8 Plurals of nouns: hopuetake ‘children’

In English, almost every noun has a plural: book, books; man, men, etc. In Mvskoke, only a few nouns referring to humans have plural forms. Most nouns like efv do not have a plural and can be translated as ‘dog’ or ‘dogs’ depending on context.

• A few nouns referring to humans that end in wv have a plural in -take.

  honvnwv

  ‘male, man’

  honvntake

  ‘men’

  hopuewv

  ‘child’

  honvntake

  ‘children’

  ēwvnwv

  ‘(a man’s) sister’

  ēwvntake

  ‘(a man’s) sisters’

  vpvlwv

  ‘the rest’

  vpvltake

  ‘the others’

• A few other nouns referring to humans use -vke in the plural.

  hoktē

  ‘female, woman’

  hoktvke

  ‘women’

  mēkko

  ‘chief’

  mēkkvke

  ‘chiefs’

  hoktvlwv

  ‘old woman’

  hoktvlvke

  ‘old women’

  cēpvnē

  ‘boy’

  cēpvnvke

  ‘boys’

  vculē

  ‘old person’

  vculvke

  ‘old people’

• When a noun has a special plural form, that plural form must be used in plural contexts.

Este-honvntake hokkolet welakvtēs.
person-males        two         (two) were about
‘Two men were about (very long ago).’

Group plural –vlke

The suffix -vlke is used for groups of people like clans, tribes, or denominations.