Latvian declension

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Latvian declension describes the declension of nouns, adjectives, pronouns and numerals in the Latvian language. There is a system of seven cases (nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, instrumental, locative and vocative) in Latvian.

Contents 1 Nouns 1.1 Masculine declensions 1.2 Feminine declensions 1.3 Palatalization 2 Indeclinable nouns 3 Archaic forms 3.1 Ablative case 3.2 Declensions 3.3 Dual number 3.4 Locative case forms 4 Adjectives 4.1 Indefinite declension 4.2 Definite declension 4.3 Examples 5 Pronouns 5.1 Personal pronouns 5.2 Other pronouns 6 Numerals 7 See also 8 Notes 9 References 10 External links

[edit] Nouns

Latvian has two grammatical genders, masculine and feminine.

Latvian nouns can be classified as either declinable or indeclinable. Most Latvian nouns are declinable, and regular nouns belong to one of six declension classes (three for masculine nouns, and three for feminine nouns).

Latvian nouns have seven grammatical cases: nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, instrumental, locative and vocative. The instrumental case is always identical to the accusative in the singular, and to the dative in the plural. It is only used as a free-standing case (i.e., in the absence of a preposition) in highly restricted contexts in modern Latvian. (See below for a true prepositional case, the ablative.)

[edit] Masculine declensions

The three masculine declensions have the following identifying characteristics:

• 1st decelension: nom. sing. in -s or -š, thematic vowel -a- (e.g. vīrs "man, husband")
• 2nd declension: nom. sing. in -is (or -ns/-ss, see below), thematic vowel -i- (e.g. skapis "shelf")
• 3rd declension: nom. sing. in -us, thematic vowel -u- (e.g. tirgus "market, bazaar")

The full paradigms of endings for the three declensions is given in the following table:

	1st decl.		2nd decl.		3rd decl.
	Sing.	Plur.	Sing.	Plur.	Sing.	Plur.
Nom.	vīrs	vīri	skapis	skapji	tirgus	tirgi
Gen.	vīra	vīru	skapja	skapju	tirgus	tirgu
Abl.	vīra	vīriem	skapja	skapjiem	tirgus	tirgiem
Dat.	vīram	vīriem	skapim	skapjiem	tirgum	tirgiem
Acc.	vīru	vīrus	skapi	skapjus	tirgu	tirgus
Ins.	vīru	vīriem	skapi	skapjiem	tirgu	tirgiem
Loc.	vīrā	vīros	skapī	skapjos	tirgū	tirgos
Voc.	vīr!	vīri!	skapi!	skapji!	tirgu!	tirgi!

The 2nd declension exhibits palatalization of the final stem consonant in the genitive singular and throughout the plural (p → pj in the example above, but see below for full details). Exceptions to this include compound nouns and some proper names ending in -is (e.g. Atis, gen. sing. Ata).

A small subclass of 2nd declension nouns have nominative and genitive singular ending in -ens (or -ess): e.g. akmens "stone", asmens "blade", rudens "autumn", zibens "lightning", ūdens "water", mēness "moon". The 2nd declension noun suns "dog" has the regular genitive singular suṇa.

[edit] Feminine declensions

The three feminine declensions can be characterized as follows:

• 4th decelension: nom. sing. in -a, thematic vowel -a- (e.g. sieva "woman, wife")
• 5th declension: nom. sing. in -e, thematic vowel -e- (e.g. upe "river")
• 6th declension: nom. sing. in -s, thematic vowel -i- (e.g. nakts "night")

The full paradigms of endings for the three declensions is given in the following

	4th decl.		5th decl.		6th decl.
	Sing.	Plur.	Sing.	Plur.	Sing.	Plur.
Nom.	sieva	sievas	upe	upes	nakts	naktis
Gen.	sievas	sievu	upes	upju	nakts	nakšu
Abl.	sievas	sievām	upes	upēm	nakts	naktīm
Dat.	sievai	sievām	upei	upēm	naktij	naktīm
Acc.	sievu	sievas	upi	upes	nakti	naktis
Ins.	sievu	sievām	upi	upēm	nakti	naktīm
Loc.	sievā	sievās	upē	upēs	naktī	naktīs
Voc.	siev(u)!	sievas!	upe!	upes!	nakts!	naktis!

The final stem consonant is palatalized in the genitive plural of 5th and 6th declension nouns (in the examples above, p → pj and t → š, but see the next section for full details). Exceptions to this include loanwords such as epizode (gen. pl. epizodu) in the 5th declension and a handful of words in the 6th declension: acs "eye", ausu "ear", balss "voice", zoss "goose".

The 4th and 5th declensions include a number of masculine nouns (e.g. puika "boy", or proper names such as Dilba, Zvaigzne), or common gender nouns that are either masculine or feminine depending on their use in context (e.g. paziṇa "acquaintance", bende "executioner") . In these cases, the masculine nouns take the same endings as given in the table above, except in the dative singular:

• 4th decl.: -am (e.g. dat. sing. puikam "boy")
• 5th decl.: -em (e.g. dat. sing. bendem "male executioner", cf. bendei "female executioner")

The 6th declension noun ḷaudis "people" is masculine. It has no singular forms, only regular plural forms.

[edit] Palatalization

Some of the case endings given in the declension tables above begin with an underlying /j/, which has the effect of palatalizing the preceding stem consonant. This is true of the 2nd declension genitive singular (ending -ja), all forms of the 2nd declension plural, and the genitive plural of the 5th and 6th declensions (ending -ju).

Palatalized labial consonants are simply indicated by an orthographic j:

change	nom. sing. (unpalatalized)	gen. plur. (palatalized)	translation
p → pj	upe	upju	"river"
b → bj	gulbis	gulbji	"swan"
m → mj	zeme	zemju	"land"
v → vj	dzērve	dzērvju	"crane"

Other consonants and clusters of consonants undergo more complex changes:

change	nom. sing. (unpalatalized)	gen. plur. (palatalized)	translation
c → č	lācis	lāču	"bear"
d → ž	briedis	briežu	"deer"
l → ļ	brālis	brāļu	"brother"
n → ņ	dvīnis	dvīņu	"twin"
s → š	lasis	lašu	"salmon"
t → š	nakts	nakšu	"night"
z → ž	vāze	vāžu	"vase"
sn → šņ	krāsns	krāšņu	"stove"
zn → žņ	zvaigzne	zvaigžņu	"star"
sl → šļ	kāpslis	kāpšļu	"stirrup"
zl → žļ	zizlis	zižļu	"baton"
ln → ļņ	vilnis	viļņu	"wave"
ll → ļļ	lelle	leļļu	"doll"
kst → kš / šķ	rīkste	rīkšu or rīšķu	"rod"

The palatalization of r is no longer indicated in modern Latvian orthography. For example, the gen. plur. of cepure "hat" is cepuru (but may be pronounced cepuŗu).

[edit] Indeclinable nouns

Some nouns do not belong to any of the declension classes presented above, and show no case or number inflection. For the most part, these indeclinable nouns are unassimilated loanwords or foreign names that end in a vowel. Some example are: taksi "taxi", ateljē "studio", Deli "Delhi".

[edit] Archaic forms

[edit] Ablative case

The following table illustrates case syncretism in Latvian ablative and instrumental forms. In the singular, the ablative is identical to the genitive, and the instrumental is identical to the accusative. In the plural, both ablative and instrumental are identical to the dative.

	1st decl.		2nd decl.		3rd decl.
	sing.	plur.	sing.	plur.	sing.	plur.
genitive	vīra	vīru	skapja	skapju	tirgus	tirgu
ablative	vīra	vīriem	skapja	skapjiem	tirgus	tirgiem
dative	vīram	vīriem	skapim	skapjiem	tirgum	tirgiem
instrumental	vīru	vīriem	skapi	skapjiem	tirgu	tirgiem
accusative	vīru	vīrus	skapi	skapjus	tirgu	tirgus

The ablative is generally not presented as a separate grammatical case in traditional Latvian grammars, because it appears exclusively with prepositions. One can say instead that prepositions requiring the genitive in the singular require the dative in the plural. The instrumental case, on the other hand, cannot be eliminated so easily, because it can be used in some contexts without any preposition:^[1]

• vīrs sarkanu bārdu "a man with a red beard" (singular: instrumental = accusative)
• meitene zilām acīm "a girl with blue eyes" (plural: instrumental = dative)

[edit] Declensions

It is generally believed that Latvian has 6 declensions, but a seventh declension appears to have existed.^{[citation needed]} An example of inflection of words "viltus" (deceit) and "dzirnus" (mill - dialectal^{[citation needed]}):

	Sing.	Plur.
Nom.	viltus	dzirnus
Gen.	viltus	dzirnu
Dat.	viltui	dzirnūm
Acc.	viltu	dzirnus
Ins.	viltu	dzirnūm
Loc.	viltū	dzirnūs
Voc.	viltu!	dzirnus!

It is worth noting however that in modern Latvian noun viltus has a masculine grammatical gender and is inflected according to 3rd declension.^[2]

[edit] Dual number

Old Latvian had also a Dual number. Nowadays perhaps in some dialects the dual might be used only in some words representing body parts,^{[citation needed]} e.g. divi roki, kāji, auši, akši, nāši 'two hands, legs, ears, eyes, nostrils', in such phrases like: skatīties ar abi akši 'to look with both eyes', klausīties ar abi auši 'to listen with both ears', ņemt ar abi roki 'to take with both hands', lekt ar abi kāji 'to jump with both legs'.^{[citation needed]}

The old Dual endings of all cases:

	Masculine			Feminine
	1.decl.	2.decl.	3.decl.	4.decl.	5.decl.	6.decl.	7.decl.
Nom.Acc.Voc.	-u	-ju	-u	-i	-ji	-ji	-u
Abl.Dat.Ins.	-amu	-jamu	-umu	-āmu	-ēmu	-īmu	-ūmu
Gen.Loc.	-i	-ji	-u	-i	-ji	-ji	-u

[edit] Locative case forms

The locative case allegedly once had three forms:^{[citation needed]} inessive (the regular and most common form), illative (for example in old Latvian texts: iekš(k)an tan pirman vietan, in modern Latvian it has been replaced by the inessive, but vestiges of what supposedly once was an illative final -an changed to an -ā^{[citation needed]} remain in some adverbs, e.g. āran > ārā 'outdoors, outside', priekšan > priekš 'for'), allative (only used in a few idiomatic expressions like: augšup, lejup, mājup, kalnup, šurp, turp). The later two are adverb-forming cases.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Adjectives

Adjectives in Latvian agree in case, number, and gender with the noun they modify. In addition, they express the category of definiteness. Latvian lacks definite and indefinite articles, but the form of the adjective chosen can determine the correct interpretation of the noun phrase. For example, consider the following examples:

Viņa nopirka [vecu māju]. "She bought [an old house]."

Viņa nopirka [veco māju]. "She bought [the old house]."

In both sentences, the adjective is feminine singular accusative, to agree with the noun māju "house". But the first sentence contains the indefinite form of the adjective, while the second one contains the definite form.

[edit] Indefinite declension

Masculine indefinite adjectives are declined like nouns of the first declension, and feminine indefinite adjectives are declined like nouns of the fourth declension.

	masculine			feminine
	singular	plural		singular	plural
nominative	-s	-i		-a	-as
genitive	-a	-u		-as	-u
dative	-am	-iem		-ai	-ām
accusative	-u	-us		-u	-as
locative	-ā	-os		-ā	-ās

[edit] Definite declension

In the history of Latvian, definite noun phrases were constructed with forms of an old pronoun *jis; traces of this form can still be seen in parts of the definite adjectival paradigm.^[3] Note that only definite adjectives are used in the vocative case. The nominative form can always be used as a vocative. If, however, the modified noun appears as a vocative form distinct from its nominative form (this can only happen with singular nouns, as can be seen from the declension tables above), then the vocative form of the adjective can optionally be identical to its accusative form in -o.^[4]

	masculine			feminine
	singular	plural		singular	plural
nominative	-ais	-ie		-ā	-ās
genitive	-ā	-o		-ās	-o
dative	-ajam	-ajiem		-ajai	-ajām
accusative	-o	-os		-o	-ās
locative	-ajā	-ajos		-ajā	-ajās
vocative	-ais / -o	-ie		-ā / -o	-ās

[edit] Examples

The declension of the adjective zils/zila "blue" is given below.

indefinite masculine feminine singular plural singular plural nominative zils zili zila zilas genitive zila zilu zilas zilu dative zilam ziliem zilai zilām accusative zilu zilus zilu zilas locative zilā zilos zilā zilās

definite masculine feminine singular plural singular plural nominative zilais zilie zilā zilās genitive zilā zilo zilās zilo dative zilajam zilajiem zilajai zilajām accusative zilo zilos zilo zilās locative zilajā zilajos zilajā zilajās vocative zilais / zilo zilie zilā / zilo zilās

Adjectives containing the suffix -ēj- have reduced case endings in the dative and locative. For example, vidējs, -a "central" (indefinite) has the following definite paradigm:

	masculine			feminine
	singular	plural		singular	plural
nominative	vidējais	vidējie		vidējā	vidējās
genitive	vidējā	vidējo		vidējās	vidējo
dative	vidējam	vidējiem		vidējai	vidējām
accusative	vidējo	vidējos		vidējo	vidējās
locative	vidējā	vidējos		vidējā	vidējās
vocatif	(= nominative)

[edit] Pronouns

[edit] Personal pronouns

The third person personal pronouns in Latvian have a regular nominal declension, and they have distinct masculine and feminine forms. The first and second person pronouns, and the reflexive pronoun, show no gender distinction, and have irregular declensions.

	singular				plural				reflexive
	1st	2nd	3rd masc.	3rd fem.	1st	2nd	3rd masc.	3rd fem.
	I	you (fam.)	he/it	she/it	we	you (pol./plur.)	they		-self/-selves
nominative	es	tu	viņš	viņa	mēs	jūs	viņi	viņas	–
genitive	manis	tevis	viņa	viņas	mūsu	jūsu	viņu	viņu	sevis
dative	man*	tev*	viņam	viņai	mums	jums	viņiem	viņām	sev*
accusative	mani	tevi	viņu	viņu	mūs	jūs	viņus	viņas	sevi
locative	manī	tevī	viņā	viņā	mūsos	jūsos	viņos	viņās	sevī

^*After a preposition governing the dative (e.g. līdz "to, until"), the dative forms manīm, tevīm, and sevīm are possible. These forms may replace genitive and accusative pronouns with other prepositions, too.^[5]

[edit] Other pronouns

The following tables show the declension of the demonstratives tas "that" and šis "this".

	masculine			feminine
	singular	plural		singular	plural
nominative	tas	tie		tā	tās
genitive	tā	to		tās	to
dative	tam	tiem		tai	tām
accusative	to	tos		to	tās
locative	tajā / tai / tanī	tais / tajos / tanīs		tai / tajā / tanī	tais / tajās / tanīs

	masculine			feminine
	singular	plural		singular	plural
nominative	šis	šie		šī	šīs
genitive	šī, šā	šo		šīs, šās	šo
dative	šim	šiem		šai	šām
accusative	šo	šos		šo	šās
locative	šai / šajā / šinī	šais / šajos / šinīs		šai / šajā / šinī	šais / šajās / šinīs

The interrogative/relative pronoun kas "who, what" has the same declension, but it has only singular forms (and no locative form, with the adverb kur "where" used instead). The same applies to forms derived from kas: nekas "nothing", kaut kas "something", etc.

The intensive pronoun pats/pati (cf. "I myself", "they themselves") is irregular:

	masculine			feminine
	singular	plural		singular	plural
nominative	pats	paši		pati	pašas
genitive	paša	pašu		pašas	pašu
dative	pašam	pašiem		pašai	pašām
accusative	pašu	pašus		pašu	pašas
locative	pašā	pašos		pašā	pašās

Other pronouns and determiners exhibit regular (indefinite) adjectival declension:

• the demonstrative forms tāds/tāda "such (as that)" and šāds/šāda "such (as this)"
• the 1st and 2nd person singular possessive forms mans/mana "my", tavs/tava "your (fam.)" (and the reflexive savs/sava)
• the interrogatives kurš/kura "which", kāds/kāda "what (kind)", and indefinite pronouns derived from them, e.g. nekāds "no", kaut kāds, nezin kāds "some kind of"
• other indefinite pronouns such as dažs/daža "some, certain", cits/cita "other", viss/visa "all", (ik)katrs/(ik)katra "every", ikviens/ikviena "each"

[edit] Numerals

In Latvian there are two types of numerals: cardinals and ordinals.

The numbers from 1 to 9 are declinable. The number 1 (viens/viena) combines with a singular noun, 2 (divi/divas) through 9 (deviņi/deviņas) with plural nouns. With the exception of trīs "3", these numbers take the same endings as indefinite adjectives.

	masculine	feminine
nominative	trīs
genitive	triju
dative	trim, trijiem	trim, trijām
accusative	trīs
locative	trijos, trīs	trijās, trīs

The following cardinal numbers are indeclinable:

• the numerals 11–19: vienpadsmit, divpadsmit, trīspadsmit, četrpadsmit, piecpadsmit, sešpadsmit, septiņpadsmit, astoņpadsmit, deviņpadsmit
• desmit (10) and its compounds: divdesmit, trīsdesmit, četrdesmit, piecdesmit, sešdesmit, septiņdesmit, astoņdesmit, deviņdesmit
• simt (100) and its compounds: simt, divsimt, trīssimt, četrsimt, piecsimt, sešsimt, septiņsimt, astoņsimt, deviņsimt
• tūkstoš (1000) and its compounds: tūkstoš, divtūkstoš, trīstūkstoš, četrtūkstoš, piectūkstoš, seštūkstoš, septiņtūkstoš, astoņtūkstoš, deviņtūkstoš, etc.

Ordinal numbers ("first", "second", etc.) are declined like definite adjectives. In compound numbers, only the final element is ordinal, e.g. trīsdesmit otrajā minūtē "in the 32nd minute".

[edit] See also

• Latvian conjugation
• Latvian prepositions

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

• Andronov, A. V. (2001). "A survey of the case paradigm in Latvian". Sprachtypologie und Universalienforschung 54 (3): 197–208. 
• (French) Petit, Justyna and Daniel (2004). Parlons letton. Paris: L'Harmattan. ISBN 2-7475-5910-6. 

[edit] External links

• Overview of the Latvian Language (en)

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