Re: How much data in your conlang nouns?

David Peterson wrote:

> Gary wrote:
>
> <<1. Number (such as singular, dual, plural)
> 2. Gender (such as masc., fem., neut.)
> 3. Class or Declension (Varies with language)
> 4. Case (nom., dat., gen., etc. varies with language)
> 5. Social mode (formal, informal, royal, sacred, who
> knows)>>
>
> Okie doke.  Zhyler has singular and plural, 17 noun classes, and 57
> cases.  That comes to 1,938.  However, I'm not sure about including
> noun classes in this list...  Or maybe I just don't understand how
> noun classes would be the same as the plural.  If you strip away the
> plural, the noun case, etc., you still have a basic nominal idea.  If
> you strip away the noun class, you can end up with either nothing or
> something completely different--same goes for the gender (e.g., "niño"
> = "boy" in Spanish, but "niñ-" = ?).  Or am I overthinking this?
>
> -David


No, you're right.  A few words will have varying noun classes/gender -
niño, as opposed to niña, but most have fixed ones.  What would be
interesting is if all nouns could change class, changing the meaning to
something related.

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