Re: Noun Cases

 --- "Mark J. Reed" <markjreed@...> wrote: > On
Sat, Feb 28, 2004 at 06:51:06PM -0800, Michael
> Martin wrote:
> > In languages that use noun cases is there such a
> thing as a caseless,
> > "infinitive" form of the noun? Or are the nouns
> always in a case?
>
> IME, nouns are always in some case.  In the
> languages I've
> studied/created, the representative, or
> "dictionary," form is usually
> the nominative singular.
ObConlang:

In Ancient F/otisk, the dictionary from of a noun is
the root, which is usually the nom. pl minus suffixes
(sometimes the voc. sing.). In Old F., though, the
nom. sing. is the dictionary form. This represents the
more general re-analysis of the nominal system,
changing from various mutations (a-, i- or u-) in
various cases to an alternation between one vowel in
the singular and another in the plural, which after
the few mergers that happened to the vowel system
involved a small sprinkling of generalisation. As it
stands, in OF, /o(:)/, /O(:)/, /Q(:)/ can become resp.
either /u(:)/, /o(:)/,  /Q(:)/ (masc./neut.) or /2(:),
/9(:)/, /&\(:)/ (fem.). (Everywhere else, including
pronouns, the masc. and fem. are the same, so former
fems except those w/ roots in the above-mentioned
vowels, are considered masc. The case endings for
masc. and neut. differ, with the neut. usually
inhereting a generalisation of the former weak nouns.
Therefore, most nouns, and certainly the default, are
masculine. I really haven't decided what becomes of
the system in MnF, though.)

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