Accusative case of the noun and personal pronoun
In Altai language the accusative case answers the questions КЕМДИ? (whom), НЕНИ? (of what). This case marks the direct object which is acted upon by the subject. For example in the sentence “They play football” they is a subject, and football is the direct object because it is the thing being done.
So, the principal meaning of the accusative is to designate a person or thing to whom or which on the action is being done, for example: мен ӱредичиди сакып јадым – I’m waiting for the teacher.
All the affixes of the accusative case are stressed, except for the words borrowed from another languages.
The affixes of the accusative case are -НЫ, -ДЫ, -НИ, -ДИ, -ТЫ, -ТИ. To put nouns into accusative correctly you should follow the Vowel Harmony rules which state that one word can have only the hard vowels or only the soft vowels.
Here we provide rules to form accusative case from nominative singular nouns.
When the noun ends with a hard back vowel (а, у, ы, о) add any of the affixes -НЫ, -ДЫ, it doesn’t make a difference in meaning. There are several dialects of the altai language, some dialects use –НЫ, and some use –ДЫ. Have a look at the following examples: бакады/баканы тутпа – don’t touch the frog;
бозогоды/бозогоны арчы – сlean the threshold.
In case the noun ends in a soft front vowel (е, и, ӱ, ӧ) add any of the suffixes -НИ, -ДИ. It depends on the dialect which one of them to choose. Look at examples:
Бу кижиди/кижини айлыҥа кычыр – invite this person to your home;
Бу кӧчӧди/кӧчӧни ич – eat this pearl-barley soup
You choose only the affix -ДЫ, -ДИ after the voiced consonants (й, л, м, н, ҥ, р) at the end of the noun: карды кӱре – shovel the snow, койды азыра – feed the sheep;
малды сугар – water the cattle;
талды кес – hew the willow;
кӧлди кечире јӱс – swim across the lake;
кайыҥды кес – hew the birch;
кӱлди чыгар – take out the ash;
койды кыркы – shear the sheep;
кӱнди сакы – wait for the sun;
јерди кас – dig the ground.
In case the noun ends with a voiceless consonant we add affixes –ТЫ, or –ТИ according to the Vowel Harmony rules: касты јун – shampoo the goose;
чанакты тарт – pull the sledge;
чачты тара – comb the hair;
айакты јун – wash the cup;
эрмекти бичи – write down the phrase;
бичикти кычыр – read the book;
чечекти сугар – water the flower;
ийтти божот – release the dog.
The question КЕМДИ? (whom?) is referred only to people, about animals we ask НЕНИ? (what?)
Notice!
When we talk about indefinite things or people in general, we use noun in nominative form, for example: бичик – a book, бичикти – the book:
мен кече бичик кычыргам – I read a book yesterday
бу бичикти мен кычыргам – I have read this book (this concrete book).
Самара – a letter, самараны/самарады – the letter:
кече мен самара алгам – yesterday I got a letter. – билерим, ол самараны мен бичигем сеге – I know, I wrote this letter to you (the concrete letter).
Концерт – concert, концертты – the certain concert:
таҥэртен мен телевизорло концерт кӧргӧм – I have seen a concert on TV this morning. – Мен ол корцертты база кӧргӧм – I saw this concert too (the same concert).
So, if there are demonstrative pronouns БУ (this, these), ОЛ (that, those) before a noun the nouns become definite, therefore after these words the noun always have the accusative affix.
Personal pronouns in accusative
The pronouns МЕН, СЕН, ОЛ drop their last consonants when forming the accusative case before the accusative affixes –НЫ, -НИ: мени (me), сени (you), оны (him/her/it).
Nominative | Accusative |
мен I | мени me |
сен you | сени you |
ол he/she/it | оны him/her/it |
бис we | бисти us |
слер you (pl) | слерди you (pl) |
олор they | олорды them |
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