TolsianR: Difference between revisions

Nouns have definiteness, gender, number, and case. The case system is actually very reduced, with only three cases, corresponding to two forms : Nominative, Accusative, and Oblique, the lattest having formally merged with Nominative (it is considered Oblique mostly out of grammatical tradition). Definiteness is marked by definite and indefinite articles which agree in gender and number with the nouns. There are two numbers, singular and plural. Finally, the gender system is fairly complicated, as it consists of two dimensions interacting : Masculine vs Feminine on the one hand and Animate vs Inanimate on the other. However, different parts of speech agree with these two gender systems : Articles and Adjectives will take Masculine or Feminine markings, while Verbs are conjugated differently depending upon whether the nouns is Animate or Inanimate. Nouns themselves are marked for gender, and for animatedness when in the Accusative case. Also, when an adjective qualifies several nouns which are not all masculine or feminine, they take a neutral plural suffix ; but beyond those special cases, Neutral has disappeared from TolsianR.

There are definite and indefinite articles, agreeing in Gender and Number with the nouns they modify.

Articles and Adjectives agree in gender with Nouns depending on their being masculine or feminine, while verbs have a different conjugation depending on the animate vs inanimate opposition, and the Accusative marker differs as well. In the plural there is a neutral form if masculine and feminine nouns are under the scope of the same modifier ; in adjectives, the vowel associated with neutral is -''i''. If a verb has a complex subject comprised of animate and inanimate nouns, most usually the animate conjugation will be used.

Nouns can be singular or plural and articles, adjectives and verbs agree in number with the noun (or the subject in the case of the verb). Singular is unmarked, while Plural is marked only after vowels, with the prefix /-s/, written <-c>. In the written register, it is also indicated after consonants by <-c>.

Nominative and so-called Oblique are unmarked, while Accusative is marked with a prefix which is different depending on the Animatedness status of the noun : the prefix will be ''ke''- (or ''k''- before a vowel) in the case of an inanimate noun, and ''dake''- (or ''dak''- before a vowel) in the case of an animate noun.