This article deals with the grammar of the Udmurt language.
Pronouns Udmurt pronouns are inflected much in the same way that their referent nouns are. However, personal pronouns are only inflected in the grammatical cases and cannot be inflected in the locative cases.
Personal pronouns Somewhat like in English, Udmurt personal pronouns are used to refer to human beings only. However, the third person singular can be referred to it. Udmurt personal pronouns only inflect in the grammatical cases and the allative case. The nominative case of personal pronouns are listed in the following table:
+ Personal pronouns Singular Plural 1st person 2nd person 3rd person
Reflexive pronouns Udmurt reflexive pronouns only inflect in the grammatical cases and the allative case. The nominative case of reflexive pronouns are listed in the following table:
+ Reflexive pronouns Singular Plural 1st person 2nd person 3rd person
Interrogative pronouns Udmurt interrogative pronouns inflect in all cases. However, the inanimate interrogative pronouns 'what' in the locative cases have the base form -. The nominative case of interrogative pronouns are listed in the following table:
+ Interrogative pronouns (nominative case) Singular Plural what who
The following table shows Udmurt interrogative pronouns in all the cases :
+ Interrogative pronouns (all cases) Case - English -/- English Nominative who what Accusative whom what Genitive whose of what Ablative from whom from what Dative to whom to what Instructive with whom with what Abessive without whom without what Adverbial in whose way in what way Inessive – – where Illative – – to where Elative – – from where Egressive – – start from where Terminative – – end up where Prolative – – along where Allative* towards whom towards where *The allative case is commonly called "approximative" when talking about Udmurt and Komi.
Noun forms Udmurt does not distinguish gender in nouns or even in personal pronouns: '' = 'he' or 'she' depending on the referent.
Cases Udmurt has fifteen noun cases: eight grammatical cases and seven locative cases. Notice that the word in a given locative case modifies the verb, not a noun. The locative cases can only be used with inanimate references with the exception of the allative case. Alternative forms containing can only be used after the plural suffix (i.e. the illative singular , but plural ). The less common accusative suffix is used after the plural suffix, in addition to more common .
Udmurt cases Case Suffix English prep. Example Translation Grammatical nominative – – village genitive - of / 's of a village / village's accusative -/-/-/- – village (as an object) ablative - from from a village dative - to/for to a village instrumental -/-/- with/by means of by means of a village abessive - without without a village adverbial - in a way in a village way Locative cases inessive - in in a village illative -/-/- into into a village (or house) elative - from from a village egressive - starting from starting from a village terminative - end up end up at a village prolative -/-/-/- along along a villageallative* - towards towards a village
*The allative case is commonly called "approximative" when talking about Udmurt and Komi.
Udmurt case endings affix directly to nouns quite regularly with the exception of a few lexemes of Uralic origin. These lexemes have stem changes when declining in the locative cases whose endings begin with a vowel:
Examples of lexemes with varied stems Lexeme Stem Inessive English Original stem form Cognate example - (in an) eye *-- → *-- Finnish: 'eye' - (in the) sky Finnish: 'air' - (in the) hips *-- Erzya: 'rump' - (in the) forest - (in the) spine *-- Ingrian: 'bump, swelling' - two; second *-- Northern Sami: 'two'
The personal pronouns, however, have irregularities in comparison to the declension of other nouns:
Udmurt personal pronoun declensions Case 1st pers. sing. 2nd pers. sing. 3rd pers. sing. 1st pers. pl 2nd pers. pl. 3rd pers pl. nominative genitive accusative ~ ~ ~ ~ ablative dative instrumental ~ ~ ~ ~ abessive adverbial allative
Plural
There are two types of nominal plurals in Udmurt. One is the plural for nouns - (after vowels)/- (after consonants)/- (after certain consonants to avoid palatalization) and the other is the plural for adjectives -/-.
Nominal plural The noun is always in plural. In attributive plural phrases, the adjective is not required to be in the plural:
+ Attributive plural Udmurt English (the) beautiful girls
The plural marker always comes before other endings (i.e. cases and possessive suffixes) in the morphological structure of plural nominal.
+ Morphological order Udmurt English to the girls to/in their villages
Predicative plural As in Hungarian, if the subject is plural, the adjective is always plural when it functions as the sentence's predicative:
+ Attributive plural Udmurt English the girls are beautiful the winters are cold
Following numerals Nouns are ordinarily in the singular when following cardinal numbers. However, a living being as the sentence's subject may be in the plural. In this case, the predicate verb must be in congruency with the subject.
Udmurt English There are fifty-six houses in this village There are ten students sitting in the lecture hall
Possessive suffixes
Nominal possessive suffixes Udmurt possessive suffixes are added to the end of nouns either before or after a case ending. The possessive suffixes vary in the nominative and accusative cases and with case endings. The consonant of the second and third person plural depends on if the last phoneme of the word is voiced or unvoiced.
+ Nominative possessive suffix Suffix ending Udmurt English -/- my friend -/- your friend -/- his/her friend - our friend -/- your (pl) friend -/- their friend
Certain lexemes of Finno-Ugric origin (especially those ending with a vowel or meaning an inalienable object) contain the vowel -- in the first, second and third person singular nominative possessive suffixes:
+ Nominative possessive suffix Suffix ending Udmurt Finnish equivalent English - my hand - your hand - his/her hand
Accusative possessive suffixes Accusative possessive suffixes are shown in the following table. The consonant of the second and third person singular and plural depends on if the last phoneme of the word is voiced or unvoiced.
Accusative possessive suffix Suffix ending Udmurt English - my friend -/- your friend -/- his/her friend - our friend -/- your (pl) friend -/- their friend
Possessive suffixes with case endings, singular The morphological placement of possessive suffixes with other endings depends on the case. Possessive suffixes are the same as nominative suffixes after which the genitive, ablative, dative, abessive, adverbial and allative cases agglutinates.
Possessive suffixes with case endings Case Udmurt (first person singular) English nominative my village genitive my village's/of my village ablative from my village dative for my village abessive without my village adverbial across my village allative towards my village
The possessive suffix follows the instrumental, inessive, illative, elative egressive, terminative and prolative cases and the vowel reduces to in the singular persons. An , an old Uralic first person singular marker, appears in the first person singular. When adding a possessive suffix, the inessive and illative forms change to and the elative form changes to --. The does not appear in the inessive, illative, terminative and prolative cases where the case ends with a vowel.
Possessive suffixes with case endings person instrumental inessive illative elative egressive terminative prolative Singular first second third Plural first second third
Possessive suffixes with case endings, plural As in the singular, possessive suffixes precede the genitive, ablative, dative, abessive, adverbial and allative cases. However, the vowel of the singular persons reduce to :
Possessive suffixes with case endings Case Udmurt (first person singular) English nominative my villages genitive my villages'/of my villages ablative from my villages dative for my villages abessive without my villages adverbial across my villages allative towards my villages
As in the singular, possessive suffixes follow the instrumental, inessive, illative, elative, egressive, terminative and prolative cases. The suffix forms follow the same structure as in the singular. The same exceptions appear in the plural as in the singular with the added exception of the instrumental reducing to and the prolative not used.
Possessive suffixes with case endings Case Udmurt (first person singular) English instrumental by means of my villages inessive in my villages illative to my villages elative from my villages egressive starting from my villages terminative ending up at my villages prolative along my villages
Some words can be used as nouns, adjectives, and adverbs without a change in form. For example, means "cleanliness", "clean", and "clearly".
The third person singular possessive suffix may also act as a definite article: ("the Udmurt language is nice" – literally "Udmurt language's nice"). This feature is similar to that of Indonesian.
Adjectives There is no congruency between adjectives and nouns in neutral Udmurt noun phrases, i.e. there is no adjective declension as in the inessive noun phrase , 'in a large/big village' (cf. Finnish inessive phrase 'in a large/big village', in which 'big/large' is inflected according to the head noun). However, as stated earlier, Udmurt adjectives in neutral attributive (non-predicative) noun phrases may have a plural marker when the noun is pluralised.
Determinative Udmurt does have an emphasising determinative suffix. Its function is to place emphasis on the features of the referent, defining and separating it from a group of other similar referents. The third person singular possessive suffix and and plural acts as the determinative suffix. The determinative adjective conjugates as in the third person singular or plural and the noun conjugates without any other marker.
Determinative suffix Case neutral English determinative English Singular nominative (a) big village (specifically) a big village inessive in a big village in the (specifically) big village illative to a big village to the (specifically) big village elative from a big village from the (specifically) big village Plural nominative (the) big villages the (specifically) big villages inessive in the big villages in the (specifically) big villages illative to the big villages to the (specifically) big villages elative from a big village б from the (specifically) big village
Comparative Comparative is used when two referents are compared to each other but the subject of comparison does not necessarily need to be expressed.
The comparative suffix in Udmurt is . The subject of comparison can be expressed either in the ablative case or with the postposition structure. If the subject of comparison it is shown the comparative suffix can be left out.
Comparative Udmurt English A cow is larger than a sheep
Superlative There is no superlative suffix in Udmurt. Superlative is expressed with the Russian particle or indefinitive expressions , or .
Superlative Udmurt English biggest (of them all) newest (of them all) cleanest (of them all)
Postpositions Udmurt makes use of postpositions rather than prepositions. A large percentage of the stems of Udmurt postpositions have a locative meaning and can conjugate in the local cases. For example, means 'top' and also 'surface' and can inflect in all the locative cases: (inessive) , (elative) , (illative) , (prolative) , (egressive) , (terminative) and (allative) .