#noun declensions

mikven-

ngun-

February 22, 2017 11:58 pm (photo from 1:15 pm) Ottawa, Ontario

"you're probably wondering how I got here"

Kshafa nominal declension can get pretty complicated, especially for consonant final roots. In the history of the language there were various vowel and consonant shifts which cooked up some pretty obscure declention patterns. It's not that uncommon for two stems of the same root to seem suppletive, even though they arose from the same form. Case in point - liman "no meaning yet lol":

The different stems are color coded, and here they are listed out:

liman

limoN-

limo-

limu-

lio-

zhaen-

There are three major steps that got us here.

1. The Proto-Vowel System Has Its Guts Rearranged

A major sound change that happens pretty early on is the rearrangement of the vowel system. Through a series of vowel raising breaking and lowering, the proto language's simple classic five *a *i *u *e *o becomes a short-lived four vowel system *i *u *ə *a which stablizes after some more shifting and merging into a system with no-central vowels and brand new long vowels and diphthongs:

Now back to our word, after this great vowel shift (:O) the basic single root stem broke into 4 stems:

*liman-, the suffixless form

*limun-, with a CV suffix, where V is a non-low vowel

*limwon-, with a CA suffix, where A is a low vowel.

*lyamwen-, with a V initial suffix.

2. The Further Breakdown of *limun-

*limun-, unlike the other stems, further split into three sub-stems, depending on the initial consonant of the following suffix. These consonants were: *w, *s, and a stop.

*limuŋ-wV, the final *n velarizing

*limū-zV, the final *n voicing the following *s, dropping and lenthening the vowel.

*limun-TV, before the stops it simply assimilated to their point of articulation

3. all other changes

There are a few other sound changes, like the lowering of short *o to /u/, the delabialization and then dropping of *ŋw > ŋ > ∅, the frication of palatalized liquids, and the loss of vowel length which gives us the final six stems in all their glory:

*limon > liman > /li.man/

*limonwub > *limuŋwu > /li.mo.o/

*limonke > limunɟe > /li.mu.ᶮɟe/

*limonsod > *limūza > /li.mu.za/

*limonso > *liŋwōzwe > /li.o.ve/

*limoni > *lʲaŋwenai > /ʐa.e.ne/

The method I've been operating under for nominal sub-declensions for the past while was to just figure them out as they come up, as to not fry my brain. unfortunately I have come to this conclusion only after my brain had already been fried. oh well you live and learn.

The sub-declension I worked on today is named "2Ac", meaning 2nd declension nouns (2a - final non-high root vowel (*-e, o, a), that contracts (c). Here is an example paradigm of a regular 2Au noun (2nd declension with a final non-high round vowel, i.e. non-contracting *-o stems):

As opposed to a 2Acu (contracting *-o stem) noun:

The first and most noticeable thing is the stem patterning. Regular 2Au/i nouns can have up to 4 stems, who differ in the stem vowel and either undergo palatalization or have a -v- added, exemplified in hakve:

hakv-

hikv-

hak-

hik- (the indf.acc is a special case)

As opposed to 2Ac nouns which only have 2 stems, like 1st conj nouns, and they are the same, except the second has an additional final -o-, exemplified in krí:

kr-

kro-

The second has to do with the theme vowel. In some forms, there is a theme vowel between the root and ending. For singular 2nd declension nouns this theme vowel is -e-, but for 2Ac nouns, this theme vowel is instead -i-:

2Au (INDF.DAT.SG): hakveche, {hakv}-e-che.

2Au (INDF.DAT.SG): kriche: {kr}-i-che.

The third and final difference is in 4 suffixes - the NOM.PL and LOC.SG, both indefinite and definite. For regular 2Au and 2Ai nouns they are -a(n) in the indefinite and -u(n) or -i(n) respectively for the definite. For 2Ac the suffixes are instead -o(n)* in the indefinite and -a(n) in the definite:

hik●a, hik●an, hík●u, hík●un

kr●ó, kr●ón, kr●â, kr●ân

*There is actually another sub-sub-pattern here, where in the indefinite 2Acu have -o(n) but 2Aci have -i(n) like their non-contracting counterparts.

before: sad, too grid-like, a single lonely case of syncretism (sg. erg. and acc.)

As opposed to after: sexy, beautiful, two more columns added, no shortage of syncretized cells - some across the entire system, some only in certain patterns, full! tripartite marking for definite plural nouns!!

Were they the best three words you heard today? I think so.

This is pretty much all you'll need in terms of Russian noun declensions.

Here is the best noun declension table you'll ever see, made by yours truly. The only way it could be any more awesome would be if unicorns and rainbows were added to it, but I decided to keep it professional.