Кадѣц

Number

Iridian nouns are marked for number: singular or plural. The plural is formed by adding the suffix -урь or -рь to the noun, depending on whether the noun ends in a consonant or a vowel, respectively.

The following considerations also apply to the formation of the plural:

1. A noun containing a fleeting -е (see below) drops the -е before the plural suffix, e.g. лобек ‘fruit’ → лубкурь ‘fruits’.
2. Nouns ending in -е or -ѣ use the plural suffix -лурь instead of -рь, respectively as would be expected. Thus we have втаре ‘morning’ → втарелурь ‘mornings’ and схорѣ ‘group’ → схорѣлурь ‘groups’.
3. Nouns ending in -о or -оў drop the final vowel and take the plural suffix -урь. Thus we have хлабо ‘lamp’ → хлабурь ‘lamps’ and малоў ‘snack’ → малурь ‘snacks’.

The plural form is not used where the noun is otherwise quantified, e.g. with a numeral or a quantifier. Thus we бъл ‘child’ and бълурь ‘children’ but вуц бъл ‘two children’ and бала бъл ‘a few children’ instead of вуц бълурь and бала бълурь, respectively.

Iridian also does not use the plural form where the possessor is plural but the noun possessed is singular, either per se or in a partitive sense. Thus one sees думаль which can mean ‘their house’ (in a collective sense, i.e., the house they share) or ‘their houses’ (i.e., the houses each of them owns) as opposed to думуряль which would mean ‘their houses’ which refer to multiple houses owned by multiple people either collectively or partitively.

The plural form cannot be used with a limited number of nouns, mostly referring to paired body parts and related objects, which in the base form is understood to refer to the pair itself and thus cannot be pluralized. If the speaker wishes to explicitly refer to one piece of the pair, the noun нома (an otherwise obsolete form of the word for one-half, now surviving only in this construction) and the genitive form of the body part or paired noun is used instead.

The base form is also used in generic statements where English would normally use the plural. Most abstract nouns are uncountable and do not have a plural form. However, some abstract nouns may be used in the plural to indicate different instances of the abstract concept, e.g., нажима ‘kindness’ → нажимарь ‘acts of kindness’. On the other hand, proper nouns when pluralized take on a collective meaning (often translatable as ‘and (the) others’ or ‘and company’), e.g., Марек ‘Marek’ → Маркурь ‘Marek and the others’.

The plural marker can also be used in wh-questions when the speaker expects that the answer to the question refer to multiple nouns; in such cases, the plural marker is added to the wh-word.

The Case System

Declension of Nouns

Nouns in Iridian can end in a consonant, the semi-vowel й, or any of -а, -е, -ѣ, -о or -оў. There are eight declension classes, determined by the ending of the noun. Class I refers to nouns ending in a hard consonant, Class II to nouns ending in a soft consonant, and Classes III through VIII to nouns ending in -а, -е, -ѣ, -й, -о or -оў, respectively. The endings of the declension classes are as follows:

Below are some examples of nouns in each declension class: