Carnian grammar
Carnian morphology is very similar to that of other Slavic languages. Its unique traits include:
- Reduction of grammatical cases to four
- Uninflected predicative form in adjectives and participles
- The past tense formation continues Slavic perfect with L-participles with the auxiliary verb in preposition
- Reduction in the -ovati conjugation class (*milovati > milat; milujem > milem)
- Mix of Western and Southern forms
Articles
Carnian is not the only Slavic language with articles (others are Bulgarian, Macedonian, and to some extent Sorbian languages), but is the only one with both definite and indefinite articles in preposition. They are inflected by case, gender, and number (except for the indefinite, which is absent in plural). The definite article is consistently used, while the indefinite is in practice often omitted.
Both articles undergo shortening in certain contexts, i.e. the feminine and neuter definite ta and to become t' before words starting with a- and o-, respectively (t'ant instead of ta ant 'the duck'; t'oco instead of to oco 'the eye'). Indefinite article preceded by je (third person singular bœt 'to be') merges with it into one form (e.g., To je jen pies becomes To jen pies, 'It's a dog'), although this is restricted to informal speech and is never used in official writings.
Indefinite jen inflection
| Singular | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | ||
| Nominative | jen | jena | jeno | |
| Accusative | inanimate | jenà | jenga | |
| animate | jenga | |||
| Genitive | jene | |||
| Dative | jemo | jeni | jemo | |
Definite ten inflection
| Singular | Plural | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | ||
| Nominative | ten | ta | to | ti | te | ta | |
| Accusative | inanimate | te | |||||
| animate | tega | ||||||
| Genitive | te | tega | tech | ||||
| Dative | temo | tei | temo | tem | |||
Nouns
Nouns are marked for case and number. There are four cases (nominative, accusative, genitive, and dative) and two numbers (singular and plural), although some conservative dialects preserve instrumental case and dual number. Carnian nouns are divided into three genders (masculine, feminine, and neuter), each of which has several declension patterns.
Masculine Declension
Masculine nouns are declined according to hard, soft, or a-stem patterns. The majority of masculine nouns follow the hard or soft declension, whereas the a-stem declension is reserved for a small category of words and is identical to the feminine a-stem declension. While Carnian preserves the hard-soft stem distinction, these two declension patterns have merged to some extent, similarly to neighboring South Slavic languages.
Masculine nouns are further divided between animate and inanimate nouns:
- For inanimate nouns, the accusative singular is identical to the nominative singular
- For animate nouns, the accusative singular is identical to the genitive singular
- In plural, the distinction is significant for hard stems ending in velar consonant /k, g, x/, which are palatalized to /s/ (for /k, x/) and /z/ (for /g/) in animate nouns and remain unchanged in inanimate nouns. This is not true for a great part of Carniolan dialects, which always preserve the hard velar consonant (as in Slovene)
- a-stems are not differentiated by animacy
| Hard | Soft | a-stem | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| singular | plural | singular | plural | singular | plural | ||
| Nominative | - | i | - | i, e* | a | i | |
| Accusative | inanimate | à | |||||
| animate | a | a | |||||
| Genitive | ou | eu | e | - | |||
| Dative | o | om | o | em | i | am | |
Note: *e is used when preceded by /j/, for example stroi 'machine', plural stroje
Feminine Declension
Feminine nouns are declined according to four patterns. Majority of them belong to the a-stem declension, which is further divided into hard and soft. Carnian differs from Slovene and Serbo-Croatian in preserving this distinction although the differences between have been leveled, just as in masculine nouns.
| Hard | Soft | consonant-stem | i-stem | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| singular | plural | singular | plural | singular | plural | singular | plural | |
| Nominative | a | i | a | è | - / i | i | - | i |
| Accusative | à | à | - | |||||
| Genitive | e | - | e | - | e | - | i | |
| Dative | i | am | i, e* | am | i | am | iem | |
Note: *e is used when preceded by /j/
The consonant-stem declension (covering r- and v-stems) does not usually append any suffixes in nominative singular (creu 'blood'; however, r-stems allow additional shortened form with -i (both mater and mati are used for 'mother').
Neuter Declension
The vast majority of neuter nouns follow the first neuter declension. Their nominative singular ending is -o (following hard o-stem declension), -e (following soft o-stem declension), or a null ending (following n- or nt-stem declensions). The s-stem declension is no longer present in Carnian, having merged with the first declension. In all neuter declensions, nominative and accusative forms are the same.
| Hard | Soft | n-stem | nt-stem | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| singular | plural | singular | plural | singular | plural | singular | plural | |
| Nominative | o | a | e | a | è | ena | è | enta |
| Accusative | ||||||||
| Genitive | a | - | a | - | ena | en | enta | ent |
| Dative | o | om | o | em | eno | enom | ento | entom |
Dialectal variation
Some Carniolan dialects experience masculinization of neuter nouns to varying extents, especially in the singular. A small subgroup of eastern Carinthian dialects experiences feminization of neuter nouns.
Littoral and some Kvarner dialects, on the other hand, tend to merge neuter and masculine genders into one, which is most prominent in the presence of the neuter -o or -e ending in the singular nominative of masculine nouns (cf. leabo 'bread', jegie 'hedgehog' vs. standard leab, jeġ) and entirely masculine endings in plural. This phenomenon is most common in areas with the strongest influence of Romance languages, which usually finish their nouns with a vowel.
Adjectives
Declension
Modern Carnian preserves only definite adjectival declension, differing from Slovene and Serbo-Croatian, which distinguish between definite and indefinite. The loss of the indefinite declension was gradual, being used only in the predicative by the end of the Old Carnian period. It then evolved into a special, uninflected predicative adjective, which basically follows the old indefinite masculine nominative form but is used for all genders, cases, and numbers. This form is treated as the base form of all adjectives (similarly to German). The same is true for adjectival participles. The majority of predicative adjectives receives ultimate accent, so the stressed syllable agrees with the non-predicative form (compare zelen [zɛlɛ̌n] vs. zeleny [zɛlɛ̌nɛɪ̯]). The exception are adjectives with spurious vowels in their final syllables which are lost in the inflection (compare pozen [pɔ̂ːzɛn] vs. pozny [pɔ̂znɛɪ̯] 'late').
Adjectives in expressions other than predicative are placed before the nouns and agree with them in case, number, and gender. In contrast to nouns, the hard-soft distinction was lost in adjectives, with soft declension taking over the hard one. Thus all adjectives follow the standard declension pattern, which is the same for adjectival nouns.
| Singular | Plural | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | ||
| Predicative | - | ||||||
| Nominative | y | a | e | i | e | a | |
| Accusative | inanimate | à | e | ||||
| animate | ega | ||||||
| Genitive | e | ega | ich | ||||
| Dative | emo | i | emo | im | |||
Examples:
- Ta trava je zelen - The grass is green (predicative expression)
- Vidim ta zelenà travà - I see the green grass (attributive expression)
Comparison
Comparative and superlative formations follow analytical construction with the use of adverbs vent 'more' and nai (rarely also naivent) 'most', respectively, followed by the adjective in positive form. A few irregular adjectives, especially old and basic ones, have fossilized the old affix formation, such as miens 'smaller', ventz 'bigger', gors 'worse', and bols 'better'. These irregular adjectives use the comparative forms to form the superlative.
| Positive | Comparative | Superlative | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| fast | faster | fastest | ||
| Regular | Predicative | barz | vent barz | nai barz |
| Masculine | barzy | vent barzy | nai barzy | |
| Feminine | barza | vent barza | nai barza | |
| Neuter | barze | vent barze | nai barze | |
| good | better | best | ||
| Iregular | Predicative | dober | bols | nai bols |
| Masculine | dobry | bolsy | nai bolsy | |
| Feminine | dobra | bolsa | nai bolsa | |
| Neuter | dobre | bolse | nai bolse | |
Adverbs
Adverbs in Carnian are usually formed from adjectives with the -o suffix, thus continuing old hard neuter adjectival declension. Comparative is formed with the -ei suffix, while the superlative with the adverb nai in preposition. Similarly to adjectives, the superlative form is based on the positive, except for the irregular adverbs, which are based on the comparative.
| Positive | Comparative | Superlative | |
|---|---|---|---|
| fast | faster | fastest | |
| Regular | barzo | barzei | nai barzo |
| well | better | best | |
| Iregular | dobro | bolsei | nai bolsei |
Verbs
Grammatical categories
Carnian verbs distinguish:
- Two grammatical numbers: singular and plural
- Three persons
- Four tenses: present, past, pluperfect, and future
- Three moods: indicative, imperative, and conditional
- Two aspects: perfective and imperfective
Aspect
As in other Slavic languages, Carnian inherited a verbal system based on the opposition between perfective and imperfective aspect. Perfective verbs present an event as a bounded whole, while imperfective verbs are used for ongoing, incomplete, habitual, or otherwise unbounded situations (e.g. pisat 'to be writing' vs. napisat 'to write'). The present indicative of imperfective verbs expresses present time reference, whereas the present indicative of perfective verbs typically has future reference. Past participles of both imperfective and perfective verbs are used in analytic past and future constructions; the interpretation of these forms depends on the aspectual properties of the lexical verb and, where applicable, on aspectual particles.
Formation of Aspectual Pairs
Aspectual pairs are traditionally formed in several ways:
- by adding the imperfectivizing suffix -at to perfective verbs
- by adding the perfectivizing suffix -nant to imperfective verbs
- by adding perfectivizing prefixes (most commonly na- and po-) to imperfective verbs
In contrast to most Slavic languages, the inherited aspect-forming suffixes remained productive in Carnian for a considerably longer period and historically constituted the primary means of deriving aspectual counterparts. In the modern language, however, these traditional (im)perfectivizing suffixes are no longer productive. While Carnian still employs a range of verbal prefixes, these are now used primarily for lexical derivation and semantic modification rather than for purely aspectual opposition; prefixes that serve only to mark perfectivity are increasingly marginal.
Biaspectual verbs
A relatively large and growing group of verbs in Carnian are biaspectual, that is, they can function with either perfective or imperfective interpretation. This group consists mainly of loanwords, newer verb formations, and older inherited verbs whose original aspectual counterpart has been lost. Biaspectual verbs may be accompanied by the perfectivizing particle œr or the imperfectivizing particle sien, both of which are highly productive in the modern language and serve exclusively as aspectual markers.
Unmarked biaspectual forms tend to be interpreted as imperfective in most contexts; consequently, the perfectivizing particle œr is more frequently used to explicitly mark event completion. The particle sien is employed either to reinforce imperfective interpretation or to imperfectivize verbs with an inherently perfective or resultative reading, effectively replacing the older imperfectivizing suffix -ivat, which is no longer productive.
Examples:
- Jem œr to deau – I did it (deat 'to do', biaspectual)
- Jes œr ċitau ta kengà? – Did you read the book? (ċitat 'to read'; historically imperfective, now biaspectual; cf. Serbo-Croatian imperfective čitati vs. perfective pročitati)
- Jem sien perpisau to due ori – I was copying it for two hours (example usage of sien with a perfective verb perpisat 'to copy')
The number of biaspectual verbs in Carnian continues to increase, as newly introduced verbs generally do not develop distinct aspectual counterparts. As a result, biaspectuality is expected to become characteristic of an increasing proportion of the verbal lexicon. This development is especially advanced in the Fyn dialect, where analytic particle constructions frequently replace the older inherited aspectual distinctions.
Conjugation
Infinitive
Standard Carnian preserves only the short infinitive with the -t suffix, preceded by a thematic vowel, if there is any. It thus differs from South Slavic languages, whose standard infinitive ends in -ti. The change -ti > -t, that is the loss of the final vowel, is a relatively recent phenomenon which took place after the rise of penultimate accent; thus all infinitives are stressed on the final syllable. Some dialects, in particular the Lower and Kvarner, preserve the long infinitive -ti and contrastive supine in -t. In addition, western coastal dialects experience rhotacization of the infinitive suffix, which then becomes variably -r, -ri, or -re, depending on the region (cf. Western Istrian ċitare vs. standard ċitat 'to read').
Present indicative
In the present indicative, verbs have mostly the same endings across all declensions. The extra -e- is added to the endings when the verb stem ends in a consonant.
| Singular | Plural | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | |
| -a- | -a-m | -a-ṡ | -a | -a-me | -a-te | -a-jan |
| -i- | -i-m | -i-ṡ | -i | -i-me | -i-te | -i-jan |
| -e- | -e-m | -e-ṡ | -e | -e-me | -e-te | -e-jan / -an* |
| -je- | -je-m | -je-ṡ | -je | -je-me | -je-te | -ø-jan |
| -ø- | -ø-m | -ø-ṡ | -ø | -ø-me | -ø-te | -ø-jan |
Note: *The -e-jan ending occurs in verbs with infinitive in -et (cf. vuemet 'to know how', vuemejan), while the -an occurs in verbs with infinitive in -t (cf. nest 'to carry', nesan)
Imperative
The imperative mood is used to give commands and can be formed for the second person singular and plural, and for the first person plural. It is formed by extending the verb stem with -i, which forms a diphthong if preceded by a vowel. Present stems ending with vowels other than -a- drop their final vowel.
| Singular | Plural | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2nd | 1st | 2nd | ||
| -a- | -a-i | -a-i-me | -a-t-te | |
| -i- | -i | -i-me | -i-te | |
| -e- | -i | -i-me | -i-te | |
| -je- | -i | -i-me | -i-te | |
| -ø- | -i | -i-me | -i-te | |
For other persons, the analytical form is used with the particle hai (dialectally nai) 'let', followed by the indicative. For example, Hai bande bolsei 'Let it be better'.
Active participle
Active participle indicates ongoing or current action, corresponding to the English participle -ing. It is formed by extending the verb stem with -ant or -jant, depending on the thematic vowel. Verbs with present stems in -i- and -e- which have -jant suffix may dialectally have -ent suffix, which is a remnant of the archaic form. Adjectival active participles decline like regular adjectives.
Although predicative adjectival and adverbial forms are the same, they differ in accentuation, i.e., predicative adjectival receives ultimate accent, while adverbial receives the standard, penultimate accent. In this case, the ultimate accent is marked in spelling, cf. ċitajant (adverbial meaning) vs. ċitajànt (adjectival meaning).
| Predicative / Adverb | Singlar nominative | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | ||
| -a- | -a-jant | -a-jant-y | -a-jant-a | -a-jant-e |
| -i- | -jant | -jant-y | -jant-a | -jant-e |
| -e- | -jant / -ant* | -(j)ant-y | -(j)ant-a | -(j)ant-e |
| -je- | -j-ant | -j-ant-y | -j-ant-a | -j-ant-e |
| -ø- | ||||
Note: *For verb stems in -e-, -jant suffix occurs for verbs with infinitives in -et
Passive participle
The passive participle is an adjective that indicates a state of having undergone an action, corresponding to the English participle in -ed or -en. It is formed with two possible suffixes, -n or -t, with the choice of suffix depending on the stem.
| Infinitive | Predicative |
|---|---|
| -a-t | -a-n |
| -i-t | -je-n/t |
| -e-t | -e-n/t |
| -o-t / -u-t | -o/u-t |
| C-t | -e-n |
Past participle
The past participle is used mainly to form the past and future tense and is formed by extending the infinitive stem with -u̯ (when stem ends in a vowel) or with -ø (when stem ends in a consonant); compare davau [dɐʋǎʊ̯], rec [rɛ̌k].
It appears in analytical forms and therefore exists primarily in predicative (although some fossilized forms of non-predicative use exist, for example in dobrosli 'welcome') and must be preceded by an auxiliary verb. Like other predicative expressions, it receives ultimate accent.
| Infinitive | Predicative |
|---|---|
| -a-t | -au |
| -i-t | -eu |
| -e-t | |
| -o-t / -u-t | -ou |
| C-t | -ø |
| -ø-it |
There is an additional, ṡ-participle, rarely used in modern language. It corresponds to the English construct with having + past participle and is formed by extending the infinitive stem with -u̯ṡi (or -ṡi if the stem ends in a consonant).
Gerund
Gerund is formed by adding an ending -ie to the past passive participle, meaning that all gerunds end in either -nie or -tie. It declines according to the o-stem soft neuter declension.
Analytical forms
Past indicative
The past indicative is used to indicate events that occurred in the past. It is formed with the auxiliary verb bœt ('to be') in the present tense, followed by the predicative past participle of the verb, for example jem videu 'I saw'.
Pluperfect indicative
The pluperfect indicative is used to indicate an action that occurred before some other past action, although it is rarely used in modern language, being replaced by the past tense. It is formed with the auxiliary verb bœt ('to be') in the present tense, followed by the past participle of bœt, and then followed by the past participle of the verb, for example jem bœu videu 'I had seen'.
Future indicative
The future tense of perfective verbs consists simply of their present tense, since perfective verbs cannot be expressed in the present indicative. The future tense of imperfective verbs, however, is formed analytically with the auxiliary verb bœt in its special auxiliary form with the stem ba-, followed by the past participle of the verb. For example, bam videu 'I will see'.
Conjugation of the auxiliary verb:
| Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | bam | bame |
| 2nd | baṡ | baste |
| 3rd | ba | badan |
Conditional mood
The conditional mood is formed similarly to the analytical future indicative, but the auxiliary verb is the conditional form of bœt with the stem bi-, for example: bim videu 'I would see'.
Conjugation of the auxiliary verb:
| Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | bim | bime |
| 2nd | biṡ | biste |
| 3rd | bi | |
Negative forms
Negation is simply formed by adding the negation particle ne before the verb, for example ne vidim 'I don't see'. However, three verbs, namely bœt 'to be', meat 'to have', and teat 'to want', have special negative forms in present indicative:
| Infinitive | Singular | Plural | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | |
| bœt | niem | nies | nie | nieme | nieste | nesan |
| meat | nimam | nimaṡ | nima | nimame | nimate | nimajan |
| teat | notzem | notzeṡ | notze | notzeme | notzete | notzan |
Full conjugation examples
Regular verbs
Conjugation of the verb sengat 'to reach for' (consonant-stem, thematic vowel -a-):
| Infinitive | sengat | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Participles | Past | sengau | |||||
| Active | sengajant | ||||||
| Passive | sengan | ||||||
| Gerund | senganie | ||||||
| Singular | Plural | ||||||
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | ||
| Indicative | Present | sengam | sengaṡ | senga | sengame | sengate | sengajan |
| Past | jem sengau | jes sengau | je sengau | jesme sengau | jeste sengau | san sengau | |
| Future | bam sengau | baṡ sengau | ba sengau | bame sengau | baste sengau | badan sengau | |
| Imperative | - | sengai | (hai senga) | sengaime | sengaite | (hai sengajan) | |
| Conditional | bim sengau | biṡ sengau | bi sengau | bime sengau | biste sengau | bi sengau | |
Conjugation of the verb bit 'to beat' (vowel-stem, thematic vowel -je-):
| Infinitive | bit | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Participles | Past | beu | |||||
| Active | bijant | ||||||
| Passive | bit | ||||||
| Gerund | bitie | ||||||
| Singular | Plural | ||||||
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | ||
| Indicative | Present | bijem | bijeṡ | bije | bijeme | bijete | bijan |
| Past | jem beu | jes beu | je beu | jesme beu | jeste beu | san beu | |
| Future | bam beu | baṡ beu | ba beu | bame beu | baste beu | badan beu | |
| Imperative | - | by | (hai bije) | byme | byte | (hai bijan) | |
| Conditional | bim beu | biṡ beu | bi beu | bime beu | biste beu | bi beu | |
Conjugation of the verb peit 'to bake' (consonant-stem (velar), thematic vowel -ø-):
| Infinitive | peit | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Participles | Past | peckeu | |||||
| Active | pecant | ||||||
| Passive | pecien | ||||||
| Gerund | pecienie | ||||||
| Singular | Plural | ||||||
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | ||
| Indicative | Present | peckem | pecieṡ | pecie | pecieme | peciete | pecan |
| Past | jem peckeu | jes peckeu | je peckeu | jesme peckeu | jeste peckeu | san peckeu | |
| Future | bam peckeu | baṡ peckeu | ba peckeu | bame peckeu | baste peckeu | badan peckeu | |
| Imperative | - | peci | (hai pecie) | pecime | pecite | (hai pecan) | |
| Conditional | bim peckeu | biṡ peckeu | bi peckeu | bime peckeu | biste peckeu | bi peckeu | |
Irregular verbs
Conjugation of the verb bœt 'to be':
| Infinitive | bœt | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Participles | Past | bœu | |||||
| Active | bandant | ||||||
| Passive | - | ||||||
| Gerund | bœtie | ||||||
| Singular | Plural | ||||||
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | ||
| Indicative | Present | jem | jes | je | jesme | jeste | san |
| Negative | niem | nies | nie | niesme | nieste | nesan | |
| Past | jem bœu | jes bœu | je bœu | jesme bœu | jeste bœu | san bœu | |
| Future auxiliary |
bandem bam |
bandeṡ baṡ |
bande ba |
bandeme bame |
bandete baste |
bandan badan | |
| Imperative | - | bandi | (hai bande) | bandime | bandite | (hai bandan) | |
| Conditional | bim bœu | biṡ bœu | bi bœu | bime bœu | biste bœu | bi bœu | |
Conjugation of the verb meat 'to have':
| Infinitive | meat | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Participles | Past | meau | |||||
| Active | majant | ||||||
| Passive | mean | ||||||
| Gerund | meanie | ||||||
| Singular | Plural | ||||||
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | ||
| Indicative | Present | mam | maṡ | ma | mame | mate | majan |
| Negative | nimam | nimaṡ | nima | nimame | nimate | nimajan | |
| Past | jem meau | jes meau | je meau | jesme meau | jeste meau | san meau | |
| Future | bam meau | baṡ meau | ba meau | bame meau | baste meau | badan meau | |
| Imperative | - | meai | (hai ma) | meaime | meaite | (hai majan) | |
| Conditional | bim meau | biṡ meau | bi meau | bime meau | biste meau | bi meau | |
Pronouns
Personal pronouns
Carnian personal pronouns are characterized by retaining only short forms in oblique forms as well as the unique formal pronoun vy, which combines forms of ty with the consonant v- from plural (which was formerly used in formal expressions). In addition, accusative and genitive forms are identical.
Carnian, just like all other Slavic languages, has a single reflexive pronoun se, used with verbs.
| Singular | Plural | Reflexive | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | |||||||
| Standard | Formal | Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | |||||
| Nominative | ja, jaz | ty | vy | on | ona | ono | mœ | vœ | oni | one | ona | - |
| Accusative | me | te | ve | ga | ja | ga | nas | vas | ich | se | ||
| Genitive | ||||||||||||
| Dative | mi | ti | vi | mo | je | mo | nam | vam | im | si | ||
| Possesive | moi | toi | voi | niega | nie | niega | naṡ | vaṡ | nich | soi | ||
Demonstrative pronouns
Demonstrative pronouns are tien 'this' (itself being the result of clipping of ten and jen, literally 'this one') and ou 'that'. They are declined as follows:
Declension of tien
| Singular | Plural | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | ||
| Nominative | tien | tiena | tieno | tieni | tiene | tiena | |
| Accusative | inanimate | tienà | tienga | tiene | |||
| animate | tienga | ||||||
| Genitive | tiene | tienech | |||||
| Dative | tiemo | tieni | tiemo | tienem | |||
Declension of ou
| Singular | Plural | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | ||
| Nominative | ou | ova | ovo | ovi | ove | ova | |
| Accusative | inanimate | ovà | ouga | ove | |||
| animate | ouga | ||||||
| Genitive | ove | ovech | |||||
| Dative | oumo | ovi | oumo | ovem | |||
Interrogative pronouns
The interrogative pronouns introduce direct and indirect questions. There are two nominative forms: co 'who' and kei 'what'.
| who | what | |
|---|---|---|
| Nominative | co | kei |
| Accusative | coga | |
| Genitive | ciesa | |
| Dative | como | ciemo |
Their negative forms are nico and niṡ, respectively, and decline like interrogative (nicoga, niciesa, etc.).
Numerals
Numerals in Carnian are similar to those in other Slavic languages. The main difference is the loss of -t in numerous cardinal numbers, which became the characteristic of their ordinal counterparts. The ordinals between 1 and 4 are irregular; from 5 on (with the exception of 7 and 8), the formation is regular. All numerals decline by case, but only 1-4 are additionally declined by gender.
Numerals experienced considerable contraction, for example *pęt na desęte > pennais 'fifty'. A similar phenomenon is found in Slovene, although generally to a smaller extent.
| Cardinal | Ordinal | Cardinal | Ordinal | Cardinal | Ordinal | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | jen | perv | 11 | jenais | jenaist | 30 | trysen | trysent |
| 2 | dua | drug | 12 | duanais | duanaist | 40 | stœrsen | stœrsent |
| 3 | try | tret | 13 | trinais | trinaist | 50 | pensen | pensent |
| 4 | stœri | suart | 14 | stœrnais | stœrnaist | 60 | siessen | siessent |
| 5 | pen | pent | 15 | pennais | pennaist | 70 | semsen | semsent |
| 6 | sies | siest | 16 | siesnais | siesnaist | 80 | osemsen | osemsent |
| 7 | semm* | 17 | sennais | sennaist | 90 | devensen | devensent | |
| 8 | osem* | 18 | osennais | osennaist | 100 | sto | stot | |
| 9 | deven | devent | 19 | devennais | devennaist | 200 | duesto | duestot |
| 10 | desen | desent | 20 | duaisen | duaisent | 1000 | tisan | tisant |
Note: *semm and osem are identical only when predicative (base) forms of ordinals are considered. When declined by gender, their forms are, for example, semmy, osmy.