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anu `child’ anunoqo1 `children’
akuhu `black monkey’ akuhuqó `black monkeys’
acö `dog’ ac `dogs’
aki `house’ akģqó `houses’
asbo `tree’ asboqó `trees’
axamnu `flower’ axamnuqó `flowers’

In the case of anu `child’, in addition to the regular plural marker qó, it is also taken as an alternative plural marker, as in :

anu `child’ anunoqó~ anuli `children’

And the word axamnu `flower’ usually does not take the plural marker, as in :

axamnu `flower/flowers’

It was already mentioned that the plurality is the property of the noun phrase and as such when any sub-class of adjectives post-modifies the noun head in the plural, the plural marker would be shifted and post posed to the modifying adjective, as in:

apśqó `boys’ apś kiwiqó `good boys’
kakuqó `books’ kaku kiwiqó `good books’
apś tipaw `that boy’ apś tipaqó `those boys’
apś kiwi tipaqó `those good boys’  etc.  

A noun that usually takes the plural marker may not take the plural marker, when (i) a numeral or a quantitative adjective modifies it or (ii) when the context clearly indicates the plurality; this would apply even to all the noun phrases having a numeral or quantitative adjective as a constituent, for instance,

(a) apu kini `two father’s’
  apu kutomo `many fathers’
  kaku kiwi kini `two good books’
  apu kiwi kutomo `many good fathers’ etc.
(b) pukhu `foot’
  panó´ś pukhu `their feet’
  iu `my hand’ iuqó `my hands’
  ni´śu `our hands’

In the two sets of illustrative examples given above, the singular forms pukhu `foot’ and au `hand’, rather than the corresponding plural forms occur with the pronouns in the plural, viz; panó´ł `they’ and ni´ł `we’. This is possible because the context clearly indicates that pukhu `foot’ and au `hand’ occurring respectively with pan´ł `they’ and ni´ł `we’ must necessarily be in the plural.
(ii) Pronouns
Of the different sub-types of pronouns, only the personal pronouns show a three-way opposition in number, viz., a singular referring to one person / object, a dual referring to two persons and a plural referring to three or more persons. While the singular is left unmarked, the dual and plural are marked separately. The three-way opposition in number is available with all the three personal pronouns, as in :

  `I’ `you’ `he’ `she’ `it’
singular ni no pa li hi
dual nikuzo nokuzo pama pama . .
plural nił noł panół panół . .

The examples given above show that while a three-way opposition in gender is available with the third person pronoun in the singular, viz. masculine, feminine and common gender (for the nouns non-human beings), in the dual and in the plural, the opposition between the feminine and the masculine is neutralized and a single form is available for substituting the nouns referring to both the male and female beings. For instance, pama can substitute a NP referring to either two males or two females or a male and female being and similarly panó´ł substitutes a NP referring to three or more persons of either sex in any combination. It is pertinent to mention here that the plural marker is available with all sub-types of nouns including nouns inanimate being class, but the III person non-human being pronoun hi substitutes only, a noun non-human being class in the singular. Therefore if a noun in this sub-type in the plural is to be substituted, a demonstrative pronoun which shows singular/plural opposition, rather than the III person pronoun is used, as in :

acqóno akhosa Feha `the dogs barked at the cat’
hipaqóye ackiwi `these are good dogs’
ac hipaqóye kiwi `these dogs are good’

 

 

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