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 | rōve | korzī | liorza. |
| English: | [The, a] girl | big | [the, a] sword | [she] sells. |
| Explanation: | NOMINATIVE | ADJECTIVE ACCUSATIVE | NOUN 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 urnes | The boy sees the girl |
| taobe riña urnes | The girl sees the boy |
Find the declination patterns for nouns and adjectives in the accusative case below. Recall, the first lunar, third lunar, and third terrestrial have forms that include an 'i' in their endings, like āeksio. The usual locative forms take the endings -e, -o, and -on; with 'i' in the ending, they become -ie, -io, and -ion.
| Declination | Nominative | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1lun | val-a | val-e | val-ī |
| 1aq | qelb-ar | qelb-ri | qelb-rī |
| 2lun | egr-y | egr-i | egr-ī |
| 2sol | azant-ys | azant-i | azant-ī |
| 3lun (io) | āeks-io | āeks-io | āeks-ia |
| 3sol | ri-os | ri-os | ri-ossa |
| 3sol (contracting) | jao-s | jao-s | jao-hossa |
| 3ter | lent-on | lent-on | lent-a |
| 3aq | māl-or | māl-or | māl-ra |
| 4lun | ann-e | ann-ī | ann-ī |
| 4sol | zaldrīz-es | zaldrīz-ī | zaldrīz-ī |
| 5lun | brōz-i | brōz-i | brōz-a |
| 5sol | bant-is | bant-is | bant-issa |
| 5aq | qint-ir | qint-ir | qint-ra |
| adj. I | rōv-a (ys on or) | rōv-e (i on or) | rōv-ī (ī a ra) |
| adj. II | sȳz (sȳrior) | sȳr-e (ior) | sȳr-i (iar) |
| adj. III | sylvie (ior) | sylv-ie (ior) | sylv-ī (iar) |
Exercise 1
Decline the noun into the accusative case.
| kepa |
| kepe (father) |
| vȳs |
| vȳs (world) |
| blēnon |
| blēnon (mountain) |
| qelbri |
| qelbrī (rivers) |
| zaldrīzes |
| zaldrīzī (dragon) |
Vocabulary
| Lesson Vocabulary | |
|---|---|
| High Valyrian | English |
| yne (acc.) avy ziry ūī īlōn jemī pōnte |
me you he/she/it he/she/it us y'all them |
| zȳha (poss. adj.) | his/hers/its |
| tolvie(adj. III) | every, all |
| oktion (3ter.) | city |
| dōros (3sol.) | wall |
| vēdros (3sol.) | anger |
| korze (4lun.) | sword, longsword |
| jiōragon (c-fin.) | to accept, recieve, welcome, bring |
| lioragon (c-fin.) | to sell |
| derēbagon (c-fin.) | to gather, collect |
| sōvegon (v-fin.) | to fly |
| idakogon (v-fin.) | to attack |
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 | kōrē | oktiot | zȳhī(1) | kostōbī | zaldrīzī | jiōrza |
| English: | Daenerys | to | wicked | [the, a] city | her | powerful | dragon(s) | [she] brings. |
- (1) Zȳha, her/his/its (poss. adj). Zȳhī, (acc.)
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.
Zȳhī is a possessive adjective. These will be covered in a later section. For now, recognize that they decline like regular class I adjectives and agree with the case, gender, and number of the item possessed.
| 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 | aderī | bōsot | dorot | derēbas |
| English: | Harpys | quickly | tall | [on, at, in] [the, a] wall | [they] gather |
The word bōsot agrees with the singular, locative, and solar dorot.
The harpys may have walls; however, Daenerys has dragons!
| Explanation- The dragons fly from the canyon and the harpys attack the great dragons. | |||||||||
| High Valyrian: | Zaldrīzesse | hen | rihot | sōvesi | se | jazdani | karī | zaldrīzī | idakosi |
| English: | [The] dragons | from | [the, a] canyon | [they] fly | and | [the] harpys | great | [the] dragons | attack. |
Rihot is locative to agree with the preposition va to form a prepositional phrase.
Kara must become karī in order to modify zaldrīzī, which is solar, plural, and accusative.
Dragons do not like to be attacked:
| Explanation- Her dragons, with anger, burn them all and too, their great commanders. | |||||||
| High Valyrian: | Zȳhyz(1) | zaldrīzesse | vēdroso | tolvyri(2) | zālzi | ||
| English: | Her | dragons | [with] anger | them all | [they] burn | ||
- (1) Zȳhys, her/his/its (poss. adj). Zȳhyz, (nom.)
Zȳhyz is a nominative, solar, and plural possessive adjective that agrees with zaldrīzesse, also nominative, solar, and plural.
[CHECK] With the accusative pronoun pōnte, the lunar form of the adjective is used.
Exercise 2
Determine if the following adjectives agree with their noun; if not, write the correct form.
| bōse bantis |
| Yes, both are lunar, singular, and accusative |
| byka dārion |
| No, byka is declined lunar and dārion is terrestrial--bykon dārion is correct |
| kōz vale |
| Yes, kōz is declined lunar/solar and vala is lunar; both are accusative |
| litse qintir |
| No, litse is declined lunar/solar and qintir is aquatic--litsior qintir |
Grammar: The Use of the Accusative
Unless specified, any verb you look up in the dictionary will take the accusative, not the nominative. This means that they are transitive verbs, verbs that happen to someone or something, e.g.:
I heal you. (acc.) You make my day. (acc.) She hit your arm. (acc.)
In the examples above, the bold words are the subject of the sentence clause. Because something happens "to" them, they can't be in nominative.
| Grammatical Explanation 1 | |||
| English: | The boy | hits | the car. |
| Explanation: | NOMINATIVE | VERB | ACCUSATIVE |
| Grammatical Explanation 2 | |||
| English: | The girl | hugs | the boy. |
| Explanation: | NOMINATIVE | VERB | ACCUSATIVE |
| Grammatical Explanation 3 | ||||
| English: | He who | flees, | deserves | the guillotine. |
| Explanation: | NOMINATIVE | VERB | VERB | ACCUSATIVE |
Exercise 3
Translate the following to High Valyrian.
| Jon speaks to the wise woman. |
| Iōnos sylvie ābre ȳdras. |
| He feeds the wolf rice. |
| mālroso zokle kisiksa. |
| Daenerys is missing her dragon. |
| Daenerys zȳhos zaldrīzose mijes. |
| Did the knights kill the evil masters? |
| Azantyssy kōri āeksia sēnis? |
| He names the brave woman his knight. |
| Zȳhos azantomy nēdenke ābre brōzas. |