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Lesson 6

Plural Formation (II)


We continue illustrating the behaviour of nouns in forming plurals. There a re not many nouns which belong to the following sections (given here as Rules) but we shall see examples in each group. In all of them, there is a change in either the middle or the last consonant.
Rule 6.1
Some nouns become plural by adding ti to the singular, with or without any consonant change.
Singular           Plural         Meaning
gun'na         		gur'nti      	pot          
werena     		werenti 	threshing ground*
l'ng'n          	l'ng'nti     	house
Rule 6.2
Many nouns that end in b or a syllable of b (ba, bi) drop the b or the syllable and add f, or f'f. Compare this with aba, af (water ditch, or well) in Rule 5.2.
Singular           Plural         Meaning
wereba          	weref           river           
gib             	gif'f      	shield
qumba           	qumf'f          nose            
der'b           	derf'f     	road, way
atuba           	tuf             churn           
ar'b            	arf'f       	grave
Areb            	Aref            blind           
bamba           	bamfi (bi), 	a kind of tree
Rule 6.3
Changes in middle or last consonant.
Singular           Plural         Meaning
Awed            	Awes            foolish          
leKen          		leken       	wound
e'Kr                    e'kl            father           
shab'r         		shaf't 		leather rope
Rule 6.4
Some nouns reduplicate the last syllable to form plurals. This applies especially to the parts of the body.
Singular           Plural         Meaning
an                      an'n          	grandfather    
gesh               	gesh'sh 	face
I'l                     Il'l            eye                
qaf               	qaf'f          	bark
seg                     seg'g         	plateau              
j'l                 	jl'l  		intestine
luk                     lukuk        	leg                  
f'k               	f'k'k 		joints
nash            	nash'sh     	bone             
ungui              	ungug(k)  	breast
kes                     kes's         	shoulder       
s'r                	sr'r,  sl'l 	root, veins
sanqi           	sanq'q       	liver                
bskwi             	bskukw     	kidney
Irregulars. There are also irregular nouns whose plurals do not have any relationship with the form of the singular noun.
Singular           Plural         Meaning
l'wi            	wes             cow
adam            	kew             person
Most adjectives also follow the pattern of Rule 5.1 in forming plurals, as in bel'nga, bel'ng (some, part). In Lessons 5 and 6, we have tried to illustrate how nouns form the plural. Before looking on sentence patterns, we shall turn to a different topic in Lesson 7, Greetings.
* (Awdi in tgrinya, wedna in tgre)

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