Non-Verb Inflection in Tirina: view article

Tirina nouns are not inflected in what might be considered "traditional" ways--for number or for gender. This information must be expressed in other ways, such as on a modifier or verb. There are, however, two things you can do with a noun. The first is attach an intensifier to one; see this article for more discussion of this process. The other way is to produce the singular form of a mass or group noun. This is done quite simply with the addition of the suffix -il. Virtually all liquids and powders are "plural"/mass nouns by default. Many other nouns that describe states, materials, or relatively homogeneous groups are also mass nouns. (when browsing the lexicon, keep an eye out for nouns in the class PL/plural--these are the "plural"/mass nouns)

A few examples:

Mass/"Plural" form	Singular form
sali (water)	sali'il (drop of water, small amount of water)
asan (grain)	asanil (single grain)
karn (forest)	karnil (tree)

[edit] [top]Adjectives

Adjectives are inflected for gender and number, in that order. As with verbs, the only numbers marked are singular, which is unmarked, and plural, which is marked with the suffix -ir (which, you will note, is similar to the pluralizing suffix used on verbs, -mir). Gender is, of course, the same four genders as used for everything else. The basic endings are shown below:

	Singular	Example	Plural	Example
Masculine	-ed	edir nesed (heavy man)	-edir	edir nesedir (heavy men)
Feminine	-ha	ada nesha (heavy woman)	-hamir	ada neshamir (heavy women)
Animate	-ir	mroan nesir (heavy cat)	-irn	mroan nesirn (heavy cats)
Inanimate	-ol	fotir nesol (heavy book)	-olir	fotir nesolir (heavy books)

There are a few more rules:

As is typical for verbs, if the adjective ends with the same vowel that the suffix begins with, a glottal stop is inserted. (Double consonants are not a problem, as /h/ cannot end syllables.)
If the adjective is declined for masculine gender but ends with /e/, -id is appended instead, or ider for the plural. For example, edir neheid (strong man), edir neheider (strong men).
Generally, for adjectives declined for the feminine gender, if they are over two syllables long and end in a vowel, the vowel is replaced with -ha instead. If the preceding consonant is not appropriate for a syllable coda, it is either altered to fit, or /ɪ/ is inserted between the offending consonant and the suffix. The rules are as follows:
- /t/ --> /d/
- /m/ --> /n/
- /f k j h w/ or inappropriate consonant cluster --> insert /ɪ/
For example, asota (wise) becomes ada asodha (wise woman), rıroma (Italian) becomes ada rıronha (Italian woman), and diaki (excited) becomes ada diakıha (excited woman).
If the declined adjective ends with /l/ or /r/ and is inflected for inanimate gender, -os is used instead. For example, fotir eyielos (muddy book).

It should be noted that numbers (and intensifiers when used to indicate amount) are exempt from these rules. These are placed uninflected before the nouns. For example, atanar fotir (six books) or anar mroan (several cats).

[edit] [top]Adverbs

Adverbs in Tirina are, in the vast majority of cases, simply an uninflected adjective. They are never declined for gender. However, they are declined for number. When used to modify an adjective, the number agrees with the noun that the adjective is in turn modifying, and when used to modify a verb, the number agrees with the subject of the sentence. As per usual, singular is unmarked, and plural is marked with a suffix, -en, that is the same regardless of gender.

Singular example:

Nahayir ada doya. FEMFeminine (gender)
feminine or female-run woman fast The woman is running quickly.

Plural example:

Nahayirmir ada doyaen. FEMFeminine (gender)
feminine or female-run-PLPlural (number)
more than one/few woman fast-PLPlural (number)
more than one/few The women are running quickly.

[edit] [top]Determiners, Prepositions, Conjunctions, and Everything Else

Determiners/demonstratives do have different forms for different genders (more about that in a hypothetical article on how all that stuff works in Tirina), but aside from that, no other type of word in Tirina is inflected in any way. ✎ Edit Article ✖ Delete Article

Comments