Nouns and Numerals
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Nouns
This public article was written by [Deactivated User], and last updated on 29 Jun 2019, 22:24.
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1. Nouns and Numerals
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Second Imperial has two genders: Mouse and Rock. Mouse words are those referring to mice, mice body parts and everything created by mice, or intrinsic to mice. Rock words refer to the rest. Some words change meaning depending on their gender: Yidi, for instance, means "Mouse Tail", but yidu means just "Tail".
There are also 5 cases: Nominative, Accusative, Dative, Genitive and Adjectival. Here is the declension paradigm for Mouse nouns:
| Case | C-stem | V-stem |
|---|---|---|
| NOM | - | - |
| ACC | Na- | N- |
| DAT | Yi- | Y- |
| GEN | Mi- | M- |
| ADJ | 'i- | '- |
And the next one are the basic declensions of Rock nouns:
| Case | C-stem | V-stem |
|---|---|---|
| NOM | - | - |
| ACC | Fa- | F- |
| DAT | Yu- | Y- |
| GEN | Muo-[...]-u | M-[...]-u |
| ADJ | 'uo-[...]-u | '-[...]-u |
For Mouse nouns, in Consonant declensions, if the stem syllable starts with /p,t,k/, these lenite to to /b,d,g/. Except in Accusative, if the first syllable of the stem has an /a/, it can transform to /ja/. This is because the old long "a" breaks into [ja] if there is an /i,ï/ in the anterior syllable. In Vowel declensions, if the stem starts with an /i/ or an /u/, they can change to /je/(except in dative, where the change is to /e/) and /wo/. This is because the old long "ï" and "ü" break into [i] and [u] at the end and the beginning of a word, but to [je/e] and [wo/o] between consonants. It is important to notice that some words that start with consonant are in fact from the Vowel declension, as they have ghost vowels.
The changes for Rock nouns are the same, but with /a/ breaks into /wa/.
Accusative marks the DO and the instrumental with the proper preposition; Nominative is used in copulative constructions, as subject, and in locative and comitative phrases when paired with the proper preposition. Dative marks the OI, but also has allative functions, as well as other allative-like uses when paired with prepositions; it can be used as well to express "about" meaning when used in verbs of perception and thought. Genitive marks possession, but, as the Dative, has also ablative and other ablative-like functions. The Adjectival is used to indicate attribute.
The genitive and the adjectival are related: genitive marks possession and origin. It can be substituted by "possessed by" or "that comes from". The Adjectival marks a noun as a characteristic of other. Second Imperial lacks proper adjectives, so nouns are used in this case instead. For instance, 'i 'ingini means "House of Mouse (Mousy House)", but 'i mingini means "House possessed by (a/the) mouse". Colors and materials always use adjectival, where individuals use genitive. When using a noun in adjectival, it agrees in gender with its head noun: an -i/-u is placed after the adjective form' s ending. In consonantic stems, this vowel replaces the one present at the end of the word. Adjetival case comes from the First Imperial's genitive, which was used in a similar manner, but without the gender agreement. When adjetival emerged, gender rules were over-regularized on top. Because they are not marked in any other case, this adjective-like nouns need their head noun and can't appear alone.
Nouns lack number in Second Imperial. But can express quantity via numerals. Numerals are always associated to a classifier, that you can see, inflected, in the next table:
| NOM | ACC | DAT | GEN | ADJ | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| G1 | -ni | na-[...]-ni | yi-[...]-ni | 'i-[...]-n | -ni |
| G2 | -su | fa-[...]-su | yu-[...]-su | muo-[...]-su | -su |
| G3 | -bu | fa-[...]-bu | yu-[...]-bu | muo-[...]-bu | -bu |
| G4 | -ngu | fa-[...]-ngu | yu-[...]-ngu | muo-[...]-ngu | -ngu |
| G5 | -wu | fa-[...]-wu | yu-[...]-wu | muo-[...]-wu | -wu |
| G6 | -fu | fa-[...]-fu | yu-[...]-fu | muo-[...]-fu | -fu |
Here, what each classifier express:
G1: All things mice. It's the only one that agrees with Mouse words.
G2: Big animals
G3: Small animals
G4: Big plants
G5: Small plants
G6: The rest.
The number 0 also can be used as nothing/none. There is a numeral for indefinite quantities: 'ie-. This numeral can be used as a form of plural when it is necessary to disambiguate or for pragmatic reasons; in personal pronouns, it can be used for indefinite plurals. Also, there is a numeral for total quantities: ka-.
The base case for these numerals is adjectival. But, they, in contrast with nouns, can take other cases in nominal function: they can appear alone referring to a elided noun.
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