Kench declensions (long), was Two YANCs: Para-British
| From: | Vasiliy Chernov <bc_@...> |
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| Date: | Thursday, June 8, 2000, 18:46 |
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As I already reported recently, Kench is a language that has evolved
from one of the Old English dialects, and most of its phonetic
development followed the lines of the evolution of English rather
strictly. One of the funny things with Kench (at least for me) was to
see how different from English it can become, despite the above.
Nominal groups in Kench normally include article or another
determinative. Nouns without a determinative (except anthroponyms
in Sg.) occur mostly in fixed collocations that resemble compounds.
1) Substantives and adjectives with definite article:
a) Sg.:
‘the good day’ ‘the foreign language’ ‘the long arrow’
Nom. ze goode day þet vremþ rerd zhe long streal
Gen. þes gooden days þets vremþen rerds þer longhen streal
Dat. þem gooden day þem vremþen rerd þer longhen streal
Ac.1 þon gooden day þets vremþen rerds þo longhen streal
Ac.2 þon gooden day þet vremþ rerd þo longhen streal
b) Pl.:
‘the good days’ ‘the foreign languages’ ‘the long arrows’
Nom. þo gooden days þo vremþen rerd þo longhen strealen
Gen. þor gooden day þor vremþen rerd þor longhen strealen
Dat. þom goodom daym þom vremþom rerdom þom longhom strealom
Ac.1 þor gooden day þor vremþen rerd þor longhen strealen
Ac.2 þo gooden days þo vremþen rerd þo longhen strealen
2) Substantives and adjectives with indefinite article
(Sg. only):
‘a good day’ ‘a foreign language’ ‘a long arrow’
Nom. o goode day o vremþ rerd o long streal
Gen. ons goods days ons vremþes rerds or longher streal
Dat. om goodom day om vremþom rerd or longher streal
Ac.1 en gooden day ons vremþes rerds on long streal
Ac.2 en gooden day o vremþ rerd on long streal
In Pl., the indefinite article is not used. The construction with
partitive article (see below) is used instead:
‘(some) good days’ ‘(some)foreign languages’ ‘(some) long arrows’
Nom. ot gooder day ot vremþer rerd ot longher strealen
Gen. ots gooder day ots vremþer rerd ots longher strealen
Dat. ottom gooder day ottom vremþer rerd ottom longher strealen
Ac.1 ots gooder day ots vremþer rerd ots longher strealen
Ac.2 ot gooder day ot vremþer rerd ot longher strealen
3) The partitive article has neither numbers nor genders (formally,
it is always in Sg.n.). The substantives and adjectives immediately
follow it and are always in Gen.:
‘(some) white snow’ ‘(some) fresh water’ ‘(some) black soil’
Nom. ot whites znaws ot vreshes weters ot zwarter yerþ
Gen. ots whites znaws ots vreshes weters ots zwarter yerþ
Dat. ottom whites znaws ottom vreshes weters ottom zwarter yerþ
Ac.1 ots whites znaws ots vreshes weters ots zwarter yerþ
Ac.2 ot whites znaws ot vreshes weters ot zwarter yerþ
(examples in Pl. are given above)
4) Some remarks on the declension of adjectives.
The forms of adjectives that combine with the definite article are
also used with demonstrative determiners. This paradigm is termed
‘weak declension’.
The other, ‘strong’ declension is used, besides indefinite article,
with some other indefinite determiners like _eany_ ‘some, any’. The
full Pl. paradigm is as follows:
‘some good days, foreign languages, long arrows’
Nom. eany goode days, vremþ rerd, long strealen
Gen. eanier gooder day, vremþer rerd, longher strealen
Dat. eanim goodom daym, vremþom rerdom, longhom strealom
Ac.1 eanier gooder day, vremþer rerd, longher strealen
Ac.2 eany goode days, vremþ rerd, long strealen
When a substantive has several adjectives with no coordinating
connection felt between the latter, only the first adjective can have
the ‘strong’ forms, while others follow the ‘weak’ declension, e. g.:
om goodom warmen day ‘for a good warm day’
ot vokener zmealen men ‘some evil mean men’
Substantivized adjectives follow the regular substantive declensions
for each gender.
5) Some comments on the substantive declensions.
The above paradigms only represent the most regular types for each
gender. Some m. and f. nouns alter their stem in Pl. (e. g. _ze man_
‘the man’ - _þo men_, _ze booke ‘the book’ - _þo beech_), some neutra
take on the Pl. suffix _-er_ (sometimes with vowel change: _þet lam_
‘the lamb’ - _þo lemmer_), and some masculines take on the f. endings
in Pl. (e. g. _ze time_ - _þo timen_).
The personal names (Sg. only) that are used without article are declined
as follows:
Feminine Masculine
Nom. Mary Peter
Gen. Marin Peters
Dat. Marin Petern
Ac.1 Marin Petern
Ac.2 Marin Petern
6) Some pronouns:
‘I’ ‘thou’ ‘he’ ‘it’ ‘she’ ‘we’ ‘you’ ‘they’ ‘this’
Nom. idge þouw hee hit hy wee yee hise þiss
Gen. mine þine hees hits har ouwer yewer hir þisses
Dat. meem þeem heem hittom har ouzom yewm him þissom
Ac.1 mee þee heen hits hay ouz yew hir þisses
Ac.2 mee þee heen hit hay ouz yew hise þiss
7) Possessive pronouns coincide in Nom. with the Gen. of the respective
personal pronouns. They normally follow the substantive. Possessives of
the 3rd person are indeclinable. Possessives of 1st and 2nd person are
mainly declined like ‘strong’ adjectives, but have a few contracted
forms: _mime_ and _þime_ instead of *minom and *þinom, _ur_ and _yur_
instead of *ouwerer and *yewerer.
8) Case usage.
Nom. and Dat. are used... hmm... as Nom. and Dat. Dat. can also follow
certain prepositions (some of them can alternatively be used, with a
difference in meaning, with Ac.2).
Gen. is used with the partitive article, with some prepositions, in
some types of quantitative and distributive constructions, and in
numerous fixed collocations.
Ac.1 (or simply ‘accusative’) is the case of direct object.
Ac.2 (or ‘the old accusative’, or ‘directional’) is only used with
certain prepositions.
Nom. and Ac.1 never combine with primary prepositions.
Five cases, three genders, three articles - as promised. Historical
comments are available upon request.
Basilius