Nouns

Nouns in general are words that refer to persons, places, or things. Some randomly-selected examples of English nouns include the words "Listuguj," "Mary," "woman," and "table." These words are also nouns in Mi'gmaq: "Listuguj," "Mali," "epit," and "ptauti."

In some ways, Mi'gmaq nouns resemble English nouns (for instance, you can have singular and plural versions of a noun). In other ways, they differ from English (for instance, there is a feature of nouns that we call "animacy" that English doesn't really display).

Number

For more detail, see Number

"Number" refers to how many of something there are. In both English and Mi'gmaq, there are two numbers for nouns: singular (only one of something) and plural (two or more of something). In English, a plural noun often looks like the singular plus an -s at the end, for example, "girl" becomes "girls." In Mi'gmaq, there are two things you can add to a noun in order to make it plural, depending on whether the noun is animate or inanimate (for more information on these terms, see the next section). For inanimate nouns, like ptawti "table" as shown in (1), you generally add -l to the end of the word (or sometimes you make the last sound of the word longer). For animate nouns, like jinm "man" as shown in (2), you add -ug or -ig or -oq depending on the particular noun.

1. ptawti,  ptawti-l  
   table,   table-PL  
   'table, tables'

1. jinm,  jinm-ug  
   man,   man-PL   
   'man, men'

If you've looked at number in Mi'gmaq verbs, you may have noticed that Mi'gmaq verbs make a distinction between singular, dual (two participants), and plural (three or more participants). However, for nouns, the only distinction is between one and more than one.

Counting

For more detail, see Measure words

Animacy

For more detail, see Animacy animacy (mention that you can change animacy with ewei)

Possession

For more detail, see Possession

Possession covers a whole range of relationships between nouns, not necessarily relationships where there is a possession and an owner. In English, possession covers expressions such as:

• my umbrellas
• Tom's sister
• Jamie's leg
• a friend of Alice's
• the music of Beethoven

The verbs used in these sentences can also be thought of as "possessive":

• I have a cake.
• This dog belongs to me.

As mentioned before, these relationships aren't always strictly of ownership, but can be interpreted as a type of closeness or relatedness--so while the umbrella may be my possession in the strictest sense of the word, we also shouldn't think of Tom's sister being his possession. Instead, we use possession to show that a relationship exists between the two nouns in question.

Mi'gmaq possession has one very important feature that English speakers will have to get used to. This is related to the idea of alienability. So when something is alienable, the relationship between the two nouns; "my umbrella" shows an alienable relationship, because I can give away the umbrella, and then it is no longer mine and the relationship dissolves. "Tom's sister," however, shows an inalienable relationship because no matter what, Tom and his sister will always be related.

Mi'gmaq inalienable nouns include...

• body parts (i.e. 'gpitn, "your hand," and nunji, "my head")
• family members (i.e. nuj, "my father," and ugmisl "his/her big sister")
• a couple exceptions (i.e. nitap, "my friend" is inalienable, even though it's a relationship that might change.)

Mi'gmaq alienable nouns include...

• everything else (i.e. 'gtsipuminu, "our river," and 'ntptautim, "my table," and ugtwigatign "his/her book," and so on and so forth)

Pronouns

For more detail, see Pronouns

Demonstratives

For more detail, see Demonstratives

Obviation

For more detail, see Obviation

Diminutive

For more detail, see Diminutives