InTraSAL: English tier
In InTraSAL, the text of South Asian language utterances is represented on two tiers: the words tier (phonemic transcription of the original text) and the English tier, which represents the English labels for each word or morpheme, and can thus be considered a semi-morphological gloss.
Each word (or suffix, in some cases) should be represented on the "English" tier with an English-language label. The labels of roots should roughly correspond to a one-word translation (e.g. 'dog', 'sun', 'eat'). There is no standardized set of labels for roots, but one can refer to Sailendra Biswas's Samsad Online Dictionary for ideas.
The labels of suffixes, classifiers, and functional particles follow a standardized system of abbreviations. Suffixes should be separated from roots and other suffixes with hyphens in the English tier (but not the words tier). Examples are given below.
Suffixes on verbs
Verbs in Bengali can be finite or non-finite. Only finite verbs can bear marking for tense and subject agreement.
Finite verb suffixes
Finite verbs have suffixes marking causation, aspect, tense, and subject agreement, in that order. Some combinations will have null markings for some of those slots; there is no need to gloss null morphemes. Most suffixes have different forms based on morphophonological environment, regional dialect, and register; common examples are provided below.
| Suffix in phonemic transcription |
Typical uses |
Recommended label |
| a, o, i, Wa | causative verb derived verb |
CAU VBZ |
| ech, iach, yach, s, ys | perfect aspect | PRF |
| ch, cch, itech, ytech, tes, ytes, tas, ytas, r, yr | progressive aspect | PRG |
| l, il, yl | past tense | PST |
| b, ib, yb, m | future tense | FUT |
| t, it, yt | past habitual | HAB |
| k, uk | optative | OPT |
| i, y | future/negative imperative | FIM |
| i, y, am, em, um, u | 1st person | 1 |
| iS, S, os, s, i | 2nd person non-honorific | 2i |
| o, W, e, a, ay | 2nd person neutral | 2 |
| e, Y, o | 3rd person neutral | 3 |
| en, n, uyn | 2nd or 3rd person honorific | HON |
Non-finite verb suffixes
Non-finite verbs have suffixes marking valence (passive, causative), aspect (perfect, conditional), and related concepts. Again, some of these endings may be null, and thus can be left out of the glossing. Most suffixes have different forms based on morphophonological environment, regional dialect, and register; common examples are provided below.
| Suffix in phonemic transcription |
Typical use(s) |
Recommended label |
| a, o, i, Wa | causative verb derived verb |
CAU VBZ |
| e, ia, y--a, Ya | perfect participle | PRF |
| le, ile, yle | conditional participle | CND |
| te, ite, yte | verbal infinitive | INF |
| a, no, Wn, n | verbal noun | VBN |
| a, no, nia, ynna | passive participle | PSS |
Glossing vector verbs
All verbs are translated literally, even if they are used as vectors. To mark its use as a vector as opposed to a pole verb, one should use capital letters. For example, the verb root দে- dE- should be glossed 'give' as a pole verb (i.e. when it literally means 'give') and 'GIVE' as a vector verb (e.g. when it conveys a benefactive reading), e.g. লিখে দিলাম likhe dilam 'write-PRF GIVE-PST-1' (roughly '[I/we] wrote [it] for [someone]').
| Verb root in phonemic transcription |
Uses as vector verb |
Recommended label |
| ach-, ch- | perfect result-focused |
'BE' |
| oTh-, uTh- | sudden inchoative |
'RISE' |
| thak-, thek- | durative iterative |
'STAY' |
| dE-, de-, di-, da-, dO- |
benefactive/malefactive sudden |
'GIVE' |
| nE-, ne-, ni- | self-benefactive future utility |
'TAKE' |
| pOR-, poR- | completive (intr) sudden/unexpected change of state/position |
'FALL' |
| phEl-, phel-, fEl-, fel-, fala-, la- |
completive (tr) sudden/unexpected (tr) malicious/careless (tr) |
'DROP' |
| ja-, gE-, ge-, gi- | perfective (intr) change of state/position |
'GO' |
| rO-, ro- | perfect result-focused |
'STAY' |
Examples of verb glossing
Example words include:
-খাওয়াচ্ছিলেন khaWacchilen 'eat-CAU-PRF-PST-HON' (roughly, 'HON person was feeding')
-খাওয়াইতেছিলেন khaWaytesilen 'eat-CAU-PRF-PST-HON' (same as above, in an eastern form)
-খেয়ে ফেলতিস khe pheltiS 'eat-PRF drop-HAB-2i' (roughly, 'you would eat up')
-খাইয়া ফালাইতি khaya falayti 'eat-PRF drop-VBZ-HAB-2i' (same as above, in an eastern form)
-যা! ja 'go' (imperative for 2nd person non-honorific)
-লুকানো lukano 'hide-CAU-PSS' (roughly, 'hidden' as an adjective)
-লুকাইন্যা lukaynna 'hide-CAU-PSS' (same as above, in an eastern form)
Suffixes on nouns
Nouns in Bengali can take suffixes for definiteness, number, animacy, and case. These all interact in a complex way, and it is not possibly to fully cover this complexity here. Most suffixes have different forms based on morphophonological environment, regional dialect, and register; common examples are provided below. Note that null suffixes (e.g. nominative case suffixes in most situations) need no gloss.
| Suffix in phonemic transcription |
Typical uses |
Recommended label |
| Ta, Ti, Da | default classifier | CL |
| gula, gulo, guli, Ti, Di | plural classifier | PL |
| ra | animate nominative plural | NOMPL |
| ke | animate accusative dative |
OBJ |
| derke, der, gore | animate accusative plural dative plural |
OBJPL |
| r, ar, er, or, ker, kar | genitive experiencer |
GEN |
| der, go | animate genitive plural animate experiencer plural |
GENPL |
| te, e, Y, Ye | locative ergative (archaic) |
LOC |
In addition to these more common suffixes for nouns, there are some less common suffixes that can convey plurality in certain combinations, e.g. বৃন্দ brindo, গণ gOn, জন jon, সমূহ SomuHo. These can be glossed as PL if desired.
Classifiers
Some of the suffixes that appear on nouns resemble classifiers (also called measure words), although these appear in different parts of the morphosyntactic structure (e.g. suffixed to numerals, quantifiers, etc., rather than to nouns).
| Classifier in phonemic transcription |
Typical use(s) |
Recommended label |
| Ta, Ti, To, Te, Da | default classifier | CL |
| jon | human classifier | CL |
Other more specific classifiers, e.g. জোড়া joRa 'pair', চামচ camoc 'spoon', গাদা gada 'heap', etc. can be glossed as nouns even when used as classifiers for other nouns, e.g. কয় জোড়া জুতা kOY joRa juta 'how many pair shoe' (~'how many pairs of shoes'), তিন চামচ চিনি tin camoc cini 'three spoon sugar' (~'three spoonfuls of sugar'), এক গাদা বাচ্চা Ek gada bacca 'one heap child' (~'a massive number of children').
Sentence particles
Sentence particles, which typically show up in second position or final position, can be glossed one of two ways: literally or with "SP". The ambiguity arises because all sentence particles have uses as standalone words or standalone utterances.
| Sentence particle in phonemic transcription |
Uses as an independent word |
Uses as a sentence particle |
Recommended label |
| ki | what | yes/no questions | SP |
| na | NEG | confirmation questions | SP |
| na ki | or what | confirmation questions | SP |
| to | therefore | reminders | SP |
| kintu | but | warnings | SP |
| abar | again | expressions of disapproval expressions of disbelief |
SP |
| jEno, jani | so that, such that | reminders or threats | SP |
| bujhi | understand-1 | expressions of disbelief confirmation questions |
SP |
| bole | say-PRF, CMP | reporting hearsay | SP |
Return to InTraSAL
Now that you know how to gloss your text for InTraSAL annotation, you can return to the InTraSAL main page.