The nouns are subject to variations according to number, gender and case.
Number. There are three numbers: singular, dual and plural. For example: Mulyan, an eaglehawk; mulyangali, a pair of eaglehawks; mulyangalga, many eaglehawks. Some nouns have a special plural form which is particular only to them, such as: wiringamboi, many women.
Gender. For human beings, this is expressed by different words, such as: thur, a man; wiringa, a woman; wurru, a child of either sex.
Among animals, the gender is indicated by the addition of a word which signifies ‘male’ or ‘female’, such as: Kuragai mundava, a male opossum; Kurugai gunal, a female opossom. Baba and gunni, the usual words for ‘father’ and ‘mother’, are also used for the same purpose, especially for birds.
The nouns are declined with suffixes whose principals express the nominative, the causative, the instrumental, the genitive, the accusative, the dative and the ablative.
The nominative is the root of the noun, such as: thur winyana, ‘the man is seated’, and this root has no declension.
The causative represents the motive of an act expressed by a transitive verb and specified by a suffix such as: Thuru murrawi gume, ‘a man hit a kangaroo’ or Mirrigu kuragai kutthe, ‘a dog bit an opossum’.
Genitive — Thuranggu bier, ‘a man’s boomerang’; Wirnganggu kuni, ‘A woman’s stick (yamstick)’.
One peculiarity of the genitive which is found in the Wailwan and in many of the Australian dialects, as well as on many islands of Melanesia and beyond, is the addition of a possessive suffix to a great number of nouns of which I give the following examples:
|
1st person |
My boomerang: (boomerang of mine) |
Bierdhi |
|
|
Singular |
2nd person |
Your boomerang: |
Biernu |
|
3rd person |
His boomerang |
Bierlugu |
When it is a question of two or more objects:
Biergalidhi: My two boomerangs
Biergalgadhi: My many boomerangs, etc.
Instrumental — When it is an instrument or a weapon which represents the distant aim of the verb, it takes the same suffix as the causative. For example: Thuru waru bume bieru, ‘a man hit a snake with a boomerang’.
Dative — The dative and the genitive are similar to each other, for example: Nguranggu, ‘to a camp (ngura)’.
Ablative — Ngurandyi, ‘from a camp’. The accusative is the same as the nominative.
In all the declensions mentioned above, the form of the suffix generally varies with the ending of the noun. They are therefore subject to certain euphonic rules which consist of connecting the suffix with various endings in such a way as to ensure an easy and pleasant pronunciation.