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Nouns! Joy!
Well, no. Nouns are just sort of necessary.
At least in Nrit. I'm told some languages get away with just verbs,
or whatever.
Anyway, see below.
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The Four Cases And Their Use:
The four cases are nominative, accusative, genitive, and oblique. In charts,
they will always appear in that order, with the nominative at the top or
left. I'll use people from real life here.
The nominative case is used as the subject of a transitive,
stative, or unergative sentence. An unergative sentence is one in which
the subject of an intransitive verb is the agent.
Example: Skip broke the pool cue. The red bird
is beautiful. Kim runs.
The accusative case is used as the subject of an unaccusative
sentence, or the object of a transitive sentence. An unaccusative sentence
is one where the subject of an intransitive verb is the experiencer of the
action. It is also used with postpositions of location to indicate
motion into.
Example: The wood burnt. Amy ate
the cheesecake. Jason fell in the water.
The genitive case is used as the possessor of a thing
It is also used with postpositions of location to indicate motion out of
a place.
Example: Josh ate Gregor's candy.
Chris walked from the house.
The oblique case is used for basically all other purposes,
such as indirect objects and the object of most postpositions, notably with
those of location to indicate current location.
Example: Jon sent Natalia a package.
Henna lives in Finland.
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The Three Numbers:
The numbers are singular, plural, and zero.
Here I'm using Piiëxamples.
The singular number is used when there is exactly one
of something, or when the word has no plural (as in mass nouns, like salt).
Example: Allevih runs a bookshop in Tthaiet.
Sand is everywhere in Inshalla.
The plural number is used when there is more than one
of something.
Example:The Javas are the royal family in Harijava.
The zero number is used when there is none of something.
Example: A nation with no language is a nation
with no heart.
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Noun Declension:
To mark these cases and numbers, Nrit has developed a system of affixes.
See if you can figure out the underlying forms that created them, or look
at the charts page and see for yourself! If
a box contains two forms, the first is applied to roots ending in a consonant,
and the second to roots in vowels. If it contains one form, assume
that the consonantal form reduplicated the preceding vowel between itself
and the root. The nominative singular is often irregular, so the "dictionary
form" of a word includes its nominative singular and plural, and no nominative
singular ending is listed.
A letter C denotes reduplication of the preceding consonant; a V the preceding
vowel.
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Singular
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Plural
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Zero
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Nominative
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-
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Cùn / `n*
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Cih / h
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Accusative
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Ce / nV
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Cèn / nùn
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Ceh / nê
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Genitive
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VtsV / ts
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tsìn
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tsî
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Oblique
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v
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vùn
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vih
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*: The root vowel is nasalized.
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The Pronouns And Their Use:
Aside from the three personal pronouns, Nrit also has two honorific pronouns
and three situational pronouns.
The personal pronouns are, simply enough, used for the
first, second, and third person. They are all irregular.
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First person - nu
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nu
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nùn
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na
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nul
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nùne
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nan
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nut
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nùnse
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natsi
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nuf
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nùnav
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nava
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Second person - siti
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siti
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sitàn
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sita
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sidde
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siddùn
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sidâ
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sitsi
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sitsùn
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sitsâ
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sitfi
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sidvùn
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sitfâ
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Third person - aka
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aka
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akòn
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akâ
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age
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agùn
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agâ
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aksta
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akstùn
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akstâ
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agav
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agvùn
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agvâ
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The honorific pronouns are used to show
deference to the referent.
Ainu is the divine pronoun. It refers to priests,
prophets, and gods. It declines like nu.
Ra is the mastery pronoun. It refers to someone
who is greatly skilled in a thing. It declines regularly.
The situational pronouns are used in very specific situations.
They are all regular vocalic nouns.
Maru refers to someone who is the speaker for a group,
or otherwise is representative of the group.
Tari excludes the addressee from the group being referred
to.
Tsaṇa is a humilific, used in the first and second person
with those of much higher social rank There is an elaborate etiquette
to the use of this, which is beyond the scope of this discussion.
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Webpage graphics by the inestimable Jaguarwoman.
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