Nouns Taos nouns are
inflected according to
grammatical number with the number
suffixes. Additionally, they may be inflected for
possession with
prefixes that indicate the number and
grammatical person of the possessor as well as
agreeing with the number of noun stem.
Number inflection Nouns are generally composed of a noun stem with a following number suffix. The number suffixes distinguish between singular and plural. However, in verbs, three numbers are distinguished—singular, dual, and plural—because of this distinction in verbs the plural suffixes on nouns are more appropriately duoplural (Trager uses the term "nonsingular"). The singular suffix is
‑na and the duoplural suffix is
‑ne. Two other number suffixes
‑ną and
‑nemą can express either singular number or duoplural depending upon the grammatical class of noun. For example, the noun stem
cupa‑ "judge" is duoplural with the addition of
‑ną:
cùpáną "judges". On the other hand, the noun stem
t’awa‑ "wheel" is singular with the addition of
‑ną:
t’áwaną "wheel". Examples with
‑nemą include
ká‑nemą "mothers" (duoplural) and
cí‑nemą "eye" (singular). Following the terminology used for other Tanoan languages, these will be called here "inverse" number suffixes. These
inverse suffixes effectively indicate the grammatical number opposite the other suffix that appears on a given noun. Thus, since the stem
p’iane‑ "mountain" requires the plural suffix
‑ne in the duoplural form (namely,
p’íane‑ne "mountains"), the inverse
‑nemą marks the singular in
p’íane‑nemą "mountain". And, likewise, since the stem
cibiki‑ "robin" requires the singular suffix
‑na in the singular form (namely,
cìbikí‑na "robin"), the inverse
‑ną marks the duoplural in
cìbíki‑ną "robins".
Number classes Taos nouns can be grouped into four grammatical classes based on which number affixes are required for the singular and duoplural inflectional forms. Trager calls these noun classes "genders". One class requires the singular suffix
‑na in the singular form and an inverse suffix in the duoplural. Another class requires an inverse suffix in the singular and the duoplural suffix
‑ne in the duoplural. A third class requires the singular and duoplural suffixes for the singular and duoplural forms, respectively. A fourth class only occurs with the duoplural suffix
‑ne. The first two classes, which use an inverse suffix, can be separated into two subclasses based on whether inverse
‑ną or
‑nemą is used. These are summarized in the following table. : Noun class I is composed of primarily
animate nouns. The animate nouns include persons, animals, and
kinship terms. Two non-animate nouns in the class are
c’ìpána "doll" and
p’ȍxwíana "egg". The class includes both native words and
loanwords from Spanish (such as
yàwo’óna "mare" from
yegua, and
prìmu’úna "cousin" from
primo). Membership of this class is represented by the following list of nouns (cited in the singular form). The first list uses the
‑ną inverse suffix in the duoplural. : The following belong to noun class I with the
‑nemą inverse suffix. : Nouns in classes II and III are opposed to class I in that they are inanimates. However, there is no apparent semantic motivation for distinguishing the types of nouns with membership in class II and class III. Both classes include body parts, plants, natural phenomena, and man-made materials. Loanwords are incorporated into both classes. Examples of nouns in class II follow. Those with the
‑ną inverse suffix are below. : Examples of nouns in class II with the
‑nemą inverse suffix are below. : Examples of noun in class III are the following: : The final class IV consists of mostly
abstract and
deverbal nouns. All nouns in this class only are inflected with the duoplural. They may be semantically either singular or collective. Examples follow. : Trager treats class III and IV as sub-classes of a larger single class. The noun class system also applies to some other word types besides nouns. Demonstratives and some numerals are also inflected for number with different suffixes that agree with the noun that they modify.
Connecting -e- When some stems are followed by the number suffixes, they are followed by a connecting
‑e‑ vowel. For example, the word "flower" consists of a stem
pob‑ and in the inflected forms the intervening vowel appears:
pȍb‑é‑nemą "flower". Other examples include
ȍd‑é‑nemą "chin, jaw",
kwían‑e‑na "bitch",
łȉw‑é‑na "woman". However, not all instances of
e vowels occurring directly before number suffixes are this intervening vowel as there also some stems which end in a
e vowel, such as
c’ȕné‑na "coyote" which has the stem
c’ùne‑.
Reduplication Several noun stem have
reduplicated stem material appearing between the stem and the number suffix. For example,
kò’óne "washing" consists of the stem
ko‑ and the duoplural number suffix
‑ne. Between the stem and the suffix is the
duplifix ‑’o‑. This duplifix consists of the consonant
’ and a copy of the final vowel of the stem
ko‑. The duplifix may be symbolized as
‑’V‑ where
V represents the reduplication of any vowel that occurs at the end of the preceding noun stem. Thus "washing" is
ko‑’V‑ne, which after copying is
ko‑’o‑ne. Other examples include : Further details about the phonology of the reduplication are found in
Taos phonology: Reduplicative vowel patterning. The reduplication occurs in all four noun classes before the all number suffixes except inverse
‑ną (in both class I duoplural and class II singular). The following examples show the patterning of reduplication and number suffixes found by Trager. :
Stress shift Place-gender (local) Vocatives Noun stems of the nouns in class I can standalone as free words when they are used to refer to persons as proper nouns.
Compounding Verbs Pronominal inflection : ==See also==