Seuna nouns
Nouns in Seuna has a lot of old ideas. Seuna suffixes and some grammar has an old idea. Seuna rubbish the same.
plural
The plural is formed by adding a final "n". In the writing system this is represented by a grammatical mark :, not by the soundmark n.
kloga = shoe, klogan = shoes
There is a subgroup of nouns that become plural by changing internally.
| man | bla | men | bala | male(adjective) | obla |
| woman | gla | women | gala | female(adjective) | egla |
spatial tags
These eight tags are endstuck to nouns.
bali = above
keja = below
das = in front (i.e. this side of)
cimo = behind (i.e. at the far side of)
ni = on (covers about the same semantic space as English "on")
tian = beside
pi = in
mu = out
When the noun is plural, the n mutates to m in the first case amd the seventh case, to ŋ in the second.
role tags
You can say that we have seven cases.
The nominative is unmarked. Also the noun that follows all prepositions is unmarked. The accusative is also unmarked unless it is definite, in which case it takes the endtag s.
The endtag fi corresponds to English "at". It is often eroded to f if the word ends in a vowel or n. The eight relative space tags above can be thought of as a semantic expantion of fi. You do not normally use fi along with one of the relative space tags. However it is not impossible.
The endtag ge corresponds to English "of".
The endtag le corresponds to English "from".
The endtag ho corresponds to English "with".
The endtag u corresponds to English "by".
The endtag wa corresponds to English "towards". Also to English "about" as in "I think about you".
The endtag yo corresponds to English "to" or "upto". It is used exactly as in English to indicate the receiver of a gift.
Some attrition
na go housepiyo (S/he goes into the house) => na go housepyo
na come housepile (S/he comes out of the house) => na come houseple
cat jumped wallniyo (The cat jumped onto the wall) => cat jumped wallnyo
cat jumped wallnile (The cat jumped off the wall) (The ni bit is ofter missed out)
Apart from the above 4 cases, you do not often get spacial and role tags in the same word.
When two nouns come together
possession
As mentioned above the endtag -ge is translated by "of" in English. However -ge actually functions in a smaller range of situation than "of". In actual fact it is only used when "possession" is involved. For the many situations in which one noun qualifies another and ownership isn't involved, we use the particle ta between the nouns.
For example;-
book mige = my book (a book owned by me)
book ta mi = a book written by me
inalienable possession
baba yu = your father
noga mi = my leg
other associations
door ta room
paper ta today
table ta wood
three litres ta milk
ta can be used withiut a proceding noun.
ta hia = the red one
tan hia = the red ones
ta wood = the one made of wood
tan boatpi = the ones in the boat
compounds
senai.tolu = windmill
mose.tolu = watermill
There are many compounds. The compounds are head final. More than 50% are attributive compounds. Compounds have a nasal inserted between the two components. In the writing system this is represented by a grammatical mark . (actually it should be mid-level). If the second component begins with a unvoiced sound, it changes to voices in the compound
The same method of compounding is used for object incorporating in verbs.
I hunt deer => I deer.hunt
hand.makeoi = handmade
wife.beatla = wifebeater
Index
- Introduction to Seuna
- Seuna : Chapter 1
- Seuna word shape
- The script of Seuna
- Seuna sentence structure
- Seuna pronouns
- Seuna nouns
- Seuna verbs (1)
- Seuna adjectives
- Seuna demonstratives
- Seuna verbs (2)
- Asking a question in Seuna
- Seuna relative clauses
- Seuna verbs (3)
- Methods for deriving words in Seuna
- List of all Seuna derivational affixes
- Numbers in Seuna
- Naming people in Seuna
- The Seuna calendar
- Seuna units
