Morphology

Gender

Gender (or class) is a tree-like hierarchy. An object being referred to can belong to one of four branches (human/animal, alien, inanimate, or null), and these further divide into more categories.

Which branch to put something under depends on both the context it is being used in, and what branch it lexically belongs to. People always belong to the human/animal branch, and aliens to alien (unless either is self-declared inanimate). Here are the four branches and when they are used (all are chosen by default, and lexically defined, unless otherwise stated):

• Human/animal: Referring to humans or animals.
• Alien: Referring to extraterrestrial beings, such as those from other planets.
• Inanimate: Referring to inanimate objects (or things with self-declared inanimacy, an inanimate category).
• Null: Context-dependent; Referring to nothing, or none of something (e.g., “there are no books here”, “no pig can fly”, or “nobody does that”).
  • Note: This is not to be used on people, as it carries connotations of insulting ones worth.

The Lexicon page will make note of what branch each noun, by default, belongs to.
Branches also subdivide into more categories.
In the case of human/animal and alien, which gender to use depends on the gender of the animal, human, or alien being referred to. Both of these branches share the same categories.
In the case of inanimate, which category to use depends on the context in which the object is being referred to, and its lexical category. The lexical category is typically used, unless for an exception in context. This exception can be:

• Referring to any inanimate object that could be of any category (use generic).
• Referring to an inanimate object with a category that is unknown or unspecified (use unspecified).

Although the names of multiple inanimate categories are named after states of matter, they are not necessarily scientifically accurate.
Null does not subdivide into any categories.

• Masculine: Used for animate things gendered male.
• Feminine: Used for animate things gendered female.
• Neuter: Used for animate things without gender (this includes robots and water bears) or any animate thing not masculine or feminine.
• Generic: Used for referring to unspecific animate things that could be of any gender.
• Unspecified: Used for referring to animate things with an unknown or unspecified gender.

The lexical categories for inanimate objects are solid, liquid, gas, energy, and abstract. The Lexicon page will make note of what inanimate category each inanimate object belongs to.
For how to use the generic and unspecified categories, see above.
Self-declared inanimacy is a context-dependent inanimate category used on things that would otherwise be animate, but are either no longer animate or have declared themselves to not be animate.

Number

Number is partially intertwined with gender, in that gender and number are used together for many suffixes, and the gender(s) of something plays a part in its number. There are three states of number:

• Singular: One thing.
• Mixed plural: A group of things including multiple genders/categories.
• Collective: A group of things, all with the same gender/category.

Vowel Separators

When adding a suffix/prefix to something, it may cause two vowels to be next to each other. This is phonotactically invalid, so a vowel separator is inserted in between the suffix/prefix and what it is being added to. This also applies with syllabic consonants.
What sound this vowel separator is depends on the preceding vowel:

• If the preceding vowel is /i/, /y/, /e/, /ə/, or a syllabic consonant, it will use the soft vowel separator (SVS), kh [x].
• If the preceding vowel is /u/, /ɔ/, /a/, /ɔ̃/, or /ã/, it will use the hard vowel separator (HVS), ' [ʔ].

Declension

Nouns are declined by definiteness, case, number, gender, and colour.
Colour is an arbitrary property of nouns, defined lexically, that changes its gender marking. Colour can be light or dark.

Cases

There are 31 cases for nouns in Bakhroshungz. Below is a table listing all of them, their abbreviations, what they mean in Bakhroshungz specifically, and their noun suffixes.

1. The nominative suffix appears as zero-marking in Bakhrosheqif as vowels are not written in it (unless vowel diacritics are used).
2. If case is not applicable (e.g., standalone noun), the nominative case is used.

Use

Suffixes/prefixes are stacked onto the noun in this order:
definiteness, noun base, case, gender/number/colour
Below will be explanations on what suffixes to put in these slots.

Definiteness

If the noun is definite, the prefix ħa- is prepended. If it is indefinite, no prefix is added.

Case

Use the case suffixes from above.

Gender/Number/Colour

Gender, number, and colour are used in forming a suffix to use for them.
The suffix is formed by joining an onset and a base. The onset of the suffix is based on the branch that the noun is in, and its number. The base of the suffix is based on the gender/category of the noun, and its colour. Here is the table for the onsets:

*: Null does not take the suffix base, as it has no genders/categories; instead, the onset defines the entire suffix.

Here is the table for the bases: