Scythian Grammar

3. Nouns, Adjectives, and Pronouns

3.1 Nominal declension

The Middle Ganžas case system underwent some drastic reductions from the Old Ganžas system. The a-stems lost their neuters to the r/n-stems, which became the sole means of marking the neuter gender in the language, even in adjectives: sōsa, sōsas, sōsār. The r/n-stems were by no means not affected by the absorption; in the Southern dialect, they abandoned the -ār nominative/accusative, using instead the form -an. The sound changes of the last millenium along with the brutal actions of analogy have taken their toll, leaving a greatly reduced declension.

	a-		u-		i-		r/n-
	Sg	Pl	Sg	Pl	Sg	Pl	Sg	Pl
Nom	-a	-â	-u	-ua	-i	-ia	-âr	-an
Gen	-âš	-âsa	-uš	-usa	-iš	-isa	-ânaš	-ânz
Dat	-âi	-âma	-ua	-uma	-i	-îma	-ân	-âma
Acc	-ân	-ân	-un	-un	-in	-in	-âr	-an
Inst	-âm	-âmi	-um	-umi	-im	-imi	-âm	-âmi
Loc	-âz	-âz	-uz	-ûz	-iz	-îz	-ânz	-ânz

*The Ablative as a distinct case from the Dative was lost in Early Modern Scythian; archaizing versions of the written language retained it, however, and it was frequently imported into high-style texts. The modern usage of ak + Dative came about roughly 300 years bp. The Locative only retained its distinct form by spreading the z of the plural to the singular: Old Ganžas wadār, Locative singular wadanī, late Middle Ganžas/Modern Scythian vadâr, Locative sg/pl vadânz. The plural forms retain the length modifier in conservative texts, but their actual pronounciation does not differ from the singular.

3.2 Adjectives

The Scythian adjective has few declinable forms, with the only remaining from the rich Ganžas declension system being the comparative and superlative degrees and gender marking.
The gender markers are simple, and are generally –a for common (nearly every masculine and feminine form in adjectives and noun declensions merged as the result of sound changes from Old Ganžas), and –âr for neuter. Consonant stem adjectives do not distinguish the genders at all, and generally deal with concrete concepts such as directions and states:

adrug	northern
madrug	western
zudrug	southern
ǧudrug	eastern
magat	stormy
êdug	parched
niranug	blasted
ag	rocky

The extremely frequent ending –(u)g is a remnant of a Ganžas adjectival formant –ks, which began the trend of invariant adjectives in the Early Middle Ganžas period. The first widespread recorded instances of this begin in 1100AUC, in the Annals of the Duke of Parzya, where the conquest of a great portion of the later Scythian province of Skuča Madrug (Western Scythia) is described.

3.3 Pronouns

3.3.1 Personal Pronouns

	1sg	1pl	2sg	2pl	3sg	3pl
N	aǧa	zâma	tu	ya	ê	êa
G	mânaš	zânsa	tuš	vasâ	eiš	êsa
D	mâni	zâm(b)a	tê	vama	ei	êma
A	mân	zân	tan	van	en	ên
I	mâmi	zâmi	tâm	vêmi	êam	êmi
L	]mânê	zânz	taz	vaz	ez	êz

3.3.2 Demonstratives

proximal	medial	distal
pêa this	adu that	ača yonder
	aduba that one*

*replaces adu in Western and Southern

ačar other of two

anǧaran a few

kša where

iê here

3.3.3 Interrogatives and Relatives

	S/P
N	pa
G	paš
D	pê
A	pan
I	pami/pâm
L	paz

3.3.4 Numerals

êga 1	êgan 11	ǧagê 30	duǧan 200 (Eastern bagên)
dva2	dvalan12	padvagê 40	ǧaǧan 300
dê 3	ǧan 13	pambagê 50	padvaǧan 400 (Eastern dubagên)
padvar 4	peǧan 14	zêǧagê 60 (Eastern ǧadvagê)
pamba 5	penčam 15	začagê 70
zêš 6	zêǧan 16	patudvagan 80
sača 7	sačan17	navagan 90
ača 8	ečan 18	šan 100
nava 9	nevan 19
daǧan 10	dvagan20