nīkan and inflections

niikan

nīkan

nīkan is a preposition meaning “together with”, or “with” as long as it is not an instrumentive reading. nīkan also requires that its object be inanimate. The usual syntax is NP1 nīkan NP2(inanimate). NP1 can be animate. When this happens, nīkan is usually inflected for person. If so, the syntax becomes looser and it is possible to rearrange all the constituents into any order.

The inflections are: nīkanle for first person, nīkanrie for second person, and nīkamma for 3rd person.

In the North Wind and the Sun the next sentence involves marāona nīkamma jalūra jacālle. marāona (NP1) means “wanderer” and was discussed earlier. jalūra jacālle (NP2) was discussed yesterday and means “a warm cloak”. So marāona nīkamma jalūra jacālle is “a wanderer with a warm cloak”.