3.1.
|
Noun
Morphology |
The kinds of suffixes which occur with the stems define the class of stems.
Nouns in Purki may thus be defined on the basis of the suffixes with which they
occur. The stems which can occur with case suffixes are nouns. These stems will
not however occur with tense suffixes.
|
3.1.1.
|
Gender |
The nouns which are animate are marked for gender in Purki. Differendt
suffixes are added with the noun stems in order to denote the masculine and
feminine gender. Unlike Hindi and other Indo-Aryan languages, not all the nouns
in Purki are inflected for gender.
|
3.1.1.1.
|
Masculine Gender |
The morpheme which denotes masculine gender has two allomorphs. The forms -pho
and -o denote the masculien gender. The form -o is found occurring
with only one lexical item.
|
| baqpho |
‘bridegroom’ |
| byapho |
‘cock’ |
| rgyalpho |
‘king ; ruler’ |
| skutpho |
‘wife’s brother’ |
|
| The suffix -o is found occuring in |
|
|
only.
|
3.1.1.2.
|
Feminine Gender |
The morpheme -mo expresses
feminine gender. It has two allomorphs -mo and -i. The
allmorph -i occurs with only one lexical item. |
| bomo |
‘girl’ |
ba mo |
‘bride’ |
| khimo |
‘bitch’ |
| byamo |
‘hen’ |
| rgyalmo |
‘queen’ |
|
| -i is
found in |
|
|
only.
|
In the order of occurrence, the gender
suffix follows the noun stem. It precedes the suffix which
denotes the number (see 3.1.2). This may be shown as
|
| Noun
stem + Gender |
In the case of inanimate nouns,
the gender is not marked by any suffix because such
classification is absent in inanimate nouns.
|
3.1.2.
|
Number |
The nouns in Purki are
inflected for number. Singular versus plural distinction is
made by the inflection of different suffixes with the noun
stems. In the order of occurrence, the suffix denoting the
number follows the gender suffix. In other words, the gender
suffix precedes the number suffix (see 1.1.2).
|
|
Noun stem + Gender + Number
|
3.1.2.1.
|
Singular |
There is no suffix in Purki to
denote the singular number. The noun stems as such denote the
singular. The singular nouns in Purki are unmarked.
|
