Detail #67: Nouny 'and' and a noun class

I recently read of a language where the conjunction and is inflected like a verb. Suddenly the notion of having a very nouny and appeared to me.

Morphological template:

[noun class/number][root, -əl- or -əj-][dual/plural/optional possessive suffixes][case]

 Now, as may be gleaned by careful observation, number congruence appears in two places - in part with the noun class morpheme, in part in the slot on the other side of the root. And belongs to a pseudoclass of nouns, including several functional words and just a few regular nouns (if, I, anything, something, nothing, a few dummy objects, what when not being a determiner of a noun, ...)

The number is either dual or plural, for which the noun class does have markers (shared with another noun class though). To refer to the noun phrase later, the pronoun will be marked for this noun class.

The slot after the root is kind of interesting, though: if both nouns are possessed by the same owner, this slot will be filled with a corresponding affix, and no number congruence whatsoever. If no owner is present (or there are different owners for the nouns), the number congruence will be either dual or plural. Plural congruence permits stacking several ands, in which case only the first has to take case. If a pronoun is included, this also is marked as a possessive marker, so 'my friend and I' is 'friend-my dual-əl-mine-[case]', my friend and you is friend-my dual-əl-yours-[case].

Often, the conjunction goes after the two nouns, reverse polish notation style, but it may be shifted around due to the relatively free word order of the language.

Case follows the language's usual case marking paradigm, and marks the case of the whole phrase. The subordinate nouns may take the same case. Another option would be to use some kind of wastebasket case or not to distinguish certain cases when coordinated, e.g. object and subject cases default to nominative on the nouns (but not on the conjunction), whereas local cases are maintained on the noun, so e.g.

I bought a newspaper and an icecream -> I bought class_of_trivial_things-newspaper-nom foods_and_plants-icecream-nom pseudoclass/dual-əl-acc

I visited the museum and the concert hall -> I visit-1sg-past class:big_things-museum-to class:big_things-concerthall-to pseudoclass/dual-əl-to

If the coordinated nouns have different case - a permitted thing in this language - the case of the conjunction is generally the genitive (for core case coordination) or the somewhat wastebaskety locative.

There is a tendency for heavy constituents to go first among the two nouns, and in the case of trivial constituents, there is a discernible hierarchy where the greater the animacy, social importance and contextual relevance, the more likely the noun is to be placed first.

For coordinated non-nouns, a naked əl/əj suffices, and then often goes both between and after the verb phrases or adjectives. For subordinate clauses to which the speaker may want to refer, [singular]əl[3sg grammatical class possessor][case] may serve to form a subordinating conjunction:

he said singular-əl-3sg grm.class.acc he returns tomorrow

ta mege nəleta miǵris neltle

 he said that he returns tomorrow