Introduction to Glossing

In order to understand many of the posts that will be on this blog, one must first understand glossing--as it is seldom that languages have one to one translations of words or phrases. Glossing is, put simply, the process of breaking words and phrases down into smaller parts.

First, let us look at an example from English. Take the English word, hills. The word being glossed will appear first in quotes, and the gloss will appear second, without quotes.

"hills" -- hill.PL

The word hill has two parts to it. First, there is the word, "hill," which means...well a hill. Then, there is the affix "-s." The affix "-s," in English, in this instance, means that the noun hill is plural. Thus, you have for the gloss "hill.PL," as "PL" is the abbreviation of plural.

Now, here is a list of common glosses that you will find in my translations. Any glosses seen in translations not on this list can be found here. You will also find links to articles about each of the grammatical functions found below.

Abbreviation	Meaning
PL	Plural
SG	Singular
NPST	Nonpast Tense
ADE	Adessive Case
ADJ or ADJZ	Adjectivizer*
SUPE	Superessive Case
GEN	Genitive Case
ERG	Ergative Case
POSS	Possessive Case
POSD	Possessed Case
NEG	Negation
PROG	Progressive Aspect
INSTR	Intrumental Case
INE	Inessive Case
REFL	Reflexive
1	First Person
2	Second Person
3	Third Person
ACC	Accusitive Case
ABS	Absolutive Case
CONJ	Conjunction
NMZ	Nominalizer
COND	Conditional
ITRT	Intrative Case
SUBE	Subessive Case
DAT	Dative Case
VBZ	Verbalizer**
PERF	Perfect Aspect
IMPERF	Past Imperfect Tense
PST	Past Tense

*There is not a page for an adjectivizer, even though there is a gloss for it. What this means is that the affix is turning the word explicitly into an adjective.

**There is not a page for a verbalizer, even though there is a gloss for it. What this means is that the affix is turning the word into a verb. 

Now that we have the basic idea of how glossing works, I will supply you will a sentence in Graedjoan Giantish, and the gloss. If you'd like, please comment below with what you think it means in English.

"dzigugulal, zun wicaxeguv nulirr."  

INE.PL.mountain.DIM sun.ERG light.VBZ.NPST.PROG river.ADE