Tales of the Swampwitch

Noun Categorizers, Plurals and cases

The first thing I want for this language, mostly for the fun I can have with descendants, are noun categorizers, each of these has five cases.

As an important note, the noun categorizers are postfixed to a noun, but can be used as standalone words, in which case they are third person pronouns.

Final important note is that the plural morpheme <gaz> will be postfixed -after- the categorizer, and the case marker after -that-.

Now for the list of Noun Categorizers…

• <gat> – Friend/Companion (also used for pets and the like. Animate)
• <muk> – Predator/Enemy (Animate)
• <ci>- Phenomenon (Rain, Fire, etc. Animate)
• <pac>- Prey (Animate)
• <xo> – Food (Inanimate)
• <tog> – Object (Inanimate)
• <kik> – Concept (Inanimate)

Yes, Phenomena are considered animate by this culture. The remaining Animate classes are meant to reflect the pack-based predatorial nature of the species this language is for.

Finally, we have 8 cases. The Nominative (1st case), the Vocative (2nd case), the Genitive (3rd case), the Instrumental (4th case), the Locative (5th case) Ablative (6th case), Allative (7th case) and the Objective (8th case, Which covers both the direct and indirect object.)

1. (unmarked)
2. <co>
3. <ki>
4. <ge>
5. <ce>
6. <gu>
7. <xe>
8. <ku>

As an example word, consider talking about a group of prey you’re hunting that you’ve spoken about earlier, and are currently moving towards. You’d use <pacgazxe> /paG’gaz.xe/ (fricative at the end of the first syllable is voiced due to adjacent voiced plosive.)