====== Declension classes ======
All nouns we learnt in one of the previous lessons were ending with consonant, so adding definite article "//-um//" wasn't a problem. But what if there were some words ending with a vowel? Then, definite article is changed to just "**//-m//**", e.g. "slave" is "snaga", and "the slave" is "snaga__m__". Groups of words that are changed similarly during inflection are called "**//declension classes//**".
Nûrlâm has two declension classes:
- words ending with consonants (declension class I, majority of nouns belong to it)
- words ending with vowels (declension class II).
Declension class is very important, as not only the articles, but some other grammatical suffixes differ depending on declension class too.
===== New words =====
There are very few words ending with a vowel (declension class II) to learn. Probably more than half of them are listed here:
* fau (snow)((uncountable))
* gai (chain)
* gau (fruit)
* ghru (stick)
* glu (piss)((uncountable))
* goi (city)
* hlu (clothes)((uncountable))
* hrau (flesh, meat)((uncountable))
* khlau (ear)
* lau (year)
* mau (warrior)((note that "mauh" with the same meaning from previous lessons is preferrable variant))
* noi (bee)
* poi (berry)
* sau (skill, ability, craft)
* shra (person, character)
* slai (life)
* snaga (slave, servant, thrall)
* sru (seed, grain)
* tau (forest)
* zrî (joy, fun)((uncountable))
You may notice, that most of them actually end with a diphthong, so technically a semi-vowel, but nonetheless they all belong to declension class II.
All adjectives also have two declension classes depending on if the word ends with a consonant or vowel.
===== Declension classes in longer chains =====
Every addition of suffix or clitic should be done according to declension class of the previous part. For example the word "slave" (=> "snaga") belongs to declension class II, adding adjective "dirty" ("dug") to say "filthy snaga" changes the resulting word "snagadug" to class I. Thus "the slave" becomes "snaga__m__", but "the filthy slave" becomes "snagadug__um__". On the contrary, "orc" (= "uruk", declension class I) becomes "uruk__um__" with article "the", but adding adjective ending with vowel like "sta" (= "short") converts it to declension class II: "uruksta__m__". Some suffixes are the same for both declension classes, like word "za" (this): "this slave" = "snaga__za__", "this orc" = "uruk__za__".
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===== Exercise 1 =====
Translate into Nûrlâm. Join the words together whenever it's possible as in [[lessons:agglutination|previous lesson]].
- bring two strong slaves
- burn the city
- cut the long stick
- eat this fruit
- go and see some fun
- nice skills
- three redberries
- sleep all this year
- stop the large dragon
- the fat meat
- thrak krul snagabolg / thrak krul bolg snaga
- ghâsh goim
- grish ghrurodhum / grish za ghrurodh / grish za rodh ghru / grish rodh ghrum
- throkh za gau / throkh gauza
- ukh agh kin mûd zrî
- saunîr / nîr sau
- krig poikarn
- lor ûk za lau
- puzg lûgdaum / puzg dau lûgum / puzg za lûgdau / puzg za dau lûg
- hrautûrzum / tûrz hraum / za hrautûrz / za tûrz hrau
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==== Exercise 2 ====
Translate these words from Nûrlâm into English:
- faudugum
- gaibûrdum
- glum
- hludugûk
- khlaurodh
- maugûrzum
- shranîrum
- slairodhum
- srubhog
- taustam
- the dirty snow
- the heavy chain
- the piss
- all dirty clothes
- long ears
- the dead warrior
- the nice person / the beautiful person / the pretty person
- the long life
- nice seeds / good grain / nice grain / good seeds
- the short forest
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===== See also =====
* [[:lessons|All lessons]]
* [[lessons:nouns|Lesson "Nouns, articles"]]
* [[lessons:adjectives|Lesson "Adjectives"]]
* [[:clitics|Clitics]]
* [[:declension_classes|Declension classes]]