A
substantive in Angami may be defined as a word that fulfils the
following criteria:
(1) Any word
that can take the gender marker1
(2) Any word
that can take the number marker.
(3) Any word
that can take the article.
(4) Any word
that can be followed by case markers and other postpositions.
(5) Any word
that can take the diminutive suffix.
(6) Any word
that can be preceded by the genitival and/ or followed by noun
attributes like ‘adjectives’, numerals quantifiers,
demonstratives.
Some
substantives may satisfy more than one criterion at the same
time. But a substantive in a given sentence may not actually
satisfy any of these criteria but is capable of doing so.
2.1.1
Constraction of Substantives
Some substantives have two forms:a full form and a short,
contracted form which is obtained by dropping the classifier or
the first syllable2 in certain contexts.
The contexts are : (1) When a noun in the genitive procedes, (2)
When the gender suffix is added, (3) When a verb functioning as
adjective follows.
Substantives
undergoing constraction in the first context may be inanimate or
animate-human or non-human :
‘behaviour’
pu
‘his behaviour’
ptr
‘Peter’s behaviour’
mh
‘eye’
mh
‘my eye’
sli
mh
‘Selie’s eye’
m
‘body’
pu
m
‘her body’
thmi
m
‘body of the man’
ji
‘hand’
ji
‘your hand’
nyy
ji
‘the boy’s hand’
ny
‘son’
pu
ny
‘his son’
thz
‘name’
z
‘my name’
pu z
‘my father’s name’
thb
‘seat’
b
‘my seat’
b
‘your seat’
thdz
‘story’
pu
dz
‘his story’
tku
‘sheep’
k
ku
‘their sheep’
pum
‘tail’
thv
m
‘pig’s tail’
_________________
An ‘adjective’
when it takes the gender or diminutive suffix for concord is not
to be considered as fulfilling these criteria because it is a
derived phenomenon.
Classifier
because it is recursive and marks a semantic class and syllable
either because it is item-specific (eg. m-as
in mth
‘cattle’) or because a clear semantic class does nto emerge
although it is recursive (e.g. pu
as in puth
‘sting’).
2.1.2.
substantives undergoing constraction in the second context i.e.
when gender suffixes are added -are non-human animate
substantives. They drop the classifier/syllable in the first
genitive context also.
tf
‘dog’
f
‘my dog’
fkr
‘female dog’
fpf
‘male dog’
tm
‘goat’
hik
m
‘our goat’
mkr
‘she-goat’
md
‘he-goat’
mth
‘cattle’
th
‘my cattle’
thkr
‘cow’
thd
‘bull; ox’
thv
‘pig’
hik
v
‘out pig’
vkr
‘female pig’
vkr
‘male pig’
thv
‘fowl’
v
‘your fowl’
vkr
‘hen’
vdz
‘cock’
2.1.3.
Substantives which undergo constraction when the verb
functioning as adjective follows are non-human-most of them
animate.
t
mh
m
ji
ji
k
An ‘adjective’
when it takes the gender or diminutive suffix for concord is not
to be considered as fulfilling these criteria because it is a
derived phenomenon.
Classifier
because it is recursive and marks a semantic class and syllable
either because it is item-specific (eg. m
-as
in m
‘cattle’) or because a clear semantic class does nto emerge
although it is recursive (e.g. pu
pf
kr
