Nouns in general are words that refer to persons, places, or things. Some randomly-selected examples of English nouns include the words "Listuguj," "Mary," "woman," and "table." These same words are also nouns in Mi'gmaq: "Listuguj," "Mali," "epit," and "ptauti."

In some ways, Mi'gmaq nouns resemble English nouns (for instance, you can have singular and plural versions of a noun). In other ways, they differ from English (for instance, there is a feature of nouns that we call "animacy" that English doesn't ''really'' display).

=Number=
''For more detail, see [[Nominal Number|Number]]''

"Number" refers to how many of something there are. In both English and Mi'gmaq, there are two numbers for nouns: singular (only one of something) and plural (two or more of something). In English, a plural noun often looks like the singular plus an ''-s'' at the end, for example, "girl" becomes "girls." In Mi'gmaq, there are two things you can add to a noun in order to make it plural, depending on whether the noun is [[Animacy|animate or inanimate]] (for more information on these terms, see the next section). For inanimate nouns, like ''ptauti'' "table" as shown in (1), you generally add ''-l'' to the end of the word (or sometimes you make the last sound of the word longer). For animate nouns, like ''ji'nm'' "man" as shown in (2), you add ''-ug'' or ''-ig'' or ''-oq'' depending on the particular noun.

<gl>
\gll ptauti, ptauti-l
table, table-PL\\
\trans table, tables
</gl>

<gl>
\gll ji'nm, ji'nm-ug
man, man-PL\\
\trans man, men
</gl>

If you've looked at number in Mi'gmaq [[Verbs: Overview|verbs]], you may have noticed that Mi'gmaq verbs make a distinction between singular, dual (two participants), and plural (three or more participants). However, for nouns, the only distinction is between one and more than one.

==Counting==
''For more detail, see [[Measure words]]''

There are some categories of nouns in Mi'gmaq that require special ways of counting. This could be compared to how in English, we say "a pair of pants" rather than "one pants" or "two pants"--though admittedly, the Mi'gmaq system is more compex than that. In Mi'gmaq, nouns are split into categories that are grouped together with specific counting words for that specific category. Using examples from Hewson & Francis (1990) (CITE), these are some of the most common groups:
*long and round objects, such as bottles, candles, and even people
*round objects, such as potatoes, balls, and apples
*money
*units of time
**days
**years, months
*classes, groups, types of things
*dimensions, weights and measures

=Animacy=
''For more detail, see [[Animacy]]''

All nouns in Mi'gmaq belong to one of two categories, '''animate''' and '''inanimate'''. Animate nouns generally refer to things that are alive, such as people or animals, but other words such as containers and some types of food or clothing can also be animate. Inanimate nouns generally refer to things that are not alive, such as places and objects like rocks and tables. Some examples are below:

<gl>
\gll lpatuj
boy.AN\\
\trans boy (animate)
</gl>

<gl>
\gll mu'in
bear.AN\\
\trans bear (animate)
</gl>

<gl>
\gll tuop'ti
window.INAN\\
\trans window (inanimate)
</gl>

<gl>
\gll guntew
rock.INAN\\
\trans rock (inanimate)
</gl>

Animacy is important because it influences how to make the plural of a noun, and what form of verb to use with it. This also means that if you see a noun in a sentence and you want to try to figure out whether it it is animate or inanimate, there are a few things you can look for in addition to meaning: if its plural is ''-ug/-ig/-oq/-g'', then it's animate, or if it's ''-l''/long consonant then it's inanimate (see the section above for examples). If the noun is the subject of a sentence, then it's almost definitely animate, because only animate beings can do things. If the noun is the object of a sentence, the verb will have a different form depending on whether it's a [[Verbs: Transitive Animate|VTA]] (animate) or [[Verbs: Transitive Inanimate|VTI]] (inanimate).

<gl>
\gll nemi-g epit
see-TA woman.AN\\
\trans I see the woman
</gl>

<gl>
\gll nemi-tu ptauti
see-TI table.INAN\\
\trans I see the table
</gl>

Some words can change from being animate to inanimate. For example, the names of animals are animate, but when you eat their meat, the meat is inanimate. This is expressed by adding the ending ''-ewei'' to the name of the animal.

<gl>
\gll plamu
salmon\\
\trans salmon (live fish)
</gl>

<gl>
\gll plamu-ewei
salmon-EWEI\\
\trans salmon meat, salmon steak
</gl>

=Possession=
''For more detail, see [[Possession]]''

Possession covers a whole range of relationships between nouns, not necessarily relationships where there is a possession and an owner. In English, possession covers expressions such as:
*'''my''' umbrellas
*Tom''''s''' sister
*Jamie''''s''' leg
*a friend '''of''' Alice''''s'''
*the music '''of''' Beethoven

The verbs used in these sentences can also be thought of as "possessive":
*I '''have''' a cake.
*This dog '''belongs''' to me.

As mentioned before, these relationships aren't always strictly of ownership, but can be interpreted as a type of closeness or relatedness--so while the umbrella may be my possession in the strictest sense of the word, we also shouldn't think of Tom's sister being ''his'' possession. Instead, we use possession to show that a relationship exists between the two nouns in question.

Mi'gmaq possession has one very important feature that English speakers will have to get used to. This is related to the idea of '''alienability'''. So when something is '''alienable''', the relationship between the two nouns is changeable; "my umbrella" shows an alienable relationship, because I can give away the umbrella, and then it is no longer mine and the relationship dissolves. "Tom's sister," however, shows an '''inalienable''' relationship because no matter what, Tom and his sister will always be related.

Mi'gmaq inalienable nouns include...
*body parts (i.e. '''gpitn,'' "your hand," and ''nunji,'' "my head")
*family members (i.e. ''nuj,'' "my father," and ''ugmisl'' "his/her big sister")
*a couple exceptions (i.e. ''nitap,'' "my friend" is inalienable, even though it's a relationship that might change.)

Mi'gmaq alienable nouns include...
*everything else (i.e. '' 'gtsipuminu,'' "our river," and '' 'ntptautim,'' "my table," and ''ugtwigatign'' "his/her book," and so on and so forth)

=Pronouns=
''For more detail, see [[Pronouns]]''

A pronoun is a word that can substitute for a noun that is already known from the context of the conversation.

* Q: What did Mary do with the book?
** A: Mary gave the book to Peter. (all nouns - sounds too long)
** A: She gave it to him. (all pronouns - we don't know who "him" is)
** A: She gave it to Peter. (pronouns for known information, nouns for new information - sounds more natural)
** A: She gave it to me. (ok as long as we know who is talking so we know who "me" is)

Some examples of pronouns in English are I, me, you, he, she, her, him, it, we, us, they, and them. Pronouns can be classified in several ways. First of all, just like nouns, there are '''singular''' and '''plural''' pronouns in Mi'gmaq. Secondly, pronouns are different depending on the situation that they refer to, which is referred to as '''person'''. So if the person or group who is speaking is talking about themself, then this is the '''first person''' (English "I/me/we/us"). The person or group that the speaker is talking to is the '''second person''' (English "you"), and an additional person or group is the '''third person''' (English "she/he/him/her/they/them"). Unlike English, Mi'gmaq also makes a distinction when talking about yet another person or group in addition to the third: the [[Obviative|'''obviative''']], also sometimes called the fourth person.

Below we can see a table of Mi'gmaq pronouns, organized according to number and person. An additional thing to notice is that Mi'gmaq makes a distinction between when someone is talking on behalf of a group that includes the listener (first person inclusive) and when the group does not include the listener (first person exclusive).

{| class="wikitable"
! ||Singular||Dual/Plural
|-
| 13 (excl)
| ni'n
| ninen
|-
| 12 (incl)
| ''n/a''
| ginu
|-
| 2
| gi'l
| gilew
|-
| 3
| negm
| negmow
|}

Mi'gmaq uses pronouns in somewhat different contexts compared to how English does. In English, you can't tell from a verb by itself who is doing the action or who has the action being done to them. For example, "see" doesn't tell us anything about who is seeing or being seen, so the only way to know this is by having nouns or pronouns. Mi'gmaq verbs do give you this information. For example, ''nemi'g'' can only mean that "I see an animate thing," and if we want to change who/what is seeing or being seen we have change parts of the verb (''much'' more information about this in the [[Verbs]] section). This means that it isn't necessary to use pronouns to express this information again, since we already know it. Saying ''ni'n nemitu negm'' is therefore not quite like saying "I see him/her". Since we didn't have to use ''ni'n'' or ''negm'', the fact that we're choosing to say them means that we want to emphasize these particular people. For example, if someone asked you "Did she see you?" you might want to emphasize the opposite by saying "No, it was ''me'' that saw ''her''", but in a normal sentence you probably wouldn't bother to do this.

=Demonstratives=
''For more detail, see [[Demonstratives]]''

A demonstrative is a word that can be paired with a noun, and generally helps people differentiate between two different nouns in conversation. In English, "this," "that," "these," and "those" are all demonstratives--you can pair them with nouns ("this cat," "those hats") but not verbs or lone adjectives.

In Mi'gmaq, we also see at least two demonstratives:
*''ula,'' for things that are close to the speaker, which seems to correspond to English "this"
*''ala,'' for things that are further from the speaker, which seems to correspond to English "that"

However, in Mi'gmaq they seem to be used a little differently from English. We have seen grammatical Mi'gmaq phrases such as ''ula nemis,'' which would translate in English to "this my big sister," a badly-formed phrase.

Another grammatical Mi'gmaq phrase where a demonstrative looks different from its English counterpart is seen below:

<gl>
\gll Piel eig ula tet.
Piel be.3 this here
\trans Piel is right here. // Piel is at this place
</gl>

<gl>
\gll Piel eig ala tet.
Piel be.3 that here
\trans Piel is over there. // Piel is at that place.
</gl>

=Obviation=
''For more detail, see [[Obviation]]''

Mi'gmaq is a language with a feature called '''obviation.''' (The wiki will also address it as it applies to [[Verbs: Overview|verbs]], so check that part out too!) Obviation is a way of '''differentiating between third persons.''' The usual set of persons is first (in English "me/we"), second ("you"), and third ("him/her/them"). Obviation makes a "closer to speakers" third person (often called proximate) which contrasts with a "further from speakers" third person (often called obviate). (Payne 1997: 212)

In Mi'gmaq, the obviate is generally marked with the suffix ''-l'', or ''-tl,'' though variation does apply. Though the circumstances of its appearance vary depending on the context of your conversation, there are certain words where it is guaranteed to appear.

For instance, "his/her friend" is always going to be marked as obviate because in that situation, there are two "third persons": the him/her in question, and then the friend. The friend is more "distant" from the discourse, so it will appear as below, with the obviate marker on the end:

<gl>
\gll w-itap-al
3-friend-OBV\\
\trans his/her friend
</gl>

=Diminutive=
''For more detail, see [[Diminutives]]''

This is a simple feature of Mi'gmaq that English doesn't have a direct match for. It is a '''suffix,''' which is a part of a word that can attach at the end, like English ''-less'' as in "fearless," "peerless," "hopeless," etc. The same way as the ''-less'' suffix in English means "without [the noun it attaches to]," this Mi'gmaq suffix means "'''little [noun]'''". It cannot attach to every noun, though it is possible that your meaning may be understood even if you put it on a slightly strange noun. Some examples of words where it might appear include...
* ''lpa'tuj,'' "boy" becomes ''lpa'tu'ji'j,'' "little boy"
* ''gjigan,'' "city," becomes ''gjiganji'j,'' "village"
* ''jijgluewj,'' "sheep," becomes ''jijgluewji'j,'' "lamb"

Note that you can't always assume that the ending ''-ji'j'' is going to be a diminutive. The word for "bird," ''jipji'j'', ends in ''-ji'j'', but there is no word meaning "larger bird" that is pronounced ''jip.''

Verbs

2012-05-11T16:08:55Z

Jessica:

Verbs are used to describe actions or activities that happen. They are the central component of a sentence in Mi'gmaq and are made up of many different pieces of information. They contain enough information that they can represent a complete sentence, and are often the only element in a sentence. The verb shown below is composed of the parts shown and roughly corresponds to a full sentence in English.

{|class="wikitable" style="text-align: center; width: 300px; height: 200px;"
|+ '''pogjuangitelmag'p'''
! scope="col" | preverb
! scope="col" | verb root
! scope="col" | person & number
! scope="col" | tense
|-
| poqju
| angitelm
| ag'
| p
|-
|-
| 'begin'
| 'think'
| I (1) > her/him(3)
| PAST
|-
| colspan="4" | 'I began to think about her/him'
|-
|}

This section will discuss some parts of verbs.

==Verb roots==
Verbs in Mi'gmaq can describe events, comparable to verbs such as in English, and the qualities of nouns, comparable to adjectives in English. Verbs that describe events include nem- 'see' and gelus- 'speak' and verbs that describe nouns include maqtaw- 'black' and ewe'g'- 'loose'. For more information see [[Verb stems]]. [Let's add more information about initials, medials & finals as we go along]

But verb roots cannot stand on their own. They minimally need to show information about the subject, and if relevant, the object.

==Animacy & transitivity==
''For more detail, see [[Nouns]] or [[Animacy]]''

Animacy is a classification of the status of a noun as animate or inanimate. This classification is often related to whether the noun is alive (''animate''), such as humans and animals, or not alive (''inanimate''), such as a chair and a table. But sometimes there may not be an obvious connection between the meaning of the noun and whether it is animate or inanimate. For example, containers tend to be animate, and some foods and items of clothing are animate (such as ''gmu'jmin'' 'raspberry') while others are inanimate (such as ''aloqoman'' 'grape'). This is similar to gender in other languages, such as in French, ''un couteau'' 'a knife' is masculine and ''la cuillère'' 'the spoon' is feminine.

Transitivity refers to how many people, things, or groups need to be involved in the action of the verb. If the verb only has a subject, we call it ''intransitive'', and if it has both a subject and an object, we call it ''transitive''.

Both animacy and transitivity are important and result in a 4 way classification of verbs: intransitive verbs with an animate subject [VAI], intransitive verbs with an inanimate subject [VII}, transitive verbs with an animate subject and object [VTA], and transitive verbs with an animate subject and an inanimate object [VTI]. Verbs within each classification have different forms to encode information. Please refer to the specific pages for each classification for the details of each.

{| border="1" style="text-align: center; width: 250px; height: 100px;"
|+ '''Algonquian verb classes'''
! scope="col" |
! scope="col" | Intransitive
! scope="col" | Transitive
|-
! scope="row" | Animate
| [[#VAI|VAI]] || [[#VTA|VTA]]
|-
! scope="row" | Inanimate
| [[#VII|VII]]
| [[#VTI|VTI]]
|}

Depending on which classification the verb has, person and number marking will differ.

==Person & number==
''For more detail, see [[Nouns]]''

Person and number distinctions refer to the specific characteristics of the subject and, if present, the object. Person refers to the relationship of the people involved, the speaker, 1st person, the listener, 2nd person, or another, 3rd person. But not only animate persons are referred to, as inanimate things, 0 person, can also be referred to.

An additional distinction, shared by many Algonquian languages, is a distinction between a 3rd person, i.e. John, and a 4th person, i.e. John's brother, who is an additional 3rd person in the sentence (or even in the conversation). For more information see [[Obviation]].

{|class="wikitable" style="text-align: center; width: 400px; height: 200px;"
! scope="col" | person
! scope="col" | term
! scope="col" | gloss
|-
| 1
| first person
| 'I/me'
|-
| 2
| second person
| 'you'
|-
| 3
| third person (animate)
| 'she/her' 'he/him' 'it'
|-
| 4
| fourth person
| 'her daughter'
|-
| 0
| third person (inanimate)
| 'it'
|-
|}

In addition, the number of people involved is also important, such as singular, a single person, or plural, 2 or more people. Mi'gmaq makes an additional distinction between dual, 2 people, and plural, 3 or more people. As well, with 1st person plural 'we', Mi'gmaq makes a distinction between whether the dual and plural involve 1st person and the 2nd person, called inclusive, or the 1st person and a 3rd person, called the exclusive.

Below is a summary of the full list of distinctions made. For more information see [[Person & Number marking]].

{|class="wikitable" style="text-align: center; width: 500px; height: 200px;"
! scope="col" colspan="2"| person
! scope="col" | singular
! scope="col" | dual
! scope="col" | plural
|-
! scope="row" rowspan="2"| 1
! scope="row"| 13
| rowspan="2" | I
| we (me & another)
| we (me & others)
|-
! scope="row" | 12
| we (me & you)
| we (me & you-all), (me, you & another/others)
|-
! scope="row" colspan="2" | 2
| you
| you-all
| you-all
|-
! scope="row" colspan="2"| 3
| s/he
| they (animate)
| they (animate)
|-
! scope="row" colspan="2"| 0
| it
| they (inanimate)
| they (inanimate)
|-
|}

==Mood==
''Also known as Mode. For more detail, see [[Mood]]''

'Mode describes the speaker's attitude toward a situation, including the speaker's belief in its reality, or likelihood.' (Payne, 1997; 244) In each class, there are a variety of different mode's which can be expressed. Most can be expressed in different tenses and in the affirmative or the negative. Below is a table, based on Pacifique's grammar (as translated in Lesson 10 in Hewson & Francis (1990), although ), that summarizes these observations using the first conjugation of VAI (intransitive verb with animate subject) with third person subject agreement.

{|class="wikitable"
! mode || tense || teluis- 'name' || gloss || negated form || gloss
|-
| rowspan="3" | Indicative
| present
| teluis-it
| 'her/his name is...'
| mu teluis-iwg
| 'her/his name isn't...'
|-
| past
| teluis-iss/ip/isp
| 'her/his name was...'
| mu teluis-iwgs'p
| 'her/his name wasn't...'
|-
| future
| tluis-itew
| 'her/his name will be...'
| ma' tluis-iwg
| 'her/his name will not be...'
|-
| Imperative
|
| tluis-ij
| 'let her/his name be...'
| mu tluis-iwj
| 'let her/him not be named...'
|-
| rowspan="2"|'When...' (Subjunctive)
| present
| teluis-ijl
| 'when her/his name is...'
| mu teluis-igwl
| 'when her/his name isn't...'
|-
| past
| teluis-iteg
| 'when her/his name was...'
| mu teluis-igweg
| 'when her/his name wasn't...'
|-
| rowspan="3"|'If...' (Subjunctive)
| present
| tluis-ij
| 'if her/his name is...'
| mu tluis-iwg
| 'if her/his name isn't...'
|-
| past
| tluis-iss
| 'if her/his name was...'
| mu tluis-iwgs'p
| 'if her/his name wasn't...'
|-
| pluperfect
| tluis-isn
| 'if her/his name had been...'
| mu tluis-iwgs'pn
| 'if her/his name hadn't been...'
|-
| rowspan="2"|Conditional
| present
| teluis-iss
| 'her/his name would be...'
| mu teluis-iss
| 'her/his name would not be...'
|-
| past
| teluis-isoqq
| 'her/his name would have been...'
| mu teluis-isoqq
| 'her/his name would not have been...'
|-
| Subordinative
|
| wtluis-in
| 'that her/his name is...'
| colspan="2" |
|-
|}

==Tense==
''For more detail, see [[Tense]]''

Verbs can be expressed in different tenses, i.e. present, past, future, and/or pluperfect. Present tense is not marked on the verb, so this is the default if there is no clear tense marked. Past tense is often marked with ''-p'', as in ''teluisi(s)p'' 'her/his name was ...' above, but this is not always the case. This ''-p(n)'' is also argued to mark evidentiality as well [come in Jenny!]. Future tense is often marked with a vowel reduction in the verb stem, i.e. reduction from ''teluis-'' to ''tluis-'' in ''tluis-itew'' 'her/his name will be...' above.

==Negation==
''For more detail, see [[Negation]]''

Verb forms can be negated with the addition of a negative particle ''mu'', or ''ma'' in the future. Verbs that are followed by this negative particle must have negative marking, ''-w'' or ''-u''. We can see this contrast from the Mode table above, where ''mu teluis-ig'' 'her/his name is...' is negated with the addition of the negative particle "mu" and the "w" negative marker in '''''mu''' teluis-i'''w'''g'' 'her/his name isn't...'

==Preverbs==
''For more detail, see [[Preverbs]]''

A preverb is an element found at the left edge of a verb in Mi'gmaq that modifies the meaning of the root and any other preverbs to the right of it. Some of the meanings that are expressed in Mi'gmaq using preverbs are expressed in other languages such as English as adverbs (e.g. ''jaqal-'' "quickly, energetically"), prepositions (e.g. ''toqjuw-'' "up"), modal verbs (e.g. ''getu-'' "want (to)"), prefixes (e.g. ''minu-'' "re-"), other verbs (e.g. ''poqju-'' "begin (to)"), and other expressions (e.g. ''etl-'' "in the process of, be __ing"), although not all elements that belong to one of these categories in English are expressed as preverbs in Mi'gmaq, such as ''igtug'' "at, near (location)," which is found after nouns, not before verbs. Some examples of preverbs are found below (the preverb part is in '''bold''')

<gl>
\gll '''poqju'''-wissugwatma-p
'''begin'''-cook.3sg.anim.3sg.inan-past\\
\trans s/he is beginning to cook it
</gl>

<gl>
\gll '''newti'''-wissugwatma-p
'''one'''-cook.3sg.anim.3sg.inan-past\\
\trans s/he cooks it alone (slot 2)
</gl>

<gl>
\gll '''getu- poqju- mamuni- espi- inn-ui'''- sit
'''want- start- high,very- level- people-lang''' -3sg\\
\trans s/he wants to start to speak the people's language (Mi'gmaq) at a very high level
(sample context: said of an enthusiastic student of Mi'gmaq)
</gl>

==To Do==
* Make collapsible table templates for verb paradigms
* Put a giant complex verb at the beginning and break it down into sections: (preverbs) - stem - finals - (negation) - person/number - (tense) - (3rdPL/obviative)
* Collapse Mood section by taking out non-present tense forms (those will go in tense section). Use 2nd person subject to make imperative forms more intuitive.

2012-04-28T16:52:09Z

Jessica:

Main Page

2012-04-11T02:17:10Z

Jessica:

Welcome to the Mi'gmaq language wiki! <ref>Coon, Jessica. 2012. Installation of MediaWiki references extension. <i>Miracles</i></ref>

This wiki aims to provide a snapshot of some of the current topics in describing the grammar of Mi'gmaq that McGill linguists are working on with members of the Listuguj community. It is still a work in progress, so nothing here should be taken as the final word on the language, although we are doing our best to make it as accurate as possible. If you see an error, please contact us through the [http://migmaq.org blog]. If you know something about Mi'gmaq and would like to contribute to the wiki, you can create an account using the link at the top right corner of the screen, although we would also love to hear from you in person. Please be aware that anything that is submitted to the wiki may be edited by other contributors.

Mi'gmaq is an Eastern Algonquian language spoken in eastern Canada. For more information, see the article [[Background]]. There are several different ways of writing down Mi'gmaq. This wiki uses the Listuguj orthography, but a description of the various possible writing systems can be found in the [[Orthography]] article. A list of glosses used on this wiki can be found on the [[Glosses]] page. There are various resources online which provide definitions of basic linguistic terminology, for example this [http://www.sil.org/linguistics/GlossaryOflinguisticTerms/ glossary of linguistic terms]; see the "Linguistics Online" sidebar of the [http://migmaq.org blog] for more info.

Many of the articles in this wiki build on class projects that were developed as part of a class wiki for a field methods course on Mi'gmaq in Fall 2011 at McGill. Currently available and projected topics are listed below.

* [[Background]]

Sounds of Mi'gmaq

* [[Orthography]]
* [[Schwa]]
* [[Long and Short Vowels]]
* [[Stress]]

Words of Mi'gmaq

* [[Verbs: Overview]]
* [[Verbs: Person Endings]]
* [[Verbs: Intransitive Animate]]
* [[Verbs: Intransitive Inanimate]]
* [[Verbs: Transitive Animate]]
* [[Verbs: Transitive Inanimate]]
* [[Verbs: Tense]]
* [[Verbs: Negation]]
* [[Preverbs]]
* [[Verbs: Medials]]
* [[Verbs: Finals]]

* [[Pronouns]]
* [[Nouns: Overview]]
* [[Forming Nouns from Verbs]]
* [[Nouns: Possession]]
* [[Noun Classes]]

* [[Discourse Particles]]
* [[Questions]]

==Mi'gmaq Language Resources==

* The [http://migmaq.org/ blog] associated with this wiki, for project updates and more language-related links
* [http://www.mikmaqonline.org/ Mikmaq Online], which includes an online dictionary

== General Wiki Resources ==

* Consult [http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Help:Contents User's Guide] for information on using the wiki software
* [[Wiki gloss extension]]
* [http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:FAQ MediaWiki FAQ]

== References ==
<references />

Main Page

2012-04-11T02:16:26Z

2012-02-29T14:43:17Z

Jessica:

File:Listuguj.jpg

2012-02-29T14:42:10Z

Jessica: uploaded a new version of "File:Listuguj.jpg"

Listuguj logo

File:Logo-large.png

2012-02-29T14:37:05Z

Jessica:

Main Page

2012-02-20T01:29:31Z

Jessica:

Welcome to the Mi'gmaq language wiki!

== Resources ==

* Consult [http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Help:Contents User's Guide] for information on using the wiki software
* [[Wiki gloss extension]]
* [http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:FAQ MediaWiki FAQ]

Wiki gloss extension

2012-02-20T01:29:06Z

Jessica: Created page with "<div style="float:right; clear:both; margin-left:0.5em;">__TOC__</div> = Overview = The Gloss extension provides a wiki markup element for linguistic annotations, developed for M..."

<div style="float:right; clear:both; margin-left:0.5em;">__TOC__</div>
= Overview =
The Gloss extension provides a wiki markup element for linguistic annotations, developed for McGill Field Methods classes by [http://www.ruthsresearch.org/ Derek Ruths]. The Gloss extension automatically aligns text with glosses, as well as provides auto-numbering and hyper-referencing. It closely follows the form and features of the [http://www.essex.ac.uk/linguistics/external/clmt/latex4ling/ Latex-based glossing tools], allowing the wiki source text to be easily pasted into Latex documents. This page provides both formal documentation of the extension as well as numerous examples of how the tool is used.

= Installing the extension =
To install the extension, you must have access to the ''includes'' directory of your MediaWiki installation. The installation is a two step procedure.

1. Copy the ''gloss.php'' file into the ''includes'' directory of your MediaWiki installation
2. Open the ''LocalSettings.php'' file in the root directory of your MediaWiki installation. Just below the line <pre>require_once( "$IP/includes/DefaultSettings.php" );</pre> add the line <pre>require_once( "$IP/includes/gloss.php" );</pre>

You should now be able to use the Gloss extension in your wiki pages.

= Using the extension =

== The GL element ==
The Gloss extension allows a wiki editor to automatically align text for interlinear glossing. In this extension, one phrase-gloss-translation entry is entered inside an xml-formatted element
<pre>
<gl ...arguments...>
\gll ...text...
...gloss...
\trans ...translation...
</gl>
</pre>
A simple example would be
<pre>
<gl id="ex1">
\gll ela'l-ul magasan-g
bring-1>2 store-LOC
\trans I'm bringing you to the store.
</gl>
</pre>
which produces the following block:
<gl id="ex1">
\gll ela'l-ul magasan-g
bring-1>2 store-LOC
\trans I'm bringing you to the store.
</gl>

A fourth line can be added above the parsed line:

<gl id="ex2">
ela'lul magasang
\gll ela'l-ul magasan-g
bring-1>2 store-LOC
\trans I'm bringing you to the store.
</gl>

== Numbering and references ==
Notice that the example blocks above were automatically numbered. This number is inserted and auto-increments. As a result, the next block will receive the number 3.
<gl id="ex3">
\gll Piel amalga-t
Piel dance-3SG
\trans Piel dances.
</gl>
Beyond giving some structure to the blocks themselves, you can easily create hyperlinked references to specific GL elements by using the GL reference element <pre><glr id="...gl element id..."/></pre>. So, we can reference the example above using
<pre><glr id="ex3"/></pre>
which generates this: <glr id="ex2"/>.

You can reset the numbering for a given GL element by using the GL element header:
<pre>
<gl renum="true">
...
</gl>
</pre>

== Spacing ==
The number of spaces inserted between words in the GL element can be adjusted by using the parameter ''margin''. Thus, we can render the same content with different spacings (for readability, for example), as follows:

<pre>
<gl margin=2 id="ex4">
\gll Mali newti-al-asi-t
Mali one-around-move-3sg
\trans Mali wanders around alone.
</gl>
</pre>

This produces <glr id="ex4"/>, where the margin = 2 (this is the default value):
<gl margin=2 id="ex4">
\gll Mali newti-al-asi-t
Mali one-around-move-3sg
\trans Mali wanders around alone.
</gl>

In <glr id="ex5"/> the margin = 5:
<gl margin=5 id="ex5">
\gll Mali newti-al-asi-t
Mali one-around-move-3sg
\trans Mali wanders around alone.
</gl>

== Font size ==
The size of the font used inside of the GL element can be set using the parameter ''fontsize''. By default, the fontsize is 15. Here is the same content as above, rendered in font size 12.
<gl fontsize=12>
\gll Piel wenaqwie-t
Piel jump-3SG
\trans Piel jumps
</gl>

== Blank space and grammaticality marks ==

As in Latex gloss environments, curly brackets can be inserted in the gloss line in order to line up with unglossed text, such as the square brackets in <glr id="ex6"/>
<gl id="ex6">
\gll Mali magwtgp [ lpa'tuj-ewei wenju'su'n ]
Mali eat.3sg.past {} boy-POSS apple {}
\trans Mali ate the boy's apple.
</gl>

which was created with the following input:
<pre>
<gl id="ex6">
\gll Mali magwtgp [ lpa'tuj-ewei wenju'su'n ]
Mali eat.3SG.PST {} boy-POSS apple {}
\trans Mali ate the boy's apple.
</gl>
</pre>

The same can be used to mark examples as ungrammatical or infelicitous, as in <glr id="ex7"/>
<gl id="ex7">
\gll * jinm ala mesgilg
{} man that big
\trans That man is big.
</gl>

created with:
<pre>
<gl id="ex7">
\gll * jinm ala mesgilg
{} man that big
\trans That man is big.
</gl>
</pre>

== Known issues ==

=== Unicode string handling ===
While the GL extension does handle unicode characters, there are some instances where it will incorrectly align strings containings rich unicode characters. When using these characters, the phrase and gloss may not perfectly line up.

=== Formatting within GL blocks ===
Currently, it is impossible to use special formatting (e.g. boldface, italics) inside a GL block.

Main Page

2012-02-20T01:28:59Z

Jessica:

Welcome to the Mi'gmaq language wiki!

== Resources ==

* Consult [http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Help:Contents User's Guide] for information on using the wiki software
* [[Wiki gloss plug-in]]
* [[Wiki gloss extension]]
* [http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:FAQ MediaWiki FAQ]