Vrkhazhian nouns are called ǧimūm (singular ǧimum). They are declined for case, gender, and number. Specifically there are five cases (nominative, vocative, accusative, instrumental, and adpositional) and two numbers (singular and plural). Additionally, Vrkhazhian has two grammatical genders: masculine and feminine. These genders are not strictly based on sex and the gender of non-human nouns is somewhat unpredictable.
Noun inflection
Imperial Vrkhazhian nouns are declined for all five cases. Cases are the forms and suffixes that nouns when they occur in certain parts of a sentence. The five cases are thus:
- The nominative (NOM) case indicates the subject or agent (doer) of the verb ("Henry runs to the store", "Henry sees Sam").
- The vocative (VOC) case indicates a direct addressee ("Henry, what are you doing?")
- The accusative (ACC)case indicates the object or patient (receiver) of the verb ("Henry sees Sam", "Henry gave Sam a pencil").
- The instrumental (INS) case indicates the theme (given object) or instrument of a ditransitive verb ("Henry gave Sam a pencil", "She showers him with love").
- The adpositional (ADP) case is a rarely used case used to indicate the object of certain adpositions ("under the table", "five minutes ago").
rēbim (man, husband)
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|
Singular |
Plural
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| Nominative
|
rēb-im |
rēb-īm
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| Vocative
|
rēb-ī
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| Accusative
|
rēb-is |
rēb-īs
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| Instrumental
|
rēb-ik |
rēb-īk
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| Adpositional
|
rēb-ī
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|
|
surğum (chicken)
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Singular |
Plural
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| Nominative
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surğ-um |
surğ-ūm
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| Vocative
|
surğ-ū
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| Accusative
|
surğ-us |
surğ-ūs
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| Instrumental
|
surğ-uk |
surğ-ūk
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| Adpositional
|
surğ-ū
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|
|
ezîm (boar)
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Singular |
Plural
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| Nominative
|
ez-îm
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| Vocative
|
ez-î
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| Accusative
|
ez-îs
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| Instrumental
|
ez-îk
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| Adpositional
|
ez-î
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|
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mazûm (sea, saltwater)
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Singular |
Plural
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| Nominative
|
maz-ûm
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| Vocative
|
maz-û
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| Accusative
|
maz-ûs
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| Instrumental
|
maz-ûk
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| Adpositional
|
maz-û
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Noun states
Nouns are also considered to be placed into what are called "states". There are two states: the governed state, or status rectus, and the construct state, or status constructus.
The construct state is used in genitive constructions to mark the head noun (possessed noun), while the oblique case is used to mark the dependent (modifying) noun. The construct state is also used to mark the predicate of a nominal sentence. Nouns that that are not placed in the construct state are considered to be in the governed state, which is the default state of all nouns.
rēbim (man, husband)
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|
Singular |
Plural
|
| Nominative
|
rēb |
rēb-ā
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| Vocative
|
| Accusative
|
rēb-as |
rēb-ās
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| Instrumental
|
rēb-ak |
rēb-āk
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| Adpositional
|
rēb-ā
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|
|
surğum (chicken)
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|
Singular |
Plural
|
| Nominative
|
suruğ |
surğ-ā
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| Vocative
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| Accusative
|
surğ-as |
surğ-ās
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| Instrumental
|
surğ-ak |
surğ-āk
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| Adpositional
|
surğ-ā
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ezîm (boar)
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Singular |
Plural
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| Nominative
|
ezu |
ez-â
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| Vocative
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| Oblique
|
ez-âs
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| Instrumental
|
ez-âk
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| Adpositional
|
ez-â
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|
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mazûm (sea, saltwater)
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|
Singular |
Plural
|
| Nominative
|
mazi |
maz-â
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| Vocative
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| Accusative
|
maz-âs
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| Instrumental
|
maz-âk
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| Adpositional
|
maz-â
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Noun derivation
Vrkhazhian nouns are mostly derived from verbs and there are numerous ways to derive nouns from them:
