Liquni
Liquni nouns
Liquni nouns are categorized in three genders and two declinations.
The genders are distinctions of animacy. Either the noun is animate (AN), or it is inanimate (IN). Animate nouns further subcategorize into human (HU) and nonhuman (NHU).
Animate nouns are nouns that represents living things, humans, animals, gods and spirits. Of these humans, gods and spirits categorize as human, and animals as nonhuman.
Inanimate nouns are ”non-living” things, trees, plants, tools, buildings, abstact nouns, etc.
Note that animate nouns and inanimate nouns do not decline differently. You cannot tell if a noun is animate or inanimate just by looking at its form. It’s an inherent property of the noun.
The declination categories are countable and uncountable nouns.
Countable nouns are nouns that are easily subdivided into singular entities, which can be counted.
Uncountable nouns are the rest. Uncountable nouns are often materials (stone), elements (fire), abstracts (love), sentiments (heat), etc.
Note that the categories are not clear cut. Some nouns can be both countable (hairs) and uncountable (hair).
The only forms of a liquni noun that is marked by inflection is the number. There are three numbers: Singular (SG), plural (PL) and partitive (PART). Partitive is not a true number, but it is treated morphologically as a number.
Uncountable nouns lack the plural. Countable and uncountable nouns also have different forms in the partitive.
The singular is unmarked.
The example nouns we will use are:
yakkhu [”j{U)_Lk_w_h:o_H] ’elephant’ (AN.NHU Countable)
ataŋ [”?{_Hd@~_HN\] ’man’ (AN.HU Countable)
raawa [”RA:_Lw@_L] ’flour’ (IN Uncountable)
ňaš [J{I)_Ls\] (IN Uncountable)
The plural is formed by adding –t to a noun ending in a vowel, and –at, to a noun ending in a consonant.
yakkhu > yakkhut [”j{U)_Lk_w_h:o_Ht]
ataŋ > ataŋat [”?{_Hd@_HN@_Lt]
For countable nouns, the partitive is formed by adding –i to the noun.
yakkhu > yakkhui [”j{U)_Lk_w_h:oI)_H]
ataŋ > ataňi [”?{_Hd@I)_HJe_L]
For uncountable nouns, the partitive is formed by adding –n to a noun ending in a vowel, and –a to a noun ending in a consonant.
raawa > raawan [”RA:_Lw@~_Ln]
ňaš > ňašha [”J{I)_Ls\@_H]
The uses:
The singular and plural are straight forward, meaning one and several. But what is the partitive, and how does it differ from the plural?
The basic meaning of the partitive is ’some of the (noun)’
Thus, <raawan> means ’some flour’, and <yakkhui> means ’some elephants’, etc.
The basic meaning is an undefined quantity of the noun in question, which can sometimes translate as a difference in definiteness.
ex. Ataŋ yakkui luatthai.
"The man was hunting (some) elephants.”
but Ataŋ yakkhut-it luatthai.
”The man was hunting the elephants.”
-it is here a enclitic which marks a definite noun as the patient of a verb.
The plural is used for general statements about a whole population:
Yakkhut bakaat.
”(The) elephants are big.”
Ataŋ yakkhut luatthai.
”The man was hunting elephants (in general).”
A noun following a determiner is always in the partitive, which means that the partitive can be definite.
Asha ataňi
”Those men (over there)”
Čhipi ataňi
”Three men”
Ua ataňi
”One man (!)”
Hamar ataňi
”All men (!)”
Ataŋ ua yakkhui-it luattha.
”The man was hunting one (specific) elephant.”
