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Laal language
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===Nouns=== Nouns have plural and singular forms (the latter are perhaps better viewed as [[singulative]] in some cases), with plural formation hard to predict: ''kò:g'' "bone" > ''kuagmi'' "bones", ''tuà:r'' "chicken" > ''tò:rò'' "chickens", ''ɲaw'' "hunger" > ''ɲə̀wə́r'' "hungers". Nouns do not have arbitrary gender, but three natural genders (male, female, non-human) are distinguished by pronouns. The possessive is expressed in two ways: * "[[inalienable possession|inalienable]]", or direct, possession: by following the possessed with the possessor (and modifying the tone or ending of the possessed in some cases): ''piá:r no'' "person's leg" ("leg person"); * [[alienable possession]]: by putting a connecting word, conjugated according to number and gender, between the possessed and the possessor: {{interlinear|indent=3 |làgɨˋm má màr-dɨb |horse CONN man+of-forge |"blacksmith's horse"}} : The connecting word is sometimes abbreviated to a simple high tone. However, if the possessor is a pronoun, it is suffixed with extensive vowel [[ablaut]] (in the first case) or prepositional forms with "at" and optionally the connector as well, are used (in the second case): ''na:ra ɟá ɗe:'' "my man" ("man CONN. at-me"), ''mùlù'' "her eye" ("eye-her", from ''mɨla'' "eye"). Some nouns (''páw-'' "friend") occur only with bound pronouns and have no independent form. That is called [[obligatory possession]] and is found in many other language, usually for words referring to personal relationships. See [[#Pronouns|pronouns]] for the relevant suffixes. A noun indicating someone who does, is, or has something can be formed with the prefix ''màr'', meaning roughly "he/she/it who/of": ''màr jùgòr'' "landowner", ''màr ce'' "farmer" (''ce'' = cultivate), ''màr pál'' "fisherman" (''pál'' = to fish), ''màr pàlà ta:'' "a fisher of fish". Laal does show traces of an old Adamawa-type noun-class system, but apart from loans, the forms do not appear to be cognate with the Adamawa system (Lionnet 2010). Some singular and plural nouns in Laal (Blench (2017):<ref>{{cite book|chapter=African Language Isolates|first=Roger|last=Blench|editor1-first=Lyle|editor1-last=Campbell|url=https://www.routledgehandbooks.com/doi/10.4324/9781315750026.ch7|title=Language Isolates|series=Routledge Language Family series|publisher=Routledge|date=2017|doi=10.4324/9781315750026|isbn=9781138821057}}</ref> {| class="wikitable" ! rowspan="2" | Gloss ! colspan="2" | Laal |- ! singular ! plural |- | mahogany || círám || cúrmú |- | bag || bwālāg || bólgó |- | mat || sún || súnà |- | cock || kògòr || kwāgrā |- | hyena || ŋyāāl || ŋēē |- | ear || sɨ̀gál || sɨ̀gɨ́y |- | elephant || ɲé || ɲwáɲá |- | dog || ɓyāāg || ɓīīgāɲ |- | bird || ndíí || ndírmá |- | pigeon || lóóg || lwágmí |- | water || sū || sùgá |- | sheep || ɗēē || ɗwāār |}
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