Polymorphic conlang/Morphology

Nouns

There are two genders of nouns, animate and inanimate. Gender is not marked, but does affect the noun morphology in other ways. The language is split-S, with animates being nominative-accusative, inanimates being ergative-absolute.

The basic form is {Deixis}+{Case1}+{Number}+Root+{Case2}+{Definiteness}, where anything in braces may be a null morpheme.

Deixis

this
that
yonder
what

For the first three, the noun must also be marked definite. For the last, it must be indefinite (unmarked).

Case

The marking of case comes in two parts, and depends on gender. The case system can be regarded as consisting of primary and secondary, active and stative cases.

Primary Cases

The primary cases of a noun are gender dependent.

	Active case	Stative Case
Animate	Nominative	Accusative
	Root	Root+
Inanimate	Ergative	Absolute
	hu+Root	Root

Secondary Active Cases

Secondary active cases are formed by adding a suffix to the primary active case.

Genitive	-ti
Dative	-un
Causative	-ka
Locative	-ir

Secondary Stative Cases

Secondary stative cases are formed by adding a prefix to the primary stative case.

Allative	pin-
	xu-
	ur-

Number

There are three numbers,

Singular
Dual/paucal
Plural	si-

The middle number indicates dual for animates or paucal for inanimates.

Definiteness

Indefinite nouns are unmarked. Definite nouns are marked with the suffix -arja