Ilaini doesn't distinguish between nouns and adjectives. Most nouns are capable of modifying other nouns:
razie lyase young.person woman
"a female journeyman"
lyase razie woman young.person
"a young woman"
Some suffixes, however, explicitly form nouns (such as -sen) or adjectives (such as -ys).
Nouns have no grammatical gender; biological gender can be expressed by gendered pronouns or by modifying the noun with ense "man" or lyase "woman". This is usually only done when strictly necessary to avoid confusion.
Animates use the epicene (common) gender when their exact gender is not known or not important. Apart from people, animates include the gods, all animals and personified forces of nature. All inanimates are indicated by the neuter gender.
The dual is formed by prefixing the singular with i-. It is used for intrinsic pairs, not for just "two of something": ibarsen "(pair of) shoes" but chonis ili "two shirts".
Dual nouns take a plural verb:
ivalan Turenye neasayt d-king Turenay-ill travel-PRS-3p
"The royal couple travels to Turenay"
inin brudea sumayn 1d-S beer-acc drink-PRS-1p
"The two of us drink beer"
The plural of a dual noun means "pairs of...": ibarsin ili "two pairs of shoes".
There are also some "unequal duals": nane "mother", inane "parents" (nane so tate); valan "king, queen", ivalan "royal couple" (valan so vallone).
Many duals have lost their dual meaning: list "clean", ilist "change of clothes". Some have even acquired a plural of their own: dayen "the element water", idain "water in nature", idaini "sea".
When two similar things are compared with a- "equally" the modifier is technically in the dual, but the prefix a- takes precedence over i-:
inute icunie d-child-nom d-pretty-nom
"The twins are both pretty"
inute acunie d-child-nom eq-pretty-nom
"The twins are equally pretty"
Collective plurals refer to a collection of things or a group of people that belong together. The noun is in the plural, but takes a singular verb and singular modifiers:
rhin rhinat ship-nom-s sail-PRS-3s
"The ship sails"
rhini rhinayt ship-nom-(c)p sail-PRS-3p
"The ships sail", "The fleets sail"
rhini rhinat ship-nom-cp sail-PRS-3s
"The fleet sails"
rhini moyi ship-nom-(c)p large-nom-p
"Large ships", "Large fleets"
rhini moy ship-nom-cp large-nom-s
"A large fleet"
Obviously, there is no way to distinguish (except for context) between "fleet" and "fleets" when it is unmodified because the noun is plural already. Also, there is no way to distinguish between "ships" and "fleets" in the nominative. In the oblique cases the collective plural has -i- where the plain plural has -e-: gylsenin "of the letters", gylsinin "of the books".
| Prefixes | ||
| na- | negation | productive |
| a- | all, every; plural for pronouns | no longer productive |
| i- | dual | no longer productive |
| a- | comparative | productive |
| do- | augmentative | productive |
| ta- | diminutive | productive |
| Suffixes | ||
| Noun class | All suffixes are productive | |
| -an | II | actor |
| -sen | II | thing, object; in the collective plural often abstract |
| -yas | II | region, country |
| -la | I | bird (shortening of rachla "bird", reanalyzed as "wind-bird") |
| -yn | II | sudden or short event; unit of something uncountable |
| -ys | II | adjective-forming, often abstract |
| -as | II | noun-forming (obsolete participial ending) |
Restyled 08-Sep-2002