User:Aegon/High Valyrian Tutorial/1-5
Lesson 5| The Accusative
Grammar: The Accusative
As you learned in the last lesson, the verb 'sagon' (to be) usually takes the nominative case. Most other verbs take the 'accusative' case.
In a sentence, the accusative is the "what" - in English grammar, this is known as the direct object.
For example: The girl sells the sword.
What did the girl sell? The sword. Thus, sword is the direct object, and when we translate it into High Valyrian:
| Example | |||
| High Valyrian: | Riña | korzī | liorza. |
| English: | [The, a] girl | [the] sword | [she] sells. |
| Explanation: | NOMINATIVE | ACCUSATIVE | VERB |
Korze, then, is in the accusative, because it is the direct object.
Again, when an adjective describes a noun in the accusative case, the adjective must agree in number, case, and gender.
| Example | ||||
| High Valyrian: | Riña | korzī | rōve | liorza. |
| English: | [The, a] girl | [the, a] sword | big | [she] sells. |
| Explanation: | NOMINATIVE | NOUN ACCUSATIVE | ADJECTIVE ACCUSATIVE | VERB |
Because High Valyrian uses cases to mark the subject and the object of a sentence, word order does not matter although it is common to see the accusative immediately before the verb (or a pre-verbal adjective). Consider:
| taoba riñe urnes | The boy sees the girl |
| riña taobe urnes | The girl sees the boy |
| riñe taoba videt | The boy sees the girl |
| taobe riña videt | The girl sees the boy |
Examples of Adjectives Agreeing with the Nominative and Accusative Case
| Explanation- Daenerys is taking her powerful dragons to the wicked city. | ||||||||
| High Valyrian: | Daenerys | va | oktiot | kōrē | zȳhī | zaldrīzī | kostōbī | jiōrza |
| English: | Daenerys | to | [the, a] city | wicked | her | dragon(s) | powerful | [she] brings. |
Kōrē, a class II adjective, is lunar/solar, locative, and singular to agree with oktiot, the word in the locative case it is describing. The locative occurs due to the preposition va; thusly, va oktiot kōrē is called a prepositional phrase.
Kostōbī, a class I adjective, is solar and accusative to agree with zaldrīzī. Zaldrīzī is accusative because it is the object of jiōrza. Note that zaldrīzī (4sol.) is both the accusative singular and the accusative plural.
| Can you tell if there one or more dragons? |
| Yes! The possessive adjective zȳhī is declined plural. Daenerys is bringing dragons. |
Here is an example of a sentence not using an accusative:
| Explanation- Quickly the harpys gather on the walls. | |||||
| High Valyrian: | Jazdani | dorot | bōsot | aderī | derēbas |
| English: | Harpys | [on, at, in] [the, a] wall | tall | quickly | [they] gather |
The word bōsot agrees with the singular, locative, and solar dorot.
The harpys may have walls; however, Daenerys has dragons!
| Explanation- The great dragons fly from the canyon and the harpys attack them. | |||||||||
| High Valyrian: | Zaldrīzesse | hen | rihot | sōvesi | se | jazdani | zaldrīzī | karī | idakosi |
| English: | [The] dragons | from | [the, a] canyon | [they] fly | and | [the] harpys | [the] dragons | great | attack. |
Kara must become karī in order to modify zaldrīzī, which is solar, plural, and accusative.
Dragons do not like to be attacked:
| Explanation- With anger, the dragons burn them all. | |||||
| High Valyrian: | Vēdroso | zaldrīzesse | pōnte | tolvie | zālzi |
| English: | [with] anger, angry | [the] dragons | them | all | [they] burn. |
Even though tolvie is a class III adjective, pōnte remains unchanged.