Kashubian grammar

The grammar of the Kashubian language is characterized by a high degree of inflection, and has relatively free word order, although the dominant arrangement is subject–verb–object (SVO). There are no articles. Distinctive features include the different treatment of masculine personal nouns in the plural, and the complex grammar of numerals and quantifiers.

Morphology
Kashubian has a rich system of inflectional morphology, akin to that of other Slavic languages, including case, number, gender, tense, aspect, and mood.

Nouns
Kashubian displays 7 cases inherited from Proto-Slavic. They are nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, instrumental, locative, and vocative case, however the vocative is very often replaced by the nominative.

Gender is usually reflected by the ending of a given noun stem. Sounds ending in a soft consonant, -a, and -ô are feminine. Masculine nouns end in a consonant and sometimes -a.

Some nouns are both masculine and feminine depending on the gender of the referent, e.g. kaléka (crippled person).

Kashubian has a singular and a plural with traces of an old dual remaining in some plurals (rãce, oczë, plecë, uszë), and the instrumental plural ending -ama, and the now plural pronoun wa, with the old plural becoming a polite pronoun.

The ending -ama is preferred standardly, and -ami appears dialectally.

Masculine nouns
Comments about the singular:
 * Masculine nouns that end in a voiced consonant show regular vowel alternations of: ô:a, ó:o, é:e, ą:ã, i/u:ë. Mobile e (e:∅) also appears in some stems.
 * Like in Polish, there is irregularity with genitive singular -u/-a, where animal/personal nouns always get -a, but inanimate nouns may get both. In northern dialects, -u may be replaced with -ë.
 * Dative singular shows two endings, -ewi (for soft nouns)/-owi (for hard nouns) and -u. It has been suggested (BY LORENTZ gram 872) that personal/animal nouns have a preference for -ewi/-owi. Rarely an ending -owiu has been used by combining both endings (compare Masurian -oziu). An ending -ë (from a short /u/) exists in North-East Kashubia. Finally, the adjectival ending -omù (hard)/-emù (soft) is also used in the North-East.
 * The instrumental singular ending -ã is used in the North-West for stylistic reasons or for rhymes.
 * The locative singular ending -(i)e is for hard stems and -(i)u is for soft stems or nouns whose stems end with -k/-g/-ch, as well as -s/-z. An ending -ë (from a short /u/) exists in North-East Kashubia.
 * Masculine nouns ending in -a decline femininely in the singular and masculinely in the plural.

Comments about the plural:
 * The nominative plural has multiple endings, including -owie, -ë, -e, -i.
 * The dative plural ending -ama may occasionally be seen.
 * The instrumental plural endings -mi (without -a-') and -i are rare.
 * The locative plural ending -ech can be seen in some names of countries, but is falling out of use and being replaced by -ach.

Feminine nouns
Comments:
 * Northern Kashubian dialects sometimes have -i in the locative singular for nouns ending in -ła, so szkòli instead of szkòle.

Comments:
 * Northern dialects sometimes show syncretism in the accusative singular with the nominative singular, so rolô alongside rolã.
 * The -∅ ending in the genitive plural is largely replaced with -ów except in common words.

Neuter nouns
Comments:
 * Nouns ending in -é (chiefly gerunds) take adjectival endings in northern and central dialects.
 * Nouns ending in -ã with -n- stems occasionally have a hard -n- in the singular.
 * A few neuter nouns show ∅ in the genitive plural, and if the given noun's stem ends with a voiced consonant, regular vowel alternation can be observed, e.g. niebò -> niéb. In some cases a mobile e is also inserted.

Adjectives and adverbs
Kashubian adjectives agree in number, gender, and case with nouns. The vocative is syncretic with the nominative.

Kashubian retains many short form adjectives, whose base form may be used for all genders, but may also change their ending to agree in gender. They may be used as a predicative or as a possessive adjective or through German borrowings.

Short forms show regular vowel alternations.

The comparative degree is formed by adding -szi or sometimes -ejszi/-észi if the stem ends with two consonants, however -szy can also appear in the same conditions.

The superlative degree is formed nô-.

An analytic comparative may be formed with barżi and an analytic superlative with nôbarżi.

Deadjectival adverbs can be formed with either -e or -o and occasionally with -∅ as in szerok. The synthetic comparative is formed with -i, and the superlative with nô-, and the analytic comparative and superlative are formed the same way as the analytic comparative and superlatives of adjectives.

Verbs
Kashubian verbs agree for person, tense, aspect, and have participle forms as well as gerunds.

The formal pronoun Wë has special marking different from forms that agree with wa.

Kashubian has 4 conjugation patterns.

Non-Present forms
The second person singular imperative is formed by using the bare verb stem (-∅), -ij(-ëj)/-i(-ë), or -ôj. The second person plural imperative is formed the same way and -ta is added. The first person plural imperative (the so-called hortative is formed the same way and -më is added.

When perfective verbs are inclined according to present endings, a future tense is formed. Imperfective verbs form the future using a future form of bëc and a past form or the infinitive.

The past tense is formed in 3 different ways:

Archaically with a present tense form of bëc and a past form.

The most common, modern way is to take a past tense form with a pronoun or noun. Regionally a combined form of że is added.

A type of past perfect can be formed using a present tense form of miec and the past participle of the verb.

Forms ending -ała can be shortened to -a.

An obsolete pluperfect can formed using the appropriate past form of bëc, followed by the past form of the verb, or by using a past form of bëc or miec plus the passive participle.

The subjunctive mood can be formed using bë and the past tense of the verb.

The passive voice is formed with bëc and the passive participle.

The infinitive ending is -c.

The active adverbial participle formed with -ąc (more common -ącë) is uncommon in spoken Kashubian, appearing more in literature.

The active adjectival participle is formed with -ący.

The passive adjectival participle is formed with -ty, -ny, or -ony, and to some extent -łi.

The anterior adverbial pariticple is formed with -łszë or -wszë from perfective verbs.

Pronouns
The possessive pronouns mój, twój, nasz, wasz, czij as well as the determiner pronouns ten, kòżdi, żôden, chtërny, sóm and the numeral jeden take adjectival declensions. The possessive pronouns sometimes have contracted forms, such as mégò.

The third person oblique forms such as jegò, ji/jé, jich/jejich have the alternative forms niegò, ni, nich when after a preposition.

Numerals
Kashubian has a complex system of numerals and related quantifiers, with special rules for their inflection, for the case of the governed noun, and for verb agreement with the resulting noun phrase. Kashubian uses the long scale.

Other parts of speech
Some adverbs, pronouns, and all conjunctions, interjections, particles, and prepositions are indeclinable.

Syntax
Kashubian has a typical set of sentence types, including declarative, nominal, exclamatory, imperative, interrogatory, and compound sentences.