10. Noun case.

There are four cases of nouns: the predicative, nominative, mediative, and objective. These are formed regularly with suffixes. The case of a noun indicates its role in the sentence; the case of a noun may also depend on the valency of the main verb.

The nominative case marks the subject of a verb; its ending is –u in the sinuglar.

The objective case marks the receiver of the action of the verb; with transitive verbs, it represents the direct object. Its ending is –a in the singular.

Frimbiti keshu nenda. The woman eats bread.
Shaditi keshu sapira. The woman reads the book.

The mediative case takes the ending –e. It indicates the conveyor of action to the object of the verb. It can function as an instrumental case:

Frimbiti keshu supa jum dishle. The woman eats soup with a spoon.

In verbs of conveyance (words indicating giving, telling, etc.) the mediative case applies to the thing given, and the receiver takes the objective case. (This is in contrast to the usual Indo-European arrangement where the thing given is considered the object of the verb.) Thus:

Sudriti keshu sapire nil gela. The woman gives the book to the girl.
Shaditi keshu sapire nil gela. The woman reads the book to the girl.

Note that in the change from a divalent to a trivalent sentence, the case of the object of shaditi changes from objective (sapira) to mediative (sapire).

The predicative (or “caseless case”) is the lexical form of the noun. It is normally indicated by a null ending (no vowel) although –i may be added for euphony. It is used when a noun appears in a grammatical vacuum; that is, places like signs, lists, titles, and so on.

In sentences, the predicative is used to indicate the predicate of a copula:

E thiu sapir. This is a book.
E thi-frimbibu nand, ve e dhi-frimbibu sop. This food is bread, and that food is soup.
E thi-daru marchar, ve e dhi-daru odol. This building (lit. house) is a shop, and that building is a school.