User:Bukkia/sandboxVIII

Noun declension

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

Nouns, whose root ends in a consonant, are divided into two groups: non-palatal and palatal group. Both groups add a different thematic vowel in their declension. Nouns in the non-palatal group do also palatalize the last consonant of the root, if possible, in the plural forms.

	thematic vowel	plural form
non-palatal	-e-	-‘e
palatal	-i-	-i

There is, however, a certain amount of irregular nouns, like some nouns which seemingly belong to the palatal group, while declining like a non-palatal noun, and vice versa.

Nouns, whose root ends in a vowel, change this last vowel. The general vowel changes are:

a → æ
æ → ‘e	(The last consonant of the root undergo palatalization, if possible)
‘e → ‘i	(The last consonant of the root undergo palatalization, if possible)
i → ‘i	(The last consonant of the root undergo palatalization, if possible)
o → ow
ow → u
u → ow
y → u

Some nouns, conversely, display unpredictable irregularities in pluralization.

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

direct	-
obliquo	-vo

Some examples of nouns, whose root ends in a consonant, are shown below: a noun belonging to the non-palatal group, towm, house, and a noun belonging to the palatal group, l‘irs‘, plant.

	towm		l‘irs‘
	singular	plural	singular	plural
direct	towm	towm‘e	l‘irs‘	l‘irs‘i
oblique	towmevo	towm‘evo	l‘irs‘ivo	l‘irs‘ivo

As it can be noticed, nouns in the palatal group do not distinguish the singular from the plural form in the oblique case.

Some examples of nouns, whose root ends in a consonant, are shown below: cæšæ, lake, and ðowmo, wheel.

	towm		l‘irs‘
	singular	plural	singular	plural
direct	cæšæ	cæše	ðowmo	ðowmu
oblique	cæšævo	cæševo	ðowmovo	ðowmuvo

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