Nounuale

Nounuale is a linguistic term used to describe a class of nominal forms in certain theoretical grammars and, occasionally, in worldbuilding, where the noun carries an intrinsic sense of quantity. In nounuale systems, the noun’s form signals not only the item but also a specific numeric value or range, without relying solely on a separate numeral or plural marker.

The term nounuale is a neologism formed from "noun" and a suffix that suggests a nominal-quantitative category. It is not widely attested in natural-language descriptions and is mainly encountered in speculative or constructed-language discussions.

Key characteristics include semantic encoding of quantity, morpho-syntactic alignment with determiners and verb agreement, and variable realization through affixation, internal vowel changes, or reduplication. Nounuales behave as nouns in syntax and can take determiners, subjects, objects, and modifiers, but their numeric value is part of the lexical token rather than added postposed numerals.

Illustrative, fictional example: in a constructed language, the base noun "kora" meaning "stone" has a nounuale form "kora-du" indicating two stones and "kora-pli" indicating many stones. The sentence "Kora-du sits on the ground" would thus convey a dual quantity inherently.

Nounuales are distinct from ordinary nouns that combine with numeral phrases, and from numeral classifiers, which separate counting from the noun. The concept remains largely theoretical and is used mainly in language-design discussions or speculative linguistics.

See also: grammar, number, noun, classifier, numeral, linguistic typology.