NACLO 2023 - Problem MTongue Tied in Chukchi

As always, identifying the verb is the easiest part because concrete lexical items are always marked, whereas pronouns and tenses may be fused.

	see	tie	sniff
simple	inelʔuɣʔi inelʔutək ləʔuɣʔen nelʔutək mətəlʔutək ləʔunet	mətəkəlwəɣʔen nekləwtək	nejŋoɣʔen
progressive	nelʔurkən	nekəlwərkəniɣət nekəlwərkənimək təkəlwərkənitək kəlwərkənitək	mətəjŋorkən təjŋorkənet

To see the common parts, you have to squint a bit. For example, one might say that the shared part for "see" is "-ʔu-", but if you look closer, the preceding segment is either "l" or "lə". Schwas are often irrelevant to the meaning of the word and are inserted for phonotactics. (I've seen very few languages where schwas are differentiating.) So for now, I'll say that "see" is "lʔu"/"ləʔu". Similarly in "tie", all but one verb contain "kəlwə", while that one contains "kləw", so this is the verb. In "sniff", the shared part is "jŋo".

	see	tie	sniff
simple	ine-lʔu-ɣʔi ine-lʔu-tək ləʔu-ɣʔen ne-lʔu-tək mətə-lʔu-tək ləʔu-net	mətə-kəlwə-ɣʔen ne-kləw-tək	ne-jŋo-ɣʔen
progressive	ne-lʔu-rkən	ne-kəlwə-rkəniɣət ne-kəlwə-rkənimək tə-kəlwə-rkənitək kəlwə-rkənitək	mətə-jŋo-rkən tə-jŋo-rkənet

Compare the remaining parts. What's only present in the progressive row and not in the simple row? We see this "rkən" segment. So this is the progressive marker. Now group the sentences by subject and object, removing the verb and tense markers:

	I	you (sg.)	he	we	you (pl.)	they
me		ine-ɣʔi			ine-tək
you (sg.)						ne-(rkən)-iɣət
him		-ɣʔen		mətə-ɣʔen mətə-(rkən)		ne-ɣʔen ne-(rkən)
us			ne-(rkən)-imək		ne-tək
you (pl.)	tə-(rkən)-itək		ne-tək	mətə-tək
them	tə-(rkən)-et	-net			(rkən)-itək

First look at the prefixes.

"tə-" appears iff the subject is "I".
"mətə-" appears iff the subject is "we".
"ine-" appears iff the object is "me".
"ne-" appears iff the subject is "he", "they", or object is "us". This seems a bit awkward and messes up suffix analysis, so I'll talk about it later.

Next the suffixes:

"-ɣʔen" appears iff the object is "him". There are two cases where the "-ɣʔen" is missing when the object is "him", but in both cases we have a "-rkən" suffix, so "-ɣʔen" has perhaps been absorbed into "-rkən".
"-tək" appears iff the subject or object is "you (pl.)"; interesting. The extra "-i" in "-itək" appears iff we have "-rkən" and this is also the case for "-imək" and "-iɣət", so we conclude that this "i" belongs to the progressive marker, which has the variant spelling "-rkəni".
"-net" appears iff the object is "them" (the "n" disappears when preceded by "rkən"), except in "you (pl.) + them" the "-net" is completely missing, so it may have been absorbed into "-tək".
"-ɣət" appears iff the object is "you (sg.)" (only one anyway).
"-ɣʔi" appears only when the subject is "you (sg.)", but in two other phrases with subject "you (sg.)", the suffix is something else. So it seems that "-ɣʔi" means "you (sg.)" but can be replaced by "him" and "them" suffixes.

So this suggests that we have multiple morphemes that compete for the suffix position. In this data, we only know that you (pl.) > them/him > you (sg. subj.).

To summarize, here are what we know so far:

	I tə-	you (sg.) -ɣʔi	he ?	we mətə-	you (pl.) -tək	they ?
me ine-		ine-ɣʔi me–you (sg. subj.)			ine-tək me–you (pl.)
you (sg.) -ɣət						ne-iɣət ?–you (sg. obj.)
him -ɣʔen		-ɣʔen –him (you (sg. subj.))		mətə-ɣʔen we–him		ne-ɣʔen ?–him
us ?			ne-imək ?–?		ne-tək ?–you (pl.)
you (pl.) -tək	tə-itək I–you (pl.)		ne-tək ?–you (pl.)	mətə-tək we–you (pl.)
them -net	tə-et I–them	-net –them (you (sg. subj.))			-itək –you (pl.) (them)

We have two morphemes left: ne- and -mək. Note that "he + you (pl.)" and "you (pl.) + us" are both "ne-tək", so there's a strong tendency to claim that "ne-" simultaneously stands for "he" and "us". Similarly, it could also stand for "they". However, in "he + us" = "ne-mək", we need something to stand for "-mək"! My proposal is that "ne-" stands for "he/they/us" and "-mək" stands for "us", and is only there when something else wants to go in the prefix.

With this, M1 is doable:

a. kələw-net = tie-them = You (sg.) tie them up. ("them" wins over "you (sg. subj.)")
b. mətə-kləw-ɣət = we-tie-you(sg.obj.) = We tie you (sg.) up.
c. ine-kəlwə-rkəni-tək = me-tie-prog-you(pl.) = You (pl.) are tying me up.
d. ne-lʔu-rkəni-tək = he/they/us-see-prog-you(pl.) = He is seeing you (pl.) / They are seeing you (pl.) / You (pl.) are seeing us.

To translate back, we need to figure out some alternations we haven't accounted for, in particular "rkən" vs. "rkəni", and which verb root to use (with different schwas).

Progressive marker:
- rkəni if followed by "ɣət", "mək", "tək". "rkən" otherwise.
Verb root:
- lʔu if preceded by a vowel, ləʔu otherwise.
- kəlwə if followed by two consonants, kləw otherwise.
- We can surmise that jŋo follows the same schwa epenthesis rules as lʔu, since they have the same CCV structure.

I got two phrases different, but I don't see how they can be remedied unless you buy the official solution's analysis that "ne-" means inverse alignment wholesale. But the official solution says that alternative analyses are possible, quoting the one I presented above, so I think multiple solutions are also accepted.

a. I tie him up = I-tie-him = tə-kəlwə-ɣʔen
b. You (sg.) are seeing us = us-see-prog-you(sg.subj.) = ne-lʔu-rkəni-ɣʔi (this is different from the official solution, which is ne-lʔu-rkəni-mək. I don't consider mine wrong though. For one thing, we have no evidence of which of -ɣʔi or -mək takes priority.)
c. You (pl.) sniff him = sniff-you(pl.) = jəŋo-tək ("you (pl.)" wins over "him")
d. He is tying them up = he-tie-prog-them = ne-kəlwə-rkən-et
e. He sniffs me = me-sniff (he) = ine-jŋo (this is again different from the official solution of ine-jŋo-ɣʔi; if "me" = ine- and "he" = ne-, then we have no evidence of which one overrides the other.)

For reference, here's the prefix/suffix combination table, as suggested by the solution:

	I	you (sg.)	he	we	you (pl.)	they
me	ine-ɣʔi	ine-ɣʔi	ine-ɣʔi	mətə-ɣʔi	ine-tək	ine-ɣʔi
you (sg.)	tə-ɣət	ne-ɣət	ne-ɣət	mətə-ɣət	ne-tək	ne-ɣət
him	tə-ɣʔen	-ɣʔen	ne-ɣʔen	mətə-ɣʔen	-ɣʔe-tək	ne-ɣʔen
us	tə-mək	ne-mək	ne-mək	mətə-mək	ne-tək	ne-mək
you (pl.)	tə-tək	ne-tək	ne-tək	mətə-tək	ne-tək	ne-tək
them	tə-net	-net	ne-net	mətə-net	-tək	ne-net