Cažorih morphology

Main article: Cažorih

This page gives an extensive description of Cažorih morphological features.

Nouns

Nouns in Cažorih can end either in a vowel or in a consonant in their basic form. Nouns ending in a consonant usually add a vowel in their declension. There is no clear tendency on which vowel is to be added and the vowel is deemed as part of the noun root.

Nouns display neither gender nor class distinction. There are, however, two morphological numbers for almost all nouns, singular and plural, and a limited case system.

Cases

Cažorih nouns do decline, according to a nominative-accusative system with 4 cases:

Case	Meaning
Nominative	This case marks the subject of a verb. It is regarded as the citation form of the noun.
Accusative	This case marks the direct object of a verb. It is also used with some postpositions. It is regarded as the base form of the noun, and it is used as the vocative form.
Genitive	This case marks possession and belonging, either intentional, unintentional, or indirect.
Dative	This case marks primarily the indirect object.

Noun declension

Nouns are declined for number with different models, depending on the last phoneme of the root.

Nouns, whose root ends in a consonant, add the so-called root vowel and change it:

Ø (-ɛ) → -e

Ø (-i) → -o

Ø (-u) → -o

Nouns, whose root ends in a vowel, change this last vowel. If the last vowel of the noun root is nasal, it keeps the nasalization while changing in the plural form. The general vowel changes are:

a → e	ã → ẽ
a → o	ã → õ	(Some nouns, regarded as irregular, undergo this change)
	ɛ̃ → ẽ
e → i	ẽ → ĩ
ə → e	ə̃ → ẽ
	ə̃ → õ	(Some nouns, regarded as irregular, undergo this change)
i → o	ĩ → õ
ɔ → o	ɔ̃ → õ
o → e	õ → ẽ
u → o	ũ → õ
y → i	ỹ → ĩ

Nouns are also declined in case by adding the following endings to the base form of the noun:

nominative	-h
accusative	-
genitive	-β
dative	-ž

Here is an example of a noun, whose root ends in a vowel: tõčah, village.

	tõčah
	singular	plural
ergative	tõčah	tõčeh
absolutive	tõča	tõče
genitive	tõčaβ	tõčeβ
dative	tõčaž	tõčež

Nouns, whose root ends in a consonant, add the so-called root vowel before the case endings. While this vowel can be either -ɛ-, -i-, or -u-, there is no clear rule in the choice.

Here is an example of a noun, whose root ends in a consonant: lozɛh, dog.

	lozɛh
	singular	plural
ergative	lozɛh	lozeh
absolutive	loz	loze
genitive	lozɛβ	lozeβ
dative	lozɛž	lozež

Some nouns of the consonantal root group, whose roots end in a consonant cluster, can insert an euphonic vowel -ə- between these consonants in the accusative singular form.

Here is an example of a noun, whose root ends in a consonant cluster: fihnih, harvest.

	lozɛh
	singular	plural
ergative	fihnih	fihnoh
absolutive	fihən	fihno
genitive	fihniβ	fihnoβ
dative	fihniž	fihnož

Adjectives and pronouns

Adjectives closely resemble the noun form, usually showing the same exceptions of nouns, but differing in their last vowel. Pronouns, instead, may exhibit different forms in the root form.

Adjectives

Attributive adjectives are always placed before the nouns they specify, while predicative adjectives are always placed after them or before the verb.

sẽh ǧɛ̃h
the young man

ǧɛ̃h sẽh imo
the man is young

All adjectives agree in case and number with the noun they specify, being declined with the nominal endings. They thus display a complete declension set, not belonging inherently to one of the two classes.

nubih tõh sẽβ ǧɛ̃β gɛ šɔʔ tõča foro
the young man’s new house is located in the nearby village

Declension of qualifying adjectives

Adjectival declension follow the same rules as the nominal declension, with the same exceptions.

All adjectives agree in case and number with the noun they specify, being declined with the nominal endings.

Examples: sẽh, young, and nubih, new, with two nouns, rõh, father, and tõh, house.

	sẽh rõh
	singular	plural
nominative	sẽh rõh	sĩh rẽh
accusative	sẽ rõ	sĩ rẽ
genitive	sẽβ rõβ	sĩβ rẽβ
dative	sẽž rõž	sĩž rẽž

	nubih tõh
	singular	plural
nominative	nubih tõh	nuboh tẽh
accusative	nub tõ	nubo tẽ
genitive	nubiβ tõβ	nuboβ tẽβ
dative	nubiž tõž	nubož tẽž

Numerals

The numeral system relies on a decimal base.

Cardinal numerals

The first ten cardinal numbers are forms on their own:

digit	full form
1:	šɛr
2:	mɔž
3:	bĩ
4:	čor
5:	ʔeβ
6:	kaɣ
7:	juʔ
8:	ty
9:	ped
10:	lõ

Numerals from 11 to 19 are built with the construction NUM + ɛnɛ + lõ, with some irregularities:

digit	full form
11:	šɛrɛnɛlõ
12:	mɔžɛnɛlõ
13:	binɛnɛlõ
14:	čorɛnɛlõ
15:	ʔeβɛnɛlõ
16:	kaɣɛnɛlõ
17:	juʔɛnɛlõ
18:	tynɛlõ
19:	pedɛnɛlõ

The numerals for (one) hundred and (one) thousand are forms on their own:

digit	full form
100:	ʔoh
1000:	hoʔ

The numerals for tens, hundreds and thousands are:

tens:	lome
hundreds:	ʔohe
thousands:	hoʔe

The numerals for the multiples of tens, hundreds and thousands are built with the construction NUM + lome / ʔohe / hoʔe, with some irregularities:

	tens	hundreds	thousands
2x:	mɔšlome	mɔšʔohe	mɔšhoʔe
3x:	bĩlome	bĩʔohe	bĩhoʔe
4x:	čorlome	čorʔohe	čorhoʔe
5x:	ʔeβlome	ʔeβʔohe	ʔeβhoʔe
6x:	kaɣlome	kaʔohe	kahoʔe
7x:	juʔlome	juʔohe	juhoʔe
8x:	tylome	toʔohe	tohoʔe
9x:	pedlome	peʔohe	pehoʔe

All cardinal numerals up to these forms are meant as invariable.

Composite numbers are built by just putting them beside, without any conjunction, in descending order:

• 1985: hoʔ pehoʔe tylome ʔeβ

Numerals for “million” and “billion” are loanwords from modern Figo language:

digit	noun form
1,000,000:	čãčãh (from m.F. čãčãr)
1,000,000,000:	mešurentuh (from m.F. mešurentur)

These forms are treated as regularly declinable nouns:

digit	noun form
3,000,000:	bĩ čãčẽ
6,000,000,000:	kaɣ mešurẽto

If these numerals are used as simple count forms, they are declined in the accusative case. Inside of a structured sentence, they are declined according the case required by their syntactical role. Nouns adjoining such numerals are introduced by the preposition mɔ and are declined in the accusative case:

šɛr čãčãh mɔ fi
one million people

mɔž mešurẽtož mɔ fi
to two billions people

In the earlier modern period the idea of “zero” is introduced from modern Figo language. This numeral is however usually limited to mathematics:

digit	noun form
0:	xesu (from m.F. xesu)

Ordinal numerals

Ordinal numerals are formed by adding the adjectival ending -irih (-ir) to the cardinal numeral form:

šɛr → šɛririh
one → first

If the numeral form ends with a -e, this is replaced by the adjectival ending -irih (-ir):

tylome → tylomirih
eighty → eightieth

If the numeral form ends in another vowel, the adjectival ending becomes -rih (-r):

čãčã → čãčãrih 
million → millionth

The first ten ordinal numerals, with some examples of additional numerals, are, with some irregularities:

digit	adjective form
1st:	šɛririh (šɛrir)
2nd:	mɔžirih (mɔžir)
3rd:	binirih (binir)
4th:	čoririh (čorir)
5th:	ʔeβirih (ʔeβir)
6th:	kaɣirih (kaɣir)
7th:	juʔirih (juʔir)
8th:	terih (ter)
9th:	pedirih (pedir)
10th:	lomirih (lomir)
11th:	šɛrɛnɛlomirih (šɛrɛnɛlomir)
12th:	mɔžɛnɛlomirih (mɔžɛnɛlomir)
20th:	mɔšlomirih (mɔšlomir)
30th:	bĩlomirih (bĩlomir)
600th:	kaʔohirih (kaʔohir)
9000th:	pehoʔirih (pehoʔir)

Ordinal numerals for “millionth” and “billionth” are quite regularly formed from their corresponding cardinal forms, while their multiples are formed by unifying the separated forms in an only adjectival word:

digit	adjective form
1,000,000th:	čãčãrih (čãčãr)
1,000,000,000th:	mešurẽturih (mešurẽtur)
3,000,000,000th:	bĩmešurẽturih (bĩmešurẽtur)

If the numeral form is composite, the comparative ending is added to every form, and they agree with their adjoining noun in case and number:

• 378^th: bĩʔohirih juʔlomirih terih

Verbs

The verbal system of Cažorih language displays the following features:

• tense:
  • simple tenses: present, past, future
  • compound tenses: present continuous, past continuous, perfect, pluperfect, future continuous, anterior future, future in the past
• mood:
  • definite moods: indicative, subjunctive, imperative
  • indefinite moods: infinitive, active participle, passive participleù
• diathesis: active, passive

The simple tenses are distinguished by a typical vowel, while compound tenses are formed with the verb imɔr, to be, as an auxiliary verb, and a participial form.

The citation form of verbs is the present infinitive, marked by the ending -ɔr. From such form the verbal root can be inferred and can be changed in every other verbal form.

The following personal endings are then added to the root in the definite moods. In this way, verbs show their agreement with the clause subject in person and number:

1st sing.	indicative/subjunctive	imperative
1st sing.	-̃
2nd sing.	-h	-dɔ
3rd sing.	-	-dɔ
1st plur.	-xi	-xidɔ
2nd plur.	-dī	-didɔ
3rd plur.	-βi	-βidɔ

The first singular person is significantly identified by the nasalisation of the previous vowel, while it is absent in the imperative mood. The third singular person has no proper ending and it is identified by the typical vowel of the tense of by its absence, namely by a null ending.

The non-finite verbal forms are meant as nominal/adjectival forms of the same verbs. They do not add the personal endings, but they are declined as nouns or adjectives with the nominal declension endings.

As verbal forms, however, they can be built on the various temporal forms.

The non-finite endings are:

• infinitive: -r
• active participle: -ex/-ux
• passive participle: -nix