-nan

-nan

1. Romanization of -𐌽𐌰𐌽

The third person plural pronoun nan (“they”) and the overall plural noun suffix -nan are unique for Papiamentu and cannot be found in any other language. According to Clements and Parkvall the pronoun nan and its derived suffix -nan were introduced into the language just in the 1700s because of the grown need for a plural marking. Apparently before the introduction the need for a plural marking was not felt. Just like in other South American languages the suffix originated in the form "kas-nan" literally "house-they" (ac Lenz).

Compare the Curripaco Arawak suffix -na and the Dutch suffix -en.

Searches are being undertaken to find the African connections with the words "iran", "ene", "na", "nan", "inen" and "ane" in the languages Bini, Kwa, Anabonese, Bantu, Kimbundu, Angolar, Fa d'Ambu, Edo and Saotome in the African countries of Sao Tomé, Angola, Equatorial Guinea and Nigeria (see Bartens and Schuchardt). All very improbably.

-nan

1. Used to form regular plurals of nouns.

   ‎kas (“house”) + ‎-nan → ‎kasnan (“houses”)

-nan (verb-forming suffix, noun-forming suffix, adverb-forming suffix, Baybayin spelling ᜈᜈ᜔)

1. alternative form of -an

   ‎talo (“defeat”) + ‎-nan → ‎talunan (“loser”)

   ‎tawa (“laugh”) + ‎-nan → ‎tawanan (“laughter; to laugh”)

   ‎sapupo (“the act of sitting on the lap”) + ‎-nan → ‎sinapupunan (“lap”)

   ‎kuha (“take”) + ‎-nan → ‎kunan (“to take a picture or video”)

• Normally, /h/ is inserted before -an when the root word ends with a vowel that is not followed by a glottal stop. In some cases, phoneme change can occur and /h/ becomes /n/.

  ‎talo + ‎-nan → ‎talunan

  ‎tawa + ‎-nan → ‎tawanan

  ‎sapupo + ‎-nan → ‎sinapupunan

• Sometimes, the final vowel of the root word disappears when the suffix is added.

  ‎kuha + ‎-nan → ‎kunan

• ka- -nan