Nominal Morphology

Nouns

Tzuman has four cases, Nominative, Dative, Accusative, and Genitive. Each case has a number of functions:

Nominative	The subject case
Dative	Indirect Object; object of movement inside prepositions
Accusative	Direct Object; object of movement outside prepositions
Genitive	marks posession of an object; object of locational prepositions

It can be helpful to The 'basic' forms of the cases in Ancient and Modern Tzuman are as follows:

	Ancient Tzuman	Modern Tzuman
N	-∅	-∅
D	-u	-o, -u, -*
A	-ax	-ah
G	-utu	-Vs

*many Dative forms are consonant alternations, or are otherwise alterations of final vowels by their contact with the Ancient Tzuman -u.

Many forms do not follow these basics exactly, due to their generalized nature as well as various phonological and occasionally stylistic reasons.


The difference between the I and II classes is in origin an animate/inanimate distinction; all native words adhere to it, and most older loans have been assimilated into the pattern, but recent loans have muddied the waters somewhat, with forms more likely to be classified by similarity in form to existing words and word-final phones.

émaht 'trader' animate, éznis 'temple' inanimate
I  consonant stems    II short V-stems

I	S	Pl	II S	Pl
N	émaht	móhteš	éznis	éznoš
D	émah	móhtešv	iznéso	éznošv
A	móhtah	mahtášah	éznis (iznésah)	iznúšah
G	móhtos	mahtášos	iznésas	iznúšas

Ia  further cons stems      IIa  ?e-stems

Ia	S	Pl	IIa S	Pl
N	óreh	arághoš/reghúveš	ye	yeš/yávoš
D	órek	arághošv/reghúvešv	yev	yešv/yávošv
A	arághoh	areghúšah/reghovášah	ye (yávah)	yášah/yevúšah
G	arághos	areghúšos/reghovášos	yávas	yášas/yevúšas

Type C: o-stems        IIb i-stems

C	S	Pl	IIb S	Pl
N	imóhto	mahtúvoš	eváši	višéyoš
D	imóhtu	mahtúvošv	evášuy	višéyošv
A	imóhto/mahtúvah	mahtovúšah	vešéyah	višéyoš/višúšah
G	imóhtus	mahtovúšas	vešéyas	višúšas

The Animate (I) dative and genitive singulars are frequently anomalous in consonant stems; this is due to the frequent mutation of consonants before u in Old Tzuman prior to its word-final loss (see the Sandhi section for further details).

The inanimate singular accusative, historically, was identical with the nominative, but within the last 150 years a rebuilt form from the oblique stem with the animate accusative -ah arose in popular usage. This has not penetrated into higher registers, though it would be readily understood (stem variation being such a common feature in the language) and then roundly disapproved of. Curiously enough, the inanimate plural accusative has always declined with the ending -ah (and its antecedents).

Adjectives

Tzuman adjectives are closely related to nouns, endings being borrowed back and forth frequently. They have three general forms: short, long-v and long-y. The short declension, which is broadly identical to the nominal declensions, is used when the head noun also has a pronominal qualifier (demonstratives generally), while the long declensions are when the noun stands alone with its adjective; the v- and y- forms are for adjectives ending in back and front vowels in their stem respectively.

Short Endings

The short adjective endings are mostly unremarkable, with the exception of the Genitive plural, which show one of the few instances of final syllable stress in the language.

	Sg		Pl
	an	inan	an	inan
N	ˊ-Ø	ˊ-Ø	ˊ-eš	ˊ-oš
D	ˊ-*	ˊ-o	ˊ-ešv	ˊ-oš
A	ˊ-ah	ˊ-Ø	-ášah	-úšah
G	ˊ-os	ˊ-as	-ášt	-ášt

*The short animate dative singular is marked by a consonant mutation caused by Old Tzuman -u, and/or by -v: iránik 'wild' dative singular animate iránikv.

Long v

	Sg		Pl
	an	inan	an	inan
N	ˊ-iv	-óvi	-íĕš	-ívoš
D	ˊ-vi	ˊ-o(v)	-ívē	ˊ-ovo
A	-váyah	-aváyah	-ášah	-úšah
G	-ívĕs	-óvĕs	-ášt	-ášt

long y

	Sg		Pl
	an	inan	an	inan
N	ˊ-i	ˊ-a	-éyi	-úiš
D	ˊ-ey	ˊ-o*	-yávo	-yúvo
A	-áyah	ˊ-a	-éyah	-úišah
G	-éyos	-óyas	-éyšt	-úišt

*borrowed from the inanimate nominal. Išeni maintains a form in -ai < *-aju.

As stated above, the long and short forms of Tzuman adjectives partially carry a meaning difference; long (or 'strong') forms occur without a demonstrative or other pronoun, while the short (or 'weak') forms are used when such a pronoun is present:

Comparatives and Superlatives

Comparatives ('more, -er') are usually analytic in Tzuman, using the preposed word húzuk (frequently unstressed as hozuk) 'more':
Unlike the comparatives, superlatives in Tzuman are synthetic. They are constructed with two lexically-assigned infixes, -mi-, and -ek-:
The difference between short and long endings is maintained in the superlative:
<TBA>
Some adjectives have suppletive forms for the comparative and superlative. The suppletive comparative forms do not generally take húzuk, though such a usage is common in Teśara-influenced Tzuman and rustic Itece dialects.

Pronouns

	Sg	Pl
1	uy	muy
2	ǧi	tzay
3	ĕhn	kuma

The personal pronouns are the only section of the language which inherited a non-suffixal plural system from Proto-Southern, where it was totally suppletive.

1	Sg	Pl	2	S	P	3	S	P
N	uy	muy	N	ǧi	tzay	N	ĕhn	kuma
D	vúyo	muyo	D	ǧéyo	tzayo	D	ĕhno	kumo
A	vúyah	muyúvah	A	ǧéyah	tzóyah	A	ĕhnah	kumah
G	vúyos	muyúvos	G	ǧéyos	tzóyos	G	ĕhnos	kuma(s/št)

Demonstratives

The basic forms of the demonstratives do not inflect for number, but the long forms do.

	proximal		medial		distal
	lufs		yeytz		ňondeš
	an	inan	an	inan	an	inan
N	lufs	lufsa	yeytz	yeytza	ňondeš	ňondoš
D	lufš	lufšv	yeyzv	yeytzo	ňondešv	ňondošo
A	lufsah	lufsa	yeytzah	yeytza	ňondešah	ňondoš
G	lufšos	lufšas	yeyzvos	yeytzas	ňondeskvos	ňondošas

Y- and v- forms (based on the pre-stress stem vowel, y- for yeytz and v- for lufs and ňondeš, which incidentally drops the anomalous plural morph -eš) of the demonstratives exist, denoting 'this one, that one, yon one'. They are of a more recent origin than the short forms, being transparently derived from the demonstrative stems with the Tzuman reflexes of the PMK forms -ye- and -væ- suffixed. They inflect for singular and plural, unlike the short form demonstratives:

	Sg		Pl
	an	inan	an	inan
N	lúfsiv	lofsóvi	lofsíĕs	lofsívoš
D	lúfšvi	lúfso	lofsívē	lofsúvo
A	lofsáyah	lofsóvah	lúfšvah	lofšvúšah
G	lofšívĕs	lofsóvĕs	lofšvĕšt	lofšvúšt

	Sg		Pl
	an	inan	an	inan
N	yáitzi	yáitza	yeytzéyi	yeytzúiš
D	yáitzey	yáitzo	yeytzášvo	yeytzúšvo
A	yeytzáyah	yáitza	yeytzéyah	yeytzúišah
G	yeytzéyos	yeytzóyas	yeytzéyos/yeytzéyošt	yeytzúyas/yeytzúyašt

	Sg		Pl
	an	inan	an	inan
N	ňúndiv	ňondóvi	ňondívĕš	ňondívoš
D	ňúndzvi	ňondo(v)	ňondívē	ňondúvo
A	ňonzváyah	ňondaváyah	ňonzvέšah	ňonzvúšah
G	ňondívĕs	ňonzvóvĕs	ňúnzvĕšt	ňonzvošt

A note should be given here. City dialects (those of Istáril, Tzešághro and other Itece cities, Cenaša & its environs, the lowland cities of Ḫenǰan Island, and the island port of Kemaš (which has nearly equal the population of Istáril)) have taken to using a truncated form of yeytz as a definite article, and using yáitzi as the distal demonstrative. This article declines thusly (regional variations have been levelled for the purposes of this description):

	Sg		Pl
	an	inan	an	inan
N	yey	yeya	yeš	yevoš
D	yev	yeyo	yeskv	yevo
A	yáiyah	yah	yášah	yúšah
G	yáiyos	yéyas	yešt	yošt

Relatives & Interrogatives

	N	D	A	G
who	roš	rošv	rošah	rošos
which	raš	rašv	raš	rašas
what	rólaš	rólašv	ralóšah	ralóšas
where	ranĕš
when	rovaš			rovóšos
why	ášuy	ešíyo
how	váš
thus	šann
some	hos-/hoz-

Numbers

Numbers in Tzuman work under a somewhat different stress system from the rest of the language; final stress has become the general rule, though some, longer, forms take the normal rule. Older forms of the numbers take the normal stress pattern; the change occurred roughly 150YBP, based on newspaper records, which since their origins 200 YBP have recorded dates in alphabetic script, and thus show vowel changes from stress. Reductions are far more commonplace than in the majority of the language (where they are by no means rare).

0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15
enal	ňós	tzol	šom	gešv	kutz	yejum/ijum	ceacun	ǧérsa	ášots	oy	ňósoy	tzolúvoy	šúmoy	gešívoy	ktzéi