Nominal Morphology

Nouns can be divided into patterns (classes/genders?).

Gloss	Noun (sg.)	Sg. article	Noun (pl.)	Pl. article	generalizations for membership
Woman	o-tew	oxe	0-rew	we	humans only
Gorilla	a-koong	ale	a-koong	ake
Elephant	0-fañiik	fe	a-pañiik	ake
Elephant			0-pañiik	ke
Lake	a-mbeel	ale	0-peel	ke
Bull	0-nqoox	ne	0-qoox	ke
Turtle	0-xomb	le	a-qomb	ake
Butterfly	o-fiiɗ	ole	xa-piiɗ	axe
Cat	0-muus	ne	0-muus	ke
Leg	o-jaf	ole	a-caf	ake
Woman (AUG)	ga-ndɛw	ale	ga-ndɛw	ake	entirely and only augmentative-marked
Woman (DIM)	o-ndɛw	onge	fo-ndɛw	ake/ne	entirely and only diminutive-marked

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.

Diminutives

Gloss	Singular Noun	Diminutive of SN	Plural Noun	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.

Augmentatives

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

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.

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

Deverbal agentive nouns

-----------------Gloss-----------------	Derives from verb:	Agentive noun (sg)	Agentive noun (pl)	Session
worker	jal	o caajal	jaajal	OAD_042
reader, studier	jang	o caajang	jaajang	OAD_042
stealer, thief	guud	okuuƭ o kuuguɗ	guuɗ guuguɗ	OAD_042
planter, farmer	? qooxox	o tuuduf o qooxox	duuduf xooxox	OAD_042
chewer	jax	o jaajax	jaajax	OAD_042

Stem-initial segment mutation

Most noun classes

See also Inflectional Verbal Morphology for similar processes in verb stems.

Nouns of certain noun classes exhibit a stem-initial segment alternation between their singular and plural forms that runs on two parallel "tracks". Only initial consonants that can mutate actually do mutate; some never appear to mutate (e.g. /j/, /m/, /n/).

The non-implosive "track":

(sg) continuants --> (pl) voiceless oral stop, non-implosive, e.g. ruul --> atuul 'pig(s)' (001)
(sg) prenasalized stop --> (pl) voiceless oral stop, non-implosive, e.g. ndool --> tool 'rabbit(s)' (020)
(sg) voiced stop --> (pl) voiceless oral stop, non-implosive, e.g. gin --> akin 'egg(s)' (007)

The implosive "track":

(sg) voiced implosive stop --> (pl) voiceless implosive stop, e.g. oʄooχ --> χaƈooχ 'bicep(s)' (013)

Human noun class

The human noun class presents a major exception to this pattern, and a very unusual one at that: the "tracks" still apply, but in reverse. Nearly all attested mutations hold to this pattern, but there is no evidence yet for the expected alternation: (sg) voiceless stop --> (pl) prenasalized stop.

Reversed non-implosive "track" for the human class:

(sg) non-continuants --> (pl) continuants, e.g. otew --> rew 'woman/women' (003)
[hypothetical: (sg) voiceless stop --> (pl) prenasalized stop]
(sg) voiceless oral stop, non-implosive --> (pl) voiced oral stop, non-implosive, e.g. okor --> gor 'husband(s)' (006)

Reversed implosive "track" for the human class:

(sg) voiceless implosive stop --> (pl) voiced implosive stop, e.g. oƈoola --> ʄoola 'member(s) of Jola ethnic group' (014)

Affective noun classes

Diminutives/augmentatives ("affectives") also exhibit initial segment mutations relative to the non-affective noun category. Further generalizations await.

Nominal Morphology

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