Nouns

Common and proper nouns are open classes; the pronouns are closed.

Common Nouns

Common nouns can refer to abstract or concrete items.

Stem Nouns

Stem nouns are those that are neither compounded nor derived.

Mass Nouns

Mass nouns refer to an undifferentiated aggregation rather than separate units. These cannot take numbers, except for a postpended xita one to denote the smallest individual piece of that aggregate.

Animacy

This determines which derivational suffixes can be applied, and which pronouns are used as reference.

Animate Noun

These refer to people and other multicellular organisms capable of independent movement.

Inanimate Noun

These refer to things such as natural phenomena, plants, fungi and unicellular life.

Abstract Noun

This category encompasses concepts, ideas and other intangibles. They are referred to by inanimate pronouns.

Compound Nouns

The first part of a compound noun must be a noun, and the subsequent parts specify the meaning of that noun. These parts can be nouns or verbs. The whole noun is usually written without spaces. The syllabification and stress of nonce words are determined on a stem-by-stem basis. However, a compound in common use will start being treated whole.

Proper Nouns

Proper nouns begin with a capital letter in the transliteration. These are names that refer to individual people, places or things.