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==Morphology== | ==Morphology== | ||
Like all the Carpathian languages, West Carpathian is transitional between [[w:Agglutinative language|agglutinative]] and [[w:Fusional language|fusional]] languages, since it combine features from both types like an extensive use of suffix agglutination as well as case and personal endings, that "fuse" with a word stem. Despite showing [[w:Incorporation(linguistics)|incorporation]], when a verb and a direct object of a sentence form a compound word, like in ''suoikuisiskātē'' "It is a good idea to go skiing", West Carpathian is not a [[w:Polysynthetic language|polysynthetic]] language. | |||
The [[w:Morphosyntactic alignment|morphosyntactic alignment]] is nominative–accusative, like in surrounding languages, however historically the language morphology treated an agent of a transitive verb differently from a subject of an intransitive one. Nowadays this is considered an archaic feature and can rarely be used in folklore, while transitivity is usually marked on verbs instead of nouns. | |||
===Nouns=== | |||
''Main article:'' [[West Carpathian nouns]] | |||
Nouns may be declined by '''case''' and '''number'''. Standard West Carpathian has eleven cases and two numbers (singular and plural). There is no gender category in any of the Carpathian languages. The case marker must be added not only to the main noun, but also to its modifiers; e.g. ''tahra kodu'' "big house" - ''tahrautu kodoutu'' "in a big house", literally "big-in house-in". '''Possession''' can only be marked via a possessive suffix; there are no separate possessive pronouns like English "my" or "yours". Pronouns gain suffixes just as nouns do. | |||
===Verbs=== | |||
''Main article:'' [[West Carpathian verbs]] | |||
Verbs gain '''personal endings''' for a person that is a subject of a sentence while personal pronouns, like "I" or "he/she", are used only for emphasis in West Carpathian, thats why they are often called '''emphatic pronouns'''. There are ten different infinitive forms, unlike in English or most of the Indo-European languges that have just a single simple infinitive. The dictionary or a simple form is the '''"i"-infintive''', which is similar to English "to" preposition as in "to do". There are four persons, first ("I, we"), second ("you (singular), you (plural)"), third ("s/he, they") and an indefinite form (sometimes called impersonal) similar to English "it is said/they say". There are three tenses: imperfective, perfective and aorist, which is similar to English Present Simple, Present Perfect and Past Simple tenses. The future tense is inferred from the context. | |||
==Dialects== | ==Dialects== | ||
==Geographic distribution== | ==Geographic distribution== |
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