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Lodeen: Difference between revisions
→Morphology
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Lodeen can be said to be an agglutinative language, with both prefixes and suffixes. | |||
====Nouns==== | |||
The noun is marked for number and definiteness. Concerning number, there is an opposition singular/plural, the plural being marked with the thematic vowel /i/, either as the suffix -i { -i/C_ ~ -j/V_ } if the word doesn't have a prefix, or inserted in the thematic vowel position of a prefix, if there's one. It will usually be in the definite prefix, or in the first prefix if there's no definite prefix. | |||
Also, if there's a thematic gender vowel /a/ or /u/, it combines with the plural vowel : -ja/-ju in a prefix, -aj/-uj as a suffix, -ja/-ju as a suffix after a vowel ending. | |||
As for definiteness, it is often marked by the prefix -le ; but it is usually unmarked when the speaker assumes it's given, part of the common ground, that the listener knows what particular instance object of the universe is referred to. | |||
Gender is not considered a category of the noun proper, as it is never obligatory and usually restrained to animated beings whose sex or gender the speaker wants to precise. The thematic vowels /a/ (feminine) and /u/ (masculine) are then suffixed to the noun, or inserted in a prefix. | |||
Examples : | |||
<poem> | |||
PAN : "a person" → PANA : "a woman" ; PANUY : "(some) men" | |||
KEPAN : "a child" → KYAPAN : "(some) girls" | |||
LEPAN : "the person" → LEKIPAN : "the children" | |||
</poem> | |||
===Syntax=== | ===Syntax=== | ||