Carpathian nouns

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Most of the Proto-Indo-European declensional classes were retained, with the exception of the consonant-stems, which were gradually falling out of use, being replaced by other, more productive classes.

Carpathian nouns have three grammatical categories: gender (masculine, feminine, common and neuter), number (singular, dual and plural) and seven cases: nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, instrumental, locative and vocative with only three different case forms being distinguished in the dual number.

Accent classes

All Carpathian nouns belong to one of the three accent classes:

  • AS (acute stative) – acute accent (tone-1) fixed on (usually) the initial syllable.
  • CS (circumflex stative) – fixed circumflex accent (tone-2) or grave accent (tone-3) on any syllable. For neuter stems it is the final syllable, while for all other genders it is typically the first or the second syllable.
  • M (mobile) – the pitch (tone-2 or tone-3) alternates between final and non-final (usually initial) position.

Classes

There are seven main stem classes in Carpathian, being defined by their specific case endings: a-stem, u-stem, i-stem ā-stem, ī-stem, ū-stem, and consonant-stem, the latter consisting of several subclasses. The following tables are examples of Eastern Carpathian noun-class paradigms, Western Carpathian has the same noun classes, so for the sake of brevity only the Eastern forms are shown. The example words belong to the M-paradigm, because the pitch pattern of the other two paradigms is predictable.

a-stem nouns

There are two subclasses: masculine "as"-nouns (deiwas “god”) and neuter "a"-nouns (àzera “lake”). In some dialects the nominative singular of the "as"-nouns is stressed, e.g. deiwàs instead of standard deĩwas, the latter being an innovation. In dialects the dative singular and the instrumental plural have the "ui"-diphthong instead of standard ai: deiwúi and deiwúis respectively. This is common for both Western and Eastern dialects and predate the original split.

Case Singular Dual Plural
Masculine Neuter Masculine Neuter Masculine Neuter
Nominative deĩwas àzera deĩwū àzerai deĩwai azerā̃
Genitive deĩwā àzerā deiwáu azeráu deiwū̃n azerū̃n
Dative deiwái azerái deiwamā̃ azeramā̃ deiwàmas azeràmas
Accusative deĩwun àzerun deĩwū àzerai deĩwōn azerā̃
Instrumental deĩwū àzerū deiwamā̃ azeramā̃ deiwáis azeráis
Locative deĩwai àzerai deiwáu azeráu deiwáišu azeráišu
Vocative deĩwe àzera deĩwū àzerai deiwaĩ azerā̃

ā-stem nouns

The "ā"-stem nouns are feminine. An example of this class is rasā “dew”. The Western dialects have tone-2 in the M-type nouns, while the Eastern dialects keep the original tone-1 (Western rasā̃ Eastern rasā́). Tone-1 was analogically eliminated from the M-paradigm in most Western Carpathian dialects, being replaced by circumflex, thus being restricted to the AS-type exclusively.

Case Singular Dual Plural
Feminine
Nominative rasā́ ràsāi ràsās
Genitive rasā̃s rasáus rasū̃n
Dative rasái rasā́mā rasā́mas
Accusative ràsān rasái ràsānas
Instrumental rasā́n rasā́mā rasámīs
Locative rasái rasáus rasā́su
Vocative ràsa rasái rasás

*i-stem nouns

There are two subclasses: common "is"-stem (angilis “coal”), and neuter "i"-stem (mari “sea”). The "i"-stem class consists of a few words and is obsolete in most dialects, being replaced by either "a"-stem (maria) or "is"-stem (maris).

Case Singular Dual Plural
Common Neuter Common Neuter Common Neuter
Nominative angilìs marì ànglī màrī àngiliīs màriī
Genitive angiléis maréis angiliáu mariáu angiliū̃n mariū̃n
Dative àngilei màrei angilimā̃ marimā̃ angilìmas marìmas
Accusative àngilin màrin ànglī màrī àngilinis màrī
Instrumental angilimì marimì angilimā̃ marimā̃ angilìmīs *marìmīs
Locative angiléi maréi angiliáu mariáu angilišù marišù
Vocative ànglei màri ànglī màrī àngiliīs màriī