Nouns
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Nouns

Every noun in Ka'ekala is either sentient, animate, or inanimate; see the page on animacy for information on how this is determined.

Sentient and animate nouns have different plurals endings. For sentient nouns, the plural suffix is -kū. For animate nouns, the plural suffix is -pā. Unlike English, indicating plurality is not required. Furthermore, if a different element in the sentence (such as the adjective or a possessor suffix, or the presence of a number) indicates the plural for a given noun, that noun cannot have a plural ending (that is, there is a maximum of one plural indicator in any given noun phrase). Inanimate nouns are treated as mass nouns and have no plural ending whatsoever; see the page on measure words for more information. If a noun ends in a nasal consonant, the plural suffix (as with any suffix) is inserted directly before the nasal: ngān moon > ngākūn moons, lungīn iguana > lungīpān iguanas.

Noun phrases

A basic noun phrase (one that is a sentence-level NP, not embedded within another NP) must have, at minimum, a case particle and a noun or pronoun. Other elements may be required as well. This document covers noun phrases whose head is a noun; for pronouns, see the page on pronouns.

A basic noun phrase begins with a case particle indicating how a noun is being used in the sentence. There are 4 case particles:

subject (transitive): ye
this indicates the subject of a transitive verb
subject (intransitive): li
this indicates the subject of an intransitive or stative verb
object: mo
this indicates the direct object of a transitive verb
vocative: si
used with direct address

Determiner

If the head of a noun phrase is a common noun (as opposed to a pronoun or proper noun), the case particle is followed by the determiner slot. There are a number of options, generally falling into two categories: articles and other determiners.

Ka'ekala has three articles, as compared to English's two:
indefinite nonspecific: kon
indefinite specific: pom
The difference between the two indefinite articles is the specificity of their referent. For example, if I say "I'm looking for an old man", I may be looking for a *specific* old man, who I will presumably name or describe, or alternatively I could be looking for *any* old man (say, for a gerontological study). The former would use the indefinite specific article, and the latter would use the indefinite nonspecific. The indefinite nonspecific article is also used when talking about a *class* of things (where English may use an indefinite article, a definite article, or no article at all): "ants can lift 50 times their own weight" (or "the ant can lift fifty times its own weight"), "children are precious", etc.
Definite: 'ong
Much like English "the", the Ka'ekala definite article is used for referents that are known to the speakers, either through context, uniqueness, or because the referent has already been introduced in the conversation through an indefinite article.

Unlike English, none of these articles imply singularness or plurality, and they can all be used with either singular or plural nouns.

Determiners are the same as their respective pronouns; there is no difference in form except that when used in the determiner slot rather than the head of their own NP they do not take any plural suffixes. They must agree in animacy with the head noun. The pronouns for "no one/nothing" mean "no", the pronouns for "everyone/everything" mean "every, all", the pronouns for "anyone/anything" mean "any", etc.

Number

The next slot is the slot for numbers. This can be a cardinal number or a number-like word such as "many", "few", etc.

Unlike English, the presence of a number does not take away the requirement for an article or determiner.

Measure words

Inanimate nouns are grammatically mass nouns, and need to have measure nouns to be counted. These measure words are required for inanimate nouns if a numeral is used, and may be used with other number words ("some", "few", "many/much", etc.) if what is meant is "some plates of rice", "a few bottles of beer" rather than "some rice", "a little bit of beer". They are also optionally used with sentient and animate nouns under certain circumstances. If a measure word is used without a numeral or number word, the meaning indicated is "one". (See the page on measure words for more information on how they are used.)

Measure words are technically the heads of embedded noun phrases, and can take certain modifiers as outlined below.

Adjectives

Attributive adjectives typically precede the noun, though they may follow instead. If a noun has a possessor noun (see below), the adjective must follow rather than precede the noun. An adjective may also be moved to follow the noun to emphasize the adjective: 'ong kōla pe'a the white house, 'ong pe'a kōla the white house (not the blue one). Adjectives do not decline. (Ordinal numbers are treated as adjectives, but always precede any descriptive adjectives.)

Possessives

Where English has possessive adjectives like "my", "your", "his", and so on, Ka'ekala instead has a set of possessor prefixes that attach to the noun. These agree with the possessor, and have clear links to their respective pronouns:

PrefixPronounMeaning
'alu-'anmy
'ulu-le'uyour (sg)
kalu-tekahis/her (sentient)
nolu-tenoits (animate)
rolu-teroits (inanimate)
nalu-ānaour (du incl)
naulu-ānauour (pl incl)
nelu-āneour (excl)
walu-lēwayour (pl)
kaulu-tēkautheir (sentient)
nailu-tēnaitheir (animate)
railu-tēraitheir (inanimate)

Remember that plurality and animacy refer to that of the possessor, not the possessed! Similar to the way plural suffixes insert themselves before a final nasal consonant, if the noun begins with an s followed by another consonant (e.g. skūra shark), the possessive is inserted after the s (with the ' in 'alu- and 'ulu- being dropped, though still written: skūra > salukūra my shark (written [S-] ['A] [LU] [KŪ] [RA] in the native script), snaulukūra our [pl incl] shark.

If the possessor is a noun, that noun (more specifically embedded noun phrase; see below) immediately precedes the noun with possessor prefix, which takes the third-person possessor prefix agreeing with it: Pīta kalungupō Peter's axe. As stated in the section on adjectives, the use of a possessor noun requires any preceding adjective to move after the noun: 'ong māna kaluyukē her black skirt > 'ong Mēri kaluyukē māna Mary's black skirt.

Ka'ekala distinguishes what is called alienable and inalienable possession. Inalienable possession refers to permanent (or theoretically permanent) relationships between people, "possession" of body parts and other inherent characteristics, and long-term inanimate possessions such as a house or car. When the possession construction illustrated here refers to an inalienable possession (e.g. "your mother", "his house", "the cat's tail"), the determiner slot in the noun phrase is left blank. If it refers to alienable possession ("your customer" [the one you're dealing with right now], "his pencil", "the cat's toy"), the determiner spot is present as normal.

Embedded noun phrases

As noted above, the measure word and possessor noun are both embedded noun phrases. They can appear as a simple noun, or as larger phrases with multiple components, though in Ka'ekala these embedded noun phrases do not have the full range of possible components as a regular, "top-level" noun phrase.

An embedded noun phrase may maximally have an article/determiner, a number, adjectives, and possessive constructions (and of course the possessive construction can itself have an embedded noun phrase, and so on) in addition to the noun itself. Of course it may have none of these elements other than the noun. In practice, though determiners in these phrases are common enough, articles are generally omitted if they would be the same as the article in the main phrase itself, and even when the article in the embedded phrase differs it is still frequently left out unless it is necessary for clarity or emphasis.

  • Jim's 12 plates of rice: the 12 Jim his-plate rice
  • the 12 plates of Jim's rice: the 12 plate Jim his-rice

adjective comes before the noun, unless a