ÜNİTE BİR The Chuvash noun; gender; plural.
ünite iki Vowel Harmony; case morphemes and allom...
ünite üç Objective relational morpheme (dative and...
ünite dört Instrumental relational morpheme; ...
ünite beş Personal possession; the verb “to h...
ünite altı Possession expressed in different cases...
ünite yedi The nominal as adjective; comparis...
ünite sekiz Pronouns: Personal, reflexive, demon...
ünite dokuz The verb: Primary tenses of the indica...
ünite on Secondary past tenses of the Indicative:...
ünite onbir a. Present participle (nomen actoris...
ünite oniki Mood-formants: Imperative; optative; c...
ünite onüç Converbs: Subordinate, coordinate, past...
ünite ondört Adverbs; Postpositions; conjunctions...
ünite onbeş Numerals Cardinal, ordinal, distributi...
ünite onaltı Word formation in nouns and verbs.
17 sintax
18 çuvaşça türküler
9 Şubat 2009 Pazartesi
18 çuvaşça bir okuma parçası
The Tale of Three Sons – vişĕ yvăl
vişĕ yvăl
ĕlĕk pĕr pujan şyn pulnă. unăn vişĕ yvăl pulnă. temişe pin puş shultra vyljăh pulnă, temĕn chuhlĕ vak vyljăh pulnă. pĕrr şapla şav starik lashisene shăvarna annă. lashisem pĕri te ĕşmen. starik kalană: "kĕsem mĕshĕn ĕşmeşşĕ, shyvra pĕr pĕr japala şuk-i?" tese shyva vyrtsa păhnă. şapla păhnă chuh suhaltan jană tytnă. starik kalană: "jar, pĕr karta kasha sana pultăr" tenĕ. şapah jaman. untan starik kalană: "pĕr karta ĕne pul sana" tenĕ. vutăsh şapah jaman.untan satik kalană: "vişĕ yvăltan pĕri sana" tenĕ te jană.
starik vara pit hujhăra puşlană. starik kilne pynă ta pürtne kĕmen tultah hujhărsa larnă. aslă ivălĕ tuhnă ta "atja, atte, şime" tenĕ. ashshĕ kalană: "pajan mana pysăk hujhă pulchĕ. lasha shăvarma karăm ta lashasem shyv ĕşmenten "shyvra mĕn pur" tese vyrtsa păhrăm. şavăn chuh suhaltan titră ta vutăsh ni-pe te jamaschĕ. "şurri vyljăhăma parăp, jar" terĕm, şapah jamarĕ. "vişĕ yvăltan pĕri sana" terĕm te tin jachĕ. esĕ kajăn-i?" tenĕ. yvălĕ kalană: "hăvah kaj" tenĕ te kĕrse kajnă. starik putjeh hujhărsa julnă.
vătalăh yvălĕ kalană: "epĕ ilse kĕrĕp attene" tenĕ. untan ashshĕ patne pynă ta, "atja, atte, şime" tenĕ. ashshĕ kalană: "pajan mana şapa hujhă pulchĕ" tenĕ. yvălĕ kalană: "hăvah kaj" tenĕ.
unta kĕşĕn yvălĕ tuhnă ta, "atja, atte, şime mĕshĕn hujhăratăn?" tenĕ. ashshĕ kalană: "mana pajan şapla şapla pulchĕ. esĕ kajăn-i?" tenĕ. yvălĕ kalană: "kajas, atte, esĕ kirek ăşta jarsan ta kajăp" tenĕ. ashshĕ vara şime kĕnĕ. şise tăransan kĕşĕn yvălĕ kalană: "haleh kajmalla-i?" tenĕ. ashshĕ: "haleh kajmalla" tenĕ. yvălĕ kalană: "atte, sănchăr jĕven tutarsa kil" tenĕ. ashshĕ vara sănchăr jĕvene tutarsa kilse pană.
yvălĕ jĕvene ilnĕ te kartana lasha tytma kajnă. jĕvene yvătnă ta pĕr sară kărchankălă lasha puşne chiknĕ. vara şavna tytsa utlannă. ta şemjisene prushetsă tusa tuhsa kajnă. hire tuhsan lashine kalană: "atja, pirvaj pĕtĕm Raşeje kursa şürer" tenĕ.
şüresen şüresen pĕr vătăr hălaş şavrănakan juman patne şitnĕ. şav jumana kassa vaklană. untan vut hursa lashine vutpa şuntarsa hyrsa şusa tasatnă, lashi vara yrarma şuk hitrelense kajnă. untan lashine kalană: "şüle kajar-i je şĕre kajari?" tenĕ. lashi kalană: "şĕre kajchchen şüle Tură patne kajsan avantarah pulĕ" tenĕ. untan vara şüle Tură patne ulăhsa kajnă.
şülte şüresen şüresen pĕr starik patne pynă ta, "esĕ mana tarşa tytman-shi?" tenĕ. starik kalană: "manăn vişĕ hĕr pur, şavsene hăhĕ asli hăshĕ kĕşĕnni şavsene pallama tytăp" tenĕ. untan vara şavsene pallama kĕrshnĕ.
hĕrĕsem vişĕshĕ te pĕr pek pĕr tĕslĕ pulnă. starik achana kalană: "lashuna kajsa şime parsa kil, epĕ hĕrsene kürtse tăratăp" tenĕ. acha lashi patne pyrsan lashinchen yjtnă: "huşa aslă hĕrne pallama hushat. jeple pĕles, purte pĕr pek?" tenĕ. lashi kalană: "aslin puşe patĕnchen şimĕl shăna irtse kajĕ, şavna as tu" tenĕ. untan acha hĕrsem patne pynă ta păhsa tănă. chănfh pĕr shăna vĕşşe irtse kajnă. vara acha: "ak şakă" tenĕ. starik kalană: "şavă pallarăn" tenĕ.
untan tepĕr vătalăhne pallamalla pulnă. acha tatah lashi patne pynă ta kalană: "pajan vătalăh hĕrne pĕlmelle, jeple pĕles?" tenĕ. lashi kalană: "pilĕk tĕlĕnchen shăna vĕşşe irtse kajĕ, şavă pulĕ vătalăhĕ" tenĕ. untan acha hĕrsene pallama pyrsan păhsa tănă. chănah ta pĕr shăna pĕrin pilĕke tĕlĕnchen vĕşşe kajnă. acha kalană: "akă şak pulĕ vătalăhĕ" tenĕ. starik kalană: "şavă pĕltĕn" tenĕ. "yran kĕşĕnnine pallama kil" tenĕ. acha kajsa şyvărnă.
irhine tărsan acha pirvaj lashi patne pyrsa lashine kalană: "pajan kĕşĕn hĕrne jeple pallas?" tenĕ. lashi kalană: "pĕrin uri pichĕ shăna pyrsa larĕ, şavna as tu" tenĕ.
vara acha hĕrsene pallama pynă ta păhsa tănă. chănah ta pĕr shăna pĕrin uri pichĕ şine pyrsa larnă. untan acha kalană: "ak şakă kĕşĕnni" tenĕ. starik "pallarăn" tenĕ. untan starik kalană: "esĕ purne te pallarăn. ĕntĕ tata pytaram, tjpajăni? tenĕ. acha kalană: "tupăr" tenĕ.
acha lashi patne kajsan starik hĕrĕsene pytarnă. acha lashinchen yjtnă: "pajan hĕrĕsene pytarat, mana tupma hushat, jeple tupas?" tenĕ. lashi kalană: "esĕ pĕr lupashkara vişĕ panulmi jyvăşi tĕl pulăn. vĕsen ulmisem şĕrelle usănsa larĕş. esĕ kashnin şinchen pĕrer ulma tatsa il te "akă mana Tură ulma pachĕ, epĕ pajan kunĕpe panulmi şise Tură hĕrĕsene shyrasa şürĕp" tese kala, vara vĕsem kulsa jarĕş cătajmasăr" tenĕ.
untan vara acha Tură hĕresene shyrama tajnă. shyrasa şürenĕ chuh pĕr lupashkana pyrsa kĕnĕ. şav lupashkara chănah ta vişĕ panulmi jyvaşi larnă. ulmisem şĕrelle usăna larnă. acha pynă ta kashnin şininchen pĕrer ulma tatsa ilnĕ te kalană: "akă mana Tură ulma pachĕ. epĕ pajan kunĕpe ulma şije şije Tură hĕrĕsene shyrasa şürĕp" tenĕ. şavna iltsen Tură hĕrĕsem chătajmasăr kulsa jană. vara şapla tupsa tavrănnă.
untan Tură achana kalană: "esĕ man hĕrsene pallarăn ta pytantartăm shyrasa tuprăn. halĕ hu pytan lashu patne kajsa vĕsem sana shyrasa tupajăshi" tenĕ.
acha lashi patne pynă ta lashine kalană: "Tură mana hama pytanma hushat, ăşta pytanas?" tenĕ. lashi kalană: "hamăn syltăm hălha shătăkne kĕr" tenĕ. acha vara lashi hălha shătăkne kĕrse larnă. untan Tură hĕrĕsene kalană: "kajsa shyrăr, pytanche" tenĕ. hĕrĕsem lasha patne pynă ta shyra puşlană anchah tupajman. hĕrsem ashshĕ patne pyrsan ashshĕ kalană: "tuprăr-i?" tenĕ. hĕrĕsem: "şuk, tupajmarămăr" tenĕ. ashshĕ kalană: "hăvăr Tură hĕrĕsem ahal şynna ta shyrasa tupajmastăr, văl sire pallarĕ te shyrasa ta tuprĕ tenĕ.
acha lasha hălhi shătăkenchen tuhsa Tură patne pyrsa tănă ta Tură ăna kalană: "nu esĕ manăn hĕrsene hăshĕ asli hăshĕ kĕşĕnnine pĕltĕn, pytannă şĕrten tuprăn. sana ĕntĕ kĕrü tăvas pulĕ. hăshne ilen?" tenĕ. acha kalană: "kĕsĕnnine" tenĕ. Tură vara ikĕshĕne măshărlasa jană.
purănsan purănsan Tură kĕrüshne kalană: "kus hire kajsa kajăk tytsa kil" tenĕ. kĕrüshĕ lashine utlannă ta hire kajnă. hirte lashine kalană: "atja, lesh tĕnchene ansa kurar" tenĕ. lashi, "atja" tenĕ. vara vĕsem annă ta hăjĕn ashshĕ kilne pynă. şemjisem purte şyvărnă. văl pur şemjisene te chup tusa tuhnă ta kalleh şüle ulăhnă. şemjisem pĕri te sismen.
Tură kĕrüshne pyrsan kalană: "mĕshĕn nummaj şürerĕn?" tenĕ. kĕrüshĕ kalană: "inşĕ karăm, şavanpa chas kilemerĕm" tenĕ.
tepĕr kun kalleh kajăkra jană kĕrüshne. kĕrüshĕ hire tuhan lashine kalană: "atja tatah ansa kurar" tenĕ. vara vĕsem şak tĕnchene annă. ashshĕ kilne pynă ta vĕsem kalleh şyvărnă tĕle pulnă. văl tatah şemjsene chup tună ta kalleh şülti tĕnchene ulăhnă.
şavăn chuh arămĕ hăjne chup tunine kăsht sisnĕ pek pulsa julnă. irhine tărsan "mana mĕsker chup tăvat" tese jumăşa kajnă. jumăş karchăkĕ kalană: ku hăvăn upăshku sana kilse chup tăvat. esĕ ăna syhla, an şyvăr, tytta an jar, văl sana tempek jălănnĕ. jarsan ülĕmren kurajmăn" tenĕ.
arămĕ tepĕr kaş şyvărmasăr syhlasa vyrtnă. untan tepĕr kun Tură kĕrüshne tatah kajăka jană. kĕrüshĕ hire tuhsan lashine, "atja tatah ansa kurar" tenĕ. lashi kalană: "şuk tek anmăpăr, ansan san tytaşşĕ, esĕ hătălajmastăn" tenĕ. acha şapah anashshăn pulnă. şapla vĕsem numachen tavlashsha tănă. anchah acha lashi kalanine itlemen. lashi kalană: "atja epir anar, as tu sana arămu tytĕ, esĕ kakniput vĕserĕnme hătlan. epĕ vişĕ huchen kĕşenep. esĕ tuhsa ĕlkĕrejmesen vara mana tekeh kurajmăn" tenĕ.
vara vĕsem ansa ashshĕ kilne pynă. pyrsan văl kalleh chup tăva puşlană. un chuhne arămĕ syhlasa vyrtnă. văl arămne chup tună chuh arămĕ jană tytnă. upăshki arămne jălăna puşlană. lashi kĕşense jană. untan hytărah jălăna puşlană. şapah jaman arămĕ. lashi tatah kĕşense janăta pĕtĕm pürt chĕtrese kajnă. untan tatah arămne kalană: "jar, epĕ nişta ta kajmastăp, tula tuhsa kĕrem" tenĕ. arămĕ şapah jaman. lashi vişĕmĕsh hut kĕşennĕ te vara tapransa kajnă ta şĕr chĕtrese julnă.
untan lashi Tură patne pyrsan Tură lasha şynsăr pynine kursan lashana kalană: "esĕ şynna ăşta hutăn?" tenĕ. "ăna lesh tĕnchere arămĕ tytsa julchĕ, unăn lesh tĕnchere arămĕ pur. epĕ temtĕrlĕ kajas mar terĕm, văl şapah itlemerĕ" tenĕ. Tură kalană: "esir tavlashnine kam ta pulsa kurchĕ-i?" tenĕ. lasha kalană: "epir tavlashnine şăltăr ujăh hĕvel kurchĕ" tenĕ. untan Tură şăltăra ujăha hĕvele chĕnternĕ te "esir kurăr-i?" tese yjtnă. leshsem, "kurtămăr: lasha kajmasăr nummaj tavlashsha tăchĕ te kĕrĕvĕ itlemerĕ" tenĕ. untan Tură şilense ku tĕncheri şynsene kalană: "manăn hĕre tălăha hăvarnashăn upăshki vilse arămĕ tălăha jultăr, arămĕ vilse upăshki tălăha jultăr, ashshĕ amăshĕ vilse achi păchi tălăha jultăr achi păchi vilse ashshĕ amăshĕ tălăha jultăr" tenĕ.
şavănpa halĕ şapla pulat, teşşĕ.
The Three Sons (translation)
Once upon a time there was a rich man. He had three sons (and) three daughters-in-law. He had some thousand head of large livestock, and such a number of small livestock. Once then this old man went-down to water his horses. His horses not a one had drunk. The old man said: “Why do they not drink? Is there not something in the water?“ Saying (this) he lay and watched the water. When he was watching thus (“at his thus-watching time“), he was seized by the beard. The old man said: “Let go, a herd of horses be yours!“ he said. He did not release him. The water-sprite said: “Give your own loved one! I shall let go,“ he said. The old man said: “A herd of cows be yours“ he said. The water-sprite did not release that-one. Thereupon the old man said: “One from my three sons (be) yours.“ When he said that the water-sprite let go.
The old man then began suffering greatly. The old man went to his house and not entering his main-room sat sorrowing outside. The eldest son emerged and said: “Come on, father, food.“ His father said: “Today great misfortune befell me (was to me). I went to water the horses and saying, owing to the horses‘ not drinking water, ‘something is in the water,‘ I lay and watched. At this time the water-sprite seized (me) by the beard and did not let go for nothing (‘with nothing‘ = not at all). ‘I‘ll give the half of my livestock; let go!‘ I said, he did not release me. ‘One of my three sons is yours‘ I said, only then did he release ( not until I said so and so did he release). Will you go?“ he said. His son said: “Go yourself,“ and when he said that, he went in. The old man continued then sorrowing.
The middle son said: “I will take father and enter“ he said. Then he went to his father. “Come on, father, food!“ he said. His father said: “Today such and such a mishap occurred“ he said. His son said: “Go yourself,“ he said.
Then his youngest son came out. “Come on, father, food, why are you sorrowing?“ he said. His father said: “Today such and such happened to me. Will you go?“ he said. His son said: “I will go (‘there will be a going‘), father, I shall go when you send me wherever“ he said. ( I shall go wherever you send me. ) His father then came in to eat. When he, eating, had eaten his fill, his youngest son said: “Must one go now?“ he said. His father: “One must go now“ he said. His son said: “Father, go and have made a bridle chain.“ he said. His father then had a bridle chain made and carne and gave (it to him).
His son took the bridle and went to catch a horse in the herd (‘went to the herd for horse-catching‘). He cast his bridle and a mangy bay horse came and inserted his head, Then seizing him he mounted and taking leave of the family members went out. When he came out onto the field, he said to the horse: “Weil, let us first travel and see all Russia.“ he said.
They travelled and travailed and arrived at an oak which was thirty fathoms going around (in circumference). He felled this oak and chopped it up (into small pieces). Then making a fire, he burned (branded?) his horse with fire, scraped, washed and cleaned it. His horse then came to be incomparably beautiful. Then he said to his horse: “Shall we go on high or shall we go on the earth?“ he said. His horse said: “Before going on the earth, it will be better when we go towards God on high“ he said. Thereupon he ascended to God on high.
After wandering and wandering above he came towards an old man. “Will you take me as servant?“ he said. The old man said: “There is no work at all for me to take a servant (‘for my servant-taking there is no work‘)“ he said. Then he said: “I have three daughters; I shall hire you for recognizing them, the which is the eldest, and the which is the youngest of them“ he said. Thereupon he hired himself out then for recognizing them.
His daughters, the three of them, were completely of one kind. The old man said to the boy: “Go to your horse, give him to eat, and come. I shall bring in the daughters and stand (them on display)“ he said. When the boy went towards his horse, he inquired of his horse: “The master orders the recognizing of his eldest girl. How to know? all (are) alike.“ he said. His horse said: “There will go past a fly on the side of the eldest one‘s head; mark her (pay heed to her)“ he said. Then the boy went towards the girls, and stood and watched. In truth, a fly went flying past. Then the boy: “Lo, this one!“ he said. The old man said: “You have recognized her“ he said.
Then the next day his middle one was to be recognized. The boy again went towards his horse and said: “Today his middle girl must be known; how to know?“ he said. His horse said: “There will go flying past from the area of her waist a fly. This one will be the middle one“ he said. Then when the boy went to recognize the girls, he stopped and watched. In truth a fly was flying around the waist of one. The boy said: “Lo, this one will be the middle one“ he said. The old man said: “You have known her“ he said. Then he said to the boy: “Come back, after going and rest now“ (= go and rest now, then come back) he said. “Tomorrow come to recognize the youngest one“ he said. The boy went and slept.
When he got up in the morning, the boy at first went to his horse and said to his horse: “Today how to know the youngest girl?‘ he said. His horse said: “A fly will be going on the side of the one‘s foot. Mark that one“ he said.
Then the boy went to recognize the girls, stood and watched. Forsooth, a fly sat and went on the side of the leg of one, Then the boy said: “Lo, this one is the youngest“ he said. The old man: “You have recognized (her)“ he said. Then the old man said: “You have recognized all. Now then let me hide (them); will you be able to find (them)?“ he said. The boy said: “I shall find“ he said.
When the boy went to his horse, the old man hid the girls. The boy inquired of his horse: “Today he is hiding his girls; he orders me to find; how to find?“ he said. His horse said: “You will be at a spot in a valley with three apple trees. Their apples will stand hanging towards the ground. You take and pick one apple from off each of them, and speak, saying ‘Lo, God has given me apples; I shall travel seeking the god-daughters and eating apples all day today.‘ Then they will let go laughing (= burst out laughing) without restraining (it)“ he said.
Thereupon the boy went to seek then God‘s daughters. When he travelled seeking, he went and entered a valley. In this valley indeed dwelt three apple trees. Their apples sat hanging and hanging towards the ground. The boy went and taking and picking one apple from off each, said: “Lo, God has given me apples. I shall go seeking the god-girls eating and eating apples all day today“ he said. When they heard this, the god.-girls were unable to restrain (it) and broke out laughing. Then having found them thus he returned.
The God said to the boy: “You have recognized my daughters and you have searched and found what I have caused to be hidden. Now you yourself hide, and go to your horse. Will one be able to search and find you?“ he said. The boy went to his horse and said to his horse: “God wants me to hide myself; how to be hidden?“ he said. His horse said: “Enter the hole of my own right ear.“ The boy then sat having entered the earhole of his horse (his horse‘s earhole). Then God said to the girls: “Go and search, he has hidden (himself).“ he said. The girls went toward the horse and began searching, however, did not find. When the girls went to their father, their father said: “Did ye find?“ he said. His girls: “No, we did not find“ they said. Their father said: “You, God‘s girls, are unable to Lind a man and search in vain. He recognized and searched and found you“ he said.
The boy emerged from his horse‘s ear and going to God stood. God said to him: “Well, you have known which is the eldest and which is the youngest of my girls. You have found their hiding (‘hidden‘) place. Now you will be made son-in-law. Which one will you take?“ he said. The boy said: “The youngest“ he said. God then paired off ( married) the two.
They lived and lived (= after living quite a while) and God said to his son.-in-law: “Return, having gone to the field and caught game, come“ ( Go to the fields and catch game and then return) he said. His son-in-law mounted his horse and went to the fields. On the field he said to his horse: “Well, let‘s us go down and look at the other world“ he said. His horse “let‘s go“ he said. Then they went down and he went in his own father‘s house. His family members all slept. He kissed all the family members and went out and again ascended on high. Not one of his family members noticed.
God went and said to his son-in-law: “Why did you travel so much?“ he said. His son-in-law said: “I went afar, because of this I did not come quickly“ he said.
The next day again he sent his son-in-law for game. When his son-in-law went out on the field, he said to his horse: “Well, let‘s go down and see again“ he said. Then they descended to this world. He went in his father‘s house, and it was a place where they slept again (= there they were all sleeping again). He again kissed the family members and again ascended to the world in the heights.
At this time his wife continued to be like one who felt herself a bit having been kissed (literal). When she arose in the morning: “What sort of person kisses me?“ she said and went to a fortune-teller. The fortune-teller lady said: “This your own husband comes and kisses you. You watch him, don‘t go to sleep, hold (him) and don‘t let go; however much he pleaded. If (when) you release, you will not see (him) in the future“ she said.
His wife the next night lay and watched without sleeping. Then the next day God again sent his son-in-law for game. When his son-in-law had gone onto the field, to his horse: “Well, let‘s go down and see again“ he said. His horse said: “We are not going down any more, when we go down, they will catch you. You will be unable to save yourself“ he said. The boy was for going down to there (wanted to go down there). Thus they stood struggling for a long time. However, the boy did not obey what his horse had said. His horse said: “Well, let‘s go down, pay heed; your wife will seize you, you try somehow to unfasten yourself. I shall whinny three times. If (when) you are unable to get to come out, then you will be unable to see me any more“ he said.
Then they descended and went to his father‘s house. When they went, he again began to kiss. At that time, his wife lay watching. When he kissed his wife, his wife seized him. Her husband began pleading with his wife. His horse began to whinny. Then he began to plead more strongly; his wife did not release him; his horse again began to whinny, and the whole house went and quivered. Then again he said to his wife: “Let go. I will not go anywhere; after going outside, I enter“ he said. His wife did not let him go. His horse whinnid a third time and then went and moved, shaking the earth continuously.
Then when his horse went to God, when He saw the horse‘s coming manless, He said to the horse: “Where did you leave the man?“ he said. “His wife continues to hold him in the other world; he has a wife in the other world. I said I will not go at all, he did not obey that“ he said. God said: “Who was there who saw your struggling?“ he said. The horse said: “The stars, moon and sun saw our struggling“ he said. Then God had invited ( summoned) the stars, moon and sun. “Did you see“ he said and asked. They: “We saw: the horse stood struggling greatly without going; the (your) son-in-law did not obey“ they said. Then God grew angry and said to the men of this world: “For my daughters being left as widows, husbands dying, let their wives remain widows; wives dying, let their husbands remain widowers; parents dying, let children and kids remain orphans; children and kids dying, let parents remain bereaved (free)“ he said. For this reason it is now thus, they say.
vişĕ yvăl
ĕlĕk pĕr pujan şyn pulnă. unăn vişĕ yvăl pulnă. temişe pin puş shultra vyljăh pulnă, temĕn chuhlĕ vak vyljăh pulnă. pĕrr şapla şav starik lashisene shăvarna annă. lashisem pĕri te ĕşmen. starik kalană: "kĕsem mĕshĕn ĕşmeşşĕ, shyvra pĕr pĕr japala şuk-i?" tese shyva vyrtsa păhnă. şapla păhnă chuh suhaltan jană tytnă. starik kalană: "jar, pĕr karta kasha sana pultăr" tenĕ. şapah jaman. untan starik kalană: "pĕr karta ĕne pul sana" tenĕ. vutăsh şapah jaman.untan satik kalană: "vişĕ yvăltan pĕri sana" tenĕ te jană.
starik vara pit hujhăra puşlană. starik kilne pynă ta pürtne kĕmen tultah hujhărsa larnă. aslă ivălĕ tuhnă ta "atja, atte, şime" tenĕ. ashshĕ kalană: "pajan mana pysăk hujhă pulchĕ. lasha shăvarma karăm ta lashasem shyv ĕşmenten "shyvra mĕn pur" tese vyrtsa păhrăm. şavăn chuh suhaltan titră ta vutăsh ni-pe te jamaschĕ. "şurri vyljăhăma parăp, jar" terĕm, şapah jamarĕ. "vişĕ yvăltan pĕri sana" terĕm te tin jachĕ. esĕ kajăn-i?" tenĕ. yvălĕ kalană: "hăvah kaj" tenĕ te kĕrse kajnă. starik putjeh hujhărsa julnă.
vătalăh yvălĕ kalană: "epĕ ilse kĕrĕp attene" tenĕ. untan ashshĕ patne pynă ta, "atja, atte, şime" tenĕ. ashshĕ kalană: "pajan mana şapa hujhă pulchĕ" tenĕ. yvălĕ kalană: "hăvah kaj" tenĕ.
unta kĕşĕn yvălĕ tuhnă ta, "atja, atte, şime mĕshĕn hujhăratăn?" tenĕ. ashshĕ kalană: "mana pajan şapla şapla pulchĕ. esĕ kajăn-i?" tenĕ. yvălĕ kalană: "kajas, atte, esĕ kirek ăşta jarsan ta kajăp" tenĕ. ashshĕ vara şime kĕnĕ. şise tăransan kĕşĕn yvălĕ kalană: "haleh kajmalla-i?" tenĕ. ashshĕ: "haleh kajmalla" tenĕ. yvălĕ kalană: "atte, sănchăr jĕven tutarsa kil" tenĕ. ashshĕ vara sănchăr jĕvene tutarsa kilse pană.
yvălĕ jĕvene ilnĕ te kartana lasha tytma kajnă. jĕvene yvătnă ta pĕr sară kărchankălă lasha puşne chiknĕ. vara şavna tytsa utlannă. ta şemjisene prushetsă tusa tuhsa kajnă. hire tuhsan lashine kalană: "atja, pirvaj pĕtĕm Raşeje kursa şürer" tenĕ.
şüresen şüresen pĕr vătăr hălaş şavrănakan juman patne şitnĕ. şav jumana kassa vaklană. untan vut hursa lashine vutpa şuntarsa hyrsa şusa tasatnă, lashi vara yrarma şuk hitrelense kajnă. untan lashine kalană: "şüle kajar-i je şĕre kajari?" tenĕ. lashi kalană: "şĕre kajchchen şüle Tură patne kajsan avantarah pulĕ" tenĕ. untan vara şüle Tură patne ulăhsa kajnă.
şülte şüresen şüresen pĕr starik patne pynă ta, "esĕ mana tarşa tytman-shi?" tenĕ. starik kalană: "manăn vişĕ hĕr pur, şavsene hăhĕ asli hăshĕ kĕşĕnni şavsene pallama tytăp" tenĕ. untan vara şavsene pallama kĕrshnĕ.
hĕrĕsem vişĕshĕ te pĕr pek pĕr tĕslĕ pulnă. starik achana kalană: "lashuna kajsa şime parsa kil, epĕ hĕrsene kürtse tăratăp" tenĕ. acha lashi patne pyrsan lashinchen yjtnă: "huşa aslă hĕrne pallama hushat. jeple pĕles, purte pĕr pek?" tenĕ. lashi kalană: "aslin puşe patĕnchen şimĕl shăna irtse kajĕ, şavna as tu" tenĕ. untan acha hĕrsem patne pynă ta păhsa tănă. chănfh pĕr shăna vĕşşe irtse kajnă. vara acha: "ak şakă" tenĕ. starik kalană: "şavă pallarăn" tenĕ.
untan tepĕr vătalăhne pallamalla pulnă. acha tatah lashi patne pynă ta kalană: "pajan vătalăh hĕrne pĕlmelle, jeple pĕles?" tenĕ. lashi kalană: "pilĕk tĕlĕnchen shăna vĕşşe irtse kajĕ, şavă pulĕ vătalăhĕ" tenĕ. untan acha hĕrsene pallama pyrsan păhsa tănă. chănah ta pĕr shăna pĕrin pilĕke tĕlĕnchen vĕşşe kajnă. acha kalană: "akă şak pulĕ vătalăhĕ" tenĕ. starik kalană: "şavă pĕltĕn" tenĕ. "yran kĕşĕnnine pallama kil" tenĕ. acha kajsa şyvărnă.
irhine tărsan acha pirvaj lashi patne pyrsa lashine kalană: "pajan kĕşĕn hĕrne jeple pallas?" tenĕ. lashi kalană: "pĕrin uri pichĕ shăna pyrsa larĕ, şavna as tu" tenĕ.
vara acha hĕrsene pallama pynă ta păhsa tănă. chănah ta pĕr shăna pĕrin uri pichĕ şine pyrsa larnă. untan acha kalană: "ak şakă kĕşĕnni" tenĕ. starik "pallarăn" tenĕ. untan starik kalană: "esĕ purne te pallarăn. ĕntĕ tata pytaram, tjpajăni? tenĕ. acha kalană: "tupăr" tenĕ.
acha lashi patne kajsan starik hĕrĕsene pytarnă. acha lashinchen yjtnă: "pajan hĕrĕsene pytarat, mana tupma hushat, jeple tupas?" tenĕ. lashi kalană: "esĕ pĕr lupashkara vişĕ panulmi jyvăşi tĕl pulăn. vĕsen ulmisem şĕrelle usănsa larĕş. esĕ kashnin şinchen pĕrer ulma tatsa il te "akă mana Tură ulma pachĕ, epĕ pajan kunĕpe panulmi şise Tură hĕrĕsene shyrasa şürĕp" tese kala, vara vĕsem kulsa jarĕş cătajmasăr" tenĕ.
untan vara acha Tură hĕresene shyrama tajnă. shyrasa şürenĕ chuh pĕr lupashkana pyrsa kĕnĕ. şav lupashkara chănah ta vişĕ panulmi jyvaşi larnă. ulmisem şĕrelle usăna larnă. acha pynă ta kashnin şininchen pĕrer ulma tatsa ilnĕ te kalană: "akă mana Tură ulma pachĕ. epĕ pajan kunĕpe ulma şije şije Tură hĕrĕsene shyrasa şürĕp" tenĕ. şavna iltsen Tură hĕrĕsem chătajmasăr kulsa jană. vara şapla tupsa tavrănnă.
untan Tură achana kalană: "esĕ man hĕrsene pallarăn ta pytantartăm shyrasa tuprăn. halĕ hu pytan lashu patne kajsa vĕsem sana shyrasa tupajăshi" tenĕ.
acha lashi patne pynă ta lashine kalană: "Tură mana hama pytanma hushat, ăşta pytanas?" tenĕ. lashi kalană: "hamăn syltăm hălha shătăkne kĕr" tenĕ. acha vara lashi hălha shătăkne kĕrse larnă. untan Tură hĕrĕsene kalană: "kajsa shyrăr, pytanche" tenĕ. hĕrĕsem lasha patne pynă ta shyra puşlană anchah tupajman. hĕrsem ashshĕ patne pyrsan ashshĕ kalană: "tuprăr-i?" tenĕ. hĕrĕsem: "şuk, tupajmarămăr" tenĕ. ashshĕ kalană: "hăvăr Tură hĕrĕsem ahal şynna ta shyrasa tupajmastăr, văl sire pallarĕ te shyrasa ta tuprĕ tenĕ.
acha lasha hălhi shătăkenchen tuhsa Tură patne pyrsa tănă ta Tură ăna kalană: "nu esĕ manăn hĕrsene hăshĕ asli hăshĕ kĕşĕnnine pĕltĕn, pytannă şĕrten tuprăn. sana ĕntĕ kĕrü tăvas pulĕ. hăshne ilen?" tenĕ. acha kalană: "kĕsĕnnine" tenĕ. Tură vara ikĕshĕne măshărlasa jană.
purănsan purănsan Tură kĕrüshne kalană: "kus hire kajsa kajăk tytsa kil" tenĕ. kĕrüshĕ lashine utlannă ta hire kajnă. hirte lashine kalană: "atja, lesh tĕnchene ansa kurar" tenĕ. lashi, "atja" tenĕ. vara vĕsem annă ta hăjĕn ashshĕ kilne pynă. şemjisem purte şyvărnă. văl pur şemjisene te chup tusa tuhnă ta kalleh şüle ulăhnă. şemjisem pĕri te sismen.
Tură kĕrüshne pyrsan kalană: "mĕshĕn nummaj şürerĕn?" tenĕ. kĕrüshĕ kalană: "inşĕ karăm, şavanpa chas kilemerĕm" tenĕ.
tepĕr kun kalleh kajăkra jană kĕrüshne. kĕrüshĕ hire tuhan lashine kalană: "atja tatah ansa kurar" tenĕ. vara vĕsem şak tĕnchene annă. ashshĕ kilne pynă ta vĕsem kalleh şyvărnă tĕle pulnă. văl tatah şemjsene chup tună ta kalleh şülti tĕnchene ulăhnă.
şavăn chuh arămĕ hăjne chup tunine kăsht sisnĕ pek pulsa julnă. irhine tărsan "mana mĕsker chup tăvat" tese jumăşa kajnă. jumăş karchăkĕ kalană: ku hăvăn upăshku sana kilse chup tăvat. esĕ ăna syhla, an şyvăr, tytta an jar, văl sana tempek jălănnĕ. jarsan ülĕmren kurajmăn" tenĕ.
arămĕ tepĕr kaş şyvărmasăr syhlasa vyrtnă. untan tepĕr kun Tură kĕrüshne tatah kajăka jană. kĕrüshĕ hire tuhsan lashine, "atja tatah ansa kurar" tenĕ. lashi kalană: "şuk tek anmăpăr, ansan san tytaşşĕ, esĕ hătălajmastăn" tenĕ. acha şapah anashshăn pulnă. şapla vĕsem numachen tavlashsha tănă. anchah acha lashi kalanine itlemen. lashi kalană: "atja epir anar, as tu sana arămu tytĕ, esĕ kakniput vĕserĕnme hătlan. epĕ vişĕ huchen kĕşenep. esĕ tuhsa ĕlkĕrejmesen vara mana tekeh kurajmăn" tenĕ.
vara vĕsem ansa ashshĕ kilne pynă. pyrsan văl kalleh chup tăva puşlană. un chuhne arămĕ syhlasa vyrtnă. văl arămne chup tună chuh arămĕ jană tytnă. upăshki arămne jălăna puşlană. lashi kĕşense jană. untan hytărah jălăna puşlană. şapah jaman arămĕ. lashi tatah kĕşense janăta pĕtĕm pürt chĕtrese kajnă. untan tatah arămne kalană: "jar, epĕ nişta ta kajmastăp, tula tuhsa kĕrem" tenĕ. arămĕ şapah jaman. lashi vişĕmĕsh hut kĕşennĕ te vara tapransa kajnă ta şĕr chĕtrese julnă.
untan lashi Tură patne pyrsan Tură lasha şynsăr pynine kursan lashana kalană: "esĕ şynna ăşta hutăn?" tenĕ. "ăna lesh tĕnchere arămĕ tytsa julchĕ, unăn lesh tĕnchere arămĕ pur. epĕ temtĕrlĕ kajas mar terĕm, văl şapah itlemerĕ" tenĕ. Tură kalană: "esir tavlashnine kam ta pulsa kurchĕ-i?" tenĕ. lasha kalană: "epir tavlashnine şăltăr ujăh hĕvel kurchĕ" tenĕ. untan Tură şăltăra ujăha hĕvele chĕnternĕ te "esir kurăr-i?" tese yjtnă. leshsem, "kurtămăr: lasha kajmasăr nummaj tavlashsha tăchĕ te kĕrĕvĕ itlemerĕ" tenĕ. untan Tură şilense ku tĕncheri şynsene kalană: "manăn hĕre tălăha hăvarnashăn upăshki vilse arămĕ tălăha jultăr, arămĕ vilse upăshki tălăha jultăr, ashshĕ amăshĕ vilse achi păchi tălăha jultăr achi păchi vilse ashshĕ amăshĕ tălăha jultăr" tenĕ.
şavănpa halĕ şapla pulat, teşşĕ.
The Three Sons (translation)
Once upon a time there was a rich man. He had three sons (and) three daughters-in-law. He had some thousand head of large livestock, and such a number of small livestock. Once then this old man went-down to water his horses. His horses not a one had drunk. The old man said: “Why do they not drink? Is there not something in the water?“ Saying (this) he lay and watched the water. When he was watching thus (“at his thus-watching time“), he was seized by the beard. The old man said: “Let go, a herd of horses be yours!“ he said. He did not release him. The water-sprite said: “Give your own loved one! I shall let go,“ he said. The old man said: “A herd of cows be yours“ he said. The water-sprite did not release that-one. Thereupon the old man said: “One from my three sons (be) yours.“ When he said that the water-sprite let go.
The old man then began suffering greatly. The old man went to his house and not entering his main-room sat sorrowing outside. The eldest son emerged and said: “Come on, father, food.“ His father said: “Today great misfortune befell me (was to me). I went to water the horses and saying, owing to the horses‘ not drinking water, ‘something is in the water,‘ I lay and watched. At this time the water-sprite seized (me) by the beard and did not let go for nothing (‘with nothing‘ = not at all). ‘I‘ll give the half of my livestock; let go!‘ I said, he did not release me. ‘One of my three sons is yours‘ I said, only then did he release ( not until I said so and so did he release). Will you go?“ he said. His son said: “Go yourself,“ and when he said that, he went in. The old man continued then sorrowing.
The middle son said: “I will take father and enter“ he said. Then he went to his father. “Come on, father, food!“ he said. His father said: “Today such and such a mishap occurred“ he said. His son said: “Go yourself,“ he said.
Then his youngest son came out. “Come on, father, food, why are you sorrowing?“ he said. His father said: “Today such and such happened to me. Will you go?“ he said. His son said: “I will go (‘there will be a going‘), father, I shall go when you send me wherever“ he said. ( I shall go wherever you send me. ) His father then came in to eat. When he, eating, had eaten his fill, his youngest son said: “Must one go now?“ he said. His father: “One must go now“ he said. His son said: “Father, go and have made a bridle chain.“ he said. His father then had a bridle chain made and carne and gave (it to him).
His son took the bridle and went to catch a horse in the herd (‘went to the herd for horse-catching‘). He cast his bridle and a mangy bay horse came and inserted his head, Then seizing him he mounted and taking leave of the family members went out. When he came out onto the field, he said to the horse: “Weil, let us first travel and see all Russia.“ he said.
They travelled and travailed and arrived at an oak which was thirty fathoms going around (in circumference). He felled this oak and chopped it up (into small pieces). Then making a fire, he burned (branded?) his horse with fire, scraped, washed and cleaned it. His horse then came to be incomparably beautiful. Then he said to his horse: “Shall we go on high or shall we go on the earth?“ he said. His horse said: “Before going on the earth, it will be better when we go towards God on high“ he said. Thereupon he ascended to God on high.
After wandering and wandering above he came towards an old man. “Will you take me as servant?“ he said. The old man said: “There is no work at all for me to take a servant (‘for my servant-taking there is no work‘)“ he said. Then he said: “I have three daughters; I shall hire you for recognizing them, the which is the eldest, and the which is the youngest of them“ he said. Thereupon he hired himself out then for recognizing them.
His daughters, the three of them, were completely of one kind. The old man said to the boy: “Go to your horse, give him to eat, and come. I shall bring in the daughters and stand (them on display)“ he said. When the boy went towards his horse, he inquired of his horse: “The master orders the recognizing of his eldest girl. How to know? all (are) alike.“ he said. His horse said: “There will go past a fly on the side of the eldest one‘s head; mark her (pay heed to her)“ he said. Then the boy went towards the girls, and stood and watched. In truth, a fly went flying past. Then the boy: “Lo, this one!“ he said. The old man said: “You have recognized her“ he said.
Then the next day his middle one was to be recognized. The boy again went towards his horse and said: “Today his middle girl must be known; how to know?“ he said. His horse said: “There will go flying past from the area of her waist a fly. This one will be the middle one“ he said. Then when the boy went to recognize the girls, he stopped and watched. In truth a fly was flying around the waist of one. The boy said: “Lo, this one will be the middle one“ he said. The old man said: “You have known her“ he said. Then he said to the boy: “Come back, after going and rest now“ (= go and rest now, then come back) he said. “Tomorrow come to recognize the youngest one“ he said. The boy went and slept.
When he got up in the morning, the boy at first went to his horse and said to his horse: “Today how to know the youngest girl?‘ he said. His horse said: “A fly will be going on the side of the one‘s foot. Mark that one“ he said.
Then the boy went to recognize the girls, stood and watched. Forsooth, a fly sat and went on the side of the leg of one, Then the boy said: “Lo, this one is the youngest“ he said. The old man: “You have recognized (her)“ he said. Then the old man said: “You have recognized all. Now then let me hide (them); will you be able to find (them)?“ he said. The boy said: “I shall find“ he said.
When the boy went to his horse, the old man hid the girls. The boy inquired of his horse: “Today he is hiding his girls; he orders me to find; how to find?“ he said. His horse said: “You will be at a spot in a valley with three apple trees. Their apples will stand hanging towards the ground. You take and pick one apple from off each of them, and speak, saying ‘Lo, God has given me apples; I shall travel seeking the god-daughters and eating apples all day today.‘ Then they will let go laughing (= burst out laughing) without restraining (it)“ he said.
Thereupon the boy went to seek then God‘s daughters. When he travelled seeking, he went and entered a valley. In this valley indeed dwelt three apple trees. Their apples sat hanging and hanging towards the ground. The boy went and taking and picking one apple from off each, said: “Lo, God has given me apples. I shall go seeking the god-girls eating and eating apples all day today“ he said. When they heard this, the god.-girls were unable to restrain (it) and broke out laughing. Then having found them thus he returned.
The God said to the boy: “You have recognized my daughters and you have searched and found what I have caused to be hidden. Now you yourself hide, and go to your horse. Will one be able to search and find you?“ he said. The boy went to his horse and said to his horse: “God wants me to hide myself; how to be hidden?“ he said. His horse said: “Enter the hole of my own right ear.“ The boy then sat having entered the earhole of his horse (his horse‘s earhole). Then God said to the girls: “Go and search, he has hidden (himself).“ he said. The girls went toward the horse and began searching, however, did not find. When the girls went to their father, their father said: “Did ye find?“ he said. His girls: “No, we did not find“ they said. Their father said: “You, God‘s girls, are unable to Lind a man and search in vain. He recognized and searched and found you“ he said.
The boy emerged from his horse‘s ear and going to God stood. God said to him: “Well, you have known which is the eldest and which is the youngest of my girls. You have found their hiding (‘hidden‘) place. Now you will be made son-in-law. Which one will you take?“ he said. The boy said: “The youngest“ he said. God then paired off ( married) the two.
They lived and lived (= after living quite a while) and God said to his son.-in-law: “Return, having gone to the field and caught game, come“ ( Go to the fields and catch game and then return) he said. His son-in-law mounted his horse and went to the fields. On the field he said to his horse: “Well, let‘s us go down and look at the other world“ he said. His horse “let‘s go“ he said. Then they went down and he went in his own father‘s house. His family members all slept. He kissed all the family members and went out and again ascended on high. Not one of his family members noticed.
God went and said to his son-in-law: “Why did you travel so much?“ he said. His son-in-law said: “I went afar, because of this I did not come quickly“ he said.
The next day again he sent his son-in-law for game. When his son-in-law went out on the field, he said to his horse: “Well, let‘s go down and see again“ he said. Then they descended to this world. He went in his father‘s house, and it was a place where they slept again (= there they were all sleeping again). He again kissed the family members and again ascended to the world in the heights.
At this time his wife continued to be like one who felt herself a bit having been kissed (literal). When she arose in the morning: “What sort of person kisses me?“ she said and went to a fortune-teller. The fortune-teller lady said: “This your own husband comes and kisses you. You watch him, don‘t go to sleep, hold (him) and don‘t let go; however much he pleaded. If (when) you release, you will not see (him) in the future“ she said.
His wife the next night lay and watched without sleeping. Then the next day God again sent his son-in-law for game. When his son-in-law had gone onto the field, to his horse: “Well, let‘s go down and see again“ he said. His horse said: “We are not going down any more, when we go down, they will catch you. You will be unable to save yourself“ he said. The boy was for going down to there (wanted to go down there). Thus they stood struggling for a long time. However, the boy did not obey what his horse had said. His horse said: “Well, let‘s go down, pay heed; your wife will seize you, you try somehow to unfasten yourself. I shall whinny three times. If (when) you are unable to get to come out, then you will be unable to see me any more“ he said.
Then they descended and went to his father‘s house. When they went, he again began to kiss. At that time, his wife lay watching. When he kissed his wife, his wife seized him. Her husband began pleading with his wife. His horse began to whinny. Then he began to plead more strongly; his wife did not release him; his horse again began to whinny, and the whole house went and quivered. Then again he said to his wife: “Let go. I will not go anywhere; after going outside, I enter“ he said. His wife did not let him go. His horse whinnid a third time and then went and moved, shaking the earth continuously.
Then when his horse went to God, when He saw the horse‘s coming manless, He said to the horse: “Where did you leave the man?“ he said. “His wife continues to hold him in the other world; he has a wife in the other world. I said I will not go at all, he did not obey that“ he said. God said: “Who was there who saw your struggling?“ he said. The horse said: “The stars, moon and sun saw our struggling“ he said. Then God had invited ( summoned) the stars, moon and sun. “Did you see“ he said and asked. They: “We saw: the horse stood struggling greatly without going; the (your) son-in-law did not obey“ they said. Then God grew angry and said to the men of this world: “For my daughters being left as widows, husbands dying, let their wives remain widows; wives dying, let their husbands remain widowers; parents dying, let children and kids remain orphans; children and kids dying, let parents remain bereaved (free)“ he said. For this reason it is now thus, they say.
17 sintax
SYNTAX
Word Order and the Principles of Modification
One of the major principles of Chuvash structure is that modifying elements precede the modified, the group thus formed then even modifying still another group, and so proceeding to the end of the clause or sentence. The essential order of the Chuvash sentence begins with the subject, or with a subject group (in which the subject is preceded by some words which it governs), concludes with the predicate or the predicate verb, or a group of words in which the predicate concludes and governs the preceding. All other elements of time, manner and circumstance are arrayed in between.
pirĕn pattăr pogranichniksem kunĕn-şĕrĕn tĕrlĕ tăshmansenchen granitsăsene syhlaşşĕ Our reknowned border guards protect the border day and night from various enemies.
anlă Atăl hăjĕn tulăh shyvne tinĕse vaskasa hăvalat The Volga hurriedly drives its abundant waters to the sea.
pirĕn hăvatlă Sovet şarĕ fashistla Germanija şĕnterse tăkrĕ Our valiant Soviet army scored the victory over Fascist Germany.
The subject does not need to be expressed with any special word:
temĕn chuhlĕ vak vyljăh pulnă There was such a number of small cattle.
şapla păhnă chuh suhaltan jană tytnă When he was watching thus (at such a watched time‘) he pulled (him) by the beard.
untan vara şavsene pallama kĕrshnĕ Thereupon he then hired himself out for the purpose of knowing them.
In folktales especially, but also in the literary language, one will find instances in which the verb does not occupy absolute-final position, this being usurped for the nonce by some other word.
tepĕr kun kalleh kajăka jană kĕrüne Another day he sent his son-in-law to hunt game.
epĕ ilse kĕrĕp attene I‘ll go bring father in
şavah jaman arămĕ Then his wife did not let him loose.
In most instances, however, the customary order is as follows:
pĕrre amăshĕ shyva kajma hushnă Once his mother sent him to to fetch water.
arămĕ tepĕr kaş şyvarmasăr syhlasa vyrtnă His wife the next evening lay and watched without sleeping.
ulăm şine purttăne hună He placed his axe on the hay.
Compound sentences are constructed exactly like simple clauses or sentences: any subordinate clause clarifying or modifying the main clause, or a combination of words modifying any part of the sentence, comes before that main clause.
epĕ unăn kandidaturine tăratsan, puhu havassăn unshăn sasălarĕ When I proposed his candidacy, the entire assembly readily voted for him
konferentsija hupănnă hyşşăn delegatsem rajonsene salanchĕş After adjourning the conference, the delegates departed to their own regions.
Certain word groups between junctures cannot be separated in Chuvash: these include substantives with their postpositions, or nouns juxtaposed in nominal groups (izafet).
Words in Chuvash may be joined by coordination or by subordination. In the former case, the words need not depend on each other, and all identical parts of the sentence which have equal weight or are of the same type maybe connected by such coordinates as: tata, ta, te, anchah, şapah, je‚ te, etc.
epir numaj şĕnĕ zavodsem, fabriksem tăvatpăr We are building many new factories and plants.
hulara ta, jalta ta, inşetri şurşĕrte te sujlava hatĕrlenetpĕr We are preparing for the elections in the town, in the country, and in the far north.
văl pitĕ tărăsat, anchah ilemlĕ şyrajmast-ha He tries very hard, but still cannot write nicely.
In joining words by subordination, there is agreement, government and juxtaposition. Agreement in Chuvash is limited to verbs agreeing with their subjects in person and number (epĕ vĕrenetĕp - I study, epir vĕrenetpĕr - we study), as agreement of nouns or pronouns with the noun modified is found only in a few isolated expressions (esĕ şĕlĕkne attenne tăhănăn - you put on papa‘s hat, lit. “the hat, the papa one“). Appositives agree with the word modified in case and number, e.g.,
pirĕn, komsomoletssen, naukăna şavărsa ilmelleh We Komsomols must master science. (Science must be mastered by us Komsomols)
epir, şamrăksem, naukăna şavărsa ilmelleh We, youth, must master science.
Government is when the subordinating word requires the subordinated word to be in some definite oblique case. Almost any word (verbs, participles, converbs, postpositions, nominals) may act as a governing word.
Ivanăn keneki John‘s book
kĕneke vulichchen until reading a book
şile hirĕş against the wind
Juxtaposition is that type of subordinate liaison in which the word so subordinated is immediately next to the subordinating word, forming a nominal group with it, and preceded and followed by some type of juncture. Almost any type of word may be juxtaposed to any other.
hĕrlĕ jalav red banner
vişĕ pilĕkşullăh three five year plans
pĕtĕm halăh the entire nation
tumalli ĕş work to be done
vulama tytăntăm I began reading, I set about reading
ăshă şantalăk warm weather
văjlă şil strong wind
vişĕ brigada three teams
Muskav uramĕ a Moscow street
vulakan kĕneke a book which is being read
jurlakansen sassi singers‘ voices
Quite a large number of such nominal groups employ the izafet relation, in which the modified noun is in the possessive form, thus denoting its particular connection with the preceding.
kolhoz ujĕ a kolkhoz field
sujlav komissi electoral commission
pereket kassi savings bank
kolhoz pravlenijĕ kolkhoz management
şutĕş Ministerstvi Ministry of Education
vărman huşalăhĕ forestry (‘forest economy‘)
We have previously noted nominal groups composed of nouns without any suffix.
şul şurt stone house
kĕmĕl sehet a silver watch
chugun şul railroad (‘iron road‘)
The genitive case suffix distinguishes some phrases from each other.
lasha puşĕ a horsehead
ku lashan puşĕ the head of this horse, this horse‘s head
student ĕşĕ student work, work performed by students
ku studentĕn ĕşĕ this student‘s work, the work of this student
Use of Cases
We shall briefly recapitulate here the chief uses of the Chuvash cases. The Nominative (Absolute) functions both as subject and as predicate nominative, as well as being an attribute to a following noun by forming a nominal group.
Ivanov vĕrenet Ivanov studies
Ivanov student Ivanov is a student
chugun şul railroad (iron road)
The Genitive is used to express possession, regardless of whether a verb is present or not.
Ivanăn avtomat-ruchka pur John has a fountain pen.
ku kĕneke Ivanăn This book is John‘s.
epĕ Petĕrĕn kĕnekine iltĕm, sanănne mar I took Peter‘s book, not yours
Ivan kĕneki parta şincheh John‘s book is on the desk
The Dative-Accusative denotes direction, the indirect object and the direct object as well.
brigadira premi pachĕş They awarded a prize to the teamleader
Ivan vĕrenme Instituta kĕnĕ John began to study at the Institute
Ivan kĕnekene vulat John reads the book
Ivan kĕneke vulat John reads books
The Locative denotes the place where an action occurs.
sanra shanchak pur You can be depended on (there is hope in you)
epĕ kolhozra ĕşlerĕm I worked on the kolkhoz.
The Ablative is widely used in the function of a comparative degree, and also is a case denoting the place from which movement takes place.
uchitel achasenchen sochineni puştarchĕ
The teacher collected the compositions from the students.
direktor Muskavran tavrănă
The director returned from Moscow
Kazah SSR-ĕ Ukrainăran pysăk
The Kazakh SSR is larger than Ukrainia.
The instrumental case arises from the postposition –palan/-pelen, now surviving as the ending -pa/-pe, and denotes the means or method.
epĕ muzykăpa intereslenetĕp I am interested in music
esĕ kaşpa kil Come in the evening
Setner pyrat vărmanpa Setner goes by way of the woods
epĕ părahutpa kiltĕm I arrived on the steamer
Types of Subordinate Clauses
Before taking tip he structure of compound and complex sentences, we shall briefly survey the chief types of subordinate clauses, as given by Dmitriyev and Gorskii.
Attributive:
epir hulana kajakan avtobus kilchĕ
the bus in which we were going to town arrived
(the us to town taking bus came‘).
Subject:
epĕ shahmat kruzhokpe kĕni jultashsene pitĕ hĕpĕrtetterchĕ
My joining the chess club greatly heartened the members.
Object:
achasem ekskursije kajnine epĕ pĕletĕp
I know the children went on the outing
(I know the children a having gone on an outing).
Predicate:
pirĕn tĕp zadacha - nauka nikĕsĕsene şavărsa ilessi
Our basic task is to master the fundamentals of science.
Adverbs
of time:
hĕvel ansan, epir ĕşĕ pĕtertĕmĕr
When the sun went down, we finished work.
konferentsi hupănnă hyşşăn delegatsem rajonsene salanchĕş
After closing the conference, the delegates set out for their region.
Purpose:
mĕn vĕrennine şirĕpletme epir kalaşu tusa irttertĕmĕr
In order to confirm what had taken place, we conducted a talk.
Reason:
şĕr nürlĕren tyrăsem chasah shătrĕş
Since the ground was moist, the grain quickly sprouted.
văhăt numaja kajnă pirki, purte salanchĕş
In view of the fact that it was late, everyone went his way.
Manner:
kolhozniksem, agrotehnikăna vĕrene-vĕrene, tyrpul tuhăshne numaj üsterchĕş
The kolkhoz workers, studying agrotechnics, increased the crop yield considerably.
Condition:
stahanovla ĕşlesen, epir srokchen plana tultaratpăr
If we work in a Stakhanovits manner, we shall fulfill the plan ahead of schedule.
Concessive:
autobus avan pyrsan ta, epir pojezda ĕlkĕres şuk
Even if the bus runs all right, we won‘t make it to the train.
Types of Complex Sentences
The Chuvash grammarians attempt to explain sentences with subordinate clauses mostly in terms of Russian grammar and syntax, and distinguish four types, of which the first represents essentially a Russian borrowing, as:
kam ekskursije kajas tet, văl yran kiltĕr
Whoever wishes to go on the outing is to come tomorrow
(who, saying to go on the trip, let him come tomorrow‘).
Subordinate clauses may also be marked by such concluding words as tese, tesen, pulsan, pulsan ta, and pulin te. With the first of these, tese, lit. ‘saying‘, the 3rd p. imperative or the nomen futuri is usually used.
şumăr tumtire an jĕpettĕr tese, storozh hăj şine nakidka tăhănna
So that the ram would not wet his garments, the watchman put on a cloak.
(Saying, ‘let the ram not wet the clothes,‘ the watchman. ..)
haşat-zhurnasene văhătra vulas tese, epir chital‘năna jalanah şüretpĕr
In order to keep up with newspapers and magazines, visit the reading room regularly
(lit. ‘saying, ‘to read on time newspapers, we visit the reading room")
The word tesen (lit. "when one says‘) may also be used with the obligatory noun in -malla to indicate purpose.
haşat-zhurnalesene văhătra vulasa tăras tesen, jalanah chital‘năna şüremelle
In order to keep abreast of newspapers and magazines, one must visit the reading
room regularly.
Instead of şüremelle, one may also find şüre ‘one will go,‘ or şüres pulat ‘there will be a going.‘
The word pulsan (lit. ‘when it becomes, when it comes to pass that‘) is also used to mean “if“ and indicate the conditions under which something may be performed, and the subjunctive pulin te ("let it be that, although it be") is used for “although, even though, in spite of the fact that“ ideas.
kĕrtemestĕn pulsan, văl văjpa kĕret
If you don‘t let him in, he‘ll come in by force
(lit. ‘when your not letting him in comes to pass, he will enter with force‘).
şĕr tĕttĕm pulin te, jal kurănat-ha
Although the night is ("be!") dark, the village is visible.
Sentences of consequence or result, using words like “because, owing to, on account of,“ employ the Chuvash w6rds mĕnshĕn tensen (‘when one says for what‘ = because), şavănpa or şavănpa vara (since by this, by virtue of this‘).
chul shyvra putat, mĕnshĕn tensen văl shyvran jyvăr
A stone sinks in water because it is heavier than water
(a stone sinks in water; if we say for what reason, it is heavy from water).
pirĕn patra shartlama sivĕsem pulchĕş. şavănpa vara vyrănĕ-vyrănĕpe ulmuşşisem hărchĕş
We had heavy frosts, for the appletrees were destroyed by frost in places.
Some sentences are composed of clauses which may also be used independently, thus, note the first clauses of these sentences.
kam ĕşlemest, văl şimest
Who doesn‘t work, doesn‘t eat.
chul shyvra putat, mĕnshĕn tesen văl shyvran jyvăr
A stone sinks in water because it is heavier than water.
zanjatisem pĕtne hyşşănah, achasem vyljama puşlarĕş
As soon as classes let out, the children began to play.
However, in the following sentence, the first words cannot be used independently.
hĕvel tuhichcheneh, brigada ĕşe tytănchĕ
Before the sun got up, the team set out to work.
In speech, there are junctural features sometimes setting off clauses, often corresponding to marks of punctuation.
epĕ, pichche Instituta vĕrenme kĕnĕrenpe, ăna pĕrre te kurman-ha
After my elder brother began to study at the Institute, I never saw him again.
But:
pichche Instituta vĕrenme kĕnĕrenpe epĕ ăna pĕrre te kurman-ha
does not contain punctuation.
Word Order and the Principles of Modification
One of the major principles of Chuvash structure is that modifying elements precede the modified, the group thus formed then even modifying still another group, and so proceeding to the end of the clause or sentence. The essential order of the Chuvash sentence begins with the subject, or with a subject group (in which the subject is preceded by some words which it governs), concludes with the predicate or the predicate verb, or a group of words in which the predicate concludes and governs the preceding. All other elements of time, manner and circumstance are arrayed in between.
pirĕn pattăr pogranichniksem kunĕn-şĕrĕn tĕrlĕ tăshmansenchen granitsăsene syhlaşşĕ Our reknowned border guards protect the border day and night from various enemies.
anlă Atăl hăjĕn tulăh shyvne tinĕse vaskasa hăvalat The Volga hurriedly drives its abundant waters to the sea.
pirĕn hăvatlă Sovet şarĕ fashistla Germanija şĕnterse tăkrĕ Our valiant Soviet army scored the victory over Fascist Germany.
The subject does not need to be expressed with any special word:
temĕn chuhlĕ vak vyljăh pulnă There was such a number of small cattle.
şapla păhnă chuh suhaltan jană tytnă When he was watching thus (at such a watched time‘) he pulled (him) by the beard.
untan vara şavsene pallama kĕrshnĕ Thereupon he then hired himself out for the purpose of knowing them.
In folktales especially, but also in the literary language, one will find instances in which the verb does not occupy absolute-final position, this being usurped for the nonce by some other word.
tepĕr kun kalleh kajăka jană kĕrüne Another day he sent his son-in-law to hunt game.
epĕ ilse kĕrĕp attene I‘ll go bring father in
şavah jaman arămĕ Then his wife did not let him loose.
In most instances, however, the customary order is as follows:
pĕrre amăshĕ shyva kajma hushnă Once his mother sent him to to fetch water.
arămĕ tepĕr kaş şyvarmasăr syhlasa vyrtnă His wife the next evening lay and watched without sleeping.
ulăm şine purttăne hună He placed his axe on the hay.
Compound sentences are constructed exactly like simple clauses or sentences: any subordinate clause clarifying or modifying the main clause, or a combination of words modifying any part of the sentence, comes before that main clause.
epĕ unăn kandidaturine tăratsan, puhu havassăn unshăn sasălarĕ When I proposed his candidacy, the entire assembly readily voted for him
konferentsija hupănnă hyşşăn delegatsem rajonsene salanchĕş After adjourning the conference, the delegates departed to their own regions.
Certain word groups between junctures cannot be separated in Chuvash: these include substantives with their postpositions, or nouns juxtaposed in nominal groups (izafet).
Words in Chuvash may be joined by coordination or by subordination. In the former case, the words need not depend on each other, and all identical parts of the sentence which have equal weight or are of the same type maybe connected by such coordinates as: tata, ta, te, anchah, şapah, je‚ te, etc.
epir numaj şĕnĕ zavodsem, fabriksem tăvatpăr We are building many new factories and plants.
hulara ta, jalta ta, inşetri şurşĕrte te sujlava hatĕrlenetpĕr We are preparing for the elections in the town, in the country, and in the far north.
văl pitĕ tărăsat, anchah ilemlĕ şyrajmast-ha He tries very hard, but still cannot write nicely.
In joining words by subordination, there is agreement, government and juxtaposition. Agreement in Chuvash is limited to verbs agreeing with their subjects in person and number (epĕ vĕrenetĕp - I study, epir vĕrenetpĕr - we study), as agreement of nouns or pronouns with the noun modified is found only in a few isolated expressions (esĕ şĕlĕkne attenne tăhănăn - you put on papa‘s hat, lit. “the hat, the papa one“). Appositives agree with the word modified in case and number, e.g.,
pirĕn, komsomoletssen, naukăna şavărsa ilmelleh We Komsomols must master science. (Science must be mastered by us Komsomols)
epir, şamrăksem, naukăna şavărsa ilmelleh We, youth, must master science.
Government is when the subordinating word requires the subordinated word to be in some definite oblique case. Almost any word (verbs, participles, converbs, postpositions, nominals) may act as a governing word.
Ivanăn keneki John‘s book
kĕneke vulichchen until reading a book
şile hirĕş against the wind
Juxtaposition is that type of subordinate liaison in which the word so subordinated is immediately next to the subordinating word, forming a nominal group with it, and preceded and followed by some type of juncture. Almost any type of word may be juxtaposed to any other.
hĕrlĕ jalav red banner
vişĕ pilĕkşullăh three five year plans
pĕtĕm halăh the entire nation
tumalli ĕş work to be done
vulama tytăntăm I began reading, I set about reading
ăshă şantalăk warm weather
văjlă şil strong wind
vişĕ brigada three teams
Muskav uramĕ a Moscow street
vulakan kĕneke a book which is being read
jurlakansen sassi singers‘ voices
Quite a large number of such nominal groups employ the izafet relation, in which the modified noun is in the possessive form, thus denoting its particular connection with the preceding.
kolhoz ujĕ a kolkhoz field
sujlav komissi electoral commission
pereket kassi savings bank
kolhoz pravlenijĕ kolkhoz management
şutĕş Ministerstvi Ministry of Education
vărman huşalăhĕ forestry (‘forest economy‘)
We have previously noted nominal groups composed of nouns without any suffix.
şul şurt stone house
kĕmĕl sehet a silver watch
chugun şul railroad (‘iron road‘)
The genitive case suffix distinguishes some phrases from each other.
lasha puşĕ a horsehead
ku lashan puşĕ the head of this horse, this horse‘s head
student ĕşĕ student work, work performed by students
ku studentĕn ĕşĕ this student‘s work, the work of this student
Use of Cases
We shall briefly recapitulate here the chief uses of the Chuvash cases. The Nominative (Absolute) functions both as subject and as predicate nominative, as well as being an attribute to a following noun by forming a nominal group.
Ivanov vĕrenet Ivanov studies
Ivanov student Ivanov is a student
chugun şul railroad (iron road)
The Genitive is used to express possession, regardless of whether a verb is present or not.
Ivanăn avtomat-ruchka pur John has a fountain pen.
ku kĕneke Ivanăn This book is John‘s.
epĕ Petĕrĕn kĕnekine iltĕm, sanănne mar I took Peter‘s book, not yours
Ivan kĕneki parta şincheh John‘s book is on the desk
The Dative-Accusative denotes direction, the indirect object and the direct object as well.
brigadira premi pachĕş They awarded a prize to the teamleader
Ivan vĕrenme Instituta kĕnĕ John began to study at the Institute
Ivan kĕnekene vulat John reads the book
Ivan kĕneke vulat John reads books
The Locative denotes the place where an action occurs.
sanra shanchak pur You can be depended on (there is hope in you)
epĕ kolhozra ĕşlerĕm I worked on the kolkhoz.
The Ablative is widely used in the function of a comparative degree, and also is a case denoting the place from which movement takes place.
uchitel achasenchen sochineni puştarchĕ
The teacher collected the compositions from the students.
direktor Muskavran tavrănă
The director returned from Moscow
Kazah SSR-ĕ Ukrainăran pysăk
The Kazakh SSR is larger than Ukrainia.
The instrumental case arises from the postposition –palan/-pelen, now surviving as the ending -pa/-pe, and denotes the means or method.
epĕ muzykăpa intereslenetĕp I am interested in music
esĕ kaşpa kil Come in the evening
Setner pyrat vărmanpa Setner goes by way of the woods
epĕ părahutpa kiltĕm I arrived on the steamer
Types of Subordinate Clauses
Before taking tip he structure of compound and complex sentences, we shall briefly survey the chief types of subordinate clauses, as given by Dmitriyev and Gorskii.
Attributive:
epir hulana kajakan avtobus kilchĕ
the bus in which we were going to town arrived
(the us to town taking bus came‘).
Subject:
epĕ shahmat kruzhokpe kĕni jultashsene pitĕ hĕpĕrtetterchĕ
My joining the chess club greatly heartened the members.
Object:
achasem ekskursije kajnine epĕ pĕletĕp
I know the children went on the outing
(I know the children a having gone on an outing).
Predicate:
pirĕn tĕp zadacha - nauka nikĕsĕsene şavărsa ilessi
Our basic task is to master the fundamentals of science.
Adverbs
of time:
hĕvel ansan, epir ĕşĕ pĕtertĕmĕr
When the sun went down, we finished work.
konferentsi hupănnă hyşşăn delegatsem rajonsene salanchĕş
After closing the conference, the delegates set out for their region.
Purpose:
mĕn vĕrennine şirĕpletme epir kalaşu tusa irttertĕmĕr
In order to confirm what had taken place, we conducted a talk.
Reason:
şĕr nürlĕren tyrăsem chasah shătrĕş
Since the ground was moist, the grain quickly sprouted.
văhăt numaja kajnă pirki, purte salanchĕş
In view of the fact that it was late, everyone went his way.
Manner:
kolhozniksem, agrotehnikăna vĕrene-vĕrene, tyrpul tuhăshne numaj üsterchĕş
The kolkhoz workers, studying agrotechnics, increased the crop yield considerably.
Condition:
stahanovla ĕşlesen, epir srokchen plana tultaratpăr
If we work in a Stakhanovits manner, we shall fulfill the plan ahead of schedule.
Concessive:
autobus avan pyrsan ta, epir pojezda ĕlkĕres şuk
Even if the bus runs all right, we won‘t make it to the train.
Types of Complex Sentences
The Chuvash grammarians attempt to explain sentences with subordinate clauses mostly in terms of Russian grammar and syntax, and distinguish four types, of which the first represents essentially a Russian borrowing, as:
kam ekskursije kajas tet, văl yran kiltĕr
Whoever wishes to go on the outing is to come tomorrow
(who, saying to go on the trip, let him come tomorrow‘).
Subordinate clauses may also be marked by such concluding words as tese, tesen, pulsan, pulsan ta, and pulin te. With the first of these, tese, lit. ‘saying‘, the 3rd p. imperative or the nomen futuri is usually used.
şumăr tumtire an jĕpettĕr tese, storozh hăj şine nakidka tăhănna
So that the ram would not wet his garments, the watchman put on a cloak.
(Saying, ‘let the ram not wet the clothes,‘ the watchman. ..)
haşat-zhurnasene văhătra vulas tese, epir chital‘năna jalanah şüretpĕr
In order to keep up with newspapers and magazines, visit the reading room regularly
(lit. ‘saying, ‘to read on time newspapers, we visit the reading room")
The word tesen (lit. "when one says‘) may also be used with the obligatory noun in -malla to indicate purpose.
haşat-zhurnalesene văhătra vulasa tăras tesen, jalanah chital‘năna şüremelle
In order to keep abreast of newspapers and magazines, one must visit the reading
room regularly.
Instead of şüremelle, one may also find şüre ‘one will go,‘ or şüres pulat ‘there will be a going.‘
The word pulsan (lit. ‘when it becomes, when it comes to pass that‘) is also used to mean “if“ and indicate the conditions under which something may be performed, and the subjunctive pulin te ("let it be that, although it be") is used for “although, even though, in spite of the fact that“ ideas.
kĕrtemestĕn pulsan, văl văjpa kĕret
If you don‘t let him in, he‘ll come in by force
(lit. ‘when your not letting him in comes to pass, he will enter with force‘).
şĕr tĕttĕm pulin te, jal kurănat-ha
Although the night is ("be!") dark, the village is visible.
Sentences of consequence or result, using words like “because, owing to, on account of,“ employ the Chuvash w6rds mĕnshĕn tensen (‘when one says for what‘ = because), şavănpa or şavănpa vara (since by this, by virtue of this‘).
chul shyvra putat, mĕnshĕn tensen văl shyvran jyvăr
A stone sinks in water because it is heavier than water
(a stone sinks in water; if we say for what reason, it is heavy from water).
pirĕn patra shartlama sivĕsem pulchĕş. şavănpa vara vyrănĕ-vyrănĕpe ulmuşşisem hărchĕş
We had heavy frosts, for the appletrees were destroyed by frost in places.
Some sentences are composed of clauses which may also be used independently, thus, note the first clauses of these sentences.
kam ĕşlemest, văl şimest
Who doesn‘t work, doesn‘t eat.
chul shyvra putat, mĕnshĕn tesen văl shyvran jyvăr
A stone sinks in water because it is heavier than water.
zanjatisem pĕtne hyşşănah, achasem vyljama puşlarĕş
As soon as classes let out, the children began to play.
However, in the following sentence, the first words cannot be used independently.
hĕvel tuhichcheneh, brigada ĕşe tytănchĕ
Before the sun got up, the team set out to work.
In speech, there are junctural features sometimes setting off clauses, often corresponding to marks of punctuation.
epĕ, pichche Instituta vĕrenme kĕnĕrenpe, ăna pĕrre te kurman-ha
After my elder brother began to study at the Institute, I never saw him again.
But:
pichche Instituta vĕrenme kĕnĕrenpe epĕ ăna pĕrre te kurman-ha
does not contain punctuation.
ünite onaltı Word formation in nouns and verbs.
UNIT SIXTEEN
Word formation in nouns and verbs.
Chuvash is a synthetic or agglutinative language, which means that rather long words may be built up out of basic root morphemes plus more morphemes of tense, mood, possibility, and of many other meanings. Chuvash is more flexible than a language like German at times. One of the chief differences between it and similar formation in English is that Chuvash usually uses only one morpheme, where several may be required in English. For instance, in the English words baker, motorist, electrician there are three distinct suffixes, each with the essential meaning of “the man who does it.“ In Chuvash, the single suffix -şă/-şĕ serves for this purpose. In addition to specific suffixes for forming nouns and verbs in Chuvash, there are also compound nouns of the following sort:
al hand + şyrăvĕ its writing alşyrăvĕ manuscript (itself of similar formation)
(< şyru - to write)
pilĕk five + şullah pilĕkşullah five-year plan
(< şul year)
şul road + şüren şulşüren traveller
(< şüre - to go, travel)
şur half + utrav island şurutrav peninsula
The student with experience in other languages will quickly recognize many loan-translations and formations similar to already known ones, and the new student will also be able to analyze the parts to determine the constituents.
Some of the suffixes most frequently used to form nouns from other stems will be given next, but we must restrict ourselves to the most important ones with but a few examples, to which the student may add his own.
A. The suffix -şă/-şĕ denotes the occupation of the person, or the person logically associated with some object and its function.
pulă fish pulăşă fisherman
timĕr iron timĕrşĕ smith
kĕtü herd kĕtüşĕ herdsman
jură song jurăşă singer
jĕrke order, System jĕrkeşĕ director
B. An extremely important suffix of wide application is the one in -lăh/-lĕh. Its most important usage is to denote a concept derived from the main word, like English -ness, -ship and some other endings. It also denotes the purpose of an object, and the locality where that thing is naturally found or located.
juman oak jumanlăh oakgrove
hăjăr sand hăjărlăh sandbank
şĕlen snake şĕlenlĕh snakepit
kuş eye kuşlăh glasses
săhman caftan săhmanăh material for a caftan
şăvar mouth şăvarăh bit (in a horse‘s mouth)
tus friend tuslăh friendship
tasa clean tasalăh cleanliness
jultash comrade jultashlăh comradeship
vată old vatălăh age
syvă well, healthy syvlăh health
pujan rich pujanlăh wealth
pur there is purlăh property
şuk there is not şuklăh lack, insufficiency
etem man etemlĕh mankind, humanity
patsha king patshalăh kingdom
C. A somewhat similar suffix, -shă/-shĕ denotes the concept of the quality or attribute involved, e.g.
tarăn deep tăranăshă depth
şülĕ high şülĕshĕ height
sarlaka wide sarlakăshă width
jyvăr heavy jyvărăshă weight
In reality, this suffix is none other than the possessive morpheme met with in some terms of relationship, but the Chuvash grammarians consider it to belong here.
D. The suffix -u/-ü (after consonants) or -v (after vowels) is a very useful one to form nouns of action from verb stems.
şyr- to write şyru letter
pĕl- to know pĕlü fact, knowledge
vĕren- to study vĕrenü studies
sujla- to choose sujlav elections
puple- to speak puplev speech
kul- to laugh kulu laughter
puh- to gather puhu collection
In addition to these, there are quite a few other suffixes forming nouns from nouns or verbs, but it will be just as practical for the student to learn these through texts, as not all of them are equally productive. Some of the are: -an/-en, -ăk/-ĕk, -ăm/-ĕm, -ăş/-ĕş, -chăk/-chĕk, -kă/-kĕ, -kăch/-kĕch, -măsh/-mĕsh, -shka/-shke, -ske, and -uk/-ük.
In the realm of the verb, it is also possible to form quite a few variations on the basic idea inherent in that verb, and this not by employing any separate words, but by adding certain morphemes of fixed meaning to that stern. For instance, there is no separate verb “can“ in Chuvash. This idea, however, can easily be expressed with every Chuvash verb by infixing the morpheme -aj/-ej. This is called the potential infix.
kil- to come
kllej- to be able to come
kllejmest he cannot come
tupajman they could not find (him)
ĕlkĕrejmesen when you are not able to get to me
tupajăn-i will you be able to find (them)?
pyrajmastăp I cannot go
tupajmarămăr we were unable to find him
ănlanajmastăr-i-ha are ye not able to understand? (Mark 4,13)
Another extremely important morpheme, which, like the preceding, maybe infixed with every Chuvash verb, is the causative, which denotes actions brought about by someone at the command or behest of another. It uses the morphemes -tar/-ter, and -ttar/-tter, and -t. Be careful not to confuse this morpheme with the ending of the 3rd p. sg. imperative ..tăr/-tĕr, as in:
pultăr let there be
vakantăr let it be chopped to pieces
jultăr let it remain
Some examples of the causative are these.
tutarsa kil- go and have made
şuntarsa causing to be burned, branding
kür-t-se bringing in, causing to be brought in
pytantar- to cause to secrete, to hide (trans.)
şitersen when you feed me (cause to eat)
şyrtar- to have write, to make write
vulattar- to make read, to have someone read
ĕşletter- to make work, to cause to work
vĕrent- to cause to study, to make to learn
The reflexive and passive formations in Chuvash are those in which the action is reflected back on the subject itself, or when subject and object of the action coincide in one person. Its morphemes are -ăn/-ĕn, -n, and -ăl/-ĕl, as in the following examples
şăvan- to wash oneself
kasăl- to cut oneself up (of a tree in a folktale)
vitĕn- to cover oneself
sarăl- to enlarge
sirĕl- to shun, avoid
şilen- to grow angry, anger oneself
uşăl- to open itself (as of a door)
Such a passive verb does not require an agent to be expressed.
Another important verbal formation in Chuvash is the reciprocal voice, which denotes actions taking place in a reciprocal manner between several subjects or objects. It has the suffixes -ăsh/-ĕsh, -sh‚ or ăş/-ĕş, -ş.
pulăsh- to help one another, be of assistance to each other
pallash- to become acquainted with each another
kalash- to discuss together with someone else (something)
kăshkărash- to cry, shout (of several persons)
Verbs may also be formed from nominal stems, hence‚ they are called denominal verbs. The suffixes used for this are: -la/-le, -al/-el/-ăl, -ar/-er and -n.
puş head puşla- to begin
şuta light şutăl- to dawn
jün cheap jünel- to cheapen
hura black hural- to blacken
jeshĕl green jesher- to become green
ăsh warmth ăshăn- to heat
kăvak blue kăvakar- to become blue
Verbs formed with these suffixes may also have forms in the other voices, as reflexive-passive, reciprocal and causative, yielding the suffixes: -lăn/-len, -lash/-lesh, and -lat/-let.
tumlan- to undress oneself
sudlash- to judge one another
pĕrlesh- to join with one another, unite
părlat- to freeze (trans.)
Chuvash also has some onomatopoetic verbs, formed with the suffixes -tat-/-tet- and -lat-/-let-, viz.,
shătărtat- to crackle
chĕriklet- to chirp
mărlat- to purr
The iterative suffix denoting repeated or strengthened action in Chuvash is -kala-/-kele-.
şyrkala- to write a bit, write a few lines
şürkele- to go for a little walk
ĕşlekelenĕ He worked as opportunity presented itself.
kăshkărashkala- to cry or shout repeatedly (of several persons)
shăhărkala- to whittle
Word formation in nouns and verbs.
Chuvash is a synthetic or agglutinative language, which means that rather long words may be built up out of basic root morphemes plus more morphemes of tense, mood, possibility, and of many other meanings. Chuvash is more flexible than a language like German at times. One of the chief differences between it and similar formation in English is that Chuvash usually uses only one morpheme, where several may be required in English. For instance, in the English words baker, motorist, electrician there are three distinct suffixes, each with the essential meaning of “the man who does it.“ In Chuvash, the single suffix -şă/-şĕ serves for this purpose. In addition to specific suffixes for forming nouns and verbs in Chuvash, there are also compound nouns of the following sort:
al hand + şyrăvĕ its writing alşyrăvĕ manuscript (itself of similar formation)
(< şyru - to write)
pilĕk five + şullah pilĕkşullah five-year plan
(< şul year)
şul road + şüren şulşüren traveller
(< şüre - to go, travel)
şur half + utrav island şurutrav peninsula
The student with experience in other languages will quickly recognize many loan-translations and formations similar to already known ones, and the new student will also be able to analyze the parts to determine the constituents.
Some of the suffixes most frequently used to form nouns from other stems will be given next, but we must restrict ourselves to the most important ones with but a few examples, to which the student may add his own.
A. The suffix -şă/-şĕ denotes the occupation of the person, or the person logically associated with some object and its function.
pulă fish pulăşă fisherman
timĕr iron timĕrşĕ smith
kĕtü herd kĕtüşĕ herdsman
jură song jurăşă singer
jĕrke order, System jĕrkeşĕ director
B. An extremely important suffix of wide application is the one in -lăh/-lĕh. Its most important usage is to denote a concept derived from the main word, like English -ness, -ship and some other endings. It also denotes the purpose of an object, and the locality where that thing is naturally found or located.
juman oak jumanlăh oakgrove
hăjăr sand hăjărlăh sandbank
şĕlen snake şĕlenlĕh snakepit
kuş eye kuşlăh glasses
săhman caftan săhmanăh material for a caftan
şăvar mouth şăvarăh bit (in a horse‘s mouth)
tus friend tuslăh friendship
tasa clean tasalăh cleanliness
jultash comrade jultashlăh comradeship
vată old vatălăh age
syvă well, healthy syvlăh health
pujan rich pujanlăh wealth
pur there is purlăh property
şuk there is not şuklăh lack, insufficiency
etem man etemlĕh mankind, humanity
patsha king patshalăh kingdom
C. A somewhat similar suffix, -shă/-shĕ denotes the concept of the quality or attribute involved, e.g.
tarăn deep tăranăshă depth
şülĕ high şülĕshĕ height
sarlaka wide sarlakăshă width
jyvăr heavy jyvărăshă weight
In reality, this suffix is none other than the possessive morpheme met with in some terms of relationship, but the Chuvash grammarians consider it to belong here.
D. The suffix -u/-ü (after consonants) or -v (after vowels) is a very useful one to form nouns of action from verb stems.
şyr- to write şyru letter
pĕl- to know pĕlü fact, knowledge
vĕren- to study vĕrenü studies
sujla- to choose sujlav elections
puple- to speak puplev speech
kul- to laugh kulu laughter
puh- to gather puhu collection
In addition to these, there are quite a few other suffixes forming nouns from nouns or verbs, but it will be just as practical for the student to learn these through texts, as not all of them are equally productive. Some of the are: -an/-en, -ăk/-ĕk, -ăm/-ĕm, -ăş/-ĕş, -chăk/-chĕk, -kă/-kĕ, -kăch/-kĕch, -măsh/-mĕsh, -shka/-shke, -ske, and -uk/-ük.
In the realm of the verb, it is also possible to form quite a few variations on the basic idea inherent in that verb, and this not by employing any separate words, but by adding certain morphemes of fixed meaning to that stern. For instance, there is no separate verb “can“ in Chuvash. This idea, however, can easily be expressed with every Chuvash verb by infixing the morpheme -aj/-ej. This is called the potential infix.
kil- to come
kllej- to be able to come
kllejmest he cannot come
tupajman they could not find (him)
ĕlkĕrejmesen when you are not able to get to me
tupajăn-i will you be able to find (them)?
pyrajmastăp I cannot go
tupajmarămăr we were unable to find him
ănlanajmastăr-i-ha are ye not able to understand? (Mark 4,13)
Another extremely important morpheme, which, like the preceding, maybe infixed with every Chuvash verb, is the causative, which denotes actions brought about by someone at the command or behest of another. It uses the morphemes -tar/-ter, and -ttar/-tter, and -t. Be careful not to confuse this morpheme with the ending of the 3rd p. sg. imperative ..tăr/-tĕr, as in:
pultăr let there be
vakantăr let it be chopped to pieces
jultăr let it remain
Some examples of the causative are these.
tutarsa kil- go and have made
şuntarsa causing to be burned, branding
kür-t-se bringing in, causing to be brought in
pytantar- to cause to secrete, to hide (trans.)
şitersen when you feed me (cause to eat)
şyrtar- to have write, to make write
vulattar- to make read, to have someone read
ĕşletter- to make work, to cause to work
vĕrent- to cause to study, to make to learn
The reflexive and passive formations in Chuvash are those in which the action is reflected back on the subject itself, or when subject and object of the action coincide in one person. Its morphemes are -ăn/-ĕn, -n, and -ăl/-ĕl, as in the following examples
şăvan- to wash oneself
kasăl- to cut oneself up (of a tree in a folktale)
vitĕn- to cover oneself
sarăl- to enlarge
sirĕl- to shun, avoid
şilen- to grow angry, anger oneself
uşăl- to open itself (as of a door)
Such a passive verb does not require an agent to be expressed.
Another important verbal formation in Chuvash is the reciprocal voice, which denotes actions taking place in a reciprocal manner between several subjects or objects. It has the suffixes -ăsh/-ĕsh, -sh‚ or ăş/-ĕş, -ş.
pulăsh- to help one another, be of assistance to each other
pallash- to become acquainted with each another
kalash- to discuss together with someone else (something)
kăshkărash- to cry, shout (of several persons)
Verbs may also be formed from nominal stems, hence‚ they are called denominal verbs. The suffixes used for this are: -la/-le, -al/-el/-ăl, -ar/-er and -n.
puş head puşla- to begin
şuta light şutăl- to dawn
jün cheap jünel- to cheapen
hura black hural- to blacken
jeshĕl green jesher- to become green
ăsh warmth ăshăn- to heat
kăvak blue kăvakar- to become blue
Verbs formed with these suffixes may also have forms in the other voices, as reflexive-passive, reciprocal and causative, yielding the suffixes: -lăn/-len, -lash/-lesh, and -lat/-let.
tumlan- to undress oneself
sudlash- to judge one another
pĕrlesh- to join with one another, unite
părlat- to freeze (trans.)
Chuvash also has some onomatopoetic verbs, formed with the suffixes -tat-/-tet- and -lat-/-let-, viz.,
shătărtat- to crackle
chĕriklet- to chirp
mărlat- to purr
The iterative suffix denoting repeated or strengthened action in Chuvash is -kala-/-kele-.
şyrkala- to write a bit, write a few lines
şürkele- to go for a little walk
ĕşlekelenĕ He worked as opportunity presented itself.
kăshkărashkala- to cry or shout repeatedly (of several persons)
shăhărkala- to whittle
ünite onbeş Numerals Cardinal, ordinal, distributive, collective, fractional.
UNIT FIFTEEN
Numerals Cardinal, ordinal, distributive, collective, fractional.
Numerals, being a subclass of nominals, are exactly like nouns in most of their functions, and may occur in the various cases and possessive forms, as well as in juxtaposition with another noun to denote the quantity of objects involved. Unlike those of some other languages, however, Chuvash nouns do not employ the plural form after numbers, the presence of a quantity word being sufficient indication of the plurality, thus
ikĕ lasha two horses
pilĕk kĕneke five books
The cardinal numbers in Chuvash have two forms, the short and the long, of which the first is used attributively, that is, when same noun or object comes immediately after that numeral, and the second, the long, used when the numeral stands alone. Thus, “three houses“ would require the short form, but “the houses are three (in number)“ or “there are three‘ requires the long. The short forms also have forms without the final -ă/ĕ in free variation with short forms with these vowels. The long forms differ only in having a geminated consonant in place of a single consonant.
The numbers 11-19 are formed by compounding two stems. Numbers 101 through 119 employ the word te ‘and,‘ as do numbers over 1,000.
A table of cardinal numbers follows herewith,
1. pĕr pĕrre
2. ikĕ, ik ikkĕ
3. vişĕ, viş vişşĕ
4. tăvată, tăvat tăvattă
5. pilĕk pillĕk
6. ultă, ult ulttă
7. şichĕ şichchĕ
8. sakăr sakkăr
9. tăhăr tăhhăr
10. vună, vun vunnă
The numbers 10-19 are compounded as: vunpĕr, vunikĕ, and so on. Units with higher tens are formed as in English: şirĕm pĕr ‘21,‘ şyrĕm ikĕ ‘22,‘ etc.
20, şirĕm
30. vătăr
40. hĕrĕx
50. allă, ală, al
60. utmăl
70. şitmĕl
80. sakărvunnă
90. tăhărvună
100. şĕr
The other hundreds are compounded with stem forms plus şĕr, namely, ikşĕr, vişşĕr, tăvtşĕr, pilĕkşĕr. Smaller units with hundreds add te ‘and,‘
văl şĕr te ikke şitnĕ he reached 102.
The same for numbers over 1,000:
pin te tăhărşĕr şirĕm şichĕ 1927
pin te tăhărşĕr utmăl pĕr 1961
The long forms express the concept of the number as an abstract entity, and may be subject, object or predicate.
tăhhărtan pillĕk five from nine is four (from nine,
kălarsan, tăvattă julat when five is taken away, four remains‘)
vişĕ hut vişşĕ – tăhhăr three times three - (is) nine
The short forms are qualitative attributes of nominals, and like adjectives, come directly before the noun to form a nominal group. Requirements of juncture and speech rhythm allow final ă/ĕ to be dropped in some cases.
hirte vişĕ brigade ĕşlet three teams are working in the field
şich hut viş te pĕr hut kas measure seven times, cut once ( Look before you leap!)
viş-tăvat three or four, some three or four
iksĕmĕr (we) two together (lit. ‘our two‘)
Ordinal numerals denote the order or sequence in which one object follows another, and are formed from the long form of cardinal numbers by the morpheme -mĕsh (invariable). Syntactically, they are attributes, as ikkĕmĕsh brigada ‘the second team.‘ If the possessive -ĕ is used, then the ordinals may occur in all cases, and be used as subject, object or predicate.
kolhozra ikĕ brigada: pĕrremĕsh ută şulat, ikkĕmĕshne yrash vyrma jană
There are two teams in the kolkhoz:
the first mows hay, and the second was sent out to reap rye.
The forms for the ordinals are the following.
pĕrremĕsh first
ikkĕmĕsh second
vişşĕmĕsh third
tăvattămĕsh fourth
pillĕkmĕsh fifth
ulttămĕsh sixth
şichchĕmĕsh seventh
sakkărmĕsh eighth
tăhhărmĕsh ninth
vunnămĕsh tenth
Distributive numerals are formed with the suffix -shar/-sher added to the short form of the cardinals, and denote the distribution of a certain number of objects, usually best rendered by “each“ in English.
pilĕksher tetrad" five notebooks each
pinsher every thousand
pĕrer one each (the only irregular form)
Collective numerals denoted an accumulation of uniform objects, and are formed from the cardinal numbers plus the special possessive morpheme ĕshĕ used with some terms of relationship.
pĕri one of them (‘its one‘)
ikkĕshĕ two of them, a pair, twosome
vişşĕshĕ a three of them, a group of three
tăvattăshĕ a foursome, four of them
pillĕkĕshĕ five of them
ulttăshĕ six of them
şichchĕshĕ seven of them
sakkărăshĕ eight of them
tăhhărăshĕ nine of them
vunnăshĕ ten of them (and so on)
Collective numerals being nouns may be declined, and the ones up to seven may occur with the 1st and 2nd p. pl. possessive suffixes.
iksĕmĕr both of us, the two of us
iksĕr you two, the two of you
viş-sĕmĕr we three
viş-sĕr you three
pajan huralta. ikkĕshĕ tăraşşĕ Today two of them are keeping watch
viş-sĕmĕre haşat kălarma tivet The three of us must make up an issue of the paper
Fractional numbers combine cardinal numerals in the full form as the numerator, together with an ordinal denoting the denominator. This combination may be then declined by adding case morphemes to the second number.
ikkĕ vişşĕmĕshĕnchen pĕrre tăvattămĕshĕ kalărsan, pillĕk vunikkămĕshĕ julat
If one-fourth is taken away from two thirds, the remainder is five-twelfths.
Numerals Cardinal, ordinal, distributive, collective, fractional.
Numerals, being a subclass of nominals, are exactly like nouns in most of their functions, and may occur in the various cases and possessive forms, as well as in juxtaposition with another noun to denote the quantity of objects involved. Unlike those of some other languages, however, Chuvash nouns do not employ the plural form after numbers, the presence of a quantity word being sufficient indication of the plurality, thus
ikĕ lasha two horses
pilĕk kĕneke five books
The cardinal numbers in Chuvash have two forms, the short and the long, of which the first is used attributively, that is, when same noun or object comes immediately after that numeral, and the second, the long, used when the numeral stands alone. Thus, “three houses“ would require the short form, but “the houses are three (in number)“ or “there are three‘ requires the long. The short forms also have forms without the final -ă/ĕ in free variation with short forms with these vowels. The long forms differ only in having a geminated consonant in place of a single consonant.
The numbers 11-19 are formed by compounding two stems. Numbers 101 through 119 employ the word te ‘and,‘ as do numbers over 1,000.
A table of cardinal numbers follows herewith,
1. pĕr pĕrre
2. ikĕ, ik ikkĕ
3. vişĕ, viş vişşĕ
4. tăvată, tăvat tăvattă
5. pilĕk pillĕk
6. ultă, ult ulttă
7. şichĕ şichchĕ
8. sakăr sakkăr
9. tăhăr tăhhăr
10. vună, vun vunnă
The numbers 10-19 are compounded as: vunpĕr, vunikĕ, and so on. Units with higher tens are formed as in English: şirĕm pĕr ‘21,‘ şyrĕm ikĕ ‘22,‘ etc.
20, şirĕm
30. vătăr
40. hĕrĕx
50. allă, ală, al
60. utmăl
70. şitmĕl
80. sakărvunnă
90. tăhărvună
100. şĕr
The other hundreds are compounded with stem forms plus şĕr, namely, ikşĕr, vişşĕr, tăvtşĕr, pilĕkşĕr. Smaller units with hundreds add te ‘and,‘
văl şĕr te ikke şitnĕ he reached 102.
The same for numbers over 1,000:
pin te tăhărşĕr şirĕm şichĕ 1927
pin te tăhărşĕr utmăl pĕr 1961
The long forms express the concept of the number as an abstract entity, and may be subject, object or predicate.
tăhhărtan pillĕk five from nine is four (from nine,
kălarsan, tăvattă julat when five is taken away, four remains‘)
vişĕ hut vişşĕ – tăhhăr three times three - (is) nine
The short forms are qualitative attributes of nominals, and like adjectives, come directly before the noun to form a nominal group. Requirements of juncture and speech rhythm allow final ă/ĕ to be dropped in some cases.
hirte vişĕ brigade ĕşlet three teams are working in the field
şich hut viş te pĕr hut kas measure seven times, cut once ( Look before you leap!)
viş-tăvat three or four, some three or four
iksĕmĕr (we) two together (lit. ‘our two‘)
Ordinal numerals denote the order or sequence in which one object follows another, and are formed from the long form of cardinal numbers by the morpheme -mĕsh (invariable). Syntactically, they are attributes, as ikkĕmĕsh brigada ‘the second team.‘ If the possessive -ĕ is used, then the ordinals may occur in all cases, and be used as subject, object or predicate.
kolhozra ikĕ brigada: pĕrremĕsh ută şulat, ikkĕmĕshne yrash vyrma jană
There are two teams in the kolkhoz:
the first mows hay, and the second was sent out to reap rye.
The forms for the ordinals are the following.
pĕrremĕsh first
ikkĕmĕsh second
vişşĕmĕsh third
tăvattămĕsh fourth
pillĕkmĕsh fifth
ulttămĕsh sixth
şichchĕmĕsh seventh
sakkărmĕsh eighth
tăhhărmĕsh ninth
vunnămĕsh tenth
Distributive numerals are formed with the suffix -shar/-sher added to the short form of the cardinals, and denote the distribution of a certain number of objects, usually best rendered by “each“ in English.
pilĕksher tetrad" five notebooks each
pinsher every thousand
pĕrer one each (the only irregular form)
Collective numerals denoted an accumulation of uniform objects, and are formed from the cardinal numbers plus the special possessive morpheme ĕshĕ used with some terms of relationship.
pĕri one of them (‘its one‘)
ikkĕshĕ two of them, a pair, twosome
vişşĕshĕ a three of them, a group of three
tăvattăshĕ a foursome, four of them
pillĕkĕshĕ five of them
ulttăshĕ six of them
şichchĕshĕ seven of them
sakkărăshĕ eight of them
tăhhărăshĕ nine of them
vunnăshĕ ten of them (and so on)
Collective numerals being nouns may be declined, and the ones up to seven may occur with the 1st and 2nd p. pl. possessive suffixes.
iksĕmĕr both of us, the two of us
iksĕr you two, the two of you
viş-sĕmĕr we three
viş-sĕr you three
pajan huralta. ikkĕshĕ tăraşşĕ Today two of them are keeping watch
viş-sĕmĕre haşat kălarma tivet The three of us must make up an issue of the paper
Fractional numbers combine cardinal numerals in the full form as the numerator, together with an ordinal denoting the denominator. This combination may be then declined by adding case morphemes to the second number.
ikkĕ vişşĕmĕshĕnchen pĕrre tăvattămĕshĕ kalărsan, pillĕk vunikkămĕshĕ julat
If one-fourth is taken away from two thirds, the remainder is five-twelfths.
ünite ondört Adverbs; Postpositions; conjunctions; particle s; interjections.
UNIT FOURTEEN
Adverbs; Postpositions; conjunctions; particle s; interjections.
Adverbs
We have previously observed that there is little formal difference between nominals in their function as nouns and in their function as adjectives. The same words may also be used in adverbial uses. There are some particular endings which occur on words used adverbially, but examination reveals them to be morphemes already familiar to us, functioning differently. Study the following examples:
Some additional examples of adjectives, pronouns, numerals and nouns used as adjectives are the following phrases (taken mostly from Dmitriyev & Gorskii, p. 890).
The morphemes -lla of the directive, and the -la morphemeof adjectives may also be found in an adverbial function as: untalla ‘thither,‘ kilelle ‘homewards,‘ şamrăkla ‘as a youth, young,‘ şĕrle ‘by night, at night,‘ kĕtesle ‘in installments.‘ The genitive case is also often used to create adverbs, thus, irĕkkĕn ‘voluntarily, of a voluntary nature,‘ sivvĕn ‘coldly,‘ şămăllăn ‘slightly,‘ tĕplĕn ‘in detail,‘ vyrănăn ‘in places, somewhere,‘ măshărăn ‘in pairs, paired up,‘ kunĕn-şĕrĕn ‘by day and night.‘ The dative is found with some expressions of time, as kĕrkunne ‘in the fall,‘ şurkunne ‘in the spring,‘ irhine ‘in the morning.‘ The suffix -chchen or –chen is found on some expressions of time, as well as in the antecedent converb: halichchen ‘up to this time,‘ pajtahchen ‘since time immemorial,‘ nummajchchen ‘a great deal, for a long time.‘
We have previously met the prefixes -ta-/-te- with the indefinite pronouns; they occur with some adverbial words: tahşan ‘sometime,‘ taşta ‘somewhere,‘ temĕnle ‘some sort,‘ nişta ‘no where, to nowhere,‘ teple ‘somehow.‘ The compound suffix -ranpa, arising from the instrumental and ablative cases, is also used adverbially: ĕnertenpe ‘since yesterday,‘ paşărtanpa ‘since time began,‘ kilnĕrenpe ‘since I arrived, from my having arrived.‘
Some words and phrases occur only in adverbial usage:
Adverbs; Postpositions; conjunctions; particle s; interjections.
Adverbs
We have previously observed that there is little formal difference between nominals in their function as nouns and in their function as adjectives. The same words may also be used in adverbial uses. There are some particular endings which occur on words used adverbially, but examination reveals them to be morphemes already familiar to us, functioning differently. Study the following examples:
ilemlĕ vărman a beautiful woods
ilemlĕ tĕrlenĕ beautifully sewn
inşe şul a distant road
inşe an hur don‘ t put it far away
hurlăhlă jură a sad song
hurlăhlă julaşşĕ they sing sadly
vyrăsla jură a Russian song
vyrăsla jurlat he sings in Russian
Some additional examples of adjectives, pronouns, numerals and nouns used as adjectives are the following phrases (taken mostly from Dmitriyev & Gorskii, p. 890).
lajăh kalaşat he speaks well
tirpejlĕ tyt be careful, take care
chăvashla kalaşat he speaks Chuvash
şĕnĕlle purănat he‘s living like a new man
(turned over a new leaf)
urăhla tăvăpăr we do it differently
unchchĕn kilĕn until you come
teprechchen hăvarar let‘s stay until the next one
şavănta kaj go there
kuntan kajatpăr we are leaving here (from here)
vişşĕn purnatpăr we three live together
ikserĕn piraşşĕ they go two at a time
şurkunne kajăksem vĕşse kilchĕş the birds came flying in the springtime
kunĕpe şumăr şăvat it rains all day
The morphemes -lla of the directive, and the -la morphemeof adjectives may also be found in an adverbial function as: untalla ‘thither,‘ kilelle ‘homewards,‘ şamrăkla ‘as a youth, young,‘ şĕrle ‘by night, at night,‘ kĕtesle ‘in installments.‘ The genitive case is also often used to create adverbs, thus, irĕkkĕn ‘voluntarily, of a voluntary nature,‘ sivvĕn ‘coldly,‘ şămăllăn ‘slightly,‘ tĕplĕn ‘in detail,‘ vyrănăn ‘in places, somewhere,‘ măshărăn ‘in pairs, paired up,‘ kunĕn-şĕrĕn ‘by day and night.‘ The dative is found with some expressions of time, as kĕrkunne ‘in the fall,‘ şurkunne ‘in the spring,‘ irhine ‘in the morning.‘ The suffix -chchen or –chen is found on some expressions of time, as well as in the antecedent converb: halichchen ‘up to this time,‘ pajtahchen ‘since time immemorial,‘ nummajchchen ‘a great deal, for a long time.‘
We have previously met the prefixes -ta-/-te- with the indefinite pronouns; they occur with some adverbial words: tahşan ‘sometime,‘ taşta ‘somewhere,‘ temĕnle ‘some sort,‘ nişta ‘no where, to nowhere,‘ teple ‘somehow.‘ The compound suffix -ranpa, arising from the instrumental and ablative cases, is also used adverbially: ĕnertenpe ‘since yesterday,‘ paşărtanpa ‘since time began,‘ kilnĕrenpe ‘since I arrived, from my having arrived.‘
Some words and phrases occur only in adverbial usage:
paşăr recently
sasartăk suddenly
aran somehow
aval formerly
jalan always
pĕrmaj continually
kăşal nowadays (<>
Postpositions
Unlike languages with which the student may be acquainted, Chuvash does not have any prepositions, but instead uses postpositions, which get their name from the fact that they come after the word which they govern instead of before it. These words were once substantives, and for that matter, still are, although usually they occur in the function of postpositions. Some typical words which are used as postpositions are the following:
ajak side hĕr edge
um front, before pat direction, towards
vară midst şum along
aj underpart, underside hushă between; internal
şi surface hĕrri front one side ("its edge‘)
jen side ăsh(ĕ) interior, inside
tără upon tărri upon (possessive)
hyş rear, behind şyvăh vicinity, near
Case forms suffice to express some relationships, as:
shkapa kĕneke hur place the book in the book case
If it is necessary to tell in greater detail, then postpositions may be used:
kĕneke ajne tetrad‘ hur put the notebook under the book
kĕneke şine tetrad‘ hur put the notebook on the book
kĕneke hyshne tetrad‘ hur put the notebook behind the book
Some examples from the reading are the following.
juman patne towards the oak
şuni şinchchen down from his sled
tĕp şine on the ground
kashnin şinchen from off each
lashu patne towards your horse
pĕrin uri piche şine at the side of one"s leg
(on top of the side of the foot of one)
aslin puşĕ patĕnchen from the side of the eldest‘s head
In the modern literary language, the postposition words do not take possessives other than the 3rd p. ‚ and take only the dative, locative and ablative case endings, and govern the genitive of pronouns. With nouns, the absolute case is used. Nearly any word which means some sort of location or direction can be used with the practical effect of a postposition.
Some postpositions of invariable which can"t be declined, are:
urlă through, across
pĕrle together with (+ instrumental)
vitĕr through, across
pek like
taran up to
tărăh by, according to
pula thanks to
pirki by virtue of
valli for
kura thanks to
hirĕş against
puşne except (+ ablative)
They may govern different cases, as genitive, dative and ablative.
san valli kĕneke iltĕm I bought this book for you
ku kĕneke Ivana valli this book is for John
Verukăn ivălĕnchen puşne Vera has no one except her son
urăh nikam ta şuk
şumăra pula ută tipmerĕ On account of the rain the hay did not dry out.
Some persons consider the purposive -shăn and the terminative -chen as postpositions. One could equally well consider them cases.
mĕnshĕn for what, why?
kaşchen until evening
Conjunctions
Chuvash conjunctions function essentially the same as do their English counterparts, and may be divided into subordinating and coordinating, which, as their names imply, serve either to connect explanatory clauses with main clauses, or simply to unite words and clauses of equal (hence coordinate) status.
Coordinating conjunctions are the following:
connective: tata, -ta/-te “and, too, also“
partitive: je, te, pĕrre ... tepre, pĕr . .. pĕr “now … now;“
je . .. je “either . . or,“ “now this ... now that“
adversative: şapah, anchah “but, however“
negative: ni . .. ni “neither ... nor“ (of foreign origin)
Subordinating conjunctions are the following:
causative: mĕnshĕn tensen “because“ (‘If you say for what‘)
consequential: şavănpa, şavănpa vara, vara “since“
purposive: tese “in order to“ (lit. ‘saying‘)
conditional: tesen “if“ (‘when you say‘)
concessive: pulin te, pulsan ta “although“ (‘if it be‘)
Some examples are:
vyrăs ta, chăvash ta, irşe Both Russian, Chuvash and
te hăj chĕlhipe kalaşat Erzyan speak in their own language.
hula uramĕsem aslă ta takăr City streets are broad and flat.
epĕ şeş mar, ytisem te Not only I, but others too think so
şaplah shuhăshlaşşĕ
pajan epĕ ni pahchana, Today I neither went into the
ni urama tuhmarăm garden nor onto the street.
Particles
The use of particles imparts nuances of meaning to words and clauses. They may be divided into the following general types:
intensifying:
-ah/-eh (strengthens the preceding word like Russian zhe or German doch, ja, or the way in English we stress with the voice, by saying “He did go there“) - this is very frequent, especially In folklore, where it is mostly written as part of the preceding word. şeş şeh “only, merely“
demonstrative:
akă “here,“ avă “there;“văt “voici,“ veş “voilà".
interrogative:
-i, -shi “whether“ (often merely indicates a question is in existence, like Japanese
ka); -i-mĕn or im “really, you don‘t say“
lightly expressed command:
-ha, -ka
clarifying:
shăp “equally, exactly, namely, viz.“
negativing:
an, mar “no, not, not any“
Most of these particles are enclitic (that is, pronounced and stressed with the preceding word), but -ah, and the other intensifying particles, together with the demonstrative and negative, may also bear accents of their own. The interrogative -i is used at the end of sentences, and only when no other interrogative word is present.
Interjections
Interjections, too, function chiefly in Chuvash as In English, to insert parenthetical exclamations not essential to the sentence, but conveying a definite feeling of the speaker regarding the circumstances. Some of them are:
ej
used in salutation and greeting
aj
expresses dissatisfaction and indignation
ah, eh
alas! expresses satisfaction, but also extreme discontent, perplexity, grief and indignation
e-e, y-yh
reproachful, tsk-tsk!, uh-uh!
aj-haj, aj-jaj
ah-hah! derisive or ironical attitude
atja!
come on! let‘s go! get with it! plural is: atjăr. Also occurs metathetized: ajta, ajtăr
Onomatopoetic Words
Chuvash is quite rich in onomatopoetic or sound-imitative words, and these are found frequently in literature, folklore and native songs. For our present purposes, they are not too important.
shănkăr-shănkăr shyv juhat The water babbles, gurgle-gurgle.
ünite onüç Converbs: Subordinate, coordinate, past, antecedent.
UNIT THIRTEEN
Converbs: Subordinate, coordinate, past, antecedent.
One of the unique features of Chuvash grammar is the use of a grammatical form which we shall call converbs. These are formations which are like verbs, because they derive from verb stems, but do not refer to any person, number or tense. They serve to denote that the action referred to stands in a certain relationship to the action of the main or finite verb. Thus, they function like English gerunds or present participles. The thought is held in abeyance by use of a converb until the concluding verb. Hence, we may call them verb forms of a suspensory nature denoting secondary action coordinate to or complementary to the main action. They may not end a statement. In English, we would say “He went downtown, bought a suit, drank some coffee and returned home.“ In Chuvash, this idea would be rendered approximately as “Having gone downtown, bought a suit and having drunk some coffee, he returned home.“
Subordinate Converb
The subordinate converb in -a/-e denotes an action completely subordinated to the main action. It is frequently best translated into English by a form in -ing. Sometimes the form is reduplicated to show continuation.
Examples of usage are the following.
Coordinate Converb
The coordinate converb is of extremely frequent occurrence in Chuvash; in fact, it may be found in nearly every Chuvash sentence. It denotes the first of two (or more) actions of equal value. Some of the more common combinations have become stylized into equivalents of single verbs, rather like English phrases such as “Go and get them,“ “he went and did it,“ “they sat and told us about it,“ instead of simply “Bring them, he did it, they told us about it.“
The ending of this form is -sa/-se.
In the case of stems ending in ş or sh‚ there is assimilation to that phoneme, thus, vĕşse [vĕşşe] ‘flying.‘ For the subordinate and the coordinate converb, the negative employs the suffix -masăr/ -mesĕr, which is identical in formation with the verbal noun in -ma plus the privative morpheme -săr.
Some of the fixed combinations of verbs employing the coordinate converb in company with another verb are the following.
The student may collect many more examples by himself.
In some Chuvash dialects, this form may function as a finite tense, viz.‚ epĕ şyrsa - I have written. No examples occur in our material.
Past Gerund
The past gerund has the form -san/-sen or -sassăn/-sĕssen. It is used when there is a time difference between the two actions involved, so that the general pattern of translation into English is “when... happened, then so and so happened,“ or “after doing so and so, another thing occurred.“ With stems in /ş/ and /sh/, there is assimilation to that consonant phoneme. Take care not to confuse this morpheme with the purposive case -shăn ‘for‘
This form may also be reduplicated.
Antecedent Converb
This converb has the general meaning of “before,“ and employs the ending -ichchen. Note that vowel stern verbs employ their stem alternant without vowel before this morpheme. It also has the meanings of “rather than, instead of.“
Other Forms
The Chuvash grammarians consider still other forms to be gerunds (as they usually call them), but most of these are of relatively infrequent occurrence. Some of them are –masseren “every time that ...‚“ -năranpa “from the time that ‚“ and -uşăn or -atshăn “while.“
There is an infinitive-like form in -măshkan/-mĕshken, which is rather similar to the nomen concretum in -ma.
Converbs: Subordinate, coordinate, past, antecedent.
One of the unique features of Chuvash grammar is the use of a grammatical form which we shall call converbs. These are formations which are like verbs, because they derive from verb stems, but do not refer to any person, number or tense. They serve to denote that the action referred to stands in a certain relationship to the action of the main or finite verb. Thus, they function like English gerunds or present participles. The thought is held in abeyance by use of a converb until the concluding verb. Hence, we may call them verb forms of a suspensory nature denoting secondary action coordinate to or complementary to the main action. They may not end a statement. In English, we would say “He went downtown, bought a suit, drank some coffee and returned home.“ In Chuvash, this idea would be rendered approximately as “Having gone downtown, bought a suit and having drunk some coffee, he returned home.“
Subordinate Converb
The subordinate converb in -a/-e denotes an action completely subordinated to the main action. It is frequently best translated into English by a form in -ing. Sometimes the form is reduplicated to show continuation.
tăra standing
vĕşe flying
vula-vula reading and reading
tytta holding
Examples of usage are the following.
ulmisem şĕrelle usăna its apples were (lit. "lay‘) hanging and hanging
usăna larnă towards the ground (hanging way down to the ground
epĕ kunĕpe ulma şije I shall go about eating
şije şürĕp and eating apples all the day
starik vara pit hujhăra the old man then began crying greatly
puşlană
pirĕn Ivan pichchĕ jurla our brother John continued to sing on and on
jurla julchĕ
shyra puşlană began searching
chup tăva puşlană began kissing
Coordinate Converb
The coordinate converb is of extremely frequent occurrence in Chuvash; in fact, it may be found in nearly every Chuvash sentence. It denotes the first of two (or more) actions of equal value. Some of the more common combinations have become stylized into equivalents of single verbs, rather like English phrases such as “Go and get them,“ “he went and did it,“ “they sat and told us about it,“ instead of simply “Bring them, he did it, they told us about it.“
The ending of this form is -sa/-se.
vulasa larat reading he sits = he sits reading, he sits and reads
un patne pyrsa kalană going to him, he said; he went up to him and said
hăvarsa larnă he climbed up and sat (‘climbing up he sat‘)
shyva vyrtsa păhnă he lay and watched the water, he lay watching the water
esĕ ulma tatsa il te you pick and take an apple
şak teksta şyrsa ilĕr take and write this text
tultah hujhărsa larnă he sat outside and wept
ku hăvăn upăshku sana this is your own husband who
kilse chup tăvat comes and kisses you
In the case of stems ending in ş or sh‚ there is assimilation to that phoneme, thus, vĕşse [vĕşşe] ‘flying.‘ For the subordinate and the coordinate converb, the negative employs the suffix -masăr/ -mesĕr, which is identical in formation with the verbal noun in -ma plus the privative morpheme -săr.
vaskamasăr without, the fact of not hurrying, while not hurrying
Some of the fixed combinations of verbs employing the coordinate converb in company with another verb are the following.
The student may collect many more examples by himself.
kĕrse kaj- to go in, enter (to go entering)
tuhsa kaj- to go out, leave (to go emerging)
ilse kil- to take and come, to bring
pyrsa kala- to go and say, to tell
tărsa jul- to remain standing, to remain, stop
ilse pyr- to bring hither, to go taking
husa jar- to send and dispatch = to send
In some Chuvash dialects, this form may function as a finite tense, viz.‚ epĕ şyrsa - I have written. No examples occur in our material.
Past Gerund
The past gerund has the form -san/-sen or -sassăn/-sĕssen. It is used when there is a time difference between the two actions involved, so that the general pattern of translation into English is “when... happened, then so and so happened,“ or “after doing so and so, another thing occurred.“ With stems in /ş/ and /sh/, there is assimilation to that consonant phoneme. Take care not to confuse this morpheme with the purposive case -shăn ‘for‘
vulasan having read, after reading (then something else happened)
kalamasan when he didn‘t say
kahal kajnăne kursassăn when they saw Lazybones coming, they
ĕş hushan văl itlemen when she ordered him to work, he did not obey
sakăr şula şiltsen after he had arrived at the age of eight
hire tuhsan lashine kalană when he came out onto the field, he said to the horse
şüle Tură patne kajsan when we go towards God on high, it will be better
avantarah pulĕ (it would be better if we went to God on high)
ansan sana tytaşşĕ when you descend, they will seize you
şavna iltsen when they heard that, they…
tesen when you say > “if“
manran pulashu yjtas tesen “when you say there is to be the asking of help
from me“ = if you ask me for help
This form may also be reduplicated.
süresen süresen pĕr they rode and rode (for a long time) and came to an oak
juman patne şitnĕ
purănsan purănsan vutti after they lived that way a very long time, their
pĕtnĕ firewood ran out
purănsan purănsan Tură after he had lived there a long time, God said
kĕrüshne kalană to his son-in-law:
Antecedent Converb
This converb has the general meaning of “before,“ and employs the ending -ichchen. Note that vowel stern verbs employ their stem alternant without vowel before this morpheme. It also has the meanings of “rather than, instead of.“
vula- > vulichchen before reading, until reading
kilichchen until he comes, until the arrival, before he comes
epĕ kilichchen until I came
namăslanichchen rather than becoming ashamed
şynsem pĕlichchen before people learn of it
Other Forms
The Chuvash grammarians consider still other forms to be gerunds (as they usually call them), but most of these are of relatively infrequent occurrence. Some of them are –masseren “every time that ...‚“ -năranpa “from the time that ‚“ and -uşăn or -atshăn “while.“
There is an infinitive-like form in -măshkan/-mĕshken, which is rather similar to the nomen concretum in -ma.
ünite oniki Mood-formants: Imperative; optative; conditional.
UNIT TWELVE
Mood-formants: Imperative; optative; conditional.
Imperative Mood
The imperative mood is the mood of command and order, and in this mood we find the bare stem of the verb used. This occurs in the 2nd p. sg. In the other persons endings are used. In the other persons endings are used.
The negative imperative adds the postposed morpheme mar in the 1st p. sg. and pl.‚ and the preposed morpheme of similar meaning, an, in the other persons, viz.
Examples of the usage in this mood are the following.
Conditional Mood
This mood is used for actions in which the possibility of the action occurring is only probable, or is contingent upon some other happening. Thus, it is translated by words like “would, if“ etc. It is characterized by the conditional morpheme {(Ă)ttĂm}. Note the close resemblance of these forms to those of the durative past formation in -ttăm. The conditional has a short ă before the ending. The 1st and 2nd ps. are also often used with the past morpheme -chchĕ‚ to create the nuance “would have.“ Note the lack of vowel harmony in the 3rd p. sg. and pl.
The negation to the above employs the allomorph -m- of the negative morpheme.
The negative may also employ the suffixed morpheme –chchĕ. Examples of this mood are the following.
An artificial past tense is formed to the conditional by the use of the nomen perfecti in -nă to which the conditional of pul ‘to be, become‘ is added, thus, şyrrnă pulăttăm “I would have written“ lit. I would become one who has written.
Optative (Subjunctive) Mood
This mood expresses the hope that something will come to be, in the sense “would that it should happen, would that he come,“ or the concessive idea of “even if he should come.“ It is relatively little used, and in its formation appears to arise from two form-classes, the 2nd p. forms being suppletive.
The negative forms of the above are the following.
There is also an artificial past tense formed from the nomen perfecti in -na plus the subjunctive of pul-, thus:
According to the Chuvash grammarians, a true optative mood is formed by adding the morpheme -chchĕ to the forms given in the first paragraph. However, today, such expression of desire as “would that…“ is rendered by the imperative mood.
Mood-formants: Imperative; optative; conditional.
Imperative Mood
The imperative mood is the mood of command and order, and in this mood we find the bare stem of the verb used. This occurs in the 2nd p. sg. In the other persons endings are used. In the other persons endings are used.
epĕ vulam, pĕlem, şyram let me read, know, write!
esĕ vula, pĕl, şyr read! know! write!
văl vulatăr, pĕltĕr, şyrtăr let him read, know, write!
epir vular, pĕler, şyrar let‘s read, let‘s know, let‘s write!
esir vulăr, pĕlĕr, şyrăr read! know! write!
vĕsem vulachchăr, pĕlchchĕr, şyrchchăr let them read, know, write!
The negative imperative adds the postposed morpheme mar in the 1st p. sg. and pl.‚ and the preposed morpheme of similar meaning, an, in the other persons, viz.
vulam mar pĕlem mar
an vula an pĕl
an vulatăr an pĕltĕr
vular mar pĕler mar
an vulăr an pĕlĕr
an vulachchăr an pĕlchchĕr
Examples of the usage in this mood are the following.
atja epir anar well then, let‘s go down (to the earthly world)
lesh tĕnchene ansa kurar let‘s go down and see the other world
esĕ ăna syhla you watch him
an şyvăr don‘t sleep
tytta an jar hold on and don‘t release him
hăvah kaj go yourself!
pĕtĕm Raşşeje kursa surer let‘s ride and see all of Russia
şüle kajar-i je şĕre kajar-i shall we go to the sky or to the earth
kus kajsa kan ĕntĕ go and return and rest now
halĕ hu pytan now you hide yourself
şyvra karas pulăsem sürechchĕr Let carp-fish go in the water!
Conditional Mood
This mood is used for actions in which the possibility of the action occurring is only probable, or is contingent upon some other happening. Thus, it is translated by words like “would, if“ etc. It is characterized by the conditional morpheme {(Ă)ttĂm}. Note the close resemblance of these forms to those of the durative past formation in -ttăm. The conditional has a short ă before the ending. The 1st and 2nd ps. are also often used with the past morpheme -chchĕ‚ to create the nuance “would have.“ Note the lack of vowel harmony in the 3rd p. sg. and pl.
vulăttăm pĕlĕttĕm şyrăttăm kajăttăm
vulăttăn pĕlĕttĕn şyrăttăn kajăttăn
vulĕchchĕ pĕlĕchchĕ şyrĕchchĕ kajĕchchĕ
vulăttămăr pĕlĕttĕmĕr şyrăttămăr kajăttămăr
vulăttăr pĕlĕttĕr şyrăttăr kajăttăr
vulĕchchĕş pĕlĕchchĕş şyrĕchchĕş kajĕchchĕş
The negation to the above employs the allomorph -m- of the negative morpheme.
vulamăttăm pĕlmĕttĕm
vulamăttăn pĕlmĕttĕn
vulamĕchchĕ pĕlmĕchchĕ
vulamăttămăr pĕlmĕttĕmĕr
vulamăttăr pĕlmĕttĕr
vulamĕchchĕş pĕlmĕchchĕş
The negative may also employ the suffixed morpheme –chchĕ. Examples of this mood are the following.
vulăttăm I would read (but I have no book)
ilĕttĕm I would buy (but I have no money)
kalăttăm I would say (If I dared)
kajmăttăm I wouldn‘t go (but I can‘t refuse)
ilmĕttĕm I wouldn‘t buy it (but I have to)
jarăttăm ta I would release you, but
‘kajăttăm ta ürkenetĕp‘ “I would go, but I am lazy“ he said
An artificial past tense is formed to the conditional by the use of the nomen perfecti in -nă to which the conditional of pul ‘to be, become‘ is added, thus, şyrrnă pulăttăm “I would have written“ lit. I would become one who has written.
Optative (Subjunctive) Mood
This mood expresses the hope that something will come to be, in the sense “would that it should happen, would that he come,“ or the concessive idea of “even if he should come.“ It is relatively little used, and in its formation appears to arise from two form-classes, the 2nd p. forms being suppletive.
vulăpin pĕlĕpin larăpin
vulăsăn pĕlĕsĕn larăsăn
vulin pĕlin larin
vulăpărin pĕlĕpĕrin larăpărin
vulăsăr pĕlĕsĕr larăsăr
vulăşin pĕlĕşin larăşin
The negative forms of the above are the following.
vulamăpin pĕlmĕpin larmăpin
vulamăsăn pĕlmĕsĕn larmăsăn
vulamin pĕlmin larmin
vulamăpărin pĕlmĕpĕrin larmăpărin
vulamăsăr pĕlmĕsĕr larmăsăr
vulamăşin pĕlmĕşin larmăşin
There is also an artificial past tense formed from the nomen perfecti in -na plus the subjunctive of pul-, thus:
şyrnă pulăpin şyrman pulăpin
etc. etc.
According to the Chuvash grammarians, a true optative mood is formed by adding the morpheme -chchĕ to the forms given in the first paragraph. However, today, such expression of desire as “would that…“ is rendered by the imperative mood.
ünite onbir a. Present participle (nomen actoris) in -kan b. Past participle (nomen perfecti) in -nă c. Future participle (nomen futuri) in
UNIT ELEVEN
a. Present participle (nomen actoris) in -kan
b. Past participle (nomen perfecti) in -nă
c. Future participle (nomen futuri) in -as
d. Infinitive (nomen concretum) in -ma
e. Nomen necessitatis in —malla
Present Participle (Nomen actoris)
As briefly observed previously, Chuvash does not have relative clauses of the sort “The man, who is reading the book, said so.“ Instead, this function is handled by a number of verbal nouns corresponding to the participles of other languages. The first of these is the present participle, or nomen actoris, which is made from a verbal stem plus the morpheme {(A)kAn}. Since it is a noun, it may occur in various cases and in the possessive and plural. It denotes the person doing customarily or presently the action of the verb. Thus, it frequently refers to occupations or professions, as well as temporary practices. It may be subject, modifier or object.
The nomen actoris may have an object of its own, and it in turn may be the modifier of another word, or the object of another word, as
It may occur with possessive endings, as in these examples:
This form may occur in all cases, and its formation is absolutely regular
The morpheme -chchĕ may also be affixed:
The negative is made with the morpheme {. mAn}:
There is in addition an older form of this noun without the k, and ending in -an/-en. It is met today in a few fixed phrases, as:
Fast Participle (Nomen perfecti)
This form is of extremely wide application. It is chiefly a narrative and abstract participle, and functions in general like the preceding form, in that lt occurs as a modifier and as a predicate. From its latter usage as a predicate, many grammarians, both Chuvash and Western, treat it like a tense. Although it is superficially like a tense, it differs from them in not having any personal endings. Yet, it differs from the nouns, and the foregoing nomen actoris in that it does not occur in different persons (except as a special formation with the 3rd p. sg. suffix). Like other nouns, it may take the past morpheme -chchĕ‚ thus making it a sort of past form of itself. it is a non-eyewitness form, and when used predicatively in its tense-like function, it is chiefly found in narrative style, especially of folktales. The ending is -nă/-nĕ, and does not vary for person. Before this morpheme, monosyllabic verb stems in -r employ their stem alternant without -r.
Note that both active and passive may be inferred from this form, depending on the context:
The negative to this morpheme is in -mAn, which thus coincides formally with that of the preceding nomen actoris. Both positive and negative forms may occur in different cases and in possessive forms, of the 3rdp. only.
Future Participle (Nomen futuri)
The formation of this noun is not difficult: to the stern of the word -(A)s is added, thus:
The negative of this form employs the -mAs- allomorph of the negative morpheme, thus, kilmes ‘not going to come,‘ or jurlamas ‘not going to sing.‘ In today‘s language, however, this usage is relatively rare. Instead, the postposed negative word mar is employed, or the word şuk ‘there is none.‘
The nomen futuri may also be used predicatively, with or without pronoun.
The future participle is also frequently used with the so-called purposive case denoted by the morpheme -/shăn/, meaning “for, for the purpose of.“ This combination functions like the infinitive of European languages in many ways. Note that in pronunciation the combinations -ssh- or şsh become -shsh-.
Infinitive (Nomen concretum) in -ma
This form, which other writers have called the infinitive (and Ashmarin the supine), is a standard verbal noun formed from any stem with the morpheme {-mA}. It is frequently translated into English with a form (gerund) in -ing. It does not refer to any mood, tense, person or number, but to the action in a nominal sense. There is no negative form.
This form frequently has a purposive connotation, “for, for to, in order to, for the purpose of doing so.“
Although there is no negative, this form may occur with the privative morpheme -săr, viz.:
Nomen necessitatis in -malla
The so-called obligatory noun, or noun of necessity, is formed from the verbal noun in -ma by the addition of the old directive morpheme -lla, which we previously encountered in forms like vărmanalla ‘towards the woods.‘ It most frequently occurs in the 3rd p. sg. possessive, thus -malli, or -malle. It has no negative formation, except to add mar after it.
Examples are:
a. Present participle (nomen actoris) in -kan
b. Past participle (nomen perfecti) in -nă
c. Future participle (nomen futuri) in -as
d. Infinitive (nomen concretum) in -ma
e. Nomen necessitatis in —malla
Present Participle (Nomen actoris)
As briefly observed previously, Chuvash does not have relative clauses of the sort “The man, who is reading the book, said so.“ Instead, this function is handled by a number of verbal nouns corresponding to the participles of other languages. The first of these is the present participle, or nomen actoris, which is made from a verbal stem plus the morpheme {(A)kAn}. Since it is a noun, it may occur in various cases and in the possessive and plural. It denotes the person doing customarily or presently the action of the verb. Thus, it frequently refers to occupations or professions, as well as temporary practices. It may be subject, modifier or object.
vulakan reader, one who reads, the reading one
ĕntĕ kileken etem ‘the now coming man‘ the man who is coming now
shyva kürteken Ioann ‘causing to go into water John‘ = John the Baptist
tyra akakan a grain-sower, the one sowing grain
şynna pulăshăkan şyn a philanthropist (a man-helping man‘)
esir julakan jură ‘the you singing song‘ = the song which you are singing
chej ĕşeken chashăk the tea-drinking cup (obviously, not the cup which is drinking tea,
but the cup for the purpose of tea-drinking)
vulakan charănchĕ the reader stopped
pĕr vătăr hălăş an oak thirty fathoms in circumference (lit. ‘revolving around‘)
şavrănakan juman
The nomen actoris may have an object of its own, and it in turn may be the modifier of another word, or the object of another word, as
hulana kajakan şul the road leading to the city
It may occur with possessive endings, as in these examples:
şyrakanni şyrat, the writer writes,
vulakanni vulat the reader reads (lit. ‘its writing-one writes‘)
puşlakanni esĕ pultăn, “Its beginning one you were; its finishing one, I“
vĕşlekenni – epĕ You started it but 1 finished it.
This form may occur in all cases, and its formation is absolutely regular
vulakan ĕşleken vulakansem
vulakanăn ĕşlekenĕn vulakansenĕn
vulakana ĕşlekene vulakansene
vulakanta ĕşlekente vulakansenche
vulakantan ĕşlekenten vulakansenchĕn
vulakanpa ĕşlekenpe vulakansempe
The morpheme -chchĕ may also be affixed:
esĕ haşata stat‘ja şyrakanchchĕ you used to write newspaper articles(‘you were one who was writing articles‘)
The negative is made with the morpheme {. mAn}:
vulaman not reading, one who does not read, a non-reader
kuş kurman şyn ‘a non-eye-seeing man‘ > a blind man
shyvra putman japalasem things which do not sink in water, unsinkables
ereh ĕşmen şyn a non-wine-drinking man, teetotaler
pĕlmenten an yjt don‘t ask a man who doesn‘t know (note ablative)
There is in addition an older form of this noun without the k, and ending in -an/-en. It is met today in a few fixed phrases, as:
juhanshyv flowing water‘ = river
vĕşen kajăk ‘flying bird‘ = fowl, bird
şüren şul ‘going, travelling road‘ = well-trodden path
Fast Participle (Nomen perfecti)
This form is of extremely wide application. It is chiefly a narrative and abstract participle, and functions in general like the preceding form, in that lt occurs as a modifier and as a predicate. From its latter usage as a predicate, many grammarians, both Chuvash and Western, treat it like a tense. Although it is superficially like a tense, it differs from them in not having any personal endings. Yet, it differs from the nouns, and the foregoing nomen actoris in that it does not occur in different persons (except as a special formation with the 3rd p. sg. suffix). Like other nouns, it may take the past morpheme -chchĕ‚ thus making it a sort of past form of itself. it is a non-eyewitness form, and when used predicatively in its tense-like function, it is chiefly found in narrative style, especially of folktales. The ending is -nă/-nĕ, and does not vary for person. Before this morpheme, monosyllabic verb stems in -r employ their stem alternant without -r.
epĕ vulană I was a reader, I am one who read; I read (past)
epĕ pĕlnĕ I was a knower, I am one who knew, I knew
şyn kurnă the man saw
kurnă şyn the seen man‚ the man who was seen AND the man who saw
esĕ kurnă etem your seen man‘ the man whom you saw
kilnĕ etem the man who came
varmanti pysăk tipnĕ juman a big oak which has dried out in the forest
pytannă sĕrten tuprăn you have found their hidden place
arămĕ jană tytnă his wife went and held him ( began to hold him)
manăn hĕrĕ tălăha from having left my daughters as widows,
hăvarnăshăn because you left them as widows
Note that both active and passive may be inferred from this form, depending on the context:
kurnă şyn the man who saw, the man who was seena man who did not see or hear
kurman iltmen şyn a man who was neither seen nor heard;
The negative to this morpheme is in -mAn, which thus coincides formally with that of the preceding nomen actoris. Both positive and negative forms may occur in different cases and in possessive forms, of the 3rdp. only.
pĕlmen sămah an unknown word, a word one didn"t know
şemjiseni pĕri te sismen not one of the family-members noticed
lashasem shyv ĕşmenten owing to the horses‘ not drinking water
kahal kajnăne kursassăn when they saw Lazybones coming
kahal vshsem kulnăshĕ Lazybones grew angry from their having laughed
şilennĕ julnăshke the one who has remained
In the possessive of the 3rd p. sg.‚ with the suffix -i, this form is used as a verbal noun in -ni, which may then occur in different cases.
kĕneke vulani usăllă book reading is useful (‘book its reading useful‘)
tabak turtnine sijenlĕ teşşĕ tobacco smoking is harmful, they say
vulani reading, the act or occupation of reading
tărăshni the trying, striving, endeavor, attempt
epir tavlashnine şăltăr the stars, moon and sun saw us fighting
ujăh hĕvel kurchĕ
anchah acha lashi kalanine however, the boy did not obey the horse‘s talking
itlemen (what the horse had said)
hu savnine par give the one you love, your loved one
hăjne chup tunine kăşt sisnĕ she felt somewhat herself having been kissed
Future Participle (Nomen futuri)
The formation of this noun is not difficult: to the stern of the word -(A)s is added, thus:
vulas one who will read, that which is to be read,
which will be read
pĕles what will be known, one who will know
vyras văhăt the time to harvest
pulas văhăt future tense (‘the going-to-become time‘)
kiles şul the coming year
kalas sămax the words (I am) going to say
ĕntĕ kĕrü tăvas pulĕ now there will be the making into a son-in-law
(now we shall make you my son in-law)
The negative of this form employs the -mAs- allomorph of the negative morpheme, thus, kilmes ‘not going to come,‘ or jurlamas ‘not going to sing.‘ In today‘s language, however, this usage is relatively rare. Instead, the postposed negative word mar is employed, or the word şuk ‘there is none.‘
epĕ temterle kajas mar tĕrem I said (I was) one who will not go at all
The nomen futuri may also be used predicatively, with or without pronoun.
epĕ pĕles I will know, I should know
kajas, ate I‘ll go, father lit. ‘there will be a going‘
ăşta pytanas Where is one to hide?
jeple pĕles How to know? How is one to know that?
jeple tupas How to find? = How is one to find her?
The future participle is also frequently used with the so-called purposive case denoted by the morpheme -/shăn/, meaning “for, for the purpose of.“ This combination functions like the infinitive of European languages in many ways. Note that in pronunciation the combinations -ssh- or şsh become -shsh-.
appana kurasshăn epĕ I came here for the seeing of my sister, to see my sister
kunta kiltĕm
acha şavah anasshăn pulnă the boy was for descending there (anyway),
the boy wanted to go down there
ku hĕre kahala that girl was not for going to the Lazybones,
kajasshăn pulman did not want to go to Lazybones
Infinitive (Nomen concretum) in -ma
This form, which other writers have called the infinitive (and Ashmarin the supine), is a standard verbal noun formed from any stem with the morpheme {-mA}. It is frequently translated into English with a form (gerund) in -ing. It does not refer to any mood, tense, person or number, but to the action in a nominal sense. There is no negative form.
jurla to sing
jurlama singing, the act or practice of singing
văl jurlama havas he loves singing, he loves to sing
mana tupma hushat he orders me to find (them)
vută tijeme hatĕrlenĕ he readied the loading of firewood
văl shyv ăsma annă he went down to draw water
This form frequently has a purposive connotation, “for, for to, in order to, for the purpose of doing so.“
pĕrre amashĕ shyva kajma hushnă once his mother ordered going for
(the purpose of getting) water
şav starik lashisene şăvarma annă that old man went down to water
(in order to water) his horses
ashshĕ vara ilme kĕnĕ then his father came in to eat
akă tyră akakan akma tuhnă Lo, a sower went out to sow [Mark IV,3]
kartana lasha tytma kajnă he went into the herd to catch a horse
pallama pyrsan when he went in order to recognize
Although there is no negative, this form may occur with the privative morpheme -săr, viz.:
nummajchchen kajmasăr tăna he stood for a long time without going
chătajmasăr inability to restrain
arămĕ tepĕr kaş şyvărmasăr the next night his wife lay and watched without
syhlasa vyrtnă sleeping
Nomen necessitatis in -malla
The so-called obligatory noun, or noun of necessity, is formed from the verbal noun in -ma by the addition of the old directive morpheme -lla, which we previously encountered in forms like vărmanalla ‘towards the woods.‘ It most frequently occurs in the 3rd p. sg. possessive, thus -malli, or -malle. It has no negative formation, except to add mar after it.
Examples are:
vulamalla, vulamalli that which must be read, is to be read
pĕlmelle, pĕlmelli that which must be known, is necessary to know
epĕ kilmelle I must come, I have to come
hal"ĕh kajmalli? is it necessary to go now (= do we have to go now?)
untan tepĕr kun the next day it was necessary to recognize the middle
vătalăhne pallamalla pulnă one (the middle one was to be recognized)
hăşşan … pürtre puran When will we be having to live in a house? (When do
purănmalla pulăr-shi we get to live in a house like other people?)
ünite on Secondary past tenses of the Indicative: a. Durative past in -ttăm b. Past in the Future: -nă + pul- c. Past of the preterite
UNIT TEN
Secondary past tenses of the Indicative:
a. Durative past in -ttăm
b. Past in the Future: -nă + pul-
c. Past of the preterite: -se + -ttĕm
The Morpheme chchĕ "was‘
The Durative Past
The past imperfective or past iterative seems to function essentially as a past tense to the durative, as regards its function (but not its formation). As the durative indicates action extending in the present, the durative past, as we shall call it, indicates an action extending in the past, like the imperfect of Western European languages. It may thus frequently and conveniently be translated by forms such as “I was reading, I was writing.“ It indicates incompleted action. The tense formant is the morpheme -tt-, arising from the verb tăr- ‘to stand, to be,‘ thus, “I stand and work“ > I was working.
The negative forms to the above are the following.
Fast in the Future
Just as the durative has its past, so too can the future have a past. This tense, commonly called the future perfect, refers to an action that will be past at some future time, thus, if one year from now, I can say “I have taught five years,“ then now, that is expressed as “I shall have taught five years“ (in a year from now). This tense is not a native Chuvash formation, but has obviously been introduced on the model of those found In other languages. Its form, too, is not one employing stem changes or root morphemes, but merely one of juxtaposition of forms. It is little used, and no instance is found in our reading selections. It is made by adding to the stern the invariable morpheme {. nA}, followed by the verb pul- ‘to be, become‘ in the future tense.
If a verb with front vowels is used, as il- ‘to take, buy,‘ the corresponding form ilnĕ ‘taken, bought‘ Is substituted. This form in -nă/-nĕ will be discussed shortly at length. The negative to this is in -mAn, as /kajman/ or /ilmen/, viz. epĕ kajman pulăp “I shall not have gone.“ Since the formation is invariable, no additional listings will be given here.
Past Preterite
The preterite too may have its own past, which the Chuvash grammarians call the ‘long-past categorical.‘ Although not connected in form with the preterite proper, its function seems to place it here as a sort of pluperfect, being used to denote an action which went on in the past before the completion of another action also in the past. Like the preterite, this too ja an eyewitness tense. It actually arises from a compounding of the main root morpheme with the coordinate gerund in -sa (a feature to be taken up shortly), to which the formation -ttăm (etc.) of the past durative is then added. In the negative formation, note that the allomorph -ma- occurs before the morpheme -sa-. This tense too is a rather artificial one, and seldom seen.
The negative formation is as follows.
The Morpheme chchĕ ‘was‘
The morpheme –chchĕ has the meaning of “was, were,“ and may be added to many stems to give the additional emphasis that something is completed, or in the past. It is exactly equivalent in origin, meaning and usage to the -dy of Turkic languages. It may be attached to the nouns pur and şuk to yield purchchĕ “there was, there were“ and şukchchĕ “there was not, there were not.“ Note that in the case of several tenses, the 3rd p. sg. ends in -chĕ‚ which is more properly considered part of the tense formation. The morpheme chchĕ occurs regularly as a free variant with zero in the past preterite and the past durative, viz.:
As the same formation is added to front and back words alike, and to the negative forms, there is no need to give a separate listing here.
The formation may be a bit clearer if we paraphrase it into rather long-winded English, giving its literal meaning as:
Secondary past tenses of the Indicative:
a. Durative past in -ttăm
b. Past in the Future: -nă + pul-
c. Past of the preterite: -se + -ttĕm
The Morpheme chchĕ "was‘
The Durative Past
The past imperfective or past iterative seems to function essentially as a past tense to the durative, as regards its function (but not its formation). As the durative indicates action extending in the present, the durative past, as we shall call it, indicates an action extending in the past, like the imperfect of Western European languages. It may thus frequently and conveniently be translated by forms such as “I was reading, I was writing.“ It indicates incompleted action. The tense formant is the morpheme -tt-, arising from the verb tăr- ‘to stand, to be,‘ thus, “I stand and work“ > I was working.
vulattăm ĕşlettĕm şyrattăm pĕlettĕm
vulattăn ĕşlettĕn şyrattăn pĕlettĕn
vulatchĕ ĕşletchĕ şyratchĕ pĕletchĕ
vulattămăr ĕşlettĕmĕr şyrattămăr pĕlettĕmĕr
vulattăr ĕşlettĕr şyrattăr pĕlettĕr
vulatchĕş ĕşletchĕş şyratchĕş pĕletchĕş
The negative forms to the above are the following.
vulamastăm ĕşlemestĕm şyrmastăm pĕlmestĕp
vulamastăn ĕşlemestĕn şyrmastăn pĕlmestĕn
vulamastchĕ ĕşlemestchĕ şyrmastchĕ pĕlmestchĕ
vulamastămăr ĕşlemestĕmĕr şyrmastămăr pĕlmestĕpĕr
vulamastăr ĕşlemestĕr şyrmastăr pĕlmestĕr
vulamastchĕş ĕşlemestchĕş şyrmastchĕş pĕlmestchĕş
Fast in the Future
Just as the durative has its past, so too can the future have a past. This tense, commonly called the future perfect, refers to an action that will be past at some future time, thus, if one year from now, I can say “I have taught five years,“ then now, that is expressed as “I shall have taught five years“ (in a year from now). This tense is not a native Chuvash formation, but has obviously been introduced on the model of those found In other languages. Its form, too, is not one employing stem changes or root morphemes, but merely one of juxtaposition of forms. It is little used, and no instance is found in our reading selections. It is made by adding to the stern the invariable morpheme {. nA}, followed by the verb pul- ‘to be, become‘ in the future tense.
epĕ kajnă pulăp “I shall be one who has gone,“ “I shall have gone"
esĕ kajnă pulăn you will have gone
văl kajnă pulĕ he will have gone
epir kajnă pulăpăr we shall have gone
esir kajna pulăr you will have gone
vĕsem kajnă pulĕş they will have gone
If a verb with front vowels is used, as il- ‘to take, buy,‘ the corresponding form ilnĕ ‘taken, bought‘ Is substituted. This form in -nă/-nĕ will be discussed shortly at length. The negative to this is in -mAn, as /kajman/ or /ilmen/, viz. epĕ kajman pulăp “I shall not have gone.“ Since the formation is invariable, no additional listings will be given here.
Past Preterite
The preterite too may have its own past, which the Chuvash grammarians call the ‘long-past categorical.‘ Although not connected in form with the preterite proper, its function seems to place it here as a sort of pluperfect, being used to denote an action which went on in the past before the completion of another action also in the past. Like the preterite, this too ja an eyewitness tense. It actually arises from a compounding of the main root morpheme with the coordinate gerund in -sa (a feature to be taken up shortly), to which the formation -ttăm (etc.) of the past durative is then added. In the negative formation, note that the allomorph -ma- occurs before the morpheme -sa-. This tense too is a rather artificial one, and seldom seen.
vulasattăm ĕşlesettĕm şyrsattăm pĕlsettĕm
vulasattăn ĕşlettĕn şyrsattăn pĕlsettĕn
vulasachchĕ ĕşlesechchĕ şyrsachchĕ pĕlsechchĕ
vulasattămăr ĕşlesettĕmĕr şyrsattămăr pĕlsettĕmĕr
vulasattăr ĕşlesettĕr şyrsattăr pĕlsettĕr
vulasachchĕş ĕşlesechchĕş şyrsachchĕş pĕlsettĕş
The negative formation is as follows.
vulamasattăm ĕşlemesettĕm şyrmasattăm pĕlmesettĕm
vulamasattăn ĕşlemesettĕn şyrmasattăn pĕlmesettĕn
vulamasachchĕ ĕşlemesechchĕ şyrmasachchĕ pĕlmesechchĕ
vulamasattămăr ĕşlemesettĕmĕr şyrmasattămăr pĕlmesettĕmĕr
vulamasattăr ĕşlemesettĕr şyrmasattăr pĕlmesettĕr
vulamasachchĕş ĕşlemesechchĕş şyrmasachchĕş pĕlmesechchĕş
The Morpheme chchĕ ‘was‘
The morpheme –chchĕ has the meaning of “was, were,“ and may be added to many stems to give the additional emphasis that something is completed, or in the past. It is exactly equivalent in origin, meaning and usage to the -dy of Turkic languages. It may be attached to the nouns pur and şuk to yield purchchĕ “there was, there were“ and şukchchĕ “there was not, there were not.“ Note that in the case of several tenses, the 3rd p. sg. ends in -chĕ‚ which is more properly considered part of the tense formation. The morpheme chchĕ occurs regularly as a free variant with zero in the past preterite and the past durative, viz.:
şyrattămchchĕ şyrsattămchchĕ
şyrattănchchĕ şyrsattănchchĕ
(şyratchĕ) (şyrsachchĕ)
şyrattămărchchĕ şyrsattămărchchĕ
şyrattărchchĕ şyrsattărchchĕ
şyratchĕş şyrsatchĕş
As the same formation is added to front and back words alike, and to the negative forms, there is no need to give a separate listing here.
The formation may be a bit clearer if we paraphrase it into rather long-winded English, giving its literal meaning as:
“I was one who was working“
you were one who was working
he is one who was working
(etc.)
“I was wie who had been working“
(etc.)
ünite dokuz The verb: Primary tenses of the indicative mood (durative present, negative formation, future, preterite).
UNIT NINE
The verb: Primary tenses of the indicative mood (durative present, negative formation, future, preterite).
The essential order of words in the Chuvash sentence, a subject which we shall devote greater attention to later in any event, positions the verb at the end of the clause or sentence. Thus, the sentence begins with the subject, followed by the object, with any other elements of manner or place and time arranged next inline, and finally, the verb concluding. The basic function of the verb is to state action or to predicate existence.
In the present Grammar we shall confine ourselves to the chief forms of current Chuvash usage. Some other forms may be found, but their usage is limited. For convenience, we divide the tenses of the indicative mood (the forms that express fact or actual occurrences, rather than what might or would happen) according to their formation into the primary and secondary tenses. Although we use the term “tense“ to describe the different forms of the Chuvash verb, the connotation of time that this word has is not the on one which the form possesses. We might also speak of “aspect,“ or the manner of looking at an action, focusing not so much on the relative time sequence of events, but features like customary action versus one-time action. In the case of the first tense, the durative present, the meaning is not only that of an action occurring this instant (the fish is swimming this moment in the stream) but also of actions habitually characteristic of the subject (fish swim, as in their nature, in the ocean).
Durative Present
The durative present tense has the formant -t-, after which certain endings characteristic of the different persons are added. These persons are the first, or the speaker (I), and its plural (we), the second, or person spoken to (you) and its plural (also ‘you‘ in English, but different in Chuvash), and the third person, the one spoken of, (he) with its plural (they). The persons will always be given in the same order (1st sg.‚ 2nd sg.‚ 3rd sg.‚ 1st pl.‚ 2nd pl.‚ 3rd pl.), and for this reason, will not be specially marked. The endings characteristic of this tense are not difficult. Chuvash verbs in general have only one declensional type, but there are some variants caused by the vowel harmony, and by whether the stem ends in a vowel or consonant. According to the Chuvash grammarians, the durative present (which they call the Present-Future) denotes:
a. action being completed at the moment of speaking
b. actions going on in general terms, as part of the natural order of things
c. a definite categorical future: something that absolutely is going to take place - this is expressed with the durative present
Herewith we present the forms for the four possible variants in this tense.
Note that the tense formant -t- is characteristic of all persons except the 3rd p. pl.‚ where it assimilates before ş to ş. In the current Cyrillic orthography, a soft sign (‘) is used after the -t- of the 3rd p. sg. for back vowel stems only. Since this is not phonemic, we do not reproduce it in these lessons, but it will be found in the reading selections {Chuvash.org: it is phonemic, e.g. vărat "to wake smb", vărat" "he"s throwing smth". Chuvash.org may have replaced soft signs where necessary}. The student is reminded that the -t- of the 1st p. pl. assimilates in ordinary pronunciation to the following bilabial stop -p-, so that these forms are usually pronounced [vulappăr], [ĕşleppĕr], [şyrappăr] and [kileppĕr].
Historically, it may be of interest to note the origin of the tense from a combination of a verb form in -a/-e to which a reduced form of another verb tăr- (“to stand“ > “to be“) was added, plus reduced forms of personal pronouns.
Note that this tense is sometimes translated into English by a future, especially with “going to,“ as in “I write, I am going to write, I‘m going to New York tomorrow,“ rather than the future “I shall go to New York.“ Some examples of the tense follow.
Negative Formation
Up to now we have not mentioned how to say “not“ with respect to anything. Thus it may surprise the student to learn that in Chuvash there is no individual word for not, but that this is incorporated as a morpheme into the middle of the word. The morpheme is {-m-}, with allomorphs of -mă-/-mĕ-, -ma-, etc. In the durative present, the allomorph is -mas-/-mes-. The negative forms of the preceding verbs are, then:
In colloquial pronunciation, the -t of the 3rd p. sg. disappears. A few examples are the following:
Future Tense
The second tense of the Indicative or factual mood is the future. It is formed with the stem of the verb, to which the personal endings (almost identical with those of the durative present) are added. The ending of the future tense is a zero-formant, in other words, no ending, plus the durative endings, in all persons except the 3rd, where -ĕ and -ĕş are used. This tense is called the Future-Indefinite in Chuvash grammars, and is used when the expression of the future is more general, and not so dogmatic, that is, when the speaker is less convinced that an action will definitely take place. The endings for this tense are the following:
The negative formation for this tense infixes the allomorph -m- of the negative morpheme.
Note that in the written language the 3rd p. sg. and pl. uses front vocalism regardless of stem. The dialects also use the expected -ă.
Some examples of the use of this tense are the following.
Preterite Tense
The third tense of the Indicative is the preterite, employing the tense formant -R, with the following allomorphs:
a. -r after vowel stems, and after consonants except /l n r/
b. -t after stems in /l n r/
c. -ch -in the 3rd p. sg. of stems in /l n r/
Note the similarity of these morphophonemic changes to that of the locative relational morpheme. To the tense formant, personal endings very similar to the possessive morphemes are added. Some persons speculate that these formations like the preterite arose from an original noun, in this case, in -r, to which reduced personal pronouns were added, thus ‘~my writing, my written thing“ becomes “I wrote, I have written.“
This tense indicates a clearly past action, not relative to any other past, thus, being more like a perfect tense: I have seen, have written. It is an eye-witness tense, used by persons who know about the event first-hand, rather than a narrative tense, in which the event is merely reported by another. The preterite is used for vivid description, and is called the past categorical by the Chuvash grammar writers. The forms are the following:
The negative conjugation of the preceding uses the -ma- allomorph of the negative morpheme. Note that since it is added after the stem, and before the tense formant, there are only two variants, front and back.
Examples of various verbs in this tense may be given as follows:
Verb stems ending in -r in this tense have two subclasses, for which no conditions of assignation have as yet been discovered. The first subclass retains -r in all forms of this tense, thus:
The members of the second subclass, however, drop the -r of the stem before the morpheme of the -R preterite. There are about ten common stems in this class. They are the following verbs of frequent occurrence.
Some examples of formations are the following.
In folktales, the verb /kaj-/ to go, also loses -j- before the morpheme of the preterite tense. In the literary language of today, it does not: /kajrĕ/.
No explanation of this phenomenon has as yet been advanced. Some other common verbs ending in -r do not participate in this change, as:
The verb: Primary tenses of the indicative mood (durative present, negative formation, future, preterite).
The essential order of words in the Chuvash sentence, a subject which we shall devote greater attention to later in any event, positions the verb at the end of the clause or sentence. Thus, the sentence begins with the subject, followed by the object, with any other elements of manner or place and time arranged next inline, and finally, the verb concluding. The basic function of the verb is to state action or to predicate existence.
In the present Grammar we shall confine ourselves to the chief forms of current Chuvash usage. Some other forms may be found, but their usage is limited. For convenience, we divide the tenses of the indicative mood (the forms that express fact or actual occurrences, rather than what might or would happen) according to their formation into the primary and secondary tenses. Although we use the term “tense“ to describe the different forms of the Chuvash verb, the connotation of time that this word has is not the on one which the form possesses. We might also speak of “aspect,“ or the manner of looking at an action, focusing not so much on the relative time sequence of events, but features like customary action versus one-time action. In the case of the first tense, the durative present, the meaning is not only that of an action occurring this instant (the fish is swimming this moment in the stream) but also of actions habitually characteristic of the subject (fish swim, as in their nature, in the ocean).
Durative Present
The durative present tense has the formant -t-, after which certain endings characteristic of the different persons are added. These persons are the first, or the speaker (I), and its plural (we), the second, or person spoken to (you) and its plural (also ‘you‘ in English, but different in Chuvash), and the third person, the one spoken of, (he) with its plural (they). The persons will always be given in the same order (1st sg.‚ 2nd sg.‚ 3rd sg.‚ 1st pl.‚ 2nd pl.‚ 3rd pl.), and for this reason, will not be specially marked. The endings characteristic of this tense are not difficult. Chuvash verbs in general have only one declensional type, but there are some variants caused by the vowel harmony, and by whether the stem ends in a vowel or consonant. According to the Chuvash grammarians, the durative present (which they call the Present-Future) denotes:
a. action being completed at the moment of speaking
b. actions going on in general terms, as part of the natural order of things
c. a definite categorical future: something that absolutely is going to take place - this is expressed with the durative present
Herewith we present the forms for the four possible variants in this tense.
vowel stem consonant stem
vula. tăp ĕşle. tĕp şyr. atăp kil. etĕp
vula. tăn ĕşle. tĕn şyr. atăn kil. etĕn
vula. t" ĕşle. t şyr. at" kil. et
vula. tpăr ĕşle. tpĕr şyr. atpăr kil. etpĕr
vula. tăr ĕşle. tĕr şyr. atăr kil. etĕr
vula. şşĕ ĕşle. şşĕ şyr. aşşĕ kil. eşşĕ
Note that the tense formant -t- is characteristic of all persons except the 3rd p. pl.‚ where it assimilates before ş to ş. In the current Cyrillic orthography, a soft sign (‘) is used after the -t- of the 3rd p. sg. for back vowel stems only. Since this is not phonemic, we do not reproduce it in these lessons, but it will be found in the reading selections {Chuvash.org: it is phonemic, e.g. vărat "to wake smb", vărat" "he"s throwing smth". Chuvash.org may have replaced soft signs where necessary}. The student is reminded that the -t- of the 1st p. pl. assimilates in ordinary pronunciation to the following bilabial stop -p-, so that these forms are usually pronounced [vulappăr], [ĕşleppĕr], [şyrappăr] and [kileppĕr].
Historically, it may be of interest to note the origin of the tense from a combination of a verb form in -a/-e to which a reduced form of another verb tăr- (“to stand“ > “to be“) was added, plus reduced forms of personal pronouns.
Note that this tense is sometimes translated into English by a future, especially with “going to,“ as in “I write, I am going to write, I‘m going to New York tomorrow,“ rather than the future “I shall go to New York.“ Some examples of the tense follow.
hĕvel tuhat" the sun risesthey are going to hold you
şyn üpkepe syvlat" man breathes with his lungs
shyv anatalla juhat" water flows downstream
yran epĕ Muskava kajatăp I‘m going to Moscow tomorrow
mĕnshĕn hujhăratăn? Why are you sorrowing?
hăşan tavrăntăn When do you return? When are you going to come back?
ansan sana tytaşşĕ When (we) descend, they will seize you
ĕşmeşşĕ they do not drink, they are not drinking
nişta ta kajmastăp I am not going anywhere
tytăşşĕ they are holding you, they will hold you,
Negative Formation
Up to now we have not mentioned how to say “not“ with respect to anything. Thus it may surprise the student to learn that in Chuvash there is no individual word for not, but that this is incorporated as a morpheme into the middle of the word. The morpheme is {-m-}, with allomorphs of -mă-/-mĕ-, -ma-, etc. In the durative present, the allomorph is -mas-/-mes-. The negative forms of the preceding verbs are, then:
şyrmastăp kilmestĕp vulamastăp ĕşlemestĕp
şyrmastăn kilmestĕn vulamastăn ĕşlemestĕn
şyrmast" kilmest vulamast" ĕşlemest
şyrmastpăr kilmestpĕr vulamastpăr ĕşlemestpĕr
şyrmastăr kilmestĕr vulamastăr ĕşlemestĕr
şyrmaşşĕ kilmeşşĕ vulamaşşĕ ĕşlemeşşĕ
In colloquial pronunciation, the -t of the 3rd p. sg. disappears. A few examples are the following:
tupajmastăr you cannot find
nişta ta kajmastăp I shall not go anywhere
hătălajmastăn you will be unable to save yourself
Future Tense
The second tense of the Indicative or factual mood is the future. It is formed with the stem of the verb, to which the personal endings (almost identical with those of the durative present) are added. The ending of the future tense is a zero-formant, in other words, no ending, plus the durative endings, in all persons except the 3rd, where -ĕ and -ĕş are used. This tense is called the Future-Indefinite in Chuvash grammars, and is used when the expression of the future is more general, and not so dogmatic, that is, when the speaker is less convinced that an action will definitely take place. The endings for this tense are the following:
şyrăp pĕlĕp vulăp ĕşlĕp
şyrăn pĕlĕn vulăn ĕşlĕn
şyrĕ pĕlĕ vulĕ ĕşlĕ
şyrăpăr pĕlĕpĕr vulăpăr ĕşlĕpĕr
şyrăr pĕlĕr vulăr ĕşlĕr
şyrĕş pĕlĕş vulĕş ĕşlĕş
The negative formation for this tense infixes the allomorph -m- of the negative morpheme.
şyrmăp pĕlmĕp vulamăp ĕşlemĕp
şyrmăn pĕlmĕn vulamăn ĕşlemĕn
şyrmĕ pĕlmĕ vulamĕ ĕşlemĕ
şyrmăpăr pĕlmĕpĕr vulamăpăr ĕşlemĕpĕr
şyrmăr pĕlmĕr vulamăr ĕşlemĕr
şyrmĕş pĕlmĕş vulamĕş ĕşlemĕş
Note that in the written language the 3rd p. sg. and pl. uses front vocalism regardless of stem. The dialects also use the expected -ă.
Some examples of the use of this tense are the following.
anmăpăr let‘s not descend, go down
ülĕmren kurajmăn you will not be able to see him in the future
hăshne ilĕn Which one will you take?
kurajmăn you will be unable to see me
esĕ kajăn-i Will you go?
esĕ kirek ăşta jarsan ta kajăp I shall go wherever you may send me
tupajăn-i Will you be able to find them?
epĕ vişĕ hutcen kĕsenep I shall whinny three times
sana arămu tytĕ your wife will seize you
pallama tytăp I shall hire you for to know.
Preterite Tense
The third tense of the Indicative is the preterite, employing the tense formant -R, with the following allomorphs:
a. -r after vowel stems, and after consonants except /l n r/
b. -t after stems in /l n r/
c. -ch -in the 3rd p. sg. of stems in /l n r/
Note the similarity of these morphophonemic changes to that of the locative relational morpheme. To the tense formant, personal endings very similar to the possessive morphemes are added. Some persons speculate that these formations like the preterite arose from an original noun, in this case, in -r, to which reduced personal pronouns were added, thus ‘~my writing, my written thing“ becomes “I wrote, I have written.“
This tense indicates a clearly past action, not relative to any other past, thus, being more like a perfect tense: I have seen, have written. It is an eye-witness tense, used by persons who know about the event first-hand, rather than a narrative tense, in which the event is merely reported by another. The preterite is used for vivid description, and is called the past categorical by the Chuvash grammar writers. The forms are the following:
vularăm ĕşlerĕm şyrtăm kiltĕm
vularăn ĕşlerĕn şyrtăn kiltĕn
vularĕ ĕşlerĕ şyrchĕ kilchĕ
vularămăr ĕşlerĕmĕr şyrtămăr kiltĕmĕr
vularăr ĕşlerĕr şyrtăr kiltĕr
vularĕş ĕşlerĕş şyrchĕş kilchĕş
The negative conjugation of the preceding uses the -ma- allomorph of the negative morpheme. Note that since it is added after the stem, and before the tense formant, there are only two variants, front and back.
vulamarăm ĕşlemerĕm şyrmarăm kilmerĕm
vulamarăn ĕşlemerĕn şyrmarăn kilmerĕn
vulamarĕ ĕşlemerĕ şyrmarĕ kilmerĕ
vulamarămăr ĕşlemerĕmĕr şyrmarămăr kilmerĕmĕr
vulamarăr ĕşlemerĕr şyrmarăr kilmerĕr
vulamarĕş ĕşlemerĕş şyrmarĕş kilmerĕş
Examples of various verbs in this tense may be given as follows:
tuprĕ he found tuprăn you have found (them)
pĕltĕn you knew pytancĕ he has hidden himself
itlemerĕ he did not obey tuprăr-i Did you find (him)?
şürerĕn you travelled terĕm I said
kilmerĕm I did not come tytrĕ he seized
şavna pallarăn you have recognized that one
şavna pĕltĕn you have known her
pytantartăm I have caused (them) to be hidden
tupajmarămăr we were unable to find (him)
văl sire pallarĕ he recognized you
Verb stems ending in -r in this tense have two subclasses, for which no conditions of assignation have as yet been discovered. The first subclass retains -r in all forms of this tense, thus:
kurtămăr we did see it
kurcĕ he saw it
esir kurtăr-i did you see it
The members of the second subclass, however, drop the -r of the stem before the morpheme of the -R preterite. There are about ten common stems in this class. They are the following verbs of frequent occurrence.
jĕr- to weep
kĕr- to enter
kür- to bring
par- to give
per- to throw, shoot
pyr- to go
tăr- to stand
hur- to place, put
jar- to send, leave, let, release
Some examples of formations are the following.
mana Tură ulma pacĕ God has given me an apple
jacĕ he let me go
jamarĕ he did not let him go
jamastcĕ he did not let go (past habitual tense)
esĕ şynna ăşta hutăn where did you put the man?
lasha numaj tavlashsa tăcĕ the horse stood there struggling fiercely
lasha shăvarma kajrăm I went to water the horses
asshĕ vara şime kĕnĕ his father then came in to eat
In folktales, the verb /kaj-/ to go, also loses -j- before the morpheme of the preterite tense. In the literary language of today, it does not: /kajrĕ/.
No explanation of this phenomenon has as yet been advanced. Some other common verbs ending in -r do not participate in this change, as:
lar- to sit, dwell, be
tar- to run
kur- to see
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