This article deals with the grammar of the Komi language of the northeastern European part of Russia (the article "Komi language" discusses the language in general and contains a quick overview of the language).
Pronouns Komi pronouns are inflected much in the same way that nouns are. However, personal pronouns are usually only inflected in the grammatical cases and cannot be inflected in the locative cases.
Personal pronouns Komi personal pronouns inflect in the grammatical cases and the approximative case. Personal pronouns in the nominative case are listed in the following table:
Personal pronouns Komi English Singularме Iтэ youсійӧ he/she/it Pluralми weті youнайӧ they
Nominals As with other languages in the Uralic family, Komi does not encode grammatical gender. Nouns and personal pronouns make no gender distinction; сійӧ/sijö means both 'he' and 'she', depending on the referent.
Cases Komi has seventeen noun cases: nine core grammatical cases and eight locative cases. The locative cases are usually only used with inanimate references with the exception of the elative, terminative, approximative and egressive cases. There is no difference in the meaning of the translative and prolative cases.
Komi cases Case Suffix English prep. Example Translation Core grammatical cases nominative — - керка house genitive -лӧн of / 's керкалӧн of a house / house's accusative -ӧс - керкаӧс house (as an object) ablative -лысь from керкалысь from a house dative -лы to/for керкалы to a house instrumental -ӧн with/by means of керкаӧн by means of a house comitative -кӧд with/accompanied by керкакӧд with a house caritive -тӧг without керкатӧг without a house consecutive -ла gone/come for керкала for a house Locative cases inessive -ын in керкаын in a house illative -ӧ into керкаӧ into a house elative -ысь out of керкаысь out of a house translative -ті along керкаті along a house prolative -ӧд along керкаӧд along a house terminative -ӧдз end up керкаӧдз end up at a house approximative -лань towards керкалань towards a house egressive -сянь starting from керкасянь starting from a house
Stem extension
Preceding suffixes that start with a vowel, nouns may use an extended stem.
Nouns ending in в often change this consonant to л, e.g. ныв ("girl") → нылыс ("his/her girl").
Some nouns ending in дз, дь and ль undergo gemination, e.g.:
видз ("lawn") → виддзыд ("your lawn"); додь ("sled") → доддьыс ("his sled"); куль ("demon") → кулльысь ("from a demon").
Another group of nouns undergoes epenthesis, e.g.:
пон ("dog") → понйыс ("his/her dog"); ун ("dream") → унмӧн ("by means of a dream"); ош ("bear") → ошкысь ("from a bear"); гӧп ("puddle") → гӧптын ("in a puddle"); кыв ("language") → кывйын ("his/her language").
Personal pronouns
The declension of personal pronouns is quite systematic as well:
Komi personal pronoun declensions Case 1st pers. sing. 2nd pers. sing. 3rd pers. sing. 1st pers. pl 2nd pers. pl. 3rd pers pl. nominative ме тэ сійӧ ми ті найӧ genitive менам тэнад сылӧн миян тіян налӧн accusative менӧ тэнӧ сійӧс миянӧс тіянӧс найӧс ablative менсьым тэнсьыд сылысь миянлысь тіянлысь налысь dative меным тэныд сылы миянлы тіянлы налы instrumental меӧн тэӧн сыӧн миянӧн тіянӧн наӧн comitative мекӧд тэкӧд сыкӧд миянкӧд тіянкӧд накӧд caritive метӧг тэтӧг сытӧг миянтӧг тіянтӧг натӧг consecutive мела тэла сыла миянла тіянла нала elative меысь тэысь сыысь миянысь тіянысь наысь terminative меӧдз тэӧдз сыӧдз миянӧдз тіянӧдз наӧдз approximative мелань тэлань сылань миянлань тіянлань налань egressive месянь тэсянь сысянь миянсянь тіянсянь насянь
Plural
There are two types of nominal plurals in Komi. One is the plural for nouns -яс (with the exception of -ян in пиян, "the sons / boys" and -ана/-яна in words ending on -анин/-янин, e.g. зыряна, "Zyrians") and the other is the plural for adjectives -ӧсь.
Nominal plural In attributive plural phrases, the noun is always in plural, while the adjective is not required to be in the plural:
Attributive plural Komi English мича(ӧсь) нывъяс (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 Komi English нывъяслы to the girls
Since -яс, -ян and -яна start with a soft vowel, they may be preceded by either a hard sign (ъ) or a soft sign (ь), depending on the preceding letter:
Morphological order Komi English ва; ваяс water; waters ун; унъяс dream; dreams лӧдз; лӧдзьяс horsefly; horseflies
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 Komi English нывъяс мичаӧсь the girls are beautiful керкаяс ыджыдӧсь the houses are big
Possessive suffixes Nominal possessive suffixes Komi 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.
Nominative possessive suffix Suffix ending Komi English -ӧй ёртӧй my friend -ыд ёртыд your (sg.) friend -ыс ёртыс his/her friend -ным ёртным our friend -ныд ёртныд your (pl.) friend -ныс ёртныс their friend
Accusative possessive suffixes Accusative possessive suffixes are shown in the following table. Note that the possessive of the first person in the accusative matches the simple accusative.
Accusative possessive suffix Suffix ending Komi English -ӧс ёртӧс my friend -тӧ ёрттӧ your (sg.) friend -сӧ ёртсӧ his/her friend -нымӧс ёртнымӧс our friend -нытӧ ёртнытӧ your (pl.) friend -нысӧ ёртнысӧ their friend
Verbs Komi infinitives are marked with -ны. as in мунны, 'to go'. Some infinitives have a so called connecting vowel ы which is dropped in the verbal stem when affixing, for example, a personal ending such as in the verb велӧдчыны ‘to study’ → велӧдча 'I study'.
There is one phoneme which undergoes consonant gradation when adding a suffix beginning with a vowel. This change is в → л as in овны ‘to live’ → олан ‘you live’. Another exception is the verb локны, which has an epenthetic [t] added before a suffix beginning with a vowel, e.g. локтан ‘you come’.
The indicative mood has four tenses: present, future and two past tenses. In addition, there are four past tense structures which include auxiliary verbs. Verbs are negated by use of an auxiliary negative verb that conjugates with personal endings. Separate personal pronouns are not required in verb phrases.
Present tense The verbal personal markers in the Komi present tense are:
Personal endings of verbs Person Ending Singular Plural 1st -а -ам 2nd -ан -анныд 3rd -ӧ -ӧны
Present tense Person уджавны English Singular 1st уджала I work 2nd уджалан you work 3rd уджалӧ he/she works Plural 1st уджалам we work 2nd уджаланныд you work 3rd уджалӧны they work
The negative indicative present is formed by the auxiliary о- negative verb and the verbal stem in the first person and with -ӧй in the first and second person plural and -ны in the third person plural.
The negative verb conjugates with the ending -г in first person, -н in the second person and -з in the third person. The first and second person plural is marked with -ӧ.
Present tense negative Person уджавны English Singular 1st ог уджав I do not work 2nd он уджав you do not work 3rd оз уджав he/she does not work singing Plural 1st огӧ уджалӧй we do not work 2nd онӧ уджалӧй you (pl) do not work 3rd оз уджавны they do not work
Future tense The affirmative and negative future tense in Komi is basically the same as in the present with the exception of the third person in the affirmative, ending in -ас (singular) and -асны (plural):
уджалас he/she will work уджаласны they will work
Past tense The conventionally used designations preterite and perfect are used with denotations which are divergent from their usual meanings in the grammar of other languages.
Preterite I The first preterite can be compared with the simple past in English. Preterite I is marked with і/и.
Preterite I Person уджавны English Singular 1st уджалі I worked 2nd уджалін you worked 3rd уджаліс he/she worked Plural 1st уджалім we worked 2nd уджалінныд you worked 3rd уджалісны they worked
The negative preterite I is formed by the auxiliary э- negative verb with the same personal endings as in present tense. The main verb is the same as in the present tense
Preterite I negative Person уджавны English Singular 1st эг уджав I did not work 2nd эн уджав you did not work 3rd эз уджав he/she did not work Plural 1st эгӧ уджалӧй we did not work 2nd энӧ уджалӧй you did not work 3rd эз уджавны they did not work
Preterite II The second preterite is a past tense with an evidentiality distinction. It can be compared to the English perfect in which the speaker did not personally observe the past event. The preterite II is marked with -ӧм-, which is historically related to the third infinitive in Finnish.
Preterite II Person уджавны English Singular 1st уджалӧма I evidently worked 2nd уджалӧмыд you evidently worked 3rd уджалӧма he/she evidently worked Plural 1st уджалӧмаӧсь we evidently worked 2nd уджалӧманыд you evidently worked 3rd уджалӧмаӧсь/уджалӧмны they evidently worked
The negative preterite II is formed by including the auxiliary copular negative verb абу 'is not', e.g. абу уджалӧма (I have evidently not worked), абу уджалӧмыд (you have evidently not worked) etc.
Auxiliary past tenses There are four past tenses in Komi which use a preterite form of the main verb and a preterite form of the auxiliary verb 'to be'.
Preterite III The Komi preterite III makes use of the main verb in the present tense and the auxiliary вӧлі, 'was' in third person singular, in simple past. The pluperfect I tense expresses a continuation of action that has happened in the (distant) past.
Preterite III Person уджавны English Singular 1st вӧлі уджала I was working 2nd вӧлі уджалан you were working 3rd вӧлі уджалӧ he/she was working Plural 1st вӧлі уджалам we were working 2nd вӧлі уджаланныд you were working 3rd вӧлі уджалӧны they were working
The negative preterite III is formed by including the auxiliary copular verb вӧлі ‘was' with the main verb in the present negative.
Preterite III negative Person уджавны English Singular 1st вӧлі ог уджав I was not working 2nd вӧлі он уджав you were not working 3rd вӧлі оз уджав he/she was not working Plural 1st вӧлі огӧ уджалӧй we was not working 2nd вӧлі онӧ уджалӧй you were not working 3rd вӧлі оз уджавны they were not working
Preterite IV The Komi preterite IV (pluperfect) makes use of the main verb in the preterite II form and the auxiliary вӧлі, 'was' in third person singular, in simple past. The preterite IV tense expresses an evidently completed action that has happened in the (distant) past.
Preterite IV Person уджавны English Singular 1st вӧлі уджалӧма I have evidently worked 2nd вӧлі уджалӧмыд you have evidently worked 3rd вӧлі уджалӧма he/she has evidently worked Plural 1st вӧлі уджалӧмаӧсь we have evidently worked 2nd вӧлі уджалӧманыд you have evidently worked 3rd вӧлі уджалӧмаӧсь/уджалӧмны they have evidently worked
The negative preterite IV is formed by including the auxiliary copular negative verb абу 'is not', e.g. вӧлі абу уджалӧма (I have evidently not worked), вӧлі абу уджалӧмыд (you have evidently not worked) etc.
Preterite V The Komi preterite V makes use of the main verb in the present form and the auxiliary вӧлӧм, 'apparently was' in third person singular, preterite II. The preterite V tense expresses an evidently continuous action that has happened in the (distant) past.
Present tense Person уджавны English Singular 1st вӧлӧм уджала I was evidently working 2nd вӧлӧм уджалан you were evidently working 3rd вӧлӧм уджалӧ he/she was evidently working Plural 1st вӧлӧм уджалам we were evidently working 2nd вӧлӧм уджаланныд you were evidently working 3rd вӧлӧм уджалӧны they were evidently working