Unlike the other Romance languages, Wenedyk has no article. Although they exist in every single Romance language (including most Romance conlangs), Vulgar Latin shows nothing but a rudimentary tendency towards using demonstrative pronouns as articles. Partly because neither Common Slavic nor Polish has articles, I decided that a possible initial development of articles must have been reverted in an early stage of Wenedyk.
I've had some difficulty deciding whether or not to introduce a case system into Wenedyk. Very little is left of it in the surviving Romance languages, but since it still existed in the period of Late/Vulgar Latin (albeit in a rapidly decaying state), while it has always been there in the Slavic languages, I don't really see any reason why Wenedyk couldn't have cases either. After all, they could merge easily with the rich case system of Slavic. That leaves open one question: how many cases, and which? For a long time, Wenedyk has had four of them. However, as time progressed I grew dissatisfied with the accusative: the nominative forms were already derived from the Latin accusatives, and the accusative had a separate form – obviously borrowed from Slavic – only in the first declension. After over two years, I decided to drop the accusative and merge it with the nominative into a new case (the direct case) after all.
As a result, Wenedyk is left with three cases: the direct case, the genitive, and the dative. The Latin ablative disappeared, and most of its functions and some of its forms were adopted by the genitive case. Some nouns also have a vocative; however, since it appears only with certain words (like Dziew “God” > Dziewu, fil “boy” > file, poterz “father” > potrze, Anna > Anno) it is not listed in the tables below.
Furthermore, there are three genders (masculine, feminine, neuter), and six declensions.
The first declension consists of all words with the ending -a. Unless a male person is indicated, all of them are feminine. This declension corresponds of course with the Latin first declension.
| I | hard stems: jekuna “woman” | soft stems: fila “girl” | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| sing. | plur. | sing. | plur. | |
| dir. gen. dat. |
jekuna jekunie jekunie |
jekunie jekunar jekuniew |
fila file file |
file filar filew |
Please note the following:
The second declension includes virtually all masculine words and most neuter words; there are also a few occurrences of feminine words that belong to this declension. Most words of this declension derive from Latin words with the endings -us and -um that used to belong to either the second or the fourth declension. It also includes the bulk of all masculine words of the Latin third declension.
Within this declension, three types can be distinguished: one for male persons, one of the remaining masculine words, and one for neuter words. The distinction is visible in the plural direct case. Each type distinguishes between hard and soft stems: the former have the genitive singular ending -u, the latter on -e.
Masculine words denoting male persons are characterised by a plural form on -i.
| II | hard stems: moszkieł “man” | soft stems: poterz “father” | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| sing. | plur. | sing. | plur. | |
| dir. gen. dat. |
moszkieł moszkłu moszkli |
moszkli moszkłór moszklew |
poterz potrze potrzy |
potrzy potrzór potrzew |
Masculine nouns denoting animals or objects are characterised by a plural form on -ie:
| II | hard stems: dom “house” | soft stems: jań “lamb” | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| sing. | plur. | sing. | plur. | |
| dir. gen. dat. |
dom domu domi |
domie domór domiew |
jań janie jani |
janie janiór janiew |
Neuter nouns of the second declension are characterised by the ending -a in direct plural. Normally, they end in a hard or soft consonant, but can also end in -mię (gen. -miętu), -o (gen. -u) or -um (gen. -u).
| II | hard stems: wad “path” | soft stems: mużej “museum” | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| sing. | plur. | sing. | plur. | |
| dir. gen. dat. |
wad wadu wadzi |
wada wadór wadziew |
mużej mużeje mużei |
mużeja mużejór mużejew |
Like in the first declension, note that the endings -i, -ie and -iew lead to the softening of the stem's final consonant. This his the following side effects:
| k + i | becomes | czy | Example: miedziek “doctor”, dat. miadczy |
| g + i | becomes | ży | Example: fąg “fungus”, dat. fąży |
| t + i | becomes | ci | Example: kęt “song”, dat. kęci |
| c + i | becomes | cy | Example: Grzec “Greek”, dat. Grzecy |
| d + i | becomes | dzi | Example: wad “path”, dat. wadzi |
| r + i | becomes | rzy | Example: nębier “number”, dat. nębrzy |
| ł + i | becomes | li | Example: okieł “eye”, dat. okli |
| sz + i | becomes | szy | Example: wiersz “poem”, dat. wierszy |
| cz + i | becomes | czy | Example: ducz “leader”, dat. duczy |
| ż + i | becomes | ży | Example: każ “cheese”, dat. każy |
| rz + i | becomes | rzy | Example: omórz “love”, dat. omorzy |
| j + i | becomes | i | Example: mużej “museum”, dat. mużei (but: dat.pl. mużejew) |
| ń + i | becomes | ni | Example: leoń “lion”, dat. leoni |
| etc. | |||
The third declension consists mostly of feminine nouns ending in a soft consonant. It also includes a very small number of masculine nouns ending in a soft consonant, as well as some neuter nouns and a few particular cases specified below. It corresponds the third declension in Latin, and includes also the Latin fifth declension.
Most words of this declension have a genitive plural form on -i, but some have a form on -iar. In some cases, both forms can be used.
The plural of the direct case is always -(i)e, except for neuter words, which have -(i)a.
| III | soft stems: pęć “bridge” | soft stems: sórz “sister” | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| sing. | plur. | sing. | plur. | |
| dir. gen. dat. |
pęć pęcie pęci |
pęcie pęci pęciew |
sórz sorze sorzy |
sorze sorzy sorzew |
| III | hard stems: noc “night” | hard stems: kród “heart” | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| sing. | plur. | sing. | plur. | |
| dir. gen. dat. |
noc noce nocy |
noce nocy nocew |
kród krodzie krodzi |
krodza krodzy krodziew |
The third declension also contains a number of neuter nouns with archaic endings. Some treat those as separate declensions, while others consider them irregular nouns. They include nouns with the endings -mię/-mni, -u/-rzy, as well as -r/-rzy:
| III | -mię, -mni: numię “name” | -u, -rzy: ciępu “time” | -r, -rzy: fołgr “lightning” | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| sing. | plur. | sing. | plur. | sing. | plur. | |
| dir. gen. dat. |
numię numnie numni |
numna numien numniew |
ciępu cięprze cięprzy |
ciępra ciępr cięprzew |
fołgr fołgrze fołgrzy |
fołgra fołgr fołgrzew |
Like numię are declined, for example: karmię “singing”, karwamię “curve”, kiełmię “top”, klinamię “tendency”, krzymię “crime”, limię “doorstep”, łymię “light”, mumię “movement”, olegamię “belt”, pskamię “sin”, ronamię “decoration”, siemię “seed”, śpieczymię “case, specimen”, wiołamię “garment, dress”, włymię “river”, wrzemię “worm”, zamię “inquiry”, źremię “germ”.
Like ciępu are declined: fiodu “treaty”, janu (gen. jeńrze) “gender”, kropu “body”, litu “beach”, łatu “wing”, mędu “task, duty”, opu “work”, pędu “weight”, piecu “chest”, wółnu “wound”.
Like fołgr are declined: marmr (gen. marmrze) “marble”, piepr “pepper”, ruwr “oak”, słuwr “sulphur”.
The words on -mię, -mnie are not to be confused with neuter words on -mię, -miętu, like łomię, gen. łomiętu “complaint”, which belong to the second declension.
Likewise, not all words on -r, -rze belong to this category. For example, neuter nouns on -ar, -arze, like koklar, gen. koklarze “spoon”, belong to the third declension too but have a genitive plural on -arzy.
Compared to the verbs, irregular nouns are relatively infrequent in Wenedyk, and their level of irregularity is in generally low. A few examples:
| irr. | dziew “god” | womień “human being, person” | kap “head” | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| sing. | plur. | sing. | plur. | sing. | plur. | |
| dir. gen. dat. |
dziew dzieju dziei |
dziei dziejór dziejew |
womień womnie womni |
ludzie ludzi ludziew |
kap kapcie kapci |
kapta kaptór kapciew |
| irr. | rzej “thing” | dzej “day” | Jezus “Jesus” | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| sing. | plur. | sing. | plur. | sing. | plur. | |
| dir. gen. dat. |
rzej rzei rzei |
rzeje rzejar rzejew |
dzej dzei dzei |
dzeje dzejór dzejew |
Jezus Jezu Jezui |
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