Case: case
| Values: | Acc | Abl | Dat | Gen | Ins | Loc | Nom |
Case is an inflectional feature of nouns and pronouns.
Case helps to specify the role of the noun phrase in the sentence.
Here on the level of morphosyntactic features we are dealing with case expressed morphologically, i.e. by bound morphemes (affixes). The descriptions of the individual case values below include semantic hints about the prototypical meaning of the case. Bear in mind that quite often a case will be used for a meaning that is totally unrelated to the meaning mentioned here. Valency of verbs, adpositions and other words will determine that the noun phrase must be in a particular grammatical case to fill a particular valency slot (semantic role).
The morphology of Middle Armenian differentiates five cases:
Nom, Acc Gen-Dat, Abl, Ins and Loc.
Some personal and demonstrative pronouns distinguish between Case=Gen and Case=Dat. Note that the Gen case of personal pronouns forms a separate paradigm of posessive pronouns.
Note also that some cases mainly Acc, Dat, Abl and Loc can be combined with adpositions (see bellow).
Examples
- singular nominative ծառ/çaṙ “tree”, genitive-dative ծառի/çaṙi, ablative (ի) ծառէ/(i) çaṙē, instrumental ծառով/çaṙov,
- plural nominative ծառք (ծառեր)/çaṙk’ (çaṙer) “trees”, accusative (զ)ծառս (ծառս)/(z)çaṙs (çaṙs), _ genitive-dative ծառերոյ/çaṙeroy, ablative (ի) ծառերոյ/(i) çaṙeroy, instrumental ծառերով/çaṙerov, ablative (ի) ծառէ/(i) çaṙē, instrumental ծառով/çaṙov,
- singular nominative գիշեր/gišer “night”, genitive-dative գիշերվան/gišervan, ablative (ի) գիշերվնէ/(i) gišervnē, instrumental գիշերով/gišerov,
- plural nominative գիշերներ/gišerner_, genitive-dative գիշերներոյ(ու)/gišerneroy(ow), ablative (ի) գիշերներոյ(ո)/(i) gišerneroy(o), instrumental գիշերներով/gišernerov,
- singular nominative շինութիւն/šinowt’iwn “building”, genitive-dative շինութեան/šinowt’ean, ablative (ի) շինութենէ/(i) šinowt’enē, instrumental շինութենով/šinowt’enov,
- plural nominative շինութեներ/šinowt’ener, genitive-dative շինութեներոյ/šinowt’eneroy, ablative (ի) շինութեներոյ(ո)/(i) šinowt’eneroy(o), instrumental շինութեներով/šinowt’enerov,
- singular nominative հայր/hayr “father”, genitive-dative հօր/hòr, ablative (ի) հօրէ/i hòrē, instrumental հօրով/hòrov.
Nom: nominative
The base form of the noun, also used as citation form (lemma). In Middle Armenian this is the word form used for subjects of clauses, for direct objects of verbs (in the accusative, the form is sometimes identical to the nominative, see bellow) and for addressing someone.
Examples
- ծառ/çaṙ “tree”
Gen: genitive
In many languages prototypical meaning of genitive is that the noun phrase somehow belongs to its governor.
We do not recognize the genitive except for possessive personal, some demonstrative pronouns/determiners.
Examples
- նորա/nora “its”
Dat: dative
In many languages, prototypical meaning of the genitive is that the noun phrase somehow belongs to its governor. As for the dative, it is often used for indirect objects of verbs. In Middle Armenian, however, they are generally not formally distinct and are therefore considered a single case. The genitive is distinct from the dative only in the paradigms of some personal and demonstrative pronouns.
- ծառի/çaṙi “of a/the tree”
- իմ/im
Gen“my”, ինձ/injDat“me” - նորա/nora
Gen“his/her” նմա/nmaDat“him/her”
Note that the meaning of Dat is also expressed by a preposition with a noun in Acc.
Examples
- Եկին նորա սիրելիքն եւ ասացին/Ekin nora sirelik’n ew asac’in “His beloved ones came and said”
- Եւ պարտ է նմա զգուշանալ/Ew part ē nma zgowšanal “And he must be careful” Lit.: “It’s necessary for him to be careful”
Acc: accusative
The accusative case is most frequently used for direct objects of transitive verbs. Singular nouns in accusative have the same form with the nominative but they are usually combined with the proclitic particle զ/z. Plural nouns ending with the plural prticle ք/k’ have distinct nominative and accusative forms because of the plural ending, which becomes ս/s.
Examples
- կուզէ զքաղաքն աւիրէ/kowzē zk’aġak’n awirē “He wants to destroy the city”
- ասա՛ զբանս/asa zbans “say the words”
Abl: ablative
Prototypical meaning: direction from some point (object, location or time). In Middle Armenian, the ablative case is expressed in different ways: with or without the preposition ի/i, combined with a noun in the dative or ablative; hence, the ablative meaning is recognized only from the context.
Examples
- ի բնութենէն/i bnowt’enēn “from the nature”
- ի նոցանէ/i noc’anē “from them”
- ի ծնէ/i çnē “from birth”
- ցաւոյն/c’awoyn “from pain”
Ins: instrumental
The role from which the name of the instrumental case is derived is that the noun is used as instrument to do something. Many other meanings are possible, for example the instrumental is required and it includes the meaning expressed in other languages by adverbs of manner.
Examples
- կամօքն Աստուծոյ/kamòk’n Astowçoy “by the will of God”
- Եւ քարամբ խիստ քարկոծեցաւ/Ew k’aramb xist k’arkoçec’aw “And he was severely pelted with stones.” (Passive example)
Loc: locative
The locative case often expresses location in space or time. As elsewhere, non-locational meanings also exist and they are not rare.
In Middle Armenian pronouns do not have Loc case. It’s also rarely used with nouns. In most cases, its meaning is expressed by a preposition with a noun in theGen-Dat (genarally for singular nouns) and in the Acc (generally for plural nouns).
Examples
- Ձագերն ձայն ածեն յայգին։/Jagern jayn açen yaygin “(Some animals’) young ones are making noise in the garden.”
- յաւազանն մտանէ/yawazann mtanē “he gets into the pool”
Case in other languages: [am] [apu] [arr] [axm] [bej] [bg] [cs] [ctn] [el] [eme] [en] [es] [ess] [et] [fi] [ga] [gn] [gor] [grc] [gub] [hu] [hy] [ka] [kmr] [koi] [kpv] [ky] [mdf] [myu] [myv] [naq] [nmf] [oge] [pcm] [ps] [pt] [qpm] [ru] [sl] [sv] [tl] [tpn] [tr] [tt] [u] [uk] [urb] [urj] [uz] [xcl] [xmf] [yrk]