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The historical grammar of the Juralic languages, 2: Nouns, pronouns and adjectives

1. Pronouns

The use of nominative pronouns was optional in Juralic, being restricted to cases of emphasis in Juralic. This was because suffixes showed clearly the person and number of the relevant verb. This usage continued into Atlantean and Chalcran, although in later Atlantean, the pronouns were used more and more frequently as endings on verbs decayed.  In Helvran, pronouns were mandatory, while in Yalland they were usually added, but could be omitted if no ambiguity would be caused, but this was usual only in literary style.

The table below lists nominative and accusative pronouns in Juralic, Atlantean and Helvran, as well as the genitive form (possessive), which were declined like adjectives in all the languages.

2. Adjectives

In Juralic, adjectives were only declined in two cases, nominative and accusative. The nominative stood for itself and the vocative cases, while the accusative was used for every other case. Adjectives were also declined in the plural, nominative and accusative only again. This procedure was still followed by Atlantean, Chalcran and Yalland, but in Helvran, adjectives had become indeclinable, with just the original nominative singular in use.

In Juralic, adjectives seem to have been able either to precede or follow nouns. In the descendant tongues, they normally preceded, but could follow, for emphasis, in Atlantean and Chalcran.

3.  Nouns

There were at least six main declensions in Juralic, which depended on the vowel which ended the word in the nominative singular case. These were:

1. -a     2. -o    3. -a:   4. -e:   5. -o:   6. -u:   

These were greatly modified in the descendant languages. The first and second declensions were more or less amalgamated in all the languages, and this became known as the consonantal or first declension by the Atlanteans, as the endings were lost in the nominative, vocative and accusative cases. The third and fourth often partially combined into the a/e or second declension, and the fifth and sixth into the o/u or third declension.

There were originally six cases: nominative, vocative, accusative, genitive (ie possessive), dative (ie the indirect object, implying "to" or "for"), and locative (ie position, usually "in" or "on"). In Atlanchalcric, the vocative case was amalgamated with the nominative, and the locative was lost (though it was combined with the dative in Yalland). However, a number of new cases were formed in Atlanchalcric by affixing prepositions to the end of the root of the noun. These prepositions were later contracted, and became endings for the new cases of locative, Instrumental (implied "By" or "with" the noun) and Ablative (implied "away from" the noun, though not with physical movement). These were the total for Chalcran, but Atlantean added cominative ("with" or "without" the noun), allative (implied movement towards the noun) and elative (implied movement out of the noun).

Juralic also had a dual number, apart from singular and plural, but this left little trace in the descendant languages, except in certain fixed expressions in Atlantean and Yalland. It involved interpolating -IT- between the root of the noun and its ending. This became -ET- in Atlantean and -ID- in Yalland, in the few set expressions where it survived. For Atlantean, see Remains of obsolete endings in Atlantean nouns

Juralic plural originally involved adding -i: to the singular nominative form, followed by the case endings, if any. Howevr, in Atlantean, uniquely, an ending -ix (from -i:kesa meaning " a group") was substituted in the nominative, vocative and accusative plural cases.

The table below gives the suffixes (if any), which were added directly on to the root of the noun. There were various irregularities in the descendant languages, especially in Atlantean, due to sound changes and influences. For more details about these, go to Atlantean language