Case: case
Case helps specify the role of the noun phrase in the sentence. For example, the nominative and accusative cases often distinguish subject and object of the verb, while in fixed-word-order languages these functions would be distinguished merely by the positions of the nouns in the sentence.
In Turkish, case is an inflectional feature of nouns. In some cases, numerals) may also be inflected for case when they are used as nouns.
Traditionally, Tatar is considered to have 6 cases: Nom (Nominative), Acc (Accusative), Gen (Genitive), Dat (Dative), Loc (Locative), and Abl (Ablative).
We also consider suffix -ча or -чә as a Equ (Equative) case suffix. This treatment enables flexible morphological analyses for rather productive expressions such as әйт-ү-ен-чә (say-VNoun-3-Equ) “according to him”.
Nom: nominative / direct
The base form of the noun, typically used as citation form (lemma).
Examples
- Кыз йоклый. “The girl sleeps.”
Acc: accusative
Tatar usually marks a definite direct object with accusative case.
Indefinite direct objects do not receive the accusative suffix, but stays in the bare form (Nom).
In Tatar Acc is expressed by the suffix -ны or -не when the noun does not have a 3rd person possessive suffix;
when it does, it is expressed by the suffix -н.
Examples
- Китапны укыдым “I read (past) the book” (cf. Китап укыдым “I read (past) a book / books”)
Dat: dative
Dative case is typically used to indicate movement into/towards/to a place or time. The oblique arguments of some verbs and complements (noun phrases) of some postpositions also required to be in dative case.
In Tatar Dat is expressed by the suffix -га, ка, гә, or кә.
Examples
- Казанга барам “I am going to Kazan”
- Китапны Маратка бир “Give the book to Marat”
- Иртәгәгә кадәр көтәбез “We will wait till tomorrow” (postposition кадәр “till” requires a dative complement)
Gen: genitive
A prototypical meaning of genitive is that the noun phrase belongs to its governor in some manner; it would often be translated by the English preposition of. Complements of some postpositions are also required to be in genitive case. The genitive morpheme may also mark the subject of some sorts of subordinate clauses (cf. Exceptional Case Marking).
In Tatar, Gen is expressed by the suffix -ның or нең.
Examples
- Маратның китабы “Marat’s book”
- Маратның Америкага барганы бар “Marat has been to America” (lit. “There is Marat’s going to America”)
- Маратның китабы бар “Marat has a book”
Loc: locative
The locative case often expresses location in space or time, which gave it its name. The oblique arguments of some verbs and complements (noun phrases) also required to be in locative case.
In Tatar Loc is expressed by the suffix -да, -дә, -та, or -тә.
Examples
- Мин өйдә “I am at home”
- Оешма сәгать алтыда “The meeting is at six”
Abl: ablative
A noun with ablative typically means a starting point from which something moves away. The oblique arguments of some verbs and the complements (noun phrases) of some postpositions are also required to be in ablative case. Ablative is also used as a denominator in fraction numerals.
In Tatar Abl is marked by -дан, -дән, -тан, -тән, -нан, or -нән.
Examples
- Казаннан килде “He/She came from Kazan”
- Китапны Мараттан алдым “I took/bought the book from Marat”
- Укытучыбыздан сорыйк “Let’s ask our teacher” (The verb сора- “to ask” requires an ablative oblique for someone to be asked)
- Бу алманы кибеттән сатып алдым “I bought this apple at the store” (the location of purchase is marked with ablative)
- биштән дүрт “four fifths”
Equ: equative
In Tatar, The equative case means “X-like”, “according to X”, “X-ish”, etc. This case-marking is productive, but is more restricted than other cases.
Examples
- мин “I”; минемчә “in my opinion”
- әйткәнемчә “as I said”
- кичәгечә “like yesterday”
- татарча “in Tatar” (cf. Russian по-татарски)
Case in other languages: [am] [apu] [arr] [bej] [bg] [cs] [el] [eme] [en] [es] [ess] [et] [fi] [ga] [gn] [grc] [gub] [hu] [hy] [ka] [kmr] [koi] [kpv] [ky] [mdf] [myu] [myv] [pcm] [pt] [qpm] [ru] [sl] [sv] [tl] [tpn] [tr] [tt] [u] [uk] [urb] [urj]