depozitives

Depositives are a linguistic category found in a handful of languages, primarily in the Caucasian family, that function as a marker indicating that a noun holds or possesses something. They are typically expressed as a bound morpheme—often a suffix—that attaches to the possessor noun. For example, in some Nakh–Daghestanian languages the suffix ‑ɣa is added to the name of an owner to signal that the following noun is possessed. The marker therefore distinguishes the possessor from the possessed.

This construction is distinct from possessive pronouns or genitive case endings that merely signal relation between nouns. In depositive systems the possessor itself is a lexical noun that receives the possessive marking; the possessed noun remains unmarked. Consequently, the word order often places the possessor before the possessed, and the overall structure parallels that of an adjective phrase, yet morphologically it is a case-like system.

Outside of the Caucasus, some Austronesian languages also exhibit depositive-like morphology, though the exact functions differ. In those cases, the marker may indicate on whom something is placed or with whom a relationship is shared, rather than strictly ownership.

The study of depositives contributes to our understanding of how languages encode possession and animate relationships. Linguists examine these morphemes to uncover syntactic patterns, typological distribution, and historical language change. Because depositives are relatively rare, they remain a special interest area for researchers exploring morphosyntactic typology.