3.2. Gramatik / Grammar

Nominatīv ja genitīv formõd / Nominative and genitive forms

The nominative and genitive singular generally have no ending and are mostly the same form, e.g., sõbrā : sõbrā ‘friend (nom) : friend (gen)’. However, some words do have different nominative and genitive forms. The following are typical situations where this occurs:

1. Nouns of two or more syllables with an i-final nominative form (especially adjectives as well as agent and action nouns) and two one-syllable words (tuoi ’second, other’ and nai ’woman’) add z in the genitive, e.g., e’žmi : e’žmiz ’first (nom) : first (gen)’, jūokšiji : jūokšijiz ’runner (nom) : runner (gen)’, nai : naiz ’woman (nom) : woman (gen)’. Note that the word stem can sometimes change, e.g., si’ņņi : siņīz ’blue (nom) : blue (gen)’ (see Section 1.3 for more on stem alternation). Genitive forms of vowel-final personal names that have no other special meaning are also formed by adding z, e.g.,Oto : Otoz.
2. If a word ends in z in the nominative, then z is lost in the genitive, e.g., ro’vz : ro’v ’people (nom) : people (gen)’, mīez : mī’e ’man (nom) : man (gen)’, tõurõz : tõurõ ’dear (nom) : dear (gen)’. Changes can also occur in the word stem here, e.g.,rikāz : rikkõ ’rich (nom) : rich (gen)’. Ordinal numbers starting with ‘third’ also belong to this type; in these, z alternates with nd, e.g.,kuolmõz : kuolmõnd ’third (nom) : third (gen)’.
3. A number of one-syllable words ending in the consonants ḑ ņ ŗ ļ in the nominative, lose their word-final palatalization in the genitive, e.g.,tu’ļ : tu’l ’fire (nom) : fire (gen)’, sēņ : sīen ’mushroom (nom) : mushroom (gen)’. This also includes situations where ḑ ņ ŗ ļ occur as part of a consonant cluster, e.g., nuŗm : nurm ’field (nom) : field (gen)’.
4. Words with an š-final nominative form ending in a consonant cluster have a different genitive form, e.g., läpš : laps ’child (nom) : child (gen)’, ikš : ī’d ’one (nom) : one (gen)’.
5. One-syllable words with a ž-final nominative form sometimes end in d in the genitive, e.g.,ve’ž : vie’d ’water (nom) : water (gen)’, ke’ž : kä’d ’hand (nom) : hand (gen)’.

There are three possible endings in the nominative plural: -t, -d ja -õd. These are added to the genitive stem.

The ending -t is used after z and ks, e.g., nai : naiz : naizt ’woman (nom) : woman (gen) : women (nom pl)’, vastūks : vastūkst ’answer (nom), answer (gen) : answers (nom pl)’.

The ending -d is used in the following situations:

a) after a vowel, e.g., pū : pūd ’tree (nom, gen) : trees (nom pl)’, pi’ņ : piņīd ’dog (nom, gen) : dogs (nom pl)’;
b) after l r j following a long vowel with plain tone, e.g., sūr : sūrd ’large (nom, gen) : large (nom pl)’;
c) after l r j following a long vowel in an unstressed syllable, e.g., mätāl : mätāld ’tussock (nom, gen) : tussocks (nom pl)’, salāj : salājd ’thief (nom, gen) : thieves (nom pl)’;
d) after j or v following a vowel in a syllable with broken tone, e.g., ra’j : ra’jd ’chair (nom, gen) : chairs (nom pl)’, nõ’v : nõ’vd ’a piece of advice (nom, gen) : pieces of advice (nom pl)’.

The ending -õd is used after consonant-final stems, e.g., loul : lōlõd ’song (nom, gen) : songs (nom pl)’, vȭidag : vȭidagõd ’butter (nom, gen) : butters (nom pl)’.

The genitive plural differs from the nominative plural only in personal and demonstrative pronouns, e.g., ne : nänt ’they (nom) : their (gen)’ (cf. sõbrād ’friends (nom pl, gen pl’).