Mari - plurals
Forming the plural
The most common way of forming a plural in Mari is just adding -влак to the end of a noun
пöрт house, пöрт-влак houses
Note that the hyphen is a part of the suffix and is always used to connect the suffix to the noun
There are two other plural suffixes that are used in dialectal or colloquial speech, -шамыч and -шач, which function in a way similar to -влак.
пöрт-шамыч/пöрт-шач houses
There are also two plural suffixes that have rather specific meanings and are restricted in their use, ла and мыт, which are both added directly to the noun without a hyphen. ла can be used with inanimate nouns especially in combination with cases, while мыт can be used with names and nouns referring to people to create a sociative plural with a meaning along the lines of “the noun and those with them”.
Using the plural
The way plurals are used in Mari differs quite a lot from the way for example English or Finnish use them and often you actually don’t need a plural where you might want to put one. The rules for when to omit the plural suffix are as follows:
1. Predicative adjectives and nouns are in the singular.
ме туныктышо улына we are teachers
2. Attributes do not get a plural suffix even if they modify a noun that is in the plural.
изи пий-влак small dogs
3. Nouns are in the singular when they are preceded by a numeral.
ик поҥго one mushroom, кок поҥго two mushrooms
4. For objects that come in pairs by default, such as eyes or socks, the singular form of the noun refers to the pair. To refer to only one eye or one sock, пел, literally half, is added before the noun.
шинча eyes, пел шинча eye
What should also be considered is the way the plural suffix is used in combination with cases and possessive suffixes. Luckily, the rules are very simple.
1. Case suffixes are always after the plural suffix
пöртыштö in a/the house, пöрт-влакыште in (the) houses
As you can see, in some cases, such as inessive, the plural suffix causes a shift in the stress as well as affects the vowel harmony
2. Possessive suffixes can be either before or after the plural suffix
пöртем my house, пöртем-влак/пöрт-влакем my houses
I think that’s all for today, hope y’all found this helpful or interesting, and feel free to point out if something is wrong or otherwise weird!
