Rikutsaren Noun Cases

Nouns in Rikutsaren are inflected by 5 grammatical cases: Nominative, Accusative, Genitive, Instrumental, and Dative. Additionally, nouns can be one of 3 "strengths": strong, neutral, or weak. Strong and weak were passed down from Lithic, but neutral is a Rikutsaren innovation. Pronouns can also be inflected by case, but only in the weak form.
Lithic-derived nouns are strong or weak, but most other words are neutral. Declensions are baked into each noun, so they must be memorized. In Ancient Lithon (and to some extent today), declensions actually referred to "strong" things and "weak" things.
== Nominative and Accusative ==
The Nominative case is used to identify a noun as being the subject, whether transitive or intransitive, of the noun phrase. In Ancient Rikutsaren, the Strong-form Nominative used the affixes -a and -e, but these later became separate definite affixes. Otherwise, the Nominative case is unmarked, and represents the noun's base form or lemma.
The Accusative case is used to mark a noun as being the direct object of the noun phrase. Strong and Neutral-form nouns use the -(e)th suffix, while pronouns and Weak-form nouns use -(a)t or -(e)t.
:"Martin bought it."
:"Martine cat caveidjiugo"
:Martin-e ca-t c-a-veidjiugo
:Martin- it- --buy
== Genitive ==
The Genitive case marks attributive nouns. Specifically it marks possession, both inalienable and alienable, of an object by the subject.
Nouns using the the genitive case in this manner come before the noun they modify. The Strong-form and Neutral-form genitive is marked with -(e)n, and the Weak form is marked with -i.
:"I see a man's dog."
:"Gwelonen lulath neseor"
:Gwelon-en lula-th n-e-seor
:man- dog- --see
Predicative constructions do not occur using the genitive alone. The noun must be attributive to another in order to be grammatically correct. Often the solution to this is to repeat the noun that is being possessed, or replace it with a placeholder noun like sim one or ethi thing. These placeholders are always in the Strong declension.
:"I have his/hers now"
:"Gøt ca simeth nedref"
:Gøt ca sim-eth n-e-dref
:now his/her one- --have
The Genitive case also marks nouns that refer, pertain, or relate to the head of the noun phrase. This is similar to certain usages of the word of in English. Nouns using the genitive case in this manner come after the noun they modify.
:"It is a matter of (the) state"
:"Rurt erinusen ceor"
:Rurt erinus-en c-e-or
:affair government- --be
[Note to self: this does blur the line between noun and adjective in some cases. Be sure to explore and expound on that]
The Genitive case can also denote the noun's participation in an action as a patient or an agent.
:"The love of music"
:"Graefe casi"
:Graef-e cas-i
:love- music-
but:
:"She benefited from her father's love"
:"Graefe ca baban cat cajasugai"
:Graef-e ca baba-n ca-t c-a-jasugai
:love- father- - --benefit
The Genitive, notably, cannot be used to denote that a noun constitutes part of a group, nor can it be used to denote origin.
== Instrumental ==
The Instrumental case denotes a noun that is the instrument or means by which the subject achieves an action. In the instrumental case, strong nouns use the suffix -an, and all other nouns use -ach.
It also indicates a noun's composition. For example, a vase made of wood would be a sevóll lóran [vase wood-]. This usage can extend to supplementing a collective noun. A group of people would be a chug cwirecan [group person--]. This supplementation could occur if the speaker wishes to emphasize the collective nature of the phrase or compare it to another group. For example:
:"They weren't merely few people, (but) they were a group of people"
:"Cwirec lecev thiegev meor ba, tos chug cwirecan meor"
:cwir-ec lec-ev thie-gev m-e-or ba, tos chug cwir-ec-an m-e-or
:person- few- mere- --be , but group person-- --be
[need an example with the weak form]
== Dative ==
The Dative case indicates that a noun is the recipient or beneficiary of an action. This can also be interpreted as indicating a noun that is an indirect object of the verb but is not modified by an adposition (see [adpositions] for more detail). In the dative case all nouns use the suffix -ar.
:"We gave (to) him the cloak"
:"Cár ravmanath sajiugo"
:ca-ar ravmana-th s-a-jiugo
:him- cloak- --give
== in Modern languages ==
Noun cases are largely unchanged in Rikutsaren and Sornuver. However:
* in Swoorlac the Instrumental and Dative cases merged to form a new Dative case, sometimes called the Dative-Instrumental case.
* in Rikutsaren, a new Comitative case developed, denoting a relationship of "accompaniment" between two participants in an event.
* in Sornuver, some nouns now have irregular declensions due to sound changes.
Category:Rikutsar
Category:Rikutsaren languages