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.
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 peple indicates any number of hands greater than one, including two, regardless of whom they belong to. Thus two people shaking hands are touching their peple, 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.
Noun cases
Pabappa's noun cases are similar to those of Poswa, but the patterns are much simpler.
-a
Most nouns ending in -a belong to this declension. It is one of the simplest declensions. Below is the declension of pompada "thorn":
| Case | Free | Possessed(3p) | Attached |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nominative | pompada | ||
| Accusative | pompadap | ||
| Locative | pompadam | ||
| Possessive | pompadas | ||
| Essive | pompadel | ||
| Instrumental | pompador |
-i
Most nouns ending in -i belong to this declension. It is one of the simplest declensions. Below is the declension of petiti "rose":
| Case | Free | Possessed(3p) | Attached |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nominative | petiti | ||
| Accusative | petitip | ||
| Locative | petitim | ||
| Possessive | petitis | ||
| Essive | petitil | ||
| Instrumental | petitir |
-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":
| Case | Free | Possessed(3p) | Attached |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nominative | wupsu | ||
| Accusative | wupsup | ||
| Locative | wupsum | ||
| Possessive | wupsus | ||
| Essive | wupsul | ||
| Instrumental | wupsur |
Possessives
Pabappa uses suffixes to denote possession of nouns. These are covered above under the noun declensions, but can be conceived of as separate entities as well. Most often the suffix is -i or something ending in -i. Note that not all words change:
- pimblom "wand" : pimblomi "my wand"
- pobap "candy" : pobapi "my candy"
- panna "spoon" : panni "my spoon"
But
- pampi "soap" : pampi "my soap"
- pambi "bottle" : pambi "my bottle"
Pronouns
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.
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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".
