nouns

sïaòyru s'raìða
gīlru s'šedudi
hrianneðen faìn
šugalan a geàl sïaòyen
utarha

    -- šagān

the wind through my hair,
the sun on my skin,
the voices of nature,
great wings and great winds
- unity

        -- Shagaan

Overview: What is a noun?

The difference between nouns and all other Taruven parts of speech is that only the noun can be marked by the dual, the paucal/quintal or the generic plural. A Taruven bare noun is the bare noun stem without any affixes. The core noun is the noun stem with affixes. A noun phrase always contains at least one core noun.

Taruven nouns also has one of two genders: animate, or entity and inanimate, or item. Only entities can be unmarked for case or be marked for the beneficiary or the complemented agent. In general, all living things and thinking things (animals, plants, intelligent machines) are entities, all dead things (abstracts, natural phenomena, tools, things, non-intelligent machines) are items. The exact categorization has varied through history.

For the remainder of this text, the word vaer mountain will represent the items, while the word gav dog will represent the entities. When something differs between items and entities, both are shown, else only for items.

A noun is always marked for:

And may be marked for diminutive/augmentative and have an adjective built in.

Furthermore, a noun may have, own or be owned, or otherwise be connected to another noun.

It can be emphasized:

Located somewhere or be the location of something:

Generalized:

Entities can be male or female:

Finally, a noun has existence and can be negated:

Structure of a noun

The actual order of noun affixes depends on its role in a phrase or clause.

Legend

1. PREFIX
   • vocative

1. diminutive/augmentative
2. adjectives
3. where, when
   • ru
   • es, located at
   • exact spatial placement
   • exact temporal placement
4. whose
   • Posession
   • Connection
5. who, whom, what
   • Agent
   • Agent of complemented verb
   • Patient
   • Recipient
   • Instrumental entity
   • Instrument (item)
6. how many

The suffix-groups that move about depending on the role of the noun is groups 3 (location in time and space) and 4 (possession). It is therefore thought that group 3 and 4 come from a different source than the other suffixes.

By default

PREFIX - noun stem - 1 - 2 - ru - 4 - 5 - 6

As a location

PREFIX - noun stem - 1 - 2 - 4 - 5 - 3 - 6

As a possession

PREFIX - noun stem - 1 - 2 - 3 - eð - 5 - 6

As a possessor

PREFIX - noun stem - 1 - 2 - 3 - 5 - (ev) - 6

prefixes

The emphasis-marker becomes ïĵ before vowels.

1. 1. ïĵëgav
      that's NOT a DOG, there are NO DOGS, DOGS do not exist
   2. aìgavru ryes
      there are no dogs here, there isn't even a single dog here
   3. ÿaìsïgav
      hello, no dogs in general

1. diminutive/augmentative

2. adjectives

A few adjectives have bound short forms:

2. 1. gavva
      wild dog
   2. šeduhi
      bright surface
   3. gvaìhir
      bright dragon
   4. tšah ran brenaþ; ry kiar aò rykeì var
      I see two cars, that one is red and that other one is blue

3. where, when, movement: vüreševa

About to be moved to Location.

where

ru is the general locative. Adding -ru to a word indicates that the word is somewhere. Exactly where is not important.

<noun>ru
<noun> is somewhere (but I don't know, and/or don't care to know, exactly where this is)

The suffix -es (standalone form: re), approximately meaning location, place, can be used as a suffix, taking on the meaning of "located at":

<noun>ru saìes
<noun> is located at/by a/the river

This says nothing on HOW the noun is placed relative to the river; if it is important to indicate exact placement, then one way of doing it is to replace the simple -es with a little something...

Format: B is placed/moves relative to A, K is any of the noun suffixes except ru and the plurality-suffixes.

B-ru-K A-K-1-2-3-4
B-ru-K A-K-Other

1 describes how B is placed relative to the surface of A
2 describes how B is placed relative to an imaginary axis of A
3 describes how B moves relative to the surface of A
4 describes whether B is inside or outside the surface of A

3 covers concepts such as left(ward), right(ward), up(ward), down(ward), front + forward, back(ward), and should be translated as such. But: the native speakers of Taruven think 3D, and they think 3D relative to themselves, not the ground or any other reference object, perhaps because this is better suited to zero G environments. Translating up with top and down with bottom might be better.

Others:

• B being between two A's: x
• B being among three to five (a few) A's: x
• B being among more than five (many) A's: x
• B moving through A: ða

3. 1. gavru saìal
      the dog is in the river
   2. gavru saìalny
      the dog is swimming/moving about in the river
   3. brenru saìil
      the car is by the river
   4. brenru saìilny
      the car is driving along the riverside

A somewhat more complex example:

3. 5. sāið mirrōruaþ brenaþal ū rīra
      You gave me the cat that were in the car

Effects of negating with e: eil = al, eal = il, edi = da, eda = di, evu = ve, eve = vu

To translate some english prepositions:

• in, inside (of), within = -al
• into = -veal
• out, outside (of) = -il
• out of = -vuil
• along, around = -ny
• under = -usny
• over = -urny
• in the center, centered = -aluaì

when

Affixed to a noun that can only serve as a temporal 'anchor'.

If the temporal location is only valid for one sentence, the verb of that sentence is marked with [T]. If another noun(phrase) is temporally located, without affecting the situation, that noun is marked with [T].

4. 1. šaìga ī taha geàl gaìes
      during the war (s)he rides the great gaìes
   2. saìTes švaỳiga falru
      the water in/of the river during/in spring

4. whose

Possession is covered in its own section, this serves as a quick overview.

Possession: -eð

Only items can be possessed/owned. Items can be owned by both entities and items. A possessed item is marked with the suffix -eð

Connection: te

Both items and entities can be connected to each other. In a connection it is wrong to talk about possessors or possessees, as a connection in no way implies ownership or control. Entities can neither be owned nor controlled and must always be connected and not marked for possession.

A connection is marked by placing the independent word te between the two statements.

Examples, connection and possesion:

5. 1. šiartav breneð
      shïartav's car, the car belonging to shïartav
   2. sā te tši / tši te sā
      my friend / a friend of mine

Bodyparts are connected to the body, so we have:

6. 1. ū te kir / kir te ū
      your hand

Similarly, relatives are connected, not posessed:

6. 2. ū te faì / faì te ū
      your parent

A member is either connected to or possessed by a group, depending on the type of group:

7. 1. gīlvun te TKS / TKS te gīlvun
      gilvun is a member/part of the relatively flat-structured group TKS
   2. gīlvuneð TKS
      gilvun is a member/part of (actually: possessed by) the hierarchical group TKS

te has a weak, implicit 1st person pronoun in the agentive, just like verbs; it is customary to set the te first in the connection when the pronoun is invoked, thus a) below is correct while b) is not.

8. 1. te faì
      my parent
   2. *faì te
      my parent

As always, the rules are bent in poetry and a few other registers.

Finally, a small set of words can also be inalienably possessed.

5. who, whom, what

Agent:

Agents are not marked. However, subjects are not necessarily agents. For instance, subjects of passive sentences are always marked as patients.

gav ekuirra
the dog died

gav hrann sïonnaþ
the/A dog broke the vase

but

gavaþ kruaálra
the dog was killed

Agent of complemented verb: -el

The subjects of the verb-type complemented verbs are marked as complemented agents. Below is an incomplete list of complemented verbs.

Taruven does not have a complementizer, like that in English. Instead it has complemented verbs and verb-suffixes that converts an ordinary verb into a complemented one.

The pattern for a complemented statement is as follows:

<complemented agent>el <complemented verb> <X>

alternatively

<X> <complemented verb> <complemented agent>el
<X> <complemented agent>el <complemented verb>

Where <X> must be either a phrase marked for benefactive, or a clause.

9. 1. sāel teì ūið
      I love you
   2. sāel ār gav ekuir
      I think the dog is dead

Only entities can be complemented agents, to use the above verbs with an item as subject, the second verb, if any, must be put in the passive:

10. 1. sïaòy kannra hrannaal gav sïonnaþ
       The dog was made to break the thing by the wind

Patient: -aþ

The patient is the victim or target of the verb.

Examples:

11. 1. ī krura gavaþ
       he/she killed the dog
    2. yhrann sïonnaþ
       the thing broke
    3. gav hrann sïonnaþ
       The/A dog broke the thing

Recipient: -ið

The passive beneficiary of an action.

12. gavaþ sāið ū ta
    You gave me a dog

Instrumental entity: -on

An instrumental entity is the someone who is made to do something by an agent.

Examples:

13. gavaþ sāon ī krura
    he/she made me kill the dog

Instrument (item): -on

The instrument is whatever item is being used to accomplish the verbing.

Examples:

14. gavaþ dufyon ī krura
    he/she killed the dog with the knife

6. how many

General/singular:

The noun is unmarked for number whenever the actual number is known, irrelevant or singular.

15. 1. gav

       gav
       gav
       dog
       

       a dog, some dog, one dog
    2. saššara gavaþ

       saššara gavaþ
       saššara gav -aþ
       I.heard dog -PAT
       

       I heard a dog/I heard some dog or other/I heard one dog

Dual: -an

The dual is used whenever there are two of something, to such a degree that the number two is rarely used. In some dialects, if a number is divisible by two, the noun will agree by being marked with the dual, as in example b) below.

16. 1. gavan

       gavan
       gav -an
       dog -2
       

       two dogs, a couple of dogs
    2. kaìr gavan

       kaìr gavan
       kaìr gav -an
       4    dog -2
       

       four dogs

Quintal/Paucal: -in

The quintal started life as the number five, hence the name. It denotes small groups, countable indivdual items and entities and natural amounts.

17. 1. gavin

       gavin
       gav -in
       dog -paucal
       

       five dogs, a group of dogs, a few dogs, a handful dogs
    2. runin

       runin
       run    -in
       finger -paucal
       

       five fingers, all the fingers of a hand

Generic plural: -en

18. 1. gaven

       gaven
       gav -en
       dog -many
       

       many dogs, countless dogs

The number-markers are generally not used if there is an explicit number in the noun-phrase, with the exceptions noted in the examples below. Explicit number plus explicit number-marking changes the meaning of the number-marking. This also means that only the dual and the paucal is ever used together with an explicit number.

18. 1. kaìr gav

       kaìr gav
       kaìr gav
       4    dog
       

       four dogs
    2. *kaìr gaven

       kaìr gaven
       kaìr gav -en
       4    dog -PL
       

       ??
    3. kaìr gavan

       kaìr gavan
       kaìr gav -an
       4    dog -DUAL
       

       four pairs of dogs, eight dogs
    4. kaìr gavin

       kaìr gavin
       kaìr gav -in
       4    dog -PAUCAL
       

       four groups of dogs, more than eight dogs

Complete plural/false partitive: -ðe

This can best be translated with all of, the whole of, full, as in the following examples:

19. 1. gavðe šyra

       gavðe    šyra
       gav -ðe  šy    -ra
       dog -all follow -PAST
       

       all of the dogs followed
    2. brenaþðe hrannra ī

       brenaþðe         hrannra     ī
       bren -aþ  -ðe    hrann -ra   ī
       car  -PAT -whole break -PAST 3s
       

       he/she broke the entire car
    3. mir briðe

       mir briðe
       mir bri   -ðe
       sky cloud -full
       

       the overclouded sky, the sky was/is/will be full of clouds, it was/is/will be overclouded

Note example c), where the -ðe-marked word functions as sort of partitive, with the preceding noun mir containing clouds, in this case so many that the color of the mir itself was probably not visible.

To complicate matters, -ðe inflects almost like a stative, as shown in the next example. It is believed that -ðe probably started life as a regular stative.

20. 1. gavðe

       gavðe
       gav -ðe
       dog -all
       

       all of the dogs
    2. gavðeì

       gavðeì
       gav -ðeì
       dog -almost.all
       

       almost all of the dogs
    3. gavðer

       gavðer
       gav -ðer
       dog -few
       

       a few of the dogs, some of the dogs
    4. gavðerinn

       gavðeìrinn
       gav -ðerinn
       dog -too.few
       

       too few of the dogs
    5. gavðan

       gavðan
       gav -ðan
       dog -too.many
       

       too many of the dogs

There is no equivalent of -a or -arre for -ðe.

Using -ðe for the meaning of "all" is not proper when the group of things is not complete or the number of items/members is unknown. If that is the case, one uses -in if it is possible to take in the number at a glance, -en if too many and the true partitive in cases like mir briðe.

True partitive: -ti

The true partitive differs from the rest of the number markers in that it always connects two nouns, just like -ðe does in example 19c) above.

The partitive is used when a noun:

• is contained by another noun, as in example a) and b) below
• is the material that another noun is made of or consists of, as in example b) and c) below
• is the size or measure of another noun, like in example d)

21. 1. briti mir

       briti       mir
       bri   -ti   mir
       cloud -PART sky
       

       a cloudy sky
    2. falti saì

       falti saì
       fal   -ti   saì
       water -PART river
       

       a river of water
    3. tani mānti

       tani  mānti
       tani  mān   -ti
       tower stone -PART
       

       a tower made of stone
    4. mān pyalti

       mān   pyalti
       mān   pyal  -ti
       stone grain -PART
       

       a grain-sized stone

In all the four examples above, the partitive modifies the noun, which can manage perfectly without having the partitive along. The measure-meaning in example d) is only in effect for a few nouns that double as measures: pyal for something small but still visible, kīr for something that can easily be held in the palm of a hand, like a tennis ball or a cup, or other handfulls, urū, head-size, for something that properly takes two hands to hold, like a football or large melon.