Nouns in Tocharian D infect for number(singular/plural) and case
number
case
Nouns inflect for twelve cases, and the six “primary” cases are of PIE date: Nominative, Vocative, Genitive, Dative, Accusative, and Instrumental. The other six “secondary” case suffixes are agglutinative, added to the accusative: Perlative, Comitative, Allative, Ablative, Locative, and Causative.
primary case
- Nominative marks Subject/Agent.
- Vocative is used for a noun that identifies a person (animal, object, etc.) being addressed.
- Genitive
- Dative
- Accusative
- Instrumental
secondary case
- Locative and perlative are used when an action is accomplished by way of someone’s agency.
- Comitative is often used with the word ‘with’, in terms of accompaniment.
- Allative is used when expressing motion towards something.
- Ablative is used when expressing motion away from something. It implies a separation.
- Causative is often used with the word mic(with), but in terms of referencing the tool in which something is accomplished. Causative and instrumental are used in same meaning.
Gruppenflexion
The “secondary” case suffix attached only to the last element of a noun phrase.
declension
Conjugation in nouns have largely taken over the system of Proto-Indo-European languages. They are classified into four types according to their stem: /a/type, /n/type, /i/type, and /u/type. There are a small number of other three types, root nouns (ending with a consonant), kinship nouns (ending with /er/), and /s/type nouns.
/a/type
/n/type
/i/type
/u/type
kinship nouns (/er/ type)
/s/ type
root nouns