Nindic Nominal Morphology

Nindic nouns are inflected for three basic forms:
 1) plural
 2) definite
 3) demonstrative

There are also definite and demonstrative plurals.
This means that a noun can appear in 6 forms
altogether.

Example:

  hen "hawk"
  henad "the hawk"
  henar "hawk-demonstrative"
  henín "hawks"
  henínad "the hawks"
  henínar "hawks-demonstrative"

The plural form is very unpredictable, there are about
10 different ways of forming the plural, only some of
which seem to have patterns associated with them.
Also, in Nindic a lot of variation in plurals occurs,
so that sometimes nouns might use more than one of the
following plural formations.

The various ways of forming the plural are the
following:

1) Vowel Change           aen  > ein “worm”
2) Vowel Change + n       bucha > bychaen
3) Vowel Change + aedd    dro > dryaedd “grove”
4) Vowel Change + –wy     burcho > byrchwy   “wizard”
(final “o”  dropped first)

5) –ín         cwydd > cwyddín “object”
6) –on	       sew > sewon “hand”
7) –n 	       mio > mion “eye”
8) –aedd       dena  > denaedd  “crowd, group”  (final
“a” dropped first)

9) –a(w)       gweg > gwega “cow”
10) –io        ceil > ceilio “stream”
(only in this word)

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A few generalities can be made and some patterns
found:

1) –aedd is mostly found with words whose singular
ends in “a”. There are a few exceptions. Many words
endings in –na especially have this ending. Some
nouns in –n also have this ending (especially when the
noun is a former gerund of a verb.)
 luna "power" > lynaedd "powers" (Vowel Change + aedd)
 ethian "gust" > ethianaedd "gusts"
 (former gerund of  ethiaedi "to gust, blow, be
windy")

2) Groups of animals sometiems take the suffix –a(w)
rheg “pig”  >  rhega “pigs”  (or  rhig “pigs”, with
vowel-change)

3) Many words ending in –o take the suffix –wy in the
plural.
olo “star” > elwy

4) Animal words ending in –a fluctuate between
vowel-change –aedd and vowel-change + -n
cawa “dog” > cewaedd/cewaen

5) Many words ending in –ian fluctuate between –aedd
and vowel-change:
   denian “sorrow” > denianaedd/deniaen,
   ethian “gust of wind” > ethianaedd/ethiaen

6) Body Parts ending in –o a lot of the time have the
suffix –n.
mio “eye” > mion,  ffro “nose” > ffron  (or ffrei
“noses”, with vowel-change)

7) The Dual –on is used in a few words (mostly body
parts) that are found in pairs.
sew “hand” > sewon, thel “parent” > thelon

 In addition to the above plural types, there are
other nouns which have more complicated plurals.

One of these "complicated" plurals is that some nouns
ending in “n”, double the “n” when an ending is added.
This rule is sporadically followed, and seems to be
dying out. It mostly pertains to words where the final
“n” represents “nd”:

llein “day”  >  lleinnín “days”   *layindo
---------------------------------------------------\
In addition to simple nouns like above, there are
"Collective/Singulatives". These are nouns that end in
a partitive suffix in the singular, and mean “one part
of a whole”. The main partitive suffixes are:

1) –(a)ch
2)  –el

Most of these nouns are small animals. Their plurals
are formed by deleting the partitive suffix and adding
a plural suffix. Sometimes, deleting the partitive
suffix is enough, since the noun may already contain
an historical collective suffix. If this is the case
the resulting form is actually a singular meaning “a
group of”. Further plural suffixes can be added to
make the meaning “groups of”

mydrel “vole”  >  myder “a group of voles”  > mydraedd
“groups of voles”

merel   “ant”    >  mir “a group of ants”   >  mirín
“groups of ants”

gleirnach “starling” > gleiron “a group of starlings”
> gleirnaedd “groups of starlings”
boach “head of cattle” > boan “heads of cattle”

An irregular collective is:
sreb “rabbit”, which has the suffix –eb, which is
elsewhere found as a diminutive. The plural/collective
is: “srein”. However, a new singular has been formed
by back-formation. This form is “sran”. Another plural
can be formed from “sran”, namely “srenaedd”.
----------------------------------------------------

As compared to the
singular/plural/singulative/collective issues above,
the demonstrative and definite forms of the noun are a
piece of cake.

The definitive form has three means of formation:

1) –ad    				     hyger “rain” > hygrad “the rain”
 (with syncope sometimes, especially before "r/l/n")

2) –íd  (rare or archaic)		     llaer “moon” > llaeríd
“the moon”

3) –d   (for nouns ending in a vowel):
olo “star” > olod “the star”

Plural nouns take the ending -ad if they end in a
consonant, -d otherwise.

The use of the definite form is mostly to mean "the"
as in English. Some restrictions apply, however. It's
used after a certain class of prepositions, but not
another class of prepositions (so called
s-prepositions, since they end in "s", usually). It's
used before possessive pronouns, but not if the
possessive pronoun begins with a consonant. With
possessive pronouns, it is left untranslated.

Examples:
thelonad i  “my parents”  (thelon "parents")
bellín neid “your sisters”  (bellín "sisters")
burchod in "his wizard"    (burcho "wizard")
(I suppose this use is mostly to avoid
hiatus..somewhat)

Prepositional:
noth phonad "towards the hill"
to   hill-def.

but with an s-preposition:
obos i   bona "over the hill"
over the hill

Also, a final restriction is that, if the noun is
qualified by an adjective or Genitive the definite
form is not used.
-----------------------------------------------------

The demonstrative form uses the following suffixes:
1) –r  (after vowels)
elwy-r      eirínad “those yonder stars”
stars-dem  yonder-emph.

2) –ar (after consonants)
nílban-ar mír “this lord”
lord-dem this

Demonstratives can come before or after the noun,
usually after in speech. The following are the major
demonstrative

eir(íd) “that over there, yonder”
mer(ed) “that”
mír(ed)  “this”

(Those forms in parentheses are emphatic suffixes) In
agreement, these forms are pluralized with the suffix
-ín.

--------------------------------------------
That's basically it for nominal morphology. I hope you
enjoyed.
  Elliott









		
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