| 4.6.2. Non-masculine Plural |
/-  -k -sk/ |
|
- occurs after these nouns ending in a vowel.
|
|
pi e:- |
‘birds |
|
ma:re:- |
‘wings’ |
|
uka:- |
‘stars’ |
|
pilla:- |
‘girls’ |
|
kaku:- |
‘mushrooms’ |
|
pi:o:- |
‘stories’ |
|
a:ki:- |
‘leaves’ |
|
pa ki:- |
‘lice’ |
| -k occurs after those nouns ending in a consonant. |
|
na-k |
‘bugs’ |
|
pal-k |
‘teeth’ |
|
kay-k |
‘hands’ |
|
kan-k |
‘eyes’ |
|
kew-k |
‘ears’ |
|
kal-k |
‘stones’ |
|
pe:n-k |
‘gods’ |
|
tayo:m-k |
‘tanks’ |
|
|
In a few instances final -p of the nouns is dropped before this plural morpheme.
|
| irp-k |
 |
ir-k |
‘mahua trees’ |
| gup-k |
|
‘gu-k |
‘heaps’ |
|
|
-sk occurs (a) after feninine kinship terms; (b) after -nj clusters or j; and (c) after disyllabic nouns ending in -l or -r.
|
| (a) |
akka:-sk |
|
akka:-sk |
‘elder sisters’ |
|
a:-sk |
|
a:-sk |
‘women’ |
|
he:la:sk |
|
he:la:sk |
‘younger sisters’ |
|
miya:-sk |
|
miya:-sk |
‘daughters’ |
|
ya:ya:l-sk |
|
ya:ya:-sk |
‘mothers’ |
| (b) |
erpu:nj-sk |
|
erupu:-sk |
‘chappals’ |
|
mu:nj-sk |
|
mu:-sk |
‘monkey’ |
|
wanj-sk |
|
wa-sk |
‘fingers’ |
|
le:nj-sk |
|
le:-sk |
‘months’ |
|
aj-sk |
|
ar8-sk |
‘bears’ |
| (c) |
nira:l |
|
nira:-sk |
‘panthers’ |
|
malo:-sk |
|
malo:-sk |
‘peacocks’ |
|
nagil |
|
na:gi-sk |
‘ploughs’ |
|
moyo:l |
|
moyo:-sk |
‘clouds’ |
|
puga:r |
|
puga:-sk |
‘flowers’ |
|
The mass nouns mul ‘crowd’, a i ‘sky’, netur ‘blood’, e:r ‘water’, pir ‘rain’, kanke:r ‘tears’, mac ‘dew’ and the like not seem to have plural forms. On the other hand, the non-count nouns like nu:ka: ‘rice’, nu: ‘sesame’, da:ri ‘pulse’ etc., do not seem to have singular forms.
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