Kala Nouns

Nouns

• Nouns include pronouns, adjectives (nouns of quality), and determiners.

plurality

• A countable noun (or "count noun") can be modified by a number, and can accept the plural. Typical countable nouns represent objects that are clearly individual entities, such as houses, cats, and thoughts. For example:

	root	usage	example
-m	ma	general plural	tsakam houses
-mha	ma + -ha	indefinite abundance	tsakamha many/a lot houses
-mi	ma + -hi	indefinite insufficiency	tsakami few houses
tli-	tatli	collective plural	tlikuma sleuth of bears
-lo	ma	alternative to -m	yamalo mountains

• When modified by a number, general plurals need not be marked. Example:

tsaka ta'o - Two houses.

Affect / Degree

• The diminutive is formed with -hi, and the augmentative with -ha.

These are respectively realized as -ki and -ka when attached to a word that has a final syllable onset is /h/.

Example : ina - food, meal | inahi - snack, morsel | inaha - feast, banquet

Example : tsaka - house, home, dwelling | tsakahi - shack, hut, cabin | tsakaha - palace, mansion

• These are also used to differentiate hue, or shade.

Example : yanahi - light yellow, kuyaha - dark green

• In Kala the concepts of comparative and superlative degree of an adjective are merged into a single form, the elative.

How this form is understood or translated depends upon context and definiteness. In the absence of comparison, the elative conveys the notion of “greatest”, “supreme.”

Example : tahaka - bigger/biggest

tsaka hayo ke nayo tahaka - His house is bigger than mine.

Example : yanaha - more yellow/most yellow

ke mauam tayo yanaha - Your flowers are the most yellow.

gender

• Nouns do not normally indicate their gender. To distinguish the sexes, the suffixes -ta and -na are used:

• uma - horse

umata - a male horse, a stallion

umana - a female horse, a mare

Pronouns

• Kala generally distinguishes four persons, the fourth person indicating abstract and inanimate nouns – both in the singular and plural numbers.

There is also a distinction between inclusive (I/we and you) and exclusive (we but not you) forms of the first person plural.

• na - 1sg
• ta - 2sg
• ha - 3sg
• tla - 4sg

-

• The two irregular pronouns:
  • na'am - 1pl exclusive
  • kam - 3pl

inflectional affixes

• -m - plural
• -nku - reciprocal
• e- - accusative
• -i - reflexive
• -yo - possessive

-

• Example:

eta	nahe	tsaka	hayo	a
acc-2sg	inside	house	3sg-poss	be

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