Nouns
Nouns name people, animals, things, and places: isha' (coyote), paya (water), tüba (pinenut), pahabichi (bear). What makes OVP nouns distinctive is that they take suffixes that announce their job in the sentence: am I the one doing the action, or the one it's done to?
A noun used as a subject must take a subject suffix (-ii or -uu). Pronouns like nüü don't need one, but nouns always do!
Subject suffixes: -ii and -uu
When a noun is the subject (the doer), it takes one of these (true to form, the choice marks distance):
| Suffix | Meaning |
|---|---|
| -ii | the / a (subject, visible or nearby) |
| -uu | the / a (subject, not visible or far) |
isha'-ii → "the coyote" (nearby)
pahabichi-uu → "the bear" (far or out of sight)
This is the same near/far split as the mahu / uhu pronouns. The language is always quietly telling you where things are.
A subject noun drops straight into a sentence with a verb (the verb keeps its plain form, there's no object prefix here to trigger softening):
| OVP | English |
|---|---|
| Isha'-ii katü-ti | The coyote (nearby) is sitting |
| Pahabichi-uu mia-wei | The bear (far) will go |
| Tsiidoopi'-ii hibi-ti | The bird (nearby) is drinking |
| Pagwi-uu tüka-ku | The fish (far) ate |
| Ishabugu-ii mia-ti | The dog (nearby) is going |
Object suffixes
When a noun is the object (what the action is done to), it takes a different suffix:
| Suffix | Meaning |
|---|---|
| -aa / -na | object, general (something, not a specific one) |
| -eika / -neika | the / a (object, visible or nearby) |
| -oka / -noka | the / a (object, not visible or far) |
The specific forms are actually built up from -na: -neika is -na + -ika (general + nearby), and -noka is -na + -uka (general + far). Once you spot the -na core, the rest feels less like memorizing and more like assembling.
Use -eika after a word that ends in a glottal stop ('), and -neika after everything else:
General vs. specific objects
This distinction changes how the rest of the sentence behaves:
- General object (-na / -aa): you're talking about the thing in general, and you don't add an object prefix to the verb.
Nüü paya-na hibi-dü → "I drink water." (water in general)
- Specific object (-neika / -noka): you mean the particular thing, and you do add the matching object prefix to the verb.
Nüü tüba-neika ma-düka-ti → "I am eating the pinenut."
Using both the prefix and the noun (ma- + tüba-neika) looks redundant to an English ear ("I am eating it the pinenut") but in OVP the object prefix is required to agree with the object suffix on the noun. If you use a general object (-na / -aa), you don't need the prefix. If you use a -neika, then a prefix that agrees with it (nearby) is required. If you use a -noka, then a prefix that agrees with it (far) is required.
Here are full sentences with object nouns with a subject, the object noun with its suffix, and the agreeing prefix on the verb:
| OVP | English |
|---|---|
| Nüü tüba-neika ma-düka-ti | I am eating the pinenut (nearby) |
| Üü paya-noka u-hibi-ti | You are drinking the water (far) |
| Isha'-ii pagwi-neika ma-düka-ti | The coyote is eating the fish (nearby) |
| Mahu paya-noka u-hibi-ku | He/she (nearby) drank the water (far) |
| Nüü paya-na hibi-dü | I drink water (in general) |
The object suffix and the verb's prefix agree in near/far: -neika (near) with ma-, -noka (far) with u-. The general -na takes no prefix at all.
What's next
If you're following the suggested reading path, the next step is Possession: how to say "my," "your," and "their."