Ket Verbal System

[dhok]

I am doing a personal project entitled "The World's Worst Verbal Systems", about complex and lunatic verb systems.
1. Anybody have any resources on the Ket verb?
2. I already have Old Irish and Vedic Sanskrit on the list. Anybody else have suggestions?

[roninbodhisattva]

Well, there's Edward Vajda's Lincom grammar, which is short, but good. If you have access to it:

Vajda, Edward. Ket (Languages of the World/Materials Volume 204.) Munich: Lincom Europa, 2004.

You'll want to look at Vajda's work in general, because he's the one who's really shown that Dene-Yeniseian is viable. Here is his A Siberian link with the Na-Dene paper. There's good verbal information in there. Also, a link to Vajda's CV.

Also, as far as other verbal systems to look at:

1) Athabaskan languages, plain and simple.
2) Iroquoian languages
3) Salishan and Wakashan might also be good choices
4) Georgian, and other langauges of the Caucasus

[Mecislau]

Vajda probably isn't the best source for descriptive aspects of Ket verbal morphology, however. Yes, he's done quite a bit towards getting the system straightened out and its origins elucidated, but for a more descriptive overview you might want to look at books such as Stefan Georg's "A Descriptive Grammar of Ket", which includes a lengthy descriptive of the verbal system using the Vajdan classification.


As for other languages, have a look at several different Caucasian language families, since they're each crazy in different ways. Georgian, for instance, has an absurdly complex system of argument and tense marking, while Abkhaz seems to enjoy including agreement markers for everything and its mother (IIRC).

[roninbodhisattva]

Also, even though it's not a wide descriptive study,What’s in a verb?: Studies in the verbal morphology of the languages of the Americas would be something you might want to look at.