The noun and noun qualifiers
The good news is that xathmel nouns do not have gender, nor, in baxathmel, do they have case forms. Matters go rapidly downhill from there.
Just as there are two main classes of verb, there are also two classes of noun, depending on the type of simple plural they form.
Kvimbri nouns
The
majority of nouns form the kvimbri ut or doubling plural. This is fairly straightforward: if the noun ends in a consonant, the consonant
is doubled and a final 'a' is added; if the noun ends in a vowel, the ending '-xa' is appended. Thus
parth, festival; parththa, festivals
jan, warrior; janna, warriors
ko, woman; koxa, women
iwa, mother; iwaxa, mothers
Mzi nouns
Perhaps three-quarters of all xathmel nouns form their plurals in the kvimbri ut. Unfortunately the remaining 25% form the
mzi ut, or
'moving-upstream' plural; these are less regular than the kvimbri plurals, and must be learned as they are encountered.
There is no way to tell from looking at a word which sort of plural it forms: plurals must be learned as a new word is
encountered.
Mzi plurals are marked by addition of the endings -ath, -at, or -eth, together with, in some cases, alteration of the stem vowels.
Examples of mzi plurals:
enel, gate; enelath, gates
chior, day; chioreth, days
sand, track, spoor; sandat, tracks
nornen, star; nernenath, stars
sta, man; stieth, men
There are a handful of words which have no plural, or rather, in which the plural is identical to the singular. Of these, the only one in common
use is lu, star. (Note that nornen and lu both mean star, but where nornen is always used in a scientific or technical sense, i.e. a
very massive luminous stellar body, lu has a more poetic meaning.)
Noun qualifiers
Like many Xaîni languages, xathmel makes use of noun qualifiers: affixes which modify the basic meaning of the word. These may be
classified as qualifiers of size, quantity, and order, as well as a miscellaneous group, some of which are now considered archaic. They are
applied to the singular noun, and may, if desired, be combined
Qualifiers of size
-pin: qualifier of very small size, up to about 0.5 cm in its largest dimension
-dak: qualifier of small size, up to about 12 cm
-shan: qualifier of medium size, up to about 40cm
-cha or -chaw: qualifier of middle size, objects up to about 1m
-ya, -yaa: qualifier of man-size, up to about 2m
-gai: qualifier of large size, up to about 30m
-kotom: qualifier of huge size, 50m or more
In addition, two contrived qualifiers are available, originally used specifically in technical language, which have entered general discourse:
-ktip: for microscopic objects
-kataan: for objects of planetary size or greater
Examples of the use of size qualifiers:
kheshem, book; kheshemdak, small book, handbook
teif, child; teifcha, small child; teifya, child grown to adult size
ntaa, house; ntaakotom, large house
Qualifiers of quantity
-ating: few (3 to 6)
-naz: several (more than 6)
-inya: many
-kan, -ken: some
-mshu: all
-kantha: half of
Examples of the use of quantity qualifiers:
peit, word; peitating, a few words
sta, man; stanaz, several men
ntaa, house; ntaainya, many houses
Xaîni, a Xaîni; Xaînikan, some Xaîni; Xaînimshu, all Xaîni
talat, page; talatkantha, half a page
Qualifiers of order
-ledh: first
-kanya: one of a number of
-tokkone: last
Examples (contrived) of some combined qualifiers:
talatdakkanthakanya, one of a number of small half pages
ntaakotomtokkone, the last great house
Note that size qualifiers invariably come first, closest to the noun.
More about the Common Tongue
Prepositions and other particles