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 -ęstse or -ôtse. We notice that many inanimate plurals include -n, so it looks like there are plurals ending in -nęstse 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 hátsęškeho
baby mé'ęševôtse mé'ęševoto
bear náhkohe náhkôheo'o
bee háhnoma háhnomaho
bird vé'kése vé'kęseho
cat póéso póesono
child ka'ęškóne ka'ęškóneho
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'ęstoo'o môxe'ęstóonôtse
house mâheo'o mâheonôtse
road meo'o meonôtse
shoe mo'keha mo'kęhanôtse
Plurals ending with -ôtse
meaning singular plural
airplane ame'hahtôtse ame'háhtotôtse
axe hohkôxe hohkôxehôtse
bed šéešestôtse šéešéstotôtse
chair táxe'séestôtse táxe'séestotôtse
knife motšęške mótšęškehôtse
Plurals ending with -nęstse
meaning singular plural
belt hoestáto hoestátónęstse
bowstring ma'tano ma'tanónęstse
coin ma'kaeta ma'kaetánęstse
Plurals ending with -ęstse
meaning singular plural
bead onéhavo'ke onéhavo'kęstse
hat hóhkęha'e hóhkęhá'ęstse
fishhook nonónóó'e nonónóó'ęstse
river ó'he'e o'he'ęstse
(To be continued)
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