Plurals of Nouns – 3

You are probably aware that the neuter gender is not only used for things and animals but for human persons as well. It is used when addressing young girls, one’s sisters or cousins who are more or less of the same age or younger, and in some parts of Goa it is even used for in-laws. But if you are not sure, it is safer not to use the neuter when referring to, or addressing, grown up ladies, irrespective of their age. In many families in Goa, the neuter is never used for any of one’s in-laws or the in-laws of one’s neighbours or relatives. Instead, the feminine is used as an expression of respect to the lady. In fact, some high class families of Goa don’t use the neuter even when referring to their little girls, and expect others to follow the same custom. I intend to treat this topic in a little more detail at the appropriate time.

With regard to the first and second persons, singular and plural, the conjugation of verbs do vary according to the gender, the pronoun itself does not change, just as in English. But when it comes to the third person, the pronoun changes according to the gender, again just like in English. That is, the words I, you and we remain constant whether the party concerned is masculine, feminine or neuter. But when it comes to the third person, the English speaker specifies whether it is a he, a she or an it, though in the plural, it is always they, whether they are hes, shes or its. In Konkani, the practice is very similar with regard to the singular, with to 

corresponding to he, ti 

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 corresponding to she and tem

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 almost being the counterpart of it.  But in the Konkani plurals too, unlike in English, the gender is specified: te

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 (masculine), teô

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 (feminine) and tim 

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(neuter).

But nouns, unlike pronouns, have their own sweet ways to form their plurals. Here are some rules that apply to neuter nouns:

1. Neuter nouns ending in em form their plurals by changing the em to im.
Examples:  tollem 

(lake) changes to tollim; follem  (plank of wood) to follim; sunnem  (dog) to sunnim.

2. Neuter nouns ending in im form their plurals by changing the im to iam.
Examples:  tantim 

(egg) changes to tantiam;;  kantthim  (piece of firewood) to kantthiam;

3.  Neuter nouns which end in um, and have a double consonant preceding the um, form their plurals by changing the um to am.
Examples: mhosrum

 (buffalo) changes to mhôsram,

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vasrum 

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to vasram.

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4. Neuter nouns which end in um, and have a single consonant preceding the um, form their plurals by changing the um to vam.
Examples: gorum 

(cow, bull or buffalo) changes to gôrvam,

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cheddum 

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(girl or daughter) to chêddvam.

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Note: You will notice in three of the above examples, the plural also gets a circumflex on one of the preceding vowels. That is because their last syllables they have lost the u which automatically gave a closed effect to the preceding e or o. That e or o still stays closed, but there is nothing to indicate that, and hence the need of an external aid, the circumflex, to indicate the closed sound that the preceding vowel already had. For example, in the word gorum, the u being a closed vowel automatically “closes” the previous vowel, o. But in the plural, gôrvam, the a is an open vowel while the o in the first syllable continues to be closed, and hence the necessity of the circumflex.

5. Some neuter nouns, ending in a consonant, form their plurals by adding am.
Example: zhadd 

(tree) takes am to form its plural, zhaddam; and so does ful  (flower) to form fulam.

6. Other neuter nouns, ending in a consonant, form their plurals by first dropping their last vowels and then adding am.
Examples: lankudd 

(wood or a piece of wood) changes to lankddam, and bhasonn  (a kitchen vessel or container) to bhasnnam.

If you are in the process of learning the language you may find it hard to master the rules governing the plural formation of nouns, whether they are masculine, feminine or neuter. My advice to you is that you need not bother about all these transformations of words. Instead,  as I have mentioned elsewhere, when you start building your vocabulary of nouns, you should learn all the four principal parts of the noun in one go, in the following order: 1) the (nominative) singular, 2) the singular flex stem, 3) the (nominative) plural, and 4) the plural flex stem.  For example if you want the Konkani word for jack fruit, instead of just picking up the word ponnôs, try to take in all the four principal parts. So the Konkani for jack fruit is ponnôs, ponnsa, ponnos, ponnsam.

(Note the open and closed sounds). That now covers the plural as well as the declensions!