Wenedyk - Nouns

Dear friends!

After a very short section about the article - not present in Wenedyk - here's
a somewhat more substantial text about Venedian nouns.

I've had some difficulty in deciding whether or not to introduce a case system
into Wenedyk. No surviving Romance language has cases (except perhaps for some
traces in Romanian), but since Late/Vulgar Latin still had them (even if they
were rapidly decaying) and the Slavic languages have always had them, I don't
really see any reason why Wenedyk shouldn't have them.

So, there are four cases: nominative, genitive, dative, and accusative. The
Latin ablative disappeared, most of its functions adopted by the genitive.
Furthermore, there are three genders (masculine, feminine, neuter), and three
declensions.

The first declension consists of all words with the ending -a, almost all of
which are feminine. This declension corresponds of course with the Latin first
declension.

I.      hard stems              soft stems
        roza "rose"             fila "daughter"
        sing.   plur.           sing.   plur.
nom.    roza    rozy            fila    file
gen.    rozy    rozar           fili    filar
dat.    roze    rozysz          file    filisz
acc.    rozã    rozy            filã    file

When the word root ends with "k", "g", or "l", the genitive and plural ending
"-y" is substituted by "-i", while the dative singular ending "-e" is replaced
by "-ie" and the dative plural ending "-ysz" is replaced with "-isz". For
example _amika_ "girl friend" has _amiki_, _amikie_, _amikisz_.

The second declension consists of words ending in a consonant, most of which
derive from Latin words with the ending "-us" who belong either the second or
the fourth declension. It also includes most masculine words on "-er", for
example _pier_ "boy".

II.     hard stems              soft stems
        dom "house"             an' "year"
        sing.   plur.           sing.   plur.
nom.    dom     domy            an'     ani
gen.    domu    domór           aniu    aniór
dat.    domi    domysz          ani     anisz
acc.    dom     domy            an'     ani

The second declension also includes neuter nouns that derive from Latin words
with the ending "-um". It can be distinguished from masculine nouns of the same
declension only by the ending "-a" in the nominative and accusative plural.

II.     hard stems              soft stems
        wad "path"              muzej "museum"
        sing.   plur.           sing.   plur.
nom.    wad     wada            muzej   muzeja
gen.    wadu    wadór           muzeju  muzejór
dat.    wadzi   wadysz          muzej   muzejisz
acc.    wad     wada            muzej   muzeja

Please note that the dative singular ending "-i" leads to the softening of the
stem's final consonant. This his the following side-effects:

k + i   becomes czy     Example: _miedyk_ "doctor", dat. miedyczy
g + i   becomes dz^y    Example: _fag_ "birch", dat. fadz^y
t + i   becomes ci      Example: _kãt_ "song", dat. kãci
d + i   becomes dzi     Example: _wad_ "path", dat. wadzi
r + i   becomes rzy     Example: _libier_ "book", dat. librzy
£ + i   becomes li      Example: _okie£_ "eye", dat. okli
sz + i  becomes szy     Example: _kasz_ "case", dat. kaszy
cz + i  becomes czy     Example: _bracz_ "arm", dat. braczy
z^ + i  becomes z^y     Example: _chor£óz^_ "clock", dat. chor£oz^y

The third declension includes all masculine, feminine, and neuter nouns that do
not belong to the first or the second declension. It corresponds with both the
third and the fifth declension in Latin.

III.    hard stems      soft stems              regular neuter
        noc "night"     mierzydz' "afternoon"   kródz' "heart"
        sing.  plur.    sing.      plur.        sing.   plur.
nom.    noc    noce     mierzydz'  mierzydzie   kródz'  krodzia
gen.    nocy   nocu     mierzydzi  mierzydziu   krodzi  krodziu
dat.    nocy   nociusz  mierzydzi  mierzydziusz krodzi  krodziusz
acc.    noc    noce     mierzydz'  mierzydzie   kródz'  krodzia

Special cases within the third declension are neuter nouns with the endings
"-iê"/"-ieny", "-usz"/"-ory", and "-usz"/"-iery":

III    ending -miê         ending -usz, -ory   ending -usz, -iery
       nomiê "name"        cêpusz "time" (1)   z^enusz "gender"
       sing.    plur.      sing.   plur.       sing.     plur.
nom.   nomiê    nomyna     cêpusz  cêpora      z^enusz   z^eniera
gen.   nomieny  nomynu     cêpory  cêporu      z^eniery  z^enieru
dat.   nomieny  nomyniusz  cêpory  cêporzusz   z^eniery  z^enierzusz
acc.   nomiê    nomyna     cêpusz  cêpora      z^enusz   z^eniera

(1) In accordance to its conjugation, words of this type are often misspelled
_cêpórz_; pronunciation would be the same.

Like _nomiê_ are declined: _w£umiê_ "river", _karmiê_ "singing",
   _£umiê_ "light", _limiê_ "doorstep"
Like _cêpusz_ are declined: _korpusz_ "body", _litusz_ "beach",
   _piektusz_ "chest"
Like _z^enusz_ are declined: _fiedusz_ "treaty", _£atusz_ (gen.
   _£aciery_) "wing", _opusz_ "work".

About the Wenedyk/Polish characters:
ã  should be read as   a-ogonek
ê  should be read as   e-ogonek
z^ should be read as   z with dot above
n' should be read as   n-acutus
£  should be read as   l-stroke

Comments?

Jan

=====
"Originality is the art of concealing your source." - Franklin P. Jones

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