Upper Sorbian Grammar

Under construction!


Declension of masculine nouns

Upper Sorbian masculine nouns as a rule in the nominative singular end with a consonant (or, strictly speaking, with a zero ending marked -0 in the table). Some of them may also end with -o (some personal names) and with -a.

Masculine nouns have the following set of endings:

singular
stem:softc z shardvelar
N-0
G-a (-u)
D-ej
Aanimate= genitive
inanimate= nominative
I-om
L-u-u/-’e
V-o-o/-'e-o
dual
stem:softother
N-ej-aj
G-ow
D-omaj
Avirile= genitive
non-virile= nominative
I-omaj
L-omaj
V= nominative
plural
stem:softc z shardvelar
Nvirile-ojo-ojo, -’a
non-virile-e-y-i
G-ow/-i-ow
D-am
Avirile= genitive
non-virile= nominative
I-emi-ami
L-ach
V= nominative

The symbol -0 stands for a zero ending (an ending that is not represented by any sound in speech nor by any letter in writing).


Consonant and vowel changes


The palatalising -’e and -’a endings

An apostrophe before an ending (-’e, -’a) signals that some consonants when preceeding this ending alternate as shown below:

consonant changeexample
N sing. > L sing.
meaning
d > lud > luepeople, tribe
t > ćinsekt > insekćeinsect
tr > bratr > braebrother
ł > lwosoł > wosoledonkey
ch > šhrěch > hrěšesin
h > zbrjóh > brjozebank, coast

Whenever any other consonant preceeds an ending marked with an apostrophe, the consonant turns into its soft counterpart:

consonant changeexample
N sing. > L sing.
meaning
n > njnan > nanjefather
m > mjštom > štomjetree

These endings in masculine nouns are only used with hard-stem and velar-stem nouns.


The ó : o alternation

Some masculine nouns that in the nominative singular form have -ó- as their last vowel replace it with -o- in the other forms, ex.:

vowel changeexample
N sing. > G sing.
meaning
ó > oód > odahunger

Additional comments on some endings

G sing.

Some masculine nouns may have both -a and -u endings, but most of them may only have -a. There are no nouns that could have only -u ending in the Genitive singular, so the easiest way to avoid mistakes is to use always only the -a ending.

A sing., A du., A plur.

In singular the accusative ending coincides with that of nominative, when a noun refers to a thing or a phenomenon, and with that of genitive, when a noun refers to a person or an animal. In dual and plural the accusative ending coincides with the genitive's one (resp. dual or plural) only for nouns that stand for a human being.

L sing.

All the so-called soft-stem nouns and those that in Nom.sing. end with -c, s or z always have the -u ending. Other nouns may have both -u and -'e endings.

V sing.

The -o ending is most often (but not exclusively) used with the soft-stem nouns and those that in the h, ch, k, c, s. z. There is no rule that would describe the usage of vocative endings with other nouns.

N plur.

Nouns that stand for animals or things (also phenomena) have the -y/-i ending (-i when a noun ends with h, ch or k and -y in all other cases) when they are hard-stem, and the -e ending when they are soft-stem.

Nouns that stand for human beings usually have the -ojo ending when they have only one syllable in the Nom.sing. When they are longer they may have one or more of all others Nom.plur. endings.

G plur.

All nouns may have the -ow ending but some of the soft-stem nouns may also have the -i ending.

I plur.

Hard-stem nouns have the -ami ending and soft stem ones have the -emi ending.


Examples


A hard-stem animated virile noun

nan father

singulardualplural
Nnannanajnanojo
Gnanananownanow
Dnanejnanomajnanam
Ananananownanow
I(z) nanom(z) nanomaj(z) nanami
L(w) nanje(w) nanomaj(w) nanach
Vnano!nanaj!nanojo!


A hard-stem inanimated noun

hrěch sin

singulardualplural
Nhrěchhrěchajhrěchi
Ghrěcha/hrěchuhrěchowhrěchow
Dhrěchejhrěchomajhrěcham
Ahrěchhrěchajhrěchi
I(z) hrěchom(z) hrěchomaj(z) hrěchami
L(w) hrěchu/hrěše(w) hrěchomaj(w) hrěchach
Vhrěcho!hrěchaj!hrěchi!


A velar-stem animated non-virile noun
hołb pigeon

singulardualplural
Nhołbhołbjejhołbje
Ghołbjahołbjowhołbjow
Dhołbjejhołbjomajhołbjam
Ahołbjahołbjejhołbje
I(z) hołbjom(z) hołbjomaj(z) hołbjemi
L(w) hołbju(w) hołbjomaj(w) hołbjach
Vhołbjo!hołbjej!hołbje!



Back to the Nouns


Back to the contents
We use cookies on this site. We do this for two purposes:

1. to allow to save the results obtained by the user in the game Words & Pictures on the user’s device and to display the results statistics on the page Your results; information about these results is not available to other users, we do not store them, analyze them nor give them to other persons,

2. to display Google ads. Read the following information about Google’s cookies for EEA and non-EEA users (scroll down).

Users from the European Economic Area

Google ads displayed on our site for users from the EEA are not personalized. Although these ads don’t use cookies for ads personalization, they do use cookies to allow for frequency capping, aggregated ad reporting, and to combat fraud and abuse.
Read more about Google cookies.

Users from outside the European Economic Area

For non-EEA users, we use Google cookies to personalize ads. We also share information about your use of our site with Google.
Read more about Google cookies

Blocking cookies

If you do not agree to our use of cookies, you should disable cookies in your browser settings or not use our site.

If you disable cookies, some options of the game Words & Images will not be available.
OK, I understand.


Copyright © 2015–2024 BALTOSLAV.
All rights reserved.