Proto-Calašan Grammar

Numbers

1. Phonological Conventions

Before analyzing the numbers themselves, the orthographic conventions are essential for reading any form correctly:

• Accent marks (á, é, etc.) mark stress on a vowel.
• Macrons (ā, ē, etc.) mark vowel length (long vowels).
• Circumflex (â, ê, etc.) marks a vowel that is both long and stressed.
• Understrokes (l̩, r̩, n̩) mark syllabic consonants, which function as vowel-nuclei but are never stressed.

Syllabic consonants are important because they appear systematically in reduced, unstressed combining forms — particularly in the tens-roots used when building compound numbers.

2. Gender: Three Forms for 1–9

The numbers one through nine inflect for three grammatical genders: neuter, masculine, and feminine. Numbers ten and above have only a single (genderless) form.

2.1 Masculine Suffix

The masculine form is the most regular: virtually every number from 1–9 takes the suffix -čwêā. The root that this suffix attaches to is not always identical to the neuter form, however — it requires its own listing (see §6 on principal parts).

2.2 Feminine Suffix

The feminine ending is -énō or -jénō, with the choice conditioned by the preceding consonant. Like the masculine, the root preceding this suffix can differ from the neuter form and must be listed separately.

2.3 Root Alternations

The three genders do not simply add endings to a single stable root. There are consistent alternations across the paradigm:

• Vowel quality shifts: stressed é in the neuter often surfaces as a in the masculine root (e.g., neuter šéjtā → masculine sajx-; neuter šéptā → masculine sapt-; neuter névō → masculine nav-).
• Vowel reduction: stressed vowels can be replaced by syllabic consonants in the feminine (e.g., neuter xéntā → feminine kn̩čénō; neuter pjéntā → feminine pn̩čénō).
• Consonant alternations: the neuter can show palatalised or otherwise modified initial consonants that simplify in the masculine (e.g., neuter pjéntā → masculine pant-; neuter ĵêā → masculine ĵa-).

3. Formation of Tens (20–90)

The tens are formed by prefixing a reduced root of the digit to a form of the word for ten (ĵ). The word for ten itself is ĵê (standalone) or -ĵā (as a suffix in multiples).

The tens-root (the column "Compound root") is what appears when a units digit is appended; it typically shows the same vowel-reduction and quality shifts seen in the gender paradigm, with stressed vowels often reduced to syllabic consonants (e.g., xéntā → kn̩ĵ-).

Note that eighty (ašĵê) uniquely takes the standalone form of ten (ĵê) rather than -ĵā, suggesting a morphological distinction between it and the other tens.

4. Compound Numbers: Tens + Units

When a units digit is added to a tens form, the structure is:

[tens-root] + ĵ + [connector] + [combining-form of units]

The connector between ĵ and the units combining form is generally -a-, with a variant -as- appearing before certain consonant clusters, and a special syllabic -n̩- for nine. These appear to be sandhi phenomena conditioned by the initial consonant of the following combining form.

4.1 Combining Forms of the Units (1–9)

The combining form is distinct from all three of the gendered citation forms and must be listed separately:

Note that 4, 5, 6, and 7 use their neuter form unchanged in compounds, while 1, 2, 3, 8, and 9 have distinct combining forms.

4.2 Examples

5. Hundreds, Thousands, and Larger Numbers

5.1 Hundreds

The word for hundred appears to be -r̩ĵédō (with r̩ syllabic). The element ĵéd- may itself contain the ten-morpheme ĵ, suggesting an original compositional meaning. Multiples of a hundred prefix a reduced digit-root:

• r̩ĵédō — one hundred
• dr̩ĵédō — two hundred (d- from "two")

The phrase "one hundred and [N]" is expressed with the conjunction jéj: r̩ĵédō jéj ...

5.2 Thousands

• ĵr̩ĵédō — one thousand

The prefix ĵ- (the ten-morpheme) on r̩ĵédō (hundred) is consistent with a system where 1,000 = 10 × 100.

5.3 Ten-Thousands

The word for ten thousand is pāšāêā, which appears to be a single lexical item (not transparently compositional). Multiples of ten thousand are formed by prefixing a tens-root and an intervening -p-:

• pāšāêā — ten thousand (10,000)
• dl̩ap-šāêā — twenty thousand
• tr̩p-āšāêā — thirty thousand
• kn̩p-šāêā — forty thousand
• ĵa-p-šāêā — one hundred thousand (ten × ten-thousand)

The abstract/collective form for "tens of thousands" is pāšāér, with the suffix -r marking a plural or mass reading.

5.4 Millions and Billions

• žjérō — one million; žrér — millions (collective, with -r)
• twélō — one billion / an uncountably large number; tlér — uncountably large numbers (collective, with -r)

The suffix -r thus functions as a general pluraliser or collective marker for large-number words.

6. Summary of Patterns

7. Principal Parts for a Dictionary Entry

Given the above, a dictionary entry for each numeral 1–9 would need to list five principal parts:

1. Neuter form — the citation form (e.g., xéntā)
2. Masculine root — the root to which -čwêā is added (e.g., kant-)
3. Feminine root — the root to which -énō/-jénō is added (e.g., kn̩č-)
4. Combining form — used in tens+units compounds (e.g., xéntā, which here happens to equal the neuter)
5. Tens-root — the reduced root used to form the multiple of ten (e.g., kn̩ĵ- for forty)

For the tens (10, 20, 30 … 90) and for larger number words, only the standalone form and the compound/combining root need to be listed, since these words do not inflect for gender.

For hundred, thousand, ten-thousand, million, and billion, the principal parts are simply the base form and the collective/plural form (with -r).

Adjectives

1. Scope and Reading Conventions

Proto-Calašan adjectives distinguish three genders and two numbers:

The dataset therefore gives six forms for each adjective:

neuter singular, masculine singular, feminine singular, neuter plural, masculine plural, feminine plural

The following orthographic conventions apply:

• Acute accents mark stress: á, é, í, ó, and so on.
• Macrons mark vowel length: ā, ē, ī, ō.
• A circumflex marks a vowel that is both long and stressed: â, ê, î, ô.
• An understroke marks a syllabic consonant: r̩, l̩, n̩, m̩. Syllabic consonants are never stressed.

These distinctions are grammatically relevant. Alternations between full vowels and syllabic consonants are especially common in masculine, feminine, and plural forms.

2. The Basic Declensional Pattern

The most productive pattern can be represented abstractly as follows:

This is not a single completely regular declension. Adjectives show several stem classes and extensive morphophonological alternation. Nevertheless, the endings are sufficiently recurrent to establish a clear grammatical system.

3. Masculine Singular and Plural

3.1 The masculine singular ending

The most recognizable masculine singular marker is -čwêā:

• sāvr̩ať-čwêā ‘black’
• jav-čwêā ‘dark red’
• sag-čwêā ‘green’ or ‘yellow’
• bn̩-čwêā ‘good’
• gr̩na-čwêā ‘big’

The masculine stem is often not recoverable simply by removing the ending from the neuter form. It may involve vowel changes, consonant changes, metathesis, or epenthesis.

3.2 The masculine plural ending

The masculine plural is generally formed with -čwér, preserving the masculine stem:

• sāvr̩aťčwêā → sāvr̩aťčwér
• javčwêā → javčwér
• bn̩čwêā → bn̩čwér
• gr̩načwêā → gr̩načwér

Thus, in many adjectives, the principal masculine contrast is:

masculine singular -čwêā : masculine plural -čwér

The change from final ā to ér is part of the number inflection rather than a merely phonetic shortening.

3.3 Variation in masculine stems

The masculine stem may differ considerably from the neuter stem:

Consequently, the masculine singular must normally be listed in a dictionary rather than generated with complete confidence from the neuter singular.

4. Feminine Singular

4.1 The main feminine endings

The feminine singular most commonly ends in one of the following forms:

• -wénō: sāvr̩ťwénō ‘black’, labwénō ‘white’
• -jénō: sagjénō ‘green/yellow’, dl̩gjénō ‘long distance’
• -šénō: rawdn̩šénō ‘light red’, tr̩šénō ‘dry’
• -wèjnā / -wéjnā / -wénō: particularly in adjectives whose stems end in a palatal or glide-like element
• -n̩wénō and related forms after stems with syllabic consonants

The feminine singular therefore has a family of related endings rather than one invariant suffix. The choice is conditioned by the final segment and phonological shape of the stem, although several forms appear lexically or morphologically irregular.

4.2 Feminine stem alternations

Feminine forms frequently show vowel reduction and syllabic consonants:

• mélō → ml̩wénō ‘bad’
• jévō → īvāénō ‘dark red’
• grénō → grn̩énō ‘big’
• čéprā → tr̩pjénō ‘lukewarm’
• lêā → l̩jénō ‘wet’

The feminine is therefore not simply a neuter stem plus a fixed suffix. In many cases, the feminine stem is a separate allomorph that must be learned.

5. Plural Formation

5.1 Neuter plural

The neuter plural commonly has one of these endings:

• -wér: labwér ‘white’, ml̩wér ‘bad’, sāvr̩ťwér ‘black’
• -jér: sagjér ‘green/yellow’, pr̩pjér ‘near’
• -šér: rawdn̩šér ‘light red’, gr̩dšér ‘fat’
• -ér after a shorter or reduced stem: javér ‘dark red’, r̩wér ‘red’
• -wêrī / -wêrī-like endings in a distinct subclass: gl̩wêrī ‘cold’, atāsr̩wêrī ‘sharp’, br̩vwêrī ‘short time’.

The neuter plural is often closely related to the feminine singular or to a reduced stem, but it is not predictable in every case.

5.2 Feminine plural

The feminine plural is most frequently marked by -nér or a related ending:

• savarťnér ‘black’
• albnér ‘white’
• javnér ‘dark red’
• sagnér ‘green’ or ‘yellow’
• bn̩čwér is masculine plural, whereas bān̩ér is feminine plural ‘good’

Other recurrent feminine plural endings include -n̩ér and -nāér:

• grn̩ér ‘big’
• mln̩ér ‘bad’
• gāl̩n̩āér ‘cold’
• atāsr̩nāér ‘sharp’
• brāvn̩āér ‘short time’

The feminine plural often contains an inserted or alternating syllabic n̩, particularly after reduced stems.

5.3 Number is not always expressed by a single suffix

The plural may involve several simultaneous changes:

1. replacement of the singular ending;
2. vowel length or quality alternation;
3. reduction of an unstressed vowel to a syllabic consonant;
4. stem expansion or contraction;
5. replacement of a final glide or palatal element.

For example:

gāéj → gičwêā → gaéjnā → gaérī → gičwér → gn̩āér ‘straight’

This paradigm cannot be derived by applying six completely transparent suffixes to one unchanged stem.

6. Negative Adjectives

A large portion of the lexicon consists of forms translated as ‘not X’:

• nabjénō ‘not good’
• nmélō ‘not bad’
• navwél ‘new’ versus nn̩vwél ‘not new’
• nagjélō ‘not cold’
• n̩čérs ‘not dry’
• nlêā ‘not wet’
• nr̩pwépō ‘not near’
• nāpr̩kwélō ‘not far’
• n̩ĵékō ‘not hefty’
• nm̩wéltā ‘not many’

6.1 The negative prefix

The forms suggest a negative prefix with several allomorphs, most commonly:

• na-
• nā-
• n- / nm̩- / nn̩- / n̩- before certain consonant clusters or reduced stems

The negative prefix is not always identical in every gender and number. It may trigger vowel lengthening, stem restructuring, or syllabic-consonant formation.

6.2 Negative forms are morphologically derived but lexically variable

The semantic translations strongly support a relationship between positive and negative adjectives, but the phonological relationship is not always fully regular:

For dictionary purposes, the negative form should be cross-referenced to the positive adjective, but its full paradigm should be listed when its prefix causes stem or vowel changes.

7. Stem Classes and Alternations

The table suggests that Proto-Calašan adjectives fall into several overlapping stem classes rather than one regular declension.

7.1 Full-vowel stems

Some adjectives retain a relatively clear full-vowel stem:

jévō, javčwêā, īvāénō, īvāér, javčwér, javnér ‘dark red’

Even here, the feminine and plural forms may show vowel changes not predictable from the neuter.

7.2 Syllabic-consonant stems

Other adjectives have syllabic consonants in one or more forms:

mélō, ml̩čwêā, ml̩wénō, ml̩wér, ml̩čwér, mln̩ér ‘bad’

grénō, gr̩načwêā, grn̩énō, grn̩ér, gr̩načwér, grn̩ér ‘big’

Syllabic consonants appear especially in unstressed or reduced positions. Since they cannot bear stress, their appearance also changes the prosodic structure of the word.

7.3 Stem expansion

Some masculine forms insert vowels or consonants absent from the neuter:

• jélbā → alabčwêā ‘white’
• čéprā → tāpr̩čwêā ‘lukewarm’
• pr̩kwélō → prakalčwêā ‘far’
• pakjénō → pākāančwêā ‘very small’

This may reflect historical stem allomorphy, an older derivational suffix, or phonological repair. The present data do not establish one uniform rule.

7.4 Stem truncation and metathesis

Several paradigms reorder or delete segments:

• rudwénos → rawdn̩asčwêā ‘light red’
• atāsr̩wéj → atāsr̩čwêā ‘sharp’
• wétrā → ātr̩čwêā ‘other’
• gāéj → gičwêā ‘straight’

These are best treated as stem alternations in the dictionary unless further examples reveal productive phonological rules.

8. Semantic Derivation and Intensification

The lexicon includes positive, negative, and intensified adjectives.

8.1 Intensifying morphology

The clearest intensifying relationship is:

• m̩jénō ‘small’
• pakjénō ‘very small’
• nm̩jénō ‘not small’
• napakjénō ‘not very small’

Likewise:

• pasťwêā ‘heavy’
• gwêrastā ‘very heavy’
• napasťwêā ‘not heavy’
• nagwêrastā ‘not very heavy’

The element paka- / pak- appears to mark an intensification of ‘small’, while gwêrastā is a distinct lexical intensifier of ‘heavy’. It is not yet clear whether either pattern is productive across the adjective system.

8.2 Related but distinct lexical oppositions

Some English translations group forms into semantic oppositions that are not necessarily simple morphological negations:

• frêā ‘cool’ versus gjélō ‘cold’;
• čéprā ‘lukewarm’ versus n̩čéprā ‘not lukewarm’;
• pasťwêā ‘heavy’ versus gwêrastā ‘very heavy’.

The dictionary should distinguish genuine negative derivation from independent lexical items expressing a different degree or point on a scale.

9. Irregular or Special Paradigms

Several adjectives have endings that differ from the most common patterns:

These forms may represent separate historical declensions, agreement classes, or lexicalized remnants of older morphology. The available paradigms are sufficient to identify the classes, but not to determine their historical origin with certainty.

10. Principal Parts for a Dictionary

A dictionary entry should not assume that every adjective can be generated from its neuter singular. The minimum useful paradigm for a regular-looking adjective is the following:

1. Neuter singular, the conventional citation form.
2. Masculine singular, because the masculine stem commonly differs from the neuter stem.
3. Feminine singular, because the feminine stem and ending are often independently conditioned.
4. Neuter plural, because plural formation may involve stem reduction or a special plural suffix.
5. Masculine plural, usually predictable from the masculine singular but worth listing when the stem alternates.
6. Feminine plural, because it frequently has a distinct reduced stem and endings such as -nér, -n̩ér, or -nāér.

For a compact dictionary, the principal parts could instead be represented as:

neuter singular; masculine stem; feminine stem; neuter plural marker/stem; feminine plural stem/marker

The masculine plural is often formed transparently from the masculine singular by replacing -čwêā with -čwér, so it may be omitted when fully regular. However, the full six-form paradigm should be retained for irregular adjectives.

10.1 Recommended entry format

A full entry might be formatted as follows:

mélō ‘bad’ — N.SG mélō, M.SG ml̩čwêā, F.SG ml̩wénō, N.PL ml̩wér, M.PL ml̩čwér, F.PL mln̩ér.

For a negative adjective:

nabjénō ‘not good’ — negative derivative of bjénō ‘good’; full paradigm listed because the negative prefix and stem alternations are not entirely predictable.

For a highly irregular adjective:

wétrā ‘other’ — N.SG wétrā, M.SG ātr̩čwêā, F.SG ratwénō, N.PL ratwér, M.PL ātr̩čwér, F.PL atrn̩ér.

11. General Conclusions

Proto-Calašan adjectives have a six-way agreement system based on three genders and two numbers. The masculine singular and plural are the most formally recognizable pair, with -čwêā : -čwér. Feminine forms are more variable, commonly using endings related to -wénō, -jénō, -šénō in the singular and -nér, -n̩ér, -nāér in the plural. Neuter plurals commonly use -wér, -jér, -šér, or shorter -ér endings.

The principal grammatical complication is that agreement is expressed not only through suffixes but also through stem alternation. Full vowels may become syllabic consonants, vowels may change quality or length, consonants may be inserted or deleted, and some forms show substantial suppletion. The masculine and feminine stems therefore need to be treated as genuine allomorphs rather than as mechanical extensions of the neuter singular.

A productive or at least highly recurrent negative prefix is represented by na-, nā-, n-, and syllabic-consonant variants. Negative adjectives generally preserve the six-form agreement system, but the negative prefix may itself trigger additional phonological changes. Intensifying formations exist, but the available data do not yet show that all of them belong to one fully productive derivational rule.

The safest dictionary practice is therefore to provide all six forms for each adjective, at least until the stem classes and phonological conditioning of the alternations are better understood.

Nouns

1. Scope and Orthographic Conventions

The noun data show two broad grammatical classes: inanimate nouns and animate nouns. Inanimate nouns have a neuter singular and plural. Animate nouns may additionally distinguish masculine and feminine singular and plural forms.

The relevant orthographic conventions are:

• Acute accents mark stress: á, é, í, ó, and so on.
• Macrons mark vowel length: ā, ē, ī, ō.
• A circumflex marks a vowel that is both long and stressed: â, ê, î, ô.
• Understrokes mark syllabic consonants: r̩, l̩, n̩, m̩. Syllabic consonants are never stressed.

As in the adjective system, declension involves both suffixation and stem alternation. Vowels may reduce or change quality, syllabic consonants may appear, and consonants may be inserted, deleted, or rearranged.

2. Inanimate Nouns

2.1 Gender and number

Inanimate nouns are consistently presented as neuter. Their core paradigm has two forms:

Many inanimate nouns in the data have no plural form recorded. This may indicate that they are mass nouns, normally singular nouns, or simply nouns for which the plural has not yet been supplied. It is safest not to assume that an unattested plural is impossible.

2.2 Common plural endings

The most frequent inanimate plural endings are:

• -wér: ākm̩njér is an irregular-looking example, while kawr̩wér ‘winds’, kl̩wér ‘necks’, and pl̩ťwér ‘hairs’ show the broader plural pattern.
• -jér / -jêrī: r̩jêrī ‘rivers/earlobes’, grér ‘mountains’, asātr̩jér ‘stars’.
• -šér: nābašér ‘clouds’, anšér ‘noses’, ākn̩šér ‘livers’.
• -čér: n̩čér ‘nights’, ādn̩čér ‘teeth’, čapčér ‘heads’.
• -r / -ér after shorter stems: wér ‘eyeballs’, ābaér ‘seas’, gr̩wér ‘forebodings’.

The endings are not distributed mechanically according to a single phonological rule. Instead, nouns appear to belong to several stem classes, with the plural ending often accompanied by stem restructuring.

2.3 Stem alternations in the plural

Plural formation can involve substantial changes to the singular stem:

These alternations include vowel reduction, consonant mutation, metathesis, and loss of unstressed material. The plural is therefore often an independent allomorph of the noun stem rather than a transparent suffix added to the singular.

2.4 Syncretism and homonymy

Some forms are identical across distinct lexical items. For example:

• čér means both ‘earth’ and ‘forest’ in the singular, though the plurals differ: ‘forest’ has tr̩jér.
• r̩jéj means both ‘river’ and ‘earlobe’, with the same plural r̩jêrī.
• āšéj ‘ash’ has a plural related to āšêrī, while ašjêā ‘rope’ has ašjér.

These may be true homonyms, historically related words, or coincidences in the modern lexicon. A dictionary should keep them as separate entries unless their relationship is independently established.

3. Animate Nouns

3.1 Agreement classes

Animate nouns have a richer system than inanimate nouns. The paradigm may distinguish:

• neuter singular and plural;
• masculine singular and plural;
• feminine singular and plural.

The ordinary animal nouns show all six forms:

l̩wêā, lačwêā, l̩wénō, l̩wér, lačwér, lnér ‘animal’

kwén, kwn̩čwêā, kn̩jénō, kn̩jér, kwn̩čwér, kwn̩ér ‘dog’

pjéskā, paskčwêā, paskjénō, paskjér, paskčwér, pasknér ‘fish’

However, kinship terms and sex-specific nouns may have only one gendered paradigm. For example, ‘father’ is masculine-only, while ‘mother’ and ‘wife’ are feminine-only.

3.2 Masculine forms

The masculine singular is normally marked by -čwêā, and the masculine plural by -čwér:

• lačwêā → lačwér ‘male animal’;
• kwn̩čwêā → kwn̩čwér ‘male dog’;
• paskčwêā → paskčwér ‘male fish’;
• patarčwêā → patarčwér ‘father(s)’;
• amančwêā → amančwér ‘husband(s)’.

The masculine stem is often altered from the neuter stem:

• l̩wêā → lačwêā ‘animal’;
• kwén → kwn̩čwêā ‘dog’;
• dwémō → dm̩ičwêā ‘child’;
• twér → tr̩čwêā ‘young child’.

Thus the masculine suffix is recognizable, but the stem must frequently be listed separately.

3.3 Feminine forms

Feminine singular forms commonly end in -wénō, -jénō, -šénō, or -wéjnā:

• l̩wénō ‘female animal’;
• kn̩jénō ‘female dog’;
• paskjénō ‘female fish’;
• l̩šénō ‘female louse’;
• dm̩wéjnā ‘female child’;
• mātr̩jénō ‘mother’.

Feminine plural forms commonly end in -nér, -n̩ér, or -nāér:

• lnér ‘female animals’;
• kwn̩ér ‘female dogs’;
• pasknér ‘female fish’;
• dm̩wêrī / dām̩n̩āér in the child paradigm;
• mātrn̩ér ‘mothers’.

As with adjectives, feminine forms frequently contain reduced vowels or syllabic consonants.

4. Human Nouns and Gendered Lexical Systems

The human-noun data reveal more than ordinary grammatical gender. They distinguish biological sex, social or lexical gender, age, and gender identity.

4.1 Generic person

pr̩šwélō ‘person’ is presented with neuter forms only:

• singular pr̩šwélō;
• plural pr̩šl̩wér.

This suggests that a generic human noun may be grammatically neuter or may lack inherent masculine/feminine agreement until a more specific term is used.

4.2 Sex-specific nouns

The words for ‘male’ and ‘female’ are themselves gendered:

• čwêā / čwér ‘male’;
• nénō / nér ‘female’.

The terms ‘man’ and ‘woman’ are more specific lexical nouns:

• mn̩čwêā / mn̩čwér ‘man’;
• fr̩žénō / fr̩znér ‘woman’.

The masculine and feminine forms are not simply obtained by applying the ordinary endings to a shared neuter stem; they are separate lexical formations.

4.3 Gendered and nonstandard gender categories

The dataset includes nouns with meanings such as:

• br̩jénō / brn̩ér ‘boy-born woman’;
• l̩jm̩čwêā / l̩jm̩čwér ‘girl-born man’;
• maĵjéj / maĵjêrī ‘person of no gender’.

These forms indicate that the language’s noun system can encode social or personal gender categories lexically. They should not automatically be treated as ordinary masculine or feminine forms of another noun. Each appears to have its own lexical stem and agreement behavior.

5. Age and Kinship Terms

5.1 Child nouns

The dataset distinguishes two child terms:

• dwémō ‘child, any age’;
• twér ‘young child’.

Both have neuter, masculine, and feminine paradigms. The forms are highly irregular:

dwémō, dm̩ičwêā, dm̩wéjnā, dm̩wêrī, dm̩ičwér, dām̩n̩āér ‘child’

twér, tr̩čwêā, tr̩jénō, tr̩jér, tr̩čwér, trn̩ér ‘young child’

This suggests that animacy and gender agreement apply to age terms, but the stems are lexically specific.

5.2 Kinship terms

Kinship terms may be inherently gendered:

• patarčwêā / patarčwér ‘father’;
• mātr̩jénō / mātrn̩ér ‘mother’;
• āfr̩žénō / āfr̩znér ‘wife’;
• amančwêā / amančwér ‘husband’.

The word pm̩čér ‘parent’ is neuter and has a neuter plural pm̩ātr̩jér, showing that a generic kinship term may be neuter even when its specific members are masculine or feminine.

6. Number Formation

6.1 The plural is morphologically complex

The most frequent plural markers are -wér, -jér, -šér, -čér, -r, and -êrī. Their distribution appears to depend on noun class and stem shape rather than on one simple rule.

Examples include:

6.2 Possible plural subclasses

A provisional classification is useful:

1. Wér-class: plural in -wér, often with a reduced or altered stem.
2. Jér-class: plural in -jér, including forms with -jêrī.
3. Šér-class: plural in -šér, particularly after certain consonant-final or historically sibilant stems.
4. Čér-class: plural in -čér, often associated with dental or body-part nouns.
5. Êrī-class: plural in -êrī / -wêrī, including fire, ash, river, and some human or animal nouns.
6. Irregular suppletive class: nouns whose plural requires substantial stem replacement, such as ‘night’, ‘mountain’, ‘head’, or ‘mouth’.

These are descriptive classes, not yet proven formal declension classes.

7. Animacy and Gender Agreement

The contrast between inanimate and animate nouns is grammatically important.

7.1 Inanimate nouns

Inanimate nouns have only neuter forms in the data, even when they denote naturally divisible or collective objects such as ‘guts’, ‘hair’, or ‘fur’. Their plural behavior is determined by lexical and morphological class.

7.2 Animate nouns

Animate nouns may trigger or permit agreement in all three genders. The ordinary pattern is:

The neuter form of an animate noun can function as a generic or non-sex-specific form, as with ‘animal’, ‘bird’, ‘dog’, and ‘fish’. However, the exact semantic use of the neuter requires syntactic evidence that is not present in the table.

8. Stem Alternations

Noun paradigms show the same broad alternations found in the numerals and adjectives.

8.1 Vowel reduction

Full vowels frequently become shorter, unstressed, or syllabic-consonant sequences:

• ājêkm̩n → ākm̩njér ‘stone’;
• dwélō → dl̩jér ‘day’;
• kwéwlā → kl̩wér ‘neck’;
• m̩wén → mn̩jér ‘throat’.

8.2 Consonant alternation

Consonants may alternate when a plural or gender suffix is added:

• n̩wétsā → n̩čér ‘night’;
• āêdn̩t → ādn̩čér ‘tooth’;
• čapwét → čapčér ‘head’;
• āwêstā → asťér ‘mouth’.

8.3 Metathesis and stem restructuring

Some forms show reordering or extensive restructuring:

• ādr̩wévō → adarvjér ‘belly’;
• vaérm̩s → vār̩m̩šér ‘worm’;
• āčétos → ātatasčwêā ‘bird’;
• nāťaéjrā → nāťajr̩čwêā ‘snake’.

Such alternations should be treated as stem allomorphy unless a broader phonological rule can be established from additional data.

9. Compounds and Lexicalized Body-Part Terms

Several nouns are transparently or semi-transparently compound-like:

• kr̩jézō ‘head-and-neck’;
• méntā ‘hand-and-foot’;
• apjêm̩r̩bā ‘leg-and-foot’;
• mn̩swétō ‘mountain range’;
• pjénčā ‘main road’;
• fl̩wévjā ‘small river’.

These compounds often have plural forms that reveal only part of their structure, for example mn̩swétō → manstwér ‘mountain range’ and apjêm̩r̩bā → āpjār̩m̩bjér ‘leg-and-foot’. The compound meaning may be lexicalized, and its plural should not necessarily be generated compositionally without further evidence.

Some pairs may represent compounds or specialized semantic extensions:

• r̩jéj ‘river’ and ‘earlobe’;
• čér ‘earth’ and ‘forest’;
• wêā ‘eyeball’ versus ažwêā ‘eye’;
• bwérō ‘inside of mouth’ versus āwêstā ‘mouth’.

The dictionary should preserve these distinctions as separate lexical entries or subentries.

10. Principal Parts for a Dictionary

10.1 Inanimate nouns

For an inanimate noun, the minimum principal parts are:

1. Neuter singular;
2. Neuter plural, if attested;
3. Plural class or plural stem, when it is not predictable from the singular.

A compact entry may therefore look like:

dwélō ‘day’, plural dl̩jér; irregular plural stem dl̩j-.

For a noun with no recorded plural:

āgāénō ‘water’; plural unattested, probably a mass noun or lexically restricted plural.

The absence of a plural in the dataset should be marked as unattested, not automatically as “no plural.”

10.2 Animate nouns

For an animate noun with full gender agreement, the safest entry gives all six forms:

1. neuter singular;
2. masculine singular;
3. feminine singular;
4. neuter plural;
5. masculine plural;
6. feminine plural.

For example:

kwén ‘dog’ — N.SG kwén, M.SG kwn̩čwêā, F.SG kn̩jénō, N.PL kn̩jér, M.PL kwn̩čwér, F.PL kwn̩ér.

When the masculine plural is fully regular, it can be derived from the masculine singular by replacing -čwêā with -čwér. Nevertheless, it should be listed for irregular or especially important nouns.

10.3 Sex-specific and inherently gendered nouns

For nouns that exist only in one gender, list the attested gender and plural:

patarčwêā ‘father’, plural patarčwér; masculine-only.

mātr̩jénō ‘mother’, plural mātrn̩ér; feminine-only.

maĵjéj ‘person of no gender’, plural maĵjêrī; neuter or non-gendered lexical class.

10.4 Recommended full entry format

For a general-purpose dictionary, the recommended format is:

lemma ‘meaning’ — N.SG; M.SG; F.SG; N.PL; M.PL; F.PL; animacy/class notes.

For inanimate nouns:

lemma ‘meaning’ — N.SG; N.PL; plural class and notes.

For nouns with major alternations, include the relevant stems explicitly rather than relying on a suffix rule.

11. General Conclusions

Proto-Calašan nouns distinguish inanimate and animate grammatical behavior. Inanimate nouns are neuter and have a singular/plural contrast, though many mass or otherwise uncountable nouns lack an attested plural. Animate nouns can inflect for neuter, masculine, and feminine gender, with masculine forms typically associated with -čwêā in the singular and -čwér in the plural. Feminine forms use a wider range of endings, commonly related to -wénō, -jénō, -šénō in the singular and -nér, -n̩ér, -nāér in the plural.

Plural formation is highly allomorphic. The major plural endings include -wér, -jér, -šér, -čér, -r, and -êrī, but their distribution is not yet fully predictable. Stem alternations are pervasive: vowels reduce, syllabic consonants appear, consonants mutate, and some nouns have substantially suppletive plurals.

Human nouns reveal a particularly rich lexical gender system. Generic persons, sex-specific terms, kinship terms, children, and people of nonstandard or unspecified gender do not all behave alike. Their gender and agreement properties should therefore be recorded lexically rather than inferred solely from meaning.

The most reliable dictionary practice is to list the full six-form paradigm for animate nouns and the singular plus plural for inanimate nouns. A reduced entry is possible only where the stem and endings are demonstrably regular.