Grammatical case

Usage examples of genitive.

The genitive refers to a family relationship, the possessive to the current ownership of the house.

It is, however, somewhat uncertain whether the endings for genitive and possessive should be added to such independent pronouns.

As long as the genitive case describes parents' relationship to their offspring, we could analyze the constructions as derivative genitives, parents being the physical origin of their children.

Somewhat like adjectives, genitives can be used both attributively and as predicates.

The remaining cases, in addition to the nominative, are the genitive, the possessive, the dative, the allative, the ablative, the locative, and the instrumental.

In this respect, the allative and ablative cases differ from the genitive case: A noun that forms its nominative plural in -i always receives this ending before the genitive plural ending -on is added the genitive plural of lassë being lassion, not **lassëon.

NOTE: In the keys to this exercise, the following simplified "equivalents" are used: genitives and possessive-adjectival forms are all turned into "of"-constructions, dative forms are represented as prepositional phrases in "for", whereas allative and ablative forms are represented as phrases involving the prepositions "to" and "from", respectively.

Translate into single Quenya words ("of" = genitive or possessive as further specified, "for" = dative, "to" = allative, "from" = ablative): a) To your hills b) For our (excl.

In the Plotz Letter, Tolkien listed various case endings also including the dual element -t-: genitive -to, dative -nt, allative -nta, ablative -lto, locative -tsë, instrumental -nten.

Thus, starting from the simple nominative ciryat "two ships, a couple of ships": ciryat + -o for genitive = ciryato ciryat + -n for dative = ciryatn ciryat + -nna for allative = ciryatnna, simplified to ciryatna ciryat + -llo for ablative = ciryatllo, simplified to ciryatlo ciryat + -ssë for locative = ciryatssë, simplified to ciryatsë ciryat + -nen for instrumental = ciryatnen However, the group tn came to be disliked, so the consonants underwent metathesis.

If this is so, we have every reason to assume that the same case endings were suffixed to dual forms in -u as well, for instance like this (using Aldu "Two Trees" as our standard example): Aldu + -o for genitive = Alduo Aldu + -n for dative = Aldun Aldu + -nna for allative = Aldunna Aldu + -llo for ablative = Aldullo Aldu + -ssë for locative = Aldussë Aldu + -nen for instrumental = Aldunen These forms would undergo no further changes, since they are all acceptable Quenya as far as phonology goes.

Perhaps this can also be analyzed as a partitive genitive, if something located in a place is somehow considered a part of that place.

Some would even analyze et "out" as a preposition governing the ablative case (like ú "without" governs the genitive case).

One could also argue that this example shows that a noun denoting some kind of agent, and another noun denoting the one whom this agent does something to, can be coordinated by means of the genitive case (the "fair ones" were begotten by the begetters).

Notice that the genitive ending -o, which we underlined, is added to the adjective voronda (regularly displacing a final -a) rather than to the noun Elendil.