Size: -uce ‘little’ and -rakko ‘big’

• The suffix -uce is used for a smaller version of a noun.

• The word rakko is used for a larger version of a noun.

Turning verbs into nouns: opanv ‘dancer’, yvhikv ‘singer’

Mvskoke has many pairs of verbs and nouns like these.

The nouns are formed from the verbs in steps from the stem (the part of the verb before -etv).

Here is the general rule for lengthening the last vowel of the stem.

• If the last vowel of the stem is a short vowel e, v, or u, lengthen it to ē, a, and o. If the last vowel of the stem is already long or a diphthong, no change is made.

Here are examples where the last vowel is already long or a diphthong.

There is an exception, though (using “C” to mean any consonant).

• If the last vowel is followed by lC, or mC, or nC, then the vowel is not lengthened.

This exception can be seen in words like the following.

Compounds: pvrko-opuswv ‘grape juice’

A noun compound is a noun composed of two stems, as in efv-hute ‘dog house’. Mvskoke frequently uses compounds to create new words.

• One common pattern for compounds is Noun + Adjective. The adjective appears second and usually ends with short -e.

A few common adjectives have final -o in compounds instead of -e.

• A second common pattern is Noun₁ + Noun₂, where Noun₁ modifies Noun₂.

• A third pattern is Noun₁ + Noun₂, where Noun₂ modifies Noun₁. This pattern is used when the modifying word is a title, sex, or location.

• The first word in a compound may be shortened. Nouns that end in wv often lose that element.

Verb pairs: kvwvpetv ‘to raise’, kvwvpketv ‘to rise’

• Verbs in Mvskoke often come in pairs of related forms.

The verbs on the left above involve actions that affect something else. The verbs on the right with -k are self-contained: the subject does the action without changing anything else.

Some -k forms of verbs can also be used as adjectives.

Verb pairs: hecetv ‘to see’, hecicetv ‘to show’

• Some verbs show a different pattern.

This time, the words on the left above are self-contained, while the words on the right affect something else. The element …c- in the above words seems to mean ‘cause’ or ‘make’.