ngayavit nouns
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information on how nouns function in ngayavit
This public article was written by [Deactivated User], and last updated on 29 Aug 2022, 11:00.
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1. ngayavit nouns
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This article is a work in progress! Check back later in case any changes have occurred.
This article is a work in progress! Check back later in case any changes have occurred.
Ngayavit nouns are fairly complex, with ten grammatical cases, an animate-inanimate distinction and split ergativity. Animacy is an integral part of the ngayavit grammatical system, and controls every aspect of word order, declension and derivation, and there are a number of verbs that change whether the subject or object is inanimate or not.
Nouns are sorted by animacy, with animate nouns always ending in a vowel or -r whilst inanimate nouns always end in a consonant or glottal stop. Nouns considered to be sentient or alive are classed as animate nouns, whereas if they are considered non-alive, they are classed as inanimate. This means that there are sometimes pairs of nouns, with one inanimate and the other animate. For example:
- 'bar' (branch) vs 'báʔ' (stick)
- 'dúɬur' (sun) vs 'dúɬúʔ' (day)
- qar (mountain) vs qáʔ (hill)
Some nouns that we would consider either animate or inanimate are treated by ngayavit speakers differently to how we would expect. For example, the sun and moon as celestial bodies are animate, as well as things like mountains, as they are believed to be deities by the ngayavit speakers. On the other hand, small plants like bushes and flowers are considered inanimate. Most strangely enough to us, the word baby "ʕayr" is inanimate, as there is a belief amongst ngayavit that a human soul only enters a child's body at aged 2.
Animacy hierarchy
Nouns are organised into a strict animacy hierarchy that dictates both word order an ergativity. The word order is as follows:
1. first person/second person
2. named third person/ family member
3. third person
4. human adult
5. child, large animal
6. smaller animal
7. other animate
8. natural force
9. inanimate object
10. abstract concept
More animate nouns always come first in a sentance, which means that a sentance like "uhŋayr ʕaysáw kámémétavak" (the men ate the animal) is perfecly grammatical but * "ʕaysáw uhŋayr kámémétavak" would be ungrammatical.
Furthermore, if the object of a noun is more animate than the subject, the subject is put into the ergative case. This means that * "ʕaysa uhŋayú kámémétak" (the animal ate the men) would be considered ungrammatical and would be more accurately "uhŋayr ʕaysáy kámémétavak" (note: the verb agrees with the 'uhŋayr' and thus takes a pluractional suffix).
Nouns are declined into 9 different cases that represent how a noun interacts with the other part of a sentance. As mentioned in the section on animacy, ngayavit has split ergativity that depends on a nouns animacy.
inanimate nouns
Inanimate nouns are declined as with the following examples:
| case | rock | glory | hill |
|---|---|---|---|
| ABSAbsolutive (case) TRANS object, INTR argument | tumúɽ | áʕqáy | qáʔ |
| ERGErgative (case) TRANS subject; agent | tumúɽé | áʕqáyé | qáʔé |
| ACCAccusative (case) TRANS direct object; patient | tumúɽú | áʕqáyú | qáʔú |
| DATDative (case) indirect object; recipient, beneficiary, location | tumúɽak | áʕqáyak | qáʔak |
| GENGenitive (case) possessive | tumúɽút | áʕqáyút | qáʔút |
| INSTRInstrumental (case) 'with' 'using' | tumúɽu | áʕqáyu | qáʔu |
| LOCLocative (case) 'in, on, at' etc | tumúɽa | áʕqáya | qáʔa |
| COMComitative (case) 'together with' | tumúɽi | áʕqáyi | qáʔi |
| ABLAblative (case) away from | tumúɽún | áʕqáyún | qáʔún |
| TERMTerminative (case) 'up to [this point]' | tumúɽin | áʕqáyin | qáʔin |
The pluralisation of inanimate nouns is relatively simple, with the suffix -ka being used to make a noun a plural. However, the plural of an animate noun is far more complicated. In the proto language, there was a number of different noun classes that governed how a noun was pluralised, but through sound changes and grammatical change these classes have been lost. However, they remain in how a noun was pluralised. The classes were:
1. human men (-a / -ii)
2. human women (-i / -ii)
3. large animals (-i / -uu)
4. small animals/diminutive (-u / -uu)
5. thicker/taller plants and trees (-u / -aa)
6. thiner/shorter plants and trees (-i / a a)
Furthermore, in the proto-language, the first syllable of a noun was reduplicated to signify the plural. In modern ngayavit, these rules carry on into the modern language, although it essentially means that ✎ Edit Article ✖ Delete Article
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