The

grammar In linguistics, grammar is the set of rules for how a natural language is structured, as demonstrated by its speakers or writers. Grammar rules may concern the use of clauses, phrases, and words. The term may also refer to the study of such rul ...

of the

Kashubian language Kashubian () or Cassubian (; ; ) is a West Slavic language belonging to the Lechitic subgroup.Stephen Barbour, Cathie Carmichael, ''Language and Nationalism in Europe'', Oxford University Press, 2000, p.199, In Poland, it has been an officia ...

is characterized by a high degree of

inflection In linguistic Morphology (linguistics), morphology, inflection (less commonly, inflexion) is a process of word formation in which a word is modified to express different grammatical category, grammatical categories such as grammatical tense, ...

, and has relatively free

word order In linguistics, word order (also known as linear order) is the order of the syntactic constituents of a language. Word order typology studies it from a cross-linguistic perspective, and examines how languages employ different orders. Correlatio ...

, although the dominant arrangement is subject–verb–object (SVO). There are no

articles Article often refers to: * Article (grammar), a grammatical element used to indicate definiteness or indefiniteness * Article (publishing), a piece of nonfictional prose that is an independent part of a publication Article(s) may also refer to: ...

. Distinctive features include the different treatment of

masculine personal In linguistics, a grammatical gender system is a specific form of a noun class system, where nouns are assigned to gender categories that are often not related to the real-world qualities of the entities denoted by those nouns. In languages wit ...

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 seven cases inherited from Proto-Slavic. They are

nominative In grammar, the nominative case ( abbreviated ), subjective case, straight case, or upright case is one of the grammatical cases of a noun or other part of speech, which generally marks the subject of a verb, or (in Latin and formal variants of E ...

genitive In grammar, the genitive case ( abbreviated ) is the grammatical case that marks a word, usually a noun, as modifying another word, also usually a noun—thus indicating an attributive relationship of one noun to the other noun. A genitive can ...

dative In grammar, the dative case (abbreviated , or sometimes when it is a core argument) is a grammatical case used in some languages to indicate the recipient or beneficiary of an action, as in "", Latin for "Maria gave Jacob a drink". In this exampl ...

accusative In grammar, the accusative case (abbreviated ) of a noun is the grammatical case used to receive the direct object of a transitive verb. In the English language, the only words that occur in the accusative case are pronouns: "me", "him", "her", " ...

instrumental An instrumental or instrumental song is music without any vocals, although it might include some inarticulate vocals, such as shouted backup vocals in a big band setting. Through Semantic change, semantic widening, a broader sense of the word s ...

locative In grammar, the locative case ( ; abbreviated ) is a grammatical case which indicates a location. In languages using it, the locative case may perform a function which in English would be expressed with such prepositions as "in", "on", "at", and " ...

, and

vocative case In grammar, the vocative case (abbreviated ) is a grammatical case which is used for a noun that identifies a person (animal, object, etc.) being addressed or occasionally for the noun modifiers (determiners, adjectives, participles, and numeral ...

, but the vocative is very often replaced by the nominative. Gender is usually reflected by the ending of a given noun stem. Nouns 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., (crippled person). Kashubian has a singular and a plural number, with traces of an old dual remaining in some plurals (), the instrumental plural ending ''-ama'', and the now-plural pronoun , 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 instead of . Comments: * Northern dialects sometimes show syncretism in the accusative singular with the nominative singular, so alongside . * 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. -> . 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 and an analytic superlative with . Deadjectival adverbs can be formed with either ''-e'' or ''-o'' and occasionally with ''-∅'' as in . 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 has special marking different from forms that agree with . Kashubian has 4 conjugation patterns.

Class I

Class II

Class III

Class IV

bëc

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 In linguistics, hortative modalities (; abbreviated ) are verbal expressions used by the speaker to encourage or discourage an action. Different hortatives can be used to express greater or lesser intensity, or the speaker's attitude, for or a ...

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 and a past form or the infinitive. The past tense is formed in 3 different ways: Archaically with a present tense form of 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 is added. A type of past perfect can be formed using a present tense form of 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 , followed by the past form of the verb, or by using a past form of or plus the passive participle. The subjunctive mood can be formed using and the past tense of the verb. The passive voice is formed with 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 as well as the determiner pronouns and the numeral take adjectival declensions. The possessive pronouns sometimes have contracted forms, such as . The third person oblique forms such as have the alternative forms 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 Agreement may refer to: Agreements between people and organizations * Gentlemen's agreement, not enforceable by law * Trade agreement, between countries * Consensus (disambiguation), a decision-making process * Contract, enforceable in a court of ...

with the resulting noun phrase. Kashubian uses the

long scale The long and short scales are two powers of ten number naming systems that are consistent with each other for smaller numbers, but are contradictory for larger numbers. Other numbering systems, particularly in East Asia and South Asia, ha ...

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 Nominal may refer to: Linguistics and grammar * Nominal (linguistics), one of the parts of speech * Nominal, the adjectival form of "noun", as in "nominal agreement" (= "noun agreement") * Nominal sentence, a sentence without a finite verb * Nou ...

, exclamatory, imperative,

interrogatory In law, interrogatories (also known as requests for further information) are a formal set of written questions propounded by one litigant and required to be answered by an adversary in order to clarify matters of fact and help to determine in adv ...