Noun plurals
When we examine Cheyenne noun plurals, our first impression is that there are quite a few different suffixes used to change singulars to plurals. But when we look more closely we see that most animate plurals end with -o or -ne and most inanimate plurals end with -êstse or -ôtse. We notice that many inanimate plurals include -n, so it looks like there are plurals ending in -nêstse and -nôtse. Further investigation allows us to see the basic patterns of Cheyenne pluralization even more clearly. In this investigation we can use some techniques of linguistics that enable us to posit more "abstract" forms (phonemic spelling) of nouns. The result is that what initially appears as a rather large number of plural suffixes condenses to a short list of one, or at most, two, plural suffixes for each of the two animacy categories, animate and inanimate nouns. This shorter list is affirmed by reference to the developmental history of Cheyenne sounds, as seen, especially, through comparison with nouns in other Algonquian languages. Following is a brief outline of Cheyenne noun pluralization, with a few representative nouns:
ANIMATE NOUNS
Plurals ending with -o
ant hátseške hátsêškeho
baby mé'êševôtse mé'êševoto
bear náhkohe náhkôheo'o
bee háhnoma háhnomaho
bird vé'kése vé'kêseho
cat póéso póesono
child ka'êškóne ka'êškóneho
duck šé'še šé'šeo'o
feather mee'e méeno
man hetane hetaneo'o
shirt éstse'he éstse'heno
woman he'e he'eo'o
Plurals ending with -ne
meaning singular plural
animal hova hováhne
chicken kokôhéáxa kokôhéaxáne
deer váótséva váotseváhne
sheep kosa kôsáne
skunk xao'o xaóne
turtle ma'eno ma'enóne
INANIMATE NOUNS
Plurals ending with -nôtse
meaning singular plural
bone he'ko he'konôtse
book môxe'êstoo'o môxe'êstóonôtse
house mâheo'o mâheonôtse
road meo'o meonôtse
shoe mo'keha mo'kêhanôtse
Plurals ending with -ôtse
meaning singular plural
airplane ame'hahtôtse ame'háhtotôtse
axe hohkôxe hohkôxehôtse
bed šéešestôtse šéešéstotôtse
chair táxe'séestôtse táxe'séestotôtse
knife motšêške mótšêškehôtse
Plurals ending with -nêstse
meaning singular plural
belt hoestáto hoestátónêstse
bowstring ma'tano ma'tanónêstse
coin ma'kaeta ma'kaetánêstse
Plurals ending with -êstse
meaning singular plural
bead onéhavo'ke onéhavo'kêstse
hat hóhkêha'e hóhkêhá'êstse
fishhook nonónóó'e nonónóó'êstse
river ó'he'e o'he'êstse
(To be continued)
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