Animate nouns in Arapaho can be either singular or plural, and either subject or object. These forms are marked by endings of two basic types. In type one, the noun is marked as follows:

 

	sing	plural
subj:	-	-ho'
(or)	-	-no'
obj(obv):	-o	-ho
(or)	-(V)n	-no

 

This basic pattern contains many different variations concerning the final consonants of the nouns, but these will be ignored for the moment. So to look at a few examples, we have:

 

henéécee	buffalo
hinén	man
nóóku	rabbit

 

The three other forms are:

 

plural	object	plural object
henééceenó'	henééceen	henééceeno
hinéno'	hinénin	hinéno
nóókuho'	nóókuo	nóókuhó

 

The second basic type of animate noun endings are even easier. It involves only one single ending added to all three other forms. This ending is in the forms -(i)i or -(u)u, though again there are many small variations. Nouns in this group include:

 

hébes	beaver
síísííc	duck
wóx	bear

 

The other forms are:

 

hébesii, síísíícii (obj) and síísiiku'uu (pl), wóxuu

 

 

No exercises are available for this section yet, but you can:

Continue on to Lesson Twenty-Two