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For example, names and surnames are only found in class 1a. Nouns for people, including agent nouns, are commonly in class 1, while animals are often in class 9. Abstract nouns are often in class 14, loanwords in classes 9 and 5, and infinitives of verbs and nouns derived from them in class 15. These are only guidelines and there are exceptions ...
A common characteristic of Bantu languages is that they use words such as muntu or mutu for "human being" or in simplistic terms "person", and the plural prefix for human nouns starting with mu-(class 1) in most languages is ba-(class 2), thus giving bantu for "people".
Class 10 contains the plurals of class 9 nouns as well as the plurals of some class 5 nouns (from Proto-Bantu class 11). The prefix is formed by adding di-to the full class 9 noun or adding di[N]-to the class 5 noun stem. Since the noun is formed by modifying the already modified class 9 stem (with the addition of Proto-Bantu prefix *dî-) this ...
The numeral -ng has a special form with class 9 nouns where it appears as -nngwe (thus the numeral). It is always preceded by one of two constructions: The participial copulative mooki a le mong ('one nurse') [mʊ'okʼiɑlɪmʊŋ̩] baoki ba le bang ('the nurses only') [bɑ'okʼibɑlɪbɑŋ̩] the relative mooki ya mong ('one nurse') [mʊ ...
The di[N]-classes have an irregular concord tse [N]-instead of the expected *tse di[N]-, though this is their form in Setswana. The nasal permutation does not affect adjectives beginning with /ɬ/ . The nasal permutation caused by the class 8 adjectival concord is probably due to false analogy with the class 10 forms (in isiXhosa , for example ...
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Nouns can optionally be marked for plural (-e), collective (-gi). Only animate nouns are marked for gender: ra for male, zan for female, and -ji or -ci for neuter, with the latter having an additional agentive meaning. The inanimates have special noun affixes which mark them as either inorganic (-na) or organic (-ga).
Nouns can also modify other nouns. In Tagalog, word categories are fluid: A word can sometimes be an adverb or an adjective depending on the word it modifies. If the word being modified is a noun, then the modifier is an adjective, if the word being modified is a verb, then it is an adverb. For example, the word 'mabilís' means 'fast' in English.