Nouns

In Ŋarâþ Crîþ, each noun is in one of three noun classes: celestial, terrestrial, and human. The class of a given noun is fixed.

Nouns are also declined for number and case. There are five numbers: direct, dual, plural, singulative, and generic. No noun can decline for all five numbers; instead, each noun is limited to a subset of these according to its clareþ:

• Singular nouns allow the direct (as a singular), the dual, the plural, and the generic.
• Collective nouns allow the direct (as a collective), the singulative, and the generic. The following nouns tend to be collective:
  • Objects that tend to be found in groups
  • Some plants, including all trees and flowers
  • Small animals
  • Diminuitive nouns
• Mass nouns allow only the direct and the generic.

Generic number is used to mean “X in general” or “X as a concept”. It is used on noun phrases that do not refer to a specific referent or referents. Contrast the following, for instance:

• Love is a complex emotion. – mentions love in general, so this would use the generic
• Alice’s love for Bob grew every day. – particular instance of love, so this would use the singular
• Fish eat flowers. – general truth, so “fish” would be in the generic and “flowers” would be in the generic
• The fish eat flowers. – mentions a particular group of fish, so “fish” would be in the plural, but if the sentence indicates a habitual action, “flowers” would be in the generic
• A fish will usually eat about 200 flowers during its lifespan. – “fish” is generic, as this sentence is not referring to a particular fish but rather an idealized individual reflecting the average. “Flowers” is plural and “lifespan” is singular because they are definite relative to the subject, even though the subject is generic.
• The fish are eating flowers. – both “fish” and “flowers” would be in the plural
• The sun shines. – there’s only one sun as far as we can tell, but this is also a general truth, so would “sun” be in the singular or the generic?
• The sun is shining. – “sun” would definitely be in the singular here
• Charlie fishes for trout every week. – “Charlie” is singular; “trout” and “week” are generic
• Charlie is fishing in that river. – uses the singular
• All ravens are black. – also a general truth, so “raven” would be in the generic number. A speaker could reasonably say this, even if they have not seen every raven in existence.
• All of the ravens landed on the fence. – “all” is used with a partitive meaning, referring to every individual in some contextually relevant set of ravens, and the statement is made from observation, so this sentence would use the singular (as customary with a noun modified by “all” or “any”)
• I abhor strawberries. – “strawberries” would be in the generic, as the speaker is claiming to dislike strawberries in general
• I abhor these strawberries because they’re too sour. – “strawberries” would be in the plural here, referring to some strawberries in particular
• I’m looking for the manager, whoever that may be. – although the speaker does not know who the manager is, they expect that there exists someone who is the manager, so “manager” would be in the singular
• Think of a word, any word. – again, the speaker does not know which word the listener chose, but they expect that a particular word will be chosen, so “word” is in the singular
• Everyone knows someone. – This sentence has two interpretations in English. In Ŋarâþ Crîþ, these two interpretations would yield different sentences.
  
  • There exists an individual y such that for all individuals x, x knows y. – “Someone” (the y here) would be singular. “Everyone” (the x) would also be singular if the statement is based on observation.
  • For all individuals x, there exists an individual y such that x knows y. – Assuming again that the statement is based on observation, “everyone” and “someone” would both be singular here as well (there is exactly one “someone” for each individual of “everyone”).

In areas other than noun declension, Ŋarâþ Crîþ has the singular, dual, plural, and generic numbers. This results in a bijective mapping for singular nouns. For collective nouns, the collective is mapped to the plural, and the singulative to the singular; for mass nouns, the direct number is mapped to the singular. In all cases, the generic number is mapped to itself.

Ŋarâþ Crîþ has eight cases (Table 1).

The nominative, accusative, dative, and genitive cases are considered core cases. In general, the first three of these are used for arguments to verbs, the genitive case for adnominal adjuncts, and the other four cases for adnominal or adverbial adjuncts.

Declensions

Noun declensions are divided into several paradigms; the paradigm to use for a given noun is not entirely predictable from the citation form. We follow the native-language convention of numbering them from zero.

Note that even when not explicitly listed, any declension paradigm (that contains content words) can contain words of the human class, since names can in theory be derived from any content noun.

In all regular paradigms, genitive dual, plural, and singulative forms are eclipsed. Indeclinable parts of compound nouns do not have this behavior. Most irregular nouns do, although there are exceptions.

Declined noun forms are built from two or more components, which include constants and variables. Constants stay the same within a given form of a given paradigm, regardless of the noun within that paradigm to be declined. Variables depend on the noun being declined and can be divided into stems and themes. Each declined form of a noun contains exactly one stem, which is considered the essence of a noun. A theme is a variable that is short (almost always one letter long). Themes are limited to a predefined number of options, while stems can be arbitrary (within phonotactic boundaries). A theme might have one or more derivatives, which are derived systematically from the value of the theme. Each regular noun has a set of principal parts, which are inflected forms of the noun that collectively give enough information to determine all other inflected forms.

Most nouns have at least N, L, and S stems. The N stem is used for the nominative, accusative, genitive, and dative cases; the L stem is used for the locative, instrumental, and abessive; and the S stem is used for the semblative. Paradigm 4 additionally has a G stem, while paradigm 10 adds both a G and an A stem and paradigm 13 adds I and I′ stems. In contrast, paradigm 12 lacks an L stem. When an L stem exists, it is almost always distinct from the N stem because some forms differ only in the use of an N or an L stem.

Themes in noun paradigms can be classified into thematic consonants and thematic vowels. In this document, thematic consonants are notated using ⟦C⟧ (possibly with modifying symbols) and thematic vowels are denoted by digits (with ⟦0⟧ being the primary theme and others being derivatives). These symbols should not be confused with numerals.

The following is a summary of noun declensions in Ŋarâþ Crîþ. It is not meant to be a complete guide to declensions; see the individual declension tables for that purpose.

Paradigm 0

Pattern: ⟨-a⟩, ⟨-e⟩, or ⟨-o⟩

Noun class: celestial

Stems: N = nom. sg. without last vowel; L = loc. sg. without -Vs; S = sembl. sg. without -it

Themes: 0 = last vowel of nom. sg.; 1, 2, 3 according to Table 3

Paradigm 1

Pattern: ⟨-as⟩ or ⟨-es⟩

Noun class: celestial

Stems: N = nom. di. without last vowel + s; L = loc. di. without -Vþ; S = sembl. di. without -it

Themes: 0 = last vowel of nom. di.; 1, 2, 3, 4 according to Table 3

The ⟨s⟩ in the nominative plural form is present only in nouns ending with ⟨-es⟩.

Paradigm 2

Pattern: ⟨-aþ⟩, ⟨-eþ⟩, or ⟨-oþ⟩; rarely ⟨-iþ⟩

Noun class: celestial

Stems: N = nom. di. without last vowel + þ; L = loc. di. without -Vþ; S = sembl. di. without -it

Themes: 0 = last vowel of nom. di.; 1, 2, 3, 3′, 4 according to Table 8

Paradigm 3

Pattern: ⟨-ar⟩, ⟨-er⟩, or ⟨-ir⟩

Noun class: celestial

Stems: N = nom. di. without last vowel + r; L = loc. di. without -elt; S = sembl. di. without -it

Themes: 0 = last vowel of nom. di.; 1, 1′, 3, 4 according to Table 11

Paradigm 4

Pattern: ⟨-in⟩ or ⟨-is⟩

Noun class: celestial

Stems: N = nom. di. without -in or -is; G = gen. di. without -en; L = loc. di. without -Vlt; S = sembl. di. without -it

Themes: C = last consonant of nom. di.; V = last consonant of loc. di. (either ⟦e⟧ or ⟦i⟧); C′ = ⟦d⟧ if C is ⟦n⟧, and ⟦c⟧ if C is ⟦s⟧

Paradigm 5

Pattern: ends in a consonant; last syllable usually has low tone

Noun class: celestial

Stems: N = nom. di. without final consonant cluster; N′ = N with tone of its final syllable inverted; L = loc. di. without -Vs; S = sembl. di. without -it

Themes: C = final consonant cluster of nom. di.; C′ =

• ⟦nd⟧ if C is ⟦n⟧, ⟦ns⟧, or ⟦nþ⟧
• ⟦rð⟧ if C is ⟦rþ⟧
• ⟦l⟧ if C is ⟦r⟧
• ⟦r⟧ if C is ⟦s⟧
• voiced version of C if C is a single consonant (⟦p⟧ mapped to ⟦v⟧, but ⟦ł h⟧ not changed)
• C otherwise;

5 = take sum of letters in nom. di. modulo 6 and index into ⟨e a i a i e⟩; 0 = last vowel of loc. di.; 1, 2, 4 according to table for paradigm 0

Paradigm 6

Pattern: ⟨-al⟩, ⟨-il⟩, or ⟨-ol⟩

Noun class: celestial

Stems: N = nom. di. without last vowel + l; L = loc. di. without -ilt; S = sembl. di. without -it

Themes: 0 = last vowel of nom. di.; 0′, 1, 3, 4 according to Table 18

Paradigm 7

Pattern: ⟨-os⟩

Noun class: terrestrial

Stems: N = nom. di. without -os; L = loc. di. without -os; S = sembl. di. without -ot

Themes: none

Paradigm 8

Pattern: ⟨-or⟩

Noun class: terrestrial

Stems: N = nom. di. without -or; L = loc. di. without -os; S = sembl. di. without -ot

Themes: none

Paradigm 9

Pattern: ⟨-on⟩

Noun class: terrestrial

Stems: N = nom. di. without -on; L = loc. di. without -os; S = sembl. di. without -ot

Themes: none

Paradigm 10

Pattern: ⟨-el⟩

Noun class: terrestrial

Stems: N = nom. di. without -el; A = acc. di. without -en, G = gen. di. without -(j)el; L = loc. di. without -os; S = sembl. di. without -ot

Themes: none

Paradigm 11

Pattern: ends in a consonant

Noun class: any

Stems: N = nom. di. without final consonant cluster; L = loc. di. without -as; S = sembl. di. without -it

Themes: C = final consonant cluster of nom. di.; C′ = (defined as in paradigm 5)

5 = if celestial, then take sum of letters in nom. di. modulo 5 and index into ⟨a e i e a⟩; if human, then take same letter sum modulo 4 and index into ⟨e o a i⟩; always ⟨o⟩ if terrestrial

0 = ⟨a⟩ if celestial or human; ⟨o⟩ if terrestrial

6 = ⟨i⟩ if celestial or human; ⟨e⟩ if terrestrial

Paradigm 12

Pattern: ends in a simple coda other than c or t (possibly empty)

Noun class: any

Stems: N = nom. di. without (j +) final vowel + consonant cluster; S = sembl. di. without -ot

Themes: 0 = (j +) final vowel of nom. di., C = final coda of nom. di.; 0* = 0% if C is n or f and 0 otherwise

Paradigm 13

Pattern: -en or -in

Noun class: celestial

Stems: N = nom. di. without final vowel + -n; L = loc. di. without -es; I = instr. di. without cja- & -es; I′ = instr. pl. or sv. without cja- & -o; S = sembl. di. without -it or -ot

Themes: 0 = final vowel of nom. di., 5 = i if letter sum of nom. di. mod 7 is even and o if it is odd; 5′ = whichever vowel was not chosen as 5; 1, 2 according to Table 35

Paradigm 14

Pattern: -erþ, -arþ

Noun class: celestial

Stems: N = nom. di. without final vowel + -rþ; L = loc. di. without -as; S = sembl. di. without -irþ

Themes: 0 = final vowel of nom. di.; 1 according to Table 38

Because many nouns in Paradigm 14 are derived from verbs, this paradigm assigns defaults to the L and S stems from the N stem. The L stem is derived by changing the last nucleus in the N stem according to Table 41. Depending on the consonants after the last vowel (the bridge), additional letters might be appended:

• If the bridge ends with ⟦-þ⟧ or ⟦-ð⟧, then nothing is added.
• If the bridge ends with ⟦-s⟧, then it is changed to ⟦-þ⟧.
• If the bridge is empty or a valid coda not listed above, then ⟦-þ⟧ is added.
• Otherwise, ⟦-eþ⟧ is added.

The S stem is derived by changing the bridge in the N stem. All instances of ⟦r⟧ in the bridge are replaced with ⟦l⟧, except those that follow one of ⟦a o â ô⟧ and precede a consonant. In addition, if the bridge is one of ⟦t st s⟧ (exactly), then it becomes ⟦d⟧; similarly, if it is one of ⟦þ rþ lþ⟧ (exactly), then it becomes ⟦ð⟧.

Paradigm 14r

This is a variant of paradigm 14 in which some instances of ⟦r⟧ in the suffixes are missing.

Pattern: -eþ, -aþ

Noun class: celestial

Stems: N = nom. di. without final vowel + -þ (usually ending in -r itself); L = loc. di. without -Vs; S = sembl. di. without -irþ

Themes: 0 = final vowel of nom. di.; 1 according to Table 38

Pronouns and determiners

Personal pronouns

Basic personal pronouns

The basic personal pronouns (Tables 44 – 48) are defective: they lack any forms for the core cases.

The first- and second-person pronouns are treated as if they were in the celestial gender, even though they will often refer to humans.

Basic personal pronouns are in the category p and avoid manifesting as free morphemes. They manifest in the following ways, ordered from most to least preferred:

• Fused with a coordinating conjunction if found as the left element
• In a relational with an object prefix
• As an object affix on the verb if in the accusative or dative case
• As a possessive postclitic if in the genitive case, or in the nominative case of a nominalized verb phrase
• Omitted if inferable from the subject affix on a finite verb form
• As an independent form when in a non-core case
• Homophonic with the emphatic pronouns

Possessive clitics

Ŋarâþ Crîþ uses clitics to mark a pronominal possessor, listed in Table 49.

The vowels of the third-person celestial and human possessive clitics are omitted after an open syllable.

The clitic =’ħe is used to indicate that the possessor is the referent of a prior šino or nema.

The third-person possessive suffixes are also used in the double-marked possessive construction. In such a construction, the possessor takes the same case as the possessee and the clitic ⟨=’þ⟩ after a vowel or ⟨=’eþ⟩ after a consonant. The possessee takes the appropriate possessive clitic depending on the gender of the possessor. The possessor and possessee are not required to be adjacent to each other or even in a particular order.

In the general case, the possessive construction is used strictly for possession. That is, it does not have other functions of the genitive case such as apposition or composition.

The possessive construction is also used with the noun ⟨aliþ⟩ something other than as the possessee to ‘negate’ the possessor. This usage cannot be substituted with the genitive (although using non-third-person pronominal clitics on ⟨aliþ⟩ is permitted).

This construction is used with the pronouns ⟨šino⟩ and ⟨nema⟩ as the possessor in order to avoid ambiguity with the determiners, which are the genitive singular forms of these pronouns.

The use of the possessive construction is otherwise quite rare.

Reflexive and reciprocal pronouns

There is only one reflexive pronoun, ⟨cenþ⟩, whose declensions are shown in Table 50.

Emphatic pronouns

Combining a reflexive pronoun with a possessive clitic creates an emphatic pronoun, which acts roughly like a personal pronoun with an independent form but places focus on the referent.

Clusive pronouns

Interrogative pronouns and determiners

The interrogative determiners and pronouns in Ŋarâþ Crîþ are shown in Table 51.

Note that ⟨penna⟩ has an intrinsically mutated S stem.

The pronouns ⟨pen⟩ and ⟨peler⟩ are irregular.

Informally, ⟨pen⟩ can be used instead of ⟨penna⟩ to refer to persons.

Demonstrative pronouns and determiners

The demonstrative determiners and pronouns in Ŋarâþ Crîþ are shown in Table 54.

The determiners ⟨lê⟩ and ⟨tê⟩ trigger eclipsis only if they lie directly before the head of what they modify.

The pronouns elgren and engren are irregular.

Quantification

The pronouns ⟨šino, šjonos, šedit⟩ (0c) means all, and ⟨nema, nomas, nemit⟩ (0c) means some or any. When qualified with a modifying phrase, their scopes are restricted:

However, both of these quantifiers can also be used in the genitive singular as determiners, provided that the head of the noun phrase being modified is partially lenited. Furthermore, forms of ⟨ðên⟩ are not mutated. That is, the above example may have used ⟨šinen navaf⟩ instead.

When a noun phrase containing ⟨šino⟩ or ⟨nema⟩ is in the generic number, it is considered to cover all or some of the relevant individuals in general. When such a noun phrase is in any other number, it is considered to have a partitive meaning, with the number reflecting the quantity of the whole:

Of course, this example could have used ⟨šinen naver⟩ instead.

TODO: figure out interaction between quantifiers and auxiliary verbs

Multiple quantifiers take precedence according to linear order. In other words, the outermost quantifier corresponds to the outermost level of quantification:

The semantically related noun ⟨ruf⟩ modifies a noun somewhere before it in the same clause with the same case. If ⟨ruf⟩ does not immediately follow the noun that it affects, that noun undergoes a partial lenition if it does not already have a mutation.

The determiner ⟨mel⟩ means much or many. It is not inflected, but the corresponding pronoun ⟨denfo, danfos, denfit⟩ (0c) is. From the latter is derived ⟨&denfo, &danfos, &denfit⟩ (0c) majority. Similarly, the determiner ⟨dân⟩ few, little corresponds to the pronoun ⟨dane, dones, denit⟩ (0c), but the word for minority is ⟨resa, risas, redit⟩ (0c). Additionally, ⟨dân⟩ triggers eclipsis in the head noun.

For numerals, see Numerals.

Coordination

Noun phrases are coordinated by attaching a clitic to all except the first coordinand. A noun phrase may be coordinated only with others of the same case.

When the first coordinand is pronominal, then it is fused into the coordinating clitic, leaving the other coordinands behind.

The gender of a coordinated noun phrase involving the and operation is the strongest of those of the coordinands. For this purpose, the human gender is stronger than the celestial, which is stronger than the terrestrial gender.

All coordinated noun phrases inherit the person in the same way: the first person takes precedence over the second, which takes precedence over the third.

When there are more than two coordinands, then the respective clitics occur on each element after the first. X₁ xor … xor X_n means exactly one of X_i; X₁ but not … but not X_n means X₁ but not any later X_i. All pronominal clitics occur at the end of the coordinated noun phrase. In ‘but not’-coordinated phrases, there can be only one pronominal clitic (namely, the one representing the first item).

Quotatives

Quotatives are formed by wrapping the quoted material in quotation marks, followed by a particle depending on case and directness, forming a noun phrase.

Direct quotatives are used for verbatim speech. Indirect quotatives indicate some kind of paraphrasing and do not necessarily represent what someone has said. There exists a separate set of switch-reference indirect quotatives, which are used when (1) both the outer and inner clauses have a third-person subject and (2) the subjects do not corefer.

Direct quotatives necessarily inherit the personal and temporal deixis of the one who said its contents. The personal deixis does not shift inside an indirect quotative, but the temporal deixis shifts to that of the outer event:

Names

Personal names

Ŋarâþ Crîþ recognizes two parts of personal names: the surname and the given name, in that order. Surnames are marked with either a tor, ⟨+⟩ or a njor, ⟨+*⟩.

A given name is marked with a carþ, ⟨#⟩. If a person is known by a single name only, then the name is treated as a given name.

Both the surname and the given name are declined nouns.

A person is addressed or mentioned using the surname, given name, or both, with the surname being more formal than the given name. Nonetheless, the choice of whether to address someone by their surname or by their given name can also depend on other factors such as convenience of pronunciation or distinguishing between multiple people with the same given name or surname.

The use of titles is limited: there is no direct equivalent to Mr. or Ms.. Instead, titles are used merely to describe the role of the person. Notably, (1) they are always nouns, (2) they are never used in the vocative, (3) they are used with the person’s name when the person in question is introduced, and (4) the use of the title alone in later mentions over the name carries no social connotation otherwise. The closest equivalent to sir or madam is ⟨cercerin⟩, meaning stranger, which is used to address someone whose name is not known.

A title is applied by putting it before the name and suffixing the relevant markers to the title: ⟨+⟩ for surnames (regardless of the actual markers on the surname), ⟨#⟩ for given names, and ⟨+#⟩ if both are present:

Because titles are used with names only to introduce a person, ⟨+#⟩ is the most common choice for the postmarker.

Place names

The name of any kind of place is marked with an es, ⟨@⟩.

Sometimes, a place name might be preceded by a noun describing the type of place. In this case, the common noun is suffixed with the marker ⟨@⟩: ⟨vlêcadir@ @elþana⟩ the Elþana archipelago.

Language names

Titles of works