Nominal Morphology
Noun Classes
Nouns fall into six classes which are divided along lines of both gender (masculine, feminine and neuter) and animacy (animate and inanimate).
Animate nouns typically, as the name suggests, are those things with the ability to move of their own accord or which are usually in a state of motion whereas inanimate nouns are those things which move without (apparent) volition or are usually in a state of non-motion. Animate nouns also cover individual animals as opposed to groups of animals or individual animals which are normally found in groups and, possibly as the result of taboo, predators.
Nouns, when characterised by gender, are much more difficult to pin down in terms of the actual divide. Adult humans are easily classified as either masculine or feminine on the basis of their biological sex (although certain cultural aspects can confuse this divide), while young children are neuter. Similarly, animals like dogs, cats, horses and various other domesticates often have masculine, feminine and neuter forms along the same lines, although it is most often the case that one of the masculine or feminine words also covers the species as a whole.
Certain body parts are also assigned gender on the basis of their association with men and women while others are assigned seemingly randomly. For example, while the words form “penis” and “vagina” are masculine and feminine respectively, hands are feminine while fingers are masculine and the arms are neuter (with the same progression being true of the legs, feet and toes). The brain is also masculine while the eyes are feminine and the nose is neuter. There is likely some semantic reason behind such gender assignments, but a complete pattern has yet to be discerned. No body part, however, is both inanimate and neuter, at least not where human beings have such a body part (the word for “fin”, for example, is a Class VI noun).
Nouns are thus classified within the following scheme:
Class I: Animate, Masculine: Adult male humans, male “higher” animals, certain body parts (notably the penis, but also the fingers)
Class II: Animate, Feminine: Adult female humans, female “higher” animals, certain body parts (the eyes and hands)
Class III: Animate, Neuter: Adolescent humans, young “higher” animals, certain body parts (the arms and legs)
Class IV: Inanimate, Masculine: Fire, air, tools, birds, predators, augmentatives, certain body parts (such as the brain)
Class V: Inanimate, Feminine: Water, buildings, fish, herd animals, diminutives, certain body parts (notably the vagina, but also the nose)
Class VI: Inanimate, Neuter: Earth, various geographical features, insects, spiders, etc. Unique in containing no human body parts.
Certain nouns have the same root, but placing them within a different class can change their meaning. The most common example of this comes from the words for “hand” and “finger”, which are both represented by the root
*wonti-. However, when masculine, taking the form
*wonter in the singular agentive, it means “finger”, while the feminine equivalent,
*wontus, means “hand”. There are more semantically divergent examples, though, e.g.
*hutul-, meaning “arm” when a class III noun (
*hutula) but “a herd of deer” when a class V noun (
*hutulos).
Number Marking and Agreement
Nominal class determines how a given noun both declines and interacts with adjectives, verbs and quantifiers. For example, when relating to an inanimate noun a verb will always appear in the singular, regardless of whether than noun is in the plural. The number marking and number agreement scheme is as follows:
Class I: Animate, Masculine: Agreement obligatory, marking obligatory
Class II: Animate, Feminine: Agreement obligatory, marking optional
Class III: Animate, Neuter: Agreement optional, no marking
Class IV: Inanimate, Masculine: Agreement optional, marking obligatory
Class V: Inanimate, Feminine: Agreement optional, marking optional
Class VI: Inanimate, Neuter: No agreement, no marking
Gender defines whether a given noun is marked for number in a given circumstance while animacy (alongside gender) determines whether the verb it is associated with agrees with the underlying number of the noun. So, for example, class III and class VI nouns are always singular, whether they refer to more than one individual or not. However, if a class III noun represents a group of distinct individuals, say, for example, a group of children, without any quantifier present to specify that that is the case, the verb will appear in the plural. Class VI nouns, on the other hand, have no such agreement and always have a singular verb.
Expanding on the scheme, then, we find this pattern (where Y indicates that the noun or verb is marked as the same as the underlying number of the noun (N/A indicates that such a situation doesn't arise)):
Code: Select all
+-------------------+-----------------------+-----------------------+
| | Marking | Agreement +
+-------------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+
| | No Quant. | Pl Quant. | No Quant. | Pl Quant. |
+-----------+-------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+
| Class I | Sing. | Y | N/A | Y | N/A |
| | Pl. | Y | Y | Y | Y |
+-----------+-------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+
| Class II | Sing. | Y | N/A | Y | N/A |
| | Pl. | Y | N | Y | Y |
+-----------+-------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+
| Class III | Sing. | Y | N/A | Y | N/A |
| | Pl. | N | N | Y | N |
+-----------+-------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+
| Class IV | Sing. | Y | N/A | Y | N/A |
| | Pl. | Y | Y | Y | N |
+-----------+-------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+
| Class V | Sing. | Y | N/A | Y | N/A |
| | Pl. | Y | N | Y | N |
+-----------+-------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+
| Class VI | Sing. | Y | N/A | Y | N/A |
| | Pl. | N | N | N | N |
+-----------+-------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+
So, obviously, when a noun is singular, everything associated with it is also singular. However, when the noun is underlyingly plural, the noun and/or the associated verb and any adjectives, or even neither, may appear in the plural depending on the gender and animacy of the noun and on the presence of a plural quantifier, with marking for the plural becomes increasingly rare as you move down the noun classes. Class I nouns are the most marked and class VI nouns are the least marked, never appearing in the plural.
Case
The following two tables show the case and number endings for each of the six classes of nouns.
Singular:
Code: Select all
----+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+
| MAS.ANIM. | FEM.ANIM. | NEU.ANIM. | MAS.INAN. | FEM.INAN. | NEU.INAN. |
----+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+
AGT | -ar | -us | -a | | | |
----+-----------+-----------+-----------+ -r + -s + -0 +
PAT | -a | -u | -0 | | | |
----+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+
GEN | -an | -un | -as | -n | -s |
----+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+
DAT | -ada | -uda | -a' | -da | -a |
----+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+
ABL | -la | -na | -l |
----+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+
LOC | -i | -u |
----+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+
Plural
Code: Select all
----+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+
| MAS.ANIM. | FEM.ANIM. | NEU.ANIM. | MAS.INAN. | FEM.INAN. | NEU.INAN. |
----+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+
AGT | -i-de | -i-sa | | |
----+-----------+-----------+-----------+ -i-r + ---- +
PAT | -i-r | -i-a | | |
----+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+
GEN | -i-an | -i-as | -i-n | ---- |
----+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+
DAT | -i-da | -i-a' | -i-da | ---- |
----+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+
ABL | -i-la | -i-l | ---- |
----+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+
LOC | -i-i | ---- |
----+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+
NOTE: The plural forms of class III nouns are not actually used on the nouns, but instead used on adjectives agreeing with them in number. Neuter nouns are never themselves marked for number.
Examples:
*leltusijdi- - Literally meaning "tongue sound", this compound stem means "language" and is a Class IV noun, declining as follows:
AGT:
leltusijdir, pl.
leltusijdir
PAT:
leltusijdir, pl.
leltusijdir
GEN:
leltusijdin, pl.
leltusijdin
DAT:
leltusijdida, pl.
leltusijdijda
ABL:
leltusijdil, pl.
leltusijdil
LOC:
leltusijdij, pl.
leltusijdijji
Perhaps unfortunately, because this particular stems ends in an
-i-, vowel collapse causes a number of its plural forms to be wholly identical to their singular counterparts, the only two exceptions being the dative and the locative.
*iwlir- - Meaning both "father" and "paternal uncle", this Class I declines as such:
AGT:
iwlirar, pl.
iwliride
PAT:
iwlira, pl.
iwlirir
GEN:
iwliran, pl.
iwliren
DAT:
iwlirada, pl.
iwlirida
ABL:
iwlirla, pl.
iwlirila
LOC:
iwliri, pl.
iwlirij
*udu- - This particular noun has two meanings, 1) "foot", when declined as a Class II noun and 2) "toe", when declines as a Class I noun:
FOOT:
AGT:
udus, pl.
udujde
PAT:
udu, pl.
udir
GEN:
udun, pl.
udujjan
DAT:
uduwda, pl.
udujda
ABL:
udula, pl.
udujla
LOC:
uduj, pl.
udujji
TOE:
AGT:
udor, pl.
udujde
PAT:
udu', pl.
udir
GEN:
udon, pl.
udujjan
DAT:
udu'da, pl.
udujda
ABL:
udula, pl.
udujla
LOC:
uduj, pl.
udujji
Forms appearing in blue are indistinct in regards to whether the word refers to "toe" or "foot". For example
*udujde means both "toes" and "feet".