Lecture 6: Nouns and Pluralization

[Hooligan]

Hello again students --

We seem to have slowed our pace, but since only three students have bothered to do the assignment from the lecture of two weeks ago, I am not going to spend a lot of time. Here is the next lecture.

PART 1: NOUNS

There is not much to say about the noun in Talossan that is not common-sense to anyone. We have also already covered the issue of a noun's grammatical gender, which governs which forms of articles (and other parts of speech, like adjectives) should be used with each noun. We also stressed the importance of accompanying each noun with some other part of speech -- usually an article, but also a word like acest (= this) or va (= my).

There are only a couple of other things that an English speaker might find slightly different about Talossan nouns.

Gerunds

A gerund is a verb that is being used as a noun. In English, the form of a verb that becomes a gerund is typically the present participle (the -ing form). For example, English has nouns like meeting that have been formed from verbs.

In Talossan, there are indeed some nouns that have formed from the present participle of a verb -- for example, el developind (= the development) -- the primary form of a gerund in Talossan is the infinitive form, not the present participle.

The infinitive form, of course, is the form akin to English's to see or to run. So when you need to use a verb as a noun, you would typically use the infinitive form. This is not unfamiliar in English -- to read is to live is one example of infinitive verbs being used as gerunds in English. This same sentence in Talossan would be el lirarh c'e el vivarh.

Notice that articles need not accompany gerunds -- it is just as proper to omit them as to supply them. For example, lirarh c'e vivarh is also proper for to read is to live.

Gerunds often appear in a prepositional phrase expressing a purpose. This is done in English as well. For example, vivéu per cantarh (= I live for singing, or I live to sing).

Adjectives Used as Nouns

The infinitive form and the present participle of the verb are not the only other parts of speech that can serve as nouns in Talossan. In Talossan, as in other Romance languages, it is not uncommon to allow an adjective to stand alone as a noun, if the noun it would be modifying is obvious from context.

For example, where English would say Is your friend the fat man or the thin man?, Talossan would perhaps say ¿Isch tu amíc el fäts eda el stiglh? (literally = is your friend the fat or the thin). English often uses a neutral pronoun like one (as in is he the fat one or the thin one) if the actual noun is to be omitted, but in Talossan, it is fine to allow the noun to be inferred, which causes the adjective, essentially to become a qualified noun: el stiglh (= the thin one [man]).

We have discussed how Talossan present and past participle verb forms are used in adjectival contexts. For example, el cióvec borind (= the boring man) and el cióvec borat (= the bored man). Obviously, these adjectives may be used as any others, to stand for an omitted verb: el borind (= the boring [one]).

Formation of Nouns Through Suffixes

We have briefly discussed Talossan suffixes in a previous lecture. All that I wish to say here is that you should keep in mind that nouns can easily be formed by suffixing other parts of speech, like verbs and adjectives.

There are a great many suffixes that can be used to create a noun. One of these is -maintsch, which is akin to the English suffix -ment. For example, movamaintsch (= movement) is created from the verb movarh (= to move).

Grammatical Gender and Sexual Gender

Grammatical gender and sexual gender are two different things that should not be confused with one another, although they related to one another in some circumstances.

One of these circumstances is exemplified by the fact that the noun garziun (= boy) is a masculine noun, which is not (by the rules given in the previous lecture) what you would expect a noun ending with -iun to be. In short, any noun that can only ever be describing a noun that has a particular sexual gender will have the same grammatical gender. Another such case is la stulkavinureu (= the girlfriend [of a boy]).

Another circumstance when a noun's grammatical gender is determined by the sexual gender of the noun itself rather than by its orthography (spelling) is the case of the "common-gender" nouns. These are nouns that include things like professions. That is, a scientist might be male or female, and if it is important to indicate the feminine gender of a person being referred to as the scientist, you would use la sientistà rather than el sientistà.

Notice, however, that you should use sexually-determined articles (and adjectives, etc.) only if it is important to convey the sexual gender. If it does not matter in context whether a particular scientist is male or female (and you don't wish to make a statement about gender-bias by intentionally choosing the opposite gender to promote the fact that the role of scientist can be filled by a person of either sex), then you should use el sientistà (since masculine is the default grammatical gender for words ending in -istà), even if you happen to know that the scientist is a female.

PART 2: PLURALIZATION

In English there are various ways that nouns are pluralized. For example, box requires the addition of -es, while cherry becomes cherries, wife becomes wives, and desk requires only an -s. There are also groups of nouns in English that pluralize other than by becoming a word ending in -s. For example, child becomes children, goose becomes geese, mouse becomes mice.

This is also true of Talossan -- different words are pluralized using different rules. The grammatical term for a group of words pluralized using the same rule is a "declension". Talossan has five declensions. The majority of nouns are "first declension", but that won't stop me from listing the declensions here in reverse order, from fifth to first. Essentially, to determine the plural form of a noun, you should check to see if the noun fits in each declension by considering them in this reverse (fifth to first) order.

The Fifth Declension: -schti

Nouns ending in -sc, -scù, or -x (but not with -tx, which is a first declension ending), are pluralized by changing this ending to -schti. For example, pesc (= fish) becomes peschti (= fishes), lux (= light) becomes luschti (= lights), servesc (= servant) becomes serveschti (= servants), and iviscù (= marshmallow) becomes ivischti (= marshmallows).

The Fourth Declension: -ici and -íci

Nouns ending in -ic or -íc are pluralized by the addition of the letter -i. For example, pic (= peak) becomes pici (= peaks), and amíc (= friend [male or of unimportant gender]) becomes amíci (= friends [in general, or including at least one male]).

Notice that the pronunciation of the letter c is modified from the k-like pronunciation to the ch-like pronunciation by the addition of the new final letter i. That is, the Talossan word pic sounds like the equivalent English word peak but pici sounds like peachy.

If the letter i is part of a diphthong, however, this declension is often not used, and thus you can see both posteici and the first-declension form posteics (= back doors).

The Third Declension: -ilor

Nouns ending in the stressed or unstressed letter ä, followed by any one or two consonants and finally the letter s are pluralized by the addition of the suffix -ilor. For example, päts (= country) becomes pätsilor (= countries), näps (= turnip) becomes näpsilor (= turnips), fräcs (= dress coat) becomes fräcsilor (= dress coats), schläns (= heat lightning) pluralizes to schlänsilor, äcts (= act of a play) becomes äctsilor (= acts of a play), and pärts (= part) becomes pärtsilor (= parts).

The Second Declension: -eux and -éux

Nouns ending in -eu or -éu are pluralized by the addition of the letter x. For example, legeu (= law) becomes legeux (= laws) and zéu (= god) becomes zéux (= gods).

Recall that this final letter x in this ending is pronounced as the "sh" in English ship.

The First Declension: -s, -ns, -aes, -is, and -en

Most Talossan nouns fall into the first declension, which (in the main) are pluralized by becoming a word that ends in -s.

Just as in English there are sometimes modifications that are made to a word being pluralized before an -s is added to form the plural (for example, box requires -es, and cherry requires the removal of the final letter -y before adding -ies), this is also true in Talossan. That is, some words modify slightly before taking the -s plural form.

• Nouns that end in a stressed vowel or diphthong (except for -à and diphthongs ending in an off-glide; see below) are pluralized by adding -ns. For example, medâ (= mystic) becomes medäns (= mystics), cafè (= coffee or coffee shop) forms cafens (= coffees or coffee shops), mazù (= wrapper) becomes mazuns (= wrappers), cadì (= judge) becomes cadins (= judges), apricò (= apricot) forms apricons (= apricots), and avenû (= avenue) forms avenüns (= avenues).
  
  Words that end in a stressed diphthong that terminates in an off-glide (an unwritten semiconsonant) are not pluralised in this way. Thus, words ending in stressed ae, ai, or ei are excluded from this rule. That is, fadarai (= fable) becomes fadarais (= fables), and mençei (= tribal chief) forms mençeis (= chiefs).
  
  
• Nouns that end in the stressed ending -à, -ar, or -an are pluralized by changing this ending to -aes. For example, cità (= city) becomes citaes (= cities), loßüran (= flamingo) becomes loßüraes (= flamingos), ma (= hand) becomes maes (= hands), and feblar (= failure) becomes feblaes (= failures). Notice, though, that if the ending is not stressed, this rule does not apply: cosa (= thing) becomes cosas (= things) and ceáiçar (= warlord) becomes ceáiçars (= warlords).
  
  
• Nouns that end in -l or -il in which the final letter l is softened in speech, either to the w-sound, or made silent (refer back to the lecture on pronunciation of consonants) are pluralized by changing the ending to -is. For example, stol (= vehicle seat) becomes stois (= seats), ansiel (= fawn) becomes ansieis (= fawns), traval (= work) becomes travais (= works), and fil (= thread) becomes fis (= threads).
  
  
• There are a number of word-endings that would be difficult to pronounce if an -s were simply added. These are -rh, -s, -sch, -scht, -xh, -tx, -z, -glh, -gn, and -þ. Pluralizing words that have any of these endings can be seen as similar to the English need to add a letter e for euphony when creating foxes from fox. In Talossan, the plural form of words with these endings is formed by adding -en rather than -s. For example, munditenens (= world ruler) becomes munditenensen (= world rulers), pevarh (= power or ability) becomes pevarhen (= powers or abilities), síflüs (= a whistle) becomes síflüsen (= whistles), morsch (= walrus) becomes morschen (= walruses), vrüscht (= sausage) becomes vrüschten (= sausages), seguxh (= hound dog) becomes seguxhen (= hound dogs), piatsch (= pact) becomes piatschen (= pacts), damatx (= damage) becomes damatxen (= damages), crutz (= cross) becomes crutzen (= crosses), agogn (= agony or wrestling mat) becomes agognen (= agonies or wrestling mats), vectaglh (= carriage) becomes vectaglhen (= carriages), and glheþ (= language) becomes glheþen (= languages).

All other words in the first declension are pluralized simply by adding the letter -s. For example, festa (= festival) becomes festas (= festivals) and graitind (= greeting) becomes graitinds (= greetings).

Irregular Plurals

English has a great many irregular plurals. Some of these are "ablaut" plurals (such as tooth being pluralized as teeth), others are due to borrowings from other languages (such as alumnus being pluralized as alumni, datum as data, and index as indices).

Talossan, however, only has nine nouns that have irregular plural forms. Yes, only nine, and here they are:

• ar (= year) pluralizes to ars (rather than to aes)
  
• caciun (= dog) pluralizes to become cician (rather than caciuns)
  
• cióvec (= man) pluralizes to become cioveci -- we discussed this, and the fact that this plural form is irregularly pronounced too, in a previous lecture)
  
• fru (= woman) has the plural form frúlor (= women)
  
• fungu (= fungus, mushroom) becomes funxhi (similar to how English pluralizes fungus as fungi)
  
• garda (= guard) becomes garxhi -- this word is little used; other synonyms are more common
  
• luíç (the Talossan currency) is pluralized as luíça -- this coinage was rather whimsical, as these words are taken from the Talossan forms of the proper names Louis and Louise, with the English pronunciation of Louise seeming to be the plural of Louie
  
• po (= bit, small amount) is pluralized as pocs
  
• politica (= policy) is pluralized as politici. Additionally, this is the only case in Talossan where gender changes with number: politica is feminine in grammatical gender, but politici is masculine. Note the gender of the words in la politica cordada non fut viensa dels politici adoptats (= the wise policy was not one of the adopted policies).

As always, I am available for (and would welcome) questions about this lecture or any of the earlier ones. If anything is unclear, please let me know.

If there are assignments for this lecture, I will post them in the next few days.