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Noun roots are typically monosyllabic or at most bisyllabic. They may end in a consonant, an open vowel (one of /a/, /e/, /o/) or a closed vowel (/i/ or /u/). Each one of these classes behaves in slightly different ways when suffixes are added. Roots that begin with a vowel behave differently, in turn, when prefixes are added.
Most roots are of the form (C)VC(VC) (C = consonant, V = vowel). For many monosyllabic roots the vowel is actually a diphthong (formerly a lengthened single vowel), usually derived from a CVC verb root. More complicated stems are always derived from affixation or compounding.
Some monosyllabic roots end in two consonants, typically a stop + /s/ cluster (such as reks- 'worm') or a nasal + stop cluster (as in inc- 'road'). These clusters are illegal in final position, so these particular roots have no zero-inflected form; when it is needed (as when followed by adjectives or determiners, or in the construct state), they are realized as CVCVC, where the second vowel echoes (is equal to) the first one. Thus for example tals- 'jug' gives talas, talsa, telsi (construct, indefinite, definite).
Nouns do not inflect differently according to their subject or object position, as is the case in Latin and Greek; not even pronouns are distinguished this way. In other words, there is only one core case, which we will call the absolute case, with a stem that coincides with the root. (Do not confuse with an absolutive case, which is the name of a core case in ergative-absolutive languages. Senu Yivokuchi is syntactically of the nominative-accusative type, though that does not show up in morphology.)
In contrast, there are several oblique cases (i. e. cases that mark noun phrases as complements or modifiers). The oblique cases are: genitive, allative, essive, and commitative.
The genitive case marks the subordinate in a pair of noun phrases. The head NP is related to the genitive NP by possession, origin or correspondence of some kind, which may be translated quite properly in English with the preposition 'of' or the clitic ''s'. Besides that, it has an ablative sense, usually translated 'from', and can be used to mark verb arguments showing origin, point of view, or starting point.
The genitive case mark has two allomorphs, it- and yi-. The former is used with roots that begin in a vowel. The latter is used with roots that begin with a consonant, and triggers a mutation (fricative mutation) on said consonant. For example:
ABSOLUTE GENITIVE atlan 'sea' itatlan bin 'light' yivin senu 'language' yisenu ekheb 'cloud' itekheb uro 'purpose' ituro joim 'corner' yijhoim laozok 'theatre' yilaozok wo 'sky' yivo
The allative case shows a noun phrase that is semantically the goal, physical or otherwise, of an action or movement. It may be usually translated 'to' or 'for'. It also marks the indirect object of some ditransitive verbs, and the destination of some feelings or perceptions expressed by adjectives such as aid- 'loving'.
The allative case mark is go-, with an allomorph g- for some exceptional forms, such as the pronoun e and a handful of so-called prepositional nouns (cf. guro 'for the purpose of').
The essive case shows a location or (less often) a state. The essive phrase is generally used as an oblique argument for verbs. This case is often applied on a small set of 'nouns of location', such as or and lar, and is often irregular.
The essive case mark has two main allomorphs: m- and um-. The first is used for roots beginning in a vowel or approximant. The second applies to roots beginning in other consonants. This one is often reduced to u-, producing lenition of the consonant. Lenition changes unvoiced sounds to voiced, and turns some voiced sounds into nasals or approximants. The underlying //m// is assimilated to the following consonant, and is sometimes written n instead. Voiced fricatives, as well as nasals, are not affected.
ABSOLUTE ESSIVE
pam 'moment' ubam
bin 'light' umin
daekeo 'pain' unaekeo
jas 'spring' unyas
khout 'forehead' ughout
ghul 'voice' ughul
gab 'limit' unwab
The first prefix, m-, becomes mu- or mi- when /w/ or /j/ follow (respectively), though most speakers use /m/ and mark the difference only in writing. This prefix also changes when it precedes /l/ or /r/; in both cases the cluster becomes /br/.
ABSOLUTE ESSIVE
ekheb 'cloud' mekheb
uk 'near' muk
wo 'sky' muwo, /mwo/
yaol 'country' miyaol, /mjaOl/
lar 'outside' brar
ran 'world' bran
The commitative case is used to mark a noun phrase as a semantic companion to the master NP, either in a peer-to-peer relationship (thus acting like a conjunction, 'and') or in a main-to-accesory relationship (like English 'with'). It may also mark abstract nouns that denote qualities associated with the master NP.
The commitative case mark has two allophones: li- for roots beginning with a consonant, and l- for vowel-initial roots.
Genitive/ablative: |it-|, |yi-| + FRIC_MUTATION Allative: |go-|, |g-| Essive: |m-|, |b-|, |um-|, |u-|, |un|- + LENITION Commitative: |li-|, |l-|
Nouns may (and sometimes must) be marked for definiteness. Definite nouns represent concrete or unique abstract objects, persons, places, etc., in a given or understood number. Indefinite nouns represent hypothetical objects whose number cannot be known and/or whose existence is not being asserted, either as a physical reality or a hypothesis.
Definiteness is marked with suffixes. The indefinite suffix and the definite suffix each have several allomorphs, which are phonologically conditioned in a transparent way.
The indefinite suffix has the following allomorphs: main form -a, used for stems that end in a consonant; null form (zero), for stems that end in a vowel other than /i/ or /u/; -ya, used for stems that end in /i/; and -wa, for stems that end in /u/.
The definite suffix has two allomorphs: -i, for stems ending in a consonant; and -ch, for stems ending in a vowel.
Indefinite: |-a|, |-0|, |-ya|, |-wa| Definite: |-i|, |-ch|
Nouns can also take other inflections: the construct form, and the emphatic form.
A noun in the construct form forms a phrase or compound with the following noun, the head of it being the former. The subordinate noun in a construct phrase is usually the name of a material or substance, or an inalienable possession or feature (alienable possessions tend to be marked with the genitive case). Speakers often use the construct form to create compounds when no case mark seems adequate, and these compounds tend to become fixed later.
The construct form is marked by zero (-0). It is mentioned here, its invisibility notwithstanding, because it is a way to create new lexical items, and because it displaces the definiteness mark. There is no way to tell a zero-marked definiteness form from a construct form, except in the case of roots that end in two consonants (like reks- or tals-, already mentioned above), where an epenthetic 'echo vowel' is inserted to break the cluster (rekes, talas).
The emphatic form is used to make the NP into the focus of the sentence. When the noun is a deverbal form (such as the absolute participle of a verb), the emphatic mark marks it as the subject.
The emphatic form is marked by the prefix e-, which turns into ae- when the stem begins with /e/. The emphatic mark is applied on whatever case mark, if any, is already present in the stem.
Construct: |-0| Emphatic: |e-|, |ae-| (before other marks)
There is a subclass of nouns that have a special behaviour; they are called "bilateral nouns" and refer mostly to body parts that are symmetric, one to the right and one to the left.
Bilateral nouns inflect in the same way as normal nouns, but they must first be prefixed with an inflection that creates a new stem, indicating that the object referred to by the noun is the right one, or the left one, or both.
The 'left hand side' mark is vie-. The 'right hand side' mark is ji-. The 'bilateral' mark is ti-.
viechen yin 'his left hand' jichen ye 'my right hand' tichen jho 'both your hands'
Formally, bilateral nouns cannot be used as their basic stems, without one prefix out of these three. Most bilateral nouns are associated with alternative roots that refer to the isolated objects, as in e. g. amputated hands or limbs from animal bodies used as food. In the practice, many speakers resort to the basic bilateral roots without inflections.
Reduplication of the basic stem of bilateral nouns is common to mark simple (i. e. not bilateral) plural:
chen chen der jhao mis 'all our hands together'
Left-hand side: |vie-| Right-hand side: |ji-| Bilateral: |ti-| Simple plural: uses reduplication
Root: |ran-| Construct: |ran-| Indefinite: |ran-a| Definite: |ren-i| Genitive/ablative: |it-ran-| Allative: |go-ran-| Essive: |m-ran-| -> |b-ran-| Commitative: |li-ran-| Root: |fe-| Construct: |fe-| Indefinite: |fe-| Definite: |fe-ch| Genitive/ablative: |yi-fe-| Allative: |go-fe-| Essive: |m-fe-| -> |ve-| Commitative: |li-fe-| Root: |pa-| Construct: |pa-| Indefinite: |pa-| Definite: |pa-ch| Genitive/ablative: |yi-fa-| Allative: |go-pa-| Essive: |m-pa-| -> |m-ba-| -> |ba-| Commitative: |li-pa-| Root: |mi-| Construct: |mi-| Indefinite: |mi-ya| Definite: |mi-ch| Genitive/ablative: |yi-vi-| Allative: |go-mi-| Essive: |u-mi-| Commitative: |li-mi-|