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7-3 Basic Sentence Types

Basic sentence types in Aymara have been analyzed
and described by Hardman et al. (1975:3.425-458). De-
fined by occurrences of the four basic sentence suffixes,
they are as follows. (The order of the suffixes in each

pair is not significant; the opposite order occurs also.)
Questions Answer/Statement
(-xa)/-ti (yes/no) (-xa)/-wa
-sa/(-xa) (information)
The present research has turned up sentences with
the suffix -ka (possibly a reduced form of aka or uka)
in place of -xa in the information question and in the

answer/statement. A plain -ka statement also occurred.

Schematically, the -ka sentence types may be written as

Question Answer/Statements
~sa/(-ka) (-ka)/-wa
~ka/p

(No example of a *(-ka)/-ti yes/no question occurred in

the data, but it may be presumed to exist.) Examples: