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Pabappa to English English to Pabappa
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NOMINAL MORPHOLOGY Although most inflection in Pabappa is on verbs, there is a case system for definite nouns as well. (Indefinite nouns use compounds or two-word phrases instead of cases.) Pabappa is a nom-acc language, so the nominative is the default case. There is no gender, only one declension and there are no irregular nouns, so case inflection is not that difficult. The only potential difficulty is that some bare stem nouns resemble case-inflected nouns themselves, so there is no way to tell when looking at a noun for sure what case it is in. The case inflections are mostly suffixes, although some affect the stem as well. Below is a table of all the case inflections of Pabappa:
Although Pabappa is not an ergative language and never has been, it has what could be called an absolutive case. It consists of the bare stem of the noun with no suffixes or internal sound mutations. It is restricted in use to numbers and numberlike modifiers, and to vocative forms for people's names. Pabappa also considers all of its verbs and adjectives to be in the absolutive case, which is correct because historically verbs, adjectives, and nouns once shared the same set of suffixes. Since the absolutive case is the only one which reveals the stem of the noun, and there are no irregular stem-changing nouns, the absolutive form is what is listed in dictionaries. The other eight cases of Pabappa are used much like those of any other language. Below is a description of each with a few examples: The nominative case is the default case in Pabappa. However, it is not always the same as the bare stem; certain consonants are forbidden at the end of nominative case nouns and therefore are modified. So penub- is the noun root meaning "cross", but penup is the actual nominative form. Pabappa uses sequences of two nouns in the nominative case to show indefinite genitive meaning: peso bla means "lake bear". Put another way, the genitive and the nominative appear the same in Pabappa, but word order determines which is which. This is somewhat of an exception to the rule of free word order, since one could not switch the two words around and retain the meaning. But the construction is considered as a single noun by Pabappa anyways. These compound constructions can often be written as one word if their meaning stays the same from sentence to sentence. For example, papaplamabup, the compound of papap "language" and lamabup "creator", can mean "conlanger" and is preferable to the noncompound form papap lamabup. The instrumental case is used to show the noun by which a verb is performed, and is involved with the verb inflection to some extent. For example, pebrappebbet popoppam pamipam is "I cleaned up the mess with a towel", where pamip is "towel" and -am is the instrumental ending. The possessive case is used to express temporary or unique possession, bodily parts and activities, inanimate objects owned by someone, and to some extent to substitute for other cases when referring to pronouns or words with antecedents in earlier clauses. The modified word always comes last and the suffix always goes on the modifier. Some examples of each use are below:
Suffixes exist that can be used to mark the state of being possessed on any noun. They are -por for the 1st person possessive, -per for the 2nd person, and -par for the third. Remember that in many cases the final r will go away. Thus purapor means "my store", puraper means "your store", and purapar means "his store". The dative case is mostly used to show indirect object, often corresponding to English sentences with for. So the English sentence "I built that spaceship for war" is expressed as Tarpimpebbet wato sialap wappampi. It can also be used with a causative meaning, as in Wassapebbet pubmapi wapi pussap pispiporba pompa , "I lost the fight because I had the sun in my eyes", where wapi is the dative form of the word pap, "it", and is inflecting the whole clause that follows it. Although the conjunction pudom is more often employed here, the word order and inflections would otherwise be the same. Note that in this sentence, pubmapi "the fight" is also in the dative case. The accusative case is used to show direct object. Thus pusa means bomb and Nilsatompebbet pusapa is used to mean "I dropped the bomb". The locative case is used to show location. It takes modifiers to show different relative locations, usually suffixed directly to the noun itself. So lolapap means "bed", lolapampa (the default inflection) means "in the bed", and lolapappalidampa means "under the bed" (-palida- means "under"). This inflected form is sometimes written as two words: lolapap palidampa. The toward case it used to show motion towards a place. This may be a concrete place or an abstract one. Pipispeap "beach" becomes pipispeapus "to the beach", and lellap "music" becomes lellapus "(in-)to music". The from case is used to show motion away from a place. This may be a concrete place or an abstract one. Pipispeap "beach" becomes Pipispeapumpa "from the beach", and pelma "sleep" becomes pelmisse. Sometimes a noun inflection, especially a long one on a multi-word noun phrase, can be fronted so that it can be easier to understand. In this case, it must take the prefix pu-. If the word already begins with p, then instead of adding pu- the p changes to w. So pesebum "what book?" becomes pubrum pese (the -r- is part of a sound rule), but lolapappa palidampa "in her bed" becomes walidampa lolapappa or walida lolapappampa. Other caselike inflections exist since suffixes and cases have the same morphological identity in Pabappa. The line is drawn at eight because only those eight have different forms depending on the stem of the noun they inflect. For example, every noun has a vocative formed from the absolutive case plus a suffix. Historically this was a verbal ending taken from the habitual conjugation. Therefore, like the habitual, it conjugates for gender. In fact, the vocative endings are merely reduced forms of Pabappa's basic pronouns. The modern endings are -d (masculine) and -b (feminine) when the stem of the noun ends in a vowel, and -da and -du if it ends in a consonant. These endings will undergo the normal Pabappa sandhi when they come after certain consonants; for example final pda turns into rpa, and thus the vocative expression "you (masc) judge" is pubelurpa. There is a suffix -wa that acts like a reverse genitive case, in that it affixes itself to the first noun rather than the second. So munampawa wimpa means "wood of the forest", with the same essential meaning as the more common wimpa munampa. Pabappa nouns are treated as indefinite by default: the sentence Pababa wimpep tepso wup lapasab means "I am standing between a cat and a rabbit". If there is an antecedent, however, the nouns become definite: Tepso wup lapasab simpanep wimpampa. Pababa wimpep tepso wup lapasab means "A cat and a rabbit are standing in the forest. I am standing between that cat and that rabbit." To specify that a noun in a sentence is new, and not the same as one discussed earlier, you must add the suffix -pi to the noun. So Tepso wup lapasab simpanep wimpampa. Pababa wimpep tepsopi wup lapasabbi. means "A cat and a rabbit are standing in the forest. I am standing between a different cat and a different rabbit." |