Poswa nouns

Poswa preserves the six noun cases of the parent language with almost no changes in meaning or form, apart from regular sound changes. The possessive has weakened into a genitive when used with definite nouns, however. e.g. teppiopwas mupawabub "the length of the rope". Poswa has not added any new cases; so there is still no dative case and the various uses of the locative case are not distinguished.

Animacy

Poswa distinguishes between animate and inanimate nouns, but there is no grammatical marker distinguishing the two; they simply must be learned. However, in nearly all cases, the difference follows semantics, so this is not a source of difficulty for students of Poswa.

Body parts, and inalienable nouns in general, inherit their animacy from an implicit "parent noun", and therefore are understood as animate nouns in any context, even if the person whose body they belong to is a corpse or a doll. It is not necessary for the parent noun to be in the sentence if it can be implied from context. Thus the sentence

Wavwub wepuwap baepopebi.

My fingers pressed into the sand.

works because the final -ebi on the verb baepopebi "pressed" indicates that the subject of the sentence is the speaker. Wavwub just means "fingers", but despite not being marked with a possessive ending, inherits its 1st person meaning from the verb. Thus, for example, the sentence Wavwub wepuwap baepopebel means "His fingers pressed into the sand" simply because the verb ending has changed. This pronoun-free setup is the usual manner for talking about sentences where a body part is the subject; however, adding a pronoun such as fo "I" would not be incorrect.

In a very old stage of the language, an infix -a could be inserted into any inanimate noun to make it an animate one. A few doublets still survive, but this infix was never used often and few speakers are aware of its former existence.

Gender

Poswa does not have grammatical gender. Nor does it generally have separate forms for male and female occupations as do some of its neighboring languages. In very old stages of the language, a gender system based on consonant harmony existed, and this is reflected in a few modern words, such as mumi "wife" and tuti "husband". Poswobs will often say that a word with a lot of t sounds feels masculine, whereas a word with a lot of m or n sounds feels feminine. However, this consonant-based gender system is no longer productive.

In many cases, Poswobs will simply omit gender information that other languages would include. For example, the sentence

Taffum šumwumbwap lavuršebel.

The queen put on her bracelet.

Could just as well be translated as

The king put on his bracelet.

The monarch put on their bracelet.

Or even, because Poswa does not require the speaker to distinguish number:

The kings and queens put on their bracelets.

When the gender is important to the meaning of a sentence, it can be indicated by using separate words. These are placed directly after the noun they modify, and are in the nominative case:

Pempambom mapo pabubiap pwembwurebel.

The sailor (a girl) steered her ship.

Ifibaba pimpup pižbimuwap wupšebel.

The pirate (a boy) raised his flag.

And so on.

Number

Plural suffixes

There is no "grammatical" plural in Poswa in the sense that there is not a separate table of forms for plural nouns in each declension. To pluralize a noun, either -by or -bum is added. The difference between the two is that -by implies separation amongst the individual items being described, whereas -bum implies that they are working together. An animate noun can take either of the two suffixes depending on which meaning is intended; inanimate nouns have a fixed plural form, however, in a manner similar to the way nouns have genders in Spanish and some IE languages. Learning the pattern here is much more difficult than learning the difference between animate and inanimate nouns because there is no significant connection between the semantic meaning of a noun and the categorization of that noun as belonging to the -by or the -bum class. Such words are simply called "by nouns" (blwaššum) and "bum nouns" (bumblaššum) in Poswa.

-bum

There are no irregular plurals in Poswa apart from a few suppletive nouns which take no suffixes. However, the -by and -bum suffixes interact with the nouns they modify, particularly those ending in voiceless consonants, using the same sound rules that other compounds do. For example, the noun befpos "door bolt, lock" pluralizes to befpobum because of a sound rule automatically changing all sb to b. Poppup "knife" changes to poppubum because of a sound rule automatically changing all pb to bb and another one causing the simplification of the second of two consecutive geminate consonants. Lastly, for nouns ending in -y (even an unwritten one), the -ub- --> w rule kicks in (-y- changed to -u in this environment further back in time). Thus, for example, the plural of poty "soldier" is not *potybum or an assimilated form such as *popybum but potwum. Some words exhibit multiple changes: the noun paspys "square" pluralizes to paspwum because the sb --> b rule removes the -s, and then the -ub- --> w rule removes the -b-.

-by

The -by suffix merges in similar ways, with -wu replacing -wum. It is used to show that the members of the group are treated individually, and can in some cases correspond to English "each, every".

Differences in usage

The two plural suffixes can be used to show differences in meaning. The choice of which plural marker to use can indicate different shades of meaning. The sentences

Mapobum birimop subžviraba.

and

Mapoby birimop subžviraba.

both mean

The girls are selling lemonade.

But the sentence with -bum implies that the girls are working cooperatively to sell their lemonade whereas the sentence with -by implies that they are competing with each other.

A similar difference in meaning can be implied by using plural markers on the object of the verb:

Tus₁, potwope₂ pwobebe₃ potiob₄?

Did₁ you give₃ each soldier₂ a lollipop₄?

As compared to

Tus₁, potiepe₂ pwobebe₃ potiabie?

Did₁ you give₃ the soldiers₂ their lollipops₄?

Often, when a subject and object are both plural, only one of them will take a plural marker. The second sentence above could be reworded as

Tus₁, potiepe₂ pwobebe₃ potiob?

Did₁ you give₃ the soldiers₂ their lollipops₄?

Where potiob "lollipop" has no plural marker but is perceived as plural by the listener because one would not normally imagine a large crowd of soldiers would be happy sharing just one lollipop.

Pluralization reanalysis

Loanwords are generally placed into the bum class, making it the more productive of the two. A small number of native words have changed class over time, often due to reanalysis. For example, the native word for "rain" was pleb, a regular development from Babakiam piyu. But this came to be seen as a plural consisting of a dummy stem ple and the plural suffix -by (the final y is usually ommitted in Romanization, as there are no words with a plain final -b.) Thus a new word, ple, meaning "raindrop" was coined, which has no Bābākiam form. Then, a new plural plebum came to be used for the more common noun "rain", and pleb fell out of use. A similar story explains what happened to the commonest word for an army. Originally, the word for army was pamby, a regular development from Bābākiam pamimiu. This was a singular noun. However, it came to be reanalyzed as a plural, and given that the -by suffix generally denoted things that were seen as separate pieces, not part of a greater whole, the word was changed to pambum to reflect a unified army. Note that this new word has no singular form, and that "double plural" forms such as *pambumbum used to mean "armies (plural)" are considered inappropriate. Instead the pambum word is used with a modifier meaning "several", "many", or whichever meaning is intended.

Plurals replacing agent suffixes

Note that it is preferred usage to pluralize words ending in the agent suffix -ta (and its less common variant -tae) by deleting that suffix and adding -bum or -by, as below:

Wufistita džofa.

The hunter is camping.

Wufistibum džofa.

The hunters are camping.

Most words for occupations end in -ta, originally meaning "human". Thus, for example, a hunter was a "hunt man", and so on. However, a variant form of this suffix, -tae, can be used specifically for young children. For example, at a lemonade stand, one might say:

Pwamptae natiefap vambwosfaba.

The cashier is counting her money.

Pwamwum natiefap vambwosfaba.

The cashiers are counting their money.

The dual number

Aside from the body parts above, Poswa also has a dual suffix, -pop. This is historically cognate with the dual forms of the body parts, which is why they mostly end in -op.

The dual number is generally used to denote a natural or symmetrical pair. It often corresponds to English "double" or "couple". For example, puvapop means a set of swinging double doors, wempop means a cross shape, and pamapop means an engaged couple.

Though primarily seen as a suffix, pop can appear in any position within a word, as it originated long ago as an ordinary noun meaning a couple. Thus, in modern Poswa, poppi means "wedding", and a pobbem is a treaty between two armies in a war. (This word was shortened by from an earlier pampobbem, where pam- referred to armies.) Popammob is a word denoting a man and woman (or girl and boy) not yet engaged but in a close relationship.

Pop can also be used in an ad-hoc manner in the literal sense of a couple or natural pair, either as a suffix, or a separate stressed word. For example, pappipop means a teenage couple, and pypopop means a pair of petals, as of those symmetrically arranged on the head of a flower. The Ten Commandments might be called Wipšatia babipop, with the normal word for ten (bappi) replaced by the word for five (babi) with the dual suffix.

Pop as a modifier

When used with words for people, the suffix pop implies that the speaker is talking about a couple who are married or in a relationship with each other. Though traditionally used for opposite-gender pairs, it is the relationship that is important rather than the gender of the participants:

Tutipop bwawaša.

The two husbands are hugging each other.

This sentence shows that the two men are in love and are married to each other. By contrast, the sentence

Tutivep bwawaša.

The two husbands are hugging each other.

Also describes two married men, but does not imply that the two men are married to each other.

In polygamous marriages, pop can be used if and only if the two people being talked about are in a symmetrical position with each other. For example, one can say

Mumipop poppi parovap laviraba.

The two wives are wearing their wedding rings.

Singulatives

From nouns that denote crowds or mass nouns, a singulative suffix -ba can be added to denote one piece or one member of it. For example mabem means "soap", and mabemba means "a bit of soap; some soap (to clean with)". Note that this -ba suffix is derived from Bābākiam viba, not ba, and therefore does not collapse the way some other suffixes beginning with -b do; the /b/ remains always a /b/.

Singulatives are also used with certain body parts. For example, wavwub means "fingers", but to speak of an individual finger without mentioning which one, one would say wavwuvba.

Numeral words

Numerals

Numerals

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
Cardinal	numba	vep	mava	bibi	babi	nambwi	nabbi	bivi	tašpi	bappi
Ordinal	numbam	vam	mavam	bibam	babom	nambom	nabam	bivam	tapwem	pwam
Fractional	nie	vob	mavob	bibob	babub	nambub	nabob	bivob	tapwi	bwob

Possession

Possession markers can be placed on any noun, e.g. papwopwa "dog"; papwopio "my dog"; poppup "knife" ---> poppuwio "my knife". The stem to which the possession marker attaches is called a soppu. These are historically related to the verbal inflections and thus can be mapped one-to-one with them; however, they behave as nouns.

The possessed form of the noun generally corresponds to a noun used with a possessive pronoun. That is to say,

Puriabum wampas

and

Puriabwa wampas

both mean "the girl's cards", but if the context is clear, the stand-alone word

Puriabwa

can be used to mean "her cards" and the word for the girl omitted entirely.

Inalienables and attached nouns

It could be said that there are actually two types of possessive markers: the plain type which can be applied to any noun, and an "attached" type that is mostly used with inalienable nouns such as body parts. Poswa does not actually consider this to be a type of possession, but rather groups it with the demonstratives. Its meaning is often equivalent to a locative rather than a possessive, provided one thinks with a mindset that "the arm on me" refers to one's own arm whereas "my arm" could mean an "arm" that one has purchased as a store. However, the plain possessives are used for body parts when they are not in the nominative case. It could be better to think of the attached possessives as signifying a body part that is acting as one with its owner rather than as the object or instrument of its owner.

But not all of these words are body parts. Essentially, the nouns in the "attached" state stand in for a noun with a 1st person locative. That is to say, nouns in the attached state tend to refer to "the [noun] in me, on me, part of me, inside me" even if it is an article of clothing or a foreign object lodged inside the body.

Definiteness

Poswa has no articles or demonstrative pronouns, so distinctions such as English "the dog", "a dog", "my dog", and "that dog" must be made in other ways. Generally, a noun used in bare form at the beginning of a sentence is best translated with the English indefinite article unless context makes it clear that it is referring to a previously mentioned entity. Thus, a sentence pair like English "A horse was asleep in the field. The horse woke up when it began to rain." would be translated with the same word for horse, with no additional affixes, in both sentences. To indicate a "new" horse, most often the suffix -pamy "other, another, different" is placed on the second instance of the noun.

Noun cases

The traditional case order in Poswa (and Pabappa) is Nominative, Accusative, Locative, Possessive, Essive, Instrumental. The order of the five non-nominative cases can be remembered by their typical final consonants: p m s l b.

Note that the oblique form is not considered a case and appears only when used with certain suffixes.

Nominative

The nominative case is the bare form of the noun, with no suffixes.

Nobellam!

Ice cream!

It is usually the shortest form of the word, since it has no suffix, but some of the case suffixes can actually make a few words shorter. For example, the essive form of bivibos "skin" is bivibi. Thousands of years ago, the case suffixes were actually infixes, and in many ways still behave so.

The case marked by the -s suffix is not properly a genitive, but a possessive, which has a more limited scope. Thus, the nominative case can in some constructions take over the role of a genitive, such as noun-on-noun compounds. For example:

Blopfwulpu

Eyepatch

Is a simple compound of blop "one eye" and fwulpu "bandage".

Accusative

The accusative is marked with the suffix -p. It is used for the direct objects of transitive verbs.

Poppel popap mopwebi.

The married couple adopted a child.

Where popa "child" is the object of the sentence and is thus given the suffix -p. (This is one of the words where the vowel does not change.)

Phonetic shape of the accusative

The -p suffix is entirely reliable, even in irregular nouns. Nouns that end in -a -e -o (including the rare diphthong -ae) usually do not change these vowels before adding the -p suffix:

-a -e -o

niapa "shield" ----> niapap

pfopwape "skirt" ----> pfopwapep

mapo "girl" ----> mapop

-i

Nouns ending in -i sometimes change the final vowel to -e and sometimes to -u before adding the -p suffix, depending on which declension they belong to. Most of the time, nouns ending in -i which have another -i- in the first syllable of the word belong to the declension that changes the final vowel to -e.

pippi "juice" ----> pippep

pižbi "flag" ----> pižbep

Some words, particularly longer ones, have a different vowel in the initial syllable but an -i- in an internal syllable and still change the final -i to -e:

wufisti "hunter" ----> wufistep

Some words do not have a second -i- at all and still nevertheless belong to this declension:

nubi "beard" ----> nubep

But

tuti "husband" ----> tutup

paevi "rigid rod" ----> paevup

mubži "explosion, burst" ----> mubžup

Lastly, some words which one might predict would fall into the first category because they have an -i- in the first syllable in fact belong to this one:

ipi "pine tree" ----> ipup

siti "balance, equilibrium" ----> situp

Usage of the accusative

A noun in the accusative case is usually the object of the sentence, and therefore usually occurs after the subject and before a transitive verb:

Sabas₁ mapop₃ pwuraba.₂

The man₁ is kissing₂ the girl.₃

Where mapo "girl" is the object of the sentence and is thus given the accusative suffix -p.

However, Poswa has fairly liberal word order rules, and the accusative is not always stuck in the middle. In some cases, the object of the sentence may be perceived as more prominent than the subject, and therefore be placed before the subject of the sentence.

Verbal agreement suffixes

If a noun in the accusative case is placed at the beginning of a sentence or clause, it must be additionally marked with a suffix denoting the person and tense of the subject. In essence, the object must show agreement with the verb:

Sapsapa₁ paefam₂ pappapwaba.₃

The woman₂ is slapping₃ the man.₁

Where sapsapa "man" is the object of the sentence and is given the suffix -p, but is also given the additional suffix -(b)a to show agreement with the slapping his jealous wife is giving him. The suffixes are identical with the last syllable of the verb, but due to a sound rule changing -pb- to -p-, they appear to consist of single vowels. All accusatives end in -p, so the -b- never actually appears. (The sound rule changing -pb- to -p- operated much earlier than a separate rule changing -pb- to -bb-, and is no longer active, but still remains in force in areas of morphology that have not changed for several thousand years.)

Unlike many morphemes, the verbal agreement suffix does not trigger vowel changes in the preceding word. Both

Žiblafebi pawop.

I tasted the banana.

Pawopi žiblafebi.

I tasted the banana.

Have the same -o- vowel in the word for banana, even though it is in an open syllable in one word but a closed syllable in the other. This situation often triggers a change from -o- to -y-, but in this situation, analogy with a second -o- from an earlier diphthong which resisted the change caused the retention of -o- to be generalized.

Comitative use of the accusative

Some verbs are transitive in such a way that the object of the verb is placed into a comitative role. That is, the object of the verb is with the speaker, rather than being acted on by the speaker. This was originally a small subclass of verbs whose prefix, wa-, happened to mostly merge with the much more common wi-.

Thus one can say

Pupipu biom papopabo mamap.

I'm traveling around the world with my mom.

Other uses of the accusative

In bars or restaurants, it is common to hear people say a sentence consisting of just the item they want in the accusative case. This is essentially an elliptical way of saying "(Please) bring me a...":

Natorep!

Please bring me some hot chili pepper paste!

However, see Poswa_verbs#Usage_of_inflected_nouns_as_mood_markers for an alternative method of expressing this type of wish.

Locative

The locative is marked with the suffix -m. It is used to indicate that something is inside or on top of something.

Bempfo₁ pwaebiom.₂

I'm sitting₁ in my chair.₂

Since Poswa does not have a copula, a noun in the locative case often serves as a predicate by itself, meaning the sentence is verbless:

Tuppi₁ bibwobam.₂

The chicken₁ is in the oven.₂

Since there is no verb, an additional predicate can be added, such as

Tuppi₁ bibwobam₂ bumperul.₃

The chicken₁ in the oven₂ is juicy.₃

While these sentences imply eternal truths, context informs the listener that in cases such as the above, this is not actually true and merely serves the speaker by allowing him to speak a shorter, more compact sentence. If necessary, however, any noun in the locative case can be used as an intransitive verb by adding (in most cases) the 3rd person intransitive present tense verbal suffix -ba:

Biptis lapwomba.

The sun is in the sky.

Note that, because there are no verbs in these sentences, there is no tense information either, and therefore context must be used to understand the proper meanings.

The locative case can also be used with a sort of inverse locative meaning. This is a very old trait that entered the language when the ancestor of Poswa and Pabappa merged the original two locative cases (marked in Thaoa by -n and -ŋ) into one.

Pypub₁ laedžam.₂

The boy₁ has a coin in him.₂

The above literally means "the boy is (in/on) a coin", but the context makes the meaning clear.

This often carries the additional metaphorical meaning of "affected by, afflicted with":

Pwublipos₁ peppubi₂ tšumpiom.₃

The explorer's₁ path₂ is blocked.₃

Possessive

The possessive case generally shows ownership, but in some constructions can be used with a broader meaning typical of languages with genitive cases.

It is also used for abstract concepts. Words describing actions taking place during a period of time are in the possessive case, not the locative case as in many other languages. For example, the word triplet

Pelpies, pappies, porpies.

In the past, the present, (and) the future.

Essive

The essive case is used primarily to indicate that something is made from something else. Like the locative, it is often used in verbless sentences. The essive case of any noun generally ends with -el, -ul, -i, or -ie.

Wopsivo₁ bwabbu₂ papwul.₃

My jacket₁ is made from the hide₃ of sheep.₂

Thus, it can sometimes correspond to English of, in particular the false possessive. (The unusual English word order here is used to keep the translations from being cut up.)

The essive case can also be used to convey a meaning similar to English "as, as a(n)":

Pipome₁ tallošebe₂ pwopwel.₃

You came₂ here₁ as a child.₃

Use of a tense marker here after the essive case marker here is optional, and implies that the subject had control over themselves at the time. It will always be intransitive, even if the main verb in the sentence is transitive:

Pipome tallošebe pwopweže.

You came here as a child.

Transitive partitive usage

A third meaning of the essive case is the partitive accusative sense. That is, the essive will substitute for the accusative on the object of a transitive verb, and give it a partitive flavor. Usage of the essive as a partitive is confined to inanimate objects:

Pobbliup,₁ vwambebi₂ pobwupie.₃

Sorry,₁ I ate₂ some of your watermelon.₃

Like the accusative, the essive takes a verbal suffix to agree with the subject if it is fronted to anywhere before the subject is named:

Pobbliup,₁ levobwulbi₂ ... vwambebi₃ wialeb.₄

Sorry,₁ your strawberries₂ ... I ate₃ some of them₂ too.₄

One cannot use this with animate objects, even when the context is clear that it is not being used in its primary function as a true essive:

*Ninselbi₁ vwambebi.₂

I ate₂ some of the salmon.₁

However, objects that inherit their animacy from a host are valid targets after all:

Pallup₁ poša₂ pepfužop₃ wipiswebel.₄

The white₂ whale₁ bit off₄ part of my leg.₃

Instrumental

The instrumental case has a variety of meanings, but the primary meaning is that something or someone is making use of something else. The instrumental case of any noun always ends with -ob, -ub, -i, or -ie.

Wupwopi₁ numwebi₂ popfob.₃

I wrote₂ the message₁ with a pen.₃

Bimiepi pabwebbi tižifub.

I swept the carpet with my toes.

Pwaebiope mibasebe bapapwupi.

You broke my shield with your hammer.

Twembupie, bubafabi polfawampap.

With a cucumber, I completed the salad.

Instrumental verbs

See Poswa_verbs#Instrumental.

The instrumental case can also be used as a base for forming verbs. When used with words for food, the instrumental case indicates that the agent of the verb is eating that food. The noun is indefinite, and the verb is grammatically intransitive despite its semantic meaning:

Tašibi.

I ate an apple.

The verb is intransitive because it is seen as stating a general activity, as though eating apples were as basic as sleeping and breathing. However, the verb will be transitive if a specific object is named:

Fupam₁ tašepi₂ tašibebi.₃

I ate₃ the apple₂ on the table.₁

Noun declension overview

Noun declensions are complicated by the fact that unlike Poswa verbs, Poswa nouns change even the stem when an inflectional suffix is added. That is, there is no "barrier" between the stem and the suffix that keeps the stem mostly intact. Instead of declensional tables, the entire last syllable must be taken into account in order to determine the various forms. Thus it could be said that there is a declension for every syllable. However, with just a few simple rules, the patterns can be easily perceived.

The inflectional tables make more sense to a speaker who is familiar with the concept of oblique stems. The oblique form of a noun often differs from the nominative form, and from the oblique form, all other forms can be predicted in all but the most wildly irregular nouns. One could imagine a future form of Poswa in which the oblique replaces the nominative entirely; however, since the oblique stem always ends in a vowel, almost all words would come to end in vowels. (This is similar to what happened in Palli.)

Regular noun declensions

-a

The commonest noun declension is for nouns ending in -a. Below is the declension of pliopa "waste pail, trash can" (long words are used to prevent the suffixes from infecting the stem). Note that the line marked "(Oblique)" is not a case, but a stem that for some nouns is the same as the nominative, and for others is different. The oblique form of the noun appears in a few other constructions aside from case marking, as well.

For possession, 3rd person is used:

pliopa

Case	Free	Possessed(3p)	Attached
Nominative	pliopa	pliofa	pliofa
(Oblique)	pliopa	pliofa	pliofa
Accusative	pliopap	pliofap	pliofap
Locative	pliopam	pliofam	pliofam
Possessive	pliopas	pliofas	pliofas
Essive	pliopel	pliofel	pliofel
Instrumental	pliopob	pliofob	pliofob

-ae

-ae

The declension of bambupae "purse, sealable bag for carrying money" is below:

bambupae

Case	Free	Possessed			Attached
		1p	2p	3p
Nominative	bambupae	bambupažo	bambupaže	bambupaža
(Oblique)	bambupae
Accusative	bambupaep	bambupažop	bambupažep	bambupažap
Locative	bambupaem	bambupažom	bambupažem	bambupažam
Possessive	bambupaes	bambupažos	bambupažes	bambupažas
Essive	bambuful	bambupaži	bambupažul	bambupažel
Instrumental	bambufi	bambupažub	bambupaži	bambupažob

e

-e¹

Some nouns ending in -e belong to this declension. It is one of the simplest declensions, but still has some trouble spots in the lower cases. Below is the declension of pute "beaver's tail; snowshoe":

pute

Case	Free	Possessed			Attached
		1p	2p	3p
Nominative	pute	pufo	pufe	pufa
(Oblique)	pute
Accusative	putep	pufop	pufep	pufap
Locative	putem	pufom	pufem	pufam
Possessive	putes	pufos	pufes	pufas
Essive	putul	pufi	puful	pufel
Instrumental	puti	pufub	pufi	pufob

Note that the word for snowshoe is more commonly putepapa, a compound of this word and papa "shoe". Putepapa is a hyper-regular word because the -p- does not change to -f- in any forms.

-ie¹

A subtype of the -e¹ declension exists for nouns ending in -ie. They are not considered to be irregulars. Below is the declension of wapie "game, competition":

wapie

Case	Free	Possessed			Attached
		1p	2p	3p
Nominative	wapie
(Oblique)	wapie
Accusative	wapiep
Locative	wapiem
Possessive	wapies
Essive	wapiul
Instrumental	wapie

-e³

Some nouns ending in -e belong to this declension. It is a stem-changing declension, with a different consonant for each stem consonant. Below is the declension of pute "alphabet":

NOUN

Case	Free	Possessed			Attached
		1p	2p	3p
Nominative	pute	putežo			pufae
(Oblique)	pufe	putežo			pufe
Accusative	pufep	putežop			pufep
Locative	pufem	putežom			pufem
Possessive	pufes	putežos			pufes
Essive	puful	puteži			puful
Instrumental	pufi	putežub			pufi

-o¹

Some nouns ending in -o belong to this declension. It is one of the simplest declensions, but still has some trouble spots in the lower cases. Below is the declension of pammo "fetus, embryo":

pliopa

Case	Free	Possessed(3p)	Attached
Nominative	pammo
(Oblique)	pammo
Accusative	pammop
Locative	pammom
Possessive	pammos
Essive	pambi
Instrumental	pambub

-y¹

Word-final y, which denotes labialization of a preceding consonant, is often not included in Romanization. Thus the word popip, meaning "sponge", is phonetically /popipʷ/. Thus, even though Poswa considers this word to end in a consonant, its declensions are much more similar to the vowel stems' declensions than those of the other consonant stems.

popip

Case	Free	Possessed(3p)	Attached
Nominative	popip	popippa	popipo
(Oblique)	popipo	popippa	popif
Accusative	popipop	popippap	popifop
Locative	popipom	popippam	popifom
Possessive	popipos	popippas	popifos
Essive	popipi	popippel	popifi
Instrumental	popipub	popippob	popifub

Thus one can say

Šubofi¹ popipom², babob³ blofep.⁴

I stood¹ on a sponge² so³ I could see.⁴

Or

Pwupplibi¹ wutwap² popippub.³

I scrubbed¹ my feet² with my sponge.³

(Popippub is the first-person version of popippob.) Or

Popipo¹ bembviap² lurbibba.³

The sponge inside me¹ fills up³ my stomach.²

-k

Poswa nouns cannot end in a simple /k/ sound. Words that are Romanized with final -k actually end in a labialized /kʷ/, which means they are a subset of the -y declension. There are very few such nouns in the language. Almost all of them conjugate in a predictable pattern, and are not considered to be irregulars. Below is the declension for labak "daytime sky":

labak

Case	Free	Possessed			Attached
		1p	2p	3p
Nominative	labak	lapio	lapie	lapia
(Oblique)	lapwo
Accusative	lapwop	lapiop	lapiep	lapiap
Locative	lapwom	lapiom	lapiem	lapiam
Possessive	lapwos	lapios	lapies	lapias
Essive	lapwi	lapie	lapiul	lapiel
Instrumental	lapwub	lapiub	lapie	lapiob

That is to say, the -k becomes a -w- and deletes the previous vowel, and also devoices any consonant occuring before the deleted vowel. This pattern holds for all polysyllabic nouns ending in -k because such nouns could only have come to end in -k if they had had a vowel immediately preceding the -k. Consonant clusters such as -nk- do not exist in Poswa apart from loanwords.

-y²

There is a separate-y declension that holds a much smaller number of words. Below is the declension of pyp "insect, beetle, bug":

pyp

Case	Free	Possessed(3p)	Attached
Nominative	pyp	pfwa	pfwo
(Oblique)	pfwu	pfwa	pfwu
Accusative	pfwop	pfwap	pfwop
Locative	pfwom	pfwam	pfwom
Possessive	pfwos	pfwas	pfwos
Essive	pfwu	pfwel	pfwu
Instrumental	pfwub	pfwob	pfwub

Because of the coalescence of forms, additional words are needed to clarify the meaning of the words except in the nominative case. For example, one could say:

Pfwo¹ buššom² bipempupaba.³ ¹²³

The beetle (on me)¹ is crawling up³ my thigh.²

-m

The words in the -m class undergo vowel mutation.

-am

Below is the declension of nobellam "ice cream":

nobellam

Case	Free	Possessed			Attached
		1p	2p	3p
Nominative	nobellam	nobellio	nobellie	nobellia
(Oblique)	nobellia
Accusative	nobelliap	nobelliop	nobelliep	nobelliap
Locative	nobelliam	nobelliom	nobelliem	nobelliam
Possessive	nobellias	nobellios	nobellies	nobellias
Essive	nobelliel	nobellie	nobelliul	nobelliel
Instrumental	nobelliob	nobelliub	nobellie	nobelliob

-em

Below is the declension of puppem, meaning "flood, overflow".

puppem

Case	Free	Possessed(3p)	Attached
Nominative	puppem	puppeva	puppiae
(Oblique)	puppie	puppeva	puppie
Accusative	puppiep	puppevap	puppiep
Locative	puppiem	puppevam	puppiem
Possessive	puppies	puppevas	puppies
Essive	puppiel	puppevel	puppiel
Instrumental	puppie	puppevob	puppie

Thus, one could say

Tus papwopwabwe mapu, banambi bembaeba puppies napwam baswi?

Did your small dogs enjoy swimming in the flood's deep puddles?

-bum

The very common plural suffix -bum has its own declension, differing from both the -m class and the -um class. Below is the declension of wupsibum, meaning "citizens". Note the divergent possessive forms.

For possession, 3rd person is used:

wupsibum

Case	Free	Possessed(3p)	Attached
Nominative	wupsibum	wupsibwa	wupsibiae
(Oblique)	wupsibie	wupsibwa	wupsibie
Accusative	wupsibiep	wupsibwap	wupsibiep
Locative	wupsibiem	wupsibwam	wupsibiem
Possessive	wupsibies	wupsibwas	wupsibies
Essive	wupsibiel	wupsibwel	wupsibiel
Instrumental	wupsibie	wupsibwob	wupsibie

Note, however, that some words ending in -bum are not plurals, and do not fall into this declension category. They are instead generally covered below under the -um category, since even bum ends in -um.

-um¹

Many words ending in -um that are not plurals belong to this class. Below is the declension of pubum "rose". Note that, even though this word ends in -bum, it is not a plural and does not decline the way the -bum words do.

For possession, 3rd person is used:

pubum

Case	Free	Possessed(3p)	Attached
Nominative	pubum	pubia	pubio
(Oblique)	pubio	pubia	pubio
Accusative	pubiop	pubiap	pubiop
Locative	pubiom	pubiam	pubiom
Possessive	pubios	pubias	pubios
Essive	pubie	pubiel	pubie
Instrumental	pubiub	pubiob	pubiub

The plural of pubum is pubumbum, although flowers are often sold in prearranged bouquets and a bouquet of roses would in Poswa be called pubumiobbum, where -iobbum is a general purpose suffix denoting a bundle of sticks or a similar long and thin object.

Thus one would say:

Pimpup plažallap pwospel pubiub.

The boy gave the supermodel a rose.

Note that there is no dative case in Poswa and therefore mapop "girl" is in the accusative, whereas pubiub "rose" is in the instrumental case. It could be perceived approximately as "the boy gifted the girl with a rose".

-s

The words in the -s class undergo both vowel and consonant mutation.

-os

Below is the declension of puppos "dam, obstacle":

puppos

Case	Free	Possessed(3p)	Attached
Nominative	puppos	puppypa	puppypo
(Oblique)	puppypo	puppypa	puppyf
Accusative	puppypop	puppypap	puppfwop
Locative	puppypom	puppypam	puppfwom
Possessive	puppypos	puppypas	puppfwos
Essive	puppypi	puppypel	puppfwi
Instrumental	puppypub	puppypob	puppfwub

Essentially, what makes the -s declension category different from all the others is that rather than the -s simply changing to its counterpart š in the oblique and other inflected forms of the word, it changes to match the initial consonant of the word. Thus, the accusative of blebblos "wall" is not *blebblošop but blebblobop. Note that an additional change also takes place both in this word and in puppos above due to other sound changes that took place after the declension patterns became finalized.

Irregular nouns

See Poswa irregular nouns for a partial listing.

Poswa has many irregular nouns. Most of these are single-syllable nouns whose entire stem changes because the various suffixes placed after it "infect" the stem by causing various sound changes which were never ironed out. Many suffixes are really historically infixes, after all, and in the early stages of the language, when it was still known as Babakiam, an infix that changed even the initial consonant of a noun would not have been seen as irregular.

Body parts and suppletive plurals

Many words for body parts have suppletive plurals. Poswa nouns in general are not marked for number; the plural suffixes -by and -bum are not required to specifically mark out a noun as plural; they are often used to specify the "type" of plural being spoken about. On the other hand, words for some body parts are specifically used with a meaning specifying number. For example, pep means "hand" (singular), pwop means "hands" (dual), and pes means "hands" (plural). The difference between the dual and the plural in this context is that pwop is used with the meaning "both (of your) hands" whereas pes is used for any number of hands greater than one, without specifying whether they belong to the same person or not. Thus two people shaking hands are touching their pes, but one person pulling on a paper towel dispenser with both of his hands is using his pwop.

Many of these suppletive word families are short words, and are irregular in terms of their noun declensions as well. For example, the accusative form of lwep "thumb" is not the expected *lwetšep but lattšep. In Bābākiam, this pattern was perfectly regular, but it was never regularized as the sound changes destroyed the original pattern. (Note that the word for thumb is more commonly tšolwep, but the accusative of this is still tšolattšep, maintaining the same irregular pattern.)

The suppletive duals and plurals above are derived from words that are cognate to the singular forms, and were once regular, but diverged over several thousand years into forms that share little in common but the initial consonant. But some forms, especially duals for body parts that occur in pairs, are from entirely different roots.

For example, the suppletive dual form of pwep "eye" is blop. The suppletive form of pumes "hip" is pfop. Both of these words were originally general plurals but came to be seen as duals because they happened to end, for unrelated reasons, in -op, which the dual forms of regular nouns also do. In the case of blop, that word came into use primarily because the old dual form of pwep had merged with the dual form of the word for hand as pwop.

Table of suppletive body part plurals

English	Singular	Dual	Plural (-bum)	Plural (-by)
hand	pep	pwop	pes	pebby
eye	pwep	blop	pwebbum	pwebby
thumb	lwep	lwop	latšes	tšoby
hip	pumes	pfop	pumbum	pumby
nipple	minep	mum	mies	mumby
buttock	pulep	pwap	pres	pwabby
cheek	pape	pappop	papebum	papeby
wing	bonnep	bombop	bius	bomby

The dual number is often used in situations where English would expect the singular. All of the duals that do not end in -op, and some that do, are descended from words which acquired a specifically dual meaning over time but previously were either plurals or were indifferent to number.

Unlike most situations where pluralizing an already semantically plural word by adding -bum is considered bad grammar, in the words for body parts, it can be done to show emphasis. For example, pes and pebum both mean "hands (plural)" (the -s- drops out due to a sound rule).

Syncope

Some y¹ nouns are prone to syncope in their oblique form and forms derived from the oblique. Popip above is regular, as is plapip "holy song, hymn", but some more common nouns such as labal "bed" lose the second vowel in their oblique forms. The declension of labal "bed" is below:

labal

Case	Free	Possessed			Attached
		1p	2p	3p
Nominative	labal	lablio	lablie	lablia	lablo
(Oblique)	lablo	lablio	lablie	lablia	labaž
Accusative	lablop	labliop	labliep	labliap	labžop
Locative	lablom	labliom	labliem	labliam	labžom
Possessive	lablos	lablios	lablies	lablias	labžos
Essive	labli	lablie	labliul	labliel	labži
Instrumental	lablub	labliub	lablie	labliob	labžub

Other irregular nouns

But most irregular nouns are not words for body parts. For example, the locative of the word blem "bottle" is not the expected *blidžem or *bledžem but miam. Similarly, the accusative of blub "milk" is not *blup or *blop or even something like *miop (in the manner of blem above), but blwop. One-syllable words often change their entire form to an alternate stem for case endings. These words are often also irregular with other suffixes such as the "illative", which is not normally considered a case. Thus to say "Pour the milk into the bottle!" one would say Blwop mivwam gwubi! However, note that there is also a specific verb meaning "to pour into a bottle; to bottle" which would yield the more regular-looking sentence Blwop blembwubi! In this sentence, the verb nu "to pour" mutates into bw but protects the "bottle" word from its own mutation. However, like all compound verbs, this one implies an indefinite meaning, and thus sounds roughly like the equivalent English sentence "Bottle the milk!" which one would not normally say to someone sitting with a bottle in front of them.

Most of the irregular nouns can be more easily understood if a second, "oblique", stem is perceived that appears on every case except the nominative, and which declines according to otherwise normal rules. This system works well because, while there are a lot of irregular nouns in Poswa, very few of them are irregular in more than one way. For example, blem behaves chaotically from the point of view of its main stem of blem, but is perfectly normal if one thinks of an alternative stem *mia. Likewise, if blub "milk" is replaced with an otherwise nonexistent *blwu, it too declines regularly according to the patterns expected of such a noun (although since there are two -u classes, one would still not know which of the two patterns to place blub into without already knowing the other forms).

Mistaken identity

Unlike many IE languages, there is no suffix for the nominative case. Thus it cannot be known for certain what case a noun seen in isolation is in. For example, twup means "louse", but it is also the accusative case of twub "urine", which is etymologically unrelated. The accusative of twup is also twup, one of only a few such words in Poswa. Also unrelated is twu "water", whose accusative is twop but which has an instrumental case in twub. Meanwhile there is also the plural suffix -by, usually Romanized as just a -b after a vowel. Thus twub can mean "urine", "using water", or "waters". However the third use is uncommon because water is seen as a mass noun, and would only make sense in a situation comparing, for example, the water quality of several different lakes.

Pronouns

Pronouns are used very rarely in Poswa. They are not fully distinct from nouns, and indeed, Poswa does not even have a word for "pronoun". The pronouns listed below are merely grouped together as a convenience for learners, as they do not behave the same as each other and are not seen as a natural grouping by Poswobs.

The major pronouns are:

Pabo

Pabo literally means "I am speaking" and serves as a first person singular pronoun. It is usually omitted in favor of markings on verbs and nouns.

For example, the sentence

Pabo pabom sadžaniep lamblebi pabos wišul, meaning "I picked off the ants (that were) on me with my toothpick"

can be replaced with the much simpler and less repetitive

Sadžaniaep lamblebi wisaži.

In the second sentence, all three words are marked for person. Sadžaniaep means "the ants on me" (accusative), lamblebi means "I picked up, I picked off", and wisaži means "with my toothpick". Thus there is no need for any pronouns. However, pronouns can still be used for emphasis, in which case the inflections on the other words are usually retained.

Baby

• Baby means "group, plurality" and serves as a first person plural pronoun.

Bum

• Bum also means "group, plurality" but carries the additional sense of that group working or behaving as an indivisible unit.

Pop

Pop means "you and I" and can be called the first person intimate pronoun because it always includes both the speaker and the listener. It is not used for a group of two that excludes the listener.

Metonymy

Poswa uses metaphors such as metonymy in much the way English does, without the need for additional markers. For example, a military leader can say to another

Žompfabo.

I'm invading you.

Without leading a military expedition inside the other man. Instead, the men are standing metonymically for the armies they represent. This applies even to animacy-violating statements such as

Šiži numbwaža!

The drain is bleeding me!

Where the implication is that some person or other animate force is draining a metaphorical blood from the speaker, just as it would be in English or any other language.

Methods of word formation

Coining new words tends to focus on nouns, since the stems of verbs are treated as nouns. Poswa borrows very few loanwords from its neighbors, and most foreign concepts thus can be described with native words.

Loanwords and foreign terminology

As above, Poswa takes in very few loanwords from its surrounding cultures. Most of the loanwords it does have are nouns, and it could be argued that all loans are nouns because every Poswa verb has a stem that functions as a noun, even if it is rarely used as such. The language is flexible enough with its native vocabulary that a Poswob speaker on modern Earth could say

Pampappo₁ tuneba.₂

My cellphone₁ is ringing.₂

Where the word for cellphone is literally "pocket" (pampa) + "my voice" (-ppo) and the word for "ring" is the same as the word for bell. The word for cellphone in isolation would be pampappep.

More abstract concepts can be similarly adapted. Poswobs worried about pupipup mebbampfap (global warming) will write their baesanobbum (governments) hoping to get their pistientam (legislature) to do something about it.