Declension

Noun stems can be divided along three dimensions:

• The stem type, which is determined by the final phoneme in the stem.
• The 'strength' of the stem, which is determined by how the final consonant behaves when an ending is added.
• The declension type, which is determined by the form of the ending for ergative singular and plural.

into two broad categories, depending on the form of ending, they take in ergative singular, plural and absolutive 2.sg/sg (which is always equal to the plural ending).

• The p-declined stems take N{p} in ergative singular, and N{t} in plural (and ABS 2sg/sg).
• The up-declined stems take N{-up} in ergative singular, and N{-it} in plural (and ABS 2sg/sg)
• The ip-declined stems take N{-ip} in ergative singular, and N{-it} in plural (and ABS 2sg/sg)

Each of these broad categories can then be further subdivided into a number of different stem types, which determine whether the aforementioned endings are truncative (will remove a stem-final consonant) or additive (will join onto a stem-final consonant).

Note: A small handful of stems take N{-ip} and N{-it}, instead of the usual N{-up}, and also display a limited form of metathesis (only with these two endings). These stems were presumably originally up-declined, and the present declension pattern seems to be a confusion of ordinary metathesis and gemination.

Vowel-stems

As the name implies, vowel-stems are all stems ending in a vowel. These stems are thus the easiest to learn, because all endings are added to this final vowel, regardless of whether they are additive or truncative. They are all p-declined, and some of them may show gemination. They can be subdivided into the following groups:

• Stems ending in /a/ or /i/ or /u/.
• Stems ending in /ə/ (which has usually become "i", so they look like i-stems in e.g. the DAKA dictionary). They are distinguished from the other vowel stems (and also from tə-stems), because the final vowel is an /ə/, which is written as "i", but which changes to [a] when followed by a vowel-initial ending (the ə-rule).
• Stems ending in /tə/. Here, the /ə/ normally has no sound, if it is the final phoneme, so the stem will look like it ends in /t/, when written in the new orthography. However, any morpheme joined onto such a stem will be added to /ə/, and in this case /ə/ becomes [i] or [a], according to the ə-rule.

'Weak' stems

Weak stems are characterised by ending in a consonant (/k/ or /q/), which is automatically dropped before all consonant-initial endings, regardless of whether the ending itself is additive or truncative. These stems are all p-declined; thus, in effect, they behave like vowel-stems. These are also the types of stems that may display gemination (and most regularly do).

• Weak q-stems (p-declined) end in /q/, but the stem automatically drops this /q/ before all consonant-initial endings, except ABS 1.sg/sg N{ga}. Thus, all consonant-initial endings will behave as if they are truncative, but this is really a feature of the stem, and not of the endings themselves. This is the most common type.
• Weak k-stems (p-declined) are k-stems that behave like weak q-stems, in the sense that they also drop their stem-final consonant before all consonant-initial endings. These are quite rare.

'Regular' stems

The 'regular' group of stems are consonant stems (ending in /k/ or /q/), where the stem-final consonant is retained or deleted, based on the sandhi of the regular sandhi of the endings; i.e. it is retained before (single) consonant-initial endings, but removed by vowel-initial endings (and endings beginning in a double consonant). These are thus the most 'regular' stem types, because they behave completely in accordance with the left-sandhi of the endings. This is the most common pattern for k-stems, but quite rare for q-stems. These stems are all up-declined.

• Regular k-stems (up-declined) is the most common type of k-stems: All vowel-initial endings are truncative, including N{-up} and N{-it} and thus remove /k/, but consonant-initial endings join onto /k/, except ABS 1.sg/sg N{ga}, which still removes /k/, because this morpheme is qg-fusional.
• Regular q-stems (up-declined) is a small group of q-stems that behave like k-stems: They take N{-up} and N{-it}, and all vowel-initial endings are truncative, whilst consonant-initial endings join onto /q/. Notable common examples are the affixes N{(q)cuaq}N and N{(l)liq}N.

'Strong' stems

The stong stems never lose their stem-final consonant before vowel-initial endings (which are normally always truncative). Instead, the final consonant is either weakened, or the stem displays metathesis. These stems can usually be recognised by the fact that they (almost always) end in /əq/ (or /ək/ in the case of k-stems). These stems are also all up-declined. However, consonant-initial endings will join onto the stem according to their own, usual left-sandhi.

• Strong q-stems (up-declined) will weaken /q/ to /r/ before any vowel-initial ending: Thus e.g. {iqnəq}N{-a} ⇒ ernera. However, truncative, consonant-initial endings can remove /q/ as usual: thus {iqnəq}N{-ma} ⇒ ernima. Some of these stems may alternatively display metathesis instead of weakening as a means to retain the final consonant. For example {atəq}N{-a} ⇒ /atqa/ ⇒ aqqa.
• Strong k-stems (up-declined) are quite rare. They will usually weaken their final /k/ by nasalising it to /ŋ/ before vowel-initial endings: Thus e.g. {nalək}N{-a} ⇒ nalinga. Alternatively, they may display metathesis like the strong q-stems above.