Cärähə morphology
- Main article: Cärähə
This page gives an extensive description of Cärähə morphological features.
Nouns
Nouns in Cärähə language end predominantly in a vowel. A certain amount of nouns, however, ends in a consonant; in this case a euphonic vowel, mostly -ə-, is added at the end of noun before the normal declension endings.
Nouns display neither gender nor class distinction. There are, however, two morphological numbers for almost all nouns, singular and plural. Whether a noun is deemed as definite or indefinite, a form of article is generally used and placed before it, with a few exceptions.
There is no case system.
Articles
There are two articles, the indefinite article, xah, and the definite article, äs. The definite article agrees with the noun in number, while the indefinite article displays only the singular form.
| xah | - | |
| äs | äsən |
Both articles are always placed before the noun.
The definite article, both in its singular and plural forms, can merge with some prepositions to form the so-called articled prepositions. Such forms will be analyzed in a following section.
Plural
Nouns are declined in number by adding the following ending to the base form of the noun:
| - | -nə |
Some examples are shown below: bäb́ə, father, and sohə, house.
| bäb́ə | bäb́ənə | sohə | sohənə |
Nouns ending in a consonantin their base form, mostly loanwords, usually add a euphonic vowel before the endings of the other cases. This vowel is generally -ə-, but other vowels are also possible, like -ü-.
Some irregular nouns, conversely, change their last vowel in the root before adding the plural ending. The commonest change is ə → u. A lot of these nouns display both irregular and regular forms, especially in earlier texts. In modern texts the amount of irregular forms is extremely limited, with a strong tendency towards regularization by analogy.
sing. bäb́ənə → plur. bäb́unə.
Adjectives and pronouns
Adjectives closely resemble the noun form, usually showing the same exceptions of nouns. Pronouns, instead, may exhibit different forms in the root form.
Adjectives
Attributive adjectives are always placed after the nouns they specify, with a few exceptions, while predicative adjectives are always placed after the verb.
äs wīrə çoba the young man
äs wīrə cän çoba the man is young
All adjectives agree in number with the noun they specify, being declined with the nominal ending.
Declension of qualifying adjectives
Adjectival declension follow the same rules as the nominal declension, with the same exceptions.
Example: xürü, big, with sohə, house
| sohə xürü | sohənə xürünə |
Numerals
The numeral system relies on a decimal base.
Cardinal numerals
The first ten cardinal numbers are noun-like forms on their own:
| xahə | |
| hähü | |
| mügo | |
| gori | |
| sehi | |
| türä | |
| xäsä | |
| cuhi | |
| ɕoçə | |
| pehə |
Numerals from 11 to 19 are built with the construction NUM + nä + pehə, with some irregularities:
| xanäpehə | |
| hähünäpehə | |
| mügonäpehə | |
| gorinäpehə | |
| sehinäpehə | |
| türänäpehə | |
| xäsänäpehə | |
| cuhinäpehə | |
| ɕoçunäpehə |
The numerals for (one) hundred and (one) thousand are noun-like forms on their own:
| naćə | |
| wüha |
The numerals for the multiples of tens, hundreds and thousands are built with the construction NUM + ped́unə / naćunə / wühad́unə, with some irregularities:
| hähüped́unə | hähünaćunə | hähüwühad́unə | |
| mügoped́unə | mügonaćunə | mügowühad́unə | |
| goriped́unə | gorinaćunə | goriwühad́unə | |
| sehiped́unə | sehinaćunə | sehiwühad́unə | |
| türäped́unə | türänaćunə | türäwühad́unə | |
| xäsäped́unə | xäsänaćunə | xäsäwühad́unə | |
| cuhiped́unə | cuhinaćunə | cuhiwühad́unə | |
| ɕoçuped́unə | ɕoçunaćunə | ɕoçuwühad́unə |
The numerals for “million” and “billion” are nominal forms on their own (both are adapted loanwords from Iðâɣ language):
| sürentə (from I. šúrěntu) | |
| mesürentə (from I. mêšúrěntu) |
These forms are treated as regularly declinable nouns:
| mügo sürentənə | |
| türä mesürentənə |
Nouns adjoining such numerals are introduced by the preposition cär, or, in some dialectal variants, directly without any preposition:
hähü sürentənə cär pühänə two millions people
mügo mesürentənə pühänə three billions people (dialectal variant)
Composite numbers are built by just putting them beside, without any conjunction, in descending order:
- 1985: wüha ɕoçənaćunə cuhiped́unə sehi
When cardinal numbers have an adjective-like function, or when they are used as as simple count forms, they are meant as indeclinable forms (except for "million" and "billion").
äs sohə cäsən mügo maɟudünə çərä my three friends' house
xahə, hähü, mügo, gori, ... one, two, three, four, ...
Every numeral, however, can also have a pronominal function. In this case, it is possible to use them without an adjoining noun, by using the article, usually the definite one.
äs sohə cäsən mügo the house of those three (people)
äsən wüha the one thousand
There is, moreover, an additional pronoun-like irregular numeral, hähühü, meaning "both". It is meant as an indeclinable form, and it is never used with the any article. The verb agrees with this form in the plural number.
äs sohə cär hähühü the house of both (of them)
hähühü süxähun they both walked out
In the earlier modern period mathematicians conceive and introduce the idea of “zero”, and its digit form. The noun for this new numeral, xesüɕä, is created from the Biwdiw word xēsjušɛ, nothing. This name is then quickly shortened to its first two syllables. This numeral is however usually limited to mathematics:
| xesü |
Cardinal numerals
Ordinal numerals are formed by adding the ordinal ending -ro to the cardinal numeral form, with some irregularities:
| xahuro | |
| hähüro | |
| mügoro | |
| goriro | |
| sehiro | |
| türäro | |
| xäsäro | |
| cuhiro | |
| ɕoçuro | |
| pehuro | |
| xanäpehuro | |
| hähünäpehuro | |
| hähüped́unuro | |
| türäped́unuro |
Ordinal numerals for “millionth” and “billionth” are slightly irregularly formed from their corresponding cardinal forms, while their multiples are formed by unifying the separated forms in an only adjectival word:
| sürenturo | |
| mesürenturo | |
| mügomesürenturo |
If the numeral form is composite, the ending is added only to the last numeral form:
- 25th: hähüped́unə sehiro
