Dairwueh: Noun Morphology in Depth, pt I

Providing the noun case and number suffixes for Dairwueh hides some of the things that are going on. We find, for instance, nouns like xei, whose plural stem is i-, giving us the following paradigm:

xei   ir
xena ijivna
xear ijivit
xeat ijedin
xeŋa ijeder

For most nouns, two stem forms suffice, but some nouns require up to four stem forms. However, there is no single system of four stems that is sufficient to account for all morphological variation – one needs five stems, of which no word uses more than four distinct ones:

1. singular nominative stem
2. singular oblique stem
3. plural nominative stem
4. plural oblique stem
5. derivative stem

Few nouns have only one stem - these are basically only nouns that lack plurals or singulars altogether.

Nouns with two stems come in two main flavours: 2a: 12 / 345 (almost all being feminine), or 2b: 1234 / 5 (almost all being neuters). However, 2c: 1235 / 4 also exists for a few nouns, (e.g. erha, 'king') and 2d: bits, 'direction', exceptionally follows an 1 / 2345 pattern. Whenever a noun has three distinct stems, usually the lines of division are 3a: 1 / 234 / 5 (e.g. dor, 'man'). A small minority of nouns has 3b: 123 / 4 / 5. For nouns with four stems, the two that are merged are always either 4a: 2 and 4 or 4b: 3 and 4. Part 2 of this post will go through the historical reasons behind the morphophonological changes, this post only provides examples of the classes and explains the basic structure.

Further, the derivative suffixes that are given as examples below are of course also members of such classes; -res, for instance, is a member of 3a, -res, -rto-, -rr, while -pan is a member of 3b, with -pan-, -po-, -pla- as the stem forms.

2d: bits, 'direction'

	sg	pl
nom	bits	bətil
acc	bətna	bətivna
dat	bətar	bətivit
gen	bətat	bətŋa
loc-instr	bətŋa	bətŋa

Derivative example:

bətres: a signpost

3a: dar, 'man'

	sg	pl
nom	dor	daran
acc	darna	darivna
dat	dar	darivit
gen	darat	daredin
loc-instr	darŋa	dareder

Derivative stem: dri-

dripan: manliness, masculinity

2c: erha, 'king'

		sg	pl
nom		erha	erhan
acc		erhana	erivna
dat		erhar	erivit
gen		erhat	eredin
loc-instr		erhaŋa	ereder

Derivative stem: erha-

erhaksa: kingdom
erhapan: royal legitimacy, inheritance of kingly title

4a: soŋe, 'noble title'

		sg	pl
nom		soŋe	soša
acc		soke	soka
dat		sokn	sokivit
gen		sokŋa	sokivit
loc-instr		sokŋa	sokŋa

Derivative stem: sot-

sotres: banner
sotukri: a woman whose nobility passes by female inheritance
sotsek: a nobleman