ünite dört Instrumental relational morpheme; minor case morphemes (privative, purposive, directive, vocative); compound case morphemes.

UNIT FOUR
Instrumental relational morpheme;
minor case morphemes (privative, purposive, directive, vocative);
compound case morphemes.
Tables of nominal declension.
Plural declension.

Instrumental Relational Morpheme

This morpheme is used to indicate the general means or instrument by which something is accomplished, corresponding to such words as “by, with, by means of“ and so on, in English. The morpheme is {-pA), with allomorphs of /-pa/ with back vowel words, and /-pe/ with front vowel words. In addition, the archaic and dialectal endings /pala, palan, pele, pelen/ may also be seen occasionally, but no nuance of meaning attaches to them. A few foreign words, mostly in -a and -ja, do employ a stem alternant of -ă anti –jă before the instrumental morpheme, but there is none of the other complications found in the genitive and accusative morphemes.

Some instances of the use of the instrumental are the following:

 pojezdpa   by train
 părahutpa kiltĕm  I came by steamer
 vĕsem vărmanpa pynă  they went by way of the woods

 kolhozniksem tyrra  the collective farmers
 kombainpa vyrsa    harvest grain with a
 puştaraşşĕ    combine

 manpa pĕrle kilchĕ  he came together with me

In addition to indicating the instrument or means by which things are accomplished, it may also indicate the place by which or through which an action goes on, the joint performing of actions with something or someone else. The instrumental may also indicate the time at which an action occurs, and thus is frequently found in fixed expressions of time, as:

 irpe   in the morning (Ger. morgens, Russ. utrom)
 kaşpa   in the evening (abends, vecherom)
 kunĕpe   all day (lit. ‘with its day,‘ a possessive)
 pajan kunĕpe  today all day
 şĕrĕpe   all night
 ernipe   all week

The instrumental morpheme is often used to mean “and,“ especially in titles.

 kahalpa pujan  “The Lazybones and the Rich Man“ (folktale) (207)
 fonetikapa morfologi “Phonetics and Morphology“ (subtitle of a Chuvash grammar)

Minor Case Morphemes

In addition to the case morphemes enumerated, some Chuvash grammarians consider the morpheme -săr/-sĕr ‘without‘ (the so-called privative case, meaning to be deprived of something), and the morpheme -shăn/-shĕn ‘for‘ (the so-called purposive case denoting the purpose of something) to be cases. In the present work, we shall not include them as cases in the regular sense of the word largely because their use is absolutely regular and predictable both in form and content. They have no allomorphs other than those required by vowel harmony, and may be used with every noun if the central meaning of the word permits it to be logically used. Some examples are the following.

Privative

 alsăr-urasăr  without arms or legs
 syvalăshsăr  airless, without air, anaerobic
 văisăr şyn  a man without strength, a weak man
 şynsăr   without a man, having no man
 kĕnekesĕr acha  a boy without books, “a bookless boy“

Purposive

 şyn syvlăhshĕn   for a man‘s health
 tyrpulshan   for (the goal or end of) harvests
 şirĕp mirshĕn   for lasting peace! (slogan)
 mĕnshĕn, mĕshĕn   for what, why?
 vĕsem kulnăshăn   owing to their laughing, because they laughed
 acha şapah anashshăn pulnă the boy was for descending (= wanted to go down)
 manăn hĕrĕ tălăha  because of my daughters‘ remaining widows
 xăvarnăshshăn  

Directive

The directive morpheme is {-(A)llA), and means ‘towards, to, at, in the direction of, -wards“ and so on. It is still a productive suffix and is found in the reading materials. Some instances are the following;

 vărmanalla towards the woods, woods-ward
 ajalalla downwards
 tăvalla  towards the mountain
 şülelle  upwards
 kilelle  towards home, homewards (Ger. nach Hause)

It is interesting to note a case of similar phonemic formation and function in the Finnic languages.

Others

There are some additional morphemes which might be considered case morphemes, as the terminative (cf. Hungarian!) in -ĕchen, meaning “up to, as far as,“ and some others, including a few vocative remnants. These forms, however, are little employed, and for our present purposes will not be considered.

Compound Case Morphemes

There is nothing to prevent more than one case morpheme being used at one time, should the meaning of both of them be needed in a phrase or sentence, and this is occasionally done. The most common is the use of the combined ablative and locative in {-.RAnpA}, of which the following are examples:

 paşărtanpa  since time immemorial
 ĕnertenpe  since yesterday
 kilnĕrenpe  from the time I arrived

Tables of Nominal Declension

Here are given tables to illustrate various types of nominals in the six cases, namely, absolute, genitive, dative, accusative, locative, ablative and instrumental. As this order is always the same, we shall not henceforth mark the names of cases when all are given at once.

Note that nouns in orthographic l", n", r" use front endings in the written language.

TABLES OF NOMINAL DECLENSION

  Back     Front
Consonant   Vowel  Consonant  Vowel

arman   lasha  tir măkăn‘  ĕne    shăshi
armanăn   lashan(ăn) tirĕn măkănĕn  ĕnen(ĕn)   shăshin or shăshijen

armana   lashana  tire măkăne  ĕnene      shăshiye
armanta   lashara  tirte  măkăn‘te ĕnere     shăshire
armanta   lasharan tirten măkăn‘ten ĕneren     shăshiren
armanpa   lashapa  tirpe  măkăn‘pe ĕnepe     shăshipe

   (j—stem)    (j—stem)   
alăk sămah  uj   tinĕs  sij
alăkăn sămahăn  ujăn   tinĕsĕn  sijĕn
alăka sămaha  uja   tinĕse  sije
alăkra sămahra  ujra   tinĕsre  sijre
alăkran sămahran ujran   tinĕsren sijren
alăkpa sămahpa  ujpa   tinĕspe  sijpe



   pulă purtă    külĕ   pĕrchĕ
   pullăn purtăn    küllĕn   pĕrchĕn
   pulla purta    külle   pĕrche
   pulăra purtăra    külĕre   pĕrchĕre
   pulăran purtăran   külĕren   pĕrchĕren
   pulăpa purtăpa    külĕpe   pĕrchĕpe




   şyru     kĕtü
   şyrăvan     kĕtĕvĕn
   şyrăva     kĕtĕve
   şyrura     kĕtüre
   şyruran     kĕtüren
   şyrupa     kĕtüpe
 


  BORROWINGS
  Back     Front
Consonant    Vowel  Consonant Vowel

metall   kino    -stvo oktjabr‘ parti
metalăn   kinon    -stvăn oktjabrĕn parti or partijĕn
metala   kinona    -stvăna oktjabre partije
metalra   kinora    -stvăra oktjabr‘te partire
metairan  kinoran    -stvăran oktjabr‘ten partiren
metalpa   kinopa    -stvăpa oktjabr‘pe partipe 



vlast‘   stsena    ideja izvest‘
vlaşăn   stsenăn    idejăn izveşĕn
vlaşa   stsenăna   idejăna izveşe
vlaşra   stsenăra   idejăra izveşre
vlaşran   stsenăran  idejăran izveşren
vlaşpa   stsenăpa   idejăpa izveşpe

Plural Declension

The plural morpheme in Chuvash is {-seN}, with the allomorph /-sem/ in word-final position, before a homoorganically articulated consonant (e. g., -p), and before the privative and purposive morphemes -sĂr and -shĂn, and the allomorph /-sen/ before all other endings. This morpheme does not observe vowel harmony in the written language; thus, all endings may be given as:

  -sem
  -sen (-ĕn)
  -sene
  -senche
  -senchen
  -sempe
  (-semshĕr
  -semshĕn)

Examples of the plural deciension are the following. As pointed out previously, Chuvash is unique among Turkic languages in that the possessive morphemes are added before the plural morpheme, contrary to the practice in others.

 sămahsem  tinĕssem  lashasem
 sămahsen(ĕn)  tinĕssen(ĕn)  lashasen(ĕn)
 sămahsene  tinĕssene  lashasene
 sămahsenche  tinĕssenche  lashasenche
 sămahsenchen  tinĕssenchen  lashasenchen
 sămahsempe  tinĕssempe  lashasempe

If the -s of -sem is preceded by ş or sh‚ remember that in pronunciation, the two s sounds will assimilate to each other, namely, to ş or sh.