Case Usages in Silindion

Case Usage:

 The following cases are found in Silindion: Nominative, Accusative, Genitive, Dative, (Benefactive), Ablative, Locative, Allative, Comitative, Instrumental, Copulative, Essive, Topical, Adjectival. All are in frequent use, save for the Benefactive which has a limitted usage in Grammatical Tracts in the modern Language. In Middle and older Silindion, it is in widespread use as well.

Case Usage:

Nominative: indicates the subject of a verb.

Accusative: indicates the object of a verb. It also indicates motion through a place or time, and is used with prepositions such as ‹ono› 'through', ‹pero› 'across' or ‹erë› 'during'.

Genitive: indicates the possessor. It is also used with various prepositions, such as ‹ess› 'inside of' or ‹omë› 'because of'.

Dative: indicates the indirect object and the person or thing for which an action is done. The last usage is called the Benefactive use, and, in Old, Middle and some High Silindion texts, is indicated by adding an extra ‹-r› to the dative ending. Example: nistanu 'to the king' (dative) => nistanur 'for the king' (benefactive).

Ablative: indicates separation, and is mostly used to translate 'from'. It is used with prepositions such as ‹ka› 'away from' or ‹eis› 'from out, out of'.

Locative: indicates place. It is used with prepositions such as ‹o› 'in', ‹a› 'at', ‹emë› 'on', ‹eiva(n)› 'within', ‹ina› 'near' and many others. Metaphorically it also indicates time, and thus is used with prepositions like ‹nor› 'before'.

Allative: indicates motion towards a place. It is used with prepositions like ‹noro› 'towards' or ‹noss› 'into'. It is also used as the animate agent in passive sentences.

Comitative: means 'together with'. If two or more nouns are animate, they may be connected by adding the comitative suffix to the last noun. Example: pëa mëamma 'a father and a mother'.

Instrumental: indicates the instrument with which something is done, or how something is done. Thus it means both 'using X' and 'by doing X'. It also indicates what something is made out of.

Copulative: is attached to a noun or interrogative pronoun to form sentences meaning 'X = Y'. Example: i nar lavando 'the man is a hunter'.

Essive: is attached to a predicate nominative or interrogative pronoun to form sentences meaning 'It = Y'. That is, when the predicate nominative is the only element present. Example: kirmeihya 'it is my ship' (< kirma 'ship'). The essive also means 'as' or 'when', such as in the sentence: nópië, asui Eril nëa némpian niva 'as a poet, Eril created many beautiful poems' (< nopio 'poet'). Finally, in Poetic High Silindion only, the essive may be used to derive an adjective from a noun. However, in Low Silindion this is done with the adjectival. In some poems, the essive seems to have the same meaning as the relative, depending on translation.

Relative/Topical: indicates the topic of the sentence. In this sense, it can be translated as 'as for X' or 'about X'. Most of the time however, the relative is used to derive an adjective meaning 'X-like', such as the word ‹rilitma› 'jewel-like'. The relative is also used to mean 'as X', after an equative adjective. Another use of the relative is to mean 'but' after the conjunction ‹në› 'and'. However, this use is restricted to sentences of the form 'X, but as for Y'. Example: ihyotma, ë niva, në tahyotma, ïe núkil 'today, (it) is beautiful, but (as for) yesterday, (it) was cloudy' (< tahyón 'yesterday').

Adjectival: derives an adjective from a noun. Mostly the meaning is transparent, such as in the following examples: vierya émëa 'forest paths, paths of the forest' (< ema 'forest'). nerendo núkëa 'wilderness dweller, dweller in the wilderness' (< nuko 'wilderness'). However, sometimes the meaning is not that obvious, such as in the following examples: sílnëa 'silver' (< silni 'star'). ílië 'holy' (< ilë 'god').