Foħθīrix morphology
- Main article: Foħθīrix
This page gives an extensive description of Foħθīrix morphological features.
Nouns
Nouns in Foħθīrix language end almost exclusively in a vowel. A certain number of nouns, mostly loanwords, may unusually end in a consonant; in this case the typical nominal vowels, -e- in the singular and -ē- in the plural, are added at the end of noun before the normal declension endings.
Nouns are grouped into two declension classes: animate nouns or class I and inanimate nouns or class II. The first class generally includes nouns indicating animate beings, namely capable of intentional motion or action, while the second class includes inanimate objects or entities. As a rule, we can sketch out the following scheme:
- class I: human beings, animals, deities
- class II: plants, objects, ideas, feelings, senses, perceptions
A noun is not irreversibly included in one of the two classes, as nouns lack clear morphological marks for each class. For example, the word lūrex, light, shifts from a class to the other during the history of the language, as the noun pākex, love, depending on the overall cultural perception of the noun’s animateness degree.
Despite the general lack of morphological markers in the basic forms, being thus unable to distinguish the two classes, the declension patterns depend on which class a noun belongs to.
There are two morphological numbers for almost all nouns, singular and plural.
Cases
Foħθīrix nouns do decline, according to an nominative-accusative system with 7 cases:
| 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 preposition. It also marks the direct object (i.e. the patient) in a passive construction and with participles. 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. It can also mark, to a limited extent, the final purpose of an action or a state. |
| Ablative | This case marks the origin of an action or a state. It also marks the subject (i.e. the agent) in a passive construction and with participles. |
| Instrumental | This case marks the tool or the instrument which are used to perform an action or to be in a certain state. It can be used only with nouns belonging to class II. |
| Locative | This case marks the place where an action is performed, or a certain state exist (stative location). It can also have a temporal value. It can be used only with nouns belonging to the class II. |
Other types of clause complements are conveyed using various prepositions, which can select one or more cases.
A class I noun, referring thus to an intrinsically animate entity, cannot generally be declined in the instrumental or locative case.
Noun declension
Nouns are declined for number by changing the last vowel of the noun root. The commonest change is the lengthening of the final vowel:
If the last vowel of the noun root is already long in the singular, it undergoes a changing in height:
As it can be noticed, nouns whose root ends in -ī and -ū do not distinguish any different plural forms.
Nouns are also declined in case by adding the following endings to the base form of the noun:
| -x | |
| - | |
| -fu | |
| -šu | |
| -ho | |
| -ma | |
| -va |
Some examples are shown below: a class I noun, romex, father, and a class II noun, tōmex, house.
| romex | romēx | tōmex | tōmēx | |
| rome | romē | tōme | tōmē | |
| romefu | romēfu | tōmefu | tōmēfu | |
| romešu | romēšu | tōmešu | tōmēšu | |
| romeho | romēho | tōmeho | tōmēho | |
| tōmema | tōmēma | |||
| tōmeva | tōmēva | |||
As for the rules, the endings for the instrumental and locative case cannot be added to a class I noun.
Numerals
The numeral system relies on a decimal base.
The first ten cardinal numbers are forms on their own:
| ɕere | |
| moše | |
| bīne | |
| šāre | |
| ħœfe | |
| kage | |
| ňuħe | |
| tūhe | |
| pēte | |
| lūme |
Numerals from 11 to 19 are built with the construction NUM + ňe + lūme:
| ɕereňelūme | |
| mošeňelūme | |
| bīneňelūme | |
| šāreňelūme | |
| ħœfeňelūme | |
| kageňelūme | |
| ňuħeňelūme | |
| tūheňelūme | |
| pēteňelūme |
The numerals for (one) hundred and (one) thousand are forms on their own:
| ħūxe | |
| xāħe |
These numerals are treated as adjective-like forms: They precede a noun cluster and decline according to their adjoining nouns in case, but they do not agree in number. Numerals do decline only in singular number and their nominative form is identical to the accusative form.
ɕere ǧenex one man
ħœfešu sārēšu to the five women
The numerals for tens, hundreds and thousands are the plural forms of the numerals for ten, (one) hundred and (one) thousand:
| lūmē | |
| ħūxē | |
| xāħē |
The numerals for the multiples of tens, hundreds and thousands are built with the construction NUM (without the final -e) + lūmē / ħūxē / xāħē, with some irregularities:
| mošlūmē | mošħūxē | mošxāħē | |
| bīnlūmē | bīnħūxē | bīnxāħē | |
| šārlūmē | šārħūxē | šārxāħē | |
| ħœflūmē | ħœfħūxē | ħœfxāħē | |
| kaglūmē | kaħūxē | kaxāħē | |
| ňuħlūmē | ňuħūxē | ňuxāħē | |
| tūhlūmē | tūħūxē | tūxāħē | |
| pētlūmē | pēħūxē | pēxāħē |
All cardinal numerals above the form for 19 are meant as invariable, except for the numeral for 100 and the numeral for 1000.
Composite numbers are built by just putting them beside, without any conjunction, in descending order:
- 1985: xāħe pētħūxē tūhlūmē ħœfe
When a composite numeral has a declined adjoining number, only its declinable numeral forms do decline in agreement.
Numbers above the multiples of thousands have no name and are specified by the lesser numerals.
Ordinal numerals are formed by replacing last vowel of the cardinal numeral form, -e or -ē, with the the adjectival ending -iri-:
ɕere → ɕeririx one → first
tūhlūmē → tūhlūmirix eighty → eightieth
The first ten ordinal numerals, with some examples of additional numerals, are:
| ɕeririx | |
| moširix | |
| bīnirix | |
| šāririx | |
| ħœfirix | |
| kagirix | |
| ňuħirix | |
| tūhirix | |
| pētirix | |
| lūmirix | |
| ɕereňelūmirix | |
| mošeňelūmirix | |
| mošlūmirix | |
| bīnlūmirix | |
| kaħūxirix | |
| pēxāħirix |
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:
- 378th: bīnħūxirix ňuħlūmirix tūhirix
