Honestly, the main reason I don't update this thread much is because I hate dealing with tables. I really hate them. But I'm going to force myself so that I may introduce some new stuff:Athematic (4th) Declension
So, let's get started on the 4th declension, a.k.a. the athematic declension a.k.a. the consonant stems. This is where things get really confusing. Halvian preserves the original Sorso-Karenian declension system almost intact (unlike Galsaic, which has greatly simplified it), while innovating a few new things of its own (some stems that aren't original to S-K). This means that there is root ablaut in some athematic nouns.Gender and the Nominative Singular
4th declension nouns can be any of the three genders: masculine, feminine, or neuter. The way to tell the difference is in the genitive singular: for masculines, the genitive singular is -és
, for feminine, it is -ís
, and for neuter, it is -ós
. There are no exceptions to this rule.
The nominative singular of the athematic nouns is typically the bare stem. The nominative alone won't tell you the gender, but there are some tendencies. Masculine nouns often have a nominative singular in -s, attached to the bare stem. Neuters often have a bare stem in -n or -l. Other than this, there are few ways to tell.
Bare stems mainly end in -r (most common), -n, or -l. Less commonly -s and -th. Even less commonly -t. No other consonants appear. Case Endings
Since this is the athematic declension, the case endings are typically attached directly to the stem. Where this cannot occur (due to violating Halvian phonological rules), either an <a> or the schwa <ë> will appear.
Here is a table of the basic case endings of the 4th declension:
|Genitive||-és, -ís, -ós||-ein||-ōm|
|Accusative||-n, -ën||-in||-ns, -ëns|
The nominative singular is typically bare stem, but -s does occur in some masculine forms.
The genitive and dative dual have collapsed into a single form.
The accusatives appear without the schwa only when the stem ends in -l or -r (in certain situations).
The vocative is no different from the nominative, expect in the plural, where the long ē becomes a short e.Non-Ablauting Masculine Noun
Here is the declension of a simple, non-ablauting masculine noun with an -s nominative: sax, sagés - "opening"
*Think of these forms as: sag-su, sag-se, sag-sein, sag-sinen. Halvian turns <gs> and <ks> into <x> automatically.Ablauting Stems
In the athematic declension, some nouns have roots that ablaut in the oblique cases. The oblique cases are those that are not nominative, accusative, vocative, or dative. The other cases are all considered oblique, from a Halvian perspective.
The rule is: if a noun has a single <o> in the stem, it will change to <e> in the obliques. If it has a long ē, it will shorten in the obliques.
For stems that end in -r, if the consonant before the vowel (in the form CVr) is a stop consonant, then it will have zero-grade in all instances except for when the ending begins with a consonant:
The feminine noun "dos, desís" meaning "flower", is an example of such a noun (with an "o"). Here is how it declines:
*Halvian does not allow the combination <sb>. The /b/ is devoiced to /p/. <sd> is however, acceptable, in the allative dual.Nouns in -r
For stems in -r, where the consonant before the final vowel is a stop, the declension looks like this:
gébor, gebrés - "speaker"
When the consonant before the final vowel of an -r stem is not a consonant, then there is no ablaut, and all the forms attach directly to the stem.
As you can see, this declension is somewhat idiosyncratic. But there is a method this madness. Other Stems
Stems in -l are easy, since all the endings attach directly to the stem. A noun like tóriel, toríelos
"ridge", will have forms like: toríelei (dat. sg.), toríele (ins. sg.), toríelad (abl. sg.), etc.
Stems in -n are also easy. All forms attach directly to the stem as well. A noun like sórgen, sorgenós
, "dale, vale" will have forms like: sórgenei (dat. sg.), sórgena (voc. pl), sórgensu (loc. pl.), etc.
Stems in -th follow the same pattern as "dos" above (with or without ablaut). A noun like óriath, oríathes
"world", will have forms like: oríathad (abl. sg.), oríathpos (dat. pl. - the b will devoice), oriáthën (acc. sg.)
Stems in -t are very rare. The only word I've created so far is kélupot, kelúpotos
"marjoram". The main thing to look out for with this noun is with the endings that begin with -b, like the dative plural and instrumental dual and plural. <tb>, <td> and <tp> are all unacceptable, so Halvian just deletes the t altogether. The dative plural is thus kelúpobos (instead of *kelúpotbos, which is not a valid Halvian word). The allative dual would be kelúpode, etc.