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Cases

Arcadia employs thirteen grammatical cases, each marked by a distinct suffix. These cases define the syntactic role of a noun within a sentence, facilitating a focus-based, Austronesian-inspired alignment system.

Case Suffixes

  • Nominative (-is): Marks the focused argument of the sentence.
  • Ergative (-er): Marks the unfocused actor of action verbs.
  • Absolutive (-it): Marks the unfocused experiencer of experiential verbs.
  • Accusative (-on): Marks the unfocused patient of action verbs.
  • Dative (-il): Marks the unfocused receiver of action verbs.
  • Thematic (-ath): Marks the unfocused stimulus of experiential verbs.
  • Genitive (-ek): Marks the alienable possessor of a noun.
  • Essential (-em): Marks the inalienable possessor of a noun.
  • Thematic (-ath): Marks the unfocused stimulus of experiential verbs.
  • Predicative (-i): Marks the predicate of a linking verb.
  • Prepositional (-e): Used after prepositions to indicate location or relation.
  • Vocative (-o): Used for direct address.
  • Instrumental (-a): Marks the instrument of an action.
  • Benefactive (-u): Marks the beneficiary of an action.

Vowel Merging Rules

In Arcadia, all noun stems end in a vowel, determined by the noun's grammatical class. Case suffixes begin with a vowel, and specific merging rules apply when a noun stem's final vowel interacts with a case suffix's initial vowel to ensure phonological consistency:

  • Front Vowels (-i, -e): No merging occurs when the noun stem ends in a front vowel.
  • Back Vowels (-a, -o, -u):
    • Bipartite Cases (nominative, ergative, absolutive, accusative, dative, thematic, genitive, essential): The case suffix's vowel is dropped, retaining the stem's vowel (e.g., luna-il → lunal).
    • Monopartite Cases (predicative, prepositional, vocative, instrumental, benefactive): The stem's final vowel is dropped, retaining the case suffix's vowel (e.g., luna-i → luni).

In non-singular numbers, there is no merging, as the number suffix always ends in a consonant.