Nouns in Vrkhazhian

Vrkhazhian nouns are called ğanūm (singular ğanum). They are declined for case, gender, and number. Specifically there are four cases (nominative, accusative, genitive, and equative) and two numbers (singular and plural). Additionally, Vrkhazhian has three grammatical genders: masculine, feminine, and inanimate. The assignment of gender to nouns is mostly non-arbitrary and determined by common, though not exhaustive, sets of criteria.

Nouns that are often feminine:

• female humans, spirits, and deities
• domesticated/safe animals
• seemingly animate things like rivers, oceans, and wind

Nouns that are often masculine:

• male humans, spirits, and deities
• wild/dangerous animals
• seemingly animate things like storms and fire

Nouns that are often inanimate:

• still-moving things like trees, mountains, buildings, and tools
• abstract concepts, including actions and states
• collective nouns regardless of animacy
• etc.

Noun inflection

Vrkhazhian nouns are declined for three cases. Cases are the forms and suffixes that nouns take when they occur in certain parts of a sentence. The three cases are thus:

• The nominative (NOM) case indicates the subject or agent (doer) of a verb ("Henry runs to the store", "Henry sees Sam").
• The accusative (ACC) case indicates the object or patient (receiver/target) of a verb ("Henry sees Sam", "Henry gave Sam a pencil", "John wrote to Mary").
• The genitive (GEN) case indicates the possessor or modifier of another noun ("That is Sam's dog", "That pencil is mine").

First Declension

strong masculine noun rēbis (man, husband) Singular Plural Nominative rēb-is rēb-īs Accusative rēb-in rēb-īn Genitive

strong feminine noun lumbus (woman, wife) Singular Plural Nominative lumb-us lumb-ūs Accusative lumb-un lumb-ūn Genitive

strong neuter noun arśas (vessel) Singular Plural Nominative arś-as arś-ās Accusative Genitive arś-aḫ arś-āḫ

weak masculine noun esîs (boar) Singular Plural Nominative es-îs Accusative es-în Genitive

weak feminine noun masûs (sea, saltwater) Singular Plural Nominative mas-ûs Accusative mas-ûn Genitive

weak neuter noun kapâs (drinking water) Singular Plural Nominative kap-âs Accusative Genitive kap-âḫ

Second Declension

strong masculine noun daḫī (father) Singular Plural Nominative daḫ-ī daḫ-īn Accusative daḫ-ēye daḫ-ēn Genitive

strong feminine noun naḫū (mother) Singular Plural Nominative naḫ-ū naḫ-ūn Accusative naḫ-āwa naḫ-ān Genitive

weak masculine noun itî (storm) Singular Plural Nominative it-î it-în Accusative it-êye it-ên Genitive

weak feminine noun iśû (human, person) Singular Plural Nominative iś-û iś-ûn Accusative iś-âwa iś-ân Genitive

Noun states

Nouns are also considered to be placed into what are called "noun states". In Vrkhazhian, there are only two states: the absolute state, or status absolutus, and the construct state, or status constructus. The latter form of the noun is marked by the removal of the case endings or a change of the gender-marking vowel. The construct state is used when a noun is modified by another noun that is in the genitive case. This is also the form the noun takes when possessive suffixes are attached. Nouns that that are not placed in the construct state are considered to be in the absolute state, which is the default state of all nouns.

rēbis (man, husband) Singular Plural Nominative rēb-e rēb-ē Accusative Genitive rēb-i rēb-ī

lumbus (woman, wife) Singular Plural Nominative lumb-a lumb-ā Accusative Genitive lumb-u lumb-ū

arśas (vessel) Singular Plural Nominative arś-a arś-ā Accusative Genitive

esîs (boar) Singular Plural Nominative es-ê Accusative Genitive es-î

masûs (sea, saltwater) Singular Plural Nominative mas-â Accusative Genitive mas-û

kapâs (drinking water) Singular Plural Nominative kap-â Accusative Genitive

Noun derivation

Vrkhazhian nouns are mostly derived from verbs and there are numerous ways to derive nouns from them: