Naucan morphology is moderately synthetic, combining both inflectional and derivational processes to create words and express grammatical relationships.
Inflection covers noun declension, verb conjugation, and adjective agreement. These are treated in their dedicated pages with detailed tables and explanations.
Derivation uses a rich system of prefixes and suffixes to form new words from existing roots, including nouns, adjectives, verbs, and adverbs.
Compounding exists in Naucan but is less frequent and usually follows clear patterns, with the modifier placed before the head word.
Inflection
Naucan is an inflected language. Words change form through inflectional affixes that mark grammatical categories such as:
Case (for nouns, adjectives, pronouns)
Person (for personal and possessive pronouns)
Polarity, voice, aspect, tense and mood (for verbs)
Inflection preserves the core meaning of a word while adapting it to its grammatical role within a sentence.
Derivation
New words are created primarily through the use of derivational affixes: prefixes and suffixes that modify the root meaning and assign it to a specific word class.
Prefixes generally indicate position, quantity, negation, repetition, or degree. They are placed before the root and do not affect the word’s inflectional endings.
Suffixes are used to form nouns, adjectives, verbs, and adverbs. Naucan distinguishes clearly between suffixes that mark grammatical categories (like case or tense) and those that derive new words. This section focuses on the latter.
Derivational affixes in Naucan are regular and productive, allowing speakers to generate new vocabulary with consistent rules.
Suffixes and prefixes may vary slightly depending on the final sound of the root (for example, whether it ends in a vowel, consonant, or diphthong), as described in the specific tables below.
Prefixes
Prefixes (Neologisms)
Adjective-Forming Suffixes
Noun-Forming Suffixes
Suffixes (Neologisms)
Verb-Forming Suffixes
Adverb-Forming Suffixes
Word Composition
Word composition is used frequently in Naucan.
Basic Rules
Head-Last Order: The primary word (or head) comes last. The modifier or descriptive element comes first.
Example:
gaws nori (“young cow”) → norigaws (“calf”)
Fusion: Compound words are written as a single word without spaces.
Simplification: In longer compounds, speakers sometimes shorten the form by omitting intermediate elements.
Example:
rorkarōzaōni (“red-haired”) may be shortened to rorkaōni.