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Teonaht: Difference between revisions
→Morphology
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=== Nouns === | |||
As in English, Teonaht nouns exhibit a variety of forms and functions. There is the '''proper noun''', which is a name, and which takes initial mutation in direct address: '''Sendl''', '''Ha Hsendl''', "O Sendl!"; there is the vast majority of '''concrete nouns''' that refer to persons, animals, places, things; there is the '''verbal noun,''' such as '''derem''', "acting," "doing": '''fyl derem tso dihs''', "your acting we want," i.e., "we want you to do something," and which will be covered in the section on "Verbs"; likewise, there are the verbal nominalizations which turn the verbal noun into a specific instance of the action: '''derem''', "acting," "to act"--'''deuo''', "deed"; '''enyverem''', "eating," "to eat"--'''ennyvo''', "meal." there are the '''abstract nouns''' ('''firkol''', "generosity")and '''collective nouns''' ('''deygrin''', "butter") that are uncountable, and also the nominalizations made from adjectives: '''uanta''', "sad," '''uantale''', "sadness"; '''hejvant''', "absent," '''hejvando''', "absence." | |||
Except for the genitive and the vocative, nouns exhibit "case" in Teonaht primarily through their articles. Only a scant few show accusative case in the form of an ending or a mutation, such as in the '''Nenddeylyt''' nouns listed below; so inflection will not be a problem for the learner of Teonaht. The learner of Teonaht will not be plagued by the fabulous array of cases exhibited, say, by the Finnish. In fact, case is blindingly simple. | |||
Teonaht is what I am calling an "Accusative Language" with a "split nominative." There are four major cases for nouns: Subject or nominative (Nom.), Object and Oblique Object (O), Possessive or genitive (Gen.), and Vocative (Voc.). The subject or nominative case, however, has two categories-- "agentive" (A) and "experiential" (E). | |||
== Example texts == | == Example texts == | ||