Onto the possessive paradigm for nouns. We'll start with dependent nouns, which are obligatorily possessed and mostly comprise family members and body parts. There are four possessive prefixes, which each have three allomorphs:
- A first-person singular or first-person plural exclusive possessor takes the prefix
nɛ-. Before a vowel, this is reflected as
nɛʔ-, except before some dependent nouns whose stems begin in
i, where it's simply
n-.
- A second-person singular, first-person inclusive, or second-person plural possessor takes the prefix
hɛ-. Before a vowel, this is
hɛʔ-, and before dependent i-stems, it's
c-.
- A third-person possessor (proximate or obviative animate; inanimates can't possess things) takes
o-, which is
oʔ- before a vowel. Dependent i-stems, rather than taking a prefix for third-person possessors, instead undergo mutation of the
i to
u.
- An unknown possessor takes the prefix
mɛ-, which is
mɛʔ- before vowels and
m- before dependent i-stems.
So, the stem
-nɛ̂hc 'hand' gives the forms
nɛnɛ̂hc 'my hand',
hɛnɛ̂hc 'your hand',
onɛ̂hc 'his hand', and
mɛnɛ̂hc 'someone's hand; a hand', which are direct continuations of PA
*neneθki, *keneθki, *oneθki, *meneθki.
Some dependent nouns have stems beginning in
i-, and they take their own set of prefixes- except for the forms with third-person possessors, which don't take a prefix at all and instead mutate the
i- to
u-. So,
-ípec 'tooth' gives
nípec 'my tooth',
cípec 'your tooth',
úpec 'his tooth' and
mípec 'someone's tooth; a tooth'. (The vowel mutation in the third person forms is due to contraction of historical
*wī- to
u-, so there was originally a prefix, but it's not synchronically obvious.)
Plural possessors must take pluralizing suffixes; these are referred to as the 'inner suffixes', since they appear before the 'outer suffixes' which mark obviation and number.
- First person plural possessors take
-ɛnɛn. (Clusivity distinctions are marked in the prefix: first-person exclusive takes
nɛ-/nɛʔ-/n-, inclusive
hɛ-/hɛʔ-/-c).
-Second person and third person proximate plural possessors take
-o, which becomes
-ow- before a vowel.
- Analogy has complicated, rather than collapsed, the inflection for obviative possessors. Note, first, that an animate noun with a third-person proximate possessor must be obviated; if it has an
obviative possessor, it takes a secondary obviative outer suffix. In animate nouns, that is, the obviation of the possessor is marked by the outer suffix, not the inner suffix or the prefix. (Plurality isn't marked for obviative possessors).
However, if the noun is inanimate, it has no marking of obviation in the outer suffixes (and ranks below all animate anyways); thus the inner suffix
-ɛne(w)- marks the possessor as obviative.
Let's look at the possessive paradigm of an animate dependent noun,
-mîs 'older sister', . <3'> means 'obviative possessor'; <X> means 'unknown possessor'. The underlined number marking on top refers to the number of the noun; the abbreviated marking in columns refers to the number of the possessor.
-----
-----
1
1+2
2
3
3'
X
SINGULAR
Sg.
nɛmîs
------
hɛmîs
omîsan
omîsanan
mɛmîs
--------
Pl.
nɛmîsɛnɛn
hɛmîsɛnɛn
hɛmîso
omîsowan
omîsanan
-------
PLURAL
Sg.
nɛmîsac
--------
hɛmîsac
omîsa
omîsahan
mɛmîsac
-------
Pl.
nɛmîsɛnɛnac
hɛmîsɛnɛnac
hɛmîsowac
omîsowa
omîsahan
--------
Inanimate nouns are a bit simpler, since they don't have their own obviation marking to deal with. We'll use
nípec 'my tooth' as our guinea pig:
---------
---------
1
1+2
2
3
3'
?
SINGULAR
Sg.
nípec
---------
cípec
úpec
úpeʔɛne
mípec
---------
Pl.
nípetɛnɛn
cípeʔɛnɛn
cípeʔo
úpeʔo
úpeʔɛne
---------
PLURAL
Sg.
nípeʔan
--------
cípeʔan
úpeʔan
úpeʔɛnewan
mípeʔan
----------
Pl.
nípeʔɛnɛnan
cípeʔɛnɛnan
cípeʔowan
úpeʔowan
úpeʔɛnewan
-------
Most nouns that aren't obligatorily possessed must take the 'formative'
-em, with contraction to a preceding semivowel if obligatory (I really need to work out a good way to write the underlying forms of morphemes...). So,
nɛmâhum 'my bear'.
OTHER THINGS ABOUT NOUNS
Nouns freely form diminutives with
-es-, which mutates to
-us after stems that mutate
-a to
-o and to
-is after stems that mutate it to
-ɛ.Thus
atémus 'puppy',
êsepɛnes 'baby raccoon' (cf.
êsepɛn 'raccoon'),
âsenis 'pebble',
húnis 'frost'.
There is a locative formed with
-(ɛ)hc:
wíciwamɛhc 'at home',
âcihc 'on the ground'. With animates, it usually means something similar to the French
chez:
músohc 'where the elk roam'. Locatives create adverbs, and so have no plurals or obviatives (they can take possessors, though).