Naisek – A Constructed Language

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Declension and Related Inflections

This chapter covers the declension of nouns, adjectives, quantifiers, determiners, and pronouns. It also covers other inflections of the same word classes.

Nouns

Noun Declension

• Nouns are marked for number (singular and plural) and case, and have implicit gender (animate and inanimate, but a few nouns are heterogeneous).
• The core cases are: ergative (-Erg), dative (-Dat), and absolutive (-Abs).
• The other cases are: intrumental (-Ins), temporal (-Tmp), genitive (-Gen), and partitive (-Par).
• Temporal forms exist only for time words (and their modifiers); these are all inanimate. The time words include words denoting units of duration and for number of occurrences as well as those for specific times.
• Inanimate nouns (and their modifiers) don't have dedicated ergative or dative forms.
• The partitive singular exists only for mass nouns.
• The inflections vary according to the stem-type. Most nouns have either vowel stems or consonant stems, but there are some others.

Noun Declensions

	Vowel Stem		Consonant Stem		Vowel + i Stem
	S	P	S	P	S	P
-Abs	-	-l	-	-o	-i	-yo
-Dat	-i *	-li	-i	-li	-i	-ili
-Erg	-r	-la	-a	-or	-ya	-ila
-Gen	-m	-lum	-um	-olum	-im	-ilum
-Par	-s	-tsu	-su/-is *	-os	-is	-yos
-Ins	-pe	-lpe	-(i)pe	-olpe	-ipe	-yolpe
-Tmp	-u *	-lu	-u	-lu	-yu	-ilu

• The ending -is is used after s (including ts), x, c, j, and m.
• The ending -su is used otherwise, becoming -tsu after n and l (with l dropped).
• The dative singulars and temporal singulars combined with vowel stems are as follows:

Stem	-i	-e	-a	-o	-u
-SDat	-i	-e	-ai	-we	-wi
-STmp	-yu	-yo	-au	-o	-u

Vocative Prefixes

• The vocative prefixes, indicating the person or persons addressed, are used mainly on kinship terms and other nouns denoting relationships, but are sometimes found on proper nouns and on other words.
• The vocative prefixes are ku- and o-.
• The prefix ku- is more familiar than o-.
• The prefix ku- becomes ki- before a voiceless consonant, kuh- before u, and kw- before any other vowel.
• The prefix o- becomes ot- before a vowel.
• The vocative prefixes are applied to otherwise absolutive forms.

Ku- and o- might be shortened forms of kam and otum, respectively.

Adjectives

Adjective and Participle Declension

• Adjectives and participles used as adjectives are marked for gender, number, and case.
• They also have adverbial and secondary predicate suffixes; these aren't case markers because they don't vary for gender or number. They're covered later in this chapter.
• Adjectives have only consonant stems; those with apparent vowel stems insert h before the endings.
• The i's in the inanimate genitive plural and inanimate instrumental singular are dropped after certain stems.

Adjective Declension

	Animate		Inanimate
	S	P	S	P
-Abs	-a	-al	-i	-il
-Dat	-ai	-ali
-Erg	-ar	-ala
-Gen	-am	-alum	-im	-ilum, -lum
-Par	-as	-atsu	-is	-itsu
-Ins	-ape	-alpe	-ipe, -pe	-ilpe
-Tmp			-yu	-ilu

Adverbial and Secondary Predicate Suffixes

• There are suffixes which make adjectives into adverbs and head-words of secondary predicates. These suffixes can also apply to participles.
• Adverbs denote either the manner in which an action is carried out or some other modification of the situation as a whole; they're formed regularly with a couple of different suffixes. Adverbs formed in other ways exist as well.
• One suffix is used for adverbs of manner when the basic meaning of the adjective is adverbial; these include those denoting degrees of velocity, competence, fidelity, randomness, and precision. It's also used for some non-manner adverbs.
• The other suffix is used for all other adverbs of manner.
• There are two kinds of secondary predicates: resultatives and depictives. Resultatives denote the state of the patient resulting from the event, while depictives denote the state of some participant during the event. There are two endings for depictives, depending on which participant is referred to; one of these is shared with the resulatives and the other is shared with one kind of adverb.
• The suffixes are:

  -Adv	-ingo	adverb of manner (second type)
  -Sps	-u	adverb (first type) or depictive secondary predicate denoting the subject's state
  -Spo	-e	resultative or depictive secondary predicate denoting the state of an object

Adjective Conjugation

• In addition to being declined, adjectives are also conjugated, with the verb stem formed using the suffix -(i)t (this conjugation is used instead of copula + adjective). The verb forms and other information are given in the Conjugations chapter.
• There are other adjective derivations which are also conjugated and described in that section.

Comparison of Adjectives

• Adjectives denote qualities, or attributes that can be compared (words for other kinds of attributes are usually verbs). Quantity can be considered a quality in this respect.
• Since a quality can be compared, it has an opposite quality (with a few exceptions, such as color terms). Words for the opposite of a quality are never derived in Naisek . One of the two words is taken to be the positive form (usually the one denoting a higher degree according to some scale) and the other the negative form.
• There's also a neutral word for each quality, denoting something in between the quality and its opposite. The neutral word is derived by suffix from the positive word:

  -Neu	-ay	neutral quality

• This suffix is irregular; for one thing, it changes to -al before the conjugational stem.
• With colors, the neutral derivation can mean a reduced version of the quality.

kloba sorgayi.	- "a medium-sized house"
gofo kanaya.	- "a reddish dog."

• An adjective also has comparative and superlative stems:

  -Cmp	-os(s)	comparative
  -Sup	-amp	superlative

• The comparative form is conjugated more often than it's declined:

  Kesi sorgosti tep nesi.	- "This one is bigger than that one."

Numbers and Quantifiers

Numbers

• The different kinds of numbers are the cardinals, the ordinals, and the fractionals.
• The stems of the ordinals and fractionals are regularly derived from those of the cardinals using suffixes.
• The cardinals and fractionals act like and are treated here like quantifiers, while the ordinals are used as determiners.

  nelafa gofo	- "the second dog"

Number Stems

	Cardinal	Ordinal	Fractional
1	kwa	kwarf
2	nel	nelaf	netse
3	ton	tonaf	tontse
4	pago	pagorf	pagose
5	uke	ukerf	ukese
6	sida	sidarf	sidase
7	sapa	saparf	sapase
8	nelgos	nelgosaf	nelgose
9	kugos	kugosaf	kugose
10	nelke	nelkerf	nelkese
11	nelkeku	nelkekurf	nelkekuse
12	nelkenel	nelkenelaf	nelkenetse
20	palke	palkerf	palkese
30	sirke	sirkerf	sirkese
40	nelgoske	nelgoskerf	nelgoskese
50	xif ?	xifaf ?	xifse ?

Quantifier Declension

• Quantifiers are marked for case. The number "1" is also marked for gender. Number is, of course, implicit.
• Quantifiers, like adjectives and unlike nouns, may be conjugated.

Some Number Declensions

	1		2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
	Anim.	Inan.
-Abs	kwa	kwi	nel	ton	pago	uke	sida	sapa	nelgos	kugos	nelke
-Dat	kwai		neli	toni	pagli	uke	sidai	sapai	nelgosi	kugosi	nelke
-Erg	kwar		nela	tona	pagor	uker	sidar	sapar	nelgosa	kugosa	nelker
-Gen	kwam	kwim	nelum	tonum	pagom	ukem	sidam	sapam	nelgosum	kugosum	nelkem
-Par	kwas	kwis	netsu	tontsu	pagos	ukes	sidas	sapas	nelgosis	kugosis	nelkes
-Ins	kwape	kwipe	nelpe	tompe	pagope	ukepe	sidape	sapape	nelgospe	kugospe	nelkepe
-Tmp		kuyu	nelu	tonu	paglu	ukyo	sidau	sapau	nelgosu	kugosu	nelkyo

• The words for "much", juk, "little (amount)", pik, are inflected for case and are declined like singular nouns. However, they have comparative and superlative forms which are declined like adjectives.
• The words for "many", j, and "few", p(y), are inflected for gender and case, and take plural endings.
• The word sw is also inflected for gender and case; when it means "all", it takes plural endings and when it means "each" or "every", it takes singular endings.
• The word for "any", sup, is declined like a singular adjective.

Many and Much

	many		much	few		little
	Anim.	Inan.		Anim.	Inan.
-Abs	jal	jil	juk	pyal	pil	pik
-Dat	jali			pyali
-Erg	jala			pyala
-Gen	jalum	jilum	jukum	pyalum	pilum	pikum
-Par	jatsu	jitsu	juksu	pyatsu	pitsu	piksu
-Ins	jalpe	jilpe	jukpe	pyalpe	pilpe	pikpe
-Tmp		jilu	juku		pilu	piku

Pronouns and Determiners

• The pronouns consist of the personal, reflexive (Rfx), reciprocal (Rcp), indefinite (Uns), negative (Nul), relative (Rel), interrogative (Que), possessive, and demonstrative pronouns; the last two kinds will be covered later.
• The roots on which the personal pronouns (1, 1N, 2, and 3) are based are also used for the possessive pronouns and the demonstratives. The personal endings of the verb are based on these as well.
• The determiners consist of the definite (Def), indefinite, and negative determiners (or articles) and the demonstrative determiners (also covered later).
• There are additional masculine and feminine contrastive 3rd person pronouns.

• The specific declensions of the pronouns are shown in the tables below.
• The indefinite, negative, reflexive, and reciprocal pronouns are inflected only for case.
• The 1st and 2nd person pronouns are inflected for number as well as case; S denotes singular and P denotes plural. The 1st person inclusive pronoun (1N) can only be plural; the 1st person exclusive plural is denoted 1XP.
• The basic 3rd person pronoun is inflected for gender, number, and case; A denotes animate and I denotes inanimate.
• The relative pronoun (not shown) is also inflected for gender, number, and case and consists of the stem d- + adjective endings.
• The interrogative pronoun (not shown) is inflected for gender and case and consists of the stem c- + singular adjective endings.

Personal Pronoun Declensions

	1S	1XP	1NP	2S	2P	3AS	3AP	3IS	3IP	Rfx	Rcp	Uns	Nul
-Abs	ku	ko	bo	nu	no	ta	tal	ti	til	fu	fal	o	gau
-Dat	ki	koi	boi	ni	noi	tai	tali			fi	fali	oti	gauti
-Erg	ka	kor	bor	na	nor	tar	tala			fa		(ota)	(gauta)
-Gen	kam	kalum	balum	nam	nalum	tam	talum	tim	tilum	fam	falum	otum	gautum
-Par	(kas)	katsu	batsu	(nas)	natsu	(tas)	tatsu	tis	titsu	(fas)		otsu	gautsu
-Ins	kape	kalpe	balpe	nape	nalpe	tape	talpe	tipe	tilpe	fape		oppe	gauppe
-Tmp								tiu ?	tilu			otu	gautu

• The definite article is inflected for gender, number, and case and consists of the stem h- + adjective endings.
• The indefinite determiner ot and the negative determiner gaut are inflected like adjectives.

Contrastive 3rd Person Pronouns

• The contrastive 3rd person pronouns are used instead of the basic 3rd person pronouns only when necessary. There are masculine (M) and feminine (F) forms; note that these are chosen according to the natural gender of the referent, unlike the animate and inanimate forms, which depend on the lexical gender of some noun.

Contrastive 3rd Person Pronouns

	3MS	3MP	3FS	3FP
-Abs	ba	bayo	gya	gyal
-Dat	bai	baili	gyai	gyali
-Erg	baya	baila	gyar	gyala
-Gen	baim	bailum	gyam	gyalum
-Par		bayos		gyatsu
-Ins	baipe	bayolpe	gyape	gyalpe

Possessive Pronouns

• The stem of a singular possessive pronoun is formed by adding h to the genitive form of the corresponding personal pronoun.
• The stem of a plural possessive pronoun is formed by deleting u from the genitive form of the corresponding personal pronoun.
• The stem of the indefinite possessive pronoun is otm.
• The possessive pronouns are declined like adjectives.
• As with other adjectives, there are verb forms; the stems of these are formed by suffixing -it to the stems of the possessive pronouns.
• The possessive pronouns are normally not used as possessive determiners, the genitive forms of the personal pronouns being used instead.

kamha (kam gofo)	- "mine (my dog)"
talmi (talum kloba)	- "theirs (their house)"

page started: 2007.Jan.02 Tue
was modified: 2008.Jun.22 Sun
current page: 2011.Dec.29 Thu
content and form originated by qiihoskeh

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