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mordebo et stringebo
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Language topic
- Thread starter Forostar
- Start date
@Saapanael is it true that Estonian has 14 cases? Why do your people hate life so much?
D
Deleted member 7164
Guest
14 nutcases.
Saapanael
Ancient Mariner
It is true, and because I am very proud of that, I'll present to you a word in every case and a sentence where that case of the word would be used.
1) ämblik - It's a spider
2) ämbliku - This is a spider's web
3) ämblikku - I love my spider
4) ämblikku/ämblikusse - I don't know what has gone into my spider
5) ämblikus - what's going on inside a spider?
6) ämblikust - the web came out of the spider
7) ämblikule - I gave something to my spider
8) ämblikul - the spider has eight eyes
9) ämblikult - I received good luck from a spider
10) ämblikuks - one day I will become a spider!
11) ämblikuni - I went up to the spider
12) ämblikuna - I would be great as a spider
13) ämblikuta - I can't imagine life without my spider
14) ämblikuga - life is great with a spider!
Forostar
Ancient Mariner
O man, this comes across as exaggerated to me. Where's the limit?
E.g. why not add more cases for:
I went down to the spider
I slammed on the spider
The acid went through the spider
The fly was under the spider
The fly was behind the spider
The fly jumped next to the spider
The fly sneezed 11.234 times during the spider's lifetime.
Last edited:
Ariana
Black-and-white leopard
Well, a case does not equal a preposition. The problem is that it is very difficult to translate cases into languages like English, which have lost all of the cases, and prepositions are used to mark these cases in the translation. It's pretty logical in case-based languages, but the Finno-Ugric family is very happy to use them. For my taste, eight cases are enough: Nominative, accusative, genitive, dative, instrumental, vocative, durative and locative. Ablative can go suck it, though.
Forostar
Ancient Mariner
Well, looking at my mother tongue, one case is more than enough. 
By the way, I just read that there's a lot of Dutch words in Estonian. During the 16th and 17th century, Dutch was the language of the Eastern European wood and grain trade (the Dutch owned the trade). E.g. klooster, kaart, kroon, kraan. Exactly the same spelling.
Other words differ in spelling but are still very recognizable: hoov (hof), triikima (strijken), pott (pot) en pann (pan)
By the way, I just read that there's a lot of Dutch words in Estonian. During the 16th and 17th century, Dutch was the language of the Eastern European wood and grain trade (the Dutch owned the trade). E.g. klooster, kaart, kroon, kraan. Exactly the same spelling.
Other words differ in spelling but are still very recognizable: hoov (hof), triikima (strijken), pott (pot) en pann (pan)
Saapanael
Ancient Mariner
Well, looking at my mother tongue, one case is more than enough.
By the way, I just read that there's a lot of Dutch words in Estonian. During the 16th and 17th century, Dutch was the language of the Eastern European wood and grain trade (the Dutch owned the trade). E.g. klooster, kaart, kroon, kraan. Exactly the same spelling.
Other words differ in spelling but are still very recognizable: hoov (hof), triikima (strijken), pott (pot) en pann (pan)
Yup, the words you mentioned are all real.
Saapanael
Ancient Mariner
Perun already explained it better than I could but it can definitely be hard to imagine some cases being used and others not. To a native speaker, it seems natural. In some sentences you brought out, one of the 14 cases might be used (for example "next to" in your context can be done with the 7th case) and some others may need to utilize an extra word, an uninflected one (is that the right term?). These words are not affected by cases.
bearfan
Ancient Mariner
Somewhat interesting, speaking of cases.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_grammatical_cases
Growing up speaking English, learning cases in German was a difficult concept. We have them in English, but really do not use them. My instructor had us read old English texts which helped make it make more sense. But cases, gender, etc is difficult to grasp when you do not have to deal with them in everyday life.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_grammatical_cases
Growing up speaking English, learning cases in German was a difficult concept. We have them in English, but really do not use them. My instructor had us read old English texts which helped make it make more sense. But cases, gender, etc is difficult to grasp when you do not have to deal with them in everyday life.
