Counting nouns in Kifuliiru

When Kifuliiru counts things, the numeral often agrees with the noun class. The rules combine:

1. A noun (usually the singular lemma), and
2. A number (1–10 and beyond in restricted patterns),

to produce a phrase such as umuundu muguma (“one person”) or patterns with class prefix + agreement suffix.

This is separate from Kifuliiru numbers, which only says how “three” or “twenty” is spoken in isolation.

Two regimes

Invariable counts (6, 8, 9, 10, and some larger round values)

For some values the noun does not take an agreement suffix. The phrase is roughly:

phrase = noun + " " + numeral_word

The numeral side may use the counting word form (ndatu, ikumi, …) rather than the agreement suffix series.

Agreement counts (1–5 and 7)

For these counts, Kifuliiru:

1. Detects noun class (using prefix patterns and plural groups — Mu/Ba, Ki/Bi, Ka/Tu, …).
2. Picks the agreement prefix for that class and count (singular vs plural agreement context).
3. Appends a fixed suffix for the number:

In words: for “two people” you do not only say ibiri; you glue class agreement + biri onto the noun phrase according to the documented rules.

Notation:

agree(noun, n) → noun + " " + prefix(noun_class, n) + suffix(n)

Role of the pluralizer

Before agreement, the rules may ask: is this lemma singular or plural? Should we derive a plural to read off the ba-, bi-, tu- prefix? Noun pluralization is shared morphology; counting reuses its output.

Examples and edge cases

Published examples and reviewer notes capture real nouns and tricky classes. The patterns are fixed; the lexicon grows as the community adds words.

Common learner takeaway

Counting nouns answers: “How do Kifuliiru speakers wrap a number around this noun?” Kifuliiru numbers alone answer: “How do we say this integer out loud?”