Komi grammar
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This article deals with the grammar of the Komi language of the northeastern European part of Russia (the article "Komi language" discusses the language in general and contains a quick overview of the language).
Personal pronouns
Komi pronouns are inflected much in the same way that nouns are. However, personal pronouns are usually only inflected in the grammatical cases and cannot be inflected in the locative cases.
Komi personal pronouns inflect in the grammatical cases and the approximative case. Personal pronouns in the nominative case are listed in the following table:
| Personal pronouns | ||
|---|---|---|
| Komi | English | |
| Singular | ||
| ме | [ˈme] | I |
| тэ | [ˈte] | you |
| сійӧ | [ˈsijɘ] | he/she/it |
| Plural | ||
| ми | [ˈmi] | we |
| ті | [ˈti] | you |
| найӧ | [ˈnajɘ] | they |
Nominals
As with other languages in the Uralic family, Komi does not encode grammatical gender. Nouns and personal pronouns make no gender distinction; сійӧ/sijö means both 'he' and 'she', depending on the referent.
Cases
Komi has seventeen noun cases: nine core grammatical cases and eight locative cases. The locative cases are usually only used with inanimate references with the exception of the elative, terminative, approximative and egressive cases. There is no difference in the meaning of the translative and prolative cases.
| Komi cases | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Case | Suffix | English prep. | Example | Translation | ||
| Core grammatical cases | ||||||
| nominative | — | - | керка | [ˈkerka] | house | |
| genitive | -лӧн | [-lɘn] | of / 's | керкалӧн | [ˈkerkalɘn] | of a house / house's |
| accusative | -ӧс | [-ɘs] | - | керкаӧс | [ˈkerkaɘs] | house (as an object) |
| ablative | -лысь | [-lɯɕ] | from | керкалысь | [ˈkerkalɯɕ] | from a house |
| dative | -лы | [-lɯ] | to/for | керкалы | [ˈkerkalɯ] | to a house |
| instrumental | -ӧн | [-ɘn] | with/by means of | керкаӧн | [ˈkerkaɘn] | by means of a house |
| comitative | -кӧд | [-kɘd] | with/accompanied by | керкакӧд | [ˈkerkakɘd] | with a house |
| caritive | -тӧг | [-tɘɡ] | without | керкатӧг | [ˈkerkatɘɡ] | without a house |
| consecutive | -ла | [-la] | gone/come for[1] | керкала | [ˈkerkala] | for a house |
| Locative cases | ||||||
| inessive | -ын | [-ɯn] | in | керкаын | [ˈkerkaɯn] | in a house |
| illative | -ӧ | [-ɘ] | into | керкаӧ | [ˈkerkaɘ] | into a house |
| elative | -ысь | [-ɯɕ] | out of | керкаысь | [ˈkerkaɯɕ] | out of a house |
| translative | -ті | [-ti] | along | керкаті | [ˈkerkati] | along a house |
| prolative | -ӧд | [-ɘd] | along | керкаӧд | [ˈkerkaɘd] | along a house |
| terminative | -ӧдз | [-ɘdʑ] | end up | керкаӧдз | [ˈkerkaɘdʑ] | end up at a house |
| approximative | -лань | [-laɲ] | towards | керкалань | [ˈkerkalaɲ] | towards a house |
| egressive | -сянь | [-ɕaɲ] | starting from | керкасянь | [ˈkerkaɕaɲ] | starting from a house |
Stem extension
Preceding suffixes that start with a vowel, nouns may use an extended stem.
Nouns ending in в often change this consonant to л, e.g. ныв ("girl") → нылыс ("his/her girl").
Some nouns ending in дз, дь and ль undergo gemination, e.g.:
- видз ("lawn") → виддзыд ("your lawn");
- додь ("sled") → доддьыс ("his sled");
- куль ("demon") → кулльысь ("from a demon").
Another group of nouns undergoes epenthesis, e.g.:
- пон ("dog") → понйыс ("his/her dog");
- ун ("dream") → унмӧн ("by means of a dream");
- ош ("bear") → ошкысь ("from a bear");
- гӧп ("puddle") → гӧптын ("in a puddle");
- кыв ("language") → кывйын ("his/her language").
Personal pronouns
The declension of personal pronouns is quite systematic as well:
| Komi personal pronoun declensions | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Case | 1st pers. sing. | 2nd pers. sing. | 3rd pers. sing. | 1st pers. pl | 2nd pers. pl. | 3rd pers pl. |
| nominative | ме | тэ | сійӧ | ми | ті | найӧ |
| genitive | менам | тэнад | сылӧн | миян | тіян | налӧн |
| accusative | менӧ | тэнӧ | сійӧс | миянӧс | тіянӧс | найӧс |
| ablative | менсьым | тэнсьыд | сылысь | миянлысь | тіянлысь | налысь |
| dative | меным | тэныд | сылы | миянлы | тіянлы | налы |
| instrumental | меӧн | тэӧн | сыӧн | миянӧн | тіянӧн | наӧн |
| comitative | мекӧд | тэкӧд | сыкӧд | миянкӧд | тіянкӧд | накӧд |
| caritive | метӧг | тэтӧг | сытӧг | миянтӧг | тіянтӧг | натӧг |
| consecutive | мела | тэла | сыла | миянла | тіянла | нала |
| elative | меысь | тэысь | сыысь | миянысь | тіянысь | наысь |
| terminative | меӧдз | тэӧдз | сыӧдз | миянӧдз | тіянӧдз | наӧдз |
| approximative | мелань | тэлань | сылань | миянлань | тіянлань | налань |
| egressive | месянь | тэсянь | сысянь | миянсянь | тіянсянь | насянь |
Plural
There are two types of nominal plurals in Komi. One is the plural for nouns -яс (with the exception of -ян in пиян, "the sons / boys" and -ана/-яна in words ending on -анин/-янин, e.g. зыряна, "Zyrians") and the other is the plural for adjectives -ӧсь.
Nominal plural
In attributive plural phrases, the noun is always in plural, while the adjective is not required to be in the plural:
| Attributive plural | |
|---|---|
| Komi | English |
| мича(ӧсь) нывъяс | (the) beautiful girls |
The plural marker always comes before other endings (i.e. cases and possessive suffixes) in the morphological structure of plural nominal.
| Morphological order | |
|---|---|
| Komi | English |
| нывъяслы | to the girls |
Since -яс, -ян and -яна start with a soft vowel, they may be preceded by either a hard sign (ъ) or a soft sign (ь), depending on the preceding letter:
| Morphological order | |
|---|---|
| Komi | English |
| ва; ваяс | water; waters |
| ун; унъяс | dream; dreams |
| лӧдз; лӧдзьяс | horsefly; horseflies |
Predicative plural
As in Hungarian, if the subject is plural, the adjective is always plural when it functions as the sentence's predicative:
| Attributive plural | |
|---|---|
| Komi | English |
| нывъяс мичаӧсь | the girls are beautiful |
| керкаяс ыджыдӧсь | the houses are big |
Possessive suffixes
Nominal possessive suffixes
Komi possessive suffixes are added to the end of nouns either before or after a case ending. The possessive suffixes vary in the nominative and accusative cases and with case endings.
| Nominative possessive suffix | ||
|---|---|---|
| Suffix ending | Komi | English |
| -ӧй | ёртӧй | my friend |
| -ыд | ёртыд | your (sg.) friend |
| -ыс | ёртыс | his/her friend |
| -ным | ёртным | our friend |
| -ныд | ёртныд | your (pl.) friend |
| -ныс | ёртныс | their friend |
Accusative possessive suffixes
Accusative possessive suffixes are shown in the following table. Note that the possessive of the first person in the accusative matches the simple accusative.
| Accusative possessive suffix | ||
|---|---|---|
| Suffix ending | Komi | English |
| -ӧс | ёртӧс | my friend |
| -тӧ | ёрттӧ | your (sg.) friend |
| -сӧ | ёртсӧ | his/her friend |
| -нымӧс | ёртнымӧс | our friend |
| -нытӧ | ёртнытӧ | your (pl.) friend |
| -нысӧ | ёртнысӧ | their friend |