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

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