User:Zofthej/sandbox

Nouns
Kenzi nouns are made up of roots, stems and affixes. Roots are monomorphemic bases which constitute the most basic elements of the language. Stems are either the root alone or the root with an addition that make up a word. Affixes, which take the form of either prefixes or suffixes modify the noun or verb. Examples of affixes: bi- : marks future tense verbs a- : marks progressive verbs -i : pluralizing suffix -a : marks third person plural in verbs

Nouns are declined according to case and number. Gerunds are produced by adding the suffix -ar to the root of the verb. For example: taaj - ache, taajar - aching jom - hit, jomar - hitting jomtakki - be beaten, jomtakkar - being beaten dabir - lose, dabrar - losing

Event nouns are formed by adding the suffixes -ti, -id or -e to the verb root. -ti occurs after any consonant except /dj/ For example: baan - dance, baati - wedding jod - swear, jotti - oath bood - run, bootti - running dol - love, dolti - love

After /dg/, /t/ becomes /cc/: baaj - write, baacci - writing goj - slaughter, gocci - slaughtering

For roots that end with a vowel after a geminate consonant, -ti becomes -atti. tuffi - spit, tuffatti - saliva

A small number of nouns receive -id, -ed, or -e after the root.

The suffix -eddi is used for instruments derived from verbs. jom - hit, jomeddi - hammer nob - stir, nobeddi - cooking spoon kalli - sweep, kalleddi - broom

The agent of a verb is created by adding the suffix -aay to the verb root. For example: bokki - hide, bokkaay - someone who is hiding sarki - fear, sarkaay - coward oddi - be ill, oddaay - sickly

Nouns can also be derived from adjectives with the suffix -kene, whose role is similar to that of -ness in English. For example: dullo - heavy, dullookene - heaviness (weight?) adel - good, adelkene - goodness uus - bad, uuskene - badness kinna - young, kinnakene - childhood

Compound nouns can also be created by joining two nouns or a noun and an adjective. ka - house, tu - belly. kaatu - room. darbad (chicken) + na (gen. marker) + ondi (male) = darbanondi (rooster) essi (water) + duul (big) = essiduul (sea) koog (raven) + kinna (small) = kookkinna (beetle)

The plural form is created by adding the suffix /-i/ to nouns that end with a consonant, and /-cci/ to nouns ending with a verb. wel - dog, weli - dogs id - man, idi - men ti - cow, tiicci - cows baati - wedding, baaticci - weddings

Nouns ending with the verb /-u/ are treated like nouns ending with the consonant /-w/: buru - girl, burwi - girls hanu - donkey, hanwi - donkeys

A group of irregular nouns receive the suffix /-li/ or /-ri/, a there is also a small group of completely irregular nouns: sorin - nose, sorgi - noses tood - boy, toni - boys een - woman, eecci - women