Noun Classes
There are five noun classes in the singular, while there is only a distinction between human and non-human in the plural, the male human and female human having merged into human, and the remaining classes into non-human.
| Class | Description | Singular | Plural | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Prefix | Infix | Suffix | Prefix | Infix | Suffix | ||
| I | Male human | ∅-2 | -w- | -w | b-, m-1 | -b- | -b |
| II | Female human | j- | -j- | -j | |||
| III | Inanimate objects, and animals |
b-, m-1 | -b- | -b | l-, n-1 | -r- | -l |
| IV | Inanimate objects, and animate objects |
l-, n-1 | -r- | -l | |||
| V | Inanimate objects, and names of young |
j- | -j- | -j | |||
- Only before nasalized vowels.
- ∅- indicates the lack of a prefix.
The noun classes are visible through agreement in adjectives, adverbs, postpositions and demonstrative pronouns, and also verbs if the verb begins with a vowel. There are, however, some exceptions, like with irregular verbs in other languages. Below are some examples of such agreement in postpositions, demonstrative pronouns, verbs and adjectives, respectively. Notice however, that a verb is present in all of the examples but the first, while the third example has a special focus on verbs.
| milʲːo | b-ot͡ɬot͡ɬʼo | heⁿʃe | gul-o |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2pl.gen2 | iii-in.middle | bookiii | put-imp |
| "Put the book between you!" | |||
| o-w-enu | ʒikʼo | ∅-otʼqʼ-i | ilʲ-ːo | at͡ɬ-a |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| i-that | mani | i-come-pst.w | 1pl.obl-gen2 | village-in |
| "That man came to our village" | ||||
| ∅-ot͡ɬot͡ɬʼo-so-ho | j-ot͡ɬot͡ɬʼo-so | j-ez-un |
|---|---|---|
| i-in.middle-def-apud | ii-in.middle-def | ii-take-pst.uw |
| "The middle (brother) married the (other) middle (sister)." | ||
| b-et͡ʃ-un-t͡ɬo | b-et͡ʃ-un-aj-t͡ɬo | bert͡sina-b | kandaba |
|---|---|---|---|
| hpl-be-pst.uw-narr | hpl-be-pst.uw-neg-narr | beautiful-hpl | girl.pl.abs |
| "Once upon a time there were beautiful girls" | |||
As the noun class of a noun cannot be seen on the noun itself, it should not be represented in a literal translation. In the examples above, however, the noun class of certain nouns is shown, albeit in superscript to indicate that it is not represented in the original Khwarshi sentence. The only nouns that have their noun classes indicated here are those with which the other words agree with.
Read more about this topic: Khwarshi Language, Grammar, Nouns
Famous quotes containing the words noun and/or classes:
“It will be proved to thy face that thou hast men about thee that usually talk of a noun and a verb and such abominable words as no Christian ear can endure to hear.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“When we of the so-called better classes are scared as men were never scared in history at material ugliness and hardship; when we put off marriage until our house can be artistic, and quake at the thought of having a child without a bank-account and doomed to manual labor, it is time for thinking men to protest against so unmanly and irreligious a state of opinion.”
—William James (1842–1910)