User:Aegon/High Valyrian Tutorial/2-2
Lesson 2| The Genitive and Dative Cases
The Genitive
The genitive case is a descriptive case. The genitive case describes the following features of the described noun:
- Possession e.g. The dragon of Daenerys or Daenerys' dragon (Daenero zaldrīzes)
- Titles e.g. High Priestess (Eglio Vokto)
- Relation e.g. A thing of beauty (mirro gevivī)
*Quantity e.g. A gallon of water
- Quality e.g. Day of wrath (vēdro tubis)
- Material e.g. Hand of gold (āeksio ondos)
Quite simply, a word in the genitive case is translated with the preposition "of". Note that High Valyrian does not have a separate form for the possessive genitive (Jon's dog vs The dog of Jon), as English does. A word in the genitive case showing possession can be translated either way. A critical use of the genitive case is in postpositions, described later in this section.
When adjectives are used to describe nouns in the genitive case, they must have the same case, number, and gender as the noun to which it refers.
The first lunar, third lunar, and third terrestrial have forms that include an 'i' in their endings, like āeksio. The usual genitive forms take the endings -o, -ō, and -o; with 'i' in the ending, they become -io, -iō, and -io.
| Declination | Nominative | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1lun. | val-a | val-o | val-oti |
| 1aq. | qelb-ar | qelb-ro | qelb-roti |
| 2lun. | egr-y | egr-o | egr-oti |
| 2sol. | azant-ys | azant-o | azant-oti |
| 3lun. (io) | āeks-io | āeks-iō | āeks-oti |
| 3sol. | ri-os | ri-o | ri-oti |
| 3sol. (contracting) | jao-s | jao-ho | jao-hoti |
| 3ter. | lent-on | lent-o | lent-oti |
| 3aq. | māl-or | māl-ro | māl-roti |
| 4lun. | ann-e | ann-o | ann-oti |
| 4sol. | zaldrīz-es | zaldrīz-o | zaldrīz-oti |
| 5lun. | brōz-i | brōz-io | brōz-ȳti |
| 5sol. | bant-is | bant-io | bant-ȳti |
| 5aq. | qint-ir | qint-rio | qint-ȳti |
| adj. I | rōv-a (ys on or) | rōv-o (o o ro) | rōv-o (o o ro) |
| adj. II | sȳz (sȳrior) | sȳr-o (ȳr) | sȳr-o (ȳ) |
| adj. III | sylvie (ior) | sylv-io (ȳr) | sylv-io (ȳ) |
High Valyrian Examples
The following examples show how the genitive may be pluralized and modified with an adjective.
| High Valyrian | English | ||||||
| qubo taobo | jaos | sȳz | issa | The dog | of the bad boy | is | good |
| genitive | nominative noun | nominative adj. | verb | nominative noun | genitive | verb | nominative adj. |
| High Valyrian | English | ||||||
| qubo taoboti | jaos | sȳz | issa | The dog | of the bad boys | is | good |
| genitive (plural) | nominative noun | nominative adj. | verb | nominative noun | genitive | verb | nominative adj. |
Exercise 1
Translate to High Valyrian.
| The Lord Commander of The Night's Watch |
| Āeksio Jento hen Bantī Urnēbiot |
| the queen's victory |
| dārio ērinnon |
| the shadow of the mountain |
| blēno sȳndor |
| the strong knight's sword |
| kostōbo azanto korze |
Postpositions
Like prepositions, postpositions are indeclinable and genderless. Postpositions are placed after substantives and adjectives; they only take the genitive case. There are a number of adverbial postpositions, that mostly indicate directionality of sentence participants, that find use as adverbs.
| List of Common Postpositions | |
| Adverbial Postpositions | |
| gō | under, beneath, below, underneath, underneath of, to the underside of; before (temporally) |
| geptot | to the left of, beside, next to |
| inkot | behind, in back of |
| naejot | in front of, before |
| paktot | to the right of, to the side, beside |
| Non-adverbial Postpositions | |
| bē | on, onto, on top of, upon; concerning, regarding, about, with respect to, on (the subject of), about; at, in |
| hēdrȳ | from amongst, out of, from the midst of, from |
| iemnȳ | in, inside, inside of, within |
| jehikarȳ | in the presence of |
| mijiot | lacking, without |
| ondoso | due to, by, at the hand of |
| syt | for, intended for, on behalf of |
Examples
| High Valyrian | English |
| jevi jenti jemēle iderēbilātās, jevo qogrondo hēdrȳ | select your leader, from amongst your own ranks |
| jēdar yno toliot; tegon yno gō; perzys yno iemnȳ | Sky above me; earth below me; fire within me |
| jevys qrinuntys jemo paktot issa | your enemy is beside you |
| ñurho(1) hāedro syt korzī sētetan | I made a sword for my sister |
- (1)Illicit sequence deletion (hr) of x ñuhro to form ñurho
Exercise 2
Translate to English.
| āeksȳti naejot ilza lī zaldrīzī jorrāelan |
| I love the dragon who is in front of the masters |
| dārion jemas luo dārio syt vīlīban |
| I fight on behalf of the good queen who guides the kingdom |
| that is the dog's bread to the right of the sword |
| kony korzo paktot jaoho havon ilza |
| help the ones who lack justice |
| drīvo mijiot lura baelās |
The Dative
The dative case, also known as the indirect object case indicates:
- For whom, e.g., I made this car for him.
- To whom, e.g., I gave this car to him.
High Valyrian does not distinguish between "to" or "for", though this is sometimes the case in English:
- I made this car for him. ↔ I made him this car.
- I gave this car to him. ↔ I gave him this car.
When adjectives are used to describe nouns in the genitive case, they must have the same case, number, and gender as the noun to which it refers.
The first lunar, third lunar, and third terrestrial have forms that include an 'i' in their endings, like āeksio. The usual dative forms take the endings -ot, -ot, and -ot; with 'i' in the ending, they become -iot, -iot, and -iot.
| Declination | Nominative | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1lun. | val-a | val-ot | val-oti |
| 1aq. | qelb-ar | qelb-iot | qelb-roti |
| 2lun. | egr-y | egr-ot | egr-oti |
| 2sol. | azant-ys | azant-ot | azant-oti |
| 3lun. (io) | āeks-io | āeks-iot | āeks-ȳti |
| 3sol. | ri-os | ri-ot | ri-oti |
| 3sol. (contracting) | jao-s | jao-hot | jao-hoti |
| 3ter. | lent-on | lent-ot | lent-oti |
| 3aq. | māl-or | māl-rot | māl-roti |
| 4lun. | ann-e | ann-ot | ann-oti |
| 4sol. | zaldrīz-es | zaldrīz-ot | zaldrīz-oti |
| 5lun. | brōz-i | brōz-iot | brōz-ȳti |
| 5sol. | bant-is | bant-iot | bant-ȳti |
| 5aq. | qint-ir | qint-riot | qint-ȳti |
| adj. I | rōv-a (ys on or) | rōv-ot (ot ot rot) | rōv-o (o o ro) |
| adj. II | sȳz (sȳrior) | sȳr-o (ȳr) | sȳr-o (ȳ) |
| adj. III | sylvie (ior) | sylv-iot (ȳr) | sylv-io (ȳ) |
Example 1
| He | made | the desk | for | his friend |
| nominative noun | verb | accusative | dative prep. | dative |
'For' is the preposition indicating a dative. 'For' can be used in some other constructs. To determine whether it is dative, analyze the meaning of the sentence (see Example 3); note that the locative case and the dative case have a number of noun declinations that overlap, making them look the same. Practice will enable you to quickly spot the case of a noun in the sentence without much effort.
Example 2
He gave the book to John; He gave to John the book; or He gave John the book.
This demonstrates how English can use prepositions to change word order and even 'presume' a certain preposition exists that has been left out, giving a dative construct. Also, the dative is used only for a noun
High Valyrian Examples
Note that in either example, the dative argument may appear after the accusative argument; it is typical for the accusative argument to appear as the final nominal item although this may vary depending on how the speaker would like to phrase or place emphasis.
| High Valyrian | English | ||||
| ñuhot raqirot(1) | irūdi | irughan. | I gave | my friend | a gift. |
| dative noun/adj. pair | accusative | verb | verb | dative noun/adj. pair | accusative |
- (1)Note how ñuhot agrees with "raqirot"
| High Valyrian | English | ||||
| ynot(1) | sōlutti | maghas. | He brought | me | a scroll. |
| dative pronoun | accusative | verb | verb | dative pronoun | accusative |
- (1)Note that the pronouns have a dative case as well, which can be reviewed in the section on pronouns.