Old Moca

Old Moca vocabulary

Old Moca affixes

Old Moca names Moca surnames: nouns in the comitative case

Old Moca is a Late Synraspian Mocic language that descends from Old Sumrë. It was spoken in parts of what is now Mocaczea by the Moca people. Old Moca had two dialects; the one spoken by ethnic Moca (the one in this article) and another, named Early Kionc, which was spoken by the Kionc who came into contact with Old Moca speakers and picked up the language causing their own language (the Kheldre dialect of Old Sumrë) to fall out of use albeit it had a substrate effect on Early Kionc. Old Moca would go on to become the ancestor of the Mocic languages, diverging first into East Middle Moca, Mid Middle Moca and West Middle Moca, with the Early Kionc dialect surviving to become Middle Kionc.

=Name= The name "Old Moca" is obviously not a contemporary name not used in the language itself. Endonyms used in the language were Sọ̄r (from Old Sumrë sumrė) and mọ̄kān ri ("Moca language").

=Phonology=

Consonants

 * When a stem has /s/ initially or finaly and the /s/ is adjacent to the vowel in the stem, the /s/ will become /r/ is an affix is applied that begins/ends in a vowel.
 * Clusters with the shape VC+C (here + denotes a morpheme boundary) are not permitted in Old Moca. When an affix beginning in a consonant attaches to a stem ending in a consonant, the first consonant is dropped and the preceeding vowel is lengthened.
 * The plosives /k g/ labialize to /kʷ gʷ/ before /u(ː) o ɵ(ː)/

Phonological History
bʰ pʰ sʰ tʰ dʰ kʰ gʰ→v f h s z x ɣ

ʱb ʰt ʱd ʰk ʱg → vː sː zː xː ɣː

Fʰ>h

ʰF>Fː

s→r/V_V

t→s/n_

ɔʊ→u

k g→kʷ gʷ/_{o u ɔ}

VCː→VːC!C=N

w→v

uV oV iV→wV lV jV

VC1C2→VːC2!C1=voiceless liquid or nasal

VC1C1C2>VC1C2

V→∅/{l, r, n}_#

p b t d→∅/_#

ʌ(ː) a(ː) ɛ(ː) œ(ː) e(ː) ø  i(ː) ʏ→a(ː) e(ː) e(ː) ø i ʏ ɘ y

{ɔ(ː) o(ː)} u(ː)→ u(ː) ɵ(ː)

ɜ → ɘ

p →kʷ

ɕ ʑ → s z

ɫ>w

ʊ>u

ʏ>ø

mː nː ɲː> mb nd ɲɟ

m̥ n̥ l̥ r̥ ñ> ms ns ls rs ns

gs>sk/#_

=Noun Phrase=

Gender
There are four genders which are buzzard, deer, animate and inanimate. The buzzard and deer noun genders have nothing to do with their namesakes. The way to tell which gender a noun belongs to is very simple. If a common noun ends in a vowel or /l r n/ then it is in the deer gender, if it ends in a consonant then it is on the buzzard gender (although broken nouns are buzzard nouns which end in vowels). Nouns that belong to other declensions have animate/inanimate genders which are assigned semantically. Animate/inanimate nouns can be derived from common nouns using derivational suffixes which tended to preserve the animate/inanimate case endings of Proto-Sumric albeit each suffix does it in its own irregular way. Even when these suffixes are applied to new words they will go in the animate/inanimate gender, with the exact gender being assigned semantically based on whether the noun is alive or not. The suffix -geu ("cover of, surrounding") is a prime example of this:


 * bēve ("hillfoot") deer noun → bēvegeu ("flower that grows by hillfoots") animate noun.

This means that Old Moca has both purely grammatical genders (buzzard and deer) plus purely semantic genders (animate and inanimate).

Gender switching
Gender switching occurs when a animate or inanimate noun inflects for a locative case. This is because each declension only differs in the nominative, accusative, genitive and dative cases as those were the cases that existed when the declensions formed in Proto-Sumro-Naukl. However the locative cases are an Old Sumrë innovation and so they are the same for any declension of nouns. The locative cases do however inflect for the buzzard and deer gender. So when an animate or inanimate noun takes on a locative case it must switch gender to become either a buzzard noun or a deer noun (depending on whether the noun ends in a consonant or vowel). This gender switch is evidenced in agreement. For example the Y-noun mẹ̄g ("fish") is animate and ("big fish") is mẹ̄g ēnus (the -us ending is adjective agreement with animate nouns) and the oblique of that is mẹ̄jau ēnurau however ("under the big fish") is mẹ̄gọn ēnọn (the -un ending is adjective agreement for subessive buzzard nouns).


 * Animate noun ending in a consonant > buzzard noun
 * Inanimate noun ending in a consonant > buzzard noun
 * Animate noun ending in a vowel > deer noun
 * Inanimate noun ending in a vowel > deer noun

Gender switching also occurs with certain vocative cases, more is explained under the vocative cases section under the common nouns section.

On a related note some nouns in Old Moca have the opposite gender of their Old Sumrë ancestors. This is due to analogy where word final short vowels were lost after /l r n/ and so buzzard nouns ending like that lost their case endings in the nominative plural and oblique forms. So to keep the different cases distinguished in these nouns they took on the deer gender where long vowels and diphthongs remained undeleted. For example Old Sumrë had the buzzard noun maawatar ("buzzard") which had the plural maawatarë. After Old Moca's sound changes both of these became mēveter. after switching to the deer gender the noun found a new and distinguishable plural form mēveterī.

Case
The case system of Old Moca is very similar to Old Sumrë yet there are some key differences. These include the loss of the paucal number, the loss of the genitive and dative cases with the accusative becoming the oblique case. In terms of declensions Old Moca innovated broken noun and merged Null-nouns with H-nouns.

Common Nouns
The below table demonstrates the most common declension of nouns. Buzzard nouns that end in a consonant will lose the consonant and lengthen the previous vowel when the case ending begins in a consonant. Buzzard nouns are recognisable by how they end in consonants, and deer gender nouns may end in a vowel or /l r n/.

Broken Nouns
Broken nouns are comprised of buzzard gender nouns that have lost the word final plosives /b t d kʷ/ in the nominative singular but keep them in all other cases and numbers. It is not predicative as to which plosive will resurface. This declension is thanks to Old Moca experiencing the change /p b t d/ > ∅/_#. broken nouns with word final long vowels do not lose the resurfaced plosive even when the case ending begins in a consonant.

U-Nouns
U-nouns are a class of nouns that end in the vowel ọ

Zero-Grade Nouns
Buzzard gender zero-grade nouns have a syllabic consonant in the final syllable, quite often they have no vowels at all. In the buzzard gender, the vowel of the suffix is reduplicated before the syllabic consonant in ever case. If there are two adjacent syllables with syllabic consonants then the vowel will be reduplicated in both. If the syllabic consonant was before a consonant then it will be dropped and lengthen the previous reduplicated vowel.


 * vŕŕ ("music, song, melody, tune") > virri ("songs")
 * skʷɫ ("cricket") > skʷölau ("cricket-")
 * dŕjś ("heron") > dējeres ("heron-")

Deer gender zero-grade nouns end in vowels or /l r n/, as such they are not truly "zero grade" but they do show the pre-syllabic epenthesis gradiation in a similar way to buzzard gender zero-grade nouns. Typically in deer gender zero-grades, the penultimate syllable contains the syllabic sonorants but it isn't unheard of for the syllabic sonorants to appear in syllables further to the left. In deer gender zero-grades the vowel is only reduplicated if the vowel of the suffix replaces the final vowel of the root. As phonotactics dictate that when a vowel of a suffix comes into contact with a vowel of a stem that the vowel of the stem is dropped and the vowel of the suffix is lengthened, the reduplicated vowel will also be long. This only happens when the suffix begins in a vowel, when the suffix begins in a consonant then the vowel of the stem is not lost and so the vowel is not reduplicated.


 * kʷŕtn ("hedgehog") > kʷīndī ("hedgehogs")
 * butḿju ("minnow") > butījī ("minnows")
 * stɫgọ ("stalk") > stɫgọr ("stalk-")

Geo-Nouns
-Geo nouns are nouns that have been derived from verbs with the suffix -geu (from the suffix -geo in Old Sumrë). Nouns formed this way have their own case paradigm. Since -Geo noun endings only differ from buzzard/deer endings in the nominative and oblique cases this table will exclude the locative cases. Geo-nouns can be either animate or inanimate. Since the causes that created each noun class happened before Old Sumrë gained its locative cases only the nominative, accusative, genitive and dative forms differ in each declension, with the locative causes being identical for every declension.-Geo nouns are nouns that have been derived from verbs with the suffix -Geo. Nouns formed this way have their own case paradigm. Since -Geo noun endings only differ from buzzard/deer endings in the nominative, accusative, genitive and dative cases this table will exclude the locative cases. Geo-nouns can be either animate or inanimate. Since the causes that created each noun class happened before Old Sumrë gained its locative cases only the nominative, accusative, genitive and dative forms differ in each declension, with the locative causes being identical for every declension.

B-Nouns
B-nouns are animate nouns that have been derived from adjectives with suffix -a. There are two patterns of B-nouns which vary depending on whether the derived from stem ends in a consonant or a vowel. If the stem is a broken noun then the lost consonant will resurface when the suffix -a is attached.

O-Nouns
O-nouns are inanimate nouns derived from any word with the inanimate suffix -u or the suffix -bu.

In some rare cases an O-noun may end in the vowel ọ or e in which case the u vowel of the suffix is replaced by said vowels: rurelẹ ("wing, feather") > rurelẹn ("wings, feathers").

H-Nouns
H-nouns experience an alternation of the consonant /g/, for animate nouns it becomes /h/ in the oblique sginular and plural and in the nominative plural while for inanimate nouns it becomes /k/.

R-Nouns
R-nouns are nouns whose Proto-Sumro-Letaeric ancestor ended in /Vs/ or /Vs/. The forms in Old MOca tend to end in /Vs/ but rarer forms can end in /Vf V Vv V/. Both animate and inanimate R-nouns decline in the same way.

Topic Marking
Topic marking in Old Moca is one area where there is a distinction between how men and women speak. Topicalisation as used by men is called strong topicalisation and topicalisation as used by women is called weak topicalisation. The various roles of nouns that are topicalised are known as shades. Adjectives that follow the copula may also be topicalised in the same manner as nouns. The closest translation to Old Moca's topicalisation into English is the definite article "the".

Shade 1
Shade 1 topicalisation emphasizes the subject's role as the agent and is marked with the proclitic d- onto the noun phrase. If the phrase already begins in /d/ then the vowel follwoing the /d/ will be reduplicated after the clitic.

d-jerun mööm-ör bẹr-ā

TOP-wolf hunt-3S.BUZZ sloth-OBL

"The wolf hunts a sloth"

Shade 2
Shade 2 strong topicalisation emphasizes the object's (direct or indirect) role as the patient and is marked attaching the proclitic l- onto the noun. If the phrase already begins in /l/ then the vowel following the /l/ is reduplicated after the clitic. If the phrase begins in a plosive followed by a back vowel or /ɵ a/ then the proclitic is u-. If the phrase begins in a back vowel then the proclitic is w-. When the noun begins in any other consonant the /l/ becomes syllabic. Note that a strong topicalised object is placed in the nominative case.

jerun mööm-ör l-bẹr

wolf hunt-3S.BUZZ TOP-sloth.NOM

"A wolf hunts the sloth"

nuneg-ē l-bē

cut-1S TOP.knife.NOM

"I cut with the knife"

Shade 1
This is marked by the proclitic l- onto the noun phrase. If the phrase already begins in /l/ then the vowel following the /l/ is reduplicated after the clitic. If the phrase begins in a plosive followed by a back vowel or /ɵ a/ then the proclitic is u-. If the phrase begins in a back vowel then the proclitic is w-.

l-jerun mööm-ör bẹr-ā

TOP-wolf hunt-3S.BUZZ sloth-OBL

"The wolf hunts a sloth"

l-ēsti ñek-as ūje-dau

TOP-mouse eat-3S.BUZZ.PST bread-OBL

"The mouse eats bread"

lö-lörel velörel-ör

TOP-river flow-3S.BUZZ

"The river flows"

w-ọ̄cọ ken-au mau

TOP-patter_of_rain please-3S.DEER 1S.OBL

"The patter of the rain pleases me"

u-kʷa sɫbe hageọnenemēc emen kʷeve

TOP-head POSS boar be.3S.INAN delicious

"The boar's head is delicious"

Shade 2
This is marked by fronting the object to the beginning of the sentence.

bẹr-ā jerun mööm-au

TOP.sloth-OBL wolf hunt-3S.DEER

"A wolf hunts the sloth"

ūje-dau ēsti ñek-as

TOP.bread-OBL mouse eat-3S.BUZZ.PST

"A mouse ate the bread"

mau ọ̄cọ ken-au

TOP.1S.OBL patter_of_rain please-3S.DEER

"Patter of the rain pleases me"

kʷeve kʷa sɫbe hageọnenemēc emen

TOP.delicious head POSS boar be.3S.INAN

"A boar's head is delicious"

Shade 3
This is marked by shifting the indirect object to the front of the sentence.

bēt-bẹn nuneg-ē

TOP.knife-PRO cut-1S

"I cut with the knife"

Non-Specificness
Non-specificness is used to refer to objects which do not yet exist, or whose existence is in doubt or hypothetical. This is marked by the prefix y-. This prefix triggers umlaut to occur on the first vowel of the stem which is as follows:

The brackets denote the vowel if it occurs before /r l/


 * bē ("knife, blade") > ybȳ
 * saigh ("book") > yraigh
 * jiẹge ("ermine") > yjuẹge

Adjectives
Old Moca adjectives must agree to the noun they modify in gender, case and number. adjectives agreeing with Buzzard and Deer nouns do this by taking on the same endings as the nouns, the animate/inanimate genders act differently as will be described below. Note that adjectives only agree with the non-locative cases, when modifying with a noun inflected in a locative case the adjective will only agree with the gender and number. Note that adjectives always follow the head noun.

Agreeing with buzzard nouns
If an adjective ends in a consonant then no change is needed and can be inflected as is:
 * ēn ("big") > bē ēn ("big knife") > bētau ēnau ("big knife-")
 * nẹn ("green") > bē nẹn ("green knife") > bētau nẹnau ("green knife-")
 * rēk ("strong") > bē rēk ("strong knife") > bētau rēkau ("strong knife-")

If the adjective ends in a vowel however then -m is suffixed onto the stem and it is after this that case endings go:


 * ööñe ("bad") > bē ööñem ("bad knife") > bēti ööñemi ("bad knives")
 * nuke ("broken") > bē nukem ("broken knife") > bēti nukemi ("broken knives")
 * mēje ("brave") > bē mējem ("brave knife") > bēti mējemi ("brave knives")

Agreeing with deer nouns
If an adjective ends in a vowel or /l r n/ then no change is needed and can be inflected as is:
 * selje ("old") > mekọ selje ("old world") > mekī seljī ("old worlds")
 * sje ("holy") > mekọ sje ("holy world") > mekī sjī ("holy worlds")

If an adjective ends in a consonant however then -e is added onto the adjective. If the adjective ends in s then rather than a suffix the s becomes r:
 * ȳlēles ("correct") > mekọ ȳlēler ("correct world") > mekī ȳlēlerī ("correct worlds")
 * ylukẹk ("familiar") > mekọ ylukẹke ("familiar world") > mekī ylukẹkī ("familiar worlds")

Agreeing with animate nouns
Adjectives agree to animate nouns by adding the suffix -us onto the adjective. Adjectives agreeing to animate and inanimate nouns don't take on regular case ending like the deer and buzzard nouns do. Rather -us has its own case paradigm shown below, this is true only for the nominative, accusative, genitive and dative cases with the locative cases being the same as as they are on nouns. When the adjective ends in a vowel the final vowel of the stem is deleted, when the stem ends in two vowels only the second vowel is deleted.


 * huker ("cold") > lemeb hukerus ("cold trapper")
 * ēn ("big") > lemeb ēnus ("big trapper")
 * selje ("old") > lemeb seljus (old trapper")

Agreeing with inanimate nouns

 * ēn ("big") > ētabu ēbu ("big cobweb")
 * ööñe ("bad") > ētabu ööñevu ("bad cobweb")
 * ter ("hard") > ētabu tēbu ("hard cobweb")

Adjectives in formal and ritualistic speech
In heavily formal speech, or when partaking in a ritual, or when in reference to a sacred being, adjectives will take on the suffix -ūk. This goes after any case endings that appear on the adjective. Any adjective with this suffix will appear before the noun rather than after.

d-mār-ūk sien veār-au

TOP-wonderful-DIV god wake-3S.DEER

"The wonderful god wakes"

Pronouns and Determiners
Singular Pronouns

Plural Pronouns

Demonstrative Pronouns
=Verb Phrase= Old Moca's verbs are quite less complex than those of Old Sumrë, with Old moca having lost all of the future tenses plus the last night and yesterday past tenses. All verb classes besides zero-grade verbs and eas-verbs had been reanalyzed as common verbs. The passive was also lost as topicalisation grew more prominent in the language. Verbs are negated with the adverb myr placed after the verb.

Old Moca has the infinitive suffix -en.

Zero-Grade Verbs
Zero-grade verbs are verbs whose stem contains no vowels, possessing only syllabic consonants. Much like zero-grade nouns, the vowels of suffixes are re-duplicated before the syllabic consonant, rendering it non-syllabic. If the syllabic consonant is before a consonant then when a vowel is reduplicated the syllabic consonant will be dropped and the vowel lengthened. Since all infinitive verbs contain a vowel in the infinitive suffix, the infinitive forms of zero-grade verbs will have vowels in the stem (e.g zśkʷ- > zēkʷen), as such each zero-grade verb has it's vowel-less form listed in the dictionary alongside its infinitive. Else wise zero-grade verbs can be distinguished as the supine forms do not contain any epenthetic vowels.


 * zśkʷ- ("to weave, to fabricate")
 * zēkʷen ("to weave")
 * zēkʷē ("I weave")
 * zẹ̄kʷẹ ("you- weave")
 * khśkʷ ("weaving")
 * kʷɫ- ("to stray")
 * kʷēten ("to stray")
 * kʷöötak ("it strayed")
 * kkʷɫ ("straying")

Eas-Verbs
-Eas verbs are verbs that have been derived from nouns and adjectives with the derivation suffix -ēs (-eas in Old Sumrë) to denote an action that results in the root noun/adjective. In these verbs -ēs functions as an infinitive.

Interrogative
The interrogative is formed by placing the interrogative copula jẹdẹ ("is it?") at the beginning of the sentence:

jẹdẹ veār-ēk?

INT wake-1S.PST

"Did I wake up?"

Causative
Causative verbs in Old Moca break a general rule among languages that inflections blocks derivation. This is because the causative suffix -ẹ̄ten can be placed onto an inflected verb and then itself be further inflected. This implies that the subject of the inflected verb is made to do so by the subject of the inflected causative suffix. The same if true for the suffix -ruten ("to allow X to happen").


 * tẹ̄tšuen ("to vanish") > tẹ̄tšuer ("you vanish") > tẹ̄tšuerẹ̄ten ("to make you vanish") > tẹ̄tšuerētē ("I make you vanish")

Imperative
The imperative suffix -je turns a verb into a demand. When a verb is imperative it can only take on the suffixes -je and -mu and meaning that it can’t inflect for person or tense so in imperative phrases the subject is always included (whereas English leaves it out). When the verb stem ends in t or d, these consonants merge with the j to become c and č respectively. When the stem ends in any other consonant the consonant is dropped and the preceedign vowel lengthened.


 * veāren ("to wake up") > veāje! ("wake up!")

When the verb has the suffix -ruten ("to allow X to happen") then the imperative of such a verb has the meaning "let X do X":

d-sien veār-ruc-e

TOP-god wake-allow-IMP

"Let the god wake up"

Supine
As well as the infinitives, Old Moca has the supine. The supine is a verbal noun used to describe motion and indicates purpose and intention, or as a predicate of another verb. It is formed with the prefix k-. This prefix causes changes to the stem itself. If the verb stem begins in a plosive then the plosive will lenite as shown below. If the verb stem begins in a cluster then when the k- prefix is attached it will place an /e/ between the cluster in the stem (but not in the cluster with the prefix). Some clusters with /v/ may remain, the table below will explain how it is treated in each situation. When in the supine the verb's infinitive suffix will drop.

Some verb stems beginning in /sk/ form the imperative with /kjer/, these verbs descend from Old Sumrë verbs beginning in /gs/:
 * skugen ("to pour") > kjerug
 * skūsen ("to tame") > kjerūs

Adjective Participle
Adjective participles are derived from verbs with the suffixes -wun (for agreeing with buzzard and deer nouns), -wunus (for agreeing with animate nouns) and -wūbu (for agreeing with inanimate nouns). When the verb stem ends in a consonant, the consonant is dropped and the preceding vowel lengthened. The negative forms are -wūmọ, -wunūmọ, -wūbumọ respectively.
 * sēveken ("to dig") > sēvēwun, sēvēwunus, sēvēvūbu
 * tẹ̄tšuen ("to vanish") > tẹ̄tšuwun, tẹ̄tšuwunus, tẹ̄tšuwūbu
 * nunegen ("to cut") > nunēwun, nunēwunus, nunēwūbu

d-bē nunē-wū-mọ emen nuke''

TOP-knife cut-PART-NEG be.3S.INAN broken

"The non-cutting knife is broken"

Passive Participle
Passive adjective participles are derive from verbs with the suffixes -ẹk (for agreeing with buzzard nouns), -ẹke (for agreeing with deer nouns), -ẹkus (for agreeing with animate nouns) and -ẹ̄bu (for agreeing with inanimate nouns). The negative forms are -ẹ̄mọ, -ẹkemọ, -ẹkūmọ, -ẹ̄bumọ.
 * sēveken ("to dig") > sēvekẹk, sēvekẹke, sēvekẹkus, sēvekẹ̄bu
 * tẹ̄tšuen ("to dig") > tẹ̄tšuẹk, tẹ̄tšuẹke, tẹ̄tšuẹkus, tẹ̄tšuẹ̄bu
 * nunegen ("to cut") > nunegẹk, nunegẹke, nunegẹkus, nunegẹ̄bu

d-bē nuneg-ẹ̄-mu emen nuke''

TOP-knife cut-PP-NEG be.3S.INAN broken

"The uncut knife is broken"

Adverbs
Adverbs in Old Moca are freely derived from adjectives and are not morphological distinct from them. Adverbs are placed after the verbs that they modify.

The adverb ēhede ("barely, hardly, for a small while") denotes an action that occurred for a short time, or an action that was half-assed or barely happened.

d-bē noneg-as ēhede

TOP-knife cut-3S.INAN.PST barely

"The knife barely cut"

Adverbs can even be topicalised to place emphasis on them.

d-ēhede kʷöör emen mār

TOP-hardly road be.3S.INAN great

"The road is hardly great"

Jussive mood
The adverb vöres ("must, have to") marks an action required by the speaker but also an action or truth that the speaker believes should happen. It has the negative form vörēmọ.

mööm-ē vöres wumen-au

hunt-1S JUS deer-OBL

"I must hunt a deer"

har-er vörē-mọ wọ̄ter-au

throw-2S JUS-NEG fruit-OBL

"You shouldn't throw fruit"

Conditional mood
The adverb kʷelir marks the conditional mood. The negative form is kʷelīmọ.

ñuk-ē kʷelir

walk-1S COND

"I would walk"

Hortative mood
The hortative mood is used to mark encouragement. When negative this acts as a light imperative. This is marked with the adverb tas. The negative form is tāmọ

sọm-er tas l-mọben

travel-2S HORT TOP-mountain

"You should travel to the mountain"

sọm-er tā-mọ l-mọben

travel-2S HORT-NEG TOP-mountain

"You shouldn't travel to the mountain"

=Numbers= The number system in Old Moca is very typical of Sumro-Letaeric languages, with the order being determined by animacy and agreement determined by the use of adjectives. The way that numbers agree with the head noun can be irregular due to the inflection descending directly from those in Proto-Sumro-Naukl and not experiencing analogy like nouns did. Each number has a "singular" and "plural" form. The plural is used for the meaning "X number of Y" while the singular just means "X Ys" e.g kọ bēti ("four knives") vs kwa bēti ("four of the knives").

Order
A number may follow or precede its noun. If the noun is semantically (or grammatically if it is an animate noun) animate then the number follows. If the noun is inanimate then the number goes before the noun:


 * Animate: rēkel du ("one bear")
 * Inanimate: dū sikʷe ("one flower")

Agreement
Numbers do not agree with the buzzard or deer genders, instead they agree only with animate or inanimate. If a noun has the buzzard or deer gender then the number will agree to the semantic animacy of the noun (i.e if the noun represents a living sentient being). In terms of agreeing with number, the number 1 agrees with no number for obvious reasons. The numbers 2-10 agree with the plural. It is important to note that numbers higher than 10 do not agree whatsoever with the noun.

Numbers only agree with the four traditional cases (nominative, accusative, genitive and dative). For any other case the nominative form of the noun is used. Numbers also only agree with the nouns case if an adjective is modifying the noun, if there is no adjective then the numbers takes the nominative case:


 * rēkel du (bear- one-) "with one bear"
 * rēkeles ēnemes dū (bear- big- one-) "one big bear"
 * rēkelbẹn ēnēbin du (bear- big- one-) "by one big bear"

Numbers 11-19 The Numbers 11-19 are totally uninflectable and are as follows:
 * 11 dukʷẹg
 * 12 ukʷẹg
 * 13 kʷēkʷẹg
 * 14 kukʷẹg
 * 15 bŕkʷẹg
 * 16 mēkʷẹg
 * 17 skọ̄kʷẹg
 * 18 bẹ̄kʷẹ̄kʷẹg
 * 19 kʷẹ̄dikʷẹg

The numbers cause the noun to take the delative plural and they always go before the noun:
 * Tumör skọ̄kʷẹg gverējami (herald- seventeen badger-) "there are 17 badgers"

Numbers 20+ The numbers 20-100 are also don't agree with nouns and also trigger the delative plural case. The numbers 20-100 are as follows:
 * 20 uẹ̄k
 * 30 kʷenẹ̄k
 * 40 kwẹ̄k
 * 50 bŕẹ̄k
 * 60 menẹ̄k
 * 70 skọ̄tẹ̄k
 * 80 bẹ̄kʷẹ̄kẹ̄k
 * 90 kʷẹ̄dẹkẹ̄k
 * 100 kʷẹgẹmẹ̄k

To form numbers such as 25 or 74, the smaller number is placed before the larger number, with the larger number taking the comitative suffix -es:
 * bŕ uẹ̄kes (five twenty-) "25"
 * kọ skọ̄tẹ̄kes (four seventy-) "74"

To form numbers such as 200 or 300, the number kʷẹgẹmẹ̄k ("100") is made plural as kʷẹgẹmẹ̄ki and modified by another number (which may follow or come before). The words for "1000" or "2000" are simply made in this manner by saying "10 100s" or "20 1000s" up until "10,000" which is "100 100s":
 * kʷẹgẹmẹ̄ki uk, uk kʷẹgẹmẹ̄ki (hundred- two) "200"
 * kʷẹgẹmẹ̄ki skọ̄tẹ, skọ̄tẹ kʷẹgẹmẹ̄ki (hundred- seven) "700"
 * kʷẹgẹmẹ̄ki kʷẹgẹm (hundred- ten) "1000"

For more specific numbers like "438" or "694" the smaller number is placed before or after the larger number, with the last number taking the conjunctive clitic -ek ("and"):
 * kʷẹgẹmẹ̄ki kọ bẹ̄pẹ̄ kʷenẹ̄kerek (hundred- four eight thirty-) "438"
 * kʷẹgẹmẹ̄ki ben ku kʷẹ̄dẹkẹ̄kerek (hundred- six four ninety-) "694"

=Krintham's Poem=

Krintham's poem is a short prosaic text written by the shaman Krintham. It has become used as a popular text to translate among the Sumro-Letaeric languages to compare the different languages side by side.

Si ūser kʷenerer

this day-COM beautiful-DEER-COM

"on this beautiful day"

nöri nẹmika kʷölien kʷöörau rēmau

man-PL woman-PL-CONJ hew-3PL.PST path-ACC long-ACC

"Men and women have hewn a long path"

siköl ekẹ̄tu skūsyl sọmen mēteren mekbẹn

because PURP know-1PL.INCL travel-INF 1PL.INCL.POSS.NOM.SG world-PRO

"So that we can travel through our world"

bẹñer stuau keẹ̄dur sienbẹnī seljebẹnī

hope-COM protect-3SG.PL PASS god-PRO.DEER.PL old-PRO.DEER.PL

"may it be protected by the old gods"

bẹñer erẹl kʷejyruka skʷọkʷien nöökẹ̄rau lemöröl

hope-COM sun moon-CONJ shine-3PL light-ACC 3SG.SUPER

"may the sun and moon shine light over it"

someli sɫb nī joc krọmer

foot-PL POSS person-PL while SUP-walk-COM

"as peoples' feet walk"