Munasto nominals
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Contents |
Noun Features
Gender/Number
Munasto nouns decline for two numbers, masculine and feminine, and two numbers, singular and plural.
Case
There are five marked cases in Munasto: nominative, accusative, genitive, dative, locative. Each case has a specific function:
- nominative: the case of the subject, for both transitive and intransitive verbs
- accusative: the case of the direct object of transitive verbs; with prepositions, the case of unspecified movement or time
- genitive: the case of possession or origin; sometimes has "ablative" qualities; with prepositions, the case of motion away
- dative: the case of the indirect object; sometimes has "benefactive" qualities; with prepositions, the case of motion toward
- locative: the case of location; also, the case of instrument or means; with prepositions, the case of no motion (i.e. stasis)
Declensions
There are five declensions identified in Munasto (based on the nominative and accusative forms). Each declension also helps identify gender assignment:
- o-stems: almost all nouns of this group are masculine nouns, with some exceptions
- i-stems: almost all nouns of this group are feminine nouns, with some exceptions
- u-stems: all nouns of this group are feminine nouns
- a-stems: nouns of this group are mostly masculine, but can be feminine; gender is fairly regularly assigned (NB: these nouns come mostly from Yeddi, an offshoot of Munasto)
- e-stems: this is the "catch-all", which includes nouns that end in a consonant in the nominative; nouns can be masculine or feminine; gender is regular (i.e. certain consonant endings have specific gender assignments: -t/-r/-k are masculine; -s is feminine); includes borrowings from other languages
Articles
There are no indefinite articles, although the word kam "one" can be used as an article.
There are gender specific definite articles: masculine e and feminine i. These become er and iz before nouns beginning with a vowel:
e shasadunet the school, m
i nauli the woman, f
but:
er idandor the grapefruit, m
iz ardruno the grandmother, f
The article is not used with definite adjectives (see below).
The articles have one form for all numbers and cases.
Special forms of the definite article are limited to instances of preposition i "to", plus the articles, which become eri and izi, regardless of following noun:
eri shasaduntek to the school, Dat.m
eri idandozek to the grapefruit, Dat.m
izi naulek to the woman, Dat.f
izi ardrunok to the grandmother, Dat.f
Nouns in Detail
Declensions in -o/-i/-a/-u
Here is a table of the four regular types of nouns, with endings highlighted in red, and stress shown with an acute accent:
| "tree", m | "woman", f | "necessity", f | "schedule", m | |
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Declensions in -e
This is the catch-all declension, that includes nouns that usually have stem changes. Here is a table of the types of nouns, with endings highlighted in red, and stress shown with an acute accent:
| "market", m | "grave", m | "apple", m | |
| sg.
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| pl.
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| "literature", f | "mathemathics", f | "England", m | |
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| "world", m | "dessert" f* | ||
| sg.
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| pl.
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Adjective Features
Introduction
Munasto adjectives have two forms, indefinite and definite. All indefinite adjectives end in -a.
Gender/Number Agreement
Munasto adjectives always agree with the nouns they modify in number. Munasto indefinite adjectives do not mark gender (i.e. they do not agree), but do mark number, by adding -le:
ónta dry, indef.sg.
óntale dry, indef.pl.
Munasto definite adjectives agree in both number and gender with the nouns they modify. The masculine ending is -ga (pl. -ken), and the feminine ending is -na (pl. -nen):
ónta dry, indef.sg.
ontága dry, m.def.sg.
ontána dry, f.def.sg.
ontáken dry, m.def.pl.
ontánen dry, f.def.pl.
Case Agreement
Munasto adjectives do not decline for case:
nauli hinana the old woman, Nom.sg.
naulek hinana (to) the old woman, Dat.sg.
naulet hinanen (of) the old woman, Gen.pl.
Noun/Adjective Usage
Phrase Order
The noun precedes the adjective in normal usage:
dzendza dudduba "good tea"
chimele neddanale "red shoes"
Some adnominals, such as demonstratives and possessives, precede the noun:
fu dzendza "this tea"
gennen chimele "our shoes"
The Noun Phrase
The noun phrase consist of four types:
- simple noun, indefinite
- simple noun, definite
- modified noun, indefinite
- modified noun, definite
The simple noun, indefinite is the noun alone:
fiko "a tree"
eili "a man"
The simple noun, definite is the noun preceded by the definite article, as well as the demonstrative and possessive adjectives:
e fiko "the tree"
su eili "that man"
The modified noun, indefinite is the noun with a following adjective.
fiko mena "a new tree"
eili zulbroma "a tall man"
This group also includes phrases modified by a demonstrative or possessive:
hoga fiko mena "my new tree"
ru eili zulbroma "that tall man (over there)"
The modified noun, definite is the noun followed by a definite adjective.
fiko menaga "the new tree"
eili zulbromaga "the tall man"
