Gramatik

II. THE SUBSTANTIVE.

§ 3. The Neutral Language has only one declension for all substantives (r. 43-47):

SINGULAR.

Nominative:

dom ;

the or a house.

Genitive:

de dom ;

of the or a house.

Dative:

a dom ;

to the or a house.

Accusative:

dom ;

the or a house.

PLURAL.

Nominative:

domi ;

the houses.

Genitive:

de domi ;

of the houses.

Dative:

a domi ;

to the houses.

Accusative:

domi ;

the houses.

The accusative is distinguished from the nominative by its place in the sentence: the nominative stands before the verb, the accusative after the verb, e. g. mi klos porta, I lock the door; patr puni filio, the father punishes the son. (r.46)

The dative can be used also without the preposition a, and in that case it is indicated by a fixed place in the sentence, namely before the accusative; this applies particularly to pronouns, e. g. il donav mi libr, he gave me a book; il mit mi flori, he sends me flowers. (r. 55).

§ 4. There is no article; accordingly the English articles the and a, an are not translated, and conversely the word dom can mean the house as well as a house ; which meaning is to be taken can be almost always determined from the context. —If the word a stands for a certain, it is translated by sert: sert dom, a house, a certain house; but if it stands for some, any,it is translated by kelkun: kelkun dom, a house, some house. If we wish to refer to a definite object, the demonstrative pronouns can be used: ist dom, this house; el dom, that house. (c. 42/44) (*).

§ 5. Nouns are (1) of the masculine gender, if they denote persons or animals of the male sex, (2) of the feminine gender, if they denote persons or animals of the female sex, and (3) of the neuter gender in all other cases. —Masculine nouns are formed by the addition of the suffix -o, e. g. kavalo stallion, ansiano old man, —and feminine nouns by the addition of the suffix -a, e. g. kavala mare, italiana an Italian (woman) (*). (r. 34, 35. Cf. r. 122 d).

§ 6. Diminutives are formed by the addition of the suffix -et, e. g. sigaret cigarette, kavalet pony. filieta little daughter. (r 103).

§ 7. Designations for not full-grown (young) animals are formed by compounds with the word yun young, e. g. yun-kaval colt, yun-ran tadpole. (r. 86, c. 53/56).