The Arden Reference Grammar

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Compounded words

Compounds are made of two words linked with the enclitic particle ne (no after back words because of vowel harmony). Compounds always have modifier-head order.

The first term of a compound can be a noun, a pronoun or a verb. It appears in its unmarked form, which is the indefinite absolutive for nouns, the absolutive for pronouns and the indefinite imperative for verbs.

The second term of a compound can be a noun or a verb. It governs the part of speech of the resulting form and bears the proper inflections for the whole compound.

Pronouns, notably determiners and numbers, when used as adjectives, must appear as the first element of a compound.

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