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5 Nominals I: Nouns<br />
(2) dán<br />
d-á-n<br />
ájten<br />
ájte-n<br />
inimä<br />
ini-mä<br />
jáfojd<br />
jáfo-jd<br />
dem-prox-iness.sg shed-iness.sg have-1pl.pst flour-acc.pl<br />
suhkurijd<br />
suhkuri-jd<br />
sugar-acc.pl<br />
ja<br />
ja<br />
and<br />
gárvojd<br />
gárvo-jd<br />
clothing-acc.pl<br />
ja<br />
ja<br />
and<br />
iehtjá<br />
iehtjá<br />
other<br />
biebmojd<br />
biebmo-jd<br />
food-acc.pl<br />
ja<br />
ja<br />
and<br />
‘In this shed we had flour and sugar and clothing and other food.’<br />
[pit100310b.100-104]<br />
When the singular form is used, a noun’s referent is either generic, as illustrated<br />
by both nouns in (3), or it refers to a single unit, as the noun ájten ‘shed’ in<br />
example (2) above.<br />
(3) men vuästa,<br />
men vuästa<br />
but<br />
del káfan<br />
del káfa-n<br />
cheese\nom.sg definitely c<strong>of</strong>fee-iness.sg<br />
‘But cheese, (it’s) definitely tasty in c<strong>of</strong>fee.’<br />
5.2 The nominal case system<br />
njallge<br />
njallge<br />
tasty<br />
[pit080924.139]<br />
<strong>Pite</strong> <strong>Saami</strong> has nine cases: nominative, genitive, accusative, illative, inessive, elative,<br />
comitative, abessive, and essive. 2 Nouns inflect for these cases, in addition<br />
to number, via portmanteau suffixes, stem alternations, or a combination <strong>of</strong> both.<br />
A general description <strong>of</strong> the cases is provided here. Note that the case system is<br />
valid for pronouns (also a subclass <strong>of</strong> nominals) as well, but not for adjectives<br />
and numerals. Case is expressed along with number by portmanteau suffixes,<br />
stem alternations, or a combination <strong>of</strong> both. §5.3 on treats this in more detail.<br />
5.2.1 Nominative case<br />
In addition to being used as the citation form, most commonly in singular, nominative<br />
case (nom) marks the grammatical subject <strong>of</strong> a verbal clause (typically the<br />
most agent-like argument for transitive verbs) as in (4) and (5).<br />
(4) dä<br />
dä<br />
stuor sarves<br />
stuor sarves<br />
then big moose\nom.sg<br />
‘Then a big moose arrives.’<br />
båhta<br />
båhta<br />
come\3sg.prs<br />
[pit090702.319]<br />
2 The terminology chosen here for the nine cases reflects the names used traditionally in Uralic<br />
studies.<br />
84
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