ünite yedi The nominal as adjective; comparison of the adjective; possessive adjectives; superlative intensifiers; the morpheme /-lă/.

UNIT SEVEN

The nominal as adjective; comparison of the adjective; possessive adjectives; superlative intensifiers; the morpheme /-lă/.

The Nominal as Adjective

There is little formal difference between the various subclasses of nominals: hence, there are no formal characteristics, as endings, which mark the Chuvash adjective, or rather, the nominal used adjectivally. As previously remarked, the same Chuvash word may be identically used as noun, adjective and adverb, for instance:

 shură şămarta   a white egg
 şămarta shurri   egg its white egg = white, albumen

 jyvăş şurt   wooden house 
 chul kĕper   stone bridge

 asha    warm, warmth, warmness
 asha sămah   a warm word, friendly  greeting

 pĕr pysăk tipĕ juman   a big dry oak-tree
 hamăn syltăm hălha shătakne  into my right earhole (folktale) 

Comparison of the Adjective

In the absence of any feature of form to distinguish the adjectival subclass, a feature or function of adjectives may be mentioned, that of comparison. In Chuvash, as in other languages, it is possible to distinguish three degrees of intensity in an attribute, the positive or normal degree, the comparative degree, greater than the preceding, and the superlative degree, denoting the greatest amount of that quality possible. A few words, by their very nature, do not admit of comparison, e. g., timĕr ‘iron‘ (as in timĕr vitre ‘iron pail‘). Something cannot be more iron or less iron, it can only be iron in nature.
The positive or normal degree of the adjective has no marker or ending to note it.

 sară chechek  yellow flower
 şülĕ hĕr  a tall girl

The comparative degree, denoting a greater or lesser amount of degree of the quality or attribute of an object (as compared with another object) is expressed in two ways The first is a syntactic means employing the ablative morpheme:

 juman şăkaran jyvăr  oak frorn linden is heavy = oak is heavier than linden
 kilten pysăk   larger than a house (‘from a house, big‘)
 ylttăn kĕmĕlten haklă  gold is more valuable than silver

The second means employs the comparative morpheme {.rAh}, which has several allomorphs:

A. Stems ending in vowels, or in consonants except -r, use the allomorphs –rah/-reh.

 sarărah   yellower, more yellow
 hitrerex  more beautiful, prettier

B. Stems in -r employ the allomorph -tarah/-tereh.

 jyvărtarah  heavier

Note also:

 numajtarah  more, greater amount (207, 36)
 nachartarah    worse

C. Stems ending in -l and -n have free variation between allomorphs A and B.

 avan   good
 avantarah  better

Additional instances of comparatives are the following examples.

 pysăkrah   bigger
 pysăkrah kil   a rather large house
 
 haklă    expensive
 haklăran haklă   more and more expensive

 hytarah    harder, more vigorously
 şultrarah hăjarsene tatrămăr we picked bigger cucumbers
 
 lajăhrah   better
 ilemlĕreh   more beautiful
 pĕchĕkreh   smaller

Not only may nominals and adjectives take the comparative morpheme, this may be found with still other forms.

 kaş    evening
 kaşchen    towards evening (‘up to the evening‘)
 kaşchentereh   more on into the evening,  more towards evening

 pürt    house
 patne    towards (‘to its direction‘)
 pürt patnereh   a bit more towards the house

 kurăk    grass, weeds
 kurăkrah yrash   rye with quite a bit of grass in it (‘grassier rye)

 kunta    here
 kuntarah   closer this way

 kilelle    towards the house
 kilellereh   more towards the house

Both the above ways of forming the comparative may also be combined, e.g.,

 juman şăkaran jyvărtarah oak from linden is heavier = oak is heavier than linden

Adjectival words, when used in the plural, function just like other nominals, e. g.‚ pujansem ‘the rich ones, the rich men.‘

Superlative Intensifiers

The superlative degree, or its equivalent~ may be formed by using special words to indicate “very, much, most“ and the like, placed before the word to be intensified. The word most used is chi, and other words of similar function are pit, pitĕ ‘very,‘ ytla ‘more, beyond, further,‘ majsăr ‘immeasurably,‘ săv teri‘quite, as it were, so to say,‘ mala ‘more,‘ etc.

 chi şivĕch  very sharp, sharpest
 chi lajăh  very good, the best
 mala ilemlĕ  more beautiful
 ytla avan  more good, better, very  good
 pitĕ lajăh  very good, best

Reduplication in whole or in part also plays a considerable role in forming a superlative in Chuvash. This type of formation, well-known in other Turkic and Altaic languages, is of several sorts.

A. The entire stem may be reduplicated, as

 sară-sară  very yellow, exceptionally yellow
 shură-shură  most white, white as white can be

B. The adjective may be preceded by an intensifying partly reduplicated prefix, in the form CVC-, where the first consonant is that of the word involved, the vowel usually the one of that word (but sometimes another one, but in vowel harmony with it), and the second consonant is -p, but sometimes -m or even other consonants. Hence,

 hup-hura  jet-black
 jem-jeshĕl  green as green can be
 jĕp-jĕpe  soaking wet
 shap-shura  snow-white (note prefix!)
 hĕp-hĕrle  red as all get-out
 tak-takăr  absolutely flat
 tăp-tulli  chockful, brimful

C. In a few cases, the reduplicated syllable is not based on that word being intensified, but on some other stem, e. g.,

 vĕr-şĕnĕ  brand-new
 sĕm-tĕttĕm  pitch-dark

Possessive Adjectives

Since the Chuvash adjective is essentially a substantive, it may express possession, although by its nature only possession of and by things, hence, it occurs only with the 3rd p. suffix, -i. Very frequently, this -i is added to the locative morpheme {.RA}, yielding the following allomorphs:

A. After /l n r/, -ti

 jalti   what is in the village, local
 kilti   domestic, what is in the home
 vărmanti  pertaining to the forest, in the woods
 kunti   (from kunta ‘here‘) local
 hirti   on the field

B. After other consonants except /l n r/, -ri

 anat   lower, Lower Chuvashia
 anatra   in the lower part1 in Lower Chuvashia
 anatri   one who is in or from Lower   Chuvashia (name of one of
     the two major Chuvash dialects)
 puşri kalpak  the hat on the head
 şirĕmri şyn  a man in his twenties
 uramri   on the street
 sămahri sasăsem  the sounds which are in words
 alfavitri saspallisem the letters in the alphabet
 Gor‘kiri avtozavod the automobile factory in Gorky

C The allomorph -~i is bund after the prothetic -n- of the possessive locative

 pürt patĕnchi.  the one in the vicinity or direction of the house

A very similar morpheme ja /-hi/ meaning approximately “the one which is in.‘ It may be added after any consonant.

 şul   year
 şulhi   yearly, what is in a year, annual
 şurhi   vernal spring what is in the springtime
 irhi   morning, pertaining to the morning
 kaşhi   evening, in the evening (as adjective)
 ülemhi   future, what is in the future
 lajăhhi   the one who is good
 vărşă   war
 vărşăchchen  before the war, up to the time of the war
 vărşăchchenhi  pre -war
 unchchenhi  the former (Ger. damalige), ‘the one tip to it‘
 hal‘   now, at present
 hal‘hi   contemporary, the ones at present

The Morpherne /.lă/

The function of adjectives may also be performed by the extremely common suffix –lă/-lĕ. It is very similar to the English suffix -like as in childlike birdlike etc it has the essential meaning of “having possessing, having the nature off and its allomorphs are -lă/-lĕ after consonants and -llă/-illĕ alter vowels. It may be affixed to any nominal stem. Note there are two similar morphemes, one -la/-le with full grade vowel (to be discussed below), and another morpheme. -la-/-le -‚ which occurs only with verb stems.

 chap  fame
 chaplă  famous, having fame
 jat  name
 jatlă  named (so-and-so), having the name - - -
 ut  horse
 utlă  having a horse
 ilem  beauty
 ilemlĕ  beautiful
 vărmală  wooded, having woods
 tullă  mountainous, hilly
 shămă  bone
 shămăllă bony
 ash  meat, flesh
 ashlă  meaty, fleshy
 harpăr  each
 harpărlă own, individual, unique

There are many, many other formations with this morpheme. It may also be used with borrowed words.

 aktivlă  active, having activity
 talantlă talented, having talents
 intereslĕ interesting, of interest

Note the difference between simple juxtaposition and the use of –lă.

 chul pĕve a stone dam, a dam made out of stones (not wood)
 chullă pĕve a rocky dam, a dam with loose rocks lying about
 tăvar külli a salt-lake, lake salty by nature
 tăvarlă shyv salted water, salty water (but not salt water),
   water to which salt was mistakenly added

Note also these examples:

 tăvat ura  four legs (that is, not three or five)
 tăvat urallă  a four-legged one, quadruped, four -footed
 ike vitre  two pails, two buckets
 ikĕ vitrellĕ sămavar a two-pot samovar
 jită puşĕ  a dog-head (not a moose head)
 jită puşlĕ upăte the dog-faced baboon

The morpheme -săr/-sĕr is the antonym to -lă/-lĕ.
In addition to the morpheme -lă/-lĕ, there is a very similar morpheme -la/-le with full vocalism. Its meaning essentially duplicates the former, and is used chiefly with stems denoting nationalities but also with some other stems especially borrowed words. No instances of contrast have been found, nor of free variation.

 chăvashla kĕneke  a Chuvash book
 chăvashla-vyrasla slovar‘  A Chuvash-Russian Dictionari
 tutarla    Tatar
 bol‘shevikla   Bolshevik, Bolshevistic
 stahanovla juhăm  the Stakhanovite movement
 fashistla zahvatchiksem  the fascist usurpers

 kapitalistla tata  the capitalistic and land
 pomeşikla pusmăr  owner‘s yoke

ünite altı Possession expressed in different cases

UNIT SIX

Possession expressed in different cases

In the foregoing we have learned the different relationships in which a nominal may stand, as genitive, ablative, instrumental, and so on. We have also learned how to indicate possession on the part of persons or things of objects. It is therefore possible in Chuvash, as in English, not only to say “my son,“ or “to a house, one may say “to my son‘s house.“ This is accomplished in Chuvash by adding the relational morphemes after the possessive morphemes as previously learned.
In this case too, the agglutinative forms with several morphemes seem to be giving way to analytic forms under Russian influence. The manner of formation as given in older and newer grammars differs in some details (e. g., in the 2nd p. sg., Ashmarin, 1898, gives ~ where 1960 grammars give u). Thus, the present writer has had to create a few forms by analogy since complete tables are not given. In spite of minor handicaps, the principle and manner of formation are clear, and from a practical point of view they are not hard to recognize.
1st p. possessives expressed in different cases may be given as:

 yvălăm   hĕrĕm   acham   ĕnem
 yvălămăn  hĕrĕmĕn   achamăn   ĕnemĕn
 yvălăma   hĕrĕme   achama   ĕneme
 yvălămra  hĕrĕmre   achamra   ĕnemre
 yvălămran   hĕrĕmren  achamran  ĕnemren
 yvălămpa  hĕrĕmpe   achampa   ĕnempe

Note that these are all translated by phrases in English such as “from my son, to my cow, with my child.“
The 2nd p. sg. forms may be given as follows. Note two particular changes (also applying to the 3rd p. sg.): in the dative-accusative, the -u characteristic of the 2nd p. sg. drops entirely, leaving only the ending -na/-ne. In the locative and ablative forms, a prothetic -n- occurs between the morpheme -u- and the regular ending -ta, -tan (but not with the instrumental -pa).

 yvălu   hĕrü   achu   ĕnü
 yvălun(ăn)  hĕrün(ĕn)  achun(ăn)  ĕnün(ĕn)
 yvălna   hĕrne   achuna   ĕnüne
 yvălunta  hĕrünte   achunta   ĕnünte
 yvăluntan  hĕrünten  achuntan  ĕnünten
 yvălupa   hĕrüpe   achupa   ĕnüpe

In the 3rd p. sg., a form widely used when two nouns are juxtaposed (the so-called izafet construction), but also used to indicate possession by him, her or it, only front endings are used, since the suffix itself occurs only in the forms .-i and –ĕ. Note that. stems in -n double the n when the morpheme -ne is added (e. g., zakonne ‘to his law‘). The forms given below may also serve to indicate the 3rd person pi., although usually un or unăn ‘his‘ or vĕsen ‘their‘ is prefixed.

 yvălĕ   hĕrĕ   lashi   ĕni
 yvălĕn   hĕrĕn   lashin   ĕnin
 yvălne   hĕrne   lashine   ĕnine
 yvălĕnche  hĕrĕnche  lashinche  ĕninche
 yvălĕnchen  hĕrĕnchen  lashinchen  ĕninchen
 yvălĕpe   hĕrĕpe   lashipe   ĕnipe

Thus far, we have considered only instances in which one person or object was possessed by one person or object. Now we shall consider instances in which more than one person possesses one object (or person), viz. “our, your (p1.).“ In the case of “your,“ it must be remembered that in some cases this is only a matter of form, since it can refer, in the polite usage, to only one person. The forms for the 1st p. pl. are as follows:

 yvălămăr  hĕrĕmĕr   lashamăr  ĕnemĕr
 yvălămărăn  hĕrĕmĕrĕn  lashamărăn  ĕnemĕrĕn
 yvălămăra  hĕrĕmĕrne  lashamăra  ĕnemĕrne
 yvălămărta  hĕrĕmĕrte  lashamărta  ĕnemĕrte
 yvălămărtan  hĕrĕmĕrten  lashamărtan  ĕnemĕrten
 yvălămărpa  hĕrĕmĕrpe  lashamărpa  ĕnemĕrpe

The corresponding forms for the 2nd p. pl. are the following.

 yvălăr   hĕrĕr   lashăr   ĕnĕr
 yvălărăn  hĕrĕrĕn   lashărăn  ĕnĕrĕn
 yvălăra   hĕrĕrne   lashăra   ĕnĕrne
 yvălărta  hĕrĕrte   lashărta  ĕnĕrte
 yvălărtan  hĕrĕrten  lashărtan  ĕnĕrten
 yvălărpa  hĕrĕrpe   lashărpa  ĕnĕrpe

As previously noted, forms such as jalămărta ‘in our village‘ have been supplanted by pirĕn jalta ‘in our village.‘ A few other instances, drawn from various texts, are:

 pirĕn atteme  to our father
 sirĕn yvălupa  with your son
 sirĕn lasha  your horse
 lashuna   your horse (acc.)
 pirĕn rajonta  in our region

Some particular types of nominals, as previously pointed out, employ stern alternants under certain conditions. Thus sterns in morphophonemic -U employ their alternant in -ăv/-ĕv before possessive morphemes beginning with a vowel, and before the portmanteau morpheme /. na/. Stems in single consonant plus ă/ĕ employ the alternant with geminated consonant. The 1st p. is:

 şyrăvăm   pĕlĕvĕm   pullăm   küllĕm
 şyrăvămăn  pĕlĕvĕmĕn  pullămăn  küllĕmĕn
 şyrăvăma  pĕlĕvĕme  pullăma   küllĕme
 şyrăvămra  pĕlĕvĕmre  pullămra  küllĕmre
 şyrăvămran  pĕlĕvĕmren  pullărnran  küllĕmren
 şyrăvămpa  pĕlĕvĕmpe  pullămpa  küllĕmpe

The 2nd p. forms are not quite as predictable. They are as follows:

 şyrăvu   pĕlĕvü   pullu   küllü
 şyrăvun   pĕlĕvĕn   pullun   küllün
 şyrăvna   pĕlĕvne   pulluna   küllüne
 şyrunta   pĕlünte   pullunta  küllünte
 şyruntan  pĕlünten  pulluntan  küllünten
 şyrăvupa  pĕlĕvüpe  pullupa   küllüpe

In the 3rd p., the following forms are used: (Note front endings only!)

 şyrăvĕ   pĕlĕvĕ   pulli   külli
 şyrăvĕn   pĕlĕvĕn   pullin   küllin
 şyrăvne or şyrune pĕlĕvne or pelüne pulline   külline
 şyrăvĕnche  pĕlĕvĕnche  pullinche  küllinche
 şyrăvĕnchen  pĕlĕvĕnchen  pullinchen  küllinchen
 şyrăvĕpĕ  pĕlĕvĕpe  pullipe   küllipe

Note several interesting features in this declension, namely, that gen. sg. /pĕlĕvĕn/ concides with that of the 2nd p., the same for the dat. -acc. /pĕlĕvne/. Note also the prothetic -n- in the locative and ablative -nche, -nchen.
The possessive forms of nominals in /t/ and /d/ (and orthographic t‘ and d‘) are treated like other words, except for their morphophonemic change of t/d to ch before ĕ viz.

 sklad   warehouse skladăm  skladu  sklachĕ
 apat   dinner  apatăm  apatu  apachĕ
 tetrad   notebook tetradĕm tetradü  tetrachĕ
 element  element  elementĕm elementü elemenchĕ
 turat  branch  turatăm  turatu  turachĕ
 jat  name  jatăm  jatu  jachĕ

Up to now, we have considered the following instances of possession, viz.

1. one person possessing one thing: my book, your book, her book
2. more than one person possessing one thing: our book, their book

There are still two more possibilities that may be expressed, viz.:

3. one person possessing more than one of the items: my books, his books
4. more than one person possessing more than one of the things involved: our books, your books, their books

The formation of the latter two types is quite easy in Chuvash, and can be created by the student on the basis of the following examples for all forms, as it consists merely of adding the invariable plural morpheme forms after the appropriate possessive morphemes.

 yvălămsem  my sons  yvălămărsem   our sons
 yvălămsen(ĕn)    yvălămărsen(ĕn)
 yvălămsene    yvălămărsene
 yvălămsenche    yvălămărsenche
 yvălămsenchen    yvălămărsenchen
 yvălămsempe      yvălămărsempe

ünite beş Personal possession; the verb “to have“ (pur and şuk)

UNIT FIVE
Personal possession;
the verb “to have“ (pur and şuk)

Personal possession

In English and some other languages we are accustomed to having special words to indicate possession, as "my, your, their, our, his“ and so on. Chuvash can do this too when it is a question of expressing possession on the part of a person (that is, not the genitive relationship existing between things expressed by “of“ in English), by using words which mean “my, our, your.“

These words are actually the genitive case of the personal pronouns, the entire declension of which will be given in Unit Eight. When possession of things on the part of persons is expressed in this way, the forms are:

 manăn lasha  my horse
 sanăn lasha  your horse
 unăn  lasha  his (her, its) horse
 pirĕn lasha  our horse
 sirĕn lasha  your horse
 vĕsen lasha  their horse

The forms manăn, sanăn actually mean ‘of me, of you,‘ thus, “the horse of me, the horse of you,“ hence “my horse, your horse.“ In the case of the 3rd p. sg., there is an additional suffix - i, which we shall explain shortly. There are also short forma of the first three forms, viz., man lasha, san lasha, un lasha, but not of the others.

Two different forms are translated “your,“ the first being the singular and the familiar (used within the family, with friends one would call by first name, relatives, pet animals, etc.). The second form is plural and polite. It is used to people whom one would call “Mr. ‚“ or whenever there is more than one addressed. However, depending on who is addressed, this form can mean one or more than one, and it is never in doubt which, because there must always be some prior reference that tells one who “you“ means. It is also used for more than one person who would be addressed with the familiar form.

Although the manner of expressing possession n shown above is a very common one in Chuvash, there is another important way, also found in the other Turkic languages and elsewhere. This is to add suffixes (morphemes) to the word to indicate who the owner is. This is a new idea for speakers of English, but one not hard to grasp. Thus, if ‘son‘ is yvăl, by adding -ăm (after a consonant), or -ĕm if it is a front vocalic word, or just –m if it ends in a vowel (as acham ‘my child‘), we create the form yvălăm, which of and by itself means “my son,“ with no need for additional words. The entire scheme is:

 yvălăm  my son    yvălămăr our son
 yvălu  your (fam.) son  yvălăr  your son
 yvălĕ  his, her, son  yvălĕ  their son

Note that the ending of the 3rd p. means not only “his“ but also “hers“ (even “its“ under proper circumstances), and that it violates vowel harmony. Chuvash has experienced a general laxness in its vowel harmony, especially in the sounds -i and -ĕ. Finally, the same suffix is used for singular and plural, viz. “his, her“ as well as “their.“ Since, however, in order to say “his, her,“ or “their,“ it must be clear who is referred to, there is never any trouble to tell them apart.

If speakers want to make it absolutely clear as to what possession is involved, they may combine both forms, and use the genitive of the personal pronoun and then add the appropriate endings to the noun as well, in this way:

 mănăn yvălăm   my son   pirĕn yvălămăr  our son
 sanăn yvălu  your son  sirĕn yvălăr your son
 unăn  yvălĕ  his son   vĕsen yvălĕ their son

This is chiefly used for a stronger emphasis, as “Our son did this, but their son did that.“ Note that this method removes any doubts between “his, hers“ and “theirs“ in the 3rd p. For ease in presentation henceforth, we shall identify the third person only as “his“ throughout.



Table of Possessive Forms

  BACK    FRONT
 Consonant Vowel  Consonant Vowel

 yvălăm  acham  hĕrĕm  ĕnem
 yvălu  achu  hĕrü  ĕnü
 yvălĕ  achi  xĕrĕ  ĕni
 yvălămăr achamăr  hĕrĕmĕr  ĕnemĕr
 yvălăr  achăr  xĕrĕr  ĕnĕr
 yvălĕ  achi  xĕrĕ  ĕni
 

All words may be given possessive forms according to the above possibilities, including loanwords, the only peculiarity there being that a few Russian words in -o use an allomorph -vĕ in the 3rd p. eg. (viz., bjurovĕ ‘his office‘). Note above the use of –i in the 3rd p. sg. possessive vocalic stems, which arises from a replacement of the preceding vowel by -i (thus, lasha + i> lashi). It will be generally clear from the above table what the ending is, but note that the possessive morpheme displaces the regular vowel of the stem in several places.

Nouns in -u/-ü employ their stem alternant in -ăv/-ĕv when any possessive morpheme
follows, hence:

 şyrăvăm  my letter  pĕlĕvĕm  my fact
 şyravu  your letter  pĕlĕvü  your fact
 şyrăvĕ  his letter  pĕlĕvĕ  his fact

 şyrăvămăr our letter  pĕlĕvĕmĕr our fact
 şyrăvăr  your letter  pĕlĕvĕr  your fact
 şyrăvĕ  their letter  pĕlĕvĕ  their fact

Nouns in single consonant plus ă/ĕ employ their stem alternant with geminated consonant when a possessive morpheme follows, thus:

 pullăm  my fish   tĕvvĕm  my knot
 pullu  your fish  tĕvvü  your knot
 pulli  his fish  tĕvvi  his knot

 pullămăr our fish  tĕvvĕmĕr our knot
 pullăr  your fish  tĕvvĕr  your knot
 pulli  their fish  tĕvvi  their knot

In the 3rd p. sg. possessive, words in –t and -d (orthographically -t, -t‘, -d, -d‘) replace that consonant with ch and add ĕ‚ as follows:

 pürt  house   sklad  storehouse
 pürchĕ  his house  sklachĕ  his storehouse

 jat  name   tetrad"  notebook
 jachĕ  his name  tetrachĕ his notebook

In current Chuvash usage, the personal possessive morphemes of the 1st and 2nd p. pl. have been largely supplanted by the analytical forms. Thus, instead of yvălămăr “our son,“ pirĕn yvăl is used, and instead of yvălăr “your son,“ sirĕn yvălu (note ..u!) is used. As mentioned, words in the foreign phoneme -o have their 3rd p. sg. possessive in -vĕ, as kinovĕ ‘his movie,‘ depovĕ ‘his depot.‘ A special possessive morpheme {-ăshĕ} is found with a small class of words made up of kinship
terms and some numerical terms, thus: appa ‘elder sister‘ but appăsh(ĕ) ‘his, her elder sister.‘

 amăshĕ   his mother
 ashshĕ (< *aşăshĕ) his father

 numajăshĕ  many of them (lit. "its many, their many")
 vişşĕshĕ  the three of them (lit. "their three")

The entire declension of atte ‘father‘ is rather irregular.

 atte, attem  my father attemĕr  our father, “Our Father“
 aşu  your father aşăr  your father
 ashshĕ  his father ashshĕ  their father

Later, we shall take up the endings (morphemes) that indicate different persons or actors in the verb, and then the student will notice that these endings are very similar to the personal possessive morphemes. Thus tusămăr ‘our friend,‘ but also şyrtămăr ‘we wrote‘ (lit. “our having written“). From this some have concluded that, in these languages and others, verbal endings are an outgrowth of an originally possessive idea, e. g. ‚ “my seeing exists“ is “I see,“ and “I am a see-er“ becoming “I see.“

The Verb “To Have“ (pur and şuk)

Chuvash does not have a single verb meaning ‘to have‘ the way English and some other languages do. Instead, they usually say something like “my book exists“ (cf. the Russian "to me a book is‘ with omission of is), “our son is non-existent“ for ‘we have no son,‘ and so on. Chuvash has two words used to indicate possession: pur ‘that which is, what exists,‘ and its opposite şuk ‘that which is non-existent, what there is none of.‘ The following examples will help to make this more evident.

 manăn kĕneke pur  I have a book (of me a book exists)
 sanăn văhăt şuk   you have no time (your time is-not)
 unăn ĕne şuk   he has no cow
 manăn lasham pur  I have a horse, I have my  horse
 lasham pur   I have a horse
 kamăn pur, ăna tata parĕş of him who has, to him will be given also (Mark IV, 25)

For those who may have some acquaintance with Turkish, the words pur and şuk correspond exactly in form, origin and usage to Turkic var and yok. Further, just as var and yok may take the past tense morpheme (vardı ‘there was,‘ yoktı ‘there was not‘), In Chuvash too the past tense morpheme {-chchĕ} (of like origin) may be added to form purchchĕ and şukchchĕ “there was, there wasn‘t.“

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.

ünite üç Objective relational morpheme (dative and accusative cases, direct and indirect object); locative relational morpheme; ablative relational mo

UNIT THREE

Objective relational morpheme (dative and accusative cases, direct and indirect object); locative relational morpheme; ablative relational morpheme.

Objective Relational Morpheme

The function of the objective relational morpheme in Chuvash combines most features of the dative and accusative cases of other languages, or the functions of direct and indirect object, hence the name, objective relational, as indicating the objects of action, direct or indirect
The objective relational morpheme in Chuvash is {-(n)A}, and as in the preceding lesson, we shall employ here too morphophonemic symbols to indicate the various allomorphs (which exist for the most part under the same conditions as for the genitive morpheme).

1	Zero allomorph with all stems
2	After polysyllabic consonant sterns, and some monosyllabic	.A
3	After polysyllabic vocalic stems, except in -i, -U, and -ă/-ĕ	.nA
4	After native and foreign Sterns in -i	.ye
5	After sterns in -U, employing their stem alternant in -ăv/-ĕv	.A
6	After polysyllabic vowel stems in –C1Ă	C1C1.A
7	After polysyllabic vowel stems in –C1C2Ă	C1C2.A
8	After borrowed stems in -a, -ya and some in -o	ă.na
9	After borrowed stems in other vowels (- V) and some in -o	V.na
10	After some monosyllabic consonant stems	C1C1.a

The objective relational morpheme has the function of indicating the person or object to or for which something is done, as well as indicating the actual object of action, in the event that this is a definite and specific object. Some instances of the various allomorphs are:

 arman  mill    a1ăk  door
 armana  to a mill, the mill  a1ăka  to a door, the door
 tir  leather, hide   kukăl‘  pie
 tire  to leather   kukăle  to a pie, the pie
 uj  fieid    sij  layer
 uje  to the field   sije  to a layer
 parti  political party   lasha  horse
 partije  to the party   lashana  to a horse, the horse
 ĕne  cow    shăshi  a mouse
 ĕnene  to a cow, the cow  shăshije to a mouse
 kinona  to the movies   obshchestvăna to society
 stsenăna to the stage   idejăna  to an idea

  mashinăna benzin jană  they put gas in the machine
  udarniksene premi pană they give prizes to shock workers
  Petĕre kĕneke kirlĕ pulnă Peter needs a book (to P. a book is needed)

When the object of action is general and unspecified, the zero allomorph is employed.

When the object is enumerated, or specific and definite, the appropriate other allomorph is used.

The indefinite accusative thus coincides at this point with the so-called absolute case.

According to some, the indefinite accusative enables the object to stand in a particular and dose
relationship to its verb, thus:

epĕ kĕneke iltĕm

I bought a book, in the sense ‘I did bookbuying, I book-bought‘

But:

 epĕ şakă kĕnekene iletĕp I buy this book
 vĕreneken himi kĕnekine vulat the student reads the chemistry book

Notice:

 epĕ matematika vĕrenetĕp  I study mathematics

The dative function of “to“ is also performed by this morpheme.

 epir irpe Shupashkara şitrĕmĕr we came to Cheboksary in the morning
 kile    home, homewards (Ger. nach Hause, Russ.  domoi)

This morpheme is also used to indicate the specific length of time, and other expressions of

quantity and duration:

 vută pĕr ujăxa şitet  the firewood will hold out for a month
 kanashlu vişĕ kuna pyrat the conference will last  three days
 şĕr tenke patăm   sold for 100 rubles

Note the following instance of definite vs. indefinite:

 kĕneke vulat  he reads books, he reads a book
    (or books in general as a practice)
 ku kĕnekene vulat he is reading the book 
    (some particular one,  perhaps previously mentioned)

Some particular cases of formation should be mentioned. The disyllabic stems in -a/-ĕ

employ a stem alternation which geminates the consonant preceding, to which a full-length a or e

is then added. Thus:

 pulă fish   jytă dog
 pulla the fish, to a fish jytta the dog, to a dog
 külĕ a lake   külle to a lake,  the lake

Also:

 şyn a man   şynna the man, to a man
 tir grain   tirra the grain, to grain

Stems which already end in two consonants (CC) plus a reduced vowel add one unit of length, thus,

/purtă/ ‘axe‘ > /purta/ the axe (acc.). However, Russian loans, particularly in -a and –ja

shorten this vowel to -~ă or -jă after which the regular ending –na is added.
As in the case of the genitive morpheme, stems in -u/-ü employ their stern alternate in

-ăv/-ĕv, thus:

 pĕlü  fact   şyru letter
 pĕlĕve  the fact (acc.)  şyrăva the letter (acc.)

Locative Relational Morpheme

The locative relational morpheme is used in the function of indicating the place where something is or where an action takes place, thus corresponding in general to the use of “in“ in English. It is both temporal and spatial in reference. The morpheme is {-R.A}, with the following allomorphs:

1.After front vowel sterns and consonant stems except /l n r/
 -re
2.After back vowel sterns and consonant stems except /l n r/
 -ra
3.After front vowel consonant stems in /l n r/
 -te
4.After back vowel consonant stems in /l n r/ 
 -ta
5.After possessives (to be learned later) and the plural morpheme {-seN}
 - ce (only)
6.After the 3rd p. sg. possessive morpheme (will be discussed later)
 -nce

Note that stems in –ă/-ĕ which bad some changes in the genitive and accusative cases, do not have these changes in the locative, or in any other case. Foreign words, usually in -a or -ja, do, however, employ a stern alternant shortening the vowels to -ă‚ viz., stsenăra ‘on the stage,‘ or idejăra ‘in the idea,‘ but kinora ‘in the movies.‘ Some instances of use of the various allomorphs are the following:

 shyvra  in the water  Atălta   on the Volga
 tinĕsre  at sea, on the sea Xusanta  in Kazan
 vărmanta  in the woods  pürtre  in the house
 ujra   on the field  kilte  at home

  ernere şichĕ kun in the week are seven days

 pulăra  in the fish  şyrura  in the letter
 külĕre  in the lake  pĕlüre  in the fact, matter

  alăkra   in the door
  alăksenche  in the doors (from * alăk-sen-te)
  slon Indire puranat the elephant lives in India

Somewhat similar endings are employed on the pronouns (to be treated later), as manra ‘in me‘ (note n + r!).

 lesh tencere  to that world
 lupashkara  in the ravine
 hirte   in the field

Ablative Relational Morpheme

The ablative morpheme is used in the general meaning of English “from,“ or “out of, owing to, because of.“ Its endings are exactly like those of the preceding locative case, except that they affix an -n, thus, -ren, -ran, -ten, -tan, -chen. There are quite a few uses of the ablative, and not every type can be covered here.

A. The English general usage of “from” to indicate distance in space and time;

 turan   from the mountain   alăkran  from the door

 jultashran şyru iltĕm    I got a letter from (my) friend
 achasem ujran checheksem tatsa kilchĕş  the boys brought flowers from the field

B. Material from which things are made or the place from which things are taken.

 jyvăşran tună pürt  a hut made from wood
 Atăltan tytnă pulă  a fish taken from the Volga

C. In use with expressions of time, the ablative often has the effect of English ‘in“ with a future meaning, as “in a month, in a few days we will do it.“

 ülemren   in the future
 ujăχran   in a month
 vişĕ kuntan  in three days
 pĕr seχetren  after an hour

D. Some functions of the Instrumental (Unit Four) can be found with the ablative, and may be translated “by, through, via, by means of, owing to.“

 sassăran   by (one‘s) voice
 kürshĕren   by a neighbor, in company, with a neighbor
 alăkran kĕr-   to enter by the door
 chürecheren păχ-  to look from the window

E. A very important use of the ablative is a making comparisons, to mean “than.“

 juman şăkaran jyvăr  oak is heavier than linden
     (lit. “Oak from linden is  heavy“)
 utran şüle, kurăkran lutra  “Higher than a horse, lower than the grass“
     (Folk-riddle: Answer: ‘saddle‘)
 yrăran yră   best of all
     (lit. “good from good,“ i. e., better than good)
 Atăl şavaltan pysăk  the Volga is bigger than  the Tsivil

F. Sometimes still other words must be used as the English equivalents of the Chuvash ablative.

 vişĕ yvăltan pĕri  one of my three Sons
 acha lashinchen yjtnă  the boy asked (inquired of) his horse
 suhaltan   (seized him) by the beard (lit. “from the beard“)
 kuşran nachar   weak in the eyes
 şukran    on account of there not  being any
 sivĕren    on account of the cold

ünite iki Vowel Harmony; case morphemes and allomorphs; the non-relational zero morpheme (absolute case); the possessive relational morpheme

UNIT TWO
Vowel Harmony; case morphemes and allomorphs;
the non-relational zero morpheme (absolute case);
the possessive relational morpheme (genitive case).

Vowel Harmony

We have previously touched on the principle of vowel harmony (synharmonism) by which all the vowels in a Chuvash word must belong either to the back series /a ă y u/ or to the front series /e ĕ i ü/. Hence,

  Front    Back

 chüreche window  yvăl  son
 ĕşleken  worker  kuşşu1  tear(drop)

In Chuvash, however, this principle is not carried through quite as strictly as some other Turkic languages require it, Thus, many words may be found which violate this rule in part, especially loanwords from Russian or from other Turkic languages, or from the spoken dialects of Chuvash. Although nearly all suffix morphemes have two forms, one for use with front vocalic words, and one for use with back vowel words, a few have only one form.

 anne  mother
 kilna  in your house
 trestran from the trust
 s’’jezdra at the conference
 vulani  the reading, act of reading

Case Morphemes and Allomorphs

In English, the relationships existing between words are in part made clear by the use of prepositions, covering temporal, spatial, and many other kinds of relations, as in these examples:

 the top of the house
 Give it to the boy.
 around the block
 in the street

In some other languages, of which Chuvash is one, these relationships are not indicated by any separate words, but by adding certain bound morphemes (or suffixes, endings, declensions as they are also called) which mean “in, of, by, at, from“ and so on. This was once the only way of expressing such relations in English, and is retained in the possessive case of animates (thus, “the man‘s hat“ but rarely “the house‘s roof“), and in a few fixed phrases, as “the water‘s edge, the law‘s delay.“

In Chuvash, there are six such primary relational states, or cases, in which Chuvash words may be found, according to which relational morphemes (case endings) are added. Depending on how these states are defined, more or fewer could be set up (some Chuvash grammarians consider eight to exist, but their two additional cases or states are no different from any suffix which might be added to alter the basic word), but in the present work, we shall treat six states or cases, viz., the non-relational (absolute or nominative), the possessive relational (genitive), the objective relational (dative and accusative), the locative relational, the ablative relational, and the instrumental relational morphemes.

Although each of the relational morphemes has a number of different forms (allomorphs), the use of each variant is restricted to definite conditions. Thus, when the declensional system is taken as a whole, it can be seen that there is only one declensional type, and that all words belong to this type, and are essentially declined according to the same pattern. In spite of this prevailing sameness, the various subtypes of Chuvash nominals, taken as separate groups, are probably of equal difficulty with the differing declensional types of other languages.

Usually, only one relational morpheme is added to a stem, but sometimes there is usage of compound relational morphemes, deriving from two or more case endings. Relational morphemes may also be added to some verbal forms which functional as nominals.

These topics will be discussed later.


The Non-Relational Zero Morpheme (Absolute Case)

The grammars of many languages are given to speaking of a nominative case, or dictionary form, which has no ending, as contrasted with the oblique cases, which do have endings. Chuvash has a similar form, called the absolute case (or indefinite case, or basic case), distinguished by the ending of zero, that is, no ending. Since all other case relations are indicated by the presence of a morpheme, it is useful for the analysis to speak here too of the presence of a morpheme, in zero shape to denote this function, rather than the absence of something.

The absolute case is used in instances where most other languages require a nominative, that is, as the subject of sentences, or as the predicative in sentences with a copulative verb. There are also some other very important uses of this case. One of these is the use of the absolute case when words stand in the izafet relation to each other (although in Chuvash this is performed without any other suffixes, unlike Persian koh-i-noor, etc.), that is, the first modifies the second and shows a relationship to it, although this is done by juxtaposition without endings. For example, iron pail, glass window, silk coat (instead of pail of iron, coat of silk, etc.). In Chuvash, both words occur in the absolute case, viz., jivăsh vitre iron pail, şăm săhman silk garment, chul şurt stone house. Examples of the absolute case in its subject function are:

 traktor ĕşlet  the tractor is working, works
 pulă shyvra ishet the fish swims in the water (or: fish swim in water)
 samolët vĕşet  the airplane flies, airplanes fly

Chuvash grammarians also speak of the absolute case being used in functions of the possessive relational (genitive) and objective relational (accusative). In the present investigation, we shall prefer to subsume the usages as instances of a genitive with zero allomorph, and of an accusative with zero allomorph (see later discussion). From the student‘s point of view, it does not matter how it is analyzed: what matters is that he learn and understand to use it. Also expressed with the absolute case are cognate accusatives (to walk a walk, etc.), expressions of definite time, distance, and some adverbial phrases of direction, quantity and manner.


The Possessive Relational Morpheme (Genitive Case)

The use of this morpheme indicates that the word to which it is affixed stands in a possessive or genitive relationship to the second word. The thing or person which is owned or related to always occurs first, never second. In fact, it is a general rule of Chuvash that the modified always occurs after the modifier. This morpheme may be denoted in morphophonemic writing as {. (n)An}, and its chief allomorphs given as follows with the conditions for their occurrence. The morphophoneme Ă stands for /ă/ with back vowel words, and /ĕ/ with front vowel words. C means any consonant (including y), and the dot . is used to indicate morpheme boundaries. Essentially, the basic endings are {.Ăn} after C and {. n} after V, with minor variants in the stem of the word declined.

1. Zero allomorph, optional with any stem
 - - -


2. After polysyllabic consonant stems, and vocalic stems in -U,
 employing their stem alternant  in Ăv to replace -U; and some
 monosyllabic consonant stems
 
 .Ăn


3. After polysyllabic vocalic stems except U and A

 .n or .nĂn


4. After polysyllabic vowel sterns in .-C1Ă

 C1C1Ă.N


5. After polysyllabic vowel stems in -C1C2Ă
 C1C2Ă.n


6. After borrowed polysyllabic stems in – C1C1

 C1.Ăn


7. After some monosyllabic stems in C1

 C1C1.Ăn


8. After native and foreign stems in –i

 .n or .jĕn


9. After borrowed vowel stems in -a, -ja, -e, —u, and some in –o

 -ă.n


10. After some borrowed vowel stems in –o

 -o.n


11. After borrowed stems in -st‘

 -s.ăn

According to the Chuvash grammarians, variant 1 is in free variation with all other allomorphs, and is employed for stylistic reasons, or for emphasis. There is also free variation between the allomorphs listed under entries 3 and 8, the grammarians saying the fuller form is used for a particular emphasis. Some others are of the view that it has its origin in a dialect difference.

There is as yet no structural or formal criterion by which loanwords (nearly all of which are Russian) may be identified, apart from the presence in them of non-Chuvash phonemes and phoneme sequences. From a practical point of view, it is generally obvious, although no rule can be given.

Some examples of the possessive relational morpheme in its various allomorphic disguises are the following words.

 lasha    horse
 lashan    of a horse, a horse‘s
 şakă lashanăn   of this horse, this horse‘s
 ĕne    cow
 ĕnen    of a cow
 sakă ĕnenĕn   of this cow
 halăh    people
 halăxăn    of the people, the people‘s
 ĕş    affair, matter
 ĕşĕn    of an affair, of a business, of work
 shăshi    mouse
 shăshin    of a mouse, a mouse‘s
 shăshijĕn   of a mouse
 unăn yvălĕ   his son (lit. ‘his son of him‘)

 tălăx arămăn pĕr yvăl  a widow woman‘s

 haj pujanăn şem‘jisem   the members of that rich man‘s family

 şak pujan xĕrĕ   this rich-man‘s girl  (zero allomorph)
 pujanăn xĕrĕ   the rich-man‘s daughter
 ku kĕneke Ivanăn  That book (is) John‘s.
 ku manăn   That is mine.

Note the shift of emphasis in such combinations as the following:

 lasha püşĕ lit., ‘the horse its head‘
   (employing a possessive morpheme to be studied later),
   i. e., a horsehead, as opposed to a moosehead,
   hogshead, sheepshead

 lashan püşĕ the head of the horse the horse"s head
   (that is, not his tail, his hoofs, his mane etc )

Instances of foreign (Russian) words employing the allomorph –n are:

 stsenăn  of the stage (note shortening)
 kinon  of the movie
 kengurun of the kangaroo
 rezoljutsin of the resolution
 partin  of the party (political). Also /partijĕn/
 basn’ăn  of the fable (note shortening)
 kofen  of the coffee

Russian loanwords in -C1C1 ‚ that is, a doubled same consonant, of which only /-ss/ and /-ll/‘have thus far been found as examples, employ a stern alternant with only one of the pertinent consonants, viz.:

 klass  class
 klasăn  of a dass
 metall  metal
 metalăn of metal

Russian loans in /-ost’/ and /-st‘/ likewise employ a stern alternant omitting the final consonant when relational morphemes are attached, viz.:

 vlast‘  power, authority
 vlaşăn  of power

Two particularly interesting formations in Chuvash are variants 2 and 4 in the allomorph table. There is a small class of nominals ending in -U (i. e., /-u/ or /-ü/) with morphophonemic stem alternation. Their stern in the genitive is formed with –ăv and -ĕv, to yield:

 şyru  letter   pĕlü  fact, thing known
 şyrăvăn  of a letter  pĕlĕvĕn  of a fact
 tu  mountain  pü  growth
 tăvăn  of a mountain  pĕvĕn  of growth

Such a nominal in -U may be created from any verbal stem.
Chuvash disyllabic stems in single consonant (C) + -ĕ or –ă (Ă) have a stem alternation in which the final C is geminated, rather reminiscent of the declensions in Finnish. Some monosyllables in single consonant do so too.

 pula  fish 
 pullăn  a fish‘s, of a fish 
 jytă  dog
 jyttăn  a dog‘s, of a dog
 ti1ĕ  fox 
 tillĕn  of a fox 
 külĕ  lake 
 küllĕn  of a lake
 sivĕ  cold
 sivvĕn  of cold
 ală  hand
 allăn  of a hand

Note:

 şyn  man
 şynnăn  of a man
 tyr  grain
 tyrrăn  of grain

Lastly, in variants 5 and 6, note that if the final ă/ĕ is preceded by two consonants, the allomorph /n/ is employed, if preceded by one consonant, that consonant is geminated and then the allomorph /n/ applied.

ÜNİTE BİR The Chuvash noun; gender; plural.

UNIT ONE
The Chuvash noun; gender; plural.


The Chuvash Noun

A Chuvash noun or nominal may be used in different functions, that is, at the same time belong to several subclasses, as adjective, adverb, and so on. Let us begin by learning some Chuvash nominals, which, like all illustrative vocabulary items, the student should memorize and review as necessary.

tinĕş	sea
atte	father
pichche	brother
yvăl	son
văkăr	bull
taka	ram
chăvash	Chuvash
epir	we
pürt	house
ikkĕ	two
anne	mother
akka	sister
hĕr	girl, daughter
arăm	woman, lady
ĕne	cow
lasha	horse
etem	man, mankind
kartă	map

As one can see, these few words include many kinds of objects, persons, animals, things. In fact, just because nominals denote persons or places does not place them in any special subclass, for instance

 Atăl  Volga
 chăvash  Chuvash
 Kavkaz  Caucasus
 Shupashkar Cheboxary
 Petĕr  Peter
 Mars  Mars
 ujăx  moon, Moon
 oktjabr" October 
 husan  Kazan
 Ivan  Ivan, John

Later, we shall find it convenient to put into subclasses such collections of forms as pronominals (epĕ, I; esĕ, you, etc.), kam who, mĕn what; numerals, adjectives, and others. Although all these are essentially nominals, they have small differences which set them apart from nouns of the sort above.



Gender

Unlike some European languages, Chuvash does not assign a real or arbitrary gender to its nominals (including pronouns, adjectives, etc.). All such words exist in one unvarying form, a fact which makes the learning of Chuvash easier.

The only gender possessed by the word is that inherent in its meaning, if it denotes a specific kind of male or female being. No particular changes or endings are required because of the gender of any word in the sentence. Thus the question of gender is really nonexistent.

If it is necessary to denote a male being as opposed to a female being, morphemes like aşa "male" or ama "female" are added, for animals, and for humans, words like ar "man" or hĕr "girl".

 ar  man, male  arăm  woman
 aşa sysna  boar   ama sysna  sow
 aşa hur  gander    ama hur  goose
 văkăr   bull    ĕne   cow



 yvăl acha  son, "boy-child"
 xĕracha   daughter, "girl-child"
 arşin (< ar + şyn) man, male person
 patsha   king, czar
 xĕrarăm patsha  queen, princess ("lady-king")

Terms of relationship have inherent gender, as do some animal names.

 atte father  anne mother
 pichche brother  akka sister

Plural

In contrast to some other languages in which there are a number of ways to form the plural, and which cannot be predicted but must be learned, Chuvash has only one way to form the plural, which is good for all nominals at all times and places. What is more, the plural is little used in those places where the student might expect. Chuvash once had many plural forms, and a discussion of them may be found elsewhere (0. Pritsak, “Tschuwassische Pluralsuffixe,“ Studia Altaica, Wiesbaden, 1957, pp. 137-155).

The singular number in Chuvash means not only one item from that class, it also means the entire class of that item. The plural is used only for denoting a collection of individual items from the class. Chuvash never expresses the plural in general statements (as “Children are a joy; flowers are beautiful; applies are good to eat,“ etc.). The sense for the plural is highly developed in English and European languages, so that we feel that to say “ten man, three mouse, two door“ is quite impossible, and only in a few expressions of measure do we find “a two-man raft, a ten-foot pole, a Live mile trip.“ In Chuvash, however, the plural is never, or at least rarely, used after a numeral, or quantity word hence:

 şirĕm sĕtel twenty table twenty tables
 numaj şyn many man many a man, many people
 pilĕk pürt five house five houses

The presence of the number or quantity word is sufficient to indicate plurality to a Chuvash speaker.

The plural in Chuvash is mostly used to indicate the presence of a number of items in the class of things denoted by the word involved, but not the entire class itself. The plural morpheme in Chuvash is /-sem/, and it is added directly to the preceding morpheme.

 ulma  apple
 ulmisem  ‘their different apples‘ (actually a
   possessive here, but the prin ciple is unchanged),
   that is, those apples which each person has in
   his or her hand just now, but not apples in general

 vută  firewood, kindling
 vuttisem the pieces of firewood, taken as  individual objects,
   not as a whole (also possessive)

 şem"je  family
 şem"jisem the members of one‘s family
 pürt  house, hut
 pürtsem  houses, a number of individual houses somewhere,
   but not houses as a class
 shuhăshsem thoughts (on different subjects)
 Ivanovsem the Ivanoffs, members of the   Ivanoff family
 kahalsem the lazybones‘ and his family  (folktales)

As in English and some other languages, some Chuvash words do not have logical plurals (the so-called ‘mass nouns,‘ like water, milk, love), or are but rarely used in plural form.

 telei  happiness
 shyv  water
 shyvsem  waters (of the earth), rivers and lakes

In Russian, a few words of foreign origin ending in a vowel do not take any declensional endings. When these words occur as loanwords into Chuvash, however, they become subject to Chuvash plurals and endings.

 pal"to  overcoat pal"tosem overcoats
 kenguru  kangaroo kengurusem kangaroos

Two features, which both anticipate later discussion, will be briefly mentioned here. As mentioned, nearly all inflectional morphemes in Chuvash have two forms, one used with front vowels /e, ĕ‚ i, ü/ and one used with back vowels /a, ă‚ i, y, u/. This pervades the entire Chuvash language, and is also characteristic of other Altaic languages as well. The Chuvash plural morpheme /-sem/ does not observe this difference in the formal written language. The spoken dialects (especially of the northern region) do employ [sam] with back vowel words, and [sem] with front vowel words.

The plural morpheme in Chuvash is placed after any other preceding suffixes, as possessive morphemes (to be learned later), whereas in all other Turkic languages, the plural morpheme follows the root morpheme, and then any possessive or other morphemes are added.