Nouns
Contents
1. Nouns
2. Noun suffixes for the subject (doer-to)
3. Noun suffixes for locations
4. Noun suffixes for "from" and "away from"
5. Noun suffix for ownership / purpose / going to
6. Noun suffix for "having" and "not having"
7. Five other noun suffixes
1. Nouns
In Murrawarri, meaning is packed into the suffixes that go on to the end of key words. Word order is less important in Murrawarri than the suffixes that give meaning.
Murrawarri nouns are ergative-absolutive (pronouns are split between ergative-absolutive and nominative-accusative). Grammatically, it is very different to English. It is essential that you know whether the sentence is transitive or intransitive because it effects which word has a suffix.
Transitive and intransitive explained
2. Noun suffixes for the subject (doer-to)
Nouns in an intransitive sentence do not need a suffix.
There are two types of nouns in a transitive sentence. Nouns that are the object (done-to) do not have a suffix. Nouns that are the subject (doer-to) have a suffix.
The suffix used to show the subject (doer-to) changes depending on how the noun ends:
| If the noun ends with | Use the suffix | For example |
|---|---|---|
| i, a, u, y | -nggu | garra becomes garra-nggu |
| n | -du | gaan becomes gaan-du |
| nh | -dhu | yuganh becomes yuganh-dhu |
| nj | -dju | ngurrunj becomes ngurrunj-dju |
| l, rl, r, rr, rn | -u | burrbal becomes burrbal-u |
Here are five sentences showing how the suffix (which is telling us it is a doer-to) changes according to the last letter of the word (noun) before it. The verbs have been left out to simplify reading the sentence. Notice that the suffixes marking the subject nouns (doer-to) keep changing. They change depending on the last letters of the word. This is to make it physically easier to make the sound with your mouth.
the girl (picked the) orange
guni-nggu bambal
the brother (patted the) dingo
buwin-du yugio
the cloud (covered the) sky
yuganh-dhu banda
the tomahawk (killed the) man
dhawinj-dju mayinj
the sandalwood tree (made good) shade
buddhar-u gurli-gurli
The ergative-absolutive system explained
3. Noun suffixes for locations
In Murrawarri, words such as at/in/on/outside/into (prepositions) do not exist. Instead, nouns are marked with location suffixes (called the locative form). Like the suffixes attached to the subject nouns (doer-to), the root endings change depending on the last letters of the word. The location suffixes are the same as the subject (doer-to) suffixes except the vowel 'u' is replaced with 'a'.
| If the noun ends with | Use the suffix | For example |
|---|---|---|
| i, a, u, y | -ngga | garra becomes garra-ngga |
| n | -da | gaan becomes gaan-da |
| nh | -dha | yuganh becomes yuganh-dha |
| nj | -dja | ngurrunj becomes ngurrunj-dja |
| l, rl, r, rr, rn | -a | burrbal becomes burrbal-a |
Teaching resource for location
4. Noun suffixes for "from" and "away from"
The suffix -nga is used to mark nouns where someone or something is coming from. This is called the elative case.
e.g. "I’m going from (out of) Wollongong to Brewarrina"
Wollongong-from run going I Brewarrina-to
Wollongong-nga dhanga yan-mi-yu Brewarrina-gu
The suffix -ngu is used to mark nouns where a person moves away from a place or thing because they are afraid or it is dangerous. This is called the ablative case. There are four different contexts -ngu is used in.
(1) moving away from
e.g. "come back from there"
away return there-from
dhayin gulawi nhurra-ngu
(2) from a time in the past
e.g. "in (from) the morning I feel good"
morning-from good be I
bardala-ngu marrinj yindi-yu
(3) fear or discomfort
e.g. "I’m afraid of snakes"
fear I snake-from
garra-yu gaan-ngu
(4) relating to bodily functions
e.g. "he took him by the throat"
throat-from take him
Ngarndul-ngu maa-n-da bunha
Summary of from, away-from and going-to noun suffixes
5. Noun suffix for ownership / purpose / going to
The suffix -gu has multiple uses and is very common.
(1) to show ownership
(2) to show the purpose
(3) to show the beneficiary
(4) to show emotion
(5) to a particular place
(6) till a particular time
6. Noun suffix for "having" and "not having"
Suffixes are added to nouns based on:
(1) having
(2) having with
(3) having a physical thing
(4) not having
having and not having suffixes overview
7. Five other noun suffixes
There are five other noun suffixes in the Murrawarri language
(1) Like is marked with -gala
(2) very is marked with -bari
(3) too much is marked with -marri
(4) more than one is marked with -ra,
(5) it is a person is marked with -nha