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Prefixed to a traditional Chewa clan name to denote a woman belonging to that clan.
Curripaco
Prefix
na-
third person plural agent marker
References
Swintha Danielsen, Tania Granadillo, Agreement in two Arawak languages, in The Typology of Semantic Alignment (edited by Mark Donohue, Søren Wichmann) (2008, →ISBN, page 398
François, Alexandre. 2007. Noun articles in Torres and Banks languages: Conservation and innovation. In Siegel, Jeff; Lynch, John; Eades, Diana (eds.), Language Description, History and Development: Linguistic indulgence in memory of Terry Crowley, 313–326. (Creole Language Library 30) Amsterdam: Benjamins.
Navajo
Etymology 1
Prefix
na-
Marks the continuative aspect, describing actions that take place over an indefinite time and move without a fixed direction or goal. Can also be translated as 'aroundabout, here and there,' and is sometimes referred to as an atelic prefix.
na- + -nish(“work”) → naalnish(“have a job, work”)
Usage notes
This prefix is realized as ni- before the fourth-person prefix ji-, the distributive plural prefix da-, and all of the si- perfective prefixes except s/z-: nijiné(“someone is playing”), not *najiné, and nidajiné(“some people are playing”), not *nadajiné.
Marks the diversitative aspect on certain verbs, indicating action taking place in multiple places ("here and there") without taking place over a specific period of time
(dialectal)used to form progressive aspects of verbs prefixed with um- or infixed with -um-
Usage notes
The dialectal prefix, when written, is generally a source of confusion and mockery for the majority of Tagalog speakers, but the two actually differ by pronunciation. The na-, where it indicates a perfective aspect, is pronounced without stress, while the na- prefix, where it indicates a progressive aspect in some dialects, is pronounced with stress.
The meaning "have" can be analysed more literally as "to be with". In the negative, a- is prefixed to the subject concord, and the initial vowel of the noun prefix is dropped: