Wistanian/Nominal Morphology

Nouns in Wistanian (called davagg) are defined as any word that takes on nominal morphology and can act as a subject or object the verb.

Noun Classes

The Wistanian language features three major noun classes: the proper noun, the improper noun, and the pronoun. Proper nouns are the exact names of people, places, and titles. Improper nouns are any noun that is not a specific title; they are further divided into count nouns (which can take on the plural suffix) and mass nouns (which cannot take on the plural suffix). Pronouns are substitutes for a contextually understood noun. These three noun classes are distinguished in Wistanian grammar since they each act as subjects and objects of the verb, but react and decline in different fashions from each other.

Proper Nouns

Proper Nouns are the names of people, places, religions, government titles, and works of art. They take on no inflectional or derivational morphology at all. In most cases, proper nouns for people are proceeded by an honorific.

The tradition of keeping proper nouns free of all declension comes from the Taliv culture's utmost respect for one other's personal titles. The casual register of the Nati, Uzin, and Bwolotil dialects, however, do not honor this tradition, and will often decline proper nouns.

Improper Nouns

Improper Nouns are any nouns that are not the specific names of a certain person. They are distinguished by proper nouns in that they can take on inflectional and derivational morphology. Improper nouns are furthermore split as either count or mass. Count nouns can be declined for plurality, while mass nouns cannot.