Reference Grammar

Section 4.1: Nouns: Introduction


Gender:

Nouns in Mun'gayöd can have one of four different genders, which are identified by the definite article each takes:
for nouns dealing with the human species. Body parts, professions, and any nominalized adjectives that name a human by attribute (like "She's a screamer.") take this gender.
iufor nouns dealing with animals (anything non-human, but alive). Includes vegetation.
ilufor nouns dealing with inanimate matter of any kind.
ifor nouns dealing with abstract concepts. Emotions, states of being, philosophy, theology, and any other nouns that don't have a concrete physical existence fall into this category.

The indefinite article for all genders is ang.


Cases:

There are 7 cases in Mungayöd, which are marked by inflecting the article. The noun itself is unmarked in all cases but dative and genitive:

Nominativesubject. Also the lexical form.
Accusativedirect object.
Dativeindirect object. The noun is inflected in -t. If the noun already ends in a consonant, it is inflected with the vowel of the article (or the final vowel, in the case of two-syllable articles).
Genitivepossession, partition, many other usages. The noun is inflected in -ng. If the noun already ends in a consonant, it adds a vowel like the dative, but then also adds the -ng.
Locativestatic location.
Instrumental-Sociativeusage (i.e., with a hammer), association.
Directionaldynamic motion.


The inflected articles:

HumanAnimalMatterConceptPluralIndefinite
nom.iuiluifeiang
acc.liìliulilulilèfilang
dat.totilutotèfeitòng
gen.waiwuwiluwiweiwang
loc.zilìziuizuzifeizêzing
inst.sòjusòlusòfeisòng
dir.djidjiudjudjifeidjudjing