Uberish/Nouns and Adjectives

The city for conlangs

[edit] Parts of a Noun

A noun or adjective consists of a minimum of four parts: the stem, a morpheme indicating case, a morpheme indicating number, and a morpheme distinguishing between noun and adjective. These parts are always in that order in a noun or adjective. Nouns or adjectives can also possess a morpheme indicating possession, and a morpheme indicating person, if the noun or adjective is a predicate.

[edit] The Stem

The stem of the noun or adjective is the part which refers to the actual object or idea in reality. The stem gives the noun or adjective its meaning.

[edit] Case

Nouns in Uberish are put into one of 10 noun cases, which indicate the function of the noun in the sentence. Since English relies on word order to express the subject or object of the action, it may be hard to break away from the constraints of word order for those who are native English speakers. There is absolutely no dependence on word order except to indicate emphasis on the first element.

The 10 cases in Uberish are: The Nominative, The Genitive, The Dative, The Accussative, The Ablative, The Directive, The Inessive, The Illative, The Causative, and the Instrumental.

[edit] Nominative Case

The nominative case indicates the subject or performer of the verb. It is indicated in Uberish by -a-.

[edit] Genitive Case

The genitive case is used where in English one would use the preposition "of". The word that "of" would precede in English is the word which is put into the genitive case. The genitive case is also used for possession, although not very often with personal pronouns, as there is a possessive construct for that. The genitive case is indicated by -e-.

[edit] The Dative Case

The dative case is the case of the indirect object. An indirect object is indirectly involved in the action, that is, it neither performs the action nor receives the action, but is instead indirectly affected by the action. An indirect object in English usually follows a verb of giving, showing, or telling, and can be indicated by "to" or "for". The following are some examples of sentences with indirect objects in English (the indirect objects are in bold):

"I showed the toy to my friends"

"I bought the present for Rudy"

The dative case in Uberish is indicated by -i-.

[edit] Accusative Case

The accusative case is the case of the direct object, that is, the direct receiver of the action of the verb. In the above examples "the toy" and "the present" are the direct objects of the verbs, "showed" and "bought", respectively. The accusative case in Uberish is indicated by -o-.

[edit] Ablative Case

The ablative case follows all postpositions that are not already represented by other cases. It is indicated by -u-.

[edit] Locative and Manner Cases

The directive, inessive, illative, causative, and instrumental cases are used where the prepositions "to", "at"/"in", "into", "because of", and "by means of"/"with" would be used in the Enlglish language, respectively. They are indicated by -ala-, -ale-, -ali-, alo-, and -alu-, again respectively. The opposites of these cases, such as, "from", "out of", "out from", "not because of", and "without" are indicated by adding the opposing particle "net" to the beginning of the noun.

[edit] Number

There are two numbers in Uberish: singular and plural. The indicator for number immediately succedes the indicator for case. Singular number is indicated by an absence of indicator, and plural by -r-.

[edit] Adjective/Noun Distinction

The final necessary morpheme of a noun is the distinguisher between a noun and an adjective. This part succeeds the indicator of number, and preceeds the unnecessary predicate nominative and possessive constructs. A noun is indicated by -s(-), and an adjective is indicated by -r(-).

[edit] Predicate Nominative

The predicated nominative is used as the complement to a linking verb such as to be, to become, or to seem. The predicate nominative endings are -ak, -ek, and -ik for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd person referrents, respectively. One single noun with the predicate nominative can be used where in English one would have to include a subject and the verb to be. If there is a change in mood or tense, then one can add the verb prefixes to the beginning of the noun in the predicate in order to indicate the changed mood and tense.

Example

homasak: "I am a man."

ihafhomasak: "I would have been a man."

See also Verbs

[edit] Possessive Constructs

Possessive constructs, added to the end of a noun, are the equivalent of saying "my/your/his [Insert Noun Here]". The possessive endings go at the very end of the noun or adjective, but precede the adjective's comparative or superlative ending. The endings are -i, -is, and -it for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd persons, respectively. For the plural the ending -uns is added.

[edit] Noun/Adjective Paradigm

domas malat "The bad house"


	Singular	Plural
Nominative	domas malat, "the bad house"	shienant malant, "the bad houses"
Genitive	domes malet, "of the bad house"	domens malent, "the bad houses"
Dative	domis malit, "to/for the bad house"	domins malint, "to/for bad houses"
Accusative	domos malot, "[verb] the bad house"	domons malont, "[verb] the bad houses"
Ablative	domus malut, "[preposition] the bad house"	domuns malunt, "[preposition] the bad houses"
Directive	domalas malalat, "to the bad house"	domalans malalant, "to the bad houses"
Inessive	domales malalet, "at/in the bad house"	domalens malalent, "at/in the bad houses"
Illative	domalis malalit, "into the bad house"	domalins malalint, "into the bad houses"
Causative	domalos malalot, "because of the bad house"	domalons malalont, "because of the bad houses"
Instrumental	domalus malalut, "with/by means of the bad house"	domaluns malalunt, "with/by means of the bad houses"

This is a chart giving examples of possessive constructs:


	Singular	Plural
First Person	domasi, "my house"	domasiuns, "our house"
Second Person	domasis, "your house"	domasisuns, "your house"
Third Person	domasit, 'his/her house"	domasituns, "their house"

This is a chart giving an example of predicate nominative usage:


	Singular	Plural
First Person	homasak bonatak, "I am a good man"	homasakunt bonatakuns, "We are good men"
Second Person	homasek bonatek, "You are a good man"	homasekuns bonatekuns, "You are good men"
Third Person	homasik bonatik, "He is a good man"	homasikuns bonatikuns, "They are good men"

[edit] Adjectives in their comparatives and Superlatives

To form the comparative (-er) and superlative (-est) forms of an adjectives, one adds -ior and -imus, respectively to very end of the adjective. The object being compared to takes the accusative case.