4.
Any stem that can take an article.
(Note that proper nouns do not take an article in
Lotha)
5.
Any stem that can be preceded by the genitive or followed
by the noun attributes such as adjectives, numerals. (Note
that 4 and 5 apply only to the nouns).
Classification
of nouns :
Lotha
has two types of nouns (1) Basic (2) Derived.
Basic nouns :
Nouns
which are not derived from another noun or any other word
class are called basic nouns.
Examples
1. pnóy
teacher
2. thérà
flower
3. frò
dog
4. sóts
elephant
5. hnò
hen
6. ms
cow
7. h
tooth
8. vcrò
sparrow
9. wókò
pig
10. wó
leaf
Basic
nouns can be further divided into (1) Mass nouns (2) Count
nouns. Mass nouns are those which are always used in singular.
Count nouns are those which can be counted or used in plural.
Examples
of Mass Nouns :
1. óc
water
2. érù rain
3. ótsì rice (cooked)
Examples
of Count Nouns
1. wó
leaf
2. hnò
hen
3. pnóy
teacher
4. vcrò
sparrow
5. thérà
flower
derived nouns :
In
Lotha, nouns are derived either from the verb or adjective
or from another noun. Derivation is dealt in detail in
4.9.
Contraction of nouns :
In
Lotha, some of the nouns have two types of forms (1) Full
form and (2) Contracted form which is obtained by dropping
the Classifier1 i.e. Õ.
Contracted forms occur when they are preceded by the genitive
form of the pronoun or followed by gender marking words.
Nouns which undergo contraction may belong to either animate
or inanimate nouns.
Examples
of nouns when preceded by the genitive form of the pronouns
:
1. pó
‘father’
pó
my father
npó
your father
mppó
his father
2. kì
‘house’
k
my house
n
k
your house
mp
k
his house
3. lì
‘field’
l
my field
n
lì
your field
mp
lì
his field
1.
It is called classifier because it occurs with certain nouns.
Nouns which take classifier are listed after the examples.
(List is restricted to the data available).
nóy
nò
crò
crò
pó
