West Carpathian grammar

In this article various aspects of West Carpathian grammar are discussed. Unlike the neighbouring languages, such as Slovak and Polish, which are the Slavic languages, West Carpathian belongs to the Oronaic language family, and is typologically between fusional and agglutinative languages.

Nouns

The West Carpathian language has gender category in nouns or even in personal pronouns, similarly to neighbouring Hungarian: sun is "he", "she", or "it", depending on the referent. There are no articles, meaning the definiteness is not distinguished.

Cases

West Carpathian has eleven cases: six grammatical cases, three locative cases, three directional cases. The most typical case endings for singular (sg) and plural (pl) numbers are shown in the table below:

Case	Ending		Example		Translation
	sg	pl	sg	pl
Grammatical
nominative	–	-k	oiva	oivak	(a) head
accusative	different	-mma	oivā	oivamma	head (as an object)
genitive	-ui/-ū/-ju	-dū	oivū	oivadū	of (a) head
dative	-id/-cid	-īd/-ecid	oivid	oivīd	head (as an indirect object)
instrumental	-inä/-ina	-kīn/-kain	oivina	oivakain	by means of (a) head
essive	-pä/-pa	-ipä/-upa	oivapa	oivaupa	as (a) head
Locative
inessive	-utu	-eutui/-autui	oivautu	oivautui	in (a) head
adessive	-ie/-uo	-kke/-kko	oivuo	oivakko	on (a) head
apudessive	-ve/-vo	-uhe/-uho	oivavo	oivauho	at/near (a) head
Directional
illative	-ēn/-oan	-kēn/-kōn	oivoan	oivakōn	into (a) head
lative	-ivä/-iva	-kua	oivaiva	oivakua	to (a) head
allative	-hei/-hō	-kei/-kō	oivahō	oivakō	onto (a) head

Possessive suffixes

Instead of separate possessive pronouns, like English "my" or "her", West Carpathian uses special suffixes. The number of possessors and their person are distinguished. The notable feature is that if a possession is a subject or a direct object of a sentence, it would take a different possessive suffix, than a word in an another case (like genitive or dative). The following are the forms of oiva "head", declined to show possession:

person	number	Subject	Object	Other cases	Translation
first person	singular	oivasā	oivame	oiv(a)-vjad	my head
	plural	oivatōk	oivammō	oiv(a)-vnad	our head
second person	singular	oivasa	oivama	oiv(a)-vja	your (sing.) head
	plural	oivakēk	oivammē	oiv(a)-vna	your (pl.) head
third person	singular	oivasau	oivamau	oiv(a)-vjau	his/her/its head
	plural	oivapōk	oivammou	oiv(a)-vnou	their head

Words written through the hyphen (-) indicates an insertion of a case ending. When used with cases other than nominative or accusative, a possessive suffix always comes after a case ending, so it is sometimes called a postfix. For example: utuovjau - "on his/her hand". When a plural number of a possession must be indicated, a plural ending is used instead of a singular one. If a word is a subject or a direct object of a sentence, then a corresponding plural ending is added before a possessive suffix: oivakēk - "their head", oivahkēk - "their heads" (the nominative plural ending -k changes into -h- due to a consonant gradation).

Declension types

There are many noun declension types (called onnevinsātuarek "word bending patterns"). Most of these forms are archaic and more common ones are used instead by analogy. Words in nominative, accusative, genitive, dative and illative cases are represented in the table below. Here are some of the most common patterns:

Tuare 1, oiva - "head" Case Example sg pl nominative oiva oivak accusative oivā oivamma genitive oivū oivadū dative oivid oivīd illative oivoan oivakōn

Tuare 2, pärä - "bark" Case Example sg pl nominative pärä päräk accusative päreä pärämme genitive pärui pärädui dative päräid pärīd illative pärēn päräkēn

Tuare 2, pienkä - "wind" Case Example sg pl nominative pienkä piennäk accusative pienneä piennämme genitive piennui pienkädui dative piennäid piennīd illative pienkēn pienkäkēn

Tuare 4, lakō - "small" Case Example sg pl nominative lakō laok accusative lakauta laomma genitive lakauju lakōdū dative laojcid laojdid illative lakavōn laovkōn

Tuare 5, kude - "morning" Case Example sg pl nominative kude kudeik accusative kudeja kudeimma genitive kudeju kudeidū dative kudejcid kudejdid illative kudejōn kudeikōn

Tuare 6, ňihke - "fish" Case Example sg pl nominative ňihke ňihkēk accusative ňihestä ňihesne genitive ňihkešu ňihkedui dative ňihehcid ňihejīd illative ňihkesēn ňiheskēn

Tuare 7, setä - "five" Case Example sg pl nominative setä sennäk accusative sentä sennäme genitive seňňu setädui dative sencid seňňīd illative sennēn setäkēn