Southern Athabascan Grammar - Nouns

Nouns

SA nouns are essentially of the following types (with various subtypes):

  1. simple nouns
  2. compound nouns
  3. nouns derived from verbs/verb phrases (deverbal noun)

The simple nouns can consist of only a noun stem (which are usually only a single syllable long), such as

  • Chiricahua: ku̧u̧ "fire", and
  • Navajo: sǫ’ "star".

Other nouns may consist of a noun plus one or more prefixes, such as

  • Navajo: dibé "sheep" (< di- + -bé; stem: -bé)

or of a noun plus an enclitic or suffix, such as

  • Chiricahua: dlú̧í "prairie dog" (< dlú̧- + -í; stem: dlú̧-).

The added prefixes may be lexical or they may be inflectional prefixes (e.g. personal prefixes indicating possession). SA languages do not have many simple nouns, but these nouns are the most ancient part of the lexicon and thus are essential in making comparisons between Athabascan languages.

Another noun type is a noun compound consisting of more than one noun stem, such as

  • Chiricahua: ku̧u̧ba̧a̧ "fireside" (< ku̧u̧ "fire" + ba̧a̧ "edge"), and
  • Navajo: tsésǫ’ "glass" (< tsé "rock" + sǫ" star").

Other kinds of noun compounds are the following:

  • noun stem + postposition
  • noun stem + verb stem
  • noun stem + postposition + noun stem

Many other various combinations of elements are possible.

The most common type of noun is the deverbal noun (i.e., a noun derived from a verb). Most of these nouns are formed by adding a nominalizing enclitic, such as Mescalero -ń or -í, Western Apache -í and Navajo -í, to the end of the verb phrase. For example, in Mescalero the verb ’ént’į́į́ "he/she bewitches him/her" may become a noun by adding either the enclitic -ń (for people) or -í (for things):

  • ’ént’į́į́ "he or she bewitches him or her"
  • ’ént’į́į́ń "witch"
  • ’ént’į́į́’í "witchcraft"

Thus, the word ’ént’į́į́ń "witch" literally means "the one who bewitches him or her". Another example is from Navajo:

  • ná’oolkiłí "clock" (lit. "one that is moved slowly in a circle")

Many of these nouns may be quite complex, as in Navajo

  • chidí naa’na’í bee’eldǫǫhtsoh bikáá’ dah naaznilígíí "army tank" (lit. "a car that they sit up on top of that crawls around with a big thing with which an explosion is made")

Other deverbal nouns do not appear with a nominalizing enclitic, as in Navajo

  • Hoozdo "Phoenix, Arizona" (lit. "the place is hot")
  • ch’é’étiin "doorway" (lit. "something has a path horizontally out")

For a comparison with nouns in a Northern Athabascan language, see Carrier: Nouns

Read more about this topic:  Southern Athabascan Grammar

Famous quotes containing the word nouns:

    “Children and savages use only nouns or names of things, which they convert into verbs, and apply to analogous mental acts.”
    —Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)

    “All the facts of nature are nouns of the intellect, and make the grammar of the eternal language. Every word has a double, treble or centuple use and meaning.”
    —Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)