Suffixes on 'Iipay Aa nouns tell you what the word is doing in the sentence.
Nouns can serve many functions in a sentence. Some are subjects, some are objects, and some provide additional information. In 'Iipay Aa, suffixes can sometimes tell you the grammatical case of a noun, and some suffixes act like prepositions do in English, meaning things like at, in, to, and from.
Quick reference chart:
-ch Marks the Subject
The default word order of 'Iipay Aa is Subject-Object-Verb:
'Ehatt 'ehaa wesii. "A dog drinks water."
Nyemii 'emallk akewii. "A wildcat chases a woodrat."
In the second example, we can make it clearer that the cat chases the rat, and not the other way around, by adding the suffix -ch.
-ch marks the noun as being in the nominative case, meaning it is the subject of the verb. Now the sentence is:
Nyemiich 'emallk akewii. "A wildcat chases a woodrat."
Now, hypothetically, you could change the word order and the meaning would be the same:
'Emallk akewii nyemiich. "A wildcat chases a woodrat."
As you can see, 'emallk remains bare, without a suffix. This is a good indication that it is the direct object of the verb; it is the thing being chased. The complete lack of suffix also indicates that it is indefinite: to be interpreted as "a woodrat" rather than "the woodrat".
How to say "the"?
In the previous examples, both nouns in each sentence were indefinite, meaning "a wildcat", or "some (unspecified) woodrat". If you are talking about a specific noun that you have mentioned before, which your listener knows about, you are likely to use the definite article "the" in English, rather than "a/an". This is done with variations of the suffix -vu combined with the other suffixes -ch, -m, -i, -lly, and -k. Observe the following sentences:
Nyemiich 'emallk akewii. "A wildcat chased a woodrat."
Nyemiivech 'emallk akewii. "The wildcat chased a woodrat."
Nyemiich 'emallkvu akewii. "A wildcat chased the woodrat."
Nyemiivech 'emallkvu akewii. "The wildcat chased the woodrat."
Above, -vech is the nominative suffix, placed on the subject, and -vu is the accusative suffix, placed on the direct object.
Whether or not to use "v" in the suffix is mostly relevant only with the suffixes -ch/-vech and -vu. The other "v" suffixes, -vem, -vi, and -velly, are considered largely interchangeable with their v-less counterparts -m, -i, and -lly. You can simply choose which variant feels right to you.
'Ehatt 'ehaa wesii. "A dog drinks water."
Nyemii 'emallk akewii. "A wildcat chases a woodrat."
In the second example, we can make it clearer that the cat chases the rat, and not the other way around, by adding the suffix -ch.
-ch marks the noun as being in the nominative case, meaning it is the subject of the verb. Now the sentence is:
Nyemiich 'emallk akewii. "A wildcat chases a woodrat."
Now, hypothetically, you could change the word order and the meaning would be the same:
'Emallk akewii nyemiich. "A wildcat chases a woodrat."
As you can see, 'emallk remains bare, without a suffix. This is a good indication that it is the direct object of the verb; it is the thing being chased. The complete lack of suffix also indicates that it is indefinite: to be interpreted as "a woodrat" rather than "the woodrat".
How to say "the"?
In the previous examples, both nouns in each sentence were indefinite, meaning "a wildcat", or "some (unspecified) woodrat". If you are talking about a specific noun that you have mentioned before, which your listener knows about, you are likely to use the definite article "the" in English, rather than "a/an". This is done with variations of the suffix -vu combined with the other suffixes -ch, -m, -i, -lly, and -k. Observe the following sentences:
Nyemiich 'emallk akewii. "A wildcat chased a woodrat."
Nyemiivech 'emallk akewii. "The wildcat chased a woodrat."
Nyemiich 'emallkvu akewii. "A wildcat chased the woodrat."
Nyemiivech 'emallkvu akewii. "The wildcat chased the woodrat."
Above, -vech is the nominative suffix, placed on the subject, and -vu is the accusative suffix, placed on the direct object.
Whether or not to use "v" in the suffix is mostly relevant only with the suffixes -ch/-vech and -vu. The other "v" suffixes, -vem, -vi, and -velly, are considered largely interchangeable with their v-less counterparts -m, -i, and -lly. You can simply choose which variant feels right to you.