Cažorih morphology
- Main article: Cažorih
This page gives an extensive description of Cažorih morphological features.
Nouns
Nouns in Cažorih can end either in a vowel or in a consonant in their basic form. Nouns ending in a consonant usually add a vowel in their declension. There is no clear tendency on which vowel is to be added and the vowel is deemed as part of the noun root.
Nouns display neither gender nor class distinction. There are, however, two morphological numbers for almost all nouns, singular and plural, and a limited case system.
Cases
Cažorih nouns do decline, according to a nominative-accusative system with 4 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 postpositions. 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. |
Noun declension
Nouns are declined for number with different models, depending on the last phoneme of the root.
Nouns, whose root ends in a consonant, add the so-called root vowel and change it:
Nouns, whose root ends in a vowel, change this last vowel. If the last vowel of the noun root is nasal, it keeps the nasalization while changing in the plural form. The general vowel changes are:
| (Some nouns, regarded as irregular, undergo this change) | ||
| (Some nouns, regarded as irregular, undergo this change) | ||
Nouns are also declined in case by adding the following endings to the base form of the noun:
| -h | |
| - | |
| -β | |
| -ž |
Here is an example of a noun, whose root ends in a vowel: tõčah, village.
| tõčah | tõčeh | |
| tõča | tõče | |
| tõčaβ | tõčeβ | |
| 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 | lozeh | |
| loz | loze | |
| lozɛβ | lozeβ | |
| 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.
| fihnih | fihnoh | |
| fihən | fihno | |
| fihniβ | fihnoβ | |
| fihniž | fihnož | |
Numerals
The numeral system relies on a decimal base.
Cardinal numerals
The first ten cardinal numbers are forms on their own:
| šɛr | |
| mɔž | |
| bĩ | |
| čor | |
| ʔeβ | |
| kaɣ | |
| juʔ | |
| ty | |
| ped | |
| lõ |
Numerals from 11 to 19 are built with the construction NUM + ɛnɛ + lõ, with some irregularities:
| šɛrɛnɛlõ | |
| mɔžɛnɛlõ | |
| binɛnɛlõ | |
| čorɛnɛlõ | |
| ʔeβɛnɛlõ | |
| kaɣɛnɛlõ | |
| juʔɛnɛlõ | |
| tynɛlõ | |
| pedɛnɛlõ |
The numerals for (one) hundred and (one) thousand are forms on their own:
| ʔoh | |
| hoʔ |
The numerals for tens, hundreds and thousands are:
| lome | |
| ʔohe | |
| hoʔe |
The numerals for the multiples of tens, hundreds and thousands are built with the construction NUM + lome / ʔohe / hoʔe, with some irregularities:
| mɔšlome | mɔšʔohe | mɔšhoʔe | |
| bĩlome | bĩʔohe | bĩhoʔe | |
| čorlome | čorʔohe | čorhoʔe | |
| ʔeβlome | ʔeβʔohe | ʔeβhoʔe | |
| kaɣlome | kaʔohe | kahoʔe | |
| juʔlome | juʔohe | juhoʔe | |
| tylome | toʔohe | tohoʔe | |
| pedlome | peʔohe | pehoʔe |
All cardinal numerals up to these forms are meant as invariable.
Composite numbers are built by just putting them beside, without any conjunction, in descending order:
- 1985: hoʔ pehoʔe tylome ʔeβ
Numerals for “million” and “billion” are loanwords from modern Figo language:
| čãčãh (from m.F. čãčãr) | |
| mešurentuh (from m.F. mešurentur) |
These forms are treated as regularly declinable nouns:
| bĩ čãčẽ | |
| kaɣ mešurẽto |
If these numerals are used as simple count forms, they are declined in the accusative case. Inside of a structured sentence, they are declined according the case required by their syntactical role. Nouns adjoining such numerals are introduced by the preposition mɔ and are declined in the accusative case:
šɛr čãčãh mɔ fi one million people
mɔž mešurẽtož mɔ fi to two billions people
In the earlier modern period the idea of “zero” is introduced from modern Figo language. This numeral is however usually limited to mathematics:
| xesu (from m.F. xesu) |
Ordinal numerals
Ordinal numerals are formed by adding the adjectival ending -irih (-ir) to the cardinal numeral form:
šɛr → šɛririh one → first
If the numeral form ends with a -e, this is replaced by the adjectival ending -irih (-ir):
tylome → tylomirih eighty → eightieth
If the numeral form ends in another vowel, the adjectival ending becomes -rih (-r):
čãčã → čãčãrih million → millionth
The first ten ordinal numerals, with some examples of additional numerals, are, with some irregularities:
| šɛririh (šɛrir) | |
| mɔžirih (mɔžir) | |
| binirih (binir) | |
| čoririh (čorir) | |
| ʔeβirih (ʔeβir) | |
| kaɣirih (kaɣir) | |
| juʔirih (juʔir) | |
| terih (ter) | |
| pedirih (pedir) | |
| lomirih (lomir) | |
| šɛrɛnɛlomirih (šɛrɛnɛlomir) | |
| mɔžɛnɛlomirih (mɔžɛnɛlomir) | |
| mɔšlomirih (mɔšlomir) | |
| bĩlomirih (bĩlomir) | |
| kaʔohirih (kaʔohir) | |
| pehoʔirih (pehoʔir) |
Ordinal numerals for “millionth” and “billionth” are quite regularly formed from their corresponding cardinal forms, while their multiples are formed by unifying the separated forms in an only adjectival word:
| čãčãrih (čãčãr) | |
| mešurẽturih (mešurẽtur) | |
| bĩmešurẽturih (bĩmešurẽtur) |
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: bĩʔohirih juʔlomirih terih
