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.

	cæšæ		ðowmo
	singular	plural	singular	plural
direct	cæšæ	cæše	ðowmo	ðowmu
oblique	cæšævo	cæševo	ðowmovo	ðowmuvo

An example of irregular nouns is shown below: mɛw, mouse.

	mɛw
	singular	plural
direct	mɛw	m’ɛw
oblique	mɛwvo	m’ɛwvo