Small things: classes 12 and 13

ka- makes it small, and tu- makes it plural

Chatelain puts every diminutive in the tenth class of his scheme, which is class 12 and 13 in the standard numbering. A diminutive is a smaller version of a noun. To make one, put ka- in front of the noun you want to make smaller. The plural takes tu- in place of ka-.

Singular and plural

In each pair, both words are dictionary entries. The rest of the word stays the same. Only ka- changes to tu-. The plural can have extra meanings, so open a word to see every meaning it has.

When the noun has a prefix of its own

Chatelain notes that the plural is harder when the noun already has a class prefix. A noun with no prefix, the class 9 nouns from the last unit, never keeps its ji- in the plural. A noun of class 1 or class 7 sometimes loses its prefix, and a noun of any other class always keeps it. Chatelain gives no way to tell which class 1 and class 7 nouns lose it, so treat the loss as something to recognise, not to produce. When the prefix is kept, the plural keeps its plural form, so mu- in the singular goes with mi- in the plural. When the prefix is lost in the singular, it is lost in the plural too. The table gives his examples. The first column says what each word is made from, where the dictionary holds that noun.

Chatelain prints these plurals on pages 8 and 9. The dictionary has no entry for them, so they are shown as he prints them.

Inland speech

This course teaches the speech of Luanda. Inland, ka- is also put on a verb stem to name the person who does the action, for example a herdsman. Chatelain says this is very rare in Luanda, so it is not taught here.

Big things use the same rule

The unit on classes 7 and 8 left one question open: how does a big version of a noun make its plural? Chatelain answers on page 3. The plural of an augmentative is formed in the same way as the plural of a diminutive, and the rules above also apply to it. He gives no example of an augmentative plural, so this course shows none.