riņ a
pra:ńga |
‘some rice’ |
| ha:runa ga:yihĩ |
‘many cows’ |
| a:hine kamma |
‘much work’ |
| habbe jaņa |
‘all people’ |
| eccoro ţakka |
‘how many rupees’ |
|
The quantifiers are also used with the classifiers especially when the
following noun is animate-human or non-human.
|
| ha:runa jaņa
ayyasika |
‘many women’ |
| eccoro goţţa
ga:yi |
‘how many cows’ |
|
4.5.
|
Case
|
4.5.0
|
Case indicates the relationships between a noun or pronoun and the predicate
in the sentence. The only case which expresses relation between two nouns is
the genitive.
|
4.5.1.1
|
In Kuvi case is expressed by adding case suffixes. There are seven
formally distinguished cases in Kuvi nominative, genitive, accusative,
dative, instrumental-sociative, ablative, locative.
|
|
4.5.1.1 |
Nominative:
|
There is no overt case suffix to mark the nominative and when the noun or
pronoun is the subject of the sentence it is said to be in the nominative
case.
|
| u:poţţa
vetki a:himanne |
‘that bird is
fluttering’ |
| e: ma:rnuoņga
manne |
‘that tree is bending’ |
|
4.5.1.2.
|
Accusative
: |
The accusative case suffix marks the noun as the direct object of the verb.
The suffix is-?vâ
. The vâ
of this suffix is assimilated to the final vowel of the noun stem. The
suffix is optionally dropped when the object is in the neuter gender.
|
| ni:nu e:poda?a kahiki:mu |
‘you amuse this girl’ |
| na:nu ga:hi?ĩ
/ ga:yi e:yuta |
‘I bathed the cow |
| methiteni |
in water’ |
| ma:mbu hi:
ņgo
ka:rhinomi |
‘we are digging up
turme- |
|
ric roots’ |
|
When the object is unmarked the
nominative always occurs in the first place in the sentence and is
followed by the unmarked object.
|
|
4.5.1.3 |
Dative :
|
The dative case suffix marks the
noun as the indirect object of the verb. It is -ki. |
|
ayyaskaki ca:rigoţţa ·a: u
hi:mu |
|
‘give four calves to the women’ |
|
 o:laki riņi
paţka
hi:mu |
|
‘Give two fruits to the boy’
|
|
4.5.1.4
|
Instrumental-sociative : |
The instrumental case suffix is-tole and marks the use of the noun as the
instrument of the action.
|
| kacca kuppi su:jatole kuttite |
| ‘(lit.) scorpion stung with sting’ |
|
|
|
| evasi ke:yutole irhimannesi |
| ‘He is striking with hand’ |
|
