Seuna nouns

"Nouns in Seuna" has a lot of old ideas.

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

spatial tags

These eight tags are endstuck to nouns.

bai = above

kewa = below

das = in front (i.e. this side of)

cilo = behind (i.e. at the far side of)

go = on (covers about the same semantic space as English "on")

tian = beside

ju = in

mu = out

When the noun is plural, the n mutates to m in the first case and to ŋ in the second and fifth example.

role tags

You can say that we have seven cases.

The nominative is unmarked. Also the noun that follows all prepositions is unmarked. The accusative is also unmarked unless it is definite, in which case it takes the endtag s.

The endtag fi corresponds to English "at". It is often eroded to f if the word ends in a vowel or n. The eight relative space tags above can be thought of as a semantic expantion of fi. You do not normally use fi along with one of the relative space tags. However it is not impossible, in which case the relative space tag comes immediately after the word and then the role tag.

The endtag le corresponds to English "from".

The endtag ho corresponds to English "with".

The endtag u corresponds to English "by".

The endtag pa corresponds to English "towards". Also to English "about" as in "I think about you".

The endtag pai corresponds to English "to" or "upto". It is used exactly as in English to indicate the receiver of a gift.

exiting and entering

The above two sets or slots are often combined to represent the action of entering or exiting. NA go houseJUPAI = S/he goes into the house. NA come houseJULE = S/he comes out of the house.

compounds

There are many compounds. The compounds are head final. More than 50% are attributive compounds. Compounds have a nasal inserted between the two components. In the writing system this is represented by a grammatical mark . (actually it should be mid-level). If the second component begins with a unvoiced sound, it changes to voices in the compound

The same method of compounding is used for object incorporating in verbs.

I hunt deer => I deer.hunt

Index

1. Introduction to Seuna
2. Seuna : Chapter 1
3. Seuna word shape
4. The script of Seuna
5. Seuna sentence structure
6. Seuna pronouns
7. Seuna nouns
8. Seuna verbs (1)
9. Seuna adjectives
10. Seuna demonstratives
11. Seuna verbs (2)
12. Asking a question in Seuna
13. Seuna relative clauses
14. Seuna verbs (3)
15. Methods for deriving words in Seuna
16. List of all Seuna derivational affixes
17. Numbers in Seuna
18. Naming people in Seuna
19. The Seuna calendar
20. Seuna units