Northern or North Sami (davvisámegiella; disapproved exonym Lappish or Lapp),

sometimes also simply referred to as Sami, is the most widely spoken of all Sami
languages. The area where Northern Sami is spoken covers the northern parts of
Norway, Sweden and Finland. The number of Northern Sami speakers is estimated to be
somewhere between 15,000 and 25,000. About 2,000 of these live in Finland[6] and
between 5,000 and 6,000 in Sweden.[7]

Contents
1 History
1.1 Assimilation
2 Phonology
2.1 Consonants
2.1.1 Dialectal variation
2.1.2 Consonant length and gradation
2.2 Vowels
2.2.1 Dialectal variation
2.3 Phonological processes
2.3.1 Diphthong simplification
2.3.2 Unstressed vowel shortening
2.3.3 Stressed vowel shortening
2.3.4 Stressed vowel lengthening
2.3.5 Lengthening of unstressed short /a/
2.3.6 Consonant lengthening
2.4 Prosody
3 Dialects
3.1 Western Finnmark dialects
3.2 Eastern Finnmark dialects
3.3 Torne dialects
3.4 Sea Sami dialects
4 Orthography
4.1 History
4.2 Alphabet
4.3 Marks used in reference works
4.4 Multigraphs
4.4.1 Diphthongs
4.4.2 Ending in ⟨j⟩
4.4.3 Beginning with ⟨h⟩
4.4.4 Stop-nasal combinations
4.5 Hyphenation
5 Grammar
5.1 Consonant gradation
5.1.1 Quantity 3 ~ 2 alternations
5.1.2 Quantity 2 ~ 1 alternations
5.2 Changes to word-final consonants
5.3 Post-stressed vowel alternations
5.4 Inflection types
5.5 Nouns
5.5.1 Nouns with even inflection
5.5.2 Nouns with odd inflection
5.5.3 Nouns with contracted inflection
5.5.4 Possessive suffixes
5.6 Adjectives
5.6.1 Attributive form
5.6.2 Comparison
5.7 Pronouns and determiners
5.7.1 Personal pronouns
5.7.2 Demonstratives
5.7.3 Interrogatives
5.7.4 Reflexive pronoun
5.8 Verbs
5.8.1 Finite verbal categories
5.8.2 Non-finite verbal categories
5.8.2.1 Infinitive
5.8.2.2 Present participle
5.8.2.3 Past participle
5.8.2.4 Agent participle
5.8.2.5 Negative participle
5.8.2.6 Action noun
5.8.2.7 Action inessive
5.8.2.8 Action elative
5.8.2.9 Action comitative
5.8.2.10 Purposive converb
5.8.2.11 Simultaneous converb
5.8.2.12 Negative converb
5.8.2.13 Verb genitive
5.8.2.14 Supine
5.8.3 Verbs with even inflection
5.8.4 Verbs with odd inflection
5.8.5 Verbs with contracted inflection
5.8.6 Negative verb
5.9 Numbers
5.9.1 0-10
5.9.2 11-19
5.9.3 20-99
5.9.4 Hundreds
5.9.5 Thousands
5.9.6 Millions and above
5.9.7 Ordinal numbers
6 Syntax
7 References
8 External links
History

A page from the 1638 edition of Svenske och Lappeske ABC Book with the Lord's
Prayer in what is believed to be Northern Sami
Among the first printed Sami texts is Svenske och Lappeske ABC Book ("Swedish and
Lappish ABC book"), written in Swedish and what is likely a form of Northern Sami.
It was published in two editions in 1638 and 1640 and includes 30 pages of prayers
and confessions of Protestant faith. It has been described as the first book "with
a regular Sami language form".[8]

Northern Sami was first described by Knud Leem (En lappisk Grammatica efter den
Dialect, som bruges af Field-Lapperne udi Porsanger-Fiorden) in 1748 and in
dictionaries in 1752 and 1768. One of Leem's fellow grammaticians, who had also
assisted him, was Anders Porsanger, himself Sami and in fact the first Sami to
receive higher education, who studied at the Trondheim Cathedral School and other
schools, but who was unable to publish his work on Sami due to racist attitudes at
the time. The majority of his work has disappeared.

Assimilation

Area number 5 illustrates the approximate distribution of Northern Sami in northern

Scandinavia.

Trilingual international border sign (Finnish, Swedish and Northern Sami) on the E8
road at the border between Norway and Finland, at Kilpisjärvi, Finland
The mass mobilization during the Alta controversy as well as a more tolerant
political environment caused a change to the Norwegian policy of assimilation
during the last decades of the twentieth century. In Norway, Northern Sami is
currently an official language in the county Troms og Finnmark and six
municipalities (Kautokeino, Karasjok, Nesseby, Tana, Porsanger and Gáivuotna
(Kåfjord)). Sami born before 1977 have never learned to write Sami according to the
currently used orthography in school, so it is only in recent years that there have
been Sami capable of writing their own language for various administrative
positions.

Phonology
Consonants
The consonant inventory of Northern Sami is large, contrasting voicing for many
consonants. Some analyses of Northern Sami phonology may include preaspirated stops
and affricates (/hp/, /ht/, /ht͡s/, /ht͡ʃ/, /hk/) and pre-stopped or pre-glottalised
nasals (voiceless /pm/, /tn/, /tɲ/, /kŋ/ and voiced /bːm/, /dːn/, /dːɲ/, /ɡːŋ/).
However, these can be treated as clusters for the purpose of phonology, since they
are clearly composed of two segments and only the first of these lengthens in
quantity 3. The terms "preaspirated" and "pre-stopped" will be used in this article
to describe these combinations for convenience.

Northern Sami consonants

Labial Dental Alveolar Postalveolar Palatal Velar
Nasal voiced m n ɲ ŋ
voiceless m̥ n̥ (ŋ̥)
Plosive /
Affricate voiceless p t t͡s t͡ʃ c k
voiced b d d͡z d͡ʒ ɟ ɡ
postaspirated pʰ tʰ kʰ
Fricative voiceless f θ s ʃ h
voiced v ð
Semivowel voiced j
voiceless j̥
Lateral voiced l ʎ
voiceless l̥
Trill voiced r
voiceless r̥
Notes:

Voiceless stops have voiced or partly voiced allophones when they occur adjacent to
voiced sounds, and sometimes also word-initially.
Stops before a homorganic nasal are realised as unreleased stops. Some,
particularly younger, speakers instead realise voiceless stops as a glottal stop
[ʔ] in this position, and decompose voiced stops into a homorganic nasal + glottal
stop combination ([mʔ], [nʔ] etc.).
/v/ is realised as a labiodental fricative [v] in the syllable onset (before a
vowel), and as bilabial [β] or [w] in the syllable coda (in a consonant cluster).
[9] Although [v] is a fricative, it behaves phonologically like an approximant, in
particular like /j/.
Quantity 3 geminated plain stops and affricates (written bb, dd, zz, žž, ddj, gg)
are variously described as voiced (/bːb/, /dːd/, /dːd͡z/, /dːd͡ʒ/, /ɟːɟ/, /ɡːɡ/) or
partly voiced (/bːp/, /dːt/, /dːt͡s/, /dːt͡ʃ/, /ɟːc/, /ɡːk/).
Voiceless sonorants are very rare, but occur more frequently as allophonic
realisations. A combination of sonorant followed by /h/ in the coda (/mh./,
/nh./, /ŋh./, /vh./, /jh./, /lh./, /rh./), is realised as the equivalent voiceless
sonorant (with /vh/ becoming /f/). Voiceless [ŋ̥] only occurs this way, and is quite
rare.
A combination of /h/ followed by a stop or affricate in the onset (/.hp/, /.ht/
etc.) is realised as preaspiration ([ʰp], [ʰt]).
/θ/ is extremely rare.
Dialectal variation
Not all Northern Sami dialects have identical consonant inventories. Some
consonants are absent from some dialects, while others are distributed differently.

Western Finnmark lacks /ŋ/, using /ɲ/ in its place. This also applies to sequences
of pre-stopped /ɡːŋ/ and /kŋ/, which become /dːɲ/ and /tɲ/ respectively. [ŋ] is
retained before a velar consonant, but as an allophone of /n/.
Eastern Finnmark does not have voiced pre-stopped nasals, replacing them with
voiceless equivalents.
Sea Sami does not have pre-stopped nasals at all, having geminate nasals in their
place.
The postaspirated stops do not occur in Western Finnmark dialects, plain stops are
used instead. They occur only in recent loanwords from the Scandinavian languages,
and only before a stressed syllable when not next to another consonant.
Consonant length and gradation
Consonants, including clusters, that occur after a stressed syllable can occur in
multiple distinctive length types, or quantities. These are conventionally labelled
quantity 1, 2 and 3 or Q1, Q2 and Q3 for short. The consonants of a word alternate
in a process known as consonant gradation, where consonants appear in different
quantities depending on the specific grammatical form. Normally, one of the
possibilities is named the strong grade, while the other is named weak grade. The
consonants of a weak grade are normally quantity 1 or 2, while the consonants of a
strong grade are normally quantity 2 or 3.

Quantity 1 includes any single consonant. It originates from Proto-Samic single

consonants in the weak grade.
Quantity 2 includes any combination of consonants (including two of the same) with
a short consonant in the coda of the preceding syllable (in Eastern Finnmark, any
combination of consonants preceded by a long vowel or diphthong). It originates
from Proto-Samic single consonants in the strong grade, as well as combinations of
two consonants in the weak grade.
Quantity 3 includes any combination of consonants (including two of the same) with
a long consonant in the coda of the preceding syllable (in Eastern Finnmark, any
combination of consonants preceded by a short vowel or diphthong). It originates
from Proto-Samic combinations of two consonants in the strong grade.
Throughout this article and related articles, consonants that are part of different
syllables are written with two consonant letters in IPA, while the lengthening of
consonants in quantity 3 is indicated with an IPA length mark (ː).

Not all consonants can occur in every quantity type. The following limitations
exist:

Single /h/ is restricted to quantity 1, and does not alternate.

Postaspirated consonants do not occur after a stressed syllable, and thus do not
have any quantity distinctions.
Voiced stops and affricates only occur in quantity 3. In quantity 1, voiced stops
are allophones of the corresponding voiceless stops.
/c/, /ɟ/ and /ʎ/ occur in quantity 2 and 3, but not in quantity 1.
When a consonant can occur in all three quantities, quantity 3 is termed
"overlong".

In quantity 3, if the syllable coda consists of only /ð/, /l/ or /r/, the
additional length of this consonant is realised phonetically as an epenthetic
vowel. This vowel assimilates to the quality of the surrounding vowels:

Between two rounded vowels (but not the diphthong /uo̯/) in the adjacent syllables,
it becomes [o].
Before a front vowel in the next syllable, it becomes [e], e.g. muorji
/ˈmuo̯rː.jiː/, phonetically [ˈmŭŏ̯re.jiː].
Otherwise, it becomes [a], e.g. silba /ˈsilː.pa/, phonetically [ˈsila.pa].
This does not occur if the second consonant is a dental/alveolar stop, e.g.
gielda /ˈkie̯lː.ta/, phonetically [ˈkĭĕ̯lː.ta], or sálti /ˈsaːlː.htiː/, phonetically
[ˈsaːlː.ʰtiː].

Vowels
Northern Sami possesses the following vowels:

Short vowels Long vowels Diphthongs Half-long/

rising
Front Back Front Back Front Back Front Back
Close i u iː uː ie̯ uo̯ i̯e u̯o
Mid e o eː oː ea̯ oɑ̯ e̯a o̯ɑ
Open a aː aˑ
Closing diphthongs such as ái also exist, but these are phonologically composed of
a vowel plus one of the semivowels /v/ or /j/. The semivowels still behave as
consonants in clusters.

Not all of these vowel phonemes are equally prevalent; some occur generally while
others occur only in specific contexts as the result of sound changes. The
following rules apply for stressed syllables:

Short /i/, /a/, /o/ and /u/, the normal diphthongs, and the long vowel /aː/ occur
generally.
The other long vowels occur only in the context of diphthong simplification
(below).
Short /e/ is rare, and mostly occurs due to the combination of diphthong
simplification plus stressed vowel shortening.
Rising diphthongs and half-long /aˑ/ occur only due to unstressed vowel shortening
in the next syllable.
The distribution in post-stressed syllables (unstressed syllables following a
stressed one) is more restricted:

Short /a/ and long /aː/, /iː/ and /uː/ occur generally.
Short /e/ and /o/ occur more rarely, sometimes from Proto-Samic *i and *u and
sometimes as a result of unstressed vowel shortening.
Short /i/ and /u/ occur only before /j/.
No diphthongs occur at all, nor do half-long /aˑ/ or long /eː/ and /oː/.
In a second unstressed syllable (one that follows another unstressed syllable), no
long vowels occur and /i/ and /u/ are the only vowels that occur frequently.

The standard orthography of Northern Sami distinguishes vowel length in the case of
⟨a⟩ /a/ versus ⟨á⟩ /aː/, although this is primarily on an etymological basis. Not
all instances of ⟨á⟩ are phonemically long, due to both stressed and unstressed
vowel shortening. Some dialects also have lengthening of ⟨a⟩ under certain
circumstances. Nonetheless, a default length can be assumed for these two letters.
For the remaining vowels, vowel length is not indicated in the standard
orthography. In reference works, macrons can be placed above long vowels that occur
in a position where they can be short. Length of ⟨i⟩ and ⟨u⟩ in a post-stressed
syllable is assumed, and not indicated, except in the combinations ⟨ii⟩ and ⟨ui⟩,
where these letters can also indicate short vowels.

Dialectal variation
The Eastern Finnmark dialects possess additional contrasts that other dialects of
Northern Sami do not:

There is a maximally three-way contrast among open vowels between /æ/, /a/ and /ɑ/,
both short and long.
The vowel spelled ⟨a⟩ is /ɑ/ in stressed syllables, /a/ in unstressed syllables.
The vowel spelled ⟨á⟩ is /a/ in stressed syllables if the next syllable has a back
vowel (including ⟨a⟩ but not ⟨á⟩), and /æ/ everywhere else (including all
unstressed syllables).
In other eastern varieties, only a two-way contrast between /æ/ and /ɑ/ is found.
Jarvansalo (2006)[10] reports the Kárášjohka dialect following this contrast, but
having /ɑ/ for ⟨á⟩, /ɒ/ for stressed ⟨a⟩.
There is a length contrast between short and long diphthongs. In other dialects,
this distinction exists as well, but is allophonic.
Some Torne dialects have /ie̯/ and /uo̯/ instead of stressed /eː/ and /oː/ (from
diphthong simplification) as well as unstressed /iː/ and /uː/.

Phonological processes
Diphthong simplification
Diphthong simplification, also known as umlaut, is a process whereby a diphthong
loses its second component and becomes a long monophthong:

ie → ī: viehkat /ˈvie̯h.kat/ "to run" → vīhken /ˈviːh.ken/ "I ran"

ea → ē: geassi /ˈkea̯s.siː/ "summer" → gēsiid /ˈkeː.sijt/ "of the summers"
oa → ō: goarrut /ˈkoɑ̯r.ruːt/ "to sew" → gōrro! /ˈkoːr.ro/ "sew!"
uo → ū: muorra /ˈmuo̯r.ra/ "tree" → mūrrii /ˈmuːr.rij/ "into the tree"
Historically, diphthong simplification was caused by a short i or u in the
following syllable, the same conditioning that still exists in neighbouring Lule
Sami. In Northern Sami, these vowels have now become short /e/ and /o/, except when
followed by /j/, so simplification can occur when the next syllable contains /e/ or
/o/, or the sequences /ij/ or /uj/.

The process is complicated by two factors. Firstly, vowel length is not indicated
in the spelling, so it's not possible to tell whether the first vowel in ui is
short or long. It is short in the illative singular and thus causes simplification
(viessu "house" → vīssui "into the house"), but it is long in the plural forms and
does not cause any simplification (viessūide "into the houses"). A second
complicating factor is that under some circumstances, original long i and u in
unstressed syllables have shortened to e and o (denoted in grammars and
dictionaries with an underdot ẹ and ọ to distinguish them). These shortened vowels
do not cause simplification, but are indistinguishable from the older originally
short vowels that do trigger it. These cases must simply be memorised.

Unstressed vowel shortening

Shortening of long vowels in unstressed syllables occurs irregularly. It co

parts of Nordland county in Norway, especially Tysfjord municipality, where Lule

Sámi is an official language. It is written in the Latin script, having an official
alphabet.

Contents
1 Status
2 Phonology
2.1 Consonants
2.2 Vowels
2.2.1 Consonant length and gradation
2.3 Phonological processes
2.3.1 Umlaut
2.3.2 Unstressed vowel lengthening
3 Dialects
4 Orthography
5 Grammar
5.1 Cases
5.1.1 Nominative
5.1.2 Genitive
5.1.3 Accusative
5.1.4 Inessive
5.1.5 Illative
5.1.6 Elative
5.1.7 Comitative
5.2 Pronouns
5.3 Verbs
5.3.1 Person
5.3.2 Mood
5.3.3 Grammatical number
5.3.4 Tense
5.3.5 Verbal nouns
5.3.6 Negative verb
6 References
7 Literature
8 External links
Status
With 650 speakers, it is the second largest of all Sámi languages. It is reported
that the number of native speakers is in sharp decline among the younger
generations. The language has, however, been standardised in 1983 and elaborately
cultivated ever since.

Phonology

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Consonants
Some analyses of Lule Sámi phonology may include preaspirated stops and affricates
(/hp/, /ht/, /ht͡s/, /ht͡ʃ/, /hk/) and pre-stopped or pre-glottalised nasals
(voiceless /pm/, /tn/, /tɲ/, /kŋ/ and voiced /bːm/, /dːn/, /dːɲ/, /gːŋ/). However,
these can be treated as clusters for the purpose of phonology, since they are
clearly composed of two segments and only the first of these lengthens in quantity
3. The terms "preaspirated" and "pre-stopped" will be used in this article to
describe these combinations for convenience.

Labial Dental Alveolar Postalveolar Palatal Velar

Nasal m n ɲ ŋ
Plosive /
Affricate voiceless p t t͡s t͡ʃ k
voiced b d d͡z d͡ʒ ɟ ɡ
Fricative voiceless f s ʃ h
voiced v
Semivowel j
Lateral l ʎ
Trill r
Stops before a homorganic nasal (pre-stopped nasals) are realised as unreleased
stops.
/v/ is realised as a labiodental fricative [v] in the syllable onset (before a
vowel), and as bilabial [w] in the syllable coda (in a consonant cluster).
Vowels
Lule Sámi possesses the following vowels:

Short vowels Long vowels Diphthongs

Front Back Front Back Front Back
Close i u iː uː ie̯ uo̯
Mid e o eː oː ea̯ ̯
oɑ
Open a aː
/ea̯/ can be realised as a true diphthong, or a long monophtong [ɛː].
Long /eː/ and the diphthongs /ea̯/ and /oɑ̯/ occur only in stressed syllables.
Long /iː/ and /uː/ are very rare, as is short /e/. They also only occur in stressed
syllables.
Short /o/ and long /oː/ can occur in unstressed syllables, but only when a
preceding stressed syllable contains /o/.
Consonant length and gradation
Consonants, including clusters, that occur after a stressed syllable can occur in
multiple distinctive length types, or quantities. These are conventionally labelled
quantity 1, 2 and 3 or Q1, Q2 and Q3 for short. The consonants of a word alternate
in a process known as consonant gradation, where consonants appear in different
quantities depending on the specific grammatical form. Normally, one of the
possibilities is named the strong grade, while the other is named weak grade. The
consonants of a weak grade are normally quantity 1 or 2, while the consonants of a
strong grade are normally quantity 2 or 3.

Quantity 1 includes any single consonant. It originates from Proto-Samic single

consonants in the weak grade.
Quantity 2 includes any combination of consonants (including two of the same) with
a short consonant in the coda of the preceding syllable. It originates from Proto-
Samic single consonants in the strong grade, as well as combinations of two
consonants in the weak grade.
Quantity 3 includes any combination of consonants (including two of the same) with
a long consonant in the coda of the preceding syllable. It originates from Proto-
Samic combinations of two consonants in the strong grade.
Throughout this article and related articles, consonants that are part of different
syllables are written with two consonant letters in IPA, while the lengthening of
consonants in quantity 3 is indicated with an IPA length mark (ː).

Not all consonants can occur in every quantity type. The following limitations
exist:

Single /h/ is restricted to quantity 1, and does not alternate.

Single /j/ is also restricted to quantity 1, but alternates with /ɟ/.
Voiced stops and affricates only occur in quantity 3, except for /ɟ/ which can also
occur in quantity 2.
/ʎ/ occurs in quantity 2 and 3, but not in quantity 1.
When a consonant can occur in all three quantities, quantity 3 is termed
"overlong".

Phonological processes
Umlaut
Umlaut is a process whereby a diphthong in a stressed syllable changes depending on
the vowel in the next syllable.

The first type of umlaut, causes an alternation between /ea̯/ and /ie̯/ in words
whose stems end with unstressed /ie̯/. For such words, these two diphthongs can be
considered variants of each other, while in words whose stems end with another
vowel, these vowels remain distinct. The following table shows the different
patterns that occur with different following vowels:

Second vowel aː uo̯ ie̯ a u i

Stem ends in /ie̯/ ea̯ ie̯ ea̯ ie̯
Stem ends in another vowel ea̯ — ea̯
Stem ends in another vowel ie̯ — ie̯
The second type of umlaut, called "diphthong simplification" or
"monophthongization", is similar to its Northern Sami counterpart, but works
differently. The diphthongs /ea̯/ and /oɑ̯/ become /eː/ and /oː/ respectively, if:

The vowel in the next syllable is short (thus including also /a/), and
The following consonant is quantity 1 or 2.
The diphthongs /ie̯/ and /uo̯/ are unaffected. The reverse process also occurs,
turning the long vowels back into diphthongs if the consonant becomes quantity 3 or
the vowel in the next syllable becomes long.

The third type of umlaut, progressive umlaut, works in the other direction. It
causes the unstressed vowels /a/ and /aː/ to be rounded to /o/ and /oː/
respectively, if the preceding stressed vowel is short /o/.

Unstressed vowel lengthening

If a stressed syllable contains a short vowel followed by a single (quantity 1)
consonant, then a short vowel in the following syllable is lengthened.

dahkat "to do" ~ dagá (1st p. sg. present)

bådnjåt "to twist" ~ bånjå̄ (1st p. sg. present)
Dialects
Sammallahti[4] divides Lule Sámi dialects as follows:

Northern dialects: Sörkaitum, Sirkas and Jåkkåkaska in Sweden, Tysfjord in Norway

Southern dialects: Tuorpon in Sweden
Forest dialects: Gällivare and Serri in Sweden
Features of the northern dialects of Lule Sámi are:

Long /aː/ is also rounded to /oː/ after /o/ in a first syllable.

Features of the southern dialects of Lule Sámi are:

Umlaut of short /a/ to /e/ before /i/.

Orthography
The orthography used for Lule Sámi is written using an extended form of the Latin
script.

Letter Phoneme(s) Notes

A a /a/
Á á /aː/
B b /p/, /b/
D d /t/, /d/
E e /eː/, /ie̯/ /ie̯/ when unstressed.
F f /f/
G g /k/, /ɡ/
H h /h/
I i /i/
J j /j/
K k /k/, /kʰ/ Postaspirated at the beginning of a stressed syllable.
L l /l/
M m /m/
N n /n/
Ŋ ŋ /ŋ/
O o /uo̯/ Only unstressed.
P p /p/, /pʰ/ Postaspirated at the beginning of a stressed syllable.
R r /r/
S s /s/
T t /t/, /tʰ/ Postaspirated at the beginning of a stressed syllable.
U u /u/
V v /v/
Å å /o/, /oː/
Ä ä /ea̯/
Traditionally, the character n-acute (Ń/ń) has been used to represent the [ŋ]
sound, found, for example, in the English word "song". In place of n-acute
(available in Unicode and mechanical type writers, but not in Latin-1 or
traditional Nordic keyboards), many have used ñ or even ng. In modern orthography,
such as in the official publications of the Swedish government and the recently
published translation of the New Testament, it is usually replaced with ŋ, in
accordance with the orthography of many other Sámi languages.

Grammar
Cases
Lule Sámi has seven cases:

Nominative
Like the other Uralic languages, the nominative singular is unmarked and indicates
the subject of a predicate. The nominative plural is also unmarked and is always
formally the same as the genitive singular.

Genitive
The genitive singular is unmarked and looks the same as the nominative plural. The
genitive plural is marked by an -j. The genitive is used:

to indicate possession
with prepositions
with postpositions.
Accusative
The accusative is the direct object case and it is marked with -v in the singular.
In the plural, its marker is -t, which is preceded by the plural marker -j.

Inessive
The inessive marker is -n in the singular and the plural, when it is then preceded
by the plural marker -j. This case is used to indicate:

where something is
who has possession of something
Illative
The illative marker is -j in the singular and -da in the plural, which is preceded
by the plural marker -i, making it look the same as the plural accusative. This
case is used to indicate:

where something is going

who is receiving something
the indirect object

The accusative case (abbreviated acc) is a linguistics term for a grammatical case
relating to how some languages typically mark a direct object of a transitive verb.
Among those languages, analogous marking principles often apply to the objects of
(some or all) prepositions. The characteristics of an accusative case often entails
(such as in Latin) what generally is termed the nominative case.

The English term, "accusative," derives from the Latin accusativus, which, in turn,
is a translation of the Greek αἰτιατική. The word may also mean "causative", and
this may have been the Greeks' intention in this name,[1] but the sense of the
Roman translation has endured and is used in some other modern languages as the
grammatical term for this case, for example in Russian (винительный).

The accusative case is typical of early Indo-European languages and still exists in
some of them (including Armenian, Latin, Sanskrit, Greek, German, Polish, Russian),
in the Finno-Ugric languages,in all Turkic languages, and in Semitic languages
(such as Arabic). Balto-Finnic languages, such as Finnish and Estonian, have two
cases to mark objects, the accusative and the partitive case. In morphosyntactic
alignment terms, both perform the accusative function, but the accusative object is
telic, while the partitive is not.

Modern English almost entirely lacks declension in its nouns; pronouns, however,
have an oblique case as in whom, them, and her, which merges the accusative and
dative functions, and originates in old Germanic dative forms (see Declension in
English).

Contents
1 Example
2 Latin
3 German
4 Russian
5 Esperanto
6 Ido
7 Finnish
8 Semitic languages
9 Japanese
10 See also
11 Further reading
12 References
Example
In the sentence I see the car, the noun phrase the car is the direct object of the
verb "see". In English, which has mostly lost the case system, the definite article
and noun – "the car" – remain in the same form regardless of the grammatical role
played by the words. One can correctly use "the car" as the subject of a sentence
also: "The car is parked here."

In a declined language, the morphology of the article or noun changes in some way
according to the grammatical role played by the noun in a given sentence. For
example, in German, one possible translation of "the car" is der Wagen. This is the
form in the nominative case, used for the subject of a sentence. If this
article/noun pair is used as the object of a verb, it (usually) changes to the
accusative case, which entails an article shift in German – Ich sehe den Wagen. In
German, masculine nouns change their definite article from der to den in the
accusative case.

See also: Morphosyntactic alignment

Latin
The accusative case in Latin has minor differences from the accusative case in
Proto-Indo-European (PIE). Nouns in the accusative case (accusativus) can be used

as a direct object.
to indicate duration of time. E.g., multos annos, "for many years"; ducentos annos,
"for 200 years." This is known as the accusative of duration of time.
to indicate direction towards which. E.g. domum, "homewards"; Romam, "to Rome" with
no preposition needed. This is known as the accusative of place to which, and is
equivalent to the lative case found in some other languages.
as the subject of an indirect statement (e.g. Dixit me fuisse saevum, "He said that
I had been cruel;" in later Latin works, such as the Vulgate, such a construction
is replaced by quod and a regularly structured sentence, having the subject in the
nominative: e.g., Dixit quod ego fueram saevus).
with case-specific prepositions such as per (through), ad (to/toward), and trans
(across).
in exclamations, such as me miseram, "wretched me" (spoken by Circe to Ulysses in
Ovid's Remedium Amoris; note that this is feminine: the masculine form would be me
miserum).
to indicate purpose. E.g. ad profiscendum, "for the purpose of leaving"; ad
effēminandōs animōs, "for the purpose of weakening [or, effeminating] the spirit."
For the accusative endings, see Latin declensions.

German
The accusative case is used for the direct object in a sentence. The masculine
forms for German articles, e.g., 'the', 'a/an', 'my', etc., change in the
accusative case: they always end in -en. The feminine, neutral and plural forms do
not change.

Masculine Feminine Neuter Plural

Definite article (the) den die das die
Indefinite article (a/an) einen eine ein
For example, Hund (dog) is a masculine (der) word, so the article changes when used
in the accusative case:

Ich habe einen Hund. (lit., I have a dog.) In the sentence "a dog" is in the
accusative case as it is the second idea (the object) of the sentence.
Some German pronouns also change in the accusative case.

The accusative case is also used after particular German prepositions. These
include bis, durch, für, gegen, ohne, um, after which the accusative case is always
used, and an, auf, hinter, in, neben, über, unter, vor, zwischen which can govern
either the accusative or the dative. The latter prepositions take the accusative
when motion or action is specified (being done into/onto the space), but take the
dative when location is specified (being done in/on that space). These prepositions
are also used in conjunction with certain verbs, in which case it is the verb in
question which governs whether the accusative or dative should be used.

Adjective endings also change in the accusative case. Another factor that
determines the endings of adjectives is whether the adjective is being used after a
definite article (the), after an indefinite article (a/an) or without any article
before the adjective (many green apples).

Masculine Feminine Neuter Plural

Definite article -en -e -e -en
Indefinite Article -en -e -es -en
No article -en -e -es -e
In German, the accusative case is also used for some adverbial expressions, mostly
temporal ones, as in Diesen Abend bleibe ich daheim (This evening I'm staying at
home), where diesen Abend is marked as accusative, although not a direct object.

Russian
In Russian, accusative is used not only
but also to indicate the destination or
prepositions. The prepositions в and на
where they are indicating the goal of a
to display the direct object of an action,
goal of motion. It is also used with some
can both take accusative in situations
motion.

In the masculine, Russian also distinguishes between animate and inanimate nouns
with regard to the accusative; only the animates carry a marker in this case.

In fact Russian almost lost the real PIE accusative case, since only feminine nouns
ending in 'a' have a distinct form. Other words use the genitive case in place of
the accusative.

Esperanto
Esperanto grammar involves only two cases, a nominative and an accusative. The
accusative is formed by the addition of -n to the nominative form, and is the case
used for direct objects. Other objective functions, including dative functions are
achieved with prepositions, all of which normally take the nominative case.
Direction of motion can be expressed either by the accusative case, or by the
preposition al (to) with the nominative. Direct object example: "Red apple": Ruĝa
pomo; "I have a red apple.": Mi havas ruĝan pomon.

Ido
In Ido the -n suffix is optional, as subject-verb-object order is assumed when it
is not present. Note that this is sometimes done in Esperanto, especially by
beginners, but it is considered incorrect while in Ido it is the norm.

Finnish
According to traditional Finnish grammars, the accusative is the case of a total
object, while the case of a partial object is the partitive. The accusative is
identical either to the nominative or the genitive, except for personal pronouns
and the personal interrogative pronoun kuka/ken, which have a special accusative
form ending in -t.

The major new Finnish grammar, Iso suomen kielioppi, breaks with the traditional
classification to limit the accusative case to the special case of the personal
pronouns and kuka/ken. The new grammar considers other total objects as being in
the nominative or genitive case.

Semitic languages
Accusative case marking existed in Proto-Semitic, Akkadian, and Ugaritic. It is
preserved today only in Modern Standard Arabic and Ge'ez.

Accusative in Akkadian

Nominative: awīlum (a/the man)

Accusative: apaqqid awīlam (I trust a/the man)
Accusative in Arabic

Nominative: rajulun (a man)

Accusative: as'alu rajulan (I ask a man) as'alu ar-rajula (I ask the man)
The accusative case is called in Arabic ‫( النصب‬an-naṣb) and it has many other uses
in addition to marking the object of a verb.

Japanese
[icon]
This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (April 2019)
In Japanese, the accusative case is marked by placing を (wo, pronounced /o̞/)
between the noun and the verb.

See also
Nota accusativi
Further reading
Karlsson, Fred (2018). Finnish - A Comprehensive Grammar. London and New York:
Routledge. ISBN 978-1-138-82104-0.
Anhava, Jaakko (2015). "Criteria For Case Forms in Finnish and Hungarian Gram