Tengarsa: Nouns

[nyxelestia]

There are eleven noun cases in Tengarsa, with the noun stem being the singular nominative.

Each noun also has three numeric forms. Like English, there is singular, and plural. But there is an additional sub-plural form meaning dual, trial, pental, septemal, or tredecal – if there are 2, 3, 5, 7, or 13 of a noun. This is called the “magic plural”, with the numbers in question coming up often with holy or special meanings in magic. You rarely find them outside of the Spellcraft mode.

A Note on Stress

While it's not a hard and fast rule, if the same word with a similar meaning is both the verb stem and the noun stem (i.e. "sares" is both "(a) welcome" and "to welcome"), then the tendency is the stress the first syllable when it's in noun form, and the second syllable while it's in verb form. So while sares is "a welcome, the welcome", sares is "to welcome".

Cases

Case	Singular	Plural	Magic Plural	Explanation of Case
Nominative	-	-ra	-ru	Subject noun
Accusative	-en	-eni	-eni	Object noun
Prepositional	-al	-ale	-alen	Noun for when prepositions are used
Instrumental	-ila	-ilan		By way/method/location, "via something"
Genitive	-itha	-etha	-ethan	Possessive case, "of" something, something's
Ergative	-aie	-aien		Subject of a transitive verb
Temporal/Locative	-sil	-sir		"at place" or "at time"
Vocative	-ata	-atan		Invoking the noun
Equative	-shea	-shai	-shaie	State of being; like/as the noun
Abessive	-jo			Lacking the noun, without it
Terminative	-lua	-lue	-lui	Until the noun (time, location, ect.)

Various Notes

• Verbs in Tengarsa all default to intransitive, and only become transitive once the subject is marked as Ergative.


• There is only one abessive that applies to the noun stem, because if you are without something you don't even have one, let alone a plural amount.


• The Instrumental, Temporal/Locative, and Vocative cases all share the same suffix between plural and magic plural numbers.


• The Temporal/Locative case shares the same function for different concepts: at a place or at a time (i.e. ‘at seven’ or ‘at the house’)


• When the Temporal/Locative case is attached to someone’s name, it usually means their home or ‘place’, i.e. “I’m headed over to Bob’s”.


• The Instrumental also serve a prolative or perlative role - this case can mean "via this object" or "via this method" or "via this location" - "I cleaned the floor with a mop", "I went to Hawaii by plane" or "I got to her house via the parking lot".
• When an ‘ih’ (short i) or "ihy" is added before a noun with an Instrumental ending, it means ‘because of [noun]’
• One can create a noun adjunct – a noun that modifies another noun – with the ending of: –raur.


• You rarely see the Vocative case outside of Spellcraft

Declension/Vowel Shifts

The case-endings in Tengarsa are all basically suffixes, but there are certain sound shifts observed based on the endings of the noun stem and the initial consonant of the case suffix.

Consonants

If the noun ends in a consonant, and you are using a consonant-initial case-suffix (the Nominative, Temporal/Locative, Equative, Abessive, or Terminative cases), and the two aren’t the same consonant, then a short i¸ an ‘ih’ (ɪ) sound is placed between the noun and the case suffix.

If the noun ends in the consonant that is the "partner" to the case suffix's initial consonant, then the two merge, with the case-suffix consonant as dominant:

So, for example, if the noun ends in s and you are using the Equative case, you drop the s and attach the suffix as is. Same goes for any l-ending noun with the nominative case and any r-ending noun for the Terminative case.

Vowels

If the noun ends in the same vowel as the stem, they become one vowel/share a vowel. If the noun ends in a vowel that can be merged with another into a diphthong, they do so.

It’s nouns that end in diphthongs or non-merging vowels that are problematic.

If the suffix begins with the –a, –e, or –i, and the noun ends in the following vowel, it shifts to...

-a	-e	-i
a (æ) - aw (a) >> a e/eh (ɛ) >> ea ih (ɪ) >> ia i (iː) >> ia o (o) >> ua ai (aɪ) >> a u (uː) >> ua ei (e) >> ea ao (aʊ) >> a ia (iæ) - ie (iɛ) >> ia ea (ɛa) - aie (aɪɛ) >> ea ua (ua) - ue (uɛ) >> ua ui (ui) >> ua	a (æ) >> e aw (a) >> e e/eh (ɛ) - ih (ɪ) >> ie i (iː) >> ie o (o) >> ue ai (aɪ) >> aie u (uː) >> ue ei (e) >> ie ao (aʊ) >> aie ia (iæ) >> ie ie (iɛ) - ea (ɛa) >> e aie (aɪɛ) - ua (ua) >> ue ue (uɛ) - ui (ui) >> ua	a (æ) >> ai aw (a) >> ai e/eh (ɛ) >> ei ih (ɪ) >> i i (iː) - o (o) >> ui ai (aɪ) - u (uː) >> ui ei (e) - ao (aʊ) >> ai ia (iæ) >> i ie (iɛ) >> i ea (ɛa) >> ei aie (aɪɛ) >> ai ua (ua) >> ui ue (uɛ) >> ui ui (ui) -

Comments

[jissai1988.livejournal.com]

what do you mean by the equative? as in the japanese verbs "imasu, arimasu." or the spanish verbs " ser, estar?"

[nyxelestia.livejournal.com]

I have no idea what those Japanese verbs are, and looking at it I'm not really sure how the Spanish ones relate.

Anyway, equative is essentially a metaphorical case - it's "like a child" or "as a king", ect ect. "idaol" is the word for magic, so when we refer to Merlin's ability to make the boys and girls of Camelot swoon with a smile as "idaolishea", it's "like magic". When Arthur gets all powerful!sexy and tells people what to do, he's "kingishea", or "kinglike" or does it "as a king". Make sense?

[jissai1988.livejournal.com]

Ah okay! Thank you! I couldn't figure out if you meant with the "state of being" meant. The Japanese equivalency would then be no you ni/no mitai ni. Gotcha : )

Thank you for the clarification.

[nyxelestia.livejournal.com]

One downside of learning multiple languages at once, I believe, is that certain linguistic categories start to blur together after a while. ;)

[jissai1988.livejournal.com]

Yes...*eye twitch* yes they do. Never try learning how to write japanese and chinese at the same time. Same goes for spanish and italian in general. * eye twitch* Three different dialects of Arabic as well. *double eye twitch*

Yes, that is exactly what it means. : )

You are still in high school? Wow I am meeting so many very skilled young writers on the internet lately! Makes me feel very incompetent.

I actually do have a yahoo. nothing instant message. Hate those things. jissai_kun@yahoo.com