Nouns in Vrkhazhian

Vrkhazhian nouns are called ǧimū (singular ǧimu). They are declined for case, gender, and number. Specifically there are two cases (nominative and oblique) and two numbers (singular and plural). Additionally, Vrkhazhian has two grammatical genders: masculine and feminine. These genders are not strictly based on sex and the gender of non-human nouns is somewhat unpredictable.

Noun inflection

Classical Vrkhazhian nouns

sarbi (raven) Singular Plural Nominative sarb-i sarb-ī Accusative sarb-it sarb-īt(i) Instrumental sarb-is sarb-īs(i) Postpositional sarb-a sarb-ā Construct State sarab sarb-ē

ḫuzu (horse) Singular Plural Nominative ḫuz-u ḫuz-ū Accusative ḫuz-ut ḫuz-ūt(u) Instrumental ḫuz-us ḫuz-ūs(u) Postpositional ḫuz-a ḫuz-ā Construct State ḫuz ḫuz-ē

Spoken Vrkhazhian nouns are declined in just two cases: the nominative and the oblique.

The nominative case indicates the subject of an intransitive verb and the agent of a transitive verb. The oblique case indicates the object, or patient, of a transitive verb. It also indicates the possessor of a genitive construction as well as the object of a preposition.

sarbi (raven) Singular Plural Indefinite Nominative sarb-i sarb-ī Indefinite Oblique sarb-a sarb-ā Definite Nominative sarb-ili sarb-īli Definite Oblique sarb-ali sarb-āli Construct State sarab sarb-ē

ḫuzu (horse) Singular Plural Indefinite Nominative ḫuz-u ḫuz-ū Indefinite Oblique ḫuz-a ḫuz-ā Definite Nominative ḫuz-uli ḫuz-ūli Definite Oblique ḫuz-ali ḫuz-āli Construct State ḫuz ḫuz-ē

Noun states

Nouns are also considered to be placed into what are called "states". There are two states: the governed state, or status rectus, and the construct state, or status constructus. The construct state is used in genitive constructions to mark the head noun (possessed noun), while the oblique case is used to mark the dependent (modifying) noun. The construct state is also used to mark the predicate of a nominal sentence. Nouns that that are not placed in the construct state are considered to be in the governed state, which is the default state of all nouns.

When a noun is placed in the construct state, it is stripped of its gender-case ending.

Noun derivation

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