There are distinctions in -- between animate and non-animate nouns.
In general, noun animacy corresponds with whether or not a noun is literally animate. For example, any human noun is animate. However, this is not a hard-and-fast rule for determining animacy, as some things considered "literally animate" are inanimate nouns in Sheřařma.
Ex: the noun [hak] "fish" is inanimate
The class of a noun affects how its cases are formed, meaning that noun animacy can also be determined based on the suffixes on the noun stems.
Throughout the site, animacy of nouns will be indicated with an (i) or (a), meaning inanimate or animate respectively, following translations.
There are 6 cases of nouns in Sheřařma:
Nominative (subject, or actor of a verb)
He is sleeping
The dragon breathes fire
Accusative (object of a transitive verb)
He hugged me
The dragon burns a village
Dative/Recipient (indirect objects of a ditransitive verb)
He gave me a hug (a hug would be the accusative)
The humans take back their village from the dragon
Genitive (possessor in a possessive phrase)
His hug
The dragon's liar
Instrumental (nouns used to accomplish verb, or "with" the noun). To express "without" a noun, add the third-person negative verb ending (-(s)öt) before adding the instrumental ending (but after any number ending).
He hugged me with his arms
Locative (verb happens in a place having to do with noun)
He hugged me near the rock
This chart details the case-forming suffixes of Sheřařma. To form the desired case of a noun in Sheřařma (assuming that it's singular), the appropriate suffix from the above chart is added to the end of the noun. If the noun ends in a vowel, then the consonant in the parentheses is added as well. Forming the cases in the dual and plural forms is described in the next section.
All languages have ways to express all noun cases, it just depends whether or not the case is encoded in the noun. English is relatively boring compared with other languages in the sense that it has very few distinct noun cases (3-5 really, depending on how you count). English accomplishes expression of the other cases with a combination of adpositions, or separate words that are added before/after the noun.
Examples of forming the cases with the correct suffixes is illustrated in the chart to the left. The chart shows the appropriate suffixes for both animate and inanimate nouns, and both consonant and vowel endings on the nominative forms. The nouns used and their English translations are found below:
[droloyeh] ➝ "weapon" (a)
[ho'oa] ➝ "god" (a)
[öngsh] ➝ "rain" (i)
[mroa] ➝ "head" (i)
Sheřařma has marking for duality and plurality. Duality is marked when there are exactly two of something (for example, two arms). Plurality is marked when there are more than two of something (for example, fifteen fish...wait that was a bad example...).
Number-marking suffixes are added before case-marking suffixes, with [-(o)f] indicating duality and [-(o)sh] denoting plurality. In the nominative, simply add the dual or plural suffix to mark a noun as dual or plural:
[zařsh] ("spirit," (a) singular nominative) ➝ [zařshof] ("spirit," dual nominative)
[zařsh] ("spirit," (a) singular nominative) ➝ [zařshosh] ("spirit," plural nominative)
In general, if a noun ends with a consonant, then the vowel inside the parenthesis is added in addition to the consonant. There is one exception to this rule, which is when the noun ends with [-it]. In this case, the final [t] is dropped and duality and plurality is marked as though the noun ends with the vowel [i]:
[sit] ("child," (a) singular nominative) ➝ [sif] ("child," dual nominative)
[sit] ("child," (a) singular nominative) ➝ [sish] ("child," plural nominative)
And here are some examples of applying the number-marking suffixes to other noun cases:
[sung] ("stone," (i) nominative) ➝ [sungei] ("stone," singular accusative) ➝ [sungshei] ("stone," plural accusative)
[sheřa] ("forest," (a) nominative) ➝ [sheřa'a] ("forest," singular accusative)➝ [sheřafa] ("forest," dual accusative)
Note the difference in the accusative-forming suffix based on animacy in the examples.
If a proper noun is being put into a case other than nominative, the appropriate case-marking suffix would be added to the end.
In English, there are three particles: the (definite), a (indefinite), and an (also indefinite). French (as well as many other languages), on the other hand, has many more (un, une, le, la, les, l', de la, du, de l', des).
The indefinite article is used when talking about something general; not a noun in particular. The definite is used to talk about something specific. For example:
A cow eats a bale of hay (indefinite)
The cow eats the bale of hay (definite)
Any old cow eating any old bale of hay versus the specific cow eating the specific bale of hay.
In Sheřařma, there is no indefinite article, or equivalent of "a" or "an"
[shrao] ➝ "dog" or "a dog" (a)
[hak] ➝ "fish" or "a fish" (i)
[iřf] ➝ "fire" or "a fire" (a)
[mroa] ➝ "head" or "a head" (i)
When marked for number, nouns with no marked article are used for making generalized statements:
[shraosh wolashak thöketes] ➝ "dogs like to dig" (dig is infinitive)
[hakosh wolashak zořkosh] ➝ "fish like oceans"
Sheřařma has one definite article: [sa(l)-], a prefix, which remains the same regardless of animacy, case, or number:
[sashrao] ➝ "the dog"
[sahakof] ➝ "the two fish"
[saliřfosh] ➝ "the fires"
[samroa] ➝ "the head"
[eř ro'et sahakofeit] ➝ "I eat the two fish" (two fish is in the accusative)
[teo wolak sashrao'a] ➝ "He doesn't like the dog" (dog is in the accusative)
The partitive article indicates "some" of something. It can either be definite or indefinite. Sheřařma has two partitive articles, an animate and an inanimate, which are prefixes. The indefinite animate partitive article is [te(l)-], and the inanimate is [ke(l)-]:
[teliřf] ➝ "some fire (a)"
[kehakosh] ➝ "some fish (pl)(i)"
The defintite animate partitive article is [to(l)-] and the inanimate is [ko(l)-]:
[toliřf] ➝ "some of the fire (a)"
[kohakosh] ➝ "some of the fish (pl)(i)"
Sheřařma does not express "being" a noun using the verb "to be" and then the noun (for example, in the phrase "he is a man"). Instead, it uses a verb form of the noun and conjugates it appropriately. A noun can be turned into a verb by treating the noun as a verb stem. Adding the infinitive suffix to an noun turns it into a verb meaning "to be a (noun)". By adding the definite article to the noun, the verb becomes "to be the (noun)". Note: only singular nouns can be turned into verb stems; the number is only reflected in the subject.
[droloyeh] ("weapon" (a)) ➝ [droloyehes] ("to be a weapon") ➝ [sadroloyehes] ("to be the weapon")
[zařsh] ("spirit" (a)) ➝ [zařshes] ("to be a spirit") ➝ [sazařshes] ("to be the spirit")
[zeo droloyehak] ➝ "it is a weapon" (note that the singular neuter animate pronoun is used because "weapon" is an animate noun)
[thiaw zařshashak]➝ "they are spirits" (note that the plural animate pronoun is used because "spirit" is animate)
"Verbed" nouns can be conjugated into the various tenses to show previous or future states of being as well:
[zeo droloyehe] ➝ "it was a weapon"
[zeo thudroloyehak] ➝ "it will be a weapon"
Header is Forest by Nainoa Ohata