Shu Grammar
Shu is an agglutinative language. It has a head-initial grammar. Nouns feature an extensive case system, in contrast to most head-initial languages, which usually have either no cases or very few. Verbs have a considerable number of conjugations, but do not show any agreement.
Nouns
Nouns inflect for case and number. There are two numbers, singular and plural, and ten cases: nominative, dative, locative, allative, inessive, illative, abessive, ablative, instrumental, and perlative. Nouns differ in their inflectional pattern depending on the final sound of the noun root. Consider, as an example, the consonant-final noun yul ("son"):
| Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|
| Nominative | yul | yulwor |
| Dative | yule | yulwore |
| Locative | yuliv | yulworiv |
| Allative | yulive | yulworive |
| Inessive | yulo | yulworo |
| Illative | yulewe | yulworewe |
| Abessive | yulem | yulworem |
| Ablative | yuleme | yulworeme |
| Instrumental | yulishi | yulworishi |
| Perlative | yulyer | yulworyer |