Kala Nouns

Nouns

• Nouns include pronouns, adjectives (nouns of quality), and determiners.

Plurals

• Nouns are either singular, plural or collective.

• Concrete nouns are pluralized by suffixing -m.

Examples : kono - stone > konom - stones | naka - woman > nakam - women

• When the last syllable of a word contains an m, the plural is marked by reduplicating the final vowel.

Examples : kama - village > kama'a - villages | teyemi - phrase > teyemi'i - phrases

• Collective (plural) nouns are marked by prefixing tli-.

Examples : tsaka - house > tlitsaka - neighborhood | yama - mountain > tliyama - mountain range

• Nouns need not be marked plural if a number is used to show quantity.

Example : sahi - color > sahim - colors > sahi ya'o - five color(s)

• Adjectives do not show plural agreement. However, when an adjective is used nominally, it can be pluralized.

Example : nyeli - pink > nyelim - (the) pink (ones)

Affect / Degree

• The diminutive is formed with -hi, and the augmentative with -ha.

These are respectively realized as -ki and -ka when attached to a word that has a final syllable onset is /h/.

Example : ina - food, meal | inahi - snack, morsel | inaha - feast, banquet

Example : tsaka - house, home, dwelling | tsakahi - shack, hut, cabin | tsakaha - palace, mansion

• These are also used to differentiate hue, or shade.

Example : yanahi - light yellow, kuyaha - dark green

• In Kala the concepts of comparative and superlative degree of an adjective are merged into a single form, the elative.

How this form is understood or translated depends upon context and definiteness. In the absence of comparison, the elative conveys the notion of “greatest”, “supreme.”

Example : tahaka - bigger/biggest

tsaka hayo ke nayo tahaka - His house is bigger than mine.

Example : yanaha - more yellow/most yellow

ke mauam tayo yanaha - Your flowers are the most yellow.

Gender

• In general, nouns do not indicate their gender. To distinguish the sexes, one can use the adjectival endings -ta and -na.

Example : nikata "a male dog", nikana "a female dog".

Articles

• There is only one article in Kala, ke. It is used primarily as a "noun marker".

• It is ambi-definite, meaning it can be either definite or indefinite. The distinction is made through context.

Example : kama "village", ke kama "the/a village", ke kama'a "the villages"

Example : inahi "snack", ke inahi "the/a snack", ke inahim "the snacks"

Pronouns

• Kala generally distinguishes four persons, the fourth person indicating abstract and inanimate nouns – both in the singular and plural numbers.

There is also a distinction between inclusive (I/we and you) and exclusive (we but not you) forms of the first person plural.

	Nominative	Accusative	Possessive	Reflexive	Reciprocal
1S	na	ena	nayo	na'i
2S	ta	eta	tayo	ta'i
3S	ha	eha	hayo	ha'i
4S	tla	etla	tlayo	tla'i
1P	nam	enam	namyo	nami	nanku
1P (EXCL)	na'am	ena'am	na'amyo	na'ami	na'anku
2P	tam	etam	tamyo	tami	tanku
3P	kam	ekam	kamyo	kami	kanku
4P	tlam	etlam	tlamyo	tlami	tlanku

• A chart of the agent-patient transitivity constructions;

A-P construction

	1st sing	2nd sing	3rd sing	1st plu	2nd plu	3rd plu
1st sing	-	na'eta	na'eha	-	na'etam	na'ekam
2nd sing	ta'ena	-	ta'eha	ta'enam	-	ta'ekam
3rd sing	ha'ena	ha'eta	-	ha'enam	ha'etam	ha'ekam
1st plu	-	nameta	nameha	-	nametam	namekam
2nd plu	tamena	-	tameha	tamenam	-	tamekam
3rd plu	kamena	kameta	kameha	kamenam	kametam	-

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