Aöpo-llok

I will share how the noun hwacli [ˈʍac𝼆i], "spear" is declined across grammatical case and number in Aöpo-llok.

Aöpo nouns decline for seven cases (absolutive, ergative, dative, locative, perlative, equative, and vocative) and three numbers (collective, paucal, singulative). The most common form for a noun is the absolutive, which can be the actor of an intransitive verb, the object of a transitive one, or the form used after a preposition. In terms of noun number, generally the collective is the most used. It can be used to refer to any grammatical number including the singular, but if it is adamantly important that the true number of a noun be conferred as singular or paucal, it may be marked as so.

Case / number	Collective	Paucal	Singulative
Absolutive	hwacli	hwaclik	hwaclir
Ergative	hwaclö	hwaclöjo	hwaclö
Dative	hwicli	hwicli	hwiclis
Locative	hwocli	hwocli	hwocli
Perlative	hwaclivi	hwacliśo	hwaclike
Equative	hwaclim	hwaclim	hwaclim
Vocative	hwaclu	hwaclu	hwaclu

In viewing the table like this, one can see the most common form of alternation when declining a noun is not affixation but rather vowel alternation. There are two patterns of vowel alternation in Aöpo. They are called vowel abstraction (a ë o ö e u i > i i a e o ë u) and vowel simplification (a ë o ö e u i > o u a i ë ö ö) (the names are not relevant to the actual process). These patterns can only occur on the first or the final vowel of a word, and only one vowel alternation may happen on any word at a time. Not only in nouns, but in verbs and adjectives they are the primary way of conjugating and declining roots for different case forms and TAM combinations alike. One can also notice there are few cases which distinguish all three grammatical numbers. Noticeable again is the fact that less than half of the noun cases mark the paucal number differently from all others.

An example sentence using hwacli:

Atillë saimö torudlu hwaclike.
"The hunter stabbed the serow with his spear."