Nouns
Nouns have no grammatical gender and no declension classes.
Number and definiteness
| Form | Meaning |
|---|---|
ROOT | singular indefinite |
ROOT-ar | plural |
ROOT-en | definite singular |
ROOT-ar-en | definite plural |
Example:
| Form | Meaning |
|---|---|
hus | a house / house |
husar | houses |
husen | the house |
husaren | the houses |
Another example:
| Form | Meaning |
|---|---|
krig | a war / war |
krigar | wars |
krigen | the war |
krigaren | the wars |
Numerals and noun number
A numeral does not replace the noun’s ordinary number marking.
enn is the single exception because it describes one thing and therefore takes a singular noun. zero and every cardinal numeral greater than one take a plural noun.
Examples:
zero hundar— zero dogsenn hund— one dogtvaa hundar— two dogsþrii husar— three housestenn krigar— ten wars
The numeral supplies the quantity; the noun still marks whether it is singular or plural.
See Numbers and Quantity for the current numeral and quantifier system.
Collective nouns
folk means a people considered as a cultural, national, or social collective.
This is distinct from mannar, which simply refers to multiple individual persons.
nordsippisk folk — the Nordsippisk people as a collectivemannar — people / persons as multiple individuals
Because folk is itself one collective, ordinary plural morphology naturally gives:
folkar — peoples; multiple distinct cultural or national groups
Possession
-s marks the possessor.
No apostrophe is used.
Examples:
manns hus— a man’s housemannens hus— the man’s housemannars hus— men’s housemannarens hus— the men’s housefolks krigbund— a people’s war league / war association
The possessed noun normally does not require definite marking merely because it is possessed. Context is preferred over redundant definiteness marking.