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[moonflower77]

 Conjunctions

Relative and causative conjunctions are derived from the stems of the semi-auxiliary and auxiliary verbs hа-, na- "to do thus, so, in this manner", and from the stems of the pronominal verbs hymt'i-, tymt'i-, hymra-, tymra- "to act/behave thus, so, in this manner", hоŋ- ~ hо-, hoǥо-, hоǥa- "to act/behave thus, so, in this manner", hypry-, typry- "to act/behave thus, so, in this manner" combined with adverbial markers.

Conjunctions serve to link two consecutive clauses and may express the following relationships:

- temporal:

qavi mlyhar kynt, hаŋy kuz'r a small quantity of snow (just enough to cover the ground) fell, then (after the snow had fallen) (he) emerged

yrkziŋ muγft'iŋ qʰond, hаfke muγv-n'ix os'nt he slept day and night, then (having done so for a long, long time) he got up;

- causal:

jan'ǥ,i itnt: n'аn jajmndra, halax čʰ'аχ wiŋginyndra his wife said: I understand as well, therefore I will see you off (allow you to leave);

- sequential:

ekrŋаrо wir, n'аχ čʰаǥ-ŋаrror teǥŋgra, irvir yn'gra, harornan n'ixr, n'in'ja stand aside, allow me to go down to fetch some water, and, having boiled boiled (some food), (allow me) to eat, only then (after i have done all this), having killed me, eat (me);

- conditional:

ninaχ tus'-p'igna, hanon tuzux nin-dav-ajna; hаχа, n'i tauru mоeřqаnа place us here, then (after you have placed us here) build our house here, then (if you do as i have told you), i shall live long (says a female spirit of the sea to the Nivkh);

- purposive:

č'i přyχaj, t'aj pʰŋafqxun-dorra, winŋаǥn'ira, hajilakrt čʰerχ čʰxyf qojχojŋginyndra if you (sg.) come, you will miss your comrades again, will want to leave, in order for it not to be so, the bear will kill you (says a bear-woman to the Nivkh man who had become her husband).

Interjections

The number of interjections is relatively small. The main reason behind this could be the high emotional charge characteristic of the high and low vowel correlations, as well the abundance of particles, suffixes with an emotional-expressive meaning, figurative words, separate forms to denote modes of action and other emotionally charged words. It is difficult to assign any strictly defined meaning to the interjections. They serve to express a person's physical or mental state or their volition (the goal their intent is directed to). Such words, or, to be more precise, exclamations do not have a nominative function and serve merely as immediate, direct signals, no different in this respect from the sounds made by animals:

The following interjections are used to express emotions:

- aj - disdain, contempt;
- alqd alqda – fastidious attitude, revulsion, disgust;
- tyta atyta - uttered when caressing a child;
- skaska, askaskyj - strong pain,
- ajka/aka/akkaka - pain;
- haj - sudden fright,
- hy(ŋ) [nasalized vowel] - agreement, guess, surprise;
- k'yt'γyt'va - discontent, dissatisfaction, indignation;
- faj faj - revulsion, disgust;
- ynyja, ynyynyja - fright, surprise;
- ytpyty, atata, etete - pleasure, admiration, delight, discontent,
dissatisfaction;
- yfky yfky, ypky ypky - the discomfort or unpleasant sensation caused
by contact with or immension in cold water;
- ika - severe pain;
- e, ej - surprise;
- evej - regret, compunction, vexation, displeasure, disappointment;
- xo xo, xu xu - tiredness, fatigue;
- xyxyj - joy or discontent, dissasfaction.

The interjections that convey the motivation or will of the speaker are consderably fewer:

- hela, hena, hana helave - used to incite someone to act, request, command;
- va va – used to incite someone to suspend the action;
- ty ty - used drive dogs away or to urge them on;
- kyt'kyt' - used to call the dogs;
 - qʰaja qʰaja - a command to a pack of dogs driving a sleigh to turn right;
- t'yj - a command to a pack of dogs driving a sleigh to turn left;
- por por - a command to a dog to lie down;

 Interjections used to react to someone else's words:

- hy(ŋ) [nasalized vowel] - used tp agree with the speaker;
- qʰauk, k'ak - used tp disagree with the speaker, to refuse to perform an action.

Despite the fundamental differences between interjections and lexical words, the range of the former is expanded at the expense of the latter. In addition, interjections may exhibit morphological elements peculiar to lexical words, and the interjections themselves are involved in the word-formation proceeses used to create new lexical words. Such interpenetration between the two word classes testifies to the more ancient, primordial nature of Nivkh interjections.

Adverbials:

Some categories of adverbs may be distinguished by their syntactic role, but not by their morphology.

Adverbs of time are a heterogeneous group of words that may refer to:

a) different times of day: t'atŋ morning, muγf day, muγfhyty midday, noon, parf evening;

b) the temporal sequence of days in the recent past or future, i.e. days that precede or follow the moment of speaking: namr yesterday, namrank the day before yesterday, (namr means "yesterday", ank is a component that means "before, prior to"), namrank t'ajank two days before yesterday; pat tomorrow, kru the day after tomorrow, jaxru on the fourth day, t'aj jaxru on the fifth day;

c) the temporal (historical) distance or interval of time between a given moment and the moment of speaking: k'iŋ from the start, at first, k'iŋts nuγi from the very start, right from the start, taurlafk a long, long time ago, ages ago, in times immemorial, once upon a time, tiŋankifk a very long time ago (but not as far back in time as taurlafk), tyŋank a very long time ago (not as far back in time as tinankyfk), taefk ~ tayfk a long, long time ago, ages ago, in times immemorial, once upon a time, tafk not so long ago, tafkŋa a short time ago, recently (a shorter period of time than with tafk), tafkŋajo recently (a shorter period of time than tafkŋa) and others.

The suffixes -ŋа, -ŋajo are used when a recent moment on the temporal scale is closer to the moment of speaking. The same suffixes are found in adverbs of place.

Adverbs of quantity and degree: maxn, maγn, myγn very, extremely, lys very, extremely, les many, much, a large number/quantity, lesles a great many, very much, a great number/quantity (used primarily for game), řаŋga many, much, a large number/quantity (used for money or objects), raŋge a lot, many, a large number of (used for living beings), erǥale many, much, a large number/quantity (used for cargo, firewood, flour), nʲelq, nʲen'q few, little, a little, a small number/quantity, toru few, little, a little, a small number/quantity, and others. Notably, the stems of the attributives malǥоnt "to be, exist as a large quantity or in large numbers" and has'kunt "to be, exist as a small quantity or in small numbers" are incorporated by transitive verbs, as, for instance, in: jaŋ čʰо malǥо-xunt (has'ku-xunt) he procured (killed) many (few) fish, cf. ixnt to kill him (it). The adverb n'en'q few, little, a little, a small number/quantity of and others may also be incorporated.

Adverbs of manner: ajfta, ajft'iŋ ajft'iŋkis' intentionally, on purpose, urunan in defiance of, against another person’s will, against the odds, n'řaksk, n'řaklyks at once, immediately, instantly, p'ydχar at once, immediately, instantly, plaqr abruptly, suddenly, all of a sudden, unexpectedly, yndr inadvertently, unintentionally, and so forth.

Adverbs of quality are distinguished by their function, but not by their morphological structure, which is identical to that of verb forms derived from simple and causative qualitative stems using the personal-narrative markers -t, -n, -r. The prevalence of function over grammatical form apparently stems from the same reason as the absence of adjectives, ordinal numbers or participles: the fact that an object and its attribute have always been perceived as a single indivisible unit, with the attribute as an inherent part of the object. In addition, the property (quality, attribute) of an action may be conceived as a constant, long-term or transient characteristic. If the qualitative attribute refers to a constant characteristic of the action - and, by extension, of the agent – it is formed by combining the stem of a lexical verb with a qualitative stem denoting the property in question, which, taken together, form a compound stem, as in the following example: jaŋ wiŋurnt / if viurd' he walks well (i.e. he always walks well). In this case, there can be no question of Nivkh having a separate adverb that means "well, good".

Qualitative attributes that refer to a long-term characteristic are formed with the help of the non-derivative stem ur- or the derivative stem urǥar-, urγyt-, which is employd when one has to describe the mode of action in an exhaustive, all-encompassing manner. For example: havuxe tuktoχ eχlagun parf kus't lerχar pyksxsuta, naŋt urt hunvdγun from then on and until now the children did not disappear as they went outside to play in the evenings, so well did (they) live; handhaxaj, č'eχlgun urǥarn hkunvindγunda... navat urǥrt hunvdγun only if you do so, your children will live quite well... now they were living quite well, after all. The words urt, urǥarn, urǥаrt probably mean "in good/fine condition" rather than "well", all the more so that the latter two have the fusional markers for person and time, -n and -t.

Qualitative attributes referring to a temporary characteristic of anaction or process are formed using a causative stem, as in, for example: namr nin urŋt (urgt, urŋgt) windγun yesterday we walked well. Here, urŋt describes a characteristic of the action (process), in contrast to the sentence below, where it functions as a predicate in an adverbial participial clause: la toǥr tol urd... tol urŋt přydγun the wind subsided, the sea was good (i.e. quiet)... the sea was good - we arrived.

Derivatives that define the property (quality, attribute) of an action may also be formed using the bases urgu-, urla-, urlaŋg- ~ urlag-. The full form of the attributive may function as an adverb: ...umgu vigur jan'myd: hyry urd' vid' having sent off his wife, (he) watched her: she walked somewhat well.

Adverbs of place offer an astonishingly clear and detailed system of designations for directions and locations in three-dimensional space. This system makes use of all the locative cases, thus one can only refer to it as a system of "adverbials" in a relative, formal sense.