Noun Phrases in Waa

Nouns and nouns phrases in Waa generally follow a 'head - dependent' or 'modified - modifier' pattern. A noun might consist of a single - usually bymoraic or bisyllabic - morpheme:

katu - 'cat'

huno - 'dog'

huso - 'house'

rota - 'rat', 'rodent', 'mouse'

taa - star

Compound nouns may be made up of two (or sometimes more) morphemes. The 'head' morphemes come first, and the modifying morphemes follow:

husohuno - 'doghouse'

katutaa - 'leopard' (lit. 'star cat')

Most often, the modifying morpheme something that can be used as a noun by itself. Sometimes, words from other parts of speech - most often verbs - can also be used used to form compounds:

husoitu - 'restaurant' ('eat-house')

rumosewa - 'bedroom' ('sleep-room')

Nouns may be modified by adjectives, possessors, prepositional phrases, and relative clauses. These kinds of modifiers are placed after the noun.