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/-kun/ occurs after the oblique of personal pronouns and after plural nouns after the zero oblique suffix.
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| na:-kun |
‘me’ |
| ni:-kun |
‘you’ (sg.) |
| mi:-kun |
‘you’ (pl.) |
| wo:r-kun |
‘he’ |
| pe:ko:r-Ø-kun |
‘the boys’ |
| miya:sk-Ø-kun |
‘the daughters’ |
 a:li:sk-Ø-kun |
‘the cows’ |
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There are examples in the data where accusative case is unmarked. When nouns denoting nonperson (i.e., animals, birds and objects) are used as objects, the use of accusative case suffix is optioanal unlike the case of nouns denoting sex-characterized person. Its form is, therefore, undistinguishable from that of the nominative, the uninflected form. The accusative use of such nouns is determinable on syntactic function of those nouns concerned such as the absence of concord with the finite verb which a noun in the nominative has. See the following examples:
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| e:r hun |
‘you (pl.) drink water’ |
| pandi: wehma: |
‘you (sg.) do not tell lie’ |
| pa:l ua:n |
‘I drank milk’ |
| ga:o: aa: |
‘she cooked food’ |
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There are more examples of unmarked accusative than of accusative marked by one of the suffixes described above.
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| 4.9.2. Dative Suffix ‘-kun’ |
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The dative denotes the recipient of the object of the verb and gives the meaning ‘to’ or ‘for’. It has two allomorphs /-kun/ and -/-n/.
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-kun occurs after the oblique -e:. When added to demonstratives and elsewhere it occurs after the oblique -Ø. Before dative, the personal pronouns have the following allomorphs.
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Nominative |
Dative |
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nanna: |
na:- |
‘I’ |
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ma: |
ma:- |
‘we’ |
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nima: |
ni:- |
‘you (sg.) |
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mi: |
mi:- |
‘you (pl.) |
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