This unit teaches how to form relative clauses such as the book which I am reading, or the man who is guarding us.

-bogh

This is done through the use of the type 9 verb suffix, -bogh.

From paq vIlaDtaH I am reading a book, we get paq vIlaDtaHbogh the book which I am reading, and from nu'avtaH loD The man is guarding us, we get nu'avtaHbogh loD the man who is guarding us.

Such a relative clause forms a noun phrase which can then serve as the subject or object of a main clause—for example, Mara is looking for the book which I am reading, paq vIlaDtaHbogh nej mara, or The man who is guarding us refuses to fall asleep QongchoHQo' nu'avtaHbogh loD.

Head nouns

If the relative clause only mentions a subject or only mentions an object, as in the previous examples, then it is clear whether the subject or the object of that clause is the thing being referred to.

If, on the other hand, a clause has both an explicit subject and an explicit object, then adding -bogh to the verb does not make it clear whether the subject or the object of that clause is the head noun (i.e. the one intended to be relativised). For example, paq ghajbogh be' can either mean the book which the woman has or the woman who has the book.

Context may make it clear which meaning is intended, but if you want to be more specific, you can use the type 5 noun suffix -'e' on the head noun which you want to "extract" or relativise; thus paq'e' ghajbogh be' is explicitly the book which the woman has and paq ghajbogh be"e' is explicitly the woman who has the book.

This use of the type 5 noun suffix -'e' is related to other uses like topic, focus, or emphasis, but does not typically indicate any of those things when used along with the -bogh verb suffix. In this case it is usually just marking which noun is being relativised.

Choice of type 5 suffixes

If you want the noun phrase formed with -bogh to be used as something other than the subject, object, or topic, other syntactic noun suffixes can be placed on the head noun instead of -'e'. For instance, you can use -Daq to indicate that the phrase describes the location, you can use -vo' to indicate that the phrase describes the origin, you can use -mo' to indicate the phrase describes the cause, or you can use -vaD to indicate that the phrase describes the indirect object. In each of these cases, the entire -bogh phrase marked in this way would be placed before the OVS structure of the sentence.

Multiple adjectives

Note that when using adjectival verbs like chu' be new, using -bogh for a relative clause has basically the same meaning as placing the adjectival verb after the noun. The noun phrases paq chu' a new book and chu'bogh paq a book which is new effectively mean the same thing.

Relative clauses using -bogh are a good way to add additional adjectives to a noun. We are not allowed to put two adjectival verbs after a noun, so we cannot say *paq QaQ chu' for a good new book. Instead, we can use the -bogh suffix on one of the verbs to create a more complex noun phrase:

QaQbogh paq chu' a new book that is good or
chu'bogh paq QaQ a good book that is new