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It's a shame such dialects are smothered by nationalism. --- In westasianconlangs@yahoogroups.com, "eamoniski" <eamoniski@...> wrote: > > As promised: > > Notes from various Sources on Noun Declension in Cappadocian Greek > (Greco-Turkish Mixed Language; SIL: CPG) [Where previous comments made > off the top of my head differ from what's listed here, this post > should be considered factual, as I actually referred to my notes to > come up with this post] > > For most dialects: > > - Noun classes largely based on considerations of animacy > - Masculine o-stems are split in to animate and inatimate > - Animate take masculine article in all cases except the nominative > - Inanimate nouns take the neuter article in all cases > - Plural of both cases is characterized by syncretism and reanalysis > > In some dialects noun morphology has a generalized agglutinative > declension and the loss of grammatical gender. > > ---- Masculine and Neuter Nouns in General and According to Dialect ---- > > Neuter Nouns: > > Most nouns have been reanalyzed as neuter nouns in -i (with unstressed > -i often disappearing). Turkish nouns ending in -C are also put in > this class. > > Nom-Acc mat mat-ya > Genitive mat-yu may-ya-yu > > The case ad number suffixes from this class ahve been generalized and > spread to other noun classes. > > Ancient Masculine Nouns in -os: > > - split into animates and inanimates > - animate nouns use the masculine article to(n) in the singular and > tus in the plural > - inanimate nouns use the neuter article to in the singular and ta in > the plural > > Ancient Masculine Nouns in -is: > > - In most dialects have the same characteristics as masculine- animate > nouns and have agglutinative endings in genitive singular and > accusative plural and a syncretic nom-acc plural formally identical > with the nominative > > Northeast Cappadocian > > - Inanimate nouns have the syncretic plural ending -us, from the > ancient masculine accusative plural > - Animate and inanimate o-stems have the separate accusative singular > ending -o only if they are definite; as in Turkish, the indefinite > accusative is identical with the nominative > > AnTropos (where the -n- has been lost): > > NOM aTropos aTropi > ACC-INDEF aTropos aTropus > ACC-DEF aTropo aTrop-yus > GEN aTrop[(y)u] > > - Genitive singular -yu is agglutinative and taken from the neuter > nouns in -i > - Accusative plural is agglutinative and may be used instead of the > ancient -us > > - Neuter inanimate nouns have no separate form for the nominative > plural, it is the same as the accusative plural: > > milos milus > milos milus > milo > mil-yu > > Central Cappadocian > > - Animate nouns have a syncretic plural ending -i from the ancient > masculine nominative plural > - Inanimate nouns have an agglutinative syncretic plural ending - ya, > taken from the ancient neuter nouns in -i > - Animate and inanimate o-stems have the separate accusative singular > ending -o only if they are definite; as in Turkish, the indefinite > accusative is identical with the nominative > - Clear tendency towards syncretism in the declension of inanimate > nouns: nominative/accusative singular in -os for both definite and > indefinite > > AnTropos (where the -n- has been lost): > > NOM aTropos aTropi > ACC-INDEF aTropos aTrop-yus > ACC-DEF aTropo aTrop-yus > GEN aTrop[(y)u] aTropos-yu > > - Genitive singular -yu is agglutinative and taken from the neuter > nouns in -i > - Agglutinative accusative in the plural is used exclusively (no > variant -us from ancient declension) > - Agglutinative genitive plural is nominative with -os ending + > aggluatinative genitive -yu > - At least one form of Central Cappadocian has no separate from of > accusative plural; it is aTropi as in the nominative plural > > - Neuter-inanimate nouns in -os have an almost entirely agglutinative > declension with the nom. sg. reanalyzed as a stem, and agglutinative > case and number suffixes are attached to it: genitive (-yu; from > neuters in -i) and plural (-ya; from neuters in -i): > > milos milos-ya > milos milos-ya > milos-yu milos-yu-ya > > Northwest Cappadocian > > - Animate nouns have a syncretic plural ending -i from the ancient > masculine nominative plural > - Inanimate nouns have the syncretic plural ending -us, from the > ancient masculine accusative plural > - Animate and inanimate o-stems have the separate accusative singular > ending -o only if they are definite; as in Turkish, the indefinite > accusative is identical with the nominative. In this dialect, a split > is emerging based on definiteness in inanimate nouns - indefinite > nominative/accusative singular in -os vs. definite > nominative/accusative singular in -o > - No separate form for the accusative plural > > NOM aTropos aTropi > ACC-INDEF aTropos aTropi > ACC-DEF aTropo aTropi > GEN aTrop-yu > > - Neuter inanimate nouns have no separate form for the nominative > plural, it is the same as the accusative plural: > > milos milus > milos milus > milo > mil-yu > > Southern Cappadocian: > > - Both animate and inanimate nouns have become formally neuter, > nominative and accusative have become conflated. The distinction > between animate and inanimate nouns has disappeared and all nouns take > the neuter article and use the following agglutinative paradigm: > > aTropos aTropos-ya > aTropos-yu aTropos-ya-yu > > ---- Feminine Nouns in -a: ---- > > - In most dialects, these have a syncretic nom-acc declension and no > distinction between definite and indefinite accusative, and the > declension is the same of Standard Modern Greek: > > Nom-Acc néka nékes > Gen nékas > > - Definite article is used exclusively in the accusative (singular > ti(n) and plural ta); in the South Cappadocian, feminine nouns take > the neuter article. > > In some dialects, the feminine nouns in -a have an agglutinative > declension, with the exception of the nom-acc plural: > > Nom-Acc néka nékes > Gen néka-yu nékes-yu > > Feminine nouns in -i are often declined as neuter nouns in -i > > ---- Greco-Armenian Conlang Idea ---- > > Finally, to return to my Greco-Armenian mixed language, the declension > of nouns in Southern Cappadocian (which has the simplest and most > agglutinative noun declension of all the dialects) gives precedent for > a declension of all nouns like this (where (n)er is the Armenian > agglutinative plural and -yu is the Greek neuter genitive): > > Direct anTropos anTropos-ner > Oblique anTropos-yu anTropos-ner-yu > > Direct néka néka-ner > Oblique néka-yu néka-ner-yu >