The Dinka Noun
As soon as I had posted my last discussion on the state of the Dinka noun, I realized what a bad job I had done. Here, I shed a few more clues on how to survive with the languageJ But some inadequacy is guaranteed, oh oh...
The Regular Plural:
The good words that will not make your life difficult are the ones in which you add the suffix ‘ai’, ‘ei’, ‘oi’, ‘ui’ or ‘i’. If a word ends in a vowel (a, e, i, o u), then you just add one of the mentioned suffices. Examples:
Kɔmpiööta (computer) ..........................................................Kɔmpiöötaai (computers)
Turkana (The Turkana)..........................................................Turkanaai (Turkanas)
Kure (Dove) .........................................................................Kureei (Doves)
Murle (The Murle).................................................................Murleei (Murles)
ɣoro (Guard pole).................................................................ɣorooi (Guard poles)
Krithano (Christian)..............................................................Krithanooi (Christians)
Acolï (The Acholi) ...............................................................Acolïï (Acholis)
Kikuyu (Kikuyu, Kenya)......................................................Kikuyuui (Kikuyus)
The Compound plural
Nhom-thok (forehead)............................................................Nhïïm-thook (foreheads)
Nyan-ë-bïm ( a girl between age 20 – 30?).............................Nyïïr-ke-bïm (plural of the same)
Nhom-ë-kuta (lid)..................................................................Nhïïm-ke-kutaai (lids)
Note: It proved difficult to sit down and try to remember words. You can fill in and experiment with the rules. In Dinka, though, there are more irregular nouns than regular ones – good luck!!
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