Vrkhazhian nouns are called ğanūm (singular ğanum). They are declined for case, gender, and number. Specifically there are four cases (nominative, vocative, accusative, instrumental, and vocative) and two numbers (singular and plural). Additionally, Vrkhazhian has two grammatical genders: masculine and feminine. When referring to humans, deities, and certain higher-order animals, masculine refers to beings and animals of the male sex while feminine refers to beings and animals of the female sex. When referring to lower-order animals, masculine refers to wild animals (e.g. sammalim "crocodile") while feminine refers to domesticated animals (e.g. ḫuzum "horse"). When referring to plants and non-living entities, masculine refers to more inanimate entities (e.g. adgim "sand") while feminine refers to more animate entities (e.g. mazûm "sea").
Noun inflection
Imperial Vrkhazhian nouns are declined for all five cases. Cases are the forms and suffixes that nouns take when they occur in certain parts of a sentence. The six 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").
- It can also indicate the object of certain adpositions ("under the table").
- The genitive (GEN) case indicates the possessor of another noun ("That is Sam's dog", "That pencil is mine").
rēbim (man, husband)
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Singular |
Plural
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| Nominative
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rēb-im |
rēb-īm
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| Accusative
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rēb-is |
rēb-īs
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| Genitive
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rēb-in |
rēb-īn
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surğum (chicken)
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Singular |
Plural
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| Nominative
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surğ-um |
surğ-ūm
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| Accusative
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surğ-us |
surğ-ūs
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| Genitive
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surğ-un |
surğ-ūn
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ezîm (boar)
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Singular |
Plural
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| Nominative
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ez-îm
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| Accusative
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ez-îs
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| Oblique
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ez-în
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mazûm (sea, saltwater)
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Singular |
Plural
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| Nominative
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maz-ûm
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| Accusative
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maz-ûs
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| Oblique
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maz-ûn
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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. This form of the noun is marked by the removal of the case endings and a change or removal of the gender-marking vowel.
The construct state is used primarily in possessive constructions to mark the head (modified or possessed) noun rather than the dependent (modifying or possessing) noun, but this form is also used in some predicative expressions. 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.
rēbim (man, husband)
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Singular |
Plural
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| Nominative
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rēb |
rēb-ē
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| Accusative
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| Genitive
|
rēb-ī
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surğum (chicken)
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Singular |
Plural
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| Nominative
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suruğ |
surğ-ā
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| Accusative
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| Genitive
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surğ-ū
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ezîm (boar)
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Singular |
Plural
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| Nominative
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ezu |
ez-ê
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| Accusative
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| Genitive
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ez-î
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mazûm (sea, saltwater)
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Singular |
Plural
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| Nominative
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mazi |
maz-â
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| Accusative
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| Genitive
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maz-û
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Noun derivation
Vrkhazhian nouns are mostly derived from verbs and there are numerous ways to derive nouns from them:
