Pabappa nouns

Pabappa has nouns.

Number

Pabappa does not have a grammatical category for number in the sense that plural nouns take plural adjectives and plural verbs or anything of the sort. Most nouns are lexically unmarked for number, meaning that possimi can mean "flag" or "flags" equally often and both uses are correct. A few nouns can only refer to a singular, mostly words for body parts and familial relations. Many of the body part words have suppletive dual and/or plural forms.

The vast majority of nouns, however, are unmarked for number, and take the suffix -pum to specifically indicate a plural. -Pum is not normally used when a number modifier such as pibi "four" is specified; if it were, it would indicate four "pluralities", not four individuals. This suffix is cognate to the Poswa -bum suffix and itself becomes -bum after a noun ending in a vowel. The Poswa -by suffix no longer exists in Pabappa, and even those words in which it had become fossilized as -p now generally behave as singulars and take the additional suffix -pum to form the plural.

-pum

The plural suffix -pum changes form according to the preceding phoneme.

Vowels

The suffix always becomes -bum after a word ending in a vowel:

pompada : pompadabum

thorn : thorns

ubi : ubibum

trail : trails

lopo : lopobum

mess : messes

pibiasu : pibiasubum

bridge : bridges

Native Pabappa words do not end in -e, but they still obey the change:

bunde : bundebum

anthem : anthems

Rotating consonants

After a word ending in -p, the -p- of -pum merges with the preceding one and thus the suffix appears as if it were -um:

blibip : blibipum

egg : eggs

After a word ending in -s, the suffix becomes -sum:

pododos : pododossum

rich person : rich people

Vowel-chaining consonants

The consonants b n t occur in final position only when a previously existing final vowel -e has dropped out. When suffixes, including the plural suffix -pum, are added to these words, the -e- reappears, and because the new stem thus ends in a vowel, the -pum becomes -bum.

After a word ending in -b, the suffix restores the lost -e- and thus appears to become -ebum:

pumpib : pumpibebum

owl : owls

After a word ending in -n, the suffix restores the lost -e- and thus appears to become -ebum:

blopon : bloponebum

iris : irises

After a word ending in -t, the suffix restores the lost -e- and thus appears to become -ebum. Additionally, the preceding -t- is voiced to -d-:

pubat : pubadebum

leaf : leaves

Regular consonants

After a word ending in -m, the suffix remains -pum:

pumpum : pumpumpum

capital : capitals

After a word ending in -l, the suffix remains -pum:

luppul : luppulpum

fabric, fabrics

After a word ending in -r, the suffix remains -pum:

wapar : waparpum

hoof : hooves

The dual number

Pabappa has a dual-forming suffix, pop. Like the plural suffix -pum, the initial -p of pop becomes a -b when it occurs after a noun ending in a vowel. The other consonant changes listed above for -pum also apply to pop

Pop has a narrow scope of usage: it is not used simply for any time two of something are present, but only for natural pairs. Often, words that take the dual suffix are body parts, but many body parts have suppletive dual forms which are treated below. Thus, the dual suffix often can be translated into English as "pair", "couple", or "double", but seldom simply as "two".

Pop can be used for other natural pairs. Originally, the noun by itself meant a couple in the sense of two people in a relationship, either married or dating. It can still be used in this sense, but as Pabappa avoids most monosyllabic words it is more common to hear compounds with more specific meanings such as

Papobop

Married couple

Papulpop

Engaged couple

Pamabop

Dating couple

and so on.

Pop can also be used for inanimate objects that occur naturally in pairs, or manmade objects such as double doors. Additionally, some words for articles of clothing, particularly those covering the lower half of the body, are made with this suffix, and rarely used in the singular.

Numerals

Numerals

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
Cardinal	numpa	pupi	mani	pibi	pabi	nampu	nabi	pini	tassi	papi
Ordinal	nobom	nibam	manim	pibam	pabom	nampom	nabam	pinim	tassum	papam
Fractional	nubi	nibor	manir	pibor	pabir	nampur	nabor	pinir	tapu	papor

Numbers in the teens

Teens

Teens

	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19
Cardinal	nabinum	nabini?	nabimani	nabipibi	nabipabi	nabinampu	nabinabi	nabipini	nabiptassi

Note that the numerals that start with p- do not change it to -b- when used as a ones digit as one might expect. This is because, historically, the morpheme nabi- was nabip-, and lost its final -p before words beginning with a nasal sound but not before words beginning with b- or p-.

Multiples of ten

Larger numbers are formed by compounds. Below is a table of the first element of the compound for numbers between 11 and 109.

Numerals

10	20	30	40	50	60	70	80	90	100
nabi-	ni-	mani-	abu-Possibly wrong	pasu-	nampu-	nabu-	pinu-	tasu-

The affix -op- must be added before the second part of the compound, but the morphemes listed above are shown without it to make the relationship more clear.

Numbers beyond 100

A few sound rules kick in when naming numbers over 100. Below is a table similar to the above, but with 100 added to each number.

Numerals

100	110	120	130	140	150	160	170	180	190

Note that the entry for 100 is a duplicate of the last entry in the table of multiples of ten.

Body parts

Some words for body parts in Pabappa have suppletive dual or plural forms. Most of these are words for pairs. For example, pep means one hand. Pobop, the dual form, indicates both of one person's hands; and the plural form pepli indicates any number of hands greater than one, including two, regardless of whom they belong to. Thus two people shaking hands are touching their pepli, but one person pulling on a tow chain with both of his hands is straining his pobop.

Other body parts are seen as plural by default, and need a suffix to indicate the singular. For example, wopsisi means "teeth", but to say "tooth" one adds the singulative suffix -pa to form wopsisiba. The change of /p/ > /b/ is due to a very common sound rule.

The suppletive duals and plurals are mostly 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.

Table of suppletive and irregular body part plurals

English	Singular	Dual	Plural
hand	pep	pobop	pepli
thumb	lapep	lapop	lapi
nipple	minep	mum	mub
buttock	pulep	pupop	pulpum
wing	ponep	pompop	pububum

The dual number is often used in situations where English would expect the singular. All of the duals that do not end in -op 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 -pum is considered bad grammar, in the words for body parts, it can be done to show emphasis.

Noun cases

Pabappa's noun cases are similar to those of Poswa, but the patterns are much simpler. The traditional case order in Pabappa (and Poswa) is Nominative, Accusative, Locative, Possessive, Essive, Instrumental.

Nominative

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

Accusative

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

Pom timadupup pumapi.

I kicked the ball.

When an object is placed before the subject, there is usually a pause in speech:

Timadupup, pom pumapi.

The ball, I kicked (it).

Locative

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

Ibil pomom blapsablambi pisi.

The fish inside me was tasty.

The locative case can also be used with a sort of inverse locative meaning.

Pepi₁ ampim₂ pisa.₃

My hand₁ is₃ in a coin.₂

The above is the literal meaning, but the sentence would be interpreted by Pabaps as

My hand has a coin in it.

This inverse locative is a specific use of a broader meaning of being affected by something. For example, one can say:

Wumpim₁ wibiapam₂ pisi.₃

The field₁ was₃ snowed on.₂

Possessive

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

Labloi pippinopos pisa.

The bed belongs to a student.

Essive

The essive case is used primarily to indicate that something is made from something else.

Pom pambobosop publipil tipelapi.

I picked up a bar of soap.

Instrumental

The instrumental case has a variety of meanings, but the primary meaning is that something or someone is making use of something else.

Declensions

-a

Most nouns ending in -a belong to this declension. It is one of the simplest declensions. Below is the declension of pompada "thorn":

pompada

Case	Free	Possessed(1p)	Attached
Nominative	pompada	pompadi
Accusative	pompadap	pompadip
Locative	pompadam	pompadim
Possessive	pompadas	pompadis
Essive	pompadel	pompadil
Instrumental	pompador	pompadir

Apida madasassupusi pompador.

The beautician piled up her hair with thorns.

-i

Most nouns ending in -i belong to this declension. It is one of the simplest declensions. Below is the declension of petiti "rose":

petiti

Case	Free	Possessed(3p)	Attached
Nominative	petiti
Accusative	petitip
Locative	petitim
Possessive	petitis
Essive	petitil
Instrumental	petitir

Pom ababibabi, wa potaribas petitip podobi.

I bent down, and gave my girlfriend a rose.

-o

Most nouns ending in -o belong to this declension. It is a split-vowel declension. Below is the declension of poblo "sand":

poblo

Case	Free	Possessed	Attached
Nominative	poblo	pobli
Accusative	poblop	poblip
Locative	poblom	poblim
Possessive	poblos	poblis
Essive	poblil	poblil
Instrumental	poblir	poblir

Wappabiba poblil pisa.

My castle is made of sand.

-u

Most nouns ending in -u belong to this declension. It is one of the simplest declensions. Below is the declension of wupsu "winner's stand, rostrum":

wupsu

Case	Free	Possessed(3p)	Attached
Nominative	wupsu	wupsi
Accusative	wupsup	wupsip
Locative	wupsum	wupsim
Possessive	wupsus	wupsis
Essive	wupsul	wupsil
Instrumental	wupsur	wupsir

-p

Most nouns ending in -p belong to this declension. It is one of the simplest declensions. Below is the declension of palpap "deciduous tree":

palpap

Case	Free	Possessed(3p)	Attached
Nominative	palpap	palpabi
Accusative	palpapap	palpabip
Locative	palpapam	palpabim
Possessive	palpapas	palpabis
Essive	palpapel	palpabil
Instrumental	palpapor	palpabir

Thus one can say

Potariba₁ pibim₂ tatupsaba₃ palpapap₄ pumpurblupi₅ blapam₆.

My boyfriend₁ climbed₃ up₂ the tree₄ outside₆ my window₅.

Note that in this sentence, the word order is SVO, rather than the more common SOV, because the focus of the predicate is on the boyfriend's climbing the tree rather than the fact that it was a tree he climbed.

-m

Most nouns ending in -m belong to this declension. Below is the declension of narpellum "ice cream":

narpellum

Case	Free	Possessed	Attached
Nominative	narpellum	narpellumi
Accusative	narpellumup	narpellumip
Locative	narpellumum	narpellumim
Possessive	narpellumus	narpellumis
Essive	narpellumul	narpellumil
Instrumental	narpellumur	narpellumir

Thus one can say

Pom₁ narpellumibap₂ pasapsumul₃ pobumpi₄, pannasumir₅.

I₁ ate₄ my strawberry₃ ice cream₂, with my spoon₅.

-s

Many nouns ending in -s are recent loanwords from Poswa. Exceptions are generally one-syllable words and comnpounds whose final element is monosyllabic, or words that previously ended in -se and lost the -e without further losing the -s. Below is the declension of tepumas "wasp, hornet":

tepumas

Case	Free	Possessed(3p)	Attached
Nominative	tepumas	tepumasi
Accusative	tepumasap	tepumasip
Locative	tepumasam	tepumasim
Possessive	tepumasas	tepumasis
Essive	tepumasel	tepumasil
Instrumental	tepumasor	tepumasir

Thus one can say

Pom₁ tepumasas₂ popusip₃ pepapasi₄ papapomir₅.

I₁ slapped₄ the hornets'₂ nest₃ with the palm of my hand₅.

-l

The -l declension is more complicated than most in Pabappa. Below is the declension of piripel "middle, center":

piripel

Case	Free	Possessed(3p)	Attached
Nominative	piripel	piripi
Accusative	piripip	piripip
Locative	piripim	piripim
Possessive	piripis	piripis
Essive	piripil	piripil
Instrumental	piripir	piripir

Thus, all words ending in -el behave as if they ended in -i.

-r

The -r declension is more complicated than most in Pabappa. Below is the declension of tompomor "mattress":

tompomor

Case	Free	Possessed(3p)	Attached
Nominative	tompomor	tompomi
Accusative	tompomup	tompomip
Locative	tompomum	tompomim
Possessive	tompomus	tompomis
Essive	tompomul	tompomil
Instrumental	tompomur	tompomir

Thus, all words ending in -or behave as if they ended in -u.

Possessives

Pabappa adds a suffix -i to denote possession of nouns. Unlike the situation with noun-noun compounds, nouns ending in the voiceless stop -p will retain the voiceless sound when the suffix is added. However, the few nouns that end with a -t will change it to -d- when the suffix is added. Note that some words do not change at all:

pimblom "wand" : pimblomi "(his) wand"

pobap "candy" : pobapi "(his) candy"

panna "spoon" : panni "(his) spoon"

pamet "park" : pamedi "(his) park"

But

pampi "soap" : pampi "(his) soap"

pambi "bottle" : pambi "(his) bottle"

Note that since Pabappa does not have person markers integrated with the possession marks, this is merely a base form, and further disambiguation is necessary. The third person was used above for consistency. The person markers -ba and -di are used for first and second person respectively:

Pobapiba papessam pisa.

My candy is in the bowl.

Pobapidi wopsisibap pudampa.

Your candy hurts my teeth.

Third person takes no marker at all, which means that for nouns whose stem ends in -i, there is no difference between the bare form and the third person possessed form. For the most part, this is not a problem, as there is little semantic difference between an English sentence such as The boy grabbed his soap and The boy grabbed the soap, but when necessary, additional words can be added to clarify the difference.

This pattern is much simpler than the pattern found in Pabappa's close relative Poswa, even though the affixes are derived from the same original morpheme. For example, the word for wand in Poswa is pimblom, just as it is in Pabappa, but the word for "his wand" is pimblia. The parent form from which Pabappa pimblomi and Poswa pimblia diverged is pimilygwa baba.

Phonetic anomalies

A small number of words in Pabappa end in -ia or -ea. These form their possessives by dropping the final vowel, because the vowel sequences -ii- and -ei- are both forbidden in Pabappa.

-ia

amparia "stripe" : ampari "his stripe"

wabia "dance" : wabi "her dance"

pabupia "large ship" : pabupi "his large ship"

pastia "guard animal" : pasti "their guard animal"

pabradia "guard animal"  : pabradi "their guard animal"

pumpia "areola" : pumpi "her areola"

ubia "dance of harmony" : ubi "their harmony dance"

-ea

tea "sole of the foot" : te "sole of his foot"

pipessea "tree mouse" : pipesse "her tree mouse"

The above list excludes loans. Poswa loanwords often end in -ia, and form their possessives the same way they would if they were native.

A smaller number of Pabappa words end in -iu or -eu. These words form their possessives in the same way. Most are loans, but some are native words:

pissiu "basalt" : pissi "his basalt"

wiu "small hole" : wi "his small hole"

Words ending in an -i- or -e- followed by any other vowel are always loanwords, and are often proper names which are not commonly used in the possessive form.

Irregular nouns

See Pabappa irregular nouns.

Pabappa has a small number of irregular nouns, mostly derived from recently lost final sounds in the nominative which are still represented in the other cases. However, most such words have been regularized over time. There were three sound shifts that deleted word-final phonemes: first, word final -y was deleted (this phoneme is no longer present in Pabappa in any position). Much later, final -s was deleted in most words, but survived in monosyllabic words and some others that were analogized based on the monosyllables. Lastly, final -e was deleted in most words, but changed to -i in others. This final shift created a new category of words ending in final -s.

Pronouns and head markers

The first person singular pronoun, pom, is derived from a word meaning "on me, inside me" rather than just "me". The locative of the first person singular pronoun is thus doubly marked. The second person singular pronoun, mas, is derived from the genitive, thus meaning "your, yours" and its genitive is thus doubly marked.

Intransitive 1s pom 1p pap 2s mas 2p

Transitive 1s 1p 2s 2p 1s — pompo poma 1p papop — pama 2s masa massop — 2p —

Passive 1s pop 1p ? 2s map 2p

For the transitives, the agent is on the leftmost column and the patient is on the topmost row. Thus one can say:

Pompo₁ sipompi₂ blubur.₃

I for us₁ bought₂ milk.₃ ("I bought us milk.")

Where pompo means "I ... us".

Derivation of nouns

The derivation of words in Pabappa focuses mostly on nouns. Many verbs are derived from nouns, but relatively few nouns are derived from verbs. Instead, words for new concepts are formed primarily by compounding preexisting nouns together, or by attaching derivational morphemes to existing nouns.

The agentive

Words for occupations

Words for occupations are formed with the agentive suffix ta. Many are formed from nouns:

pasap "night" ---> pasapta "police(man)"

pipipi "city" ---> pipipida "mayor, leader of a town"

parobar "bread" ---> parobarta "baker"

Some are formed from verbs:

pippinop "to study" ---> pippinopta "student"

patibler "to teach" ---> patiblerta "teacher"

pabla "to nurse" ---> pablada "nurse"

Many of these verbs are obsolete as standalone stems, however, and the derivation of the modern word is opaque:

*pumpubli "to beg, stretch out one's arms and open one's palms" ---> pumpublida "cashier, store clerk"

However, some words omit the ta. These are often words that are three syllables or longer, words that describe temporary states, or words that are compounds of two nouns and thus have the "flavor" of the traditional compound construction:

Folk etymology and reanalysis

Sometimes, the true etymology of a word has been lost to time or is known only to scholars who have studied older writings in Pabappa. Over the thousands of years, many words have been re-analysed and given new meanings. For example, the word

Publipis

Soldier

is assumed by most Pabappa speakers to be derived from publip "soap", the understanding being that soldiers at war need to keep a steady supply of soap with them at all times in order to wipe away the germs that get all over them while they are outdoors and exposed to the elements. However, the word was originally derived from a verb, publi, meaning "to see clearly", and a noun, wis, meaning a representative for a large group of people. The idea behind this coinage was that soldiers need to see very clearly in order to ensure they do not accidentally run into their enemies. (The change of wis to pis is due to a historical sound rule, no longer active. It is similar to the sound rule that often changes -p- into -b-.)

Metonymy

Pabappa 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

Poma pontaba.

I'm invading you.

And not launch a military campaign inside the other man. This applies even to statements such as

Mumbai pop numpuba!

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.

Loanwords and foreign terminology

Pabappa has many loanwords from Poswa but prefers not to take loanwords from any other languages. Because the Pabaps have many Poswobs living in their territories, objects and ideas previously unfamiliar to both the Pabaps and the Poswobs are often introduced to both peoples at about the same time, and the Pabaps generally let the Poswobs create the new word for it. Pabappa's smaller phonology adapts well to Poswa's by simply merging various sounds together.

Phonetic adaptation of loanwords

Velar consonants

Although they are very rare, Poswa retains the velar consonants /k/ and /g/ inherited from its parent language. Pabappa does not have these, and therefore generally borrows them as /t/ and /d/ respectively. In some words, particularly names, they are instead borrowed as /tr/ and /dr/.

Postalveolar consonants

The postalveolar fricative /š/ is borrowed as an /s/ in all positions.

ž

The voiced postalveolar fricative /ž/ is generally borrowed as /d/, although in some clusters it takes other forms. In a few words, this results in a /d/ appearing either at the beginning or the end of a word, whereas in native Pabappa words /d/ can only appear between vowels. Below are some Pabappa words containing /d/ that were loaned from Poswa:

povož "a type of grass" ---> pobod

tš and dž

The cluster /tš/ is borrowed as /ts/, and /dž/ is borrowed as /dd/. This is also unique to loanwords, as Pabappa's /d/ sound originated from a weakening of single intervocalic /t/, and therefore was never geminated in any native words. Below are some Pabappa words containing /dd/ that were loaned from Poswa:

podžipa "a style of leggings" ---> poddipa

wagža "superhero" ---> wadda

However, when /dd/ would result in an illegal consonant cluster, it becomes /d/ or some other sound depending on the other consonant in the cluster.

džulpub "plateau" ---> dulpub

džadži "tribe, league" ---> daddi

džafta "one who will only work outdoors" ---> dapta (whence the back-formation dap "to prefer to work outdoors")

Labialized consonants

Labialization before a vowel is usually borrowed by adding an -u- before that vowel, unless that vowel is itself -u-. However, the labialized bilabial fricative /vʷ/ is borrowed as a /w/ before vowels. Thus the Poswa word pwubo "income, salary, rate of pay" is nativized as pubo.

Vowels

Since relatively few native Pabappa words end in -o, a word that ends in -o is very often a loanword from Poswa.

Morphology of loanwords

Pabappa does not adopt Poswa's often irregular noun declension system for the words it borrows from Poswa; in fact nearly all loanwords are borrowed as regular Pabappa nouns regardless of whether they were regular or irregular in Poswa. This means that Pabappa does not make use of convenient "shortcuts" whereby some Poswa words become shorter when they are inflected. For example, the Poswa word for cellphone is pampappep, and when the first-person possessive affix is added it becomes pampappo "my cellphone". (The word literally means "pocket voice".) Pabappa has borrowed this word as pampappep, but it declines as a normal Pabappa noun would, meaning that the word for "my cellphone" is pampappepiba. Thus one can say

Pampappepiba tuneba.

My cellphone is ringing.

Loanword charts

A sample of words borrowed from Poswa into Pabappa is below:

Modern words

New words are taken in directly, with the Poswa sounds being mapped directly to Pabappa ones:

Loanwords

English	Poswa	Pabappa
cell phone	pampappep	pampappep
pharmacy, drugstore	bvobbwa	bobbua
spaceship	pespol	pespol
income, rate of pay	pwubo	pubo

Older words

Some older words were taken into Pabappa before sound changes which made them look less similar. Words which have disappeared from Poswa in the meantime are marked with an asterisk:

Loanwords

Poswa	Pabappa	English
sobbvampys	sobbampis	mirror
biželli	bidelli	type of mushroom; elastic, springy
vupaefa	pupaipa	tissue of the body
pumpella	pumpella	treasury, bank
bivibos	pibiba	skin, body
džuvžu	dundu	table of contents; list of items
bumpraf	pumbap	deal, agreement, deed of alliance
pupwub	pupub	allowed to decide; boss, manager
žandžafi	dandapi	to tickle
pumbo	pumpo	national border

Verbs

See Pabappa verbs.

Notes

Pabappa * Pabappa nouns * Pabappa irregular nouns * Pabappa verbs