nounmarkers

Nounmarkers are morphemes or particles attached to nouns to indicate grammatical information about the noun’s role or properties. They can appear as affixes (prefixes or suffixes), enclitics, or as separate words in the sentence, and they function in ways similar to determiners or case endings in some languages.

Common functions encoded by nounmarkers include number (singular vs. plural), case (subject, object, possessive, etc.), definiteness (definite vs. indefinite), and gender or noun class. Some languages also mark animacy, specificity, or possession on the noun itself. The exact set of markers and the information they convey vary widely; in some languages nounmarkers cover many categories, while others rely more on word order or separate determiners.

Morphological patterns differ across language types. Isolating languages often use independent determiners rather than bound nounmarkers, whereas agglutinative and fusional languages tend to attach multiple markers to a noun, creating a chain of affixes. For example, Turkish uses suffixes to indicate plural and case; Japanese uses postpositional particles after the noun to mark topic, subject, object, and location; Latin attaches endings to nouns to signal case and number. Some languages, such as Swahili and other Bantu languages, mark noun class with prefixes on the noun itself, with concord on adjectives and verbs.

Nounmarkers play a central role in morphosyntax and typological variation. They influence word order, agreement patterns, and the way nouns interact with other sentence constituents. See also determiners, case, noun class, and classifiers.