Evenki grammar

This article outlines the grammar of the Evenki language in both Cyrillic and Latin scripts.

Vowel harmony
Like other Tungusic languages, Evenki employs vowel harmony. There are two rows ("first and second row") with two effectively neutral vowels, и (i) and у (u).
 * 1) Syllables containing first row vowels can only be followed by another syllables that contain first row vowels: анактад’аран (anaktad’aran), эмэктэд’эрэн (əməktəd’ərən), and соӈоктод’орон (soŋoktod’oron).

Pluralization
There are some rules of forming Evenki plurals:
 * The plural suffixes -л (-l) after vowels or -ил (-il) after consonants are usually used.
 * бур (bur) : бурил (buril) "islands"
 * дю̄ (ʒū) : дю̄л (ʒul) "yurts"


 * However, after -н (-n), -р (-r) is used instead and the final consonant before the suffix is removed.
 * орон (oron) : орор (oror) "deers"


 * Some nouns use -сал (-sal) in addition to the previous two suffixes. Notice that this suffix also removes -н (-n) from the stem.
 * киран (kiran) : кирасал (kirasal) "eagles"


 * There are also some irregular plurals of kinship terms:
 * амын (amin) : амтыл (amtil) "fathers"
 * эмын (emin) : эмтыл (emtil) "mothers"
 * акин (akin) : акнил (aknil) "older brothers"
 * экин (ekin) : экнил (eknil) "older sisters"
 * нэкун (nəkun) : нэкнил (nəknil) "younger brothers, younger sisters"
 * аса (asa) : асил (asil) "women"
 * хунаг (hunag) : хунил (hunil) "girls"

Cases
Evenki nouns are inflected for 13 cases: nominative, accusative, accusative indefinite, dative, illative, locative, prosecutive (longitudinal), directional locative, directional prosecutive, deferred, initial, instrumental, and joint cases.

Possession
Evenki nouns can also be inflected for possession, where a possessive suffix is attached to the noun based on features of the noun which possesses it.