After learning how to inflect Kven nominals, we now can start learning all usages of grammatical cases. Grammatical cases in Kven function just like prepositions in English, except that they appear in the form of different suffixes.
Kven has 13 grammatical cases, all
of which have singular and plural forms (except comitative):
nominative, genitive, partitive,
inessive, illative, elative, adessive, abessive, ablative, essive, translative,
and *comitative.
Six locative cases are:
Internal cases ("s"
cases): inessive, elative, illative
External cases ("l"
cases): adessive, ablative, allative
Nominative singular
|
Nominative |
Meaning |
|
mikä |
what |
|
kuka |
who |
|
kummainen (millainen) |
what kind of,
what kind |
|
joka |
who
(relative pronoun) |
The nominative case is the basic
form of a word, also known as the dictionary form.
There is no definite or indefinite
article in Kven, hence nominative form for a noun can mean "a/an…" or
"the…".
For example:
kieli – a language/the language.
• Kieli, jota Leena puhhuu, oon kainun kieli. (The language that Leena speaks is Kven.)
However,
to emphasize the very number, "yksi" (one) is sometimes used.
• Yksi kieli ei koskhaan riitä. (One language is never enough.)
All nominals can be in the
nominative form, meaning that there is the nominative form for adjectives, nouns,
pronouns, relative pronouns, comparative form, and superlative form of
adjectives and adverbs.
The nominative case can be found in these
three common situations:
1. Subject
• Nainen
oon kađula. (The woman is on the street.)
• Tuola
oon sikhuusi. (There is a hospital there.)
• Hän halluu oppiit kainun kieltä. (She wants to learn Kven.)
• Iso talo näkyy täältä. (The big house can be seen from here.)
2. Complement
• Pekka
oon studentti. (Pekka is a student.)
• Hänen kainun kieli oon huilaava. (Her Kven is fluent.)
• Kainun kieli oon vaikkeeta. (The Kven language is hard.)
3. Object
• Sano se
kvääniksi! (Say it in Kven!)
• Tieđätkö kunka se sanothaan kvääniksi? (Do you know how to say it in Kven.)
Let’s not
worry about the parts we haven’t learned yet, we will touch on them in future
lessons.
Nominative plural
|
Nominative |
Meaning |
|
mikkä/mitkä |
what |
|
kukka |
who |
|
kummaiset (millaiset) |
what kinds of,
what kinds |
|
jokka/jotka |
who
(relative pronoun) |
The nominative case ending is -t,
and is added to Grade 0 or Grade -1:
Sana – sanat
Laki – lait
Matto – matot
Pankki – pankit
The nominative plural can be found
in these three common situations:
1. Subject
• Naiset
oon kađula. (The women are on the street.)
• Isot talot näkyy täältä. (The big houses can be seen from here.)
2. Complement
• Pekka ja Mari oon studentit. (Pekka and Mari are students.)
3. Object
• Sano net
kvääniksi! (Say them in Kven!)
Some
words are always in the plural form:
|
Nominative |
Meaning |
|
häät |
wedding |
|
hautajaiset |
funeral |
|
sakset |
a pair of scissors |
|
hiukset |
hair |
|
kasvot |
face |
|
aivot |
brain |
|
prillat |
a pair of
glasses |
• Mie
olin häissä. (I was at the weeding.)
• Minula oon tummat hiukset. (I have dark hair.)
• Ostin uuđet
prillat. (I bought a pair of new glasses.)
The number of nominative singular and
plural
Knowing the number of nominative
singular and plural is very important because learners usually have trouble differentiating
the number between nominative and partitive, which we will learn in the
following chapter.
1. Nominative singular refers to
only one animate/inanimate object or thing.
For example:
• Ihminen oon ystävälinen. (A
person is friendly.)
• Kirja oon kallis. (A/the book is expensive.)
2. Nominative plural refers to a
definite number of animate/inanimate objects or things.
For example:
• Ihmiset oon ystäväliset. (People
are friendly.) – It seems that the number of people is definite, and the speaker
can give the proper number of people.
• Kirjat oon
kalliit. (Books are expensive.) – Again, the speaker knows how many books
are expensive.