The Ancestral Noun

Introduction

The canonical Ancestral noun was composed of two distinct but interlocking elements:

1. A biconsonantal semantic root
2. A bivocalic stative transfix (infix/suffix)

In other words, the basic Ancestral noun took the form C1 + V1 + C2 + V1 where:

1. C1 _ C2 _ denoted the meaning of the noun
2. _ V1 _ V1 denoted the state of the noun

The Ancestral noun also made extensive use of various forms of reduplication.

An interesting feature of Ancestral is that every noun was in effect a “frozen” verb, that is a “being” (animate or inanimate) at a particular moment in time.