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 as many as 20 noun declension types (called otnevinsātuarek "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 3, pienkä - "wind" Case Example sg pl nominative pienkä piengäk accusative pienneä piengämme genitive piengui pienkädui dative piennäid piengīd illative pienkähen pienkäkēn

Tuare 4, pelki - "bridge" Case Example sg pl nominative pelki pellek accusative pelkeä pellimme genitive peľľu pelkidui dative pellīd pelkīd illative pelkihen pelkikēn

Tuare 5, lakō - "small" Case Example sg pl nominative lakō laok accusative lakauta laomma genitive lakauju lakōdū dative laojcid laojdid illative lakavōn laovkōn

Tuare 6, neannē - "aunt" Case Example sg pl nominative neannē nēneik accusative neannijtä nēnijme genitive neanniju neannēdui dative nēnijcid nēnijdid illative neannijēn nēnijkēn

Tuare 7, kudi - "morning" Case Example sg pl nominative kūdi kūdik accusative kūdeja kūdimma genitive kūdeju kūdeidū dative kūdeicid kūdeidid illative kūdejōn kūdeikōn

Tuare 8, partu - "axe" Case Example sg pl nominative partu paruk accusative parauta parumma genitive partau paraudū dative paraucīd paraudīd illative partavōn paraukōn

Tuare 9, setä - "the fifth" Case Example sg pl nominative setä sennäk accusative sentä sennäme genitive seňňu setädui dative sencid seňňīd illative sennēn setäkēn

Tuare 10, seusi - "feather" Case Example sg pl nominative seusi seussīk accusative seussima seusimma genitive seusimu seusimmū dative seusincīd seussimīd illative seussimōn seusinkōn

Tuare 11, ňihke - "fish" Case Example sg pl nominative ňihke ňihkēk accusative ňihestä ňihesne genitive ňihkešu ňiheltui dative ňihehcid ňihkešīd illative ňihkesēn ňiheskēn

Tuare 12, vuodon - "woodpecker" Case Example sg pl nominative vuodon vuodonek accusative vuodonna vuodōmma genitive vuodoňňu vuodōnnū dative vuodōncīd vuodōňīd illative vuodonōn vuodonkōn

Verbs

Verbs in West Carpathian belong to one of ten main groups depending on the stem type. Nine types are called the regular types and have the same set of personal endings, but the stems undergo different changes when inflected, while the last one is the irregular type and can have different endings. The first two and the tenth types are called simple and the rest are compound, because they are created with a special suffix.

Conjugation

As an example a I type verb māli "to talk" and its negative counterpart ēmai "not to talk" are given in the table below. The first verb is regular and it is easy to show different personal endings, using it, while the second verb has an irregular -k- in some endings. Only tenses of an indicative mood are listed here.

		indicative mood
		present tense		past tense		perfect		pluperfect
person	number	affirmative	negative	affirmative	negative	affirmative	negative	affirmative	negative
1st	sg.	mālel	ēmal	māllō	ēmālō	mālilid	ēmailid	ian mālinna	ian ēmainna
2nd		māles	ēmas	mālsē	ēmāsē	mālisī	ēmaisī	iak mālinna	iak ēmainna
3rd		māľu	ēmāču	māluvā	ēmākuvā	māliňu	ēmaiňu	īka mālinna	īka ēmainna
1st	pl.	mālelki	ēmalki	mālulki	ēmākulki	mālluok	ēmāluok	iskau mālinna	iskau ēmainna
2nd		māleski	ēmaski	māluski	ēmākuski	mālseik	ēmāseik	ingak mālinna	ingak ēmainna
3rd		māluki	ēmauki	mālumpā	ēmākumpā	mālpou	ēmāpou	īhka mālinna	īhka ēmainna

The pluperfect (almost the same as English past perfect) uses the auxillary verb īkā, which can be translated as "to have been/done" in English, and and an infinitive V of verbs, which in this case is similar to an active participle, like English "talking".

Other moods

The three other moods are conditional, potential and imperative.

	Imperative mood
	imperfect		perfect
person	affirmative	negative	affirmative	negative
1st sg.	mālkōnō	ēmakkōnō	ihōnō mālinna	ihōnō ēmālō
2nd sg.	mālkē	ēmakkē	ihē mālinna	ihē ēmainna
3rd sg.	mālkājā	ēmkkājā	ījā mālinna	ījā ēmainna
1st pl.	mālkoskō	ēmakoskō	ihoskō mālinna	ihoskō ēmainna
2nd pl.	mālkēnek	ēmakkēnek	ihēnek mālinna	ihēnek ēmainna
3rd pl.	mālenkai	ēmankai	īhenkai mālinna	īhenkai ēmainna

When used with the third person the verb corresponds to English "let him/her (do)", while an imperative for the first person is usually called optative and is treated as a separate mood, for example the translation of mālkōnō in English is "I wish I will talk (to somebody)", and ihōnō mālinna - "If only I talked (to somebody)".

	Conditional mood				Potential mood
	imperfect		perfect		imperfect		perfect
person	affirmative	negative	affirmative	negative	affirmative	negative	affirmative	negative
1st sg.	mālcal	ēmahcal	mālcihō	ēmahcihō	mālansel	ēmākansel	mālanšō	ēmākanšō
2nd sg.	mālcas	ēmahcas	mālcihē	ēmahcihē	mālanses	ēmākanses	mālanšē	ēmākanšē
3rd sg.	mālcaju	ēmahcaju	mālciuhā	ēmahciuhā	mālaňšu	ēmākaňšu	mālanšā	ēmākanšā
1st pl.	mālcelka	ēmahcelka	mālcihōlka	ēmahcihōlka	mālansalke	ēmākansalke	mālanšōlke	ēmākanšōlke
2nd pl.	mālceska	ēmahceska	mālcihōska	ēmahcihōska	mālansaske	ēmākansaske	mālanšōske	ēmākanšōske
3rd pl.	mālčauka	ēmahčauka	mālcihōpā	ēmahcihōpā	mālaňšauke	ēmākaňšauke	mālanšōpā	ēmākanšōpā

The conditional mood corresponds mostly to "would" or "should" or to the past subjunctive in English. The potential mood describes things that might possibly happen, though its probability is not certain, similarly to English "may/might", and it is always formed agglutinatively in compound verbs. The imperfect forms of these moods are used to indicate present or future events, while perfect is used in sentences with verbs in the past tense. Compound verbs form differently: āsēni šeiteviu, tāpahtēlki - "If the weather is fine, we will go for a walk", where šeiteviu is formed from the adjective šeiti "fine, clear" by adding a suffix -evi meaning "to may be".