Lesson #3
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Inanimate & Neuter Nouns
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7. Tefiko Ếldrice
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Lesson ThreeInanimate & Neuter Nouns
Like we discussed in the last lesson, animate nouns are generally living and life-like things, while inanimate nouns are usually nonliving things and non-life-like abstractions. However, not all living things are classified as animate nouns; things with low animacy, like trees, are often inanimate nouns.
There are 2 kinds of inanimate nouns: regular inanimate nouns (which end in -o) and nouns ending in -arin (almost always proper nouns), which are names of languages. Regular inanimate nouns are more similar to animate nouns, while nouns ending in -arin are more unique, though technically they're still inanimate nouns. Declensions for each are shown below
| Inanimate Nouns | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nominative | Accusative | Genitive | Locative | |
| Singular | -o | -or | -os | -on |
| Plural | -i | -ir | -in | |
| -arin Nouns | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nominative | Accusative | Genitive | Locative | |
| Singular | -- | -es | -en | |
| Plural | -s | -ens | ||
Here are examples of both, using the words êndo (tree) and Sindielarin (Sindielic):
| Ênd- | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nominative | Accusative | Genitive | Locative | |
| Singular | êndo | êndor | êndos | êndon |
| Plural | êndi | êndir | êndin | |
| Sindielarin | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nominative | Accusative | Genitive | Locative | |
| Singular | Sindielarin | Sindielarines | Sindielarinen | |
| Plural | Sindielarins | Sindielarinens | ||
Neuter nouns are relatively rare, often just alternate forms of animate or inanimate nouns used when the animacy of something is ambiguous or unknown. For example, you hear a bump outside, and you don't know the cause. Do you say "Who did that?" or "What did that?"? You could use the neuter word kao, meaning both what and who.
Neuter nouns end in -ao, and their declension is transparently just a combination of animate and inanimate declensions. Here are the forms for neuter nouns:
| Neuter Nouns | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nominative | Accusative | Genitive | Locative | |
| Singular | -ao | -aos | -aon | |
| Plural | -i | -iar | -in | |
Here is an example word, sesao (entity, thing), fully declined:
| Sesao | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nominative | Accusative | Genitive | Locative | |
| Singular | sesao | sesaos | sesaon | |
| Plural | sesi | sesiar | sesin | |
báthrumo - bathroom
êndo - tree
niono - beginning
quindiyo - end
nadro - eye
nindo - way
sno - day
awanáro - food
hono - ear
waro - water
Sindielarin - Sindielic
Ínglišarin - English
Ếvuhêniarin - Evu'enian
sesao - thing/entity
kao - who/what
fao - nothing and no-one ✎ Edit Article ✖ Delete Article
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