Nominal Morphology

Noun Classes

Overview

Most nouns can occur in two numbers, singular and plural. There are eight singular noun classes and six plural noun classes. Noun classes are lexically determined: while generalizations can be made about the semantic content of certain noun classes, they are by no means entirely predictable. In most cases, noun classes are named after the concordant marking on corresponding determiners.

Singular classes	Noun prefix	Adj prefix	Det. prefix	Semantic generalization
ox	o-*	o-	ox-	humans
ol	o-	o-	ol-
l	Ø-	Ø-	l-
f	Ø-	fa-**	f-
n	Ø-**	Ø-**	n-
al	a-	Ø-*	l-
ong	o-**	o-**	ong-	diminutives
gal	ga-** gi-**	a-*	al-	augmentatives
Plural classes
w	Ø-	Ø-	w-	humans
ax	xa-*	xa-*	ax-
ak	a-*	a-*	ak-
k	Ø-*	Ø-*	k-
fn	fo-**	fo-**	n-	diminutives
gak	ga-**	a-**	ak-	augmentatives

*The initial consonant of the stem undergoes standard nominal mutation, if able.

**The initial consonant of the stem undergoes prenasalized nominal mutation, if able.

Most singular noun classes correspond to exactly one plural noun class, with the exception of the al class. However, the corresponding plural form for any given al class noun is predictable. All al/k nouns have an initial prenasalized consonant; all al/ak nouns do not. The complete table of noun class pairs is shown in the following table.

Noun class pair examples

Class	Example	Det.	English	Plural	Det.	Semantic generalization
ox/w	o-tew	oxe	woman	Ø-rew	we	humans
ol/ax	o-fiiɗ	ole	butterfly	xa-piiɗ	axe
l/ak	Ø-xomb	le	turtle	a-qomb	ake
f/k	Ø-xaarit	fe	friend	Ø-qaarit	ke
n/k	Ø-nqoox	ne	bull	Ø-qoox	ke
al/k	a-mbeel	ale	lake	Ø-peel	ke
al/ak	a-koong	ale	monkey	a-koong	ake
ong/fn	o-ndew	onge	woman [DIM]	fo-ndew	ne	diminutives
gal/gak	ga-ndew gi-ndew	ale	woman [AUG]	ga-ndew	ake	augmentatives

Negation of a noun is indicated by the free morphology word [jege]. It's unclear if this element can function verbally or if it can only negate nouns.

Irregular nouns

A handful of nouns have singular-plural noun class pairs that do not fall into this regular paradigm.

Semantic Generalizations

Human Classes (ox/w)

The ox/w noun classes consist entirely of nouns denoting humans. Derived nouns that fall into these classes are perforce interpeted as being human.

moxoñ 'crumble' > omoomoxoñ 'someone who crumbles things' (not 'something that crumbles')

With very few exceptions, all lexical nouns denoting humans fall into these noun classes.

Singular noun	Noun class	Gloss
mbir	n/k	'wrestler'
xaarit	f/k	'friend'
yaay	n/k	'mother'
ya'	n/k	'mother'
simb	f/k	'false lion'

Augmentative and Diminutive Classes (gal/gak and ong/fn)

We probably don't need examples here except to demonstrate how to derive augmentative nouns from non-augmentative ones. Faytak 17:11, 30 November 2012 (UTC)

Gloss	Singular Noun	Augmentative of SN	Plural Noun	Augmentative of PN	Notes
cat	muus	gamuusala

We probably don't need examples here except to demonstrate how you derive diminutive nouns from non-diminutive ones. Faytak 17:11, 30 November 2012 (UTC)

Gloss	Singular Noun	Diminutive of SN	Plural Noun	Diminutive of PN	Notes
drum	famb	ombamb onga	apamb		distal "article" onga
field	qool	onqool onga			distal "article" onga
sugar	suukar	njuukar	suukar		did not elicit dim. of pl.

There are some nouns lexically permanently diminutive, i.e., they are permanently part of the noun class only available to diminutives and cannot be back-derived to an earlier form:

 ondeb onge
 *deb ole
 'the boy'

 ombec onge, xapec axe
 *mbec ole, xapec axe
 'the dance, the dances'

Oana 23:24, 7 December 2012 (UTC)

Other things that agree with noun class

Coming soon, tables for:

• 'which'
• 'how many/much'
• relativizers/ thingys in headless relative clauses

Other nominal morphology

Word/clitic status of "articles"

The "articles" discussed above are apparently not suffixal, as one might assume, making them either independent (and mobile) words or clitics (which attach to the right edge of a DP?).

For instance, note that the agreement for the article in xaˈƥek ˈsuuˌkar aˌhe 'the pieces of sugar (sugarcubes)' matches that of xaˈƥek aˌxe 'the pieces', rather than the agreement seen in ˈsuuˌkar fe 'the sugar': the article agrees with xaˈƥek despite not being immediately adjacent to it.

More convincing evidence comes from the fact that one or more adjectives can intervene between the article and the noun. (Elaborate upon this.)

It is unclear at this point precisely what semantic function they serve. Some specifying and/or deictic function seems to be involved.