Chuvash manuals Contents
    
    UNIT FOUR
    Instrumental relational morpheme;
    minor case morphemes (privative, purposive, directive, vocative);
    compound case morphemes.
    Tables of nominal declension.
    Plural declension.
    
Instrumental Relational Morpheme
    
    This morpheme is used to indicate the general means or instrument by which something is accomplished, corresponding to such words as “by, with, by means of“ and so on, in English. The morpheme is {-pA), with allomorphs of /-pa/ with back vowel words, and /-pe/ with front vowel words. In addition, the archaic and dialectal endings /pala, palan, pele, pelen/ may also be seen occasionally, but no nuance of meaning attaches to them. A few foreign words, mostly in -a and -ja, do employ a stem alternant of -ă anti –jă before the instrumental morpheme, but there is none of the other complications found in the genitive and accusative morphemes.
    
    Some instances of the use of the instrumental are the following:
    
    

	pojezdpa			by train
	părahutpa kiltĕm		I came by steamer
	vĕsem vărmanpa pynă		they went by way of the woods

	kolhozniksem tyrra		the collective farmers
	kombainpa vyrsa	 		harvest grain with a
	puştaraşşĕ	 		combine

	manpa pĕrle kilchĕ		he came together with me

    
    In addition to indicating the instrument or means by which things are accomplished, it may also indicate the place by which or through which an action goes on, the joint performing of actions with something or someone else. The instrumental may also indicate the time at which an action occurs, and thus is frequently found in fixed expressions of time, as:
    

	irpe			in the morning (Ger. morgens, Russ. utrom)
	kaşpa			in the evening (abends, vecherom)
	kunĕpe			all day (lit. ‘with its day,‘ a possessive)
	pajan kunĕpe		today all day
	şĕrĕpe			all night
	ernipe			all week

    The instrumental morpheme is often used to mean “and,“ especially in titles.
    

	kahalpa pujan		“The Lazybones and the Rich Man“ (folktale) (207)
	fonetikapa morfologi	“Phonetics and Morphology“ (subtitle of a Chuvash grammar)

    
Minor Case Morphemes
    
    In addition to the case morphemes enumerated, some Chuvash grammarians consider the morpheme -săr/-sĕr ‘without‘ (the so-called privative case, meaning to be deprived of something), and the morpheme -shăn/-shĕn ‘for‘ (the so-called purposive case denoting the purpose of something) to be cases. In the present work, we shall not include them as cases in the regular sense of the word largely because their use is absolutely regular and predictable both in form and content. They have no allomorphs other than those required by vowel harmony, and may be used with every noun if the central meaning of the word permits it to be logically used. Some examples are the following.
    
    Privative
    

	alsăr-urasăr		without arms or legs
	syvalăshsăr		airless, without air, anaerobic
	văisăr şyn		a man without strength, a weak man
	şynsăr			without a man, having no man
	kĕnekesĕr acha		a boy without books, “a bookless boy“

    
    Purposive
    

	şyn syvlăhshĕn			for a man‘s health
	tyrpulshan			for (the goal or end of) harvests
	şirĕp mirshĕn			for lasting peace! (slogan)
	mĕnshĕn, mĕshĕn			for what, why?
	vĕsem kulnăshăn			owing to their laughing, because they laughed
	acha şapah anashshăn pulnă	the boy was for descending (= wanted to go down)
	manăn hĕrĕ tălăha		because of my daughters‘ remaining widows
	xăvarnăshshăn	 

    
    Directive
    
    The directive morpheme is {-(A)llA), and means ‘towards, to, at, in the direction of, -wards“ and so on. It is still a productive suffix and is found in the reading materials. Some instances are the following;
    
    

	vărmanalla	towards the woods, woods-ward
	ajalalla	downwards
	tăvalla		towards the mountain
	şülelle		upwards
	kilelle		towards home, homewards (Ger. nach Hause)

    
    It is interesting to note a case of similar phonemic formation and function in the Finnic languages.
    
    Others
    
    There are some additional morphemes which might be considered case morphemes, as the terminative (cf. Hungarian!) in -ĕchen, meaning “up to, as far as,“ and some others, including a few vocative remnants. These forms, however, are little employed, and for our present purposes will not be considered.
    
    Compound Case Morphemes
    
    There is nothing to prevent more than one case morpheme being used at one time, should the meaning of both of them be needed in a phrase or sentence, and this is occasionally done. The most common is the use of the combined ablative and locative in {-.RAnpA}, of which the following are examples:
    
    

	paşărtanpa		since time immemorial
	ĕnertenpe		since yesterday
	kilnĕrenpe		from the time I arrived

    
Tables of Nominal Declension
    
    Here are given tables to illustrate various types of nominals in the six cases, namely, absolute, genitive, dative, accusative, locative, ablative and instrumental. As this order is always the same, we shall not henceforth mark the names of cases when all are given at once.
    
    Note that nouns in orthographic l", n", r" use front endings in the written language.
    
     TABLES OF NOMINAL DECLENSION
    

		Back					Front
Consonant 		Vowel		Consonant		Vowel

arman			lasha		tir	măkăn‘		ĕne	   shăshi
armanăn			lashan(ăn)	tirĕn	măkănĕn		ĕnen(ĕn)   shăshin or shăshijen

armana			lashana		tire	măkăne		ĕnene      shăshiye
armanta			lashara		tirte 	măkăn‘te	ĕnere 	   shăshire
armanta			lasharan	tirten	măkăn‘ten	ĕneren 	   shăshiren
armanpa			lashapa		tirpe 	măkăn‘pe	ĕnepe 	   shăshipe

			(j—stem)				(j—stem)			
alăk	sămah		uj			tinĕs		sij
alăkăn	sămahăn		ujăn			tinĕsĕn		sijĕn
alăka	sămaha		uja			tinĕse		sije
alăkra	sămahra		ujra			tinĕsre		sijre
alăkran	sămahran	ujran			tinĕsren	sijren
alăkpa	sămahpa		ujpa			tinĕspe		sijpe



			pulă	purtă				külĕ	  pĕrchĕ
			pullăn	purtăn				küllĕn	  pĕrchĕn
			pulla	purta				külle	  pĕrche
			pulăra	purtăra				külĕre	  pĕrchĕre
			pulăran purtăran			külĕren   pĕrchĕren
			pulăpa	purtăpa				külĕpe	  pĕrchĕpe




			şyru					kĕtü
			şyrăvan					kĕtĕvĕn
			şyrăva					kĕtĕve
			şyrura					kĕtüre
			şyruran					kĕtüren
			şyrupa					kĕtüpe
	


		BORROWINGS
		Back					Front
Consonant 			Vowel		Consonant	Vowel

metall			kino	   -stvo	oktjabr‘	parti
metalăn			kinon	   -stvăn	oktjabrĕn	parti or partijĕn
metala			kinona	   -stvăna	oktjabre	partije
metalra			kinora	   -stvăra	oktjabr‘te	partire
metairan		kinoran    -stvăran	oktjabr‘ten	partiren
metalpa			kinopa	   -stvăpa	oktjabr‘pe	partipe	



vlast‘			stsena	   ideja	izvest‘
vlaşăn			stsenăn    idejăn	izveşĕn
vlaşa			stsenăna   idejăna	izveşe
vlaşra			stsenăra   idejăra	izveşre
vlaşran			stsenăran  idejăran	izveşren
vlaşpa			stsenăpa   idejăpa	izveşpe

    
    
Plural Declension
    
    The plural morpheme in Chuvash is {-seN}, with the allomorph /-sem/ in word-final position, before a homoorganically articulated consonant (e. g., -p), and before the privative and purposive morphemes -sĂr and -shĂn, and the allomorph /-sen/ before all other endings. This morpheme does not observe vowel harmony in the written language; thus, all endings may be given as:
    
    

		-sem
		-sen (-ĕn)
		-sene
		-senche
		-senchen
		-sempe
		(-semshĕr
		-semshĕn)

    
    Examples of the plural deciension are the following. As pointed out previously, Chuvash is unique among Turkic languages in that the possessive morphemes are added before the plural morpheme, contrary to the practice in others.
    
    

	sămahsem		tinĕssem		lashasem
	sămahsen(ĕn)		tinĕssen(ĕn)		lashasen(ĕn)
	sămahsene		tinĕssene		lashasene
	sămahsenche		tinĕssenche		lashasenche
	sămahsenchen		tinĕssenchen		lashasenchen
	sămahsempe		tinĕssempe		lashasempe

    
    If the -s of -sem is preceded by ş or sh‚ remember that in pronunciation, the two s sounds will assimilate to each other, namely, to ş or sh.