Noun Classes in Archonic23.IX.2024
The archonic language has a defined grammatical system under which all nouns and proper names are sorted into one of five categories called classes. This reflects on the affixes of related words i.e. verbs (in some tenses) and adjectives, as well as on first, second and third person pronouns that may be used to substantiate it.
These five categories are called abstract, objective, subjective/informal, formal and sacred.
Abstract class
Archons speak in abstract when they refer to abstract concepts (such as love, time, language...) or uncountable matters (such as water). Abstract nouns cannot be put into plural.
In recent years, archons picked up the habit of referring to hierophants in abstract, to reflect the fact that these entities are tightly related to broad concepts they help to administer (information, power, etc) - which means that now abstract class is actively being used in first and second person, which it rarely was before outside of poetry.
Objective class
Objective class refers to most of the different countable inanimate objects - rocks, atoms, cities - but never to anything alive. To refer to a sophont in objective is a sign of deep disrespect or hurt; such expressions are rarely used.
Subjective/informal class
Subjective is the go-to class for all living things no matter grand or small, plant or animal; however, with adult sophont life formal became the default instead due to politeness, to the point where the subjective class itself is frequently referred to as informal in contrast. Referring to an adult sophont in informal is usually a sign of closeness or sympathy. Kid sophonts, on the other hand, are referred to in informal most of the time.
Formal class
As outlined above, formal is used to add a degree of respect or politeness to what it references. It is primarily applied to sophonts, with adults being spoken about in formal almost all the time. Titles of sophonts (i.e. teacher, volunteer) are also almost always formal class.
Many archons actually use two different names for informal and formal speech - Yasmine and Yasimir for example - based on how well it goes with respective affixes. The name given at birth is usually informal, while the formal name is chosen later.
When speaking in plural, the grammar behaves exactly the same as in singular formal, no matter the classes of nouns grouped together. Collective nouns, even in singular (flock, class, population...) also live in the formal class.
Sacred class
Archaic relict of the old religion, the sacred class is used with proper names of stars and other cosmic bodies - since in the old religion stars were considered deities. Yet sacred still sees new uses, with many referring to very large-scale constructions like interstellar space stations in sacred, keeping with the theme of invoking the sense of grandeur with this grammatic option.
Class shifts
Using a technically incorrect class with a noun can be a powerful stylistic choice in archonic, with the underlying idea of metaphorically applying properties of the class used to the lifeform or thing spoken about. Hierophants in abstract and disrespect in objective are examples of that. And referring to an objective noun in subjective can be an expressive tool to "vivify" it - "this plushie is cute, can we keep her?". Many place names become subjective under that logic.
But the most common class to shift to is the formal, as archons like being respectful about a lot of stuff. Scientific terminology, names of space-faring vessels, a lot of the language related to plants and some individual words like "tower" are almost always in formal, to the point that many consider them fully drifted to this class.
Additionally, some words can have different meanings when used in different classes: tree and wood sound identical in archonic yet the first is subjective and the second abstract, glass in objective becomes a prism, etc.
When a phrase is class-shifted, all noun-related class-dependent words are class-shifted, but the noun itself does not change form.
Related word modifications
Adjectives and adjective-like words (i.e. ordinals) reflect the class of the relevant noun in their affix.
Verbs also reflect the class (and don't reflect the person) in their affix, but only in past tense; in other tenses they reflect the person, but not the class.
Personal pronouns have first, second, and third person variants for every class in singular (with formal singular doubling as plural for all three).
Demonstrative pronouns (instead of two degrees of spatio-temporal removal like this and that, archons have three - close, medium and far) reflect on class and also equate formal and plural.
Possessive pronouns reflect on person and number of the posessor (six different options) and the class of what is being posessed (with adjective affixes).
All other pronouns do not reflect on class - "who" and "what", "anything" and "anybody" are the same things in arconic.
Usage in Starscape
Denizens of Starscape use a variant of archonic language which, although obeys almost all other rules of the original, uses the noun class system - with the same noun-pronoun-affix concordance - to achieve different meanings, and as such many words change class.
Some objective words mostly related to nature (i.e. river) become permanently subjective. The abstract is greatly diminished, many words from it joining either objective or subjective. Formal seemingly does not exist, rather only being used and referred to as plural, with the "respect" functionality greatly cut. Sacred is reserved for the Great Outer Deity and them alone. But the greatest change is in how the language handles sophonts.
Sophonts, when singular, are referred to in either subjective or objective based on the Starscape's strict two-caste societal division. Members of the greater caste are objective, while the lesser are subjective. Referring to a sophont in an incorrect class is a grave mistake and may be treated as derogatory. A lot of caste-related words i.e. caste-exclusive job titles also inherit this grammatical caste class.
Additionally, plural is sometimes used for singular sophonts in specific contexts. Using plural in second person is a standard degree of officiality (and is for example expected when a member of the lesser caste speaks to the greater), in a third person it is a respectful way to speak about someone in a societal position significantly higher than that of the speaker, and in first person it is a royal We used only by the emperor.
The Wattsonian explanation for this weird grammatical grouping of greater caste with inanimate objects is found in Starscape's dominant belief system, which sees the greater caste as cold, rational and controlling, and the lesser caste as chaotic, emotional and in need of control - with the same separation being projected between physical and biological. The implied meaning under the grammatical division itself as such becomes less "inanimate versus animate" and more "order versus dismay".
The Doilist explanation, meanwhile, falls back to Caithe's original novel - where in her writing protagonists mostly referred to each other in subjective in sympathy, and to antagonists - in objective in disrespect; although the writing never implied the ties between the grammar and the caste system, nor the philosophical bedrock under it, it still worked to the letter by virtue of antagonists and protagonists being entirely representatives of greater and lesser castes.