Urum/Grammar
Contents
General information
Parts of speech: Nouns, adjectives, numerals, pronouns, verbs, adverbs, postpositions, conjunctions, particles, interjections, imitative words.
Cases: Nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, locative, ablative, instrumental, abessive.
Structure of a noun: Lemma + plural + possessive + case.
Sentence order: (Adverbial) + SOV.
There exists no grammatical gender. There are no distinctions between animate and inanimate forms.
Morphology
Vowel Harmony
In Urum, vowels in suffixes - for example, in number or case suffixes - depend on what the last vowel of the stem of the word was. The last vowel of the word stem can be:
- high (а, о, у, ы)
- low (a, o, y, ы),
- rounded (o, y, ö, ÿ)
- unrounded (a, э, ы, и).
There are two types of suffixes (check the last vowel that comes before):
First: if the last vowel is wide, the suffix will be “a” if high, the suffix will be “э”
- If low, the suffix will be “a”
Second:
- If low and unrounded, “ы”
- If low and rounded, “у”
- If high and unrounded, “и”
- If high and rounded, “ÿ” (after)
Case endings
Lemma + (plural suffix) + case suffix
There is harmony of consonants: if a word ends at -x, -к, -п, And if the suffix starts at a vowel, Then х - ғ, к - г, п - б change
Grammar points
Plurality
Rule:
- лар after [а, о, у, ы] in lemma;
- лер after [и, э, ӧ, ӱ] in lemma;
Notes:
- if the lemma ends at a nasal sound, we will use -нар or -нер
- if the lemma ends at -ь, -ь is removed
Morphological Analysis:
- пычах<n><pl> ↔ пычахлар
- хыз<n><pl> ↔ хызлар
- хурйух<n><pl> ↔ хурйухлар
- от<n><pl> ↔ отлар
- эль<n><pl> ↔ эллер
- тиш<n><pl> ↔ тишлер
- кöз<n><pl> ↔ кöзлер
- гÿль<n><pl> ↔ гÿллер
Verbs Present Tense
Note: If there is a high vowel followed by a consonant at the end of the stem, then high vowel deletes if the suffix begins at the vowel (отур-отруйум). If there is a low vowel, it does not drop. There is vowel harmony (V = verb). There is also consonant harmony in the I person plural. If the vowel is (и, ÿ), the last consonant of the tense suffix is к. If the vowel is (ы, у), the last consonant of the tense suffix is х.
Grammatical Analysis:
- I person singular: verb-(_)й-Vм
- I person plural: verb-(_)й-Vик
- II person singular: verb-(_)й-сVн
- II person plural: verb-(_)й-сVнVз
- III person singular: verb-Vй
- III person plural: verb-(_)й-лVр
Morphological Analysis:
- сöле<v><iv><pres><p1><sg> ↔ сöлейим
- отур<v><iv><pres><p1><sg> ↔ отруйум
- алы<v><tv><pres><p2><sg> ↔ алыйсын
- кöрӱ<v><tv><pres><p2><sg> ↔ кöрӱйcӱн
- сöле<v><iv><pres><p3><sg> ↔ сöлей
- отур<v><iv><pres><p3><sg> ↔ алыйых
- сöле<v><iv><pres><p1><pl> ↔ сöлейик
- алы<v><tv><pres><p1><pl> ↔ алыйсын
- отур<v><iv><pres><p2><pl> ↔ отруйсунуз
- кöрӱ<v><tv><pres><p2><pl> ↔ кöрӱйcӱнӱз
- алы<v><tv><pres><p3><pl> ↔ алыйлар
- сöле<v><iv><pres><p3><pl> ↔ сöлейлер
Possessiveness
Note: Vowel harmony like in Accusative case. Can be ы, и, у, ӱ. Suffixes come after the lemma (and plurality, if there is plurality).
- I person singular: -( )м
- I person plural: -м( )з
- II person singular: -( )н
- II person plural: -ныз
- III person singular: -( ) / -с( )
- III person plural: -( ) / -с( )
- йӱз<n><sg><px1sg> ↔ йӱзӱм
- абла<n><sg><px2sg> ↔ аблан
- ана<n><sg><px3sg> ↔ анасы
- базар<n><sg><px1pl> ↔ базармыз
- мышых<n><sg><px2pl> ↔ мышыхныз
- копег<n><sg><px3pl> ↔ копеги
- аналар<n><pl><px1pl> ↔ аналармыз
Accusative Case
-й(ы)
Syntax: If the noun is in accusative, it means that the noun is specific (like as if you used “the” before it in English).
- кöпек<n><sg><acc> ↔ кöпеги
- бала<n><sg><acc> ↔ балайы
- бал<n><sg><acc> ↔ баллары
Dative Case
-й(а)/-й(э)
(as in plural)
- хыз<n><sg><dat> ↔ хыза
- бала<n><sg><dat> ↔ балайа
- кöпек<n><sg><dat> ↔ кöпеги
- т´еди<n><sg><dat> ↔ т´едийе
Locative Case
-да/дэ/та/тэ
Note: There is some phenomenon occurring with possessiveness (the sound -д disappears). The same harmony as in plural.
- эв<n><sg><loc> ↔ эвде
- эв<n><sg><loc><px1sg> ↔ эвме
- эв<n><sg><loc><px1sg> ↔ эвне
- бахчы<n><sg><loc> ↔ бахчыда
- бахчы<n><sg><loc><px1sg> ↔ бахчыма
- бахчы<n><sg><loc><px1sg> ↔ бахчына
Genitive Case
-(н)ын (ин/ун/ӱн)
Note: sometimes the affix of possessive is dropped. If verb ends at vowel, н is added. The same harmony as in Accusative Case.
- хооншу<n><sg><px1sg><gen> ↔ хооншумун
- ана<n><sg><px1sg><gen> ↔ анамын
- т´еди<n><sg><gen> ↔ т´единин
Ablative Case
дан/дэн/тан/тэн
- базар<n><sg><abl> ↔ базардан
- шаэр<n><sg><abl> ↔ шаэрдэн
- завот<n><sg><abl> ↔ завоттан
- иш<n><sg><abl> ↔ иштэн
Past Tense
-ды(ди, ду, дӱ)
Note: Harmony as in accusative
Syntax: verb+suffix of past tense+suffix of person (as in present tense) Note: If the base of the verbs ends at a voiceless consonant, д will change to т.
- башла<v><tv><past><p1><sg> ↔ башладым
- вер<v><tv><past><p2><sg> ↔ вердин
- отур<v><tv><past><p3><sg> ↔ отурду
- чых<v><tv><past><p1><pl> ↔ чыхтых
- кöр<v><tv><past><p2><pl> ↔ кöрдӱнӱз
- отур<v><tv><past><p3><pl> ↔ отурдулар
Verb Negation
-ма/-ме
Syntax: Verb-negation-tense affix
Note: We do not have examples for past negative tense.
- кöр<v><tv><pres><neg><p1><sg> ↔ кöрмейим
- биль<v><tv><pres><neg><p3><pl> ↔ бильмейлер
- öгрен<v><iv><pres><neg><p1><pl> ↔ öгренмейик
- шит<v><tv><pres><neg><p3><sg> ↔ шитмей
References
- Урумский язык, Урум дили (приазовский вариант), Учебное пособие для начинающих с аудиоприложением, Смолина М., 2008. (The Urum language (Azov region version), Tutorial for beginners with audio tapes, Smolina M., 2008)
- "Языки мира. Тюркские языки." Российская академия наук, институт языкознания. Издательский дом, Кыргызстан, Бишкек. ("Languages of the world. Turkic languages." Russian Academy of Sciences. Kyrgyzstan, Bishkek)
