Chapter 4 - Plural Nouns Formation

 Inventory on the plural of nouns : 

In Somali, there is not one, but four ways to form the plural of nouns :

1. By adding a vowel suffix to the end of the name, usually -o ; -yo ; -oyin or -yaal.
2. By reduplicating a monosyllabic noun.
3. By making a tonal change on the noun : prosodic plural.
4. By adding a complex suffix : irregular plural.

For a given noun, the formation used is always the same.
Another feature of Somali is that a number of nouns switch gender when they are plural.

 Detailed review of different types of plurals : 

• Type 1 - Feminine/Masculine, with the ending -o or -yo
• Type 2 - Masculine/Feminine, with the ending -o or -yo
• Type 3 - Masculine/Masculine, with the ending -o or -yo
• Type 4 - Masculine/Masculine, with reduplication
• Type 5 - Masculin/Feminine, with tonal change
• Type 6 - Feminine/Masculin, with the ending -oyin
• Type 7 - Masculin/Feminine, with the ending -yaal
• Type 8 - Irregular Plurals

 Type 1 - Feminine in singular, masculine in plural, with "-o" ending 

Singular does not end in /-o/.
Plural is formed by adding /-o/ or /-yo/ after /i/.

Singular (absolutive) has high tone on the last syllable.
Vowel loss occurs in plural if phonological conditions are met.

 Type 2 - Masculine in singular, feminine in plural, with "-o" ending 

Singular is always polysyllabic and does not end in -e.
Plural is formed by adding /-o/ and doubling last consonant if /b/, /d/, /dh/, /l/, /r/, /n/, /m/, or by adding /-yo/ after /i/, /x/, /c/, /q/, and sometimes after /s/ or /g/.

Divided into two subgroups on the basis of tonal behavior :

 Type 2a : 

This is the majority case.

Singular ends in HL sequence on last two moras
The last two moras can be either one or two syllables ; rest of singular is L.

 Type 2b : 

Not more than 50 words in the language.

Singular has L tone throughout
However, L tone is exceptional in that the last syllable does not lower before a pause.

 Type 3 - Masculine in both singular and plural, with "-o" / "-yo" ending 

Singular ends with a consonant, or in -i.
Plural is formed by adding /-o/, or /-yo/ after /i/.

Singular (absolutive) ends in HL sequence on last two moras.
Vowel loss can occur in plural.

 Type 4 - Masculine in both singular and plural, with reduplication 

Singular is always monosyllabic.
Plural is formed by reduplicating the last consonant, preceded by /a/.

Singular (absolutive) has HL pattern if syllable is long, otherwise H.

 Type 5 - Masculine in singular, feminine in plural, with tonal change 

This type is a small group.

Tone is final HL in singular ; final LH in plural.

Many of these nouns have a regular plural, e.g. the noun èy "dog" can take the plural eyo.

 Type 6 - Feminine in singular, masculine in plural, with "-oyin" ending 

Singular always ends in -o.
Plural is formed by adding /-oyin/.

Both singular and plural have final HL sequence on last two syllables.

 Type 7 - Masculine in singular, feminine in plural, with "-yaal" ending

Singular always ends in -e.
Plural is formed by adding /-yaal/ and changing final /e/ to /a/.

Singular has penultimate-syllable H.

 Type 8 - Irregular plurals 

 Arabic broken plurals 

From the examples given, it seems singular has final HL (moras), plural has final H.

These nouns may be given a regular plural ; for example the noun kúrsi "chair" can be found with the plural form kursiyo.

 Rare plurals 

Addition of /-an/ or /-aan/ is cited.

From the examples given, it seems singular has final HL (moras), plural has final H.

May also be found with regular endings : úgax can be treated as a Type 5 noun, qálin can be treated as a Type 3 noun.

 An ordered chaos : 

After analyzing the different ways to form a plural in Somali, we now propose to "predict" the plural of a noun empirically : for behind the apparent chaos are hidden a few simple rules : bear to mind that a young Somali child is capable of giving the plural of any noun without mistake !

1. Don't bother if the noun is masculine or feminine : it doesn't matter at this stage.
2. In 90% of cases, a singular noun forms its plural by adding -o or -yo at the end !
3. If the singular noun already ends in -o, it forms its plural by adding -oyin.
4. If the singular noun ends in -e, it forms its plural by adding -yaal.
5. If the singular noun is monosyllabic, it generally forms its plural by reduplication.
6. The only difficult cases (no more than 5% of nouns) are nouns that form their plurals by changing the tone, or irregular plurals, but even then, there is often an alternative form in -o !

 Quiz : 

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