-jhege

Wutunhua

Etymology

From Mandarin 幾個／几个 (jǐgè).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [c͡çəkə]

Suffix

-jhege

1. The paucal suffix; attached to nouns to indicate that there are a few of them.

   jashe-de zhawa-jhege zang-li wanlan-di-li.

   [A couple of] Jashe's workers are working in Tibet.

   (Quoted in Sandman, p. 48)

2. Attached after a series of several nouns to emphasize that the group that the nouns make up is not large in number.

   jashe da gu-de adia da asak-jhege bijin qhi-gu-ma-li.

   Jashe and the monk and the sister-in-law [of his family] went to Beijing.

   (Quoted in Sandman, p. 48)

3. Attached after a noun to indicate that the statement applies generally for members of the group, whereas the plural suffix -dera implies that the statement applies to certain particular members.

   ha-jhege kuize-liangge huan xhe-di-li.

   Chinese people [in general] eat with chopsticks.

   (Quoted in Sandman, p. 49)

See also

• -dera (plural suffix)

 

References

• Erika Sandman (2016) A Grammar of Wutun‎^[1], University of Helsinki (PhD), →ISBN