Nouns In common with other Maiduan languages, Nisenan has an extensive
case system. There are eight inflected cases, all of which are suffixed to the
head of the noun phrase. Nouns are divided into two
classes, human and non-human; human nouns can be inflected for number and lack locative, allative, and instrumental case forms, while non-human nouns cannot be inflected for number and lack comitative case forms. The limited evidence of Nisenan means that not all case forms are attested. Number marking for human nouns is optional. The dual suffix is
-wysa and the plural is
-wyse. Both are placed between the noun root and the case suffix, e.g.
tynys-wysa-im [tɨnɨswɨsam] "two old women". All adjectives and determiners in the noun phrase take the nominative case, while possessors take the genitive:
Pronouns Personal, demonstrative, and interrogative / indefinite pronouns are all attested. They are inflected with some irregularities in the nominative, accusative, and genitive cases. In particular, the first and second person pronouns lack the characteristic
-im nominative suffix. Ablative and comitative forms are regularly derived from the same suffixes as full nouns. The first person dual alternates between
naas and
nisaam, which may denote
inclusive and exclusive respectively ("you and me" vs. "me and someone else"). The non-singular second person forms are not attested in the genitive, but may be reconstructed on the basis of their first and third person counterparts. In addition, there is a third-person non-human pronoun
myj, which inflects regularly in the oblique cases. As in many other languages, this third-person pronoun is similar to the demonstrative "that" (
my-). Pronouns of location include the emphatic demonstrative
myjdyk "right there" and
hededyk "right here", as well as
hodo "that, there" and
hede "this, here". Interrogative and indefinite pronouns are also attested, albeit in only a few case-forms. Human and non-human indefinite pronouns each have two sets; the distinction between them is unclear.
Possession In general, possession is marked by placing the possessor (noun or pronoun) in the genitive case before the possessed:
mysaak hadyky "their things". However, a few
kinship terms instead take a possessive prefix:
nik-ne "my mother",
min-ne "your mother",
my-ne "his, her, their mother".
Verbs Verbs in Nisenan are inflected for
tense,
mood,
aspect, person, and number. However, the verbal paradigm is remarkably defective. The full slate of pronominal inflection is used only in the
optative mood and with
auxiliary verbs;
realis predicates rely on auxiliaries, explicit subjects, or context.
Infinitives The unmarked infinitive (complement to an auxiliary verb) is
-i:
ydawi 'to come'. It is replaced by the negative suffix
-men, e.g.
ydawmen 'to not come', or any tense/aspect suffix, for which see below.
Tense and aspect Several tense/aspect suffixes are demonstrated in Eatough (1999). The most common of these in narrative texts is
-mukum, a simple past:
e-mukum 'saw'. An alternative past tense, perhaps with an
inchoative sense and generally co-occurring with an auxiliary, is
-haa:
pooloj-haa mi "you got sick". Also attested are the
perfective -ii, -ji (
todaw-ii ni 'I have brought it'), a
progressive -im (
tuj-im ni 'I am sleeping'), a future tense
-wis, and a
stative -u.
Auxiliary verbs There are two interrogative auxiliary verbs,
be 'be' and
ka 'do'. Their meanings do not align very closely with these English translations;
be appears to be used more in questions relating to the present and
ka in those relating to the past. Examples of the interrogative pronouns are ''mink'i
be'' 'is it yours?' and
menem ka bonda 'who fell down?'. The affirmative auxiliary
da, also glossed as 'do', is used to make positive assertions: ''myji
dani aanik'i
"I want it". It has a similar pattern of inflection except for the aberrant first-person singular dani
. Its stative counterpart is my'', glossed as 'be': ''nik'i syym
my wennem syym'' 'my dog is a good dog'. In addition to these, there is a root
ha-, glossed as 'do' but not listed among the auxiliary verbs. This root is used extensively in narrative texts. Unlike the auxiliaries above, it does not entail explicit person marking but is rather marked for same / different subject:
ha-n 'do (same subject)',
ha-ce 'do (different subject)'.
Optative The optative mood indicates that the verb's result is desired by the speaker, e.g.
homaa pa-is [homaː pas] "I want to eat something",
huujo-p e-men-bo [huːjop emenbo] "hide it so he doesn't see". The optative agreement suffixes are as follows. Second-person optatives can mark the absence or presence of a speaker for the assumed result, where an additional suffix
-ka implies the speaker will be absent (e.g.
myjaatibeneka "you should go do that"), while a distinct form
-benes implies the speaker will be present.
Cautionary The cautionary mood is the opposite of the optative, indicating that something might go wrong as a result of the verb:
bonobys "I might get lost". The cautionary suffixes are as follows. == Numbers ==