Pabappa nouns

Pabappa has nouns.

Number

Pabappa does not have a grammatical category for number in the sense that plural nouns take plural adjectives and plural verbs or anything of the sort. Most nouns are lexically unmarked for number, meaning that possimi can mean "flag" or "flags" equally often and both uses are correct. A few nouns can only refer to a singular, mostly words for body parts and familial relations. Many of the body part words have suppletive dual and/or plural forms.

The vast majority of nouns, however, are unmarked for number, and take the suffix -pum to specifically indicate a plural. -Pum is not normally used when a number modifier such as pibi "four" is specified; if it were, it would indicate four "pluralities", not four individuals. This suffix is cognate to the Poswa -bum suffix and itself becomes -bum after a noun ending in a vowel. The Poswa -by suffix no longer exists in Pabappa, and even those words in which it had become fossilized as -p now generally behave as singulars and take the additional suffix -pum to form the plural.

Numerals

Numerals

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
Cardinal	numpa	pupi	mani	pibi	pabi	nampul	nabi	pini	tassi	papi
Ordinal	numpam	nibam	manim	pibam	pabom	nampom	nabam	pinim	tapum	papam
Fractional	nubi	nibor	manir	pibor	pabir	nampur	nabor	pinir	tapu	papor

Body parts

Some words for body parts in Pabappa have suppletive dual or plural forms. Most of these are words for pairs. For example, pep means one hand. Pobop, the dual form, indicates both of one person's hands; and the plural form peple indicates any number of hands greater than one, including two, regardless of whom they belong to. Thus two people shaking hands are touching their peple, but one person pulling on a tow chain with both of his hands is straining his pobop.

Other body parts are seen as plural by default, and need a suffix to indicate the singular. For example, wopsisi means "teeth", but to say "tooth" one adds the singulative suffix -pa to form wopsisiba. The change of /p/ > /b/ is due to a very common sound rule.

The suppletive duals and plurals are mostly derived from words that are cognate to the singular forms, and were once regular, but diverged over several thousand years into forms that share little in common but the initial consonant. But some forms, especially duals for body parts that occur in pairs, are from entirely different roots.

Table of suppletive and irregular body part plurals

English	Singular	Dual	Plural
hand	pep	pobop	peple
thumb	lapep	lapop	lapi
nipple	minep	mum	mub
buttock	pulep	pupop	pulpum
wing	ponep	pompop	pububum

The dual number is often used in situations where English would expect the singular. All of the duals that do not end in -op are descended from words which acquired a specifically dual meaning over time but previously were either plurals or were indifferent to number.

Unlike most situations where pluralizing an already semantically plural word by adding -pum is considered bad grammar, in the words for body parts, it can be done to show emphasis.

Noun cases

Pabappa's noun cases are similar to those of Poswa, but the patterns are much simpler. The traditional case order in Pabappa (and Poswa) is Nominative, Accusative, Locative, Possessive, Essive, Instrumental.

Nominative

The nominative case is the bare form of the noun, with no suffixes.

Accusative

The accusative is marked with the suffix -p. It is used for the direct objects of transitive verbs.

Pom timadupup pumapi.

I kicked the ball.

Locative

The locative is marked with the suffix -m. It is used to indicate that something is inside or on top of something.

Ibil pomom blapsablambi pisi.

The fish inside me was tasty.

The locative case can also be used with a sort of inverse locative meaning.

Pom wanibam papompis pipubi, papibam.

I returned home from the desert, full of cactus spines.

Where papibam is the locative of papiba "spine" and thus could be taken to mean "in a spine" if talking about something very small.

Possessive

The possessive case generally shows ownership, but in some constructions can be used with a broader meaning typical of languages with genitive cases.

Essive

The essive case is used primarily to indicate that something is made from something else.

Instrumental

The instrumental case has a variety of meanings, but the primary meaning is that something or someone is making use of something else.

Declensions

-a

Most nouns ending in -a belong to this declension. It is one of the simplest declensions. Below is the declension of pompada "thorn":

pompada

Case	Free	Possessed(1p)	Attached
Nominative	pompada	pompadi
Accusative	pompadap	pompadip
Locative	pompadam	pompadim
Possessive	pompadas	pompadis
Essive	pompadel	pompadil
Instrumental	pompador	pompadir

-i

Most nouns ending in -i belong to this declension. It is one of the simplest declensions. Below is the declension of petiti "rose":

petiti

Case	Free	Possessed(3p)	Attached
Nominative	petiti
Accusative	petitip
Locative	petitim
Possessive	petitis
Essive	petitil
Instrumental	petitir

-u

Most nouns ending in -u belong to this declension. It is one of the simplest declensions. Below is the declension of wupsu "winner's stand, rostrum":

wupsu

Case	Free	Possessed(3p)	Attached
Nominative	wupsu	wupsi
Accusative	wupsup	wupsip
Locative	wupsum	wupsim
Possessive	wupsus	wupsis
Essive	wupsul	wupsil
Instrumental	wupsur	wupsir

-p

Most nouns ending in -p belong to this declension. It is one of the simplest declensions. Below is the declension of palpap "deciduous tree":

palpap

Case	Free	Possessed(3p)	Attached
Nominative	palpap	palpapi
Accusative	palpapap	palpapip
Locative	palpapam	palpapim
Possessive	palpapas	palpapis
Essive	palpapel	palpapil
Instrumental	palpapor	palpapir

Thus one can say

Potari₁ pibim₂ tatupsaba₃ palpapap₄ pumpurblupi₅ blapam₆.

My boyfriend₁ climbed₃ up₂ the tree₄ outside₆ my window₅.

Note that in this sentence, the word order is SVO, rather than the more common SOV, because the focus of the predicate is on the boyfriend's climbing the tree rather than the fact that it was a tree he climbed.

-m

Most nouns ending in -m belong to this declension. Below is the declension of narpellum "ice cream":

narpellum

Case	Free	Possessed	Attached
Nominative	narpellum	narpellumi
Accusative	narpellumup	narpellumip
Locative	narpellumum	narpellumim
Possessive	narpellumus	narpellumis
Essive	narpellumul	narpellumil
Instrumental	narpellumur	narpellumir

Thus one can say

Pom₁ narpellumibap₂ pasapsumul₃ pobumpi₄, pannasumir₅.

I₁ ate₄ my strawberry₃ ice cream₂, with my spoon₅.

-s

Many nouns ending in -s are recent loanwords from Poswa. Exceptions are generally one-syllable words and comnpounds whose final element is monosyllabic, or words that previously ended in -se and lost the -e without further losing the -s. Below is the declension of tepumas "wasp, hornet":

tepumas

Case	Free	Possessed(3p)	Attached
Nominative	tepumas	tepumasi
Accusative	tepumasap	tepumasip
Locative	tepumasam	tepumasim
Possessive	tepumasas	tepumasis
Essive	tepumasel	tepumasil
Instrumental	tepumasor	tepumasir

Thus one can say

Pom₁ tepumasas₂ popusip₃ pepapapi₄ papapomir₅.

I₁ slapped₄ the hornets'₂ nest₃ with the palm of my hand₅.

Possessives

Pabappa uses suffixes to denote possession of nouns. These are covered above under the noun declensions, but can be conceived of as separate entities as well. Most often the suffix is -i or something ending in -i. Note that not all words change:

pimblom "wand" : pimblomi "(his) wand"

pobap "candy" : pobapi "(his) candy"

panna "spoon" : panni "(his) spoon"

But

pampi "soap" : pampi "(his) soap"

pambi "bottle" : pambi "(his) bottle"

Note that since Pabappa does not have person markers integrated with the possession marks, these can be used for any person. Further disambiguation is necessary. The third person was used above for consistency. The person markers -ba and -di are used for first and second person respectively.

This pattern is much simpler than the pattern found in Pabappa's close relative Poswa, even though the affixes are derived from the same original morpheme. For example, the word for wand in Poswa is pimblom, just as it is in Pabappa, but the word for "his wand" is pimblia. The parent form from which the two words diverged is pimilyŋy a bar.

Pronouns

The first person singular pronoun, pom, is derived from a word meaning "on me, inside me" rather than just "me". The locative of the first person singular pronoun is thus doubly marked. The second person singular pronoun, mas, is derived from the genitive, thus meaning "your, yours" and its genitive is thus doubly marked.

Intransitive 1s pom 1p pap 2s mas 2p

Transitive 1s 1p 2s 2p 1s — pompo poma 1p papop — pama 2s masa massop — 2p —

For the transitives, the agent is on the leftmost column and the patient is on the topmost row. Thus one can say:

Pompo₁ sipompi₂ blubur.₃

I for us₁ bought₂ milk.₃ ("I bought us milk.")

Where pompo means "I ... us".

Metonymy

Pabappa uses metaphors such as metonymy in much the way English does, without the need for additional markers. For example, a military leader can say to another

Poma pontaba.

I'm invading you.

And not launch a military campaign inside the other man. This applies even to statements such as

Mumbai pop numpuba!

The drain is bleeding me!

Where the implication is that some person or other animate force is draining a metaphorical blood from the speaker, just as it would be in English or any other language.