Seuna nouns
Nouns in Seuna has a lot of old ideas. Seuna suffixes and some grammar has an old idea. Seuna rubbish the same.
plural
The plural is formed by adding a final "n". In the writing system this is represented by a grammatical mark :, not by the soundmark n.
kloga = shoe, klogan = shoes
There is a subgroup of nouns that become plural by changing internally.
| man | bla | men | bala | male(adjective) | obla |
| woman | gla | women | gala | female(adjective) | egla |
role.tags
Nine role.tags are end.stuck to nouns.
u = "by"
yo = "to" or "upto"
ji = "for"
fi = "at"
ge = "of"
le = "from"
s ... can be said to show the accusative case. Also used for the vocative case.
wa = "towards" or "about"
ho = "with"
yo is used to indicate the receiver of a gift.
wa also corresponds to English "about" as in "I think about you".
fi is often eroded to f if the word ends in a vowel or n. The eight position.tags can be thought of as a semantic expantion of fi. You normally use fi along with one of the position.tags.
The nominative is unmarked. Also the nouns that follows all prepositions are unmarked ???
There is a special symbol given to each of these tags, that is in text, they are never spelled out phonetically but their special symbol is used.
position.tags
Eight tags are front.stuck to nouns.
bali = above
keja = below
fas = in front (i.e. this side of)
cimo = behind (i.e. at the far side of)
ni = on (covers about the same semantic space as English "on")
tian = beside
pi = in > pilia "to enter" ... pilyari "I entered"
ompu = out > pilua "to exit" ... pilwari "I went out"
There is a special symbol given to each of these tags, that is in text, they are never spelled out phonetically but their special symbol is used.
motion verbs
na go pidwolo = (S/he goes into the house)
na run pidwolo = (S/he runs into the house)
"go" and "run" are considered "motion verbs" hence a change of position is assumed when they are used. When no change in position occurs
with a "motion verb", the sentence must receive extra marking. i.e.
na run pidwolof = (S/he runs in the house)
cat jumped niwall = The cat jumped onto the wall
cat jumped niwallf = The cat jumped on top of the wall (the English translation is actually ambiguous)
"the cat jumped from the wall" would be
meu jumped wallle
or if you really wanted to pin the meaning down
meu jumped niwallle
When two nouns come together
attributive
For the many situations in which one noun qualifies another and ownership isn't involved, we use the particle ta between the nouns.
book ta mi = a book written by me
possession
As mentioned above the endtag -ge is translated by "of" in English. However -ge actually functions in a smaller range of situation than "of". In actual fact it is only used when "possession" is involved. For example;-
book mige = my book (a book owned by me)
inalienable possession
yu = second person pronoun
baba = father
babayu = your father
nogami = my leg
As well as body parts and family members, also locations take the inalienable construction (Interesting fact - the words for "face" and "back", can be considered both body parts and locations.
pi = the interior, the inside
dwolo = house
pidwolo = the interior of the house
pidwolof = in the house
other associations
door ta room
paper ta today
table ta wood
milk three litres milk
ta can be used withiut a proceding noun.
ta room = the one of the room
ta today = the one of today
ta wood = the one of wood
ta hia = the red one
tan hia = the red ones
ta wood = the one made of wood
tan piboatfi = the ones in the boat
ta mige = that one of mine
tan mige = those ones of mine
two nouns together
In Seuna when to nouns come together, they can be translated into English with an "and" between them. (Same also for verbs).
X Y Z.jwo = X and Y and Z X Y Z.ple = X or Y or Z When speaking a list, there is a definite pause between each item.
jwo and ple are both clitics.
Adposition is not allowed in Seuna - you can not have "Obama, the president" but must insert a ta between the two nouns, introducing the second element, in a relative clause. Similarly "William the Conqueror", Alexander the Great"
Co-ordinative compounds ( motherfather = parents, swordspear = weapen, armleg =limb) when both words contribute equally to the compound. Called Dvandva in Sanskrit.
My son, the doctor, went to town My son, the doctor, and I went to town
compounds
tolno.senai = windmill
tolno.mose = watermill
There are many compounds. The compounds are head final. More than 50% are attributive compounds.
The same method of compounding is used for object incorporating in verbs.
I hunt deer => I deer.hunt
hand.makeoi = handmade
wife.beatgu = wifebeater
Index
- Introduction to Seuna
- Seuna : Chapter 1
- Seuna word shape
- The script of Seuna
- Seuna sentence structure
- Seuna pronouns
- Seuna nouns
- Seuna verbs (1)
- Seuna adjectives
- Seuna demonstratives
- Seuna verbs (2)
- Asking a question in Seuna
- Seuna relative clauses
- Seuna verbs (3)
- Methods for deriving words in Seuna
- List of all Seuna derivational affixes
- Numbers in Seuna
- Naming people in Seuna
- The Seuna calendar
- Seuna units
