Conlanging for the Opal Mask - Class and Case suffixes

[becka_sutton]

Both case and noun class/gender are indicated by suffixes. The basic structure is root-gender-case. Some infixes go between root and gender - these are infixes like -te- from the previous post. Certain adjectives such as big and small are also infixed here - I'll deal with these as we go. I still haven't decided what to do about adjectives in general.

So let's deal with suffixes for case and gender.

Gender:

• Spirit -ago
• Physical/Animate -pʰak (I really need a better orthography).
• Material/Inanimate -dzla
• Abstracts -eka

Case:

• Ergative: -ada
• Accusative: -tso
• Absolutive: no case suffix
• Genitive: -wat
• Dative: -dyak
• Vocative: -la

So let's use the four dance related nouns and decline them (note - not all nouns have a vocative form).

	Magical Dance	Magical Dancer	Mundane Dance	Mundane Dancer
Ergative	blanagoada	blanteagoada	blanekaada	blantepʰakada
Accusative	blanagotso	blanteagotso	blanekatso	blantepʰaktso
Absolutive	blanago	blanteago	blaneka	blantepʰak
Genitive	blanagowat	blanteagowat	blanekawat	blantepʰakwat
Dative	blanagodyak	blanteagodyak	blanekadyak	blantepʰakdyak
Vocative	-	blanteagola	-	blantepʰakla

Now that I've got that sorted out I can start turning these roots I've made into words. So hopefully there really will be some vocab for tomorrow.

Comments

Questions...

[(Anonymous)]

Why ergative/absolutive AND accusative cases? Split ergativity?

cjh17000

Re: Questions...

[becka_sutton]

Hiya!

Great question!

It's Tripartite like Nez Purse and Ainu. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tripartite_language. This is the parent language - I expect the daughter languages to lose or repurpose some cases.

Thanks for the comment,
Becka