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Sambahsa declension in English

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on July 15, 2010 at 1:49:01 pm
 

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)”. 

 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 must always be pronounced [ts], an additional can be added after c if necessary. Thus, we get cial, ciay.  

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 

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 3rd 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).  

 

 

 

 

 

 



[1] In poetry, some exceptions are permitted. For example, big rivers can be masculine, while trees are feminine, but bear the masculine endings of the euphonic vocalisation.  

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