Nominal prefixes: The start of nouns
Nouns
A small number of Mawng nouns take a prefix, including some body part nouns, adjectival nominals and quantifiers. This prefix indicates who we are talking about so we say
nga–mawurr ‘my arm’
i–mawurr ‘his arm’.
The full list of options is shown in the table below. There is more than one prefix in some cells because different nouns take slightly different prefixes. For example, we say
i–lurtpuj ‘he’s short’
nu–malal ‘he’s good’.
Some words can also have a plural suffix -ut when they take a plural prefix. The main dictionary entry for each noun that takes a prefix is the Masculine gender form, and the main entry lists other forms of the noun. Other forms listed in the dictionary will link to the main form with the pointer ‘See main entry:‘
Hover over the green text in the table to see explanations of the shorthand. Refer to the page on pronouns and demonstratives for tables outlining these grammatical indicators in more detail.
| Nominal prefixes | |
| 1sg | nga- |
| 1pl.in | arr(k)- |
| 1pl.ex | ngarr- |
| 2sg | nuK2– |
| 2pl | nuwurr- |
| MA | i- ~ y- ~ nu- |
| FE | niny- |
| LL | wu- ~ nung- |
| VE | ma- ~ na- |
| ED | aK- ~ naK– |
| PL | wi- ~ anpu- ~ tu – |
Nouns in Mawng belong to noun classes or genders. These genders are Masculine, Feminine, Land, Vegetation and Edible. See below for some examples of what belongs to each noun class.
Masculine (MA)
male humans, most animals, some birds, snakes, song, the moon, meat, honey
Feminine (FE)
female humans, crabs, some birds, some animals, the sun
Land (LL)
land, landscape features, liquids, stories, customs, knowledge, language, rocks/stones
Vegetation (VE)
most plants, non-edible parts, plant products, wood, fire
Edible (ED)
all edible plant products, buildings and other household items, wind
© Dictionary compliation, Ruth Singer and Warruwi Community 2021. Mawng speakers own the Mawng language. They also own their knowledge of plants, animals, kinship, Mawng country, customs and history which is compiled in this dictionary.
© Dictionary compliation, Ruth Singer and Warruwi Community 2021. Mawng speakers own the Mawng language. They also own their knowledge of plants, animals, kinship, Mawng country, customs and history which is compiled in this dictionary.