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===[[Dal'qörian|back to main page]]===
[[Dalcurian Language Homepage|Homepage]]
Dalcurian does not have a case system per se, which specifically marks subjects, objects and indirect objects (except pronouns which inflect for nom/acc). The language is predominantley word order based. However, there is a case for genitives, but, for the sake of this article, I feel it necessary to point out a traditional argument among grammarians worldwide regarding the difference between 'genitive' and 'possession'.


Cases are used throughout many languages to indicate the function of nouns in a clause or sentence. In English, there are 2 cases, which only apply to pronouns: ''subjective'' (nominative), and ''objective'' (accusative). The ''possessive'' or ''genitive'' case isn't a true case (see below).  
The argumant is that, if something is 'owned', then the term should be possession: ''my house, your dog, Jack's car''. These can also be reformulated (albeit archaically) with 'of': ''the house of me, the dog of you, the car of Jack''.  


====The subjective====
But 'of' can also be used when something is 'not' owned: ''a group of friends, a glass of milk, a bunch of flowers''. This is what some would term as purely 'genitive'. I myself am only going to make small distinctions between 'genitive' and 'possession', since Dalcurian grammarians show little significance to this argument. The use of examples should make this clear.


This case is used for the 'subject' of a sentence:
 
* '''''He''' is playing with a ball''. 


* '''''She''' will catch the 6 o’clock train''. 
=='''Possession'''==


* ''Sometimes '''they''' come early''.
Dalcurian possession is very straight forward in that it's formed with the preposition '''qve'''-''of'' and an accusative pronoun (or simply a noun). The following examples equate to the use of a possessive adjective, such as ''my, our, your'', the use of possessive pronouns such as ''mine, yours, hers'', and the use of ''of'' such as in ''friends of mine, glass of milk'':


This is straight forward in Dalcurian. Nouns remain uninflected, pronouns take on a nominative form and '''di''' and '''ni''' remain undeclensed.
* '''di abödä qve binöra''' ''my house''


* '''''Mæ'', máriÞ ni bálj, spélögria'''. ''He is playing with a ball.''
* '''di gadöraj qve diöra''' ''your dog''


* '''''Sia'', am 6, icaÞræ di tsögaj.''' ''She will catch the 6 o'clock train''.
* '''di flästa vötöj qve mæöra''' ''his new car''


* '''Quriandø, fröqu ''éren'' qamör.''' ''Sometimes they come early''.
* '''di didérämös qve Kála''' ''Kala's drink''


====Objective (accusative) case====
* '''qömpalel qve binöra''' ''my friends/friends of mine''


The objective is used for the ''direct object'' of a verb-the thing that suffers the ‘action’ of the verb. In English, some pronouns change to show this: ''they, we, she'' and ''he'' but ''you'' and ''it'' remain as the subjective:
* '''ni didéragläj qve milecij''' ''a glass of milk''
 
* sub: '''''He/she/we/they''' bought a necklace''. 


* obj:  ''They bought '''him/her/us/them''' a necklace''.
Possessive pronouns such as ''mine, ours, his'' etc, as with possessive adjectives do not exist in Dalcurian, thus one cannot say ''that's mine, it's ours'' etc; a noun will always be present in a possessive sentence:


* sub: '''''You/it''' wanted some food''.          
* '''Vehiri?, máriÞ séÞa vötöj, gehör .''' '''TaÞ di vötöj qve binöra'''. ''Who's is this car? It's my car'' (or can be unliterally translated as ''it's mine'')<br>For more on this example, see bottom of page.


* obj:  ''I gave '''you/it''' some food''.
=='''Genitive==


Again, in Dalcurian, this is almost the same with the exception that that ''you'' (pl and sing) and ''it'' also inflect to show objective behaviour:
There is also another possessive construct, as in: ''the dog's basket, the house window, a chair leg'' etc. Again, ''of'' can be used: ''the basket of the dog, the window of the house, the leg of the chair''. With the exception of ''the dog's basket'', which is clearly possessive, (but relevant here), it could be said that ''house'' does not own ''window'' and ''chair'' does not own ''leg''. However, Dalcurian grammar DOES see this as a form of possession, since a ''window'' is a part of the ''house'', and a ''leg'' is a part of the ''chair''. THIS is what I would term genitive. However, all 3 translated into Dalcurian will use a 'genitive' case:


* '''''Diö'' æanasiaÞáli.''' '''''You''' are beautiful''.
* '''di säj dis gadöraj''' ''the dog's bed''
** '''Binä gä'visör ''diöra'''''. ''I saw '''you.'''''


The possessive case shows possession or to whom something belongs. In English, this is rendered by ''apostrophe s'' or ''s apostrophe'':
* '''di fenstanäj dis abödä''' ''the house window''
 
* ''This is '''Dayle’s''' guitar''. 


* ''Let’s go to your '''dad’s''' house''. 
* '''ni stötsérämös nisqu siötrij''' ''a chair leg''


* ''Our '''neighbour’s''' garden''.
Here, the articles '''di/ni''' inflect; they add '''s''' when the following word begins with anything other than '''s''', and '''squ''' when the following word begins with '''s'''.<br>'''dis/nis''' literally translate as ''of the''. The rule here is quite straight forward: if you have to use ''the/a'' twice, as in '''the''' bed of '''the''' dog, a '''leg''' of '''a''' chair'', then use the genitive case.


* ''The dog is in '''its’''' basket''.
==='''Double Genitives'''===
               
Dalcurian also has these three cases. The Dalcurian ''nominative'' and ''accusative'' are more or less the same as English in that personal pronouns change their form in the 'objective', the difference being that ''you'' (sing and pl) and ''it'' also change. (see Pronouns)
----


'''Possessive'''
Double genitives are those such as: ''my dad's house, Lenny's girlfriend's car, her brother's wife'' etc. Here, the genitive case is used but the order of the nouns MUST be specific:
 
The Dalcurian possessive case: ''my, your, her, his'' etc are discussed in the Pronoun section. However, with a double gentive then the structure uses a special 'genitive' form. It's other use is in formal situations, and can also be used in forming noun compaounds. Examples of double genitives are:
 
* ''I saw someone knocking at '''your dad’s door'''''. (''your dad'' 1st possessive, ''dad’s door'' 2nd possessive)


* '''''My parents’ house''' was sold last week''. (''My parents'' 1st poss, ''parents house'' 2nd poss)
*'''di abödä dis parenöj (qve) binöra''' ''my dad's house''  


* ''I think '''your mate’s wife''' is pretty''. (''your mate'' 1st poss, ''mate’s wife'' 2nd poss)
*'''di vötöj disqu siacömpéj (qve) Lenni''' ''Lenny's girlfriend's car''


As we know from the pronoun section, the possessive adjectives ''your, my, his, her, our, their'' do not exist in Dalcurian. These are rendered by using the prep '''qve'''-''of'' plus the relative accusative pronoun with the noun. (''my dad''-'''di parenöj qve binöra''' lit: ''the father of me'', ''your dad''-'''di parenöj qve diöra''' lit: ''the father of you'')
*'''di siavedéj dis beröj (qve) siöra''' ''her brother's wife''


With two possessives: ''your dad’s door, my parents’ house'', '''qve''' is never used twice:
In the examples, the subject noun goes last: ''my, Lenny'' and ''her''. The noun that follows '''dis''' is the 'possessor' of the noun that precedes it. This is why noun placement is important. The above examples literally translate as:
 
* '''Di Þradäj qve di parenöj qve diöra'''. ''The door of the father of you''.


* '''Di abödä qve di eltaröjel qve binöra'''. ''The house of the parents of me''.
*''the house of the dad (of) me''


A genitive form of the definite article '''di'''-''the'' is used (there is also a genitive form of the indefinite article covered at the end of this section). '''di''' changes to '''dis''' in front of nouns that begin with a vowel or any consonant other than ''s'', and '''disqu''' with nouns beginning with an ''s''. This equates to ''of the'' or ''belonging to'' and tells us that the second noun is in ‘possession’ of the first noun. In other words, the noun that it precedes is the noun that is owned. When placed between two nouns ('''dis/disqu''' does not qualify or show possession to a pronoun), '''dis/disqu''' then gives control of the possession to the noun it follows. Look at these examples carefully:
*''the car of the girlfriend (of) Lenny''
 
* '''Dis Þradäj di parenöj diöra.''' ''Your dad’s door.''  (lit: ''the door of the dad (of) you'').                       


* '''Dis abödä di eltaröjel binöra.''' ''My parents’ house.''  (lit: ''the house of the parents (of) me'').                   
*''the wife of the brother (of) her


But you must be careful. Place '''dis''' ‘between’ the nouns and the possessive structure of the sentences change:
As said, the order of the nouns is very important. Get these wrong and you change the whole meaning (sometimes amusingly):
 
* '''Di Þradäj dis parenöj diöra.''' This now translates as: ''Your doors dad.'' (lit: ''The dad of the door (of) you'').
                   
* '''Di abödä dis eltaröjel binöra.''' This now translates as: ''My house’s parents''. (lit: ''The parents of the house (of) me'').                 


Now look at this example:
*'''di parenöj dis abödä binöra''' ''my house's dad''


* '''Ädiáda, binä gä’visör dis qömerinöj di siaberöj diöra.''' ''I saw your sisters boyfriend yesterday.''
*'''di siacömpéj dis vötöj (qve) Lenni''' ''Lenny's car's girlfriend''


'''Dis''' shows us that ''the boyfriend'' ('''qömerinöj''') belongs to ''your sister'' ('''siaberöj'''). '''dis qömerinöj''' literally translates as ''the boyfriend of'' giving the ‘ownership’ or possession to ''the sister''. '''di siaberöj diöra''' literally translates as ''the sister of you'' giving the ownership of ''sister'' to you, equating ''your sister''. However, misplacing '''dis''' here could prove rather embarrassing:  
*'''di beröj disqu siavedéj (qve) siöra''' ''her wife's brother''   


* '''Ädiáda, binä gä’visör di qömerinöj disqu siaberöj diöra'''.
NOTE 1: The preposition in brackets is omitted. '''qve''' is semantically embedded already with the onset of '''dis'''.  


This now reads:
NOTE 2: There are 2 easy rules to help you translate a double genitive into Dalcurian (if translating from English):
 
* ''I saw your boyfriend’s sister yesterday''.


Here, '''disqu siaberöj''' is telling us that ''sister'' is owned by ''boyfriend'' which is in turn owned by ''you''. So the equation is:
1: use the ''of'' construction; it will be easier to determine the noun order:
 
ː '''dis''' + ''noun'' gives possession to the 'following' noun.


ː ''noun'' + '''dis''' + ''noun'' gives possession of the 'second' noun to the first.
* your computer hardrive-''the hardrive of the computer of you''


Finally, there is no word order rule for '''dis''', but be aware of the ‘possession trap’! In the examples above, you can simply swap the nouns around, but this is very uncommon in Dalcurian speech and you will almost always hear '''dis''' in front of both nouns rather than in between.
* Steven's son's friends-''the friends of the son of Steven''
----


The Dalcurian possessive case is sometimes used to equate the English use of ''whose'':
2: simply look at your construct and work backwards:
 
* '''TaÞ disqu sáj di siaparenöj mæöra, taÞ ädiáda gä’estingör'''. ''That's the man whose mother died yesterday''. (lit: ''That’s the man of the mother of him, who yesterday died'').


* '''Di Tæmes dis glavánion di megöapöli Londöni'''. ''London is the city whose river is called the Thames''. (lit: ''The Thames is the river of the city London''.
* his wife's brother-Dalcurian order will be: ''brother-wife-his''


As in the last example, the sentence has to be reformulated. Sometimes, its not always possible to literally translate a sentence like this. In fact, it may be better to say something like:
----
 
* '''Londöni ádra di glavánion,, taÞ icaÞr di embelisrämös Tæmes.''' ''London has the river called the Thames.''
 
This is a stylistic feature of Dalcurian. However, the use of the possesive case as in the first example should always be translated into English with ''whose''.


'''Formal speech and literacy'''
About the example in the possessive section above:


The Dalcurian possesive case is always used in a formal context. See 'The Lord's Prayer' on the main page.
* '''Vehiri?, máriÞ séÞa vötöj, gehör .''' '''TaÞ di vötöj qve binöra'''. ''Who's is this car? It's my car''


'''Other uses of the possesive structure'''
The literal translation of the question being asked is: ''Who, with this car, belongs?'' It is very stylistic of Dalcurian to ask ''who '''belongs with''' what'', rather than ''whom does this belong''.


Page still under construction-more to follow shortly:-)
[[Category:Dalcurian]]
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Latest revision as of 09:36, 8 November 2012

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Dalcurian does not have a case system per se, which specifically marks subjects, objects and indirect objects (except pronouns which inflect for nom/acc). The language is predominantley word order based. However, there is a case for genitives, but, for the sake of this article, I feel it necessary to point out a traditional argument among grammarians worldwide regarding the difference between 'genitive' and 'possession'.

The argumant is that, if something is 'owned', then the term should be possession: my house, your dog, Jack's car. These can also be reformulated (albeit archaically) with 'of': the house of me, the dog of you, the car of Jack.

But 'of' can also be used when something is 'not' owned: a group of friends, a glass of milk, a bunch of flowers. This is what some would term as purely 'genitive'. I myself am only going to make small distinctions between 'genitive' and 'possession', since Dalcurian grammarians show little significance to this argument. The use of examples should make this clear.


Possession

Dalcurian possession is very straight forward in that it's formed with the preposition qve-of and an accusative pronoun (or simply a noun). The following examples equate to the use of a possessive adjective, such as my, our, your, the use of possessive pronouns such as mine, yours, hers, and the use of of such as in friends of mine, glass of milk:

  • di abödä qve binöra my house
  • di gadöraj qve diöra your dog
  • di flästa vötöj qve mæöra his new car
  • di didérämös qve Kála Kala's drink
  • qömpalel qve binöra my friends/friends of mine
  • ni didéragläj qve milecij a glass of milk

Possessive pronouns such as mine, ours, his etc, as with possessive adjectives do not exist in Dalcurian, thus one cannot say that's mine, it's ours etc; a noun will always be present in a possessive sentence:

  • Vehiri?, máriÞ séÞa vötöj, gehör . TaÞ di vötöj qve binöra. Who's is this car? It's my car (or can be unliterally translated as it's mine)
    For more on this example, see bottom of page.

Genitive

There is also another possessive construct, as in: the dog's basket, the house window, a chair leg etc. Again, of can be used: the basket of the dog, the window of the house, the leg of the chair. With the exception of the dog's basket, which is clearly possessive, (but relevant here), it could be said that house does not own window and chair does not own leg. However, Dalcurian grammar DOES see this as a form of possession, since a window is a part of the house, and a leg is a part of the chair. THIS is what I would term genitive. However, all 3 translated into Dalcurian will use a 'genitive' case:

  • di säj dis gadöraj the dog's bed
  • di fenstanäj dis abödä the house window
  • ni stötsérämös nisqu siötrij a chair leg

Here, the articles di/ni inflect; they add s when the following word begins with anything other than s, and squ when the following word begins with s.
dis/nis literally translate as of the. The rule here is quite straight forward: if you have to use the/a twice, as in the bed of the dog, a leg of a chair, then use the genitive case.

Double Genitives

Double genitives are those such as: my dad's house, Lenny's girlfriend's car, her brother's wife etc. Here, the genitive case is used but the order of the nouns MUST be specific:

  • di abödä dis parenöj (qve) binöra my dad's house
  • di vötöj disqu siacömpéj (qve) Lenni Lenny's girlfriend's car
  • di siavedéj dis beröj (qve) siöra her brother's wife

In the examples, the subject noun goes last: my, Lenny and her. The noun that follows dis is the 'possessor' of the noun that precedes it. This is why noun placement is important. The above examples literally translate as:

  • the house of the dad (of) me
  • the car of the girlfriend (of) Lenny
  • the wife of the brother (of) her

As said, the order of the nouns is very important. Get these wrong and you change the whole meaning (sometimes amusingly):

  • di parenöj dis abödä binöra my house's dad
  • di siacömpéj dis vötöj (qve) Lenni Lenny's car's girlfriend
  • di beröj disqu siavedéj (qve) siöra her wife's brother

NOTE 1: The preposition in brackets is omitted. qve is semantically embedded already with the onset of dis.

NOTE 2: There are 2 easy rules to help you translate a double genitive into Dalcurian (if translating from English):

1: use the of construction; it will be easier to determine the noun order:

  • your computer hardrive-the hardrive of the computer of you
  • Steven's son's friends-the friends of the son of Steven

2: simply look at your construct and work backwards:

  • his wife's brother-Dalcurian order will be: brother-wife-his

About the example in the possessive section above:

  • Vehiri?, máriÞ séÞa vötöj, gehör . TaÞ di vötöj qve binöra. Who's is this car? It's my car

The literal translation of the question being asked is: Who, with this car, belongs? It is very stylistic of Dalcurian to ask who belongs with what, rather than whom does this belong.

This article is one of many about the Dalcurian language.

Sub categories:

Dalcurian language and basic history:
Halcánian dialect
Dalcurian alphabet and pronunciation
Adjectives:
Comparison of adjectives * Comparative sentences * Adjective endings * Adjective tense * Attributive and Predicative adjectives * Post positive adjectives * Inherent and non-inherent adjectives * Nominal adjectives * Resultant adjectives * Adjectives with prepositions * Adjective Hierarchy * Adjective Negation
Adverbs
Verbs:
The verb to do * Modal Verbs * Verb Moods
Prepositions:
Preposition word order * Alternative uses of prepositions
Negatives
Nouns
Case
Pronouns
Punctuation
Time
Numbers

Miscellaneous word and phrase lists:

Colours * Days/months/seasons * Describing people * Names of Countries * Hello/goodbye Please/thankyou * Intensifiers * English Dalcurian Dictionary

Links:

Omniglot * Various webpages in Dalcurian
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