rule 84 — Negation — batch-126 (CONSTRUCTION)

Kuku Yalanji has more than one negative strategy. Keep the forms apart.

Plain kari = NEG 'not' / interjection 'no'. In ordinary predicate negation, kari immediately precedes the negated predicator: Kaba kari kadan 'the rain did not come'; Kaya-ngka karrkay kari baykan 'the dog did not bite the child'. Patz's stress examples show that placement can focus the negated constituent: Ngayu mayi kari nukan, minya nukan = I did not eat the plant food, I ate meat; Ngayu kari mayi nukan, karrkay-angka nukan = I did not eat the food, the child did.

Prohibitives = kari + imperative. The negative particle sits with an imperative verb:

• Yarraman kari kanga = do not chase the horse.
• Yundu ngamu kari nyuya = do not blame your mother.
• Mayi kari waju, buyun-dama-nyji = do not cook the food lest you spoil it.
• Kari kaya kuli-ji karrba, yununy bayka-nyji = do not touch the vicious dog lest it bite you.

This is also where precautionary -nyji often appears: main clause says what not to do; subordinate clause names the bad event to avoid.

Privative -kari = 'without/lacking N'. This is not the same syntactic object as free kari: it forms one nominal/adjectival stem. Further case goes outside the privative stem:

• predicator: Yinya bama milka-kari = that person is deaf; Ngayu mani-kari = I have no money; Juku-juku nganka-kari = the trees have no flowers.
• dative: bajibay-kari-ka = without bones-DAT.
• locative/potent: mani-kari-nda = with/to the one with no money.
• comitative: kangkal-kari-ji = with the childless one.
• ergative: kaya-kari-ngka = the one without a dog as A.

The productive lesson is the suffix boundary: N/ADJ + -kari + case, never case before -kari.

balu = NEG2 'desist/refrain/give up', not plain not. Patz contrasts balu with both kari and wawu-kari. Ngayu balu kuni-wa-nka means I refrain from / disapprove of fighting. Ngayu balu buymbi-nka means I do not smoke as a general abstention. Ngayu wawu-kari buymbi-nka niji means I do not want to smoke now, a more specific non-desire. Nyulu warru balu dama-nka ngawuya means the young man could not spear the turtle and gave up.

Fixed negative compounds/particles.

• wawu-kari = do not want/like.
• binal-kari = not know: Jana nyiku binal-kari kuku-ku; Ngayu binal-kari baka-juku wanjabu.
• yamba-kari = nothing/none: Baral-darr bana yamba-kari = there is no water along the road.
• kariku = not yet / not all, depending on context: Kaba kariku kadan.
• karirrku = not really / not altogether: Ngayu karirrku warngku-wunan.

Surface traps from batch 126. Patz analysis may show nguju-wuri-y and jiba-badi-y, but the elder surface drops final -iy: write nguju-wuri and jiba-badi in the Kuku sentence. kamukamu 'alcohol/grog' is a grep-verified lexicalized solid form in Patz, so it is whitelisted in lint; do not generalize that whitelist to productive reduplications.

Rule 85 — Landscape & geography — batch-127 (LEXICAL)

This batch is intentionally short-rowed: it is a lexical-control batch for spatial nouns, location words, and local-case allomorphy. Do not judge its value by clause density. Its job is to make later country/route narratives safer.

Country / ground / landforms. bubu is not just "dirt": it covers ground, place, and a person's/descent group's country. manjal = mountain; jalkaraburr = mountain peak/high mountain reaches; jalkar = high bank; kangku = valley / low gap / mountain pass; jamba = hillside; madja = scrub, jungle, rainforest; janku = hole in the ground; jalngarr = flat rock; kulji = stone/pebbles; jukar = sand.

Water / sea / tide. bana = water; wawubaja = river; yilki = creek; jalun = sea; dajali = deep water; yalkan = shallow water; dulngku = reef; balar = high tide; ngajal = low tide; yira = tide itself. Keep balar/ngajal as tide states, not generic up/down.

Location words are not ordinary nouns. Patz treats them as a closed class with special local behavior. Bare roots can already be locative/directional: wangkar up/upriver/inland, wangkarwangkar up there/above, bada down/downriver, badabada down there/underneath, ngundu close by/this side, ngubar other side of the river, kudamundu behind, yarra that way/over there by gesture. Do not add ordinary noun locative suffixes to these unless Patz gives a local-case form: ngubar-muny, badabada-mundu, wangkar-muny, etc.

Local-case allomorphy is part of the lesson.

• V-final/u-final: bubu-ngu, dulngku-ngu, bana-nga, wawubaja-nga, yilki-nga, madja-nga, jamba-nga.
• single r: jukar-a (never jukar-ba for locative).
• consonant-final: manjal-ba, yalkan-ba.
• attested special sea form: jalun-bu for sea-LOC.
• source: bayan-muny, jalun-muny, ngubar-muny.
• traversal: wawubaja-burr through the river.
• action-from-location: badabada-mundu from down there.

Motion setting. dunga-y and kada-y do real discourse work. dunga-y follows participant movement/departure; kada-y frames motion toward a goal or arrival. Batch 127 kept exact Patz-like rows for this: Bayan-muny nyulu bada yilki-nga dungan; Nyulu kadan ngubar-muny; Ngundu kada-y yalkan-ba.

Process guard. baral remains a documented conflict: Patz has baral-darr 'along the road' in examples, but the project errata warns against productive new baral road/path rows because the dictionary also has baral 'feel'. Until this is resolved deliberately, avoid new baral road sentences except exact, documented Patz quotations. For this batch, no productive baral rows were added.

Surface traps from batch 127. Analysis may keep janji-ny and wanarri-y, but elder surface writes janjin and wanarri. The review pass also tightened Bubu julbarr-bi to "really slippery" and glossed bula as the dual pronoun they.two, not a compositional "two they".

Rule 86 — Imperatives & directives — batch-128 (CONSTRUCTION)

The imperative system is small but unforgiving. Do not form English-shaped commands by guessing a bare citation form; choose the imperative allomorph from conjugation class and stem shape.

Core imperative allomorphs.

Suppletive imperatives. Three high-frequency l-conjugation verbs do not use their citation root as the command:

• nyaji-l see/hear/perceive -> nyaka (safe command gloss: "look/see"; do not use as generic English "listen!" unless the hearing context is explicit).
• mani-l get/take -> mana (Bana mana!, Yubal wuju mana milkul-ku).
• daji-l give -> daya (Minya ngaykunku daya!, Daya-rr!).

Causative-compound trap. Long words do not automatically take long-stem -ka. Causative compounds behave by the second component:

• -bunga-l state-causative compounds take zero imperative on the compound component: Wumbul-bunga! heat it up.
• action-causative -mani-l uses the suppletive imperative mana: Yinya dara-y-mana! drop that.

Subjects and hortatives. Imperatives normally address an implicit or explicit second person. If the subject is stated, Patz says it strongly prefers initial position: Yurra julurri-ji-ka!, Yubal bundanda-ka..., Yundu walu-wukurri-ka!. A first-person inclusive non-singular subject gives a hortative/suggestion: Ngana kada-ri-ka-da! come on, let us go now.

Directive force and clitics.

• Plain imperative can be a normal order or request.
• -da on an imperative urges immediate action now: Mayi nuka-da!.
• -(ng)Vrr means straight away / first of all, and Patz rejects a politeness distinction among its allomorphs: Nuka-ngarr!, Mayi-ngarr nuka!, Kadayarr!, Daya-rr!, Yundu wulman-anda babaji-ka-rr!.
• balu in directive clauses means desist / let / leave alone, not plain kari negation. Use the attested intransitive pattern safely: Balu dungay!, Balu wajujika!. Do not overgeneralize the tentative transitive example.

Continuative commands. Reduplicated imperatives prompt continuing activity:

• Yubal bundanda-ka, ngayu kada-y-baja! you two keep sitting; I will come back.
• Baya waju-l-waju, kiway kada-nyji! keep a fire burning lest cold come.
• Suppletive reduplicated commands use the suppletive root: Nyaka-l-nyaka!, Mana-l-mana!, Daya-l-daya!.
• y-conjugation reduplication uses the -n- linker: Dunga-n-dunga-y!, Yirrka-n-yirrka-y!.

Precautionary pairings. Imperatives often combine with -nyji precautionary clauses, but the -nyji verb is subordinate, not another command suffix: Jujubala waju jarramali kada-nyji!; Mayi kari waju, buyun-dama-nyji!; Kari diburr kulba, dara-y-mani-nyji!.

Process traps from batch 128. Keep the elder surface separate from the analysis: write surface warri while the analysis records warri-y; write surface nyaji-ji while the analysis records nyaji-ji-y. The exact Patz attention sounds Ah/Yah and the exact walnga! wake-up form were not banked until the lexeme/lint status is deliberately updated; the batch kept the source-safe imperative content instead. nyaka was not treated as a free English "listen!" command, and no ngara hearing/listening rows were added because ngara-l is verified as set up/build camp.

Rule 87 — Emotions & mental states — batch-129 (LEXICAL)

This field is not an English emotion-word list. Kuku Yalanji distributes mental and bodily states across free particles, body-part compounds, inchoatives, causatives, and ordinary nominal predicates.

Particle predicates with DAT/PURP complements. The core grammar pattern is a state/desire particle as predicate, plus either a dative noun or a purposive verb:

• Nyulu wawu minya-ka = he wants meat.
• Nyulu wawu nuka-nka = he wants to eat.
• Nyulu wawu minya nuka-nka = he wants to eat meat.
• Karrkay-karrkay wawu jirray kinka-n-kinka-nka = the children love to play.
• Maral yinil jarba-nka = the girl is afraid of snakes.
• Ngayu yinil wujurr-bu dunga-nka = I am afraid to go in the dark.

wawu jirray intensifies liking/love. wawu-kari is specific non-want/non-like; balu is different, carrying desist/refrain/disapproval (Ngayu balu mayngku-ku wawumu-ku = I avoid/dislike half-ripe mangoes on principle).

Fear, fright, and anger.

• yinil = afraid/fear as a non-inflecting particle; feared entity is usually dative.
• yinil-ma-l = become frightened: Maral yinilman.
• yinil-kanga-l = frighten someone: Dubu-ngku maral yinil-kangan.
• yinil-kanga-ji-y = be frightened by: Ngayu yinil-kanga-jin bilngkumu-ndu.
• kuli = anger/rage/trouble; kuli-ji = vicious/wild/rageful, not generic "bad": Yinya kaya kuli-ji, Warru-ngku jarba kuli-ji kunin.

Sad, happy, content, worried. Use attested lexicalized forms only:

Milka cognition/emotion compounds. milka "ear" is a productive base for mental-state idioms:

• milka-bujar = homesick, lonely, sad, worried.
• milka-murruji = ashamed/guilty.
• milka-burray = exasperated, tired of noise.
• milka-wula-y = forget/forgive: Ngayu kaya-nka milka-wulan.

Bodily/mental states. bambay sick; bambay-ma-l become sick; bambay-bunga-l make sick. dakwuy hungry. yanji replete/full/satisfied after eating is the Yalanji form; yajin is marked Nyungkul in the dictionary prose. kaka is sore/painful. wawu-wula-y is exhausted/thirsty/tired. bijarr is dream; bijarr-ji = have a dream; bijarri-l = dream.

Memory and knowledge. binal is know; binalku remember; milka-wula-y forget. Keep binal, binal-ma-l learn, binal-bunga-l teach, and binal-kari not know in their distinct frames.

Process traps from batch 129. Lint caught one exact duplicate from Batch 126 and the row was replaced before acceptance. Do not use jiba as a free English "heart/mind" prefix; it is liver/insides unless the compound is attested. Do not use yajin as the default Yalanji full/replete form; use yanji. Surface forms still matter: jiba-badi-y surfaces as jiba-badi, and wawu-wula-y surfaces as wawulay.

Rule 88 — Number & quantification — batch-130 (CONSTRUCTION)

This batch supersedes the old shorthand "1-2-3-many" where it was too blunt. The safe operational rule is: use the small numeral inventory exactly as Patz gives it, and do not extend it by English arithmetic.

Numeral inventory and limits.

Examples:

• Ngayku kangkal kulur = I have three children.
• Karrkay jambul-jambul bayan-ba bundan = four children stayed at camp.
• Nyulu kuyu kulur manin = he got three/a few fish, depending on context.

Plain two vs intrinsic pair. jambul counts two referents. -bulal derives a pair whose members belong or act together. Do not swap them.

• Ngayu jambul juku nyajin = I saw two trees, with no pair implication.
• Juku-bulal yinyay janjanay = a pair of trees is standing there.
• Yarraman-bulal kankaday = a pair of horses is coming.
• Warru-bulal jambul, bula jilba-dungan = a pair of two young fellows, they went walking.

Pair NPs can co-occur with the dual pronoun bula 3du. yubal is the second-person dual: Yubal bayan-ba bunda-y! "you two stay at camp!"

Quantity contrasts.

• kanbal = some, several: Kambi ngayku kanbal; Ngayku bulawu kanbal.
• buban = too few/insufficient/little: Kambi ngayku buban; Ngayku bulawu buban.
• wubul = many identifiable items: Birra wubul juku-ngu, many leaves on the tree.
• jirray = mass/plenty/size: Birra jirray juku-ngu, a mass of leaves or large leaves; Bama jirray, a large crowd of people.

All, everything, nothing, half.

• narmba-ku = all: Bama narmbaku kadan.
• wubul-ku = all/every/really many in the emphatic use: Bama wubulku bayan-ba kadan baja.
• yambayamba = everything: Nganjin yambayamba Toyota-nga mumban.
• yamba-kari = nothing/none; narrative text can surface it solid as yambakari: Yambakari-bi.
• Half is source-sensitive: Patz §3.2.5 lists kankur, but text 51 uses kanku: Yunu kanku, ngayku kanku; Kanku nyandan. Until the variant is better documented, bank only text-attested kanku half rows.

One-of / distributive side. yindu means other/one of; before inflection it can show a suppletive y-final stem: Dakil nyungu yinduy-mbu = the front legs were for one of them. In dual distribution, text 51 has Bula bundandan yinyaymba, yindu kungkar-mundu yindu jibarr-mundu = the two stayed there, one on the north side and one on the south side.

How many. wanjarrinya is the how-many interrogative from the wanja family:

• Wanjarrinya bama yinyay bundanday? = how many people live there?
• Controlled transitive frame: Wanjarrinya wukay yundu bakan? = how many yams did you dig?

Process traps from batch 130. Do not resurrect kulur-jambul as "countless"; it remains a blocked English-shaped compound. Do not use wubul for body-part heart in number batches; keep the quantifier sense separate. Do not treat kulur as hard "three" when the source context means "some/few." Do not bank mara as five unless you have a stronger sentential source than the numeral table. Batch 130 deliberately stored an external process log as well as DB notes: future batches must keep that audit trail.

Rule 89 — Weather, sky & time of day — batch-131 (LEXICAL)

This batch extends the old Rule 38 weather list with a source-controlled weather/sky/time-of-day inventory. The rule is not "translate every English weather phrase"; it is "compose weather clauses only from attested Kuku Yalanji weather nouns, time words, stative predicates, and Patz examples."

Core weather and sky inventory.

Examples:

• Kaba ngundu kaday = rain is coming nearby.
• Kaba yalbay = heavy rain.
• Ngurrban wubul = there are many clouds.
• Jiri ngurrban-ji = the sky has clouds.
• Jarramali-ngka bulki dalbarrin manjal-ba = the thunderstorm struck the cow on the mountain.

Sun, day parts, and seasonal setting.

Use Patz §3.4 and the dictionary compounds exactly:

• wungar sun; wungar dakal sunrise; wungar daran sunset; wungar jalamal sun comes out from behind cloud; wungar wandil-wandil sun is coming up; wungar wangkar-wangkar mid-morning to midday/early afternoon.
• muduwaju dawn/daybreak; muduwajuny dawn/daybreak as a temporal setting.
• wunkuwingku morning.
• yilay-yilay late afternoon.
• wujurr darkness/night; wujurr-bu at night.
• wungar-iji hot season; bulur-iji cold season.

Examples:

• Muduwajuny kaba kadan = at dawn rain came.
• Wunkuwingku ngurrban wubul = in the morning there were many clouds.
• Yilay-yilay muyar kadan = in the late afternoon wind came.
• Wujurr-bu dawar wubul = at night there are many stars.
• Nyungu ngaji wungar-iji wulan = his father died in the hot season.

Heat, cold, wet, dry, and ground state.

Keep the weather predicate inventory small and attested:

• wumbul hot; kiway / kiway-kiway cold; duna wet; marral dry; julbarr slippery; ngumbu dark; dayirr clear/bright.
• Patz text 3 licenses rain-setting clauses with Kaba-nga-ku; the same text gives bubu julbarr, bubu marral-da, and Kaba yambakari-da.
• Patz ex.519 licenses Nyungu mungka duna.

Examples:

• Kaba-nga-ku nganjin dungan = we went in the rain.
• Kaba-nga-ku warrin = he drove in the rain.
• Bubu julbarr = the ground is slippery.
• Bubu marral-da = the ground was dry then.
• Nyungu mungka duna = his hair is wet.

Wind and weather clauses.

Weather nouns can be clause subjects. Instrumental/causal -abu is attested with wind:

• Muyar-abu nganya yararri-manil = the wind made me shiver.
• Ngayu buwun-ji dungan, kari muyar junkuji = I went by boat, but the wind was strong.
• Ngayu dungan, muyar kada-nyjiku = I went before the wind came.
• Jarramali yalbay kadan = a heavy thunderstorm came.

Process traps from batch 131. Do not use bunjurril as an ordinary wind/blow verb: the dictionary usage string is not enough, and grammar evidence points elsewhere. Do not create balbay-nja / balbaynja sentence rows while the segmented form is mechanically blocked; use bare balbay, or a source-safe jarramali/dalbarri-l frame. Do not make English adverbs such as "stormily", "cloudily", or "windily"; rephrase with the attested nouns and predicates. Batch 131 stored its full source pass and rejected-risk trail in synthetic/claude-synthetic-v1-2026-07-02/process_logs/batch-131-weather-process.md.

• Lint GREEN 6647; batch 131 added 50 accepted rows, 250 five-lens review passes, 12 lessons, and 32 lexeme/source-log rows.

Rule 90 — Clitics & discourse highlighting — batch-132 (CONSTRUCTION)

Kuku Yalanji clitics are not free English adverbs. They are bound, unstressed morphemes attached to a host word, with host restrictions and discourse functions. Use the clitic only when the host and function match Patz §3.10 and the discourse examples.

Temporal clitics.

Examples:

• Jana kadan, mayi manin, dungan-da = they came, got food, and then went.
• Nyulu kuyu-ngurr manin, ngawuya daman-da = he caught a fish first, then speared a turtle.
• Ngayu kuyu waju-l-urr wundil-da = I first cook the fish and then take it.
• Yundu mayi-ngarr nuka! = you eat the food straight away.
• Bula warru-bulal jalaman-kuda, jalaman yarra-kuda bayan-ba kuwa warrin = meanwhile the pair of young men took off and ran west toward camp.

Emphatic clitics.

Examples:

• Nyulu kulji yalbay-ku manin = he got a really big stone.
• Kaba-nga-ku bubu julbarr-bi = in the rain, the ground was unexpectedly slippery.
• Kari, bama-lu! = no, Aboriginal people, pay attention.
• Nyulu warndin kaya-la = it got up, the dog did; pay attention.
• Nganjin-ku-lu murruji wukurril-wukurrin = we really could not keep following.

EMPH4 -(V)rrku host restrictions. This is the clitic most likely to be overgeneralized. Use it only in its source domains:

• Verb host = total/thorough action: Maral-angka kambi julurrin-arrku.
• Imperative verb host = whole/thorough object effect: Yundu bayan kida-rrku!.
• Pronoun host = only/alone: Ngayu-rrku bundanday; Bayan-ba nyulu-rrku bundanday.
• Negation/comparison particle host = not really / just the same / also: Ngayu kari-rrku warngku wunan; Wulman yala-rrku manyarr-anka badin.

Do not attach -rrku to ordinary nouns as an English all/every marker; use the Rule 88 quantifier inventory instead.

-baja and -ji.

• On action/motion verbs, -baja means again/back: Ngayu wawu kada-nka-baja; Bajabaja-ngka jinkalmu baykan-baja.
• On state verbs/adjectives, -baja is degree: Nyulu bambay-mal-baja.
• Yundu-ku-baja is an idiom, "it is up to you."
• -ji is the pronoun-hosted in-turn clitic: Yundu-ji bunda-y, ngayu bubu kidal; Ngayu yunu mani dajil, yundu-ji ngayku minya daya.

Ordering and source tension. Patz §3.10.4 states the general order as temporal > EMPH1-3 > -ji, and says verbal -baja and EMPH4 -(V)rrku have not been attested with other clitics. But Patz ex.630 also has the source form ngayu-ji-ku-lu. Until the tension is better explained, do not productively coin new -ji + emphasis stacks; quote or closely control exact source frames only.

Process traps from batch 132. Exact source examples can still be exact corpus duplicates. The bank gate rejected Mayi-ngarr nuka!, Nuka-ngarr!, and Kanbal bubu yala-rrku. because they were already accepted rows; the batch replaced them with controlled variants. Keep -kuda source-bound because Patz says its meaning is not fully transparent. Keep each clitic row's evidence note explicit about the host and function.

• Lint GREEN 6697; batch 132 added 50 accepted rows, 250 five-lens review passes, 12 lessons, and 10 clitic/source-log rows.

Rule 91 — Plants, trees, bark, leaves, roots, vines & plant materials — batch-133 (LEXICAL)

This batch extends the earlier bush-food list into a safer flora/material inventory. Its main grammar lesson is not a new suffix, but a source-grounded way to talk about plant parts: parts on a tree use locative juku-ngu, while parts from a tree use ablative juku-muny.

Generic tree and plant-part frames.

Examples:

• Birra juku-ngu yalbay-bajaku = the leaves on the tree are very big.
• Birra juku-muny yalbay-bajaku = the leaves from the tree are very big.
• Mayi yinya-nga juku-ngu ngulkurr = the fruit on that tree is good.
• Mayi yinya-muny juku-muny ngulkurr = the fruit from that tree is good.
• Nganka juku-muny daran = flowers fell from the tree.

dumbul / dubal bark caution. dumbul is the dictionary/Patz hard-covering word: bark, crust, or shell depending on context. Text 51 uses dubal in the bark ground-oven passage: Ngadiku jana dubal nyandan; Bana nyangarrin dubal-ba. Keep both attested forms alive and source-labelled; do not silently merge them.

Leichhardt-tree fruit passage. Patz text 51 provides a safe mini-domain for kabal:

• Bula wawubaja-nga dungan, bula mayi kabal warrmba-bungan = the two went to the river and found Leichhardt-tree fruit.
• Kabal mayi warrmba-bungan = they found Leichhardt-tree fruit.
• Ngali juku-ngu dakal = we two will climb on the tree.
• Dakan, juku-muny manil-manin mayi nukal-nukan = they climbed, kept taking fruit from the tree and eating it.

Paperbark, bark, sticks, and useful plant material.

• buyku = paperbark; source frame: paperbark covers meat in the ground-oven passage.
• wanjakan = ti tree; bark used for roof/painting.
• warrur = tree bark used as vine/fishnet material; keep distinct from warru young man.
• jaba = stick/sapling/post/walking stick.
• jujabala = ironwood tree in the dictionary headword; earlier prose/books sometimes show jujubala.
• nganjirr = grass tree; dictionary notes burning it in thunder-control practice.

Examples:

• Jana buyku kurrma-nga yijarrin = they put paperbark in the ground oven.
• Jana wanjakan dumbul bayan-ba yijarrin = they put ti-tree bark on the house.
• Jana warrur-bu makarr bungan = they made a net with tree bark.
• Karrkay-ngku jaba-bu bubu bakan = the child dug the ground with a stick.
• Jujabala dumbul waju, jarramali kada-nyji = burn ironwood bark lest thunder come.
• Nganjirr waju, jarramali kada-nyji = burn grass tree lest thunder come.

Vines, palms, wattles, bottlebrush, and canoe trees.

Verified forms from the dictionary:

• mawar lawyer-cane vine; waji-waji stinging vine.
• kunjarri palm; duwar black palm; dulmbil umbrella palm.
• wawuburra cottontree; dictionary says canoes were made from it and from bilar candlenut tree.
• yarun black wattle tree; yalngkal white wattle; yumu bottlebrush tree.

Examples:

• Mawar madja-nga janjanay = lawyer-cane vine stands in the scrub.
• Kunjarri madja-nga janjanay = the palm stands in the scrub.
• Jana wawuburra-muny buwun bungan = they made a canoe from cottontree.
• Jana bilar-muny buwun bungan = they made a canoe from candlenut tree.
• Yumu nganka wubul = the bottlebrush tree has many flowers.

Process traps from batch 133. Do not reintroduce buri for fire/firewood; fire remains baya. Do not use ngara as listening/hearing; this batch's ngara is the plant root noun. Do not turn every dictionary species into a sentence unless the row teaches a real frame. The batch deliberately avoided unnecessary color claims even where English species notes mention flower color. Full source pass and spelling tensions are stored in synthetic/claude-synthetic-v1-2026-07-02/process_logs/batch-133-plants-process.md.

• Lint GREEN 6747; batch 133 added 50 accepted rows, 250 five-lens review passes, 12 lessons, and 30 lexeme/source-log rows.

Rule 92 — Noun-phrase structure, modifier order & apposition — batch-134 (CONSTRUCTION)

This rule operationalizes Patz 4.1.1. The batch is short on purpose: the rows are source-shaped so the model learns NP-internal syntax without unrelated narrative grammar hiding the pattern.

Core NP law. An NP may be continuous or split, but all non-possessive NP constituents agree in case. Possessive forms are the explicit exception in a continuous NP: they do not have to carry the head's case.

• ERG agreement across demonstrative + noun + adjective: Yinya-ngka kubarr-angka yalbay-ngka maral baykan = that big eel bit the girl.
• The same pattern with a familiar animal A: Yinya-ngka kaya-ngka yalbay-ngka karrkay baykan = that big dog bit the child.

Generic + specific classifier-like NPs. The generic comes first. mayi and minya are the productive safe classifying generics; juku is attested but less generally productive, so keep it source-shaped.

With two nouns, put the demonstrative first:

• Yanyu mayi wukay ngulkurr = this hairy-yam food is good.
• Yinya minya ngangkin ngulkurr = that echidna meat is good.

Demonstratives. With one noun, either order is source-licensed:

• Yinya karrkay kadan / Karrkay yinya kadan = that child came.
• Yanyu kaya ngulkurr / Kaya yanyu ngulkurr = this dog is good.

Interrogative + noun NPs. Use the source distinction directly:

• Wanya warru kadan? = which young man came?
• Wanya maral kadan? = which girl came?
• Yundu wanyu minya nukan? = what meat did you eat?
• Karrkay-ngku wanyu kuyu nyajin? = what fish did the child see?

Avoid extending this batch into uncertain non-human animate "which dog?" contrasts; the directly attested anchors are wanya warru and wanyu minya.

Pronoun apposition. A personal pronoun can be followed by a noun or demonstrative in apposition:

• Bula ngamu bayan-ka dungan = the two mothers went to camp.
• Jana bama bayan-ba bundandan = the people stayed at camp.
• Nyulu yinya kadan = that one came.
• Yubal jalbu bayan-ba bunday = you two women stay at camp.

Modifier order. The default attributive modifier follows the head:

• Dubal murru-murru dandi = rough bark is hard.
• Kalka jirakal jinbal = the new spear is sharp.
• Bayan yalbay yinyay = the big house is there.

When a quantifier and descriptive modifier both occur, the quantifier tends to precede the head and the adjective or comitative modifier follows:

• Jambul kaya kuli-ji bayan-ba bundan = two vicious dogs stayed at camp.
• Kulur juku yalbay yinyay janjanay = three big trees are standing there.
• Jambul kalka kalbay bayan-ba = two long spears are in the house.

Possessive order. Possessives may precede or follow the noun. Modifiers still stay after the head:

• Ngayku bayan yalbay yaluy = my big house is here.
• Bayan ngayku yalbay yaluy = my big house is here.
• Badur ngamu-mu bayan-ba = mother's fishing line is in the house.
• Kalka jirakal dingkar-amu jinbal = the man's new spear is sharp.
• Kaya wulbuman-amu kadan = the old woman's dog came.

Plural pronoun possessives remain avoided because the source forms are still watchlisted as uncertain.

Inalienable whole-part apposition. Do not add a possessive suffix for body parts and similar inalienable relations. Use whole first, part second, same case; an optional modifier refers to the part:

• Nyulu mara ngulkurr = he has a good hand.
• Dingkar dirra jinbal = the man has sharp teeth.
• Kuyu biji kalbay = the fish has a long tail.
• Maral mungka duna = the girl has wet hair.
• Nyulu kuyu biji kayin = he hooked the fish by the tail.
• Nyulu kulji daray-manin maral-anda jina-nga = he dropped the stone on the girl's foot.

Process traps from batch 134. Do not turn dubal into an unrestricted generic bark word; here it is only the source-labelled dubal murru-murru NP from Patz 4.1.1. Do not coin "what dog?" rows until the interrogative choice for non-human animates is better controlled. Do not pile descriptive adjectives beyond source-shaped cases; Patz says two or more descriptive adjectives are rare. Full source pass, rejected-risk decisions, lint/close/export evidence, and live-doc verification are stored in synthetic/claude-synthetic-v1-2026-07-02/process_logs/batch-134-noun-phrase-process.md.

• Lint GREEN 6797; batch 134 added 50 accepted rows, 250 five-lens review passes, 12 lessons, and 21 lexeme/source-log rows.

Rule 93 — Movement, path-following, return, carrying & travel — batch-135 (LEXICAL)

This rule promotes the motion/travel lexicon into late-stage coverage. It extends the older Rule 61 motion/posture inventory with Patz 5.5.1, text 51, the Shipton's Flat travel text, and dictionary motion compounds.

Core discourse contrast: kada-y vs dunga-y. These are not a one-to-one English come/go pair.

Walking, running, following, chasing, and returning.

• jilba-dunga-y = walk/go for a walk/go walkabout: Jana jilba dungan; Karrkay jilba dungay niji.
• warri = run; wanarri-y = keep running/run on: Kaya warrin, warrin, warrin; Kaya wanarri.
• kurrkal-warri = go by a shortcut; juru-kulbaway = walk single file.
• wukurril = follow in this batch: Kaya-ngka bulaniny wukurrin; Nganjin murruji wukurril-wukurrin.
• kangal = chase: Kaya-ngka karrkay-karrkay kangan.
• nyunbay = turn back/return: Ngana nyunban.

Bring/take/carry/escort. Keep the object frame straight.

Entering, coming out, climbing, jumping, falling, drifting, swimming.

• walal = enter/go into: Nyulu bayan-ba walan.
• wandil = get up, move out of the way, come out: Karrkay bayan-muny wandin.
• dakal = climb: Ngali juku-ngu dakan.
• jalamal = jump/hop/skip; kala-jalamal = jump over.
• daray = fall; daray-manil = drop/cause to fall.
• jarmbil-jarmbil is source-attested for drifting: Buwun bana-nga jarmbil-jarmbil.
• mariji-y = swim through/across water: Nganjin wawubaja-burr marijin.

Crawl/fly minimal pair. Preserve the single-r / double-r contrast.

Path and case-frame cautions.

• Do not add new productive baral road/path rows yet. The living errata still treats baral as unresolved because Patz road/path evidence and dictionary evidence need reconciliation.
• Use LOC goals and places where source-shaped: wawubaja-nga dungan, bayan-ba walan, madja-nga walan.
• Use ABL for sources: kuwa-muny kadan, bayan-muny wandin, juku-muny daran.
• Use PERL traversal for through/across paths: wawubaja-burr marijin, jikan-burr mara-warrin.
• buwun boat is source-supported in Patz travel material even though the dictionary entry is needs-review.
• jana-nka 3pl-DAT is source-attested and can support meet/for-them contexts.

Process traps from batch 135. Do not turn text-51 forms into a free English "travel word" list. The point is source-shaped motion perspective and case frames. Do not use barrmal for generic object carrying; use jarrakulbal or wundil depending on meaning. Do not use English-loan car/truck rows unless a later batch deliberately targets loan register. Full source pass, additional dictionary audit, rejected-risk decisions, lint/close/export evidence, and live-doc verification are stored in synthetic/claude-synthetic-v1-2026-07-02/process_logs/batch-135-motion-travel-process.md.

• Lint GREEN 6847; batch 135 added 50 accepted rows, 250 five-lens review passes, 14 lessons, and 40 lexeme/source-log rows.

Rule 94 — Motion case-frame alternations — batch-136 (CONSTRUCTION)

This rule turns the Rule 93 motion lexicon into controlled grammar. The batch keeps the vocabulary mostly familiar and teaches which case frame carries which route meaning.

LOC = place and allative goal. There is no separate English "to" case for ordinary movement to places. The same local case that means at/in/on also marks motion goals.

ABL = source/from. The source case is -muny, including when the verb is come, emerge, fall, or start from a place.

• Dingkar wawubaja-muny kadan = the man came from the river.
• Jalbu madja-muny kadan = the woman came from the scrub.
• Kaya bayan-muny wandin = the dog came out of the house.
• Birra juku-muny daran = leaves fell from the tree.

PERL = through/along/across. Use the traversal case for path-through, not baral road rows.

• Ngali wawubaja-burr marijin = we two swam through the river.
• Kaya madja-burr warrin = the dog ran through the scrub.
• Warru-warru jikan-burr dungan = the young men went through the grass.
• Buyi bana-burr marra-warrin = the bird flew across the water.

COMIT / PRIV / ABESS. Keep the three "with/from/without" systems separate.

Goal plus purpose. A motion goal and a purposive complement can co-occur. Do not confuse noun-DAT and verb-PURP.

• Dingkar wawubaja-nga dungan kuyu dama-nka = the man went to the river to spear fish.
• Jalbu madja-nga dungan mayi mani-nka = the woman went to the scrub to get food.
• Karrkay bayan-ba dungan mayi nuka-nka = the child went to the house to eat food.
• Ngamu wandin karrkay nyaji-nka = mother got up to see the child.

Transfer/escort goals and route chains.

• Transfer/escort can use DAT goals in this corpus's controlled frames: Jalbu-ngku mayi bayan-ka wundin, Ngamu-ngku karrkay bana-ka barrman.
• LOC impact goal is separate: Karrkay-ngku kulji jina-nga daray-manin.
• A full route can stack source + path + goal: Nganjin bayan-muny madja-burr wawubaja-nga dungan = we went from camp through the scrub to the river.

Motion -baja. With motion verbs, -baja means back/again/on again, not the adjective degree use:

• Ngayu bayan-ba kadan-baja = I came back to camp.
• Jana madja-burr dungan-baja = they went on again through the scrub.
• Kaya bayan-ba warrin-baja = the dog ran back to camp.

Process traps from batch 136. Do not use -mundu for "without"; use -kari. Do not collapse LOC goal and DAT/PURP purpose. Do not reintroduce productive baral road/path rows. Do not add English vehicle-loan travel rows unless a later batch deliberately targets that register. Full source pass, case-frame design, rejected-risk decisions, lint/close/export evidence, and live-doc verification are stored in synthetic/claude-synthetic-v1-2026-07-02/process_logs/batch-136-motion-case-frames-process.md.

• Lint GREEN 6897; batch 136 added 50 accepted rows, 250 five-lens review passes, 12 lessons, and 16 lexeme/source-log rows.

Rule 95 — Handling, placement, transfer, and manipulation verbs — batch-137 (LEXICAL)

This rule adds a controlled inventory of high-frequency object-handling verbs. It is lexical, but every row was written with transitivity and case frames visible so Rule 96 can safely turn the same material into a construction batch.

Core handling inventory.

Case-frame notes.

• Ordinary common-noun transitive subjects take ERG: ngamu-ngku, karrkay-ngku, jalbu-ngku, dingkar-angka.
• Pronoun subjects stay nominative in these simple transitive rows: ngayu kuyu ..., ngayu baya ....
• dajil recipients follow the Patz LOC:pt pattern: maral-anda, karrkay-anda, ngamu-ndu.
• Placement uses local case where the source supports it: bubu-ngu, kurrma-nga, kulji-nga, kurmun-ba.
• Instrumental -bu is safe in source-shaped joining/tie frames: kalka karra-bu kuna-bungan.

Process traps from batch 137. Do not use dictionary loan examples as ordinary corpus defaults: table, gate, bucket, cassette, torch, brake, truck, and motorcar were all deliberately rejected. Do not use walngal as an unrestricted English "open" verb; keep its object-sensitive senses separate. buyandi-l should stay literal container placement. The surface dumbarrin must be analysed as dumbarri-ny, not as an unsegmented form. Full source pass, manual correction, rejected-risk decisions, lint/close/export evidence, and live-doc verification are stored in synthetic/claude-synthetic-v1-2026-07-02/process_logs/batch-137-handling-transfer-process.md.

• Lint GREEN 6947; batch 137 added 50 accepted rows, 250 five-lens review passes, 12 lessons, and 21 lexeme/source-log rows.

Rule 96 — Handling argument structure and case-frame alternations — batch-138 (CONSTRUCTION)

This rule reuses the Rule 95 handling lexicon and makes the grammar explicit. The batch is intentionally contrastive: the same verbs recur with different A/O marking, word order, recipients, instruments, voice, and clause chaining.

Core transitive frame.

Fronting is information structure, not case change. Patz §5.4.1 allows localised highlighting by leftmost position. Batch 138 stores object, locative, and recipient fronting without changing the underlying case frame:

• Kalka dingkar-angka manin = the spear, the man got.
• Bubu-ngu dingkar-angka kulji yijarrin = on the ground, the man put the stone.
• Jalbu-ndu jana kambi dajin = to the woman, they gave clothes.
• Kambi jana jalbu-ndu dajin = the clothes, they gave to the woman.

dajil recipient alternation. Patz §4.5.5 is the anchor.

• LOC:pt recipient: Ngayu mayi ngamu-ndu dajin; ... dingkar-anda dajin; ... karrkay-anda dajin.
• Possessive NP in O function: Ngayu ngamu-mu mayi dajin = I gave mother her food.
• Do not reinterpret possessive as a general goal case; Patz explicitly keeps the possessive NP in O function.

Instrumental implements. The implement is INST, not another agent. This matters especially where English says "with" or "by":

• Ngamu-ngku minya naybu-bu yakan = mother cut meat with a knife.
• Karrkay-ngku jaba kulji-bu dumbarrin = the child broke the stick with a stone.
• Jalbu-ngku kurmun karra-bu kuna-bungan = the woman tied the bag with rope.

Negation scope. kari placement changes what is negated:

• Dingkar-angka jungkalu kari dumbarrin = the man did not break the billycan.
• Dingkar-angka kari jungkalu dumbarrin = it was not the man who broke the billycan.

Passive/reflexive -ji- is source-shaped. Use only close models:

• Topic passive: Warru wara-nda manijin; Karrkay bilngkumu-ndu karrbajin.
• Agentless passive/state: Minya yakajin; Kurmun nandaji nyiku.
• Reflexive/instrument: Jalbu naybu-bu yakajin; Dingkar baduru-bu kajajin.
• nanda-ji-y surfaces as nandaji, not nandajiy: final y drops after i.

Same-object handling chains. Once an object is introduced, a following handling verb can omit the repeated O:

• Nyulu kulji manin, yijarrin = he got a stone and placed it.
• Bula warru-ngku nambarr kulban, kajan = the two young men pulled bamboo and tied it.
• Jana mukirr manin, yilban = they got mussels and threw them.

Process traps from batch 138. Do not generate passive or antipassive forms by English translation pressure. Batch 138 avoided broad new -ji- forms and used only close Patz models. Do not reintroduce table, gate, bucket, cassette, torch, brake, truck, motorcar, or store rows; the loan objects in sources are evidence for a construction, not default corpus register. Full source pass, the nandajiy -> nandaji lint correction, five-lens close, export evidence, and live-doc verification are stored in synthetic/claude-synthetic-v1-2026-07-02/process_logs/batch-138-handling-caseframes-process.md.

• Lint GREEN 6997; batch 138 added 50 accepted rows, 250 five-lens review passes, 12 lessons, and 15 lexeme/source-log rows.

Rule 97 — Perception, attention, searching, and finding verbs — batch-139 (LEXICAL)

This rule is a lexical-control batch. It keeps the constructions simple and separates English-adjacent perception glosses that are easy to collapse incorrectly.

Perceive / see / hear.

• nyaji-l = general perceive/see/hear: Ngayu kaya nyajin, Nganjin ngingkirr nyajin.
• Explicit hear = milka-bu nyaji-l: Karrkay-ngku milkabu kuku nyajin, Ngayu milkabu ngangkurr nyajin.
• Do not use ngara-l for hear/listen; the living books keep ngara for root/camp-set-up material, not perception.

Listen, look, watch.

Know, remember, forget.

• binal = know. Source-shaped rows: Yundu binal kari, Ngayu binal-binalku bundanka, Jana binal yinya.
• milka-dalkay = remember: Ngayu milka-dalkan.
• milka-wulay = forget/forgive: Ngayu karrkay-nka milka-wulan.
• milkabu manil = remember/recollect: Ngayu milkabu manin kaya.
• Review trap: do not give an inanimate noun a potent dative by analogy. A draft kalka-nka was rejected; the accepted row uses animate karrkay-nka.

Search, be lost, lose, find.

• nubi-l = seek/look for: Ngayu mayi nubin, Jalbu-ngku wukay nubin.
• Reduplicated search: Jana nubil-nubin.
• nubi-ji = be looked for / be lost: Karrkay madja-nga dungan, nubijinkuda.
• nubi-mani-l = lose: Ngayu kalka nubi-manin, Karrkay-ngku jaba nubi-manin.
• warrmba-bunga-l = find (Yalanji): Ngayu kalka warrmba-bungan, Jana kaya warrmba-bungan.
• Do not use Nyungkul ngunnga-bungal in a Yalanji-controlled batch unless the dialect target is explicit.

Try, taste, smell.

• baba-l = try/taste: Ngayu mayi baban; Jalbu-ngku bubu baban.
• nyuma-l = smell/taste: Ngayu mayi nyuman; Karrkay-ngku jila nyuman.
• jila = smell; source phrase Jila junkurr-ji = the smell is strong.
• nganjay = no-good/wilted/bad smell: Mayi nganjay kari nuka.
• nganja-burra = bad taste: Mayi nganja-burra.

Process traps from batch 139. Duplicate checking rejected three source-shaped rows that already existed; the accepted batch varied them instead. Mechanical lint was green, but the manual review still changed kalka-nka to karrkay-nka because kalka is inanimate and should not take potent dative by analogy. Exact Ah/Yah attention interjections and nyungun-bungal recognise rows remain deferred. Full source pass, duplicate replacements, case correction, lint/close/export evidence, and live-doc verification are stored in synthetic/claude-synthetic-v1-2026-07-02/process_logs/batch-139-perception-search-process.md.

• Lint GREEN 7047; batch 139 added 50 accepted rows, 250 five-lens review passes, 12 lessons, and 24 lexeme/source-log rows.

Rule 98 — Perception/cognition complements and simultaneous-clause frames — batch-140 (CONSTRUCTION)

This rule reuses the Rule 97 perception/cognition lexicon but moves from lexical control into clause structure. It is high-control and source-shaped: most rows are close variants of Patz §4.4.4.1, §4.4.5, §4.9.1, §4.4.1, and §4.2.4.4.

Simultaneous -nyV under perception. Verb + -nyV marks simultaneous action; the subordinate verb is often reduplicated because the concurrent action is ongoing. For -l verbs, retain the -l inside the copy: baka-l-baka-nya, dama-l-dama-nya, wukurri-l-wukurri-nya, wulji-l-wulji-nya. Safe batch patterns:

• Ngamu-ngku karrkay nyaji-l-nyaji-n, bambayal baka-l-baka-nya = mother watched the child digging yams.
• Dingkar-angka warru nyaji-l-nyaji-n, kuyu dama-l-dama-nya = the man watched the young man spearing fish.
• Bama-ngka kadar nyaji-l-nyaji-n, jikan-ba nuka-nuka-ji-nya = the person watched the wallaby feeding in the grass.

Whole-event perception. With perception verbs, the whole subordinate event can be the object. The main object is omitted and the subordinate A/S is retained:

• Nyulu nyaji-l-nyaji-n, dingkar-angka bana wulji-l-wulji-nya buwun-muny = he watched while the man bailed water from the boat.
• Ngayu nyajin, nyulu bulki yaka-l-yaka-nya = I saw how he cut up the bullock.
• Karrkay-angka nyajin, jarba kuni-ji-nya = the child saw the snake being killed.

Do not generalize this into an English "that/which" relative-clause machine. Patz stresses the temporal overlap: the simultaneous event must be concurrent with the main event.

Oblique and case-marked simultaneous complexes. Patz gives source-shaped oblique examples. Use them close to source:

• Ngayu wulman-anda dungay, yinyay bundanda-nya = I go to the old man sitting there.
• Ngayu dungay wulman-anda bundanda-nya-mun-bu = I go to the sitting old man.
• Maral-angka dikal nyaji-l-nyaji-l, janjana-nya-mun-du = the girl watches the bird while standing up.

These -mun-bu and -mun-du forms are important evidence but should not be freely extended without a source model.

Particle predicates with PURP complements. wawu, binal, babal, milka-wulay, binalku, and binal-bungal take purposive complements in controlled frames:

• Ngayu binal dama-nka = I know how to spear.
• Karrkay wawu mayi nuka-nka = the child wants to eat food.
• Karrkay wawu jirray kinka-n-kinka-nka = the child loves to play.
• Ngayu babal dama-nka = I try to spear.
• Ngayu milka-wulan kada-nka = I forgot to come.
• Ngamu-ngku karrkay binal-bungan mayi waju-nku = mother taught the child to cook food.