2 – Declension (declination) in Sambahsa

2 -1 Plural

The simple form is the singular number. The plural number ends in -s. If the latter is phonetically incompatible, then -i (for animate beings ) or -a will be used. If all those forms do not match with the stress rules, no endings shall be used. -um of names of things turns to -a in the plural. The unstressed endings -es or -os turn to -si or -sa. According to an optional rule, names of groups of animate beings ending with a letter which is phonetically incompatible with a final s (ex: s, ch, j) ought to have no ending for the plural number. Examples:

div (god) = divs

urx (bear) = urx(i) (as it is a collection of animate beings)

territorium (territory) = territoria

daumos (wonder) = daumsa

deutsch (German) = deutsch(i) (as it is a collection of persons).

prince (prince, son of a sovereign) = princes

The sole irregular plural in Sambahsa is for ok (eye), plural: oks or okwi (eyes)

 

2-2 Declension Cases

In Sambahsa-mundialect, the use of the four-case declension system is only compulsory for pronouns and articles. The four cases are nominative, accusative, dative and genitive. The nominative is the case of the subject and of the attribute of the subject.

Example : Paul est mien prient = « Paul is my friend » ; Both « Paul » and « my friend » are in the nominative.

The accusative is the case of the object of a verb.

Example : Vido iom = “I see him”; “him” is in the accusative

Moreover, in Sambahsa, all prepositions are normally followed by the accusative.

 

The dative is the case of the person or object that benefits from the action.

Example : Dahm un apel ei wir = « I give an apple to the man » ; ei wir is in the dative.

The genitive is the case of the possessor of something.

Example : id apel ios dru : « The apple of the tree » ; ios dru is in the genitive.

Most Sambahsa verbs trigger first the accusative and then the dative, the exceptions being the verbs which need “positional anchors” (ex: arrive ad = “to arrive at”) and verbs that can introduce an indirect speech. Then, the person object of the narration is in the dative.

 

Ex: Is mi antwehrdt (od is wois neid de to) = “He answers to me (that he knew nothing about this)”.

 

In Proto-Indo-European, the accusative was the case used to form adverbs. Thus, the accusative is the case of complements of nouns or adjectives, when no preposition is used.

 

Ex: un tri meters longo mur = « a three meters long wall »

 

Is regnit tri yars = “he reigned three years”

 

In the examples above, “three meters / three years” are considered to be in the accusative case.

 

That’s why the accusative is also the case for absolute constructions :

 

Iam mater revidus iom pater, ir purts eent noroct = “The mother having seen back the father, their children were happy”.

 

 

 One of Sambahsa-mundialect's major peculiarities is that it uses the same word for articles ("the") and personal pronouns. It is as if, in English, we did not say The woman kills the man but rather She woman kills him man. (In sambahsa-mundialect: Ia gwena neict iom wir). Thus, she kills him is Ia neict iom. The only exception is for the genitive article which is logically different from the possessive pronoun. Sambahsa-mundialect has four genders (masculine, feminine, neutral, undetemined) which are based, as in English, on the true nature of the substantive[1], and not arbitrarily as in many other languages. The demonstrative, relative and interrogative pronouns are constructed following the same patterns. All those pronouns can be listed within a single table, following this order: article & personal pronoun, demonstrative pronoun and relative & interrogative pronouns.

Indeed, those four categories of pronouns nearly always share the same endings. A good method for remembering them can be found here: http://joyoflanguages.blogspot.com/2010/05/sambahsa-guide-to-pronouns-and-articles.html

 

 

 

Singular

Case/Gender	Masculine	Feminine	Neutral	Undetermined
nominative	is/so/qui (relative), quis (interrogative)	ia/sa/qua	id/tod/quod	el/tel/quel
accusative	iom/tom/quom	iam/tam/quam	id/tod/quod	el/tel/quel
dative	ei/tei/quei	ay/tay/quay	ei/tei/quei	al/tal/qual
genitive (possessive pronoun not included)	ios/tos/quos	ias/tas/quas	ios/tos/quos	al/tal/qual

Plural

Case/gender	Masculine	Feminine	Neutral	Undetermined
nominative	ies/toy/quoy	ias/tas/quas	ia/ta/qua	i/ti/qui
accusative	iens/tens/quens	ians/tans/quans	ia/ta/qua	i/ti/qui
dative	ibs/tibs/quibs	iabs/tabs/quabs	ibs/tibs/quibs	im/tim/quim
genitive	iom/tom/quom	iam/tam/quam	iom/tom/quom	im/tim/quim

 

Example: Is heroy kamyieb trehve tom tajir quei hieb est propost kaupe amuletts.

(Lit.) : "he hero succeeded find that (masculine) merchant to-whom had been proposed buy amulets.

"The hero succeeded in finding that merchant to whom someone had proposed to buy amulets."

A demonstrative pronoun for distant objects consists of c-+is, ia, id... etc. As the c must always be pronounced [ts], an additional i can be added after c if necessary. Thus, we get cial, ciay.

For literary use, there is a relative pronoun yo(s), ya, yod that follows the declension of qui/qua/quod except for the nominative masculine singular, which is yo(s). However, this relative pronoun can be used only for non-restrictive subordinates, i.e. subordinates whose deletion does not make the sentence meaningless.

 

A negative pronoun consists of ne (“not”) + is, ia, id. The “e” of ne disappears when its presence would create a bisyllabic word. Hence : neis, niom, nei, nios, etc...

Neid can accordingly mean “nothing” when it is alone, or “no” when it stands before a substantive.  

The indefinite pronoun is un, which can bear the “euphonic vocalisation” endings (see below).

There is a general demonstrative pronoun to which refers to a full statement or a full situation which has just been described; its corresponding relative pronoun is quo.  

Example: Is capitan liv sien glas ed sorpsit id rum unte oin schtoss, quo ei provoquit un gvaltic kwasadfall. - "To suastahalt alyo glas ?" addihsit is.  

(Eng.) : The captain lifted his glass and swallowed the rum at one go, which (quo = the fact he has swallowed his rum at one go) provoked him to a violent coughing fit .

 -"That (to = "all that I've just revealed to you) deserves well another glass ?" added he.  

 

The preposition of possession ("of") is peculiar in Sambahsa-mundialect for it agrees in number and gender with the possessor. Like every other preposition, it triggers the accusative.

Number/gender	masculine	feminine	neutral	undetermined
singular	os	as	os	es
plural	om	am	om	em

 

Example: Id mohrt os Louis = "the death of Louis".

 

The endings of the “vocalic euphonisation” can be used to express the genitive. A very common formation is uns = “of a” from un + -s.

 

A pratical solution when several elements are considered owners of a thing is to use sbei after that group of “owners” and before the thing owned.

 

Example : Paul ed Peter sbei dom : “The house of Paul and Peter”.

 

 

 

The personal pronouns of the first and second persons are as follows :

 

Case	1° singular	2° singular	1° plural	2° plural
nominative	Ego (io, when unstressed)	tu	wey	yu
accusative	me	te	nos	vos
dative	mi	tib	nos	vos

 

Unlike English, the use of the nominative personal pronouns is not cumpulsory in Sambahsa-Mundialect if the person can be guessed by the ending of the conjugated verb. The pronouns nevertheless appear for inversion in interrogative sentences:

 

Example : Ghehdo io stambhes to ? = Can I prevent this ?

 

Though one can create an interrogative sentence just by putting “kwe” at the beginning:

 

Kwe ghehdo stambhes to ? = Can I prevent this ?

 

Inversion ought to take place after the conjugated element.

 

Example : Siem io ghehde stambhes to ? = Will I be able to prevent this ?

 

 

The possessive pronouns at all persons are as follows:

 

Person/Number	singular	plural
First	mien	Nies (noster)
Second	tien	Vies (voster)
Third masculine	eys	ir
Third feminine	ays	ir
Third neutral	ids	ir
Third undetermined	els	ir

 

The reflexive pronoun is se in the accusative, and sib in the dative. The corresponding possessive pronoun is sien. Theoretically, the reflexive can be used in all persons, as, for example, in Russian.

 

Example : Se vidmos in id specule = “We see ourselves in the mirror”.

 

But, in practice, it is only used for the 3^rd person.

 

“Self” in Sambahsa is swo, and it can be suffixed at the pronoun.

 

Example : Gnohdi teswo ! = Know thyself !

 

 “Each other” is mutu.

 

In Sambahsa-mundialect, endings with declensions can be added to substantives and adjectives for purposes of euphony or literary purposes (ex: poetry). This system, whose native name is euphonic vocalisation, can only be used if it is compatible with the accentuation patterns. For example: uno smiegdo geront "a frail old man" instead of un smiegd geront. In everyday use, those endings appear only in the words vasyo (all of the, every) and alyo (another).

Singular

Case/gender	Masculine	Feminine	Neutral	Undetermined
nominative	-o(s)	-a	-o/-um	-is*
accusative	-o/-um	-u	-o/-um	-em*
dative	-i	-i	-i	-i
genitive	-(io)s	-(ia)s	-(io)s	-(e)s

• = for animate beings only!

Plural

Case/gender	Masculine	Feminine	Neutral
nominative	-i	-as	-a
accusative	-ens	-ens	-a
dative	-ims	-ims	-ims
genitive	-(e)n	-(e)n	-(e)n

The "undetermined" endings are like those of the masculine if they refer to animate beings.

The masculine singular can have a vocative ending –e (i.e. for the person being called).