Notes on the genders and cases follow the tables.
The paradigm words are tot, rock; foda, water; zhul , tree; hlul, deer; ädan, man; and meti, ghost.
| Singular | Absolut. | Instr. | Ergative | Genitive | Locative | Motive | Prepos. | Vocative |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Inanimate | tot | motot | itot | eotot | hlatot | sitot | natot | futot |
| Moving | foda | weofoda | ifoda | eafoda | hlafoda | sifoda | nafoda | chifoda |
| Plant | zhul | mozhul | thozhul | tuzhul | hlazhul | sizhul | nazhul | fuzhul |
| Animal | hlul | shahlul | thohlul | tuhlul | hlahlul | sihlul | nahlul | kahlul |
| Human | adan | shadan | hradan | eadan | hladan | sadan | nadan | kadan |
| Supernatural | meti | weometi | hremeti | eameti | hlameti | simeti | nameti | chimeti |
Note that when a noun begins with a vowel, as in adan, the prefix's vowel is dropped in favor of the noun's.
The six genders are based on the amount of movement and vitality a being posesses. Hence, rocks are less motive than water, which is not alive but which moves on its own, but water is less alive than plants, and so on.
The gender of an abstract noun depends on the degree to which it is shared. For example, sal, love, is inanimate when unrequited or unspoken, but moving when shared between two people.
| Plural | Absolut. | Instr. | Ergative | Genitive | Locative | Motive | Prepos. | Vocative |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Inanimate | tet | metet | ätet | etet | hlitet | sätet | nitet | fytet |
| Moving | fedi | wefedi | yfedi | efedi | hlifedi | syfedi | nifedi | chyfedi |
| Plant | zhyl | mezhyl | thezhyl | tyzhyl | hlizhyl | syzhyl | nizhyl | fyzhyl |
| Animal | hlyl | shahlyl | thehlyl | tyhlyl | hlahlyl | syhlyl | nihlyl | kelyl |
| Human | eden | sheden | hreden | öden | hleden | seden | neden | keden |
| Supernatural | mötä | wömötä | hrömötä | ömötä | hlimötä | sämötä | nimötä | chämötä |
As you may have noticed, the plurals are a bit messed up.
This is mostly Tolkein's fault, since I really liked the system in Quenya whereby one makes a word plural by modifying its vowels: Dunadan, Dunedain; aman, emyn; orc, yrch. It really wouldn't have worked in Erone, because the vowels are important for other things, like gender, so I stuck it into Tydash to make things that much more complex.
Figuring out the plurals is easiest if you have the vowel-position chart in front of you.The basic rule to remember is: front, up, high.
What this means is that back vowels move to the center, center vowels move to the front, and front vowels get a high tone--except ö, which moves to ä. So the impossible word fafifäfö (impossible because 'a' would never appear in a word with 'ä' or 'ö') would become fifäfäfä. Dipthongs can only appear in the singular; for pluaralization the second vowel is dropped and the first treated as usual.
Note that because of the vowel harmony rules it is very rare for a singular word to include y, ä, or ö. When those sounds do appear in a singular word, the vowels of their prefixes, if not already i,e, or y, are bumped forward. Now, that wasn't so bad, was it?
The case structure is also complex, but slightly more intuitive. It's ergative, for one thing, which will make I-E speakers nervous. What this means is that, instead of having the nominative for subjects and the accusative for direct objects, one uses the ergative for transitive subjects and the absolutive for intransitive subjects and transitive objects:
Nom, Acc: I broke the window; The window broke
Vs
Erg, Abs: I broke the window; The window broke
The instrumentative indicates that an action was performed using the noun: metet, "using the rock" or "with the rock".
The genitive is much as in any other language, except that the noun posessed is declined, not the possessor: tuhlul adan, the man's deer, and eadan hlul, the deer's man.
The locative is used in place of the prepositions at, by, near, and so on: hlatot, at the rock; hlazhul, near the tree.
The motive replaces prepositions like to and towards: sitot, to the rock; simeti, towards the ghost.
With one exception, the prepositional is used when there's no case that expresses the preposition you want: sha nadan, above the man. The exception is teli, from or away from, whose object takes the motive: teli si:zhul, away from the tree.
Finally, the vocative, used in direct address: kadan, O Man!
Last modified 18 February 1999