Vadi: Difference between revisions

Number exhibits a two-way distinction in nouns: singular and non-singular.  Singular number, or more accurately the  [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singulative_number Singulative], is explicitly marked with the determiner ''han/ha'' (the latter considered by Iyyaħmi as either a prefixe or clitic), while plural and collectives are unmarked.  Nouns beginning with a vowel are preceded by the allomorph ''han'', while ''ha'' appears before nouns beginning with a consonant.   

Sometimes the singulative is represented by inflection, particularly [[Vadi#Gender| body parts]].  Number distinction in body part nouns displays an unusual split, one being the typical singulative-unmarked distinction, and the other being a plural-unmarked distinction.  Body parts that usually come in pairs (e.g. hands), mass/collective (e.g. hair), or multiple instances (e.g. fingers) follow the singulative/non-singulative distinction.  Those that occur (usually) as a single instance on the human body, such as the head, tongue, and nose follow a singular/plural distinction, with the singular being the unmarked condition.  The last body part in the table follows a singulative-plural-unmarked distinction, a highly divergent pattern combined with possessing both an animate/inanimate distinction in the singulative form.  How these forms arose remains speculative, but if the texts between the litigants is any guide, the form chosen was employed to intensify some of their more vitriolic correspondence, the animate singulative or plural form serving as the proxy noun of the speech transmitter, and the inanimate singulative or simple unmarked form serving as the proxy noun of the speech recipient.  Regardless, the usual singulative determiner ''han/ha'' does not co-occur with singular body part nouns in any of the texts of the Scriptum, suggesting that double-marking with the determiner is ungrammatical.