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 suffix) + (possessive suffix) + (case suffix).
Sentence order: (Adverbial) + SOV.
There exists no grammatical gender. There are no distinctions between animate and inanimate forms.
Vowel and Consonant 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 of lemma):
First: if the last vowel is
- high, the suffix will be “э”
- 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)
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
- лар after [а, о, у, ы] in lemma;
- лер after [и, э, ӧ, ӱ] in lemma;
We will be referring to this harmony as the first vowel harmony in the future.
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><nom> ↔ пычахлар
- хыз<n><pl><nom> ↔ хызлар
- хурйух<n><pl><nom> ↔ хурйухлар
- от<n><pl><nom> ↔ отлар
- эль<n><pl><nom> ↔ эллер
- тиш<n><pl><nom> ↔ тишлер
- кӧз<n><pl><nom> ↔ кӧзлер
- гӱль<n><pl><nom> ↔ гӱллер
Verbs Present Tense
Notes:
- 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.
- Second type of vowel harmony (V = vowel)
- There is also consonant harmony in the I person plural (йVк). 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:
- сӧле<v><iv><pres><p1> ↔ сӧлейим
- отур<v><iv><pres><p1> ↔ отруйум
- ал<v><tv><pres><p2> ↔ алыйсын
- кӧр<v><tv><pres><p2> ↔ кӧрӱйсӱн
- сӧле<v><iv><pres><p3> ↔ сӧлей
- отур<v><iv><pres><p3> ↔ алыйых
- сӧле<v><iv><pres><p1><pl> ↔ сӧлейик
- ал<v><tv><pres><p1><pl> ↔ алыйсын
- отур<v><iv><pres><p2><pl> ↔ отруйсунуз
- кӧр<v><tv><pres><p2><pl> ↔ кӧрӱйсӱнӱз
- ал<v><tv><pres><p3><pl> ↔ алыйлар
- сӧле<v><iv><pres><p3><pl> ↔ сӧлейлер
Possessiveness
Note: Second type of vowel harmony. V can be ы, и, у or ӱ.
- I person singular: -Vм
- I person plural: -мVз
- II person singular: -Vн
- II person plural: -ныз
- III person singular: -V / -сV
- III person plural: -V / -сV
- йӱз<n><nom><px1sg> ↔ йӱзӱм
- абла<n><nom><px2sg> ↔ аблан
- ана<n><nom><px3sg> ↔ анасы
- базар<n><nom><px1pl> ↔ базармыз
- мышых<n><nom><px2pl> ↔ мышыхныз
- копег<n><nom><px3pl> ↔ копеги
- аналар<n><nom><pl><px1pl> ↔ аналармыз
Accusative Case
-йV.
Second type of vowel harmony.
Note: й disappears if lemma ends at a consonant.
- кӧпек<n><acc> ↔ кӧпеги
- бала<n><acc> ↔ балайы
- бал<n><pl><acc> ↔ баллары
Dative Case
-йа/-йе
First type of vowel harmony.
- хыз<n><dat> ↔ хыза
- бала<n><dat> ↔ балайа
- кӧпек<n><dat> ↔ кӧпеги
- тʼеди<n><dat> ↔ тʼедийе
Locative Case
-да/де/та/те
First type of vowel harmony.
Note: There is some phenomenon occurring with possessiveness (the sound -д disappears). The same harmony as in plural.
- эв<n><loc> ↔ эвде
- эв<n><loc><px1sg> ↔ эвме
- эв<n><loc><px1sg> ↔ эвне
- бахчы<n><loc> ↔ бахчыда
- бахчы<n><loc><px1sg> ↔ бахчыма
- бахчы<n><loc><px1sg> ↔ бахчына
Genitive Case
-(н)Vн
Second type of vowel harmony. (ын/ин/ун/ӱн)
Note: sometimes the affix of possessive is dropped. If verb ends at vowel, н is added.
- хооншу<n><px1sg><gen> ↔ хооншумун
- ана<n><px1sg><gen> ↔ анамын
- тʼеди<n><gen> ↔ тʼединин
Ablative Case
-дан/дэн/тан/тэн
First type of vowel harmony.
- базар<n><abl> ↔ базардан
- шаэр<n><abl> ↔ шаэрдэн
- завот<n><abl> ↔ завоттан
- иш<n><abl> ↔ иштэн
Past Tense
-дV
Second type of vowel harmony. (ды, ди, ду, дӱ)
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> ↔ башладым
- вер<v><tv><past><p2> ↔ вердин
- отур<v><tv><past><p3> ↔ отурду
- чых<v><tv><past><p1><pl> ↔ чыхтых
- кӧр<v><tv><past><p2><pl> ↔ кӧрдӱнӱз
- отур<v><tv><past><p3><pl> ↔ отурдулар
Verb Negation
-ма/ме
First type of vowel harmony.
Syntax: verb-verb_negation-tense_affix
Note: We do not have examples for past negative tense so far.
- кӧр<v><tv><pres><neg><p1> ↔ кӧрмейим
- биль<v><tv><pres><neg><p3><pl> ↔ бильмейлер
- ӧгрен<v><iv><pres><neg><p1><pl> ↔ ӧгренмейик
- шит<v><tv><pres><neg><p3> ↔ шитмей
General notes
Based on our sources, the first type of vowel harmony has -а/-э changing in suffixes. However, in some examples, -а/-е are used. We will have to figure it out.
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)
