User:Bukkia/sandboxVIII

Noun pluralization

Nouns are declined for number with different models, depending on the class to which they belong:

• Consonantal class: The last vowel is reduplicated and placed at the end of the word. If this vowel is long, the reduplicated form is shortened.
• Vocalic class: If the noun ends in a short vowel, this vowel is lenghtened. If the last vowel is long, this vowel undergoes breaking or diphthongization. The vowel ə does not undergo any change.

Examples:

sing. tɬʼīx → plur. tɬʼīxi

sing. gāβra → plur. gāβrā

sing. βā → plur. βwa

There is, however, a certain amount of irregularities and exceptions to these rules. For example:

sing. βūβ → plur. βujβ

Noun declension

As usual to an agglutinative language, Æbbro nouns display a set of number endings, which is clearly separated from the set of case endings. All endings are placed at the end of the nominal root, without undergoing any change (except for vowel armony). The sequence root + ending is thus easily recognizable:

retižewææ → reti - že - wææ
as people → person - plural - essive case

The numeral endings are always placed before the case endings.

Nouns are declined in number by adding the following endings to the base form of the noun. Only in this case a semantical distinction between animate and inanimate nouns is made in the choice among the endings:

animate nouns		inanimate nouns
front vowel	back vowel	front vowel	back vowel
-že	-žo	-hii	-huu

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

	front vowel	back vowel
nominative	-	-
accusative	-ne	-no
genitive	-rræ	-rra
dative	-hee	-hoo
ablative	-śi	-śu
instrumental	-ddee	-ddoo
locative	-mi	-mu
allative	-me	-mo
delative	-mæ	-ma
benefactive	-gæ	-ga
causative	-bbii	-bbuu
abessive	-jje	-jjo
essive	-wææ	-waa
comparative	-hhæ	-hha
contrastive	-kkæ	-kka
partitive	-ppii	-ppuu

Some examples are shown below: a semantically animate noun with front leading vowel, llærme, father, a semantically inanimate noun with back leading vowel, kooto, house.

	llærme		kooto
	singular	plural	singular	plural
nominative	llærme	llærmeže	kooto	kootožo
accusative	llærmene	llærmežene	kootono	kootožono
genitive	llærmerræ	llærmežerræ	kootorra	kootožorra
dative	llærmehee	llærmežehee	kootohoo	kootožohoo
ablative	llærmeśi	llærmežeśi	kootośu	kootožośu
instrumental	llærmeddee	llærmežeddee	kootoddoo	kootožoddoo
locative	llærmemi	llærmežemi	kootomu	kootožomu
allative	llærmeme	llærmežeme	kootomo	kootožomo
delative	llærmemæ	llærmežemæ	kootoma	kootožoma
benefactive	llærmegæ	llærmežegæ	kootoga	kootožoga
causative	llærmebbii	llærmežebbii	kootobbuu	kootožobbuu
abessive	llærmejje	llærmežejje	kootojjo	kootožojjo
essive	llærmewææ	llærmežewææ	kootowaa	kootožowaa
comparative	llærmehhæ	llærmežehhæ	kootohha	kootožohha
contrastive	llærmekkæ	llærmežekkæ	kootokka	kootožokka
partitive	llærmeppii	llærmežeppii	kootoppuu	kootožoppuu

In some texts, especially in the later period, semantically inanimate nouns display no ending in the accusative case, like the nominative ending.

tterni muuhahoo bbooda urrgamapuud
the man gave water to the cow