Case-marking asymmetry (Meadow Mari)
CasesystDegr
CasesystDegr: Case marking is degressively asymmetrical; a limited group within its nominals (such as pronouns or nouns within a defined lexical area) shows a smaller number of cases than the majority of nominals.
| Case | Inanimate noun | Animate noun | Personal pronoun (Sg1) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nom | olma ‘apple’ | joča ‘child’ | məj |
| Acc | olma-m | joča-m | məj-əm |
| Dat | olma-lan | joča-lan | mə-lan-em / mə-lam |
| Gen | olma-n | joča-n | məj-ən |
| Lat | olma-š | joča-š | - |
| Ill | olma-š(ke) | - | - |
| Ine | olma-šte | - | - |
| Abl | olma-leč | - | - |
| Appr | olma-škəla | (joča-škəla) | - |
| Comp | olma-la | joča-la | (məj-la) |
| Com | olma-ge | joča-ge | (məj-ge) |
| Abe | olma-de | joča-de | - |
In Meadow Mari case marking is degressively asymmetrical with 12 case forms for inanimate nouns (10 according to certain sources such as Alhoniemi 1985: 44). Inessive, ablative, and illative case forms of animate nouns are replaced by postpositions (Riese et al. 2022: 54). There are four pronominal cases, or, according to Alhoniemi (1985) six, adding that comparative and comitative forms are extremely rare. Person marking only appears in dative case with the exception of Sg3 and Pl3. Local case forms of pronouns are also replaced by postpositions.
Author: Bogáta Timár