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Noun Declension in Urban Basanawa
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This public article was written by [Deactivated User], and last updated on 23 Jan 2017, 21:12.

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Cases and Genders have disappeared completely for nouns in Urban Basanawa, nouns only decline according to number, however, the declension patterns of nouns are slightly more complex than in English.

There are several noun classes: s-nouns, n-nouns, r-nouns, root nouns, and irregular nouns. Below are the introductions of the classes:

s-nouns

The class of s-nouns is the largest noun class, most nouns, including all countable non-native nouns, belong to this class.

One adds -s to the end of an s-noun to make the plural form, and an epenthetic /ə/ might be used in some cases.

n-nouns

The class of n-nouns is the second largest noun class, it is mostly composed of the old weak nouns.

One adds -n to the end of an n-noun to make the plural form, and an epenthetic /ə/ might be used in some cases.

r-nouns

The class of r-nouns is a small class, not many words belong to this class.

One adds -r to the end of an r-noun to make the plural form, an epenthetic /ə/ might be used in some cases, and the stem vowel changes like root nouns.

Root Nouns

The class of root nouns is a small class, only few words belong to this class.

One changes the stem vowel of a root noun to make the plural form, no affixes are used.

The pattern of the change of the stem vowel is shown below:

/a/ > /ɛ/
/ɔ/ > /ɛ/
/ʊ/ > /ɪ/
/ɑ:/ > /e:/
/o:/ > /e:/
/u:/ > /i:/
/aʊ/ > /aɪ/

Irregular nouns

Few words belong to this class, the plural forms of nouns in this class are highly irregular and suppletive.

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Example of each noun classes:

s-nouns:

日("day"):

Singular: 日 [dax] (romanization: dag)
Plural: 日がす/日す [dagəs] (romanization: dages)

民("folk):

Singular: 民 [fɔɫk] (romanization: folk)
Plural: 民す [fɔɫks] (romanization: folks)

n-nouns:

名("name"):

Singular: 名 [nɑ:m] (romanization: name)
Plural: 名まん/名ん [nɑ:mən] (romanization: namen)

心("heart"):

Singular: 心 [haɹt] (romanization: hart)
Plural: 心たん/心ん [haɹtən] (romanization: harten)

r-nouns:

子("child"):

Singular: 子 [kɪnt]
Plural: 子だる/子る [kɪndər]

卵("egg"):

Singular: 卵 [e:] (romanization: ei)
Plural: 卵やる/卵る [e:jəɹ] (romanization: eier)

子羊("lamb"):

Singular: 子羊 [lam] (romanization: lamb)
Plural: 子羊る/子羊えんまる/子羊えんまる [lɛmməɹ] (romanization: lember)

root nouns:

鼠("mouse"):

Singular: 鼠 [maʊs] (romanization: maus)
Plural: 鼠あいす [maɪs] (romanization: mys/mais/mise)

Irregular nouns:

Only very few nouns belong to the irregular noun classes, the plural forms of irregular nouns are unpredictable and suppletive.

Below are the list of irregular nouns and their plural forms:

singular formplural formEnglish meaningNote
人(romanization: man, pronunciation: /man/)衆(romanization: lide, pronunciation: /laɪd̥/)personthe plural form can also be used as a collective noun; also, 人/man can be declined as r-nouns or root-nouns
友(romanization: frind, pronunciation: /frɪnd̥/)友達(romanization: tommodatchi, pronunciation: /tɔmɔdatʃɪ/)friendthe regular plural form of 友/frind means "relatives" rather than "friends"
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