Northian grammar: Difference between revisions

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'''Northian grammar''' is highly synthetic.
'''Northian grammar''' is highly synthetic and fusional.  This page aims to cover some of the more technical and historical points regarding Northian garmmar, specifically that of its oldest form, Early Galic Northian.  The coverage will take a systemic, bird's eye view for the most part, relegating specific conjugational and declensional paradigms on appendical pages [[Northian nominals]] and [[Northian verbs]].


==Overview==
Northian grammar, particularly in nouns, has been important to the reconstruction of Proto-Erani-Eracuran owing to its conservativenessThough the Galic corpus is hardly large, its 12,000 or so words have been endorsed by historical linguists as a trove of relics that are either unique or  corroborating forms for unique items elsewhere.  As C. Cloverdale said, "Northian Gales are valued in this science for their fidelity in transmission and consistency in grammar." However, the outward conservativeness of Northian is attributed to the early date of its compositions, where archaic formations are expected, and its exceptional position in the field owes mainly to the fidelity of the transmission that has prevented the loss of relics.
===Ablaut===
{{wp|Indo-European ablaut|Ablaut}} is a system of vowel apophony, altering the quality or quantity of vowels but not their meaning, that is inherited from Proto-Nordic-Northian and ultimately Proto-Erani-Eracuran.  It affects nouns, adjectives, adverbs, and verbs in NorthianThough ablaut was a regular process closely tied to {{wp|Indo-European accent|accent}} in the reconstructed proto-language, by Galic times new ablaut formulae are no longer being made, and only a few ablauting formulae remained productive.  Moreover, existing formulae have been disrupted by sound change and both general and sporadic analogical replacement.  The result that surfaces in Galic Northian is a rich yet unpredictable set of alternate morphologies that confuses both modern readers and, often, even ancient Northians.


In nouns, there are three main ablaut patterns that Northian inherited from its ancestors, in the discourse of PEE called acrostatic, proterokinetic, and hysterokinetic.  All three patterns are preserved in Galic Northian to one degree or another, summarized below.  The proparoxytone category continues the PEE acrostatic pattern and its characteristic o/e ablaut, though synchronically this ablaut pattern is but attested in a few forms of a minority of nouns (e.g. ''nemə̄ṇġ'' gen. of ''nomə̄''), the majority of proparoxytone nouns having arbitrarily generalized either o- or e-grade across the paradigm.  The paroxytone group largely continues
==Historical development==
{| class="wikitable"
{{main|History of Northian}}
!  !! Case !!style="width: 4em"| Root !!style="width: 4em"| Stem !!style="width: 4em"| Ending !! PNN  !! Galic
|-
! rowspan="5"|PP
| Nom. sg. || ó ~ é  || Ø || style="background-color: gray"|  || *pot-i-s || potiš, "lord"
|-
| Acc. sg. || é  || Ø || style="background-color: gray"|  || *pot-i-m || potim
|-
! Gen. sg.
| é  || Ø || Ø || *pet-i-s || petiš
|-
| Nom. pl. || é  || Ø || style="background-color: gray"|  || *pet-i̯-es || peθi̯iš
|-
| Acc. pl. || é  || Ø || style="background-color: gray"|  || *pet-i-ns || petīn
|-
! rowspan="5"| PX
| Nom. sg. || é  || Ø || style="background-color: gray"|  || *ment-i-s || menθiš, "mind"
|-
| Acc. sg. || é  || Ø || style="background-color: gray"|  || *ment-i-m || menθim
|-
! Gen. sg.
| Ø || é  || Ø || *munt-ei̯-s || munθēš
|-
| Nom. pl. || é  || é  || style="background-color: gray"|  || *ment-ei̯-es || menθēiš
|-
| Acc. pl. || é  || Ø  || style="background-color: gray"|  || *ment-i-ns || menθīn
|-
! rowspan="6"| OX
| Nom. sg. || é  || Ø ~ ó || style="background-color: gray"|  || *sēkl-oi̯-s || sēkloi̯š, "treaty"
|-
| Acc. sg. || Ø || é  || style="background-color: gray"|  || *səkl-ei̯-um || saklēum
|-
! Gen. sg.
| Ø || Ø || é  || *səkl-i-os || sakli̯ō
|-
| Loc. sg. || Ø || é  || style="background-color: gray"|  || *səkl-ei̯-i || saklei̯e
|-
| Nom. pl. || Ø || é  || style="background-color: gray"| || *səkl-ei̯-es || saklēiš
|-
| Acc. pl. || Ø || é  || style="background-color: gray"|  || *səkl-ei̯-uns || saklåṇġ
|}


These processes have occurred to the greater extent in the Epic language, but there the word forms were subject to more rigorous regularization.
==Nominals==
{{see also|Northian nominals}}
The category of nominals in Northian encompasses nouns, adjectives, pronouns, demonstratives, reflexives, and certain adverbs.  They are considered to belong to this class as they undertook similar grammatical processes and showed the same set of endings.


===Noun endings===
===Endings===
====Athematic====
====Athematic====
The following chart recapitulates the ordinary endings of athematic nouns in Galic Northian.  Because the ablative is syncretized in the singular with the genitive in all athematic declensions and with the dative, with or without the instrumental, in the dual and plural, it is usually not listed separately in grammatical tables for athematic nouns.
The following chart recapitulates the ordinary endings of athematic nouns in Galic Northian.  Because the ablative is syncretized with the genitive in the singular, with the dative and instrumental in the dual, and with the dative in the plural, it is usually not listed separately in grammatical tables for athematic nouns.
 
Forms are often unpredictable and variable under the influence of ablaut, laryngeals reflexes, analogy, vowel contraction, and compensatory lengthening for illegal consonant clusters in coda position.  All endings are subject to modification according to the suffix. '''OX''' stands for the oxytone group of patterns, and '''PX''' for the paroxytone group.  Certain neuter nouns take a collective ending; these nouns are not formally predictable.  Because neuter nouns always have the same nominative and accusative forms, only their nominative endings will be listed, and in grey.  Other than root nouns, there are virtually no neuter nouns that take the OX pattern; as such, their endings are listed together with the PX stems.


Forms are often unpredictable and variable under the influence of ablaut, laryngeals reflexes, analogy, vowel contraction, and compensatory lengthening for illegal consonant clusters in coda position.  All endings are subject to modification according to the suffix. '''OX''' stands for the oxytone group of patterns, and '''PX''' for the paroxytone group.  Certain neuter nouns do not take plural endings but collective endings with a lengthened stem; these nouns are not formally predictable.  Because neuter nouns always have the same nominative and accusative forms, only their nominative endings will be listed, and in grey.
The cells listed in gree are typically paired with the full-grade noun stem, and the orange ones only sometimes; these do not apply for nouns with invariant stems.


{| class="wikitable"
{| class="wikitable"
|-
|-
!rowspan="3"| !!colspan="7"|Athematic endings
!rowspan="3"| !!colspan="11"|Athematic endings
|-
|-
! colspan="2"| Singular !! colspan="2"| Dual !!rowspan="2" style="width:9em"|  Plural !!rowspan="2" style="width:9em"| Collective
! colspan="3"| Singular !! colspan="3"| Dual !!colspan="2"|  Plural !!rowspan="2" style="width:6em" | Collective
|-
|-
! style="width:9em"| OX !!style="width:9em"| PX + PP !!style="width:9em"|  OX !!style="width:9em"| PX + PP
! style="width:6em" | OX !!style="width:6em" | PX !!style="width:6em"| NTR !!style="width:6em" |  OX !!style="width:6em" | PX !!style="width:6em"| NTR !!style="width:8em"| M/F !!style="width:6em"| NTR
|-
|-
! Nominative  
! Nominative  
| --Ø, -s, -å, {{font color|gray|-Ø}} || -s, {{font color|gray|-Ø}} ||rowspan="3"| -ē, {{font color|gray|-ī}} ||rowspan="3"| -a, -, -V̄R-Ø, {{font color|gray|-ī}} ||rowspan="2"| -es, -iš, {{font color|gray|-a}}, {{font color|gray|-V̄R-Ø}} ||rowspan="3"| {{font color|gray|-V̄-Ø}}
|style="background:#9F9"| -ō, -ā̊, -s ||style="background:#FA0"| -s, -š  ||style="background:#FA0" rowspan="3"| {{font color|gray|-Ø}} ||rowspan="3" style="background:#9F9"| -ōi, -ā, -ō ||rowspan="3" style="background:#FA0"| -i, -ī, -ū, -ōi  ||rowspan="3"| {{font color|gray|-ī, -Ø, -ū}} ||rowspan="2" style="background:#9F9"| -aH, -aHaH ||style="background:#9F9" rowspan="3"| {{font color|gray|-a, -i, -ō}} ||rowspan="3" style="background:#9F9"| {{font color|gray|-ō}}
|-
|-
! Vocative  
! Vocative  
|colspan="2"| -Ø
|style="background:#9F9" colspan="2"| -Ø
|-
|-
! Accusative  
! Accusative  
|colspan="2"| -m, -um, -əm, -ə̄m || -V̄n, -əṇġ, -ə̄ṇġ
|style="background:#9F9" colspan="2"| -m, -n, -ā̆, -ā̊, -ō, -ōi || style="background:#FA0"| -ā̊, -ā, -ō, -ūš, -ī
|-
|-
! Locative  
! Locative  
| -i, -eC-Ø || -eC-Ø || -ō || -o, -i̯-u || -ho, -šo || {{font color|gray|-eC-Ø}}
|style="background:#9F9" colspan="3"| -Ø, -i ||style="background:#FA0" rowspan="2"| -Hō ||colspan="2"| -|| -, -šū ||colspan="2" style="background:#FA0"|{{font color|gray|-Ø}}
|-
|-
! Genitive  
! Genitive  
|rowspan="2"| -ō ||rowspan="2"| -s, -V̄s, -V̄n, -V̄ṇġ || -ōs || -, --ō ||  -õ ||rowspan="4"| = sing.
|rowspan="2"| -ō, -ā̊, -ā ||rowspan="2" colspan="2" style="background:#9F9"| -š, -ō, -ŋh, -ā̊, -Ø ||colspan="2"| -Huš, -Hū, -Hā, -|| colspan="3" style="background:#FA0"| -Hõm
|-
|-
! Ablative  
! Ablative  
| rowspan="3"| -mō ||rowspan="3"| -V̄-m, -VC-ma || rowspan="2"| -muš
| rowspan="3" colspan="3"| -|| rowspan="2" colspan="3"| -muš
|-
|-
! Dative  
! Dative  
| -ē || -ai̯C-e, -ei̯C-e, -Vi̯ 
| -ā ||colspan="2" style="background:#9F9"| -i
|-
|-
! Instrumental  
! Instrumental  
| -ē, -å || -C-a, -V̄R-Ø || -vi̯as
| -ōi ||colspan="2"| -i, -Ø || colspan="3"| -(m)βyō, -(m)βiyō, -βiš, -βīš
|}
|}
A general discussion of the athematic declension cannot omit to mention that many of these divergent forms are conditioned on phonetic change, but so too there are divergences because the proto-forms themselves were likely divergent.  Animate (= masculine and feminine) nouns may have been in the proto-language sigmatic in the nominative singular, that is ending in *-s, or asigmatic, that is without final *-s and instead taking a lengthened final vowel.  The source of this lengthening is disputed: some authorities regard it as a consequence of a final *-s dropping after a resonant, but others hold it had no *-s originally and attribute the long vowel to ablaut variation sensitive to the morphologically strong case.  In the case where a universal *-s as a designation of the nom. sing. is not accepted, some propose it is instead a designation for those terms originally neuter in gender used as an animate noun.


The view that nom. sing. is not characterized by final *-s is more often supported by scholars specialized in Northian, since this phonetic change (dropping final *-s after resonant) is attested later than the proto-language, which militates against its presence thereNevertheless, final *-s has definitely been inserted to animate nouns quite broadly but haphazardly in prehistoric Northian, so there is no obvious pattern to its distribution.  We may distinguish three situations in Northian as to the nom. sing., stems ending in vowel, in resonant, and in non-resonants. Final *-s where present is always preserved after *i- and *u-, and their absence there indicates a noun is obligatorily neuter.  Final *-s seems to have been mostly absent in resonant-stems, whose nom. sing. takes the long grade instead (i- and u-stems never have long grade in the nom. sing.).  After consonants their distribution is not predictable: ''nepōt'' "grandchild" was asigmatic, but ''nohs'' "night", ''pontōs'' "path", and nouns ending in -tāθs certainly had *-s, which is altered after most stems.
{{smallcaps|'''nom sing nntr'''}} A general discussion of the athematic declension cannot omit the comment that, while many divergent forms are phonetically conditioned, there too are divergences resulting from divergent proto-forms. In no other place is this statement truer than in the nominative singular. 
 
The marker of the nominative singular has been a tormented subject, in part also for the radical schism on the parent language's {{wp|morphosyntactic alignment}}.  By sole comparison, animate (= masculine and feminine) nouns may have been in the proto-language sigmatic, that is ending in *-s, or asigmatic, that is without final *-s and taking a long-grade suffix; as root nouns had no suffix, they were (at least thought to have been) obligatorily marked by *-s.  Neuter nouns, in contrast, generally have the zero-grade of the suffix in the nominative and correspond well with the accent.
 
Because the long-grade and final -s are mostly in complimentary distribution, some authorities regard the long-grade as the legacy of compensatory lengthening having dropped final *-s after a resonant, but others hold there was no *-s originally and attribute the long vowel to ablaut variation sensitive to the case.  On the other hand, there are also nouns that have an exceptional zero-grade suffix, e.g. ''hanuš'' "jaw" and notoriously ''ϑeɣā'' "earth", and some of these could not have had *-s.  There are also forms that show simultaneous *-s and the long-grade ending, in some root nouns and the present/aorist active participle *-ōnt-sSome such forms in root nouns appear to have been results of monosyllabic lengthening, though this process cannot explain the forms that are not monosyllabic.
 
In Northian, final *-s has been suffixed to animate nouns quite broadly but haphazardly in prehistory, so there is no obvious pattern to its distribution; many words have alternative forms differing by -s.  We may distinguish three situations in Northian as to the nom. sing., stems ending in vowel, in resonant, and in non-resonants.
#-s is always present and surfaces as -š after *i- and *u- in animate nouns, and its absence in these stems indicates neuter gender, both instance without regard to ablaut pattern.   
#Final *-s was absent in resonant-stems (-m, -n, -r, -l), whose nom. sing. was often signified by lengthened o-grade in OX and PX (though a few nouns have zero-grade).  The long final syllable ending in a resonant was then opened, giving rise to -ā̊ and -ō.
#After obstruents the distribution of *-s is not predictable: ''bā̊'' "wife" and ''ϑənū'' "body" were asigmatic, but ''āβrtās'' "immortality" certainly had *-s.
 
In OX resonant stems, the lengthened o-grade is altered prehistorically by the opening of closed long syllables ending in a resonant. 
 
{{smallcaps|'''voc sing'''}} The vocative consists of the bare strong stem in all cases.  Where the nom. had *-s it is dropped, and where it did not the voc. is the full- or short-vowel-grade. 
 
{{smallcaps|'''acc sing nntr'''}} In the proto-language, the accusative ended in *-m and, as the morph contained no vowel, could theoretically not bear an original accent; this rule is violated by the semivowel (i-, u-) stems, where the vocalized vowel usually does bear accent.
 
'''Normal ending.''' In stems ending in non-resonants, the ending is vocalized as -m̥ > -ā̆, length varying according to Cloverdale's law. 
 
'''Ending after semivowels.''' For the semivowel i- and u-stems, the accusative singular ended in -in and -um. Technically, these forms violate the normal vocalization pattern, which requires the first sonorant from the right in a sequence of multiple to vocalize when not bordering a true vowel; under this canon words like ''huiium'' are expected to be *huuiuuā̆, since both semivowels and nasals are sonorants. Semivowels are not preferred to nasals in vocalization in other places, ''viz''. ''kr'''auu'''ati'' vs. ''karə'''nu'''te'' (reflex of *-nu- in the proto-language '''bolded'''). For this and other considerations, the semivowels are often deemed an anomalous class of athematic nouns, and indeed some view them as i-thematic and u-thematic, respectively, given the observed overriding tendency to preserve the semivowel as vowel at all other costs.
 
'''Ending after long vowels.''' If the stem contained a long vowel, such as effected by compensatory lengthening for the deletion of like consonants or {{wp|Stang's law}} after *y, *w, and *m, the deletion of codas yielded -ā̊, -ō, or -ōi, e.g. ''ziiōi'' < *dyēm. This is particularly salient in the case of n-stems, where the accusative singular was in long vowel.
 
{{smallcaps|'''loc sing'''}} The locative generally took the accusative stem and either added final -i or was endingless.  Thus, for PX nouns, the locative and dative were often syncretized.  For the effects of -i on the preceding vowel, see dat. sing. entry.


The vocative consists of the bare strong stem in all cases.  Where the stem had *-s it is dropped, and without *-s the stem is in the full grade or short-vowel gradeIn the proto-language, the accusative ended in *-m.  In consonant stems it is vocalized as -m̥ > PNN *-umAfter resonants, it is generally the ending *-m̥ that is vocalized as PNN *-um.  But in Galic an unaccented ending *-um is always altered unless preceded by *y, to -ə̄m if the preceding syllable is light, and the short variant thereof, if heavy.  Where the ending is a vowel or a glide, the bare ending of -m is found.
{{smallcaps|'''gen sing'''}} In OX the gen. singular nearly always ends in -ō < *-os; its consistency led grammarians to consider it a feature of the OX declensionBut there are a handful of instances where the genitive ending was -ā, which only occurs sporadically in the environment of *-h₂es > *-ahThus, both alloforms of the genitive singular in the parent language were inherited into Northian, but where *-es did not follow *h₂ it was replaced wholesale by *-os, so the original distribution of the two forms cannot be readily detected from Northian.


In the genitive, dative, and instrumental (oblique) cases, the acrostatic, proterokinetic, and hysterokinetic ablaut patterns in various suffixes give rise to different endings.  The ending *-os > Galic -ō is proper to the OX nouns, but in the Epic language it is often applied to other stems; in either dialect, the ending rarely interacts with the stem and stays mostly visible.  The proterokinetic and acrostatic ending was PNN *-s.  After a full-grade ending, expected in a PX pattern, it is preserved where the suffix ends in a vowel as in ēš < *-ei̯-š and -eu̯-š, and the same for PPX patterns.  After a resonant it is usually dropped and causes the preceding vowel to lengthen, cf. -mēn < *-men-s, but -ō could be re-attached to it when metrically convenientAfter a zero-grade ending, in an PPX pattern, the fate of *-s is varied.  In consonant clusters it usually caused deletion of intervening consonants, e.g. PNN *nekʷts > Galic ''nehš''.  After PNN *-un it generates -ūn, after *-um it was -ə̄ṇġ, after *-ur and *-ul it was -ūš.
In PX, the ending *-s when attached to the stem generated a motley of forms, and this (compared to OX) irregularity in turn is deemed the feature of PX nouns.  The Northian evidence is important to the phonetic process {{wp|Szemerényi's law}}: by its regular operation, final *-s is dropped after resonants and lengthens the preceding vowel, but in Northian as in most languages, restorations are commonIn n-stems, *-s was either not dropped or was early on restored and became something like a glottal stop, as in ''puwaŋh'' < *ph₂wén-s = fire's; yet in the in- and un-stems, *-s was not restored, resulting in gen. endings -ī and -ū, obtained by *-in-s and *-un-s.


The dative ending in OX is *-ei̯ > -ē; as the gen. this is the most often found ending beyond its natural environmentIn PX final *-i becomes -e in Galic and causes some previous vowels to mutate, i.e. *eC > ei̯C and *aC > -ai̯C <ae>Yet in the cases where it directly occurs after short vowels, it remains -i.
In liquid stems, final *-s is usually retroflexed, as in ''māϑrš'' < PEE *meh₂tr̥s.  If the stem contained a long vowel, usually indicating a laryngeal, the result is -ā̊ < *-ās, e.g. ''zñiϑriyā̊''.  In s-stems, the ending generally disappears, e.g. ''mā̊'' < *mn̥s-s.  In the semivowel stems (i- and u-) the ending *-s, obeying Szemerényi's law, disappeared and caused compensatory lengtheningBut such long diphthongs in final position, as in other long syllables closed by resonants, lost the final glide, giving in the i-stems the ending *-ei̯-s > and u-stems *-ou̯-s > -ōFor at least the u-stems, the intermediate form *-ōw must have obtained, since a following enclitic *-kʷe delabializes to -ke.


====Thematic====
{{smallcaps|'''abl sing'''}} For all athematic nouns, the ablative singular was syncretized wtih the genitive singular.
The chart below illustrates the ordinary endings of the thematic (o-stem) declension of Galic.  Because accentuation difference categorically does not trigger ablaut in o-stem nouns, their endings do not vary according to their accentual pattern, which is lexically fixed on the same syllable.  Additionally, the presence of the theme vowel e ~ o obviates, in most cases, the resolution of consonant clusters and consequent irregularity in surface forms.  With the exception of a few fixed athematic patterns, o-stem is the primary productive pattern in the Epic language.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
!rowspan="2"| !!colspan="3"|Basic thematic endings
|-
!style="width:8em"| Singular !!style="width:8em"| Dual !! style="width:8em"| Plural 
|-
! Nominative
| -ō, {{font color|gray|-om}}   ||rowspan="3"| -ō, {{font color|gray|-oī}}  ||rowspan="2"  | -ōs, {{font color|gray|-ā}}
|-
! Vocative
|colspan="2"| -e
|-
! Accusative
|colspan="2"| -om ||colspan="2"| -ōn
|-
! Locative
| -ē  || -ā̊  ||colspan="2" | -ohu
|-
! Genitive
| -ōhi̯o  || -ā̊š  ||colspan="2" | -ā̊m
|-
! Ablative
| -ōd ||rowspan="3"| -vi̯as  ||colspan="2" rowspan="2"| -vi̯ō
|-
! Dative
| -ōi̯ 
|-
! Instrumental
| -ō  || -ōi̯š
|}


===Verbs===
{{smallcaps|'''dat sing'''}} In OX the dat. sigular ending was originally *-ei̯. This ending susceptible to colouring by a preceding *h₂- or *h₃-, as well as the influence of i̯- and *u̯-, to become -ai and -oi respectively.
====Stems====
The relationship between verb-stems and endings they receive are as follows in the Galic language:
{| class="wikitable"
!style="width: 14em"|  !!style="width: 12em"| Present stem !!style="width: 12em"| Aorist stem !!style="width: 12em"| Perfect stem
|-
! Primary endings
| Present indicative tense || ||
|-
! Secondary endings
| Injunctive tense || Aorist indicative tense ||
|-
! Imperative endings
| Imperative tense || Aorist imperative tense ||
|-
! Future imperative endings
| Future imperative tense ||  ||
|-
! Perfect endings
|  ||  || Perfect tense
|-
! Perfect imperative endings
|  ||  || Perfect imperative tense
|}
From each root, which is agnostic as to part of speech in the proto-language, can arise multiple stems classified as present, aorist, or perfect, differentiated by their affixes.  To these stems are attached endings to constitute the finite verb, which conveys tense/aspect, mood, voice, person, and number.


====Endings====
In PX, the ending was regularly *-i. But this ending was replaced by the OX ending in the i-stems earlyFor all nasal and laryngeal stems, the ending -i caused a preceding /e/ or /a/ to mutate to /i/ and /ai/ (written <aē>)For stems ending in -n, the -n sandwiched between i became /ñ/In nouns of the type ''taēuuī'', the ending was full-grade even if the PX endings are otherwise employed, and there it appears after the suffix as -iiaē. In all cases the dat. singular ending following a vowel was a separate syllableIn u-stems, the ending is dropped just like final *-s of the genitive; the result is identical forms for the gen., dat., and loc. in the singular.
{| class="wikitable"
!colspan="4"| Primary active endings !!colspan="4"| Primary middle endings
|-
! !!style="width: 7em"| Sing. !!style="width: 7em"| Du. !!style="width: 7em"| Pl. !! !!style="width: 7em"|  Sing. !!style="width: 7em"|  Du. !!style="width: 7em"| Pl.
|-
! 1P
| -me || -ōne || -mei̯ne
! 1P
| -ai || -ōzθa || -mozθa
|-
! 2P
| -se || -tas || -te
! 2P
| -tai || -tom || -θō
|-
! 3P
| -te || -tes || -nθe
! 3P
| -toi || -tēm || -ūs
|}


{| class="wikitable"
{{smallcaps|'''ins sing'''}} The OX ending -ōi for the ins. singular originated as *-eh₁ in the proto-language. This ending is rarely problematic by phonological processes, but it is liable to be replaced in some stems, e.g. endings -ī and -ū in the i- and u-stems respectively, from the PX declensionThe PX ending evolved from *-h₁This ending was preserved only after plosives as -aFollowing resonants, the preceding vowel was lengthened and openedFollowing laryngeals, it disappeared.
!colspan="4"| Secondary active endings !!colspan="4"| Secondary middle endings
|-
! !!style="width: 7em"| Sing. !!style="width: 7em"|  Du. !!style="width: 7em"| Pl. !! !!style="width: 7em"|  Sing. !!style="width: 7em"| Du. !!style="width: 7em"| Pl.
|-
! 1P
| -m || -ō || -me
! 1P
| -a || -ōθa || -meθa
|-
! 2P
| -s || -tas || -te
! 2P
| -ta || -ate || -θō
|-
! 3P
| -t || -tes || -nθ
! 3P
| -to || -atē || -r
|}


{| class="wikitable"
{{smallcaps|'''nom-voc-acc du'''}} For animate nouns in plosives and resonant stems, the du. ending for all direct cases in OX was generally -ōi < *-ē, which is coloured in the usual ways to -ā and -ō, which do not mutate.  After stems ending in laryngeals, there are concomitant spelling changes.  In semivowel stems and all PX stems, the ending -a is visible after only after plosives, as it had the proto-form of *-h₁.  After i- and u-stems stems, the ending was dropped causing the preceding vowel to lengthen, e.g. ''dorū''.  After laryngeals, it disappeared. 
!colspan="4"| Thematic active endings !!colspan="4"| Thematic middle endings
|-
!  !!style="width: 7em"| Sing. !!style="width: 7em"|  Du. !!style="width: 7em"|  Pl. !!  !!style="width: 7em"|  Sing. !!style="width: 7em"|  Du. !!style="width: 7em"|  Pl.
|-
! 1P
| -ō || -ou̯ōs || -omōs
! 1P
| -ōi || -ou̯ōzθa || -omozθa
|-
! 2P
| -ei̯e || -etas || -ete
! 2P
| -etai || -etom || -eθō
|-
! 3P
| -ei̯te || -etes || -o
! 3P
| -etoi || -etēm || -ēr
|}


{| class="wikitable"
{{smallcaps|'''nom-acc du ntr'''}} For all neuter nouns, other than the u-stems, the ending was -ī.
!colspan="4"| Imperative active endings !!colspan="4"| Imperative middle endings
|-
!  !!style="width: 7em"| Sing. !!style="width: 7em"|  Du. !!style="width: 7em"|  Pl. !!  !!style="width: 7em"|  Sing. !!style="width: 7em"|  Du. !!style="width: 7em"|  Pl.
|-
! 1P
| — || — || —
! 1P
| — || — || —
|-
! 2P
| -θe || -ta || -te
! 2P
| -to || -te || -nθo
|-
! 3P
| -sō || -te || -θō
! 3P
| -tō || -tē || -nθō
|}


{| class="wikitable"
{{smallcaps|'''voc du nntr'''}} Northian has a unique vocative in the dual, which is -ū, appearing only sometimes. The ancestry of the form is debated, and recent conclusions hold that while superficially similar to {{smallcaps|loc du}} -ū, it is associated instead with recessive accent and is not length-variable, suggesting *-u-H, which could be an ablaut variant of something given the recessive accent.
!colspan="4"| Perfect active endings !!colspan="4"| Perfect middle endings
|-
!  !!style="width: 7em"| Sing. !!style="width: 7em"|  Du. !!style="width: 7em"|  Pl. !!  !!style="width: 7em"|  Sing. !!style="width: 7em"|  Du. !!style="width: 7em"|  Pl.
|-
! 1P
| -a || -ō || -me
! 1P
!colspan="3" rowspan="3"| Where the perfect has transitive meaning, the middle is formed with the injunctive of ''es'' "to be" + perfect active participle
|-
! 2P
| -ta || -eta || -e
! 2P
|-
! 3P
| -e || -ēte || -r
! 3P
|}


===Evolution===
{{smallcaps|'''loc du'''}} In OX the {{smallcaps|loc du}} ending was -ō < *-ou̯In PX, the ending was -ū, which developed from original *-u lengthened in final position.
Northian is one of the few Erani-Eracuran languages that retains multiple productive ablaut patterns in nouns, though hysterokinetic endings have gained ground in many stem-classes at the expense of proterokientic and acrostatic formations.  This tendency is attributed to surface consistency in hysterokinetic endings, which are regularly accented sing. gen. -ō < *-os  and dat. -ē < *-ei̯.  The proterokinetic and acrostatic endings tended to disappear through the erosion of final consonants and unaccented vowelsAfter most consonants, final -s disappears, lengthening the preceding vowel and modifying consonants in several ways, while final -i lowers to -e and causes preceding -e- > -ei̯- and -a- > -ai̯-.  The places where *-s and *-i remain ''in situ'' are the i-, u-, ī-, ū-, ē-, and neuter n-stems (*-i only).


Despite recession, former proterokinetic nouns appear from "irregular" nouns that either retain proterokinetic endings, accentual positions, or bothThe hysterokinetic ending is often simply appended to the stem already reflecting the proterokinetic ending, e.g. Epic ''pau̯ḗnō'' from Galic ''pau̯ḗn'' + hysterokinetic gen. ending ''-ō'', whereas a "true" hysterokinetic noun would have ending ''-ṓ'' and not a full-grade suffix.
{{smallcaps|'''gen du'''}} The proto-form of the dual genitive is sometimes considered that of the locative with added *-s at the end, borrowed from the singularThus in OX the ending was usually -ō < *-ōw < *-ou̯-s, which was identical to the loc. form even in sandhi.  But in some instances, the loc. form takes the strong grade stem, which provides a difference with the gen.  In PX, the ending was -uš, which like the locative dissimilated to *-āḫ if there was a preceding u. In this case, the ending was -ō. For the feminine nouns ending in *-eh₂, which are athematic in origin, the ending was a special -ō < *-eu̯s; see below.


In the dual nom. the preference for hysterokinesis was evident, and only neuter nouns were consistently inflected proterokinetically, probably because it had a distinct ending -ī that resisted phonetic assimilation.  Where the stem ended in a resonant, the animate ending *-ə disappeared by regular sound change and cause compensatory lengtheningThis created an anomalous stem with long vowel where it was not expected (only in the nom. sing. was long vowel expected).  When this happened, only stem and root ablaut distinguished it from the inst. sing., so if the stem had lost ablaut, as often was the case, it would become identical to that formIn the other dual cases, however, proterokinetic forms survived for longer, but once the hysterokinetic form was introduced to the nom., it too often crept into the other cases (especially in the same speaker's utterances).
The gen. du., unlike any of the other oblique cases outside the locative, was sometimes a strong case taking the full grade of the suffixIt has been argued the weak stem was replaced to disambiguate this form from the gen. sing. and that the strong grade was taken over from the collective; if the latter be true, the practice would probably be ancientBut neither explanation has received general acclaim because very few items are attested uniquely in the strong stem.


Some linguists propose that Galic poets retained more archaic patterns for their flexibility in verse, as full-grade endings generated heavy syllables and zero-grade generated light syllables.  It is criticized that metrical considerations are absent in common speech, so it is questionable if ablaut patterns were retained there as long as it did in the poetic language.  Indeed, while younger Galic metre may have been written as late as the 5th century BCE, productive proterokinetic patterns in Epic verse has been whittled to the i-, u-, and n-stems.  The acrostatic pattern has been a vestigial, {{wp|closed set}} since the earliest stages of Northian canon—it seems hard to avoid this conclusion if a term as basic as E.Nr. ''maetūr'' (G.Nr. ''mētūš'') "mother's" was disappearing from children's speech in favour of ''maeθrō''.  Acrostatic n- and s-stems were no longer viable even while their proterokinetic cousins were.  On the other hand, acrostatic formations have spread prehistorically to proterokinetic ones, in the ins. sing. of i- and u-stems, which often show zero-grade ending where full grade is expected.
{{smallcaps|'''abl-dat-ins du'''}} These three forms were syncretized in Northian as -.


Awareness of multiple ablaut patterns persisted well into the period of the Late Canon, attested in the chastisement of children who substitute oxytone endings for their paroxytone counterparts.  Ancient grammarians divided nouns into two kinds based on the position of the accent in the gen. sing. form.  The oxytone group includes all nouns that have accented endings, and paroxytone group, nouns that have unaccented endingsThe grammarians teach that this predicts the endings and accent positions in other formsModern scholars accept that some parts of their teaching correctly identifies the contrast between proterodynamic and hysterodynamic endings, but the shape of the stem was not connected by the ancient grammarians to the position of the accent.  Acrostatic nouns were considered an irregular type of proterokinetic nouns and not as its own class.
{{smallcaps|'''nom-voc pl nntr'''}} There were two proto-forms here. The simplex ending in full grade was *-es, regularly > -aH. However, if it followed a stem ending in -w or (in some cases) -uH, w-colouring operates and generates -ō insteadA zero-grade version of this ending *-s is also found following -iH and (likely secondarily) -uHIn sandhi, the uncoloured ending can appear as -eš or -ē.  The simplex ending -ā is attested only rarely, possibly because it was similar to the thematic {{smallcaps|nom pl ntr}} ending -ā.


==Nouns==
Instead, the form -aHaH is seen, representing reduplicated < *-es-es.
===Classes===
The principal classes of nouns are discussed first.  The following chart lists the stems and accent patterns that are attested in Galic Northian, as well as the genders of attested nouns.  A green cell indicates that the attestation of a stem-accent paradigm is solid (five lemmas or more and paradigm more or less complete); a yellow cell indicates a marginal attestation (one to four lemmas or paradigm incomplete); a red cell indicates no or only dubious attestations.


{| class="wikitable"
{{smallcaps|'''nom-voc pl ntr'''}} The ending prehistorically was *-h₂. After -m, it became -ă, and after any other stop, -i.  In the n- and s-stems, the laryngeal dropped and triggered compensatory lengthening of the full-grade suffix vowel.  The resulting syllable was subsequently opened and became -ō in the n-stems (''fnumō'' < *pnew-men-h₂) and -ā̊ for es-stems (''neβā̊'' < *nebʰ-es-h₂).  In the i- and u-stems, the ending caused the zero-grade stem vowel to lengthen, resulting in endings -ī and -ū.  After another laryngeal, the ending disappeared without a trace, e.g. ''oštō'' < *h₁osth₁-h₁.
! !!style="width:3em"| -C !!style="width:3em"| -m !!style="width:3em"| -ns !!style="width:3em"| -mn !!style="width:3em"| -n !!style="width:3em"| -r !!style="width:3em"| -l !!style="width:3em"| -s !!style="width:3em"| -os/es !!style="width:3em"| -i !!style="width:3em"| -u !!style="width:3em"| -h₁ !!style="width:3em"| -h₂ !!style="width:3em"| -ī !!style="width:3em"| -ū !!style="width:3em"| -r/n !!style="width:3em"| -d !!style="width:3em"| -t !!style="width:3em"| -nt !!style="width:3em"| -woḏ !!style="width:3em"| -ā !!style="width:3em"| -o
|-
! OX
|{{yes|M/F}} || {{yes|F}} || {{maybe|M}} || {{yes|M/F}} || {{yes|M/F}} || {{yes|M/F}} || {{maybe|All}} || {{maybe|M/F}} || {{yes|N}} || {{maybe|M/F}} || {{maybe|All}}|| {{maybe|M}} || {{no}} || {{maybe|M/F}} || {{yes|F}} || {{yes|N}} || {{maybe|M/F}} || {{yes|M/F}} || {{yes|All}} || {{yes|All}} || {{yes|F}} || {{yes|M/N}}
|-
! PX
|{{yes|F/N}} || {{no}} || {{no}} || {{yes|N}} || {{no}} ||rowspan="2" style="background: #FF8; text-align: center"| M/F || {{no}} || {{no}} || {{yes|N}} || {{yes|All}} || {{yes|All}} || {{no}} || {{maybe|F}} || {{yes|F}} || {{yes|F}} || {{yes|N}} || {{maybe|N}} || {{no}} || {{no}} || {{no}} || {{no}} || {{no}}
|-
! PPX
|{{yes|F/N}} || {{yes}} || {{no}} || {{yes|N}} || {{no}} || {{no}} || {{maybe|F}} || {{yes|N}} || {{yes|All}} || {{yes|All}} || {{maybe|N}} || {{no}} || {{no}} || {{no}} || {{yes|N}} || {{no}} || {{maybe|All}}|| {{no}}|| {{no}} || {{no}} || {{no}}
|}


As will appear from this schematic, there are few noun classes that exhibit all three patterns that continue the ablaut patterns of the proto-language; rather, there was a strong tendency for noun classes to coalesce on one pattern identified with the stem, or for masculine and feminine nouns to coalesce on one pattern and neuter nouns on another.  In the latter case, neuter nouns are almost always identified with the paroxytone pattern, and masculine and feminine nouns with the oxytone.  The exception is for i-stems and u-stems, where a considerable portion of masculine and feminine nouns inherit acrostatic patterns from the proto-languageIn other cases, the skewed distribution of gender is inherited from the proto-language, as in the case of ī- and ū-stems, which historically are combinations of *i-h₂- and *u-h₂- and therefore take their feminine gender and proterokinetic pattern from the h₂-stems in PEE.  Some nouns of this class have been further elaborated with an -s ending, which brings about the oxytone pattern and can be masculine in gender.
{{smallcaps|'''acc pl nntr'''}} This ending was derived from *-m̥s following consonants or *-ms following vowels.  In the case of semivowel stems, which occur in the weak grade in this form: for *-i-ms, the resulting ending was just -ī, except uniquely in the word for "three", where it remains as -īš (not *-īs!); for *-u-ms, the outcome was regularly -ūThat the pre-form contained *-ms rather than *-ns is argued to indicate Northian was more archaic than most other daughter languages, which mostly show the reflex of *-ms > *-ns; in Northian, *-ms is diagnosed because at least *-ums seems to have a different reflex than *-uns, which occurs regularly in the wn-stems of nouns and becomes -ənh.


With the r-stems the acrostatic pattern has bled into the PX pattern.
For consonant stems, the vocalization of *-n̥s (not distinguishable in this context from *-m̥s) is regular under Cloverdale's Law, where a syllabic resonant's surface quantity depends on the preceding syllable's (underlying) weight.  Thus, where it was underlyingly heavy, the form *-ah > *-ā is created, and where it was light, *-āh > -ā̊ is used instead.  Yet due to analogical replacement of the stem, the syllable on which the ending is based is not always present, and so the ending is not synchronically predictable; since the weak stem tends to replace the strong in this position, the combination of a heavy ending with a heavy stem is common.  Additionally, a vocalized resonant that is superficially long under Cloverdale's Law still counts as a short vowel for the purposes of other instances of Cloverdale's Law.


===Consonant-stems===
'''Ending in nasal-stems.''' Since the ending -ms began with a nasal, it is susceptible to assimilation and then deletion in nasal-stems. Thus the {{smallcaps|acc pl}} ending of n-stems was -əŋh < *-ens rather than *-enn̥s, while that of the m-stems was (at least originally) -ōi < *-ems rather than *-emm̥s, but the two were interchangeable since early times.
The category of consonant-stems consist only of those that end in -p and -k, while resonant- and vowel-stem root nouns are discussed in their own categories, whether suffixed or not, as the phonological processes that apply to them generate similar results.


The noun ''āps'' < PEE *h₂ēp-s "river" is often the poster-boy of the Northian nouns due to its straightforward stem and clear ablaut alteration between ā ~ a. ''op'' "force" is used for neuter nouns, displaying PEE e ~ Ø ablaut > Galic o ~ Ø.  Both these nouns are of the OX type, displaying an accented genitive ending in -ō < PNN *-os.
The form of the {{smallcaps|acc pl}} was evidently a driving factor in the replacement of the simple {{smallcaps|nom pl}} ending, which had also become *-ah under the colouring influence of *-h, and it became reduplicated as *-ahah in most contexts, leaving *-ah as an irregular alternative. The form -ō is used in the laryngeal stems, though it is disputed whether this is merely an orthographical alteration to avoid contraction of like vowels or a genuine sound change.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
!rowspan="2"| !!colspan="3"|sā āps, "river" !!colspan="3"|tod op, "force"
|-
!  style="width:7em"| Singular !!style="width:7em"| Dual !!style="width:7em"| Plural
! style="width:7em"| Singular !!style="width:7em"| Dual !!style="width:7em"| Plural
|-
! Nominative
| āps ||rowspan="3"| āpē ||rowspan="2"| āpiš
| rowspan="3"|op ||rowspan="3"| opī ||rowspan="3"| opa
|-
! Vocative
| āp 
|-
! Accusative
| āpum ||  āpə̄ṇġ
|-
! Genitive
| apō || apōs || apõ
| pō || pōs || põ
|-
! Locative
| ai̯pi || apō || apšo
| ei̯pi || pō || pšu
|-
! Dative
| apē ||rowspan="2"| apmō ||rowspan="2"| apmuš
| pē ||rowspan="2"| bmō ||rowspan="2"| bmuš
|-
! Instrumental
| apē
| pē
|}


Another noun used for the same purpose is ''aps'' "river".
{{smallcaps|'''gen pl'''}} The ending was consistently -õm.


While o/e ablaut is considered canonical for PEE root nouns with acrostatic inflection, neuter nouns in Northian show neither o/e ablaut nor PP inflection: they are, for an unknown reason, all PX.
{{smallcaps|'''abl-dat pl'''}} The ending was -muš.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
!rowspan="2"| !!colspan="3"|tōd osta, "bone"
|-
!  style="width:7em"| Singular !!style="width:7em"| Dual !!style="width:7em"| Collective
|-
! Nominative
|rowspan="3"| osta ||rowspan="3"| ostī ||rowspan="3"| ostō
|-
! Vocative
|-
! Accusative
|-
! Genitive
| stēs || steuš || ostō
|-
! Locative
|rowspan="2"| stēi̯ || steo || ostēi̯
|-
! Dative
|  rowspan="2"| stēma ||rowspan="2"| ostē
|-
! Instrumental
| stē
|}
''osta'' "bone" is from PEE *h₃esth₁ and behaves somewhat like a -h₁ stem somewhat similar to ''ponθōs''.  In the sing. nom. the accented syllable is in e-grade which, under the influence of the initial laryngeal, becomes Galic o-.  In the oblique cases, the root is in zero grade, the suffix being accented, and surfaces as stē < *h₃steh₁-.  In the du. gen. and dat., the laryngeal ending of the stem scans as part of the ending syllable beginning in vowel and thus does not lengthen the stem vowel, creating the stem of ste-; in the dat. the ending does begin with a consonant, which then causes the laryngeal to be part of the suffix syllable and lengthens it.  The plural is a collective and shows e-grade in the root and vr̩ddhied o-grade in the nom. ending < *h₃estōh₁ "bones (of a skeleton)".  The oblique stem of the collective is from *h₃esth₁-, the full-grade root having spread from the nom., replacing *h₃sth₁-.  Gen. ostō reflects *h₃esth₁-os.  The collective loc. has *h₃esteh₁ > ostē-.


===m-stems===
{{smallcaps|'''ins pl'''}} The ending evidently consisted of the element *-bʰi̯- in the proto-language.  It was usually added to *-os > -βiiō, with Sievers's alteration to disyllabic -βiyō following heavy syllables (long vowel or short and two consonants).  The disyllabic form was noticeably more commonIn demonstratives the equivalent sequence was -βīš or -βiš; it is not completely clear if this was simply an ablaut variant or reflects a different combination of morphemes.
This class is known from only a few but important nouns, ''θéɣå'' "earth", ''žō'' "winter", and ''då'' "house"All m-stem nouns in Northian are feminine in gender, though with only a few examples, this may not be an actual rule in the proto-language.


====Thematic====
{| class="wikitable"
{| class="wikitable"
|-
|-
!rowspan="2"| !!colspan="3"|se θéɣå, "earth"
!rowspan="2"| !!colspan="3"|Basic ā-stem endings !!colspan="6"|Basic o-stem endings
|-
|-
! style="width:7em"| Singular !!style="width:7em"| Dual !!style="width:7em"| Plural
! style="width:7em"| {{smallcaps|sing}} !!style="width:7em"| {{smallcaps|du}} !!style="width:7em"| {{smallcaps|pl}}
! colspan="2" | {{smallcaps|sing}} !! colspan="2" | {{smallcaps|du}} !!colspan="2" | {{smallcaps|pl}}
|-
|-
! Nominative
! {{smallcaps|nom}}
| θéɣå ||rowspan="3"| zémē ||rowspan="2"| zémiš
| rowspan="2"| -ā ||rowspan="3"| -aHī ||rowspan="2"  | -aHā <br>{{smallcaps|'''e'''}} -ā
|style="width: 5em"| -ō ||rowspan="3" style="width: 2em"| {{font color|gray|-õm}} ||rowspan="3" style="width: 5em"| -ō ||rowspan="3" style="width: 2em"| {{font color|gray|-oHī}} ||rowspan="2" style="width: 5em"| -ā̊, -aŋhā ||rowspan="3" style="width: 2em"| {{font color|gray|-ā}}
|-
! {{smallcaps|voc}} 
|colspan="2"| -e
|-
|-
! Vocative
! {{smallcaps|acc}} 
| θéɣō 
| rowspan="2"| -ā̊<br>{{smallcaps|'''e'''}} -ō || -ā̊<br>{{smallcaps|'''e'''}} -ō
|colspan="2"| -õm || -ō
|-
|-
! Accusative
! {{smallcaps|gen}} 
| zémā ||  zməṇġ
| -āHuš, -aHuš  || -aHõm
|colspan="2"| -ōyō ||colspan="2" rowspan="2"| -ō  ||colspan="2"| -õm
|-
|-
! Genitive
! {{smallcaps|loc}} 
| gmō || gmōs || gmõ
| rowspan="2"| -aē  || -āHū, -aHū  || -āhū
|colspan="2" rowspan="2"| -ōi  ||colspan="2"| -ohū
|-
|-
! Locative
! {{smallcaps|dat}} 
| zei̯me || gmō || gumho
|rowspan="3"| -āmiyā ||rowspan="2"| -āmβiyō
| rowspan="3" colspan="2"| -omyā  ||rowspan="2" colspan="2"| -oβyō
|-
|-
! Dative
! {{smallcaps|abl}} 
| gmē ||rowspan="2"| gummō ||rowspan="2"| gummuš
| -aoṯ 
|colspan="2"| -ōṯ 
|-
|-
! Instrumental
! {{smallcaps|ins}} 
| gūm
| -ā  || -āyš
|colspan="2" colspan="2"| -ō  ||colspan="2"| -oiš
|}
|}


''θéɣå'' is one of the rarer Northian words that reflects all three ablaut grades.
{{smallcaps|'''nom sg'''}} The ā-stems showed the expected ending -ā.  M. and f. o-stems have -ōḫ < *-os, which scans short at the end of sentences and other pauses.  N. o-stems have -õm.


The behaviour of ''žõ'' "winter" is underlyingly similar to that of ''θéɣõ'', but other phonetic changes have caused the surface forms to be altered in other ways.
{{smallcaps|'''voc sg'''}} The ā-stems have the same form as the nom.  M. and f. o-stems have -i < *-e, while n. o-stems have the same form as the nom.  In both cases, the accent is always retracted to the first syllable of the word.


===ns-stems===
{{smallcaps|'''acc sg'''}} for ā-stems is affected by {{wp|Stang's law}}, which appears as -ā̊The ending for m. and f. o-stems is the same as the n., -õm.
''mā̊ṇġ'' "moon" has one of the less transparent paradigms in Galic.  In the received texts this word represents four morae, but the spelling does not reveal what the missing vowel.  In view of the general development of PEE *-Hn̥s, most authorities write this word phonologically as ''måə̄ṇġ'', standing for [māʔə̄ŋɡ̚]It stands for PEE *mḗh₁n̥s > PNN *mḗuns > PN *māə̄ṇġ.  


{| class="wikitable"
{{smallcaps|'''loc sg'''}} ā-stems have dysyllabic -ayi; o-stems have monosyllabic -oy.
|-
!rowspan="2"| !!colspan="3"|sā mā̊ṇġ, "moon, month"
|-
!  style="width:7em"| Singular !!style="width:7em"| Dual !!style="width:7em"| Plural
|-
! Nominative
| mā̊ṇġ ||rowspan="3"| måə̄ṇhē ||rowspan="2"| måə̄ṇhiš
|-
! Vocative
| mā̊ṇġ
|-
! Accusative
| mēṇhum ||  måə̄həṇġ
|-
! Genitive
| mēṇhō || mēṇhmōs || mēṇhõ
|-
! Locative
| mə̄ṇġ || mēṇhō || mēṇhsu
|-
! Dative
| māi̯ṇhe ||rowspan="2"| mēṇhmō ||rowspan="2"| mēṇhmuš
|-
! Instrumental
| mə̄ṇha
|}


===mn-stems===
{{smallcaps|'''gen sg'''}} ā-stems show -ā̊ for *-eh₂-s; o-stems have the compound suffix -ōyo, for *-osyo.
The mn-stems are prolific in Northian in both the Galic and Epic languages, and they exhibit three ablaut patterns.  In this case, the oxytone pattern was normalized in masculine and feminine nouns, and the paroxytone in neuter nouns.  The acrostatic ablaut pattern is restricted to a few inherited terms.


{| class="wikitable"
{{smallcaps|'''abl sg'''}} in ā-stems is dysyllabic aā̊ṯ; the quantity owes to dissimilation.
|-
!rowspan="2"| !!colspan="3"|sā akmō, "stone"
|-
!  style="width:7em"| Singular !!style="width:7em"| Dual !!style="width:7em"| Plural
|-
! Nominative
| akmō ||rowspan="3"| akmenē ||rowspan="2"| akmeniš
|-
! Vocative
| akmo 
|-
! Accusative
| akmenum ||  kāṇġmuṇ
|-
! Genitive
| kāṇhmō || kāṇhmōs || kāṇhmõ
|-
! Locative
| kumeine || kumnō || kumuṇsu
|-
! Dative
| kāṇhmē ||rowspan="2"| kāṇhmō ||rowspan="2"| kāṇhmuš
|-
! Instrumental
| kāṇġma
|}


{| class="wikitable"
{{smallcaps|'''dat sg'''}} ā-stems
|-
!rowspan="2"| !!colspan="3"|tod θēmə̄, "house of a god, temple"
|-
!  style="width:7em"| Singular !!style="width:7em"| Dual !!style="width:7em"| Plural
|-
! Nominative
|rowspan="3"| θēmə̄ ||rowspan="3"| θēmnī ||rowspan="3"| θēmnō
|-
! Vocative
|-
! Accusative
|-
! Genitive
|rowspan="2"| šmēn || šmenuš || θumnō
|-
! Locative
| šmeno || šmeni
|-
! Dative
| šmeni ||rowspan="2"| šmāṇma ||rowspan="2"| θumunmuš
|-
! Instrumental
| šmēn
|}


{| class="wikitable"
{{smallcaps|'''ins sg'''}} ā-stems
|-
!rowspan="2"| !!colspan="3"|tod nomə̄, "name"
|-
!  style="width:7em"| Singular !!style="width:7em"| Dual !!style="width:7em"| Collective
|-
! Nominative
| rowspan="3"| nomə̄ ||rowspan="3"| nomnī ||rowspan="3"| nomå
|-
! Vocative 
|-
! Accusative
|-
! Genitive
|rowspan="2"| nemə̄n || nemnuš || numnō
|-
! Locative
|  nemnu || nuṇhu
|-
! Dative
| nemne ||rowspan="2"| nemuṇma ||rowspan="2"| numuṇmuš
|-
! Instrumental
| nemūn
|}


===n-stems===
===Noun stems===
There are also n-stems not as part of a suffix of *-mVn.  As they are considerably rarer than the latter type, they are sometimes emphasized as "bare" n-stems.  They are of two types, distinguished in the nom. sing., those with -ō and those with -ēn.  Though uncommon, they are typical of family names in the Epic age.


In ''wei̯ō'' "wine", of the type ending in , PNN stems are ablauting *wei̯-on- < *wei̯-Hon and *wī-n- < *wiH-n-In the nom. sing. the root vowel is attracted by the final ō and becomes ''wei̯ō''.  In the oblique cases, stem *-n is altered before endings beginning in -m and becomes -ṇ.
===Adjective stems===
{| class="wikitable"
Adjectives agree with the nouns they modify in gender, number, and case, within their lexical paradigmsInasmuch as nouns have differing endings that convey the same number and case, so too do adjectives have lexical paradigms; adjectives do not agree with the paradigms of nouns that they modify.
|-
!rowspan="2"| !!colspan="3"|sā wei̯ō, "wine"
|-
!  style="width:7em"| Singular !!style="width:7em"| Dual !!style="width:7em"| Plural
|-
! Nominative
| wei̯ō ||rowspan="3"| wei̯onē ||rowspan="2"| wei̯oniš
|-
! Vocative
| wei̯a
|-
! Accusative
| wīonum || wei̯onə̄ṇġ
|-
! Genitive
| wīnō || wīnōs || wīnõ
|-
! Locative
| wīen || wīnō || wīṇhu
|-
! Dative
| wīē ||rowspan="2"| wīṇmō ||rowspan="2"| wīṇmuš
|-
! Instrumental
| wīn
|}


''ōrēn'' "lamb, ram" exemplifes the stems ending in -en-.  The direct stem reflects PEE *wr̥h₁-en- > Galic ōr-en, by way of PNN *wurə-en, and the oblique *wr̥h₁-n- > PNN *wurə-n-In both cases, PNN *wu dissimilates to *wo, and in Galic gives ōThis ablaut pattern contrasts with those in -on- in that the root is never accented and always shows zero-grade.
===Numerals===
====1 – 4====
Cardinal numbers one through four are declinable as athematic adjectives of various declensional patterns, agreeing with the nouns (explicit or implicit) they modify in gender, case, and numberOf course, "one" is only inflected in the singular, "two" in the dual, and "three" and "four" in the pluralNumbers five and above are indeclinable.
{| class="wikitable"
{| class="wikitable"
!rowspan="2"|  !!  colspan="3"|"one" !! colspan="3"| "two" !! colspan="3"| "three" !! colspan="3"| "four"
|-
|-
!rowspan="2"| !!colspan="3"|sa ōrēn, "ram"
!style="width: 5em"| {{smallcaps|m}} !!style="width: 5em"| {{smallcaps|n}} !!style="width: 5em"| {{smallcaps|f}} !! style="width: 5em"| {{smallcaps|m}} !! style="width: 5em"|{{smallcaps|n}} !!style="width: 5em"| {{smallcaps|f}} !! style="width: 5em"|{{smallcaps|m}} !! style="width: 5em"|{{smallcaps|n}} !! style="width: 5em"|{{smallcaps|f}} !!style="width: 7em"| {{smallcaps|m}} !!style="width: 7em"| {{smallcaps|n}} !!style="width: 7em"| {{smallcaps|f}}
|-
|-
! style="width:7em"| Singular !!style="width:7em"| Dual !!style="width:7em"| Plural
! {{smallcaps|nom}}
| hā̊ ||rowspan="3"| hõ ||rowspan="3"| hámī ||rowspan="3"| swō || rowspan="3" colspan="2"| duHā, tuHī ||rowspan="2"| ϑráiiā ||rowspan="3"| ϑrī́ ||rowspan="2"| ϑrižrā ||rowspan="2"| koswárā<br>{{small|{{smallcaps|'''lg'''}} koswóraŋhā}} ||rowspan="3"| kótur ||rowspan="2"| kóswr̥žrā
|-
|-
! Nominative
! {{smallcaps|voc}}
| ōrēn ||rowspan="3"| ōrenē ||rowspan="2"| ōreniš
| hõ 
|-
|-
! Vocative
! {{smallcaps|acc}}
| ōren
| hā̊ || ϑrī́s || ϑrižrā̊  || koswárā̊  || kóswr̥žrā̊
|-
|-
! Accusative
! {{smallcaps|loc}}
| ōrēn || ōrenəṇġ
| colspan="2"| hám ||rowspan="2"| hāyaHā<br>{{small|{{smallcaps|'''lg'''}} hāyaHē}} ||colspan="2"| duHā || duHō ||colspan="2"| ϑrištū || ϑrižr̥štū ||colspan="2"| kóswr̥štū || kóswr̥žr̥štū
|-
|-
! Genitive
! {{smallcaps|dat}}
| ōrnō || ōrnōs || ōrnõ
|colspan="2"| zmā<br>{{small|{{smallcaps|'''lg'''}} mē}} || colspan="2" rowspan="2"|dumō ||rowspan="2"| duHāmō || colspan="2" rowspan="2"| ϑrimuš ||rowspan="2"| ϑrižr̥muš ||colspan="2" rowspan="2"| kóswr̥muš ||rowspan="2"| kóswr̥žr̥muš
|-
|-
! Locative
! {{smallcaps|abl}}
| ōreine || ōrnō || ōrāṇhu
| colspan="2" rowspan="2"| zmō<br>{{small|{{smallcaps|'''lg'''}} mō}} || rowspan="2"| hāyā̊ <br>{{small|{{smallcaps|'''lg'''}} hāyaHē}}
|-
|-
! Dative
! {{smallcaps|gen}}
| ōrnē ||rowspan="2"| ōrāṇmō ||rowspan="2"| ōrāṇmuš
|colspan="2"| duHō || duHaHuš ||colspan="2"| ϑriyõ || ϑrižrõ ||colspan="2"| kóturõ || kóswr̥žrõ
|-
|-
! Instrumental
! {{smallcaps|ins}}
| ōrnē
| colspan="2"| zmōi<br>{{small|{{smallcaps|'''lg'''}} mōi}} || hmiHā ||colspan="2"| dumī || duHā ||colspan="2"| ϑrimβiiō || ϑrižr̥βiiō ||colspan="2"| kóswr̥βiiō || kóswr̥žr̥βiiō
|}
|}


===r-stems===
{{smallcaps|'''1'''}} is a root noun with a stem ending in -m.  As with other stems ending in -m, the accusative preform *sem-m̥ would by regular phonetic change become *sēm, i.e. the same as nominative *sēm, because the PEE ending *-m̥ regularly absorbs the previous resonant, hence also nom. ''syō'' but acc. ''syā̊''; in the number, -am is often but not always restoredIn the oblique cases, the stem is in zero grade and appears as hm- < *sm-.  If the position requires the /m/ to be vocalized, the result is the hā-, such as seen in feminine forms with accent over the suffix; these are a perfect match with Syaran μιᾶς = ''hāyā̊ '', etc.
R-stem nouns contain members from all three accentual patterns. ''mātə̄'' "mother" represents the group with PPX accent, which persists on the root syllable and always takes suffix and ending in zero-grade.  ''vrātə̄'' "brother" is declined in the same mannerThis is a small group of nouns recognized by their unaccented endings in -ə̄.


{| class="wikitable"
{{smallcaps|'''2'''}} is only declined in the dual number.  There are two stems in use: the full-grade zwo- and zero-grade tuH-.  The feminine form {{smallcaps|nom}} ''tuHā'' only appears sporadically..
|-
!rowspan="2"| !!colspan="3"|sā mātə̄, "mother"
|-
!  style="width:7em"| Singular !!style="width:7em"| Dual !!style="width:7em"| Plural
|-
! Nominative
|rowspan="2"| mātə̄ ||rowspan="3"| mātūr ||rowspan="2"| māθriš
|-
! Vocative
|-
! Accusative
| māθrum ||  mātə̄rəṇġ
|-
! Genitive
| mātūš || māturuš || māθrõ
|-
! Locative
| rowspan="2"| māθre || māturo || mātuššu
|-
! Dative
|rowspan="2"| māturma ||rowspan="2"| māturmuš
|-
! Instrumental
| māθra
|}
Gen. ''mātūš'' < PNN *māturs < PEE *meh₂tr̥s, while ''māetūr'' is from the Epic language, which has restored the *r that has been dropped in *-rs. Dat. ''māθre'' < PEE *meh₂tri, with the (possibly) innovated zero-grade ending, ''contra'' full-grade ending *-ei̯.  In the du. the stem ending in resonant causes final *-ə to drop and lengthen the preceding *u.  The acc. pl. seems to reflect PEE *meh₂tr̥n̥s, which is irregular, but the other Nordic languages point to *meh₂tern̥s (with full-grade in the suffix), and neither form is particularly informative as both are in unison with respective nom. pl. stems.  The Nordic form is assumed to be the original, with Northian one having undergone some assimilation not seen elsewhere.


In Galic, ''mātūr'' "two mothers" is often an ellipsis for "mother and father".
{{smallcaps|'''3'''}} is a regular i-stem and is only declined in the plural.  Nom. ''ϑráiiā'' shows regular development of *e > a bordering {{wp|Yod (sound)|yod}}. As with others, the accusative plural has a zero-grade suffix followed by a zero-grade ending: *tri-ns > ''ϑrī́s''.  The sequence *-ins developed irregularly, usually appearing as -ī in Northian; alternatively it may reflect a more archaic *tri-m-s, without assimilation in the ending. It is a notorious {{wp|false friend}} to Nordic ''þrīz'', which was not the accusative but the nominative = Northian ''ϑráiiā''.  The feminine forms employ the feminizing infix -sr-, which is always found in the zero grade, and take regular athematic endings.  There is also a particular form for three women or goddesses, as in ''ϑaewiyā ϑraežrā'' "three goddesses".


''sóhitə̄'' "daughter" represents the oxytone group of the r-stems, which includes many agentive nouns that terminate in -er and -or.  They are recognizable by their zero-grade nom. endings and full-grade -ō endings in genThe behaviour of the word ''ɣehə̄'' < PEE *ǵʰésr̥ "arm" is underlyingly identicalIn the nom. sing. the strong stem reflects PNN *dʰwegə- < PEE *dʰwegh₁-; the weak stem from PNN *dʰugə-  The initial *dʰwe > Galic sō-.  The weak stem should expect to surface as *θuɣaθr-, but the initial aspirate is simply de-aspirated probably in avoidance of three consecutive fricatives to give attested *duɣaθr-, to which regular OX endings are appended.
{{smallcaps|'''4'''}} behaves like most athematic nouns and also employs the feminizing infix -sr- for its feminine forms.  Note however that the ablauting element was the second syllable of the stem -tuuor-, which in zero grade appears would be -tuur-.  Which of the two resonants vocalize depends on the phonetic environmentWhere the suffix stands alone the *-w- is vocalized, as in neuter nominative ''kotur'' < *kʷetw̥r, but where an obstruent follows the suffix it is the *-r- that becomes syllabic, as in ''kóśwr̥muš'' < *kʷetwr̥mus.  There was also a singular form ''košuuō'' < *kʷetwōr = Venetian ''quattuor''.


{| class="wikitable"
The feminine forms for "four" have the particularly long stem of koswr̥-žr̥-, which is for *kʷétwr̥-sr̥- where the ending begins with a consonant. The masculine stem for "four" frequently supplants the feminine owing to the sheer length of the etymological stem, which is metrically unusable. Note that the accent is on the suffix syllable in the strong forms owing to the effects of the eponymous {{wp|kʷetwóres rule}}, which shifts the accent from a preceding *e to the following *o if followed by only one other syllable.
|-
!rowspan="2"| !!colspan="3"|sā sōhitə̄, "daughter"
|-
! style="width:7em"| Singular !!style="width:7em"| Dual !!style="width:7em"| Plural
|-
! Nominative
|rowspan="2"|sōhitə̄ ||rowspan="3"| duɣaterē ||rowspan="2"| duɣateriš
|-
! Vocative
|-
! Accusative
| duɣaterum || duɣaterəṇġ
|-
! Genitive
| duɣaθrō || duɣaturōs || duɣaθrõ
|-
! Locative
| rowspan="2"| duɣaθrē || duɣaturō || duɣatuššu
|-
! Dative
|rowspan="2"| duɣaturmō ||rowspan="2"| duɣaturmō
|-
! Instrumental
| duɣaθrē
|}


''patå'' "father" is at a small variance from the pattern of "daughter", where in the nom. the accent is on the ending instead of the stem; otherwise, it follows the pattern of "daughter" nearly exactly.  Only the gen. form ''paθrūš'' is aberrant and is influenced by "mother"; this genitive ending is common to all two-syllable nouns ending in -r, with the exception of "hand".  ''patå'' reflects PNN *patēr, with resonants regularly lost after long vowels in final position, possibly becoming *patēə then > ''patå'' /patā.a/.
====5 and higher====
{{smallcaps|'''5'''}} ''pəṇto'' is from *pénkʷe.


{| class="wikitable"
{{smallcaps|'''6'''}} ''xšwaxš'' from *kswéks, a match with Xevdenite ''xšuuah''.
|-
!rowspan="2"| !!colspan="3"|sa patå, "father"
|-
!  style="width:7em"| Singular !!style="width:7em"| Dual !!style="width:7em"| Plural
|-
! Nominative
| patå ||rowspan="3"| paterē ||rowspan="2"| pateriš
|-
! Vocative
| pater
|-
! Accusative
| paterum ||  paterəṇġ
|-
! Genitive
| paθrūš || paθrōs || paθrõ
|-
! Locative
| rowspan="2"| paθrē || paterō || paθruššu
|-
! Dative
|rowspan="2"| paturmō ||rowspan="2"| paturmuš
|-
! Instrumental
| paθūr
|}


The paroxytone declension of ''āštə̄'' "star" has a unique blend of formations expected from PPX and PX patterns.  The nom. sing. ''āštə̄'' reflects PEE *h₂eh₁str̥, a form not seen elsewhere in Erani-Eracuran.  Gen. ''strūš'' could mechanical restore to PEE *h₂h₁str̥s, but the zero-grade forms are, in all likelihood, from "mother" or "brother" and have displaced the expected PX form *h₂h₁sters, in a way contrary but not unparalleled in the general analogical preferences of Northian.
{{smallcaps|'''7'''}} ''hafθa'' from *septm̥.


{| class="wikitable"
{{smallcaps|'''8'''}} ''oxθō'', the proto-form of this word is disputed. Northian ''oxθō'' can be traced back to both *(H)oktow and *(H)oktoH, with or without an initial laryngeal; the form with initial laryngeal is preferred on root phonotactic grounds, since most vowel-initial words can be shown to have had an initial laryngeal. Morphologically, it is the dual of ''óxθō'' "fingers", in ei-stem.
|-
!rowspan="2"| !!colspan="3"|sa āstə̄, "star"
|-
! style="width:7em"| Singular !!style="width:7em"| Dual !!style="width:7em"| Plural
|-
! Nominative
|rowspan="2"| āštə̄ ||rowspan="3"| stēr ||rowspan="2"| steriš
|-
! Vocative
|-
! Accusative
| āsterum || strəṇġ
|-
! Genitive
| strūš || struš || sterõ
|-
! Locative
| rowspan="2"| steire || stro || steššu
|-
! Dative
|rowspan="2"| sterma ||rowspan="2"| stermuš
|-
! Instrumental
| stēr
|}


An r-stem noun not within the formation -tr is ''nēr'' "man", gen. ''drō'' < PNN *nros.  As it is seen this noun originally has hysterokinetic accent, but acc. sing. ''drum'' and pl. ''drə̄'' reflect PEE zero-grade stem *nr-.  Nom. pl. ''neriš'' is the only place where the full-grade stem appears in the paradigm.
{{smallcaps|'''9'''}} ''nauuā''


===l-stems===
{{smallcaps|'''10'''}} ''tegā''
The l-stems originally inflect as other ablauting consonant stems, but because intervocalic *-l- regularly > -y-, the resulting paradigm presents certain quirks not seen in the normal consonant-stem paradigm.


===Pronouns===
====First person====
{| class="wikitable"
{| class="wikitable"
!rowspan="2"|  !! style="width:10em" colspan="2"|{{smallcaps|sing}} !!style="width:10em" colspan="2"| {{smallcaps|du}} !!style="width:10em" colspan="2"| {{smallcaps|pl}}
|-
|-
!rowspan="2"| !!colspan="3"|sa sē, "salt" = ἅλς
! {{smallcaps|tonic}} !! {{smallcaps|enclitic}} !! {{smallcaps|tonic}} !! {{smallcaps|enclitic}}!! {{smallcaps|tonic}} !! {{smallcaps|enclitic}}
|-
! style="width:7em"| Singular !!style="width:7em"| Dual !!style="width:7em"| Plural
|-
! Nominative
| sā ||rowspan="3"|sai̯ē ||rowspan="2"| sai̯iš
|-
! Vocative
| se 
|-
|-
! Accusative
! {{smallcaps|nom}}
| sai̯um ||  sai̯ə̄ṇġ
| colspan="2"|áxa, áɣā̊, ázəm ||colspan="2"| ||colspan="2"| wāy
|-
|-
! Genitive
! {{smallcaps|acc}}
| slō || slōs || slõ
| mḗ || mi || āŋhō ||rowspan="3"| nō  || ə̄mmé  ||rowspan="3"|
|-
|-
! Locative
! {{smallcaps|gen}}
| sai̯i̯e || slō || sullu
| méni ||rowspan="2"| mai || || áŋrō
|-
|-
! Dative
! {{smallcaps|dat}}
| slē ||rowspan="2"| ||rowspan="2"| sullus
| mézya || nanā́ || ā̊(s)
|-
|-
! Instrumental
| sla
|}
|}


{{smallcaps|'''nom sg'''}} The term for "I", usually ''áxa'', comes from Erani-Eracuran *éǵ-h₂, with regular devoicing of a stop before *h₂.  The long form áɣā̊ must have *éǵ-ōm, without laryngeal, but cognate extensions to the pronoun with this suffix all have the laryngeal.  This would suggest that an unattested Northian form of *ák < *éǵ may have existed independently for the suffix to be added.
====Second person====
{| class="wikitable"
{| class="wikitable"
!  !! style="width:10em" colspan="2"|{{smallcaps|sing}} !!style="width:10em" colspan="2"| {{smallcaps|du}} !!style="width:10em" colspan="2"| {{smallcaps|pl}}
|-
|-
!rowspan="2"| !!colspan="3"|sa abō, "apple"
! !! {{smallcaps|stressed}} !! {{smallcaps|enclitic}} !! {{smallcaps|stressed}} !! {{smallcaps|enclitic}}!! {{smallcaps|stressed}} !! {{smallcaps|enclitic}}
|-
! style="width:7em"| Singular !!style="width:7em"| Dual !!style="width:7em"| Plural
|-
! Nominative
| abō ||rowspan="3"| aboi̯ē ||rowspan="2"| aboi̯iš
|-
|-
! Vocative
! {{smallcaps|nom}}
| abo 
| colspan="2"| tū́ || colspan="2"|yṓ  || colspan="2"| yā̊
|-
|-
! Accusative
! {{smallcaps|acc}}
| aboi̯um ||  aboi̯ə̄ṇġ
| swe || ti || ūmé  ||rowspan="3"| || ušpé ||rowspan="3"| wā̊
|-
|-
! Genitive
! {{smallcaps|gen}}
| ablō || ablōs || ablõ
| ϑáya  ||rowspan="2"| toi || yuϑr- || yušr-
|-
|-
! Locative
! {{smallcaps|dat}}
| abei̯e || ablō || abllu
| ϑə̄mβyō  || wanā́ || ušmái
|-
|-
! Dative
| ablē ||rowspan="2"| abllō ||rowspan="2"| abllus
|-
! Instrumental
| abla
|}
|}


===s-stems===
====Demonstrative====
The noun ''au̯šōs'' "dawn" is an OX animate noun.  The noun has three basic stems: the strong stem which appears in the sing. nom. and voc. comes from PEE *h₂eu̯s-os-, with regular lengthening of the final syllable anticipating a zero nominative ending; the middle stem appears in the other direct cases and is from *h₂us-es-; the weak stem appears in all other cases and is from *h₂us-s-, with full-grade endings as expected in oxytone words.
{| class="wikitable"
{| class="wikitable"
!rowspan="2"|  !!  colspan="3"|{{smallcaps|'''sing'''}} !! colspan="3"| {{smallcaps|'''du'''}} !!colspan="3"| {{smallcaps|'''pl'''}}
|-
|-
!rowspan="2"| !!colspan="3"|sā au̯šōs, "dawn"
!style="width:4em"|{{smallcaps|'''m'''}} !!style="width:4em"| {{smallcaps|'''n'''}} !!style="width:4em"| {{smallcaps|'''f'''}} !!style="width:4em"| {{smallcaps|'''m'''}} !!style="width:4em"| {{smallcaps|'''n'''}} !!style="width:4em"| {{smallcaps|'''f'''}}  !!style="width:4em"| {{smallcaps|'''m'''}} !!style="width:4em"| {{smallcaps|'''n'''}} !!style="width:4em"| {{smallcaps|'''f'''}}
|-
|-
style="width:7em"| Singular !!style="width:7em"| Dual !!style="width:7em"| Plural
! {{smallcaps|'''nom'''}}
| ha ||rowspan="2"| ϑaṯ || hā || rowspan="2"|ϑō || rowspan="2"| ϑoyī ||rowspan="2"| ϑāyī || ϑoi || rowspan="2"| ϑa ||  ϑai
|-
|-
! Nominative
! {{smallcaps|'''acc'''}}
| au̯šōs ||rowspan="3"| ušezē ||rowspan="2"| ušeziš
| ϑõm || ϑā̊ || ϑā̊ || ϑáō
|-
|-
! Vocative
! {{smallcaps|'''loc'''}}
| au̯šō
|colspan="2"| ϑoi || ϑahiiai ||colspan="3"| ϑṓhō ||colspan="2"| ϑohū || ϑāhū
|-
! Accusative
| ušehum || ušehəṇġ
|-
! Genitive
| uššō || uššōs || uššõ
|-
|-
! Locative
! {{smallcaps|'''gen'''}}
| ušei̯še || uššō || ūššu
|colspan="2"|  ϑōiio  || ϑahiiā̊ ||colspan="3"|  ϑṓhōš ||colspan="2"| ϑoiiõm || ϑāõm
|-
|-
! Dative
! {{smallcaps|'''dat'''}}
| uššē ||rowspan="2"| uššmō ||rowspan="2"| uššmuš
|colspan="2"| ϑōžmōi    || ϑahiiayi ||colspan="3" rowspan="2"| ϑṓzma ||colspan="2"| ϑoiiomuš ||ϑāmuš
|-
|-
! Instrumental
! {{smallcaps|'''ins'''}}
| uššē
|colspan="2"| ϑō || ϑahiiā ||colspan="2"| ϑoiiomβīš || ϑāβīš
|}
|}


The word ''mūš'' "mouse" is a non-ablauting s-stem nouns. 
====Interrogative====
{| class="wikitable"
{| class="wikitable"
!rowspan="2"|  !!colspan="2"|{{smallcaps|'''sing'''}} !!colspan="2"| {{smallcaps|'''du'''}} !! colspan="2"| {{smallcaps|'''pl'''}}
|-
|-
!rowspan="2"| !!colspan="3"|sā mūš, "mouse, small rodent"
!style="width:4em"|{{smallcaps|'''m f'''}} !!style="width:4em"| {{smallcaps|'''n'''}} !!style="width:4em"| {{smallcaps|'''m f'''}} !!style="width:4em"| {{smallcaps|'''n'''}} !!style="width:4em"| {{smallcaps|'''m f'''}} !!style="width:4em"| {{smallcaps|'''n'''}}
|-
|-
! style="width:7em"| Singular !!style="width:7em"| Dual !!style="width:7em"| Plural
! {{smallcaps|'''nom'''}}
| kiš ||rowspan="2"| kiṯ || rowspan="2" colspan="2"| kə̄ || ϑoi || rowspan="2"| ϑa
|-
|-
! Nominative
! {{smallcaps|'''acc'''}}
| mūš ||rowspan="3"| mūšē ||rowspan="2"| mūšiš
| kim || ϑā̊
|-
! Vocative
| mūš
|-
|-
! Accusative
! {{smallcaps|'''loc'''}}
| mūšum || mūšəṇġ
|colspan="2"| kāsmi ||colspan="2"| kiyō ||colspan="2"| ϑohū
|-
|-
! Genitive
! {{smallcaps|'''gen'''}}
| mūšō || mūšōs || mūšõ
|colspan="2"| kāiio ||colspan="2"| kiyōš ||colspan="2"| ϑoiiõm
|-
|-
! Locative
! {{smallcaps|'''dat'''}}
| mūše || mūšō || mūššu
|colspan="2"| kāsmai ||colspan="2" rowspan="2"| kimō ||colspan="2"| ϑoiiomuš
|-
|-
! Dative
! {{smallcaps|'''abl'''}}
| mūšē ||rowspan="2"| mūšmō ||rowspan="2"| mūšmuš
|colspan="2"| kāṯ ||colspan="2"| ϑoiiõm
|-
|-
! Instrumental
! {{smallcaps|'''ins'''}}
| mūšē
|colspan="2"| koi ||colspan="2"| ϑoiiomβīš
|}
|}


===os/es-stems===
====Indefinite article====
The os/es-stems are a class of very common neuter nouns in Northian and are directly cognate to those found in Nordic languagesTogether they have both PX and PPX patterns.  Though in Galic times and later only the PX pattern is productive, there are four or five very common PPX os/es-stem nouns constituting a nearly-complete paradigm.
The Northian indefinite article, which introduces an indefininte {{wp|noun phrase}}, is derived from the PEE root *oywos, meaning "one"Note that the endings are those of demonstratives.


In PX the nom. sing. ended in -ō, which is a regular reflex of PNN and PEE *-os; this *-os is not to be confused for the thematic nom. ending or the athematic OX gen. ending and instead is a bare stem.  The gen. ended in -eh-ō < PNN and PEE *-es-os, intervocalic *s before back vowel regularly > h, possibly by retraction.  In the dat. intervocalic *s > z before front and central vowel, as is the case in the du. and pl. nom.  Before endings beginning with consonant, s is preserved or altered in regular ways.
{| class="wikitable"
{| class="wikitable"
!rowspan="2"|  !!  colspan="3"| aiwō, "a, an"
|-
|-
!rowspan="2"| !!colspan="3"|tod kretō, "intellect, power"
! style="width: 5em"| {{smallcaps|'''M & F'''}}  !!style="width: 5em"| {{smallcaps|'''N'''}}
|-
|-
! style="width:7em"| Singular !!style="width:7em"| Dual !!style="width:7em"| Plural
! {{smallcaps|'''nom'''}}
|rowspan="2"| aiwō ||rowspan="3"| aiwó 
|-
|-
! Nominative
! {{smallcaps|'''voc'''}}
|rowspan="3"| kretō ||rowspan="3"| kreteza ||rowspan="3"| kreteza
|-
|-
! Vocative
! {{smallcaps|'''acc'''}}
| aiwõm 
|-
|-
! Accusative
! {{smallcaps|'''loc'''}}
| colspan="2" rowspan="2"| aiwōi 
|-
|-
! Genitive
! {{smallcaps|'''dat'''}}
| kretehō || kretehuš || kretehõ
|-
|-
! Locative
! {{smallcaps|'''abl'''}}
| rowspan="2"|kretei̯ze || kreteho || kretessu
| colspan="2"| aiwōṯ
|-
|-
! Dative
! {{smallcaps|'''gen'''}}
| rowspan="2"| kretesma ||rowspan="2"| kretesmuš
| colspan="2"| aiwōiš
|-
|-
! Instrumental
! {{smallcaps|'''ins'''}}
| kreteza
| colspan="2"| aiwō
|}
|}


The PPX version of this stem had a few differences to the PX version that enabled it to withstand the general tendency to substitute PPX with PX or OX forms; its preservation cannot be unlinked with the prevalence and prominence of the noun ''menō'' "mind", a central idea in the Galic religion and often mentioned in the GalesThe nom. sing. was ''menō'' < PEE *men-os, with ending -ō undergoing the same changes as the PX counterpartThe gen. had ''mēṇġ'' < PNN and PEE *men-s-s. In dat. ''meṇhi'' < PEE *men-s-i the preservation of final *-i is irregular.
==Verbs==
{| class="wikitable"
{{see also|Northian verbs}}
|-
===Paradigm===
!rowspan="2"| !!colspan="3"|tod menō, "mind"
Unlike nouns, multiple derivations of the same verb root may be considered the same lexical item, whereas nouns are restricted to one derivation, and a different derivation creates lexically distinct noun.  It is thus necessary to describe the relationship between the various derivations as a complete system.
|-
 
! style="width:7em"| Singular !!style="width:7em"| Dual !!style="width:7em"| Collective
According to the canonical description of the Erani-Eracuran verb, each root may form one stem in each of the three grammatical aspects called primary derivations, while the root itself may stand as a stem within an "inherent" or "lexical" aspect assigned (largely arbitrarily) to itThus, for example, an aorist root like štaˀ- "stand" may form a stem with no further alteration that has aorist aspect, since it is the same as the lexical aspect of the rootTo use this root in a different aspect, some sort of marker is necessary to denote those aspects, and in this behalf are attested the present stem štaˀ-u-, with suffix -u-, and perfect stem teštō̆ˀ-, with reduplication and o-grade root.
|-
 
! Nominative
Apart from the stems that encode grammatical aspects, secondary derivations provide more specific meanings. The canonical difference with primary derivations is that secondary derivations 1) are all aspectually present and 2) cannot derive modal stems containing its derivational marker; thus, while they may have significant semantic departures from any of the primary formations, they are grammatically still dependent on the root's primary formations to express those meanings.  This mandatory present aspect is only grammatical and rarely semantic, and in later stages of the language the restriction is altogether abandoned. In Early Galic, the secondary verbs did not form injunctives, subjunctives, and optatives but did form imperfects and imperatives, as well as participles and infinitives. 
|rowspan="3"| menō ||rowspan="3"| meṇhī ||rowspan="3"| meṇhōs
 
|-
While this structure holds true in varying degrees for most Erani-Eracuran languages, the very most archaic forms of the daughters often show clues that the canonical structure may reflect a basic prohibition of multiple derivative markers upon a root, rather than a more elaborate system within the parent language.  These clues are corroborated by the system's own idiosyncratic peculiarities. The particulars more fully appears elsewhere in this and related articles.
! Vocative
|-
! Accusative
|-
! Genitive
| mēṇġ || meṇhuš || māṇhō
|-
! Locative
| rowspan="2"|meṇhi || meṇho || meṇhēs
|-
! Dative
| rowspan="2"| meṇhma ||rowspan="2"| maṇhē
|-
! Instrumental
| meṇha
|}


===i-stems===
The various secondary derivations generally behaved as tenses in the Gales, but in the Epics they often became independent stems to which a variety of tenses were formed.  That is, in abstract terms, the secondary derivations have been promoted to primary status by the Epic period and were thus permitted to form their own modal formsAfter all, if a passive form existed and evolved to be completely parallel to the active and middle, then there appeared to be little reason why it should not form a corresponding imperfect, subjunctive, optative, etc.  Looking backwards in time, some have commented that the non-root primary forms behave more like secondary forms in the Pre- and Early Galic periods, largely defective in modal formationsThus, the evolution of the basic verbal grammar seems to be a gradual extension of cross-classification or permutations of various attributes, reaching the canonical Erani-Eracuran form in the Late Galic period and exceeding it in the Epic age.
The i-stems were a prolific class of nouns in Northian during the Galic period.  In PEE, the i-stems were completely parallel to the u-stems in virtually all contexts, but due to sound changes their surface forms in Northian are quite differentAccordingly, they are considered separate classes in Northian tradition.


Tenses attested in Early Galic are in '''bold'''; in Late Galic, in normal face; in the Epics, in ''italics''. 
{| class="wikitable"
{| class="wikitable"
!style="width: 15em"| Present stem !!style="width: 15em"| Aorist stem !!style="width: 15em"| Perfect stem !! style="width: 15em"| Root
|-
|-
!rowspan="2"| !!colspan="3"| sa sokiš, "ally"
| '''Present indicative ||  ||  ||  
|-
|-
!  style="width:7em"| Singular !!style="width:7em"| Dual !!style="width:7em"| Plural
| '''Present injunctive || Aorist injunctive || Perfect injunctive || '''Prohibitive
|-
|-
! Nominative
| '''Imperfect || '''Aorist || Pluperfect||
| sokiš ||rowspan="3"| skoi̯ē ||rowspan="2"| sokoi̯es
|-
|-
! Vocative
| ||  || '''Perfect || 
| soki
|-
|-
! Accusative
| '''Present optative || '''Aorist optative || Perfect optative ||  
| sokim || skoim
|-
|-
! Genitive
| Present subjunctive || Aorist subjunctive || Perfect subjunctive || '''First subjunctive
| skiō || skiōs || skiõ
|-
|-
! Locative
| '''Present imperative || '''Aorist imperative || '''Perfect imperative ||  
| skoi̯e || skiō || skihu
|-
|-
! Dative
| '''Future imperative || '''Aorist future imperative  || Perfect future imperative ||  
| skiē ||rowspan="2"| skimō ||rowspan="2"| skimuš
|-
|-
! Instrumental
!colspan="4"| Derivatives
| skī
|}
 
{| class="wikitable"
|-
|-
!rowspan="2"| !!colspan="3"| sā menθis, "thought" !!colspan="3"| tod more, "sea"
| Passive I (''stem'') || Passive II (''stem'') || Future perfect (''stem'')<br>Perfect passive (''stem'') || '''Desiderative'''<br>'''Inchoative'''<br>'''Future'''<br>'''Causative'''
|-
|-
!  style="width:7em"| Singular !!style="width:7em"| Dual !!style="width:7em"| Plural
| ||  || || '''Denominative'''<br>'''Stative'''
! style="width:7em"| Singular !!style="width:7em"| Dual !!style="width:7em"| Collective
|-
|-
! Nominative
!colspan="4"| Non-finite forms
| menθiš ||rowspan="3"| menθēi̯ ||rowspan="2"| menθei̯es
|rowspan="3"| more ||rowspan="3"| morēi̯ ||rowspan="3"| merōi̯
|-
|-
! Vocative
| Present active participle || Aorist active participle ||  || 
| meinθe
|-
|-
! Accusative
| || || Perfect active participle || 
| menθim || menθīn
|-
|-
! Genitive
| Present middle participle || Aorist middle participle || Perfect middle participle ||
| munθēs || munθēuš || munθei̯õ
| mrēs || mrēuš || meri̯õ
|-
|-
! Locative
| Present active infinitive || Aorist active infinitive || ||  
|rowspan="2"| munθēi || munθēu || munθēhu
|rowspan="2"| mrei̯ē || mrēo || merihu
|-
|-
! Dative
| || || Perfect active infinitive ||
| rowspan="2"| munθēma ||rowspan="2"| munθēmuš
| rowspan="2"|mrēma ||rowspan="2"| merimuš
|-
|-
! Instrumental
| Present middle infinitive || Aorist middle infinitive || Perfect middle infinitive
| munθēi̯
| meri̯
|}
|}
===Voice===
There are two sets of endings that encode the grammatical "active" and "middle" voices, attached to stems, to form the finite verb.  For the majority of verbs, the active voice placed the nominative subject of the sentence in the position of {{wp|agent (grammar)|agent}}, which acted upon an accusative {{wp|patient (grammar)|patient}}, while the middle voice of the same usually indicated the subject was somehow affected or benefited by its own action, i.e. has a position as patient as well.  Such verbs, where the meaning of the middle is a modification of the active, are called active verbs.  However, there is also a sizeable group of verbs that either did not have an active voice or had one that modified the meaning of the middle; such are called ''media tantum'' verbs.  While linguists prefer to see a transitivity-based distinction between the active and middle verbs, many ''media tantum'' have transitive meanings and take accusative objects.
Clues found in old Northian deponents have been interpreted to suggest, at a very early stage of the parent language, stems once took either set of endings, but not both.  Some old middle forms that complement active verbs demonstrate a surprising degree of "independence" from the form of the active; for example, G.Nr. 771 has ''tuzitay'' "it lactates", with zero-grade root, in present middle, while the active has ''tuzinawši'' "thou milkst" with the nu-suffix.  tuzi- "milk" is a root of aorist origin, but its present active and middle forms have been created by separate ''primary'' derivational processes.  Some words appear to be aorist middle forms with the ''hic et nunc'' particle -i added, where such a particle is proper only to present stems.  Some hold this peculiarity to obtain that deponent verbs may not have had an original aspectual distinction between present and aorist.
Attinger argued there are at least three possible origins of middle forms, 1) formed directly from an active, 2) ''media tantum'', and 3) derived separately from the active and subsequently paired with it. This classification was originally aimed at ablaut aberrancy of the middle compared to the active: according to him, only class 1 middle forms consistently took the weak grade of the active stem "because only they were formed on the basis of the active".  But if lexically active and middle verbs were originally exclusive, and if actives secondarily acquired class 1 middle forms, it has been asked if middles also secondarily acquired active forms.  That opposite process has however proven much more elusive.  To date, there are few plausible examples of such a transition, though the absence of ablaut in a handful active stems could be attributed to the middle.
===Endings===
====Athematic I & II====
The athematic verb endings, like their noun counterparts, are directly attached to the verbal stem without an intervening theme vowel.  The primary endings are used for the present indicative and all subjunctives, and the secondary endings for the aorist indicative and all injunctives, imperfects, and (with the suffix) the optative.  As is clear, outside of the present indicative, the present and aorist stems take the same set of endings, and their distinction consequently lies in the stem itself.
In the two following charts, this convention is observed: where variant endings are conditioned by surrounding phonetic environment, they are separated by the {{wp|tilde}}, and where they are instead conditioned by ablaut or another unanalyzable process, by the comma instead.  We may reason that environmental variations were more transparent to ancient Northians, as these mostly represent post-Erani-Eracuran phonetic divergences, while ablaut variations had become more opaque as its conditioning factor had become non-operational by the last phase of the proto-language. Thus, phonetic variations have tended to resist levelling for longer, while ablaut variations tended to disappear over time. 
The most important ablaut variation in endings comes in the {{smallcaps|mid 2 & 3du}} and {{smallcaps|act 3pl}}; of these, the more frequently used {{smallcaps|3pl}} survived longer.  At least in the {{smallcaps|3pl}} ablaut variation was more conservatively observed, since in the extension of the *-(e)nt marker of the active to the middle, the zero-grade morph *-n̥t is always selected in the Gales acknowledging and in front of the accented ending -o.  The dual variations are only imperfectly observed in the Gales, while two morphs of the {{smallcaps|act 1pl}} are only marginally associated with ablaut patterns.


{| class="wikitable"
{| class="wikitable"
!colspan="4"| Primary active !!colspan="7"| Primary middle 
|-
|-
!rowspan="2"| !!colspan="3"| sa potis, "master"
!rowspan="2"| !!style="width: 9em" rowspan="2"| {{smallcaps|sing}} !!style="width: 9em" rowspan="2"| {{smallcaps|du}} !!style="width: 9em" rowspan="2"| {{smallcaps|pl}} !!rowspan="2"|  !!colspan="2"|  {{smallcaps|sing}} !!colspan="2"|  {{smallcaps|du}} !!colspan="2"| {{smallcaps|pl}}
|-
! style="width:7em"| Singular !!style="width:7em"| Dual !!style="width:7em"| Plural
|-
|-
! Nominative
!style="width: 6em"|{{smallcaps|trans}} !!style="width: 6em"| {{smallcaps|intrans}}!!style="width: 6em"|{{smallcaps|trans}} !!style="width: 6em"| {{smallcaps|intrans}}!!style="width: 6em"|{{smallcaps|trans}} !!style="width: 6em"| {{smallcaps|intrans}}
| potis ||rowspan="3"| potī ||rowspan="2"| potiiš
|-
|-
! Vocative
! {{smallcaps|1p}}
| poti
| -mi || -wəni ~ uwəni<br>{{smallcaps|'''lg'''}} -ūni || -máŋhi, -maʸhi
! {{smallcaps|1p}}
|colspan="2"| -ā ||colspan="2"| -wōδi ~ uwōδi ||colspan="2"| -mōihi <br>{{smallcaps|'''lg'''}} -māhi
|-
|-
! Accusative
! {{smallcaps|2p}}
| potim || potīn
| -si ~ hi ~ ši || -tā || -te, -e
! {{smallcaps|2p}}
|colspan="2"| -tā ||colspan="2"| -ātiϑi, -(i)tiϑi ||colspan="2"| -ϑūwə ~ ϑuwə ~ huwə<br>{{smallcaps|'''lg'''}} -ϑū ~ hū
|-
|-
! Genitive
! {{smallcaps|3p}}
| potis || potiuš || potiõ
| -ti ~ si || -tā, -zā || -'''ə'''ṇti, -ā̆si<br>{{smallcaps|'''lg'''}} -'''ə'''nti, -ā̆si
|-
! {{smallcaps|3p}}
! Locative
| -tō || || -(i)ϑā || -ā || -ā̆zrō <br>{{smallcaps|'''lg'''}} -ārē || -ro, -rō
|rowspan="2"| poti || potio || potisu
|-
! Dative
| rowspan="2"| potīm ||rowspan="2"| potimuš
|-
! Instrumental
| potī
|}
|}


===u-stems===
The plain u-stems of Northian reflect three ablaut patterns, and excepting the acrostatic they are both attested abundantly in the Galic language.  The acrostatic pattern provides only inherited nouns, with no sign that new terms with this pattern were made.
{| class="wikitable"
{| class="wikitable"
!colspan="4"| Secondary active  !!colspan="7"| Secondary middle 
|-
|-
!rowspan="2"| !!colspan="3"| sā genōš, "chin" !!colspan="3"| tod dāno, "dew, tears"
!rowspan="2"| !!style="width: 9em" rowspan="2"|{{smallcaps|sing}} !!style="width: 9em" rowspan="2"| {{smallcaps|du}} !!style="width: 9em" rowspan="2"| {{smallcaps|pl}} !!rowspan="2"|   !!colspan="2"| {{smallcaps|sing}} !!colspan="2"| {{smallcaps|du}} !!colspan="2"| {{smallcaps|pl}}
|-
style="width:7em"| Singular !!style="width:7em"| Dual !!style="width:7em"| Plural
!  style="width:7em"| Singular !!style="width:7em"| Dual !!style="width:7em"| Plural
|-
! Nominative
| genōš ||rowspan="3"| geneu̯ē ||rowspan="2"| geneōs
|rowspan="3"| dāno ||rowspan="3"| dāunnī ||rowspan="3"| dānū
|-
! Vocative
| genō
|-
! Accusative
| genōm || geneõ
|-
|-
! Genitive
!style="width: 6em"|{{smallcaps|trans}} !!style="width: 6em"| {{smallcaps|intrans}}!!style="width: 6em"|{{smallcaps|trans}} !!style="width: 6em"| {{smallcaps|intrans}}!!style="width: 6em"|{{smallcaps|trans}} !!style="width: 6em"| {{smallcaps|intrans}}
| gunnō || gunnōš || gunuõ
| daunnō || daunnōš || daunnõ
|-
|-
! Locative
! {{smallcaps|1p}}
| gunei̯ō || gunnō || gunuhu
| -ā̆ ~ m || -wə ~ uwə<br>{{smallcaps|'''lg'''}} -ū || -me
| ? || daunnō || daunuhu
! {{smallcaps|1p}}
|colspan="2"| -a ||colspan="2"| -wohi ~ uwohi ||colspan="2"| -maʸhi
|-
|-
! Dative
! {{smallcaps|2p}}
| gunōi̯ ||rowspan="2"| gunumō ||rowspan="2"| gunumuš
| -h ~ š || -tõm || -te, -'''e'''
| daunōi̯ ||rowspan="2"| daunumō ||rowspan="2"| daunumuš
! {{smallcaps|2p}}
|colspan="2"| -ta ||colspan="2"| -ātiϑi, -(i)tiϑi ||colspan="2"| -ϑuwə ~ huwə<br>{{smallcaps|'''lg'''}} -ϑū ~ hū
|-
|-
! Instrumental
! {{smallcaps|3p}}
| gunū
| -t ~ s || -tā̊ || -'''ə'''n, -ā̆ṯ, -r <br>{{smallcaps|'''lg'''}} -'''ə'''n, -as
| daunnū
! {{smallcaps|3p}}
| -to || -o || -āϑā, -(i)ϑā || -ā, -i || -ā̆zro<br>{{smallcaps|'''lg'''}} -ā̆zro || -ro
|}
|}
The OX pattern had a nom. sg. ending in PNN *-ou̯-s which regularly gave Galic -ō-š, the final -š being a regularly conditioned result of *-is and *-us.  The gen. and dat. reflects PNN *-u-os and *-u-ei̯ as expected in a hysterokinetic pattern.  The loc. shows full-grade in the stem reflecting PNN *-eu̯-i > *ei̯-u̯e > Galic -ei̯-ō.  The ins. may reflect PEE *gen-u-eh₁ or *gen-u-h₁, and the metre does not clarify.  The dual behaves as expected.  In the plural, final -eōs < *-eu̯-es, as though *-e-u̯es.  The expected *-eu̯-iš anomalously does not occur with OX nouns but does with PX nouns, which may be a dialectal influence.  The acc. shows -eõ which is from *-eu̯-ōn < *-eu̯-ons < *-eu̯-uns.


In contrast with common-gender u-stem OX nouns, neuter u-stem OX nouns are very rare, and only one item ''dāno'' "dew, tear" is well-attested.  The nom. sing. is from PEE *déh₂nu > PNN *dānuThe oblique stem is from PEE *dh₂n̥-u- > Galic daunn- because *-nu̯- is subject to assimilation to -nn-.  The dual has *dāun-w- (effectively a mixture between direct and oblique stems) because the neuter dual ending is vocalic and causes the preceding *-w- to become a consonant, which then causes the *-n- preceding it to become *--.  Interestingly, a person's tears is usually inflected as a dual, possibly itemizing tears as "streams of tears" coming from a person's eyes (which is by default inflected as dual).
{{smallcaps|'''1 sing'''}} The primary and secondary active endings differ with the ''hic et nunc'' particle *-i in the proro-language, for the singular active.  The element ''m'' is accepted in mainstream reconstructions of Proto-Erani-Eracuran to signify the first person.  As -m is a resonant, the ending -i in the primary conjugation can trigger mutation in the preceding syllable, particularly apparently in a syllable generated by an interconsonantal laryngeal.  In the secondary conjugation, final -m can vocalize to -ā̆ if following a stop.  But if the verb stem ended in a full- or long-grade vowel plus resonant, the final -m triggers {{wp|Stang's law}} resulting in a lengthened vowel that subsequently loses the final -m.  In late texts, this -m is usually restored following the long vowel.
 
In the middle voice, the ending evolves from *-h₂ey > -ay.  This ending is agnostic as to any preceding laryngeal.  The secondary middle ending loses the ''hic et nunc'' particle, as with the rest of the singular middle.
 
{{smallcaps|'''2 sing'''}} In the primary conjugation, the signifying element of the active second singular *s can become [h] or [š] depending on the phonetic context; if the latter, epenthetic [t] is introduced to separate it from the following -i.  In  secondary sequence it usually triggers compensatory lengthening in resonant stemsIn the case of *-H or semivowel stems, it usually becomes identical to the {{smallcaps|1 sg}} form, but in contrast thereto, final -s is never restored.
 
The middle ending here is *-th₂ey > -tai. If there is a preceding laryngeal, it appears as -itai.
 
{{smallcaps|'''3 sing'''}} This -ti ending is usually retained in the primary conjugation.  If the stem ended in a dental, the ending was liable to mutate in several ways.  In the secondary, -t can displace preceding stops or be dropped in some contexts.
 
The middle ending of the third singular depends on the meaning of the word and the stem used, which is peculiar.  In root verbs and many stem-classes, a middle verb with intransitive menaing will take the ending -o, and those with transitive meaning, -toi.  In other cases, such as the -naō ~ nu- stems, the ending -toi is always used, regardless of meaning.  If a laryngeal preceded the ending, it appears as -itoi.  Where the ending is not accented, it appears as trans. -itai or intrans. -a.
 
{{smallcaps|'''1 du'''}} The primary active ending is from *-wen-i and appears as accented -uuóni and unaccented -uuiñi.  If a laryngean preceded the ending, it became *-u-weni, whereupon nasalization induced -u-mβóni.
 
In the middle, the form -wṓδa < *-wesdʰh₂ is found.
 
{{smallcaps|'''2 du'''}} Here the active ending -tāḫ is for *-th₂esAn epenthentic -s- is sometimes found if the stem ended in a dental to avoid a sequence of two dentals together, and the resulting combination is sometimes resolved to prehistoric *-ss-.  But this was not a universal phenomenon, and sometimes the geminate dental either drops or evne surfaces. Such examples are often interpreted by analogical restoration. Secondary -tõm is found in the middle for *-tom.
 
The middle ending is -ātiϑayi, which is structurally complex and the subject of much debate.  First, the final -i must have been added only after the final laryngeal vocalized; otherwise, the monosyllabic ending *-ϑi would be expected for *-dʰH-i; indeed, it is often omitted in Galic.  The element -ϑa- is often considered identical to that found in the {{smallcaps|1 pl mid}} ending -mōi-δa, with the initial dental devoiced following a laryngeal reflected as -i-.  That this element should be deemed a particle is clarified by the development of {{smallcaps|1 pl mid}} -mōi-δa < *-mes-dʰH, which is only regular word-finally, and also that it is shared with the {{smallcaps|1 du mid}} ending.  The distinct part of the ending is thus -āti-, which has the zero-grade variant -(i)ti that appears after roots with persistent accent.  The element -ti- < *-tH- has been identified as a zero-grade variant of the Kankrit {{smallcaps|2 pl act}} ending ''-tha'' < *-tHe.
 
Curiously, Northian presents both parallel and contradictory information to Kankrit comparanda, which has {{smallcaps|2 du mid}} primary athematic -āthai̯ and thematic -a-i̯thai̯.  Kankrit has distinct secondary -ātham, while Northian attests no distinct secondary form.  If the particle -ϑa- were to be omitted in Northian, the resulting sequence *-ātiyi would be very similar in structure to the Kankrit, especially if a full-grade vowel can be posited in the second syllable and superficially deleted in unaccented position.  Disputes cloud the identification of the first part of the ending, which behaves differently in both languages.  In Kankrit, the variant appearing after the thematic vowel cannot be identified as a laryngeal, but that is nearly required in Northian.
 
{{smallcaps|'''3 du'''}} -tāʰ reflects *-tes.  As with all endings which begin with /t/, it is liable to an epenthetic -s- following another dental.  There is thus a superficial identity between the {{smallcaps|2 du}} and {{smallcaps|3 du}} primary endings; this identity was often extended to the secondary where it is not a regular outcome in later materials, usually at the expense of the {{smallcaps|2 du}} ending, which was apparently less frequently used.
 
The secondary ending is -tā̊ < *tām < *teh₂m.  The -m ending is confirmed by the co-ordinating imperative ending, which shows the particle -u attached, producing *-tā́mū.
 
In the middle, this personal form is also sensitive to the transitivity of the verb stem.  Where the {{smallcaps|3 sg & pl}} forms require transitive endings, this form will canonically take the ending -ātā, and the intransitive ending is -ā, with the particle -i added in the primary sequence.  But in the received text, -ātā is often seen in place of expected -ā; considering they have a differing number of syllables, this could hardly be a metrical alteration.
 
{{smallcaps|'''1 pl'''}} In the primary active one finds -məŋhi < *-mensi.  This is usually explained as a concactenation of the 1 pl. suffix *-men plus the (redundant) plural marker *-s, with the ''hic et nunc'' particle *-i.  For verbs with recessive accent, a different form -maʸhi is used; this would be from *-mesi.  The secondary form is always -mo.
 
The subjunctive does not take the normal primary ending of -máŋhi but rather the ending -omōhi, which is best explained as the thematic ending -omō plus the segment -hi extracted from the athematic.
 
In the primary middle, the ending -mōyδi is encountered, usually thought to be for *-mesdʰh₂.  The expected phonetic outcome is *-mezδi > *-mēδi, but it seems the *z was elided in such a way that it caused the preceding vowel to lengthen, which then resolved as though it were at the end of a word *-ē > -ōy.  Alternatively, the ending could have been -meh₁dʰh₂, which would produce the same result.  In either event, it indicates the *-dʰh₂ could have been considered an independent particle, thus triggering the word-final phonetic change for the long vowel.  While *-mes is preferred in the interest of comparison to archaic Syaran -μέσθα, *-meh₁ would compare very well with the {{smallcaps|1 pl perf}} ending -mōy < *-meH.
 
In the secondary, the ending was -máha is used.
 
{{smallcaps|'''2 pl'''}} The allomorphs are -te or -se after vowelsAbout half of the time the primary ending shows -te even after vowels, which has been interpreted as a sign that the primary ending shared the same of *-tHe as in Kankrit, but as it only occurs as an alternative, the Northian readings permits but does not require it as the ending proper to the primary.  The secondary endings are identical except for the ''xaŋzat''-aorists, where it is merely -e and subjec to laryngeal and semivowel colouring.
 
The middle endings primary -dūvó and secondary -duvó has caused some controversy amongst academics as its provenance is open to many interpretations. No other Erani-Eracuran language attests a difference between primary and secondary endings in this position, and much Galic material also does not distinguish between them.  But in the Early Galic, -dūvó is clearly preferred as the primary ending, being attested ten times over the two times of -duvó.  In secondary sequence, -dūvó never appears at all.  Some prefer to see the length difference as militated by that found in the {{smallcaps|1 pl}}, where the elision of *-z created a long vowel in the primary but not the secondary.  But the quantitative difference did not disappear in that form, while the putatively connected contrast disappeared rapidly.
 
The general shape of these two endings also require some comment.  The u-vocalism itself could have two origins.  First, as in Kankrit, it could be attributed to a form of Sievers's law that created a syllabic *u before non-syllabic *w following a heavy syllable, but this variety of Sievers's law did not operate generally in Northian.  Second, the pre-form *-dʰh₂wé would regularly vocalize as *-δiwó > -δuwó, since /i/ before /u/ is always assimilated to it.  Because *w always follows two consonants and thus a heavy syllable, the Sievers's form *-dʰh₂uwé is generated, which has been argued as the source of primary -dūwó by way of metathesis to *-dʰuh₂wé, though this hypothesis creates the absence of the metathesis restricted to secondary -duwó.


{| class="wikitable"
{{smallcaps|'''3 pl'''}} In the active, the ending -ən(ti) is used, which is -ant(i) if following h- or *h₂-.  Note that final -t seems to be regularly dropped after -ənIn verbs with persistent accent, this ending takes the zero-grade form of *-n̥t > -ā̆t(i); some preceding vowels are altered by the vocalized nasal.  There is a specialized form -r that appears in the aorist injunctive and optative of ''xaŋzat'' verbs, a special class of root aorist verbs that have full-grade root throughout, and the present indicative of most i- and u-stem verbs, i.e. {{smallcaps|3 pl}} -ir and -urWhere -r does not follow a semivowel, it is vocalic and written <arə> word-finally, i.e. <xáŋhiyarə> ''xáŋhiˀr̥'' (the optative suffix ended in a laryngeal, not -i).
|-
!rowspan="2"| !!colspan="3"| sa sui̯us, "child" = υἱύς !!colspan="3"| tod pōi̯o, "flock" = πῶυ
|-
!  style="width:7em"| Singular !!style="width:7em"| Dual !!style="width:7em"| Plural
!  style="width:7em"| Singular !!style="width:7em"| Dual !!style="width:7em"| Plural
|-
! Nominative
| sui̯uš ||rowspan="3"| sui̯ēu̯ ||rowspan="2"| sui̯eu̯iš
|rowspan="3"| pōi̯o  ||rowspan="3"| pii̯ēu̯ ||rowspan="3"| pii̯ēu̯
|-
! Vocative
| sui̯o
|-
! Accusative
| sui̯um || sui̯ə̄ṇġ
|-
! Genitive
| sui̯ōš || sui̯eu̯ō || sui̯eu̯õ
| pii̯ōš || pii̯eu̯ō || pii̯eu̯õ
|-
! Locative
|rowspan="2"| sui̯eu̯i || sui̯eu̯a || sui̯eu̯hu
|rowspan="2"| pii̯eu̯i || pii̯eu̯a || pii̯eu̯hu
|-
! Dative
| rowspan="2"| sui̯eu̯ma ||rowspan="2"| sui̯eu̯muš
| rowspan="2"| pii̯eu̯ma ||rowspan="2"| pii̯eu̯muš
|-
! Instrumental
| sui̯ēu̯
| pii̯ēu̯
|}
The PX pattern in u-stem nouns is very prolific in both the Galic and Epic languagesMany are abstract nouns with the ending -tuš.  The nom. ended in -uš, but it is not uncommon in the Late Canon material to see -ōWhile many nouns would show root ablaut, the example provided above does not and therefore has all components in zero grade in the nom; the hypothetical forms *seu̯i̯uš or *sou̯i̯uš would be expected based on the general ablaut tendencies, but it is in fact the proto-form of ''sui̯uš'' that is attested in all EE languages.  The gen. ended in *-ou̯-s, whence -ō-šAll the other oblique cases show -eu̯- in the suffix, which does very early spread to the gen. as well, such that -eu̯-s actually outnumbers the older -ou̯-s by a factor of more than 40 to 1.


The ins. sing. and nom. du. have identical endings becuase their PEE forms were both *eu̯-h₁ > Galic -ēu̯The gen. du. has -eu̯ō, which reflects *eu̯-us; here, the final *-us dissimilated from the preceding vowel and became *-os, which regularly > -ōThe loc. has -eu̯-a which is the reflex of *-eu̯-o dissimiliated from *-eu̯-u.  The nom. pl. and acc. have the expected forms, with PNN *-uns > Galic -ə̄ṇġAll other forms in the plural are straightforward.
For the middle voice, there are several endings that share (what is usually interpreted as) a morpheme *-rMost present, and all derivative, stems show -ntro, but a few merely -roThis -r in -ro is thought to be connected in some wise to the active ending -r mentioned above.  The ending is furthermore found in the same place in the perfectIt is thus unclear in which direction the borrowing occurred.


The neuter version of the PX u-stems displays regular ablaut, which alternates strong and weak stems. The strong has o-grade from PEE *poh₂-i̯u > PNN *pōi̯u > Galic ''pōi̯o''. The oblique stem is from PEE *ph₂-i̯ou̯-s > PNN *pə-i̯ou̯-s > Galic ''pii̯ōš'', where PNN *ə regularly becomes Galic -i- before high vowels or their allophones.  The du. and pl. nom. have the same form because their endings in PEE were *-h₁ and *-h₂ respectively, which were levelled and trigger Cammer's law lengthening the preceding vowel.
====Thematic I and II====
The primary and secondary thematic endings include a theme vowel between the stem and the ending-proper, varying between *e ~ o. The thematic endings formally differ in the {{smallcaps|1 & 2 sing}} from the athematic ones but are transparently the same, with the addition of the theme vowel, in others. It is still a matter of active debate what the contrast between athematic and thematic endings was in the proto-language.  The primary and secondary thematic endings are used in present and aorist stems in the same manner as the athematic ones, with the addition of the same thematic vowel.


{| class="wikitable"
{| class="wikitable"
!colspan="4"| Thematic active endings !!colspan="4"| Thematic middle endings
|-
|-
!rowspan="2"| !!colspan="3"| sa θeɣus, "fish" = ἰχθύς !!colspan="3"| tod doru, "wood" = δόρυ
! !!style="width: 6em"| {{smallcaps|sing}} !!style="width: 6em"| {{smallcaps|du}} !!style="width: 6em"| {{smallcaps|pl}} !!!style="width: 6em"| {{smallcaps|sing}} !!style="width: 6em"| {{smallcaps|du}} !!style="width: 6em"| {{smallcaps|pl}}
|-
! style="width:7em"| Singular !!style="width:7em"| Dual !!style="width:7em"| Plural
!  style="width:7em"| Singular !!style="width:7em"| Dual !!style="width:7em"| Plural
|-
! Nominative
|rowspan="3"| θeɣuš ||rowspan="3"| θeɣō ||rowspan="3"| θeɣōs
|rowspan="3"| doru ||rowspan="3"| dorō ||rowspan="3"| dorō
|-
! Vocative
|-
! Accusative
|-
! Genitive
| zuš || zuuš || zuõ
| deruš || deruuš || deruõ
|-
|-
! Locative
! {{smallcaps|1p}}
|rowspan="2"| zui || zuo || zuru
| || -owō || -əmōhi
|rowspan="2"| derō || deruo || denuru
! {{smallcaps|1p}}
| -oHā || -owōδi || -əmōihi
|-
|-
! Dative
! {{smallcaps|2p}}
| rowspan="2"| zuma ||rowspan="2"| zumuš
| -ā ||rowspan="2"| -'''e'''tā || -'''e'''te
| rowspan="2"| deruma ||rowspan="2"| derumuš
! {{smallcaps|2p}}
| -'''e'''tā || -'''e'''tiϑi || -'''e'''δuwə
|-
|-
! Instrumental
! {{smallcaps|3p}}
|
| -'''e'''si || -əṇti
| derū
! {{smallcaps|3p}}
| -'''e'''tō || -'''e'''tā || -əṇtō
|}
|}


===xͮōn===
{{smallcaps|'''1 sg'''}} The first singular active ending is -ōThe middle ending is -oay for *o-h₂e-y—the ending is always disyllabic in Galic.
''xͮōn'' "woman" continues the PEE proterodynamic declension ending in *-h₂This suffix also underlies the ī- and ū-stem declensions in Northian but is otherwise rarely seen alone.  The full-grade stem is from *gʷénh₂-, and the zero-grade *gʷnéh₂-.
 
{{smallcaps|'''2 sg'''}} The ending for the second active singular is -aꜤi.  The middle ending is the same as the athematic one, with the theme vowel /e/ inserted.


{| class="wikitable"
{{smallcaps|'''3 sg'''}} In the third singular one finds the ending -eyi; note that this ending is disyllabic, unlike that of the second singular; ''ditto'' for the middle.
|-
!rowspan="2"| !!colspan="3"| sā xͮōn, "woman" = γυνή
|-
! style="width:7em"| Singular !!style="width:7em"| Dual !!style="width:7em"| Plural
|-
! Nominative
|  xͮōn ||rowspan="3"| žnå ||rowspan="2"| xͮenas
|-
! Vocative
| xͮen
|-
! Accusative
| xͮenum || xͮenān
|-
! Genitive
| žnās || žnāuš || žnāõ
|-
! Locative
| rowspan="2"| žnāi̯ || žnāo || žnāhu
|-
! Dative
| rowspan="2"| žnāma ||rowspan="2"| žnāmuš
|-
! Instrumental
| žnå
|}


===ī-stems===
{{smallcaps|'''1 - 3 du}} and {{smallcaps|1, 2 pl'''}} For all these items the thematic forms are the same as the athematic ones, with thematic /e ~ o/ added.
The ī-stems in oxytone is rare and contains only a few nouns.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
!rowspan="2"| !!colspan="3"| sā sθerīs, "heifer"
|-
! style="width:7em"| Singular !!style="width:7em"| Dual !!style="width:7em"| Plural
|-
! Nominative
|  sθerīs ||rowspan="3"| sθerī ||rowspan="2"| sθurīiš
|-
! Vocative
| sθerī
|-
! Accusative
| sθerīum || sθurīəṇġ
|-
! Genitive
| sθurīō || sθurīōs || sθurīõ
|-
! Locative
| rowspan="2"| sθurīē || sθurīō || sθunīru
|-
! Dative
| rowspan="2"| sθurīmō ||rowspan="2"| sθurīmuš
|-
! Instrumental
| sθurīē
|}


By contrast, the ī-stems in paroxytone has remained productive down to the Epic period as a feminizing suffix for athematic nouns.
{{smallcaps|'''1 pl'''}} Ending -omōhi does not show -s, in contrast to the 1 du.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
!rowspan="2"| !!colspan="3"| sā genaθrī, "genitrix"
|-
! style="width:7em"| Singular !!style="width:7em"| Dual !!style="width:7em"| Plural
|-
! Nominative
|rowspan="2"| gēnθrī ||rowspan="3"| genaθrī ||rowspan="2"| genaθrīes
|-
! Vocative
|-
! Accusative
| gēnθrīum || genaθrīəṇġ
|-
! Genitive
| gunaθri̯ēs || gnaθri̯ēuš || gnaθri̯ēõ
|-
! Locative
| rowspan="2"| gnaθri̯ēi || gnaθri̯ēo || gnaθri̯ēhu
|-
! Dative
| rowspan="2"| gnaθri̯ēma ||rowspan="2"| gnaθri̯ēmuš
|-
! Instrumental
| gnaθri̯ē
|}


===ū-stems===
{{smallcaps|'''3 pl'''}} The endings here are active -o and middle -ō.
The ū-stems were exactly parallel to the ī-stems at the PEE and PNN levels, but due to phonetic changes have become nearly unrecognizable.  The nom. sing. of hysterokinetic stems had accented root syllable and an ending in PEE *-uh₂-s > *PNN *-ūs > Galic *-ūš.  The acc. would have ended in PEE *-u̯eh₂-m̥ > PNN *-wē-um.  In Galic, *-wē- regularly > -i̯ō-, as also in loc.  In the oblique cases, the stem ended in -ū-, to which full-grade endings were added.  The zero-grade stem has replaced the original full-grade one in the dual nom. such that it projects the (implausible) PEE form *tn̥-uh₂-h₁.  The metrically trimoraic -ū ending represents final *-ūᵊ, as otherwise it would have become *-ō.


{| class="wikitable"
'''Thematic secondary''' endings, active or middle, are all the same as athematic ones, with thematic vowel inserted in like manner as the primary.
|-
!rowspan="2"| !!colspan="3"| sā tenūš, "body"
|-
! style="width:7em"| Singular !!style="width:7em"| Dual !!style="width:7em"| Plural
|-
! Nominative
|rowspan="2"| tenūš ||rowspan="3"| tunūᵊ ||rowspan="2"| tunōs
|-
! Vocative
|-
! Accusative
| tuni̯ōum || tunu̯åṇġ
|-
! Genitive
| tunuō || tunuōs || tunuõ
|-
! Locative
| tuni̯ōi || tunuō || tunūhu
|-
! Dative
| tunūā || rowspan="2"| tunumō ||rowspan="2"| tunūmuš
|-
! Instrumental
| tunuā
|}


The ū-stems also includes one member with paroxytone accent, namely ''sokrō'' "mother-in-law".
====Imperative====
{| class="wikitable"
The imperative in Northian does not have opposition between primary and secondary.  It is observed that the imperative usually implies immediacy, while the stem has aspectual value regarding the action required. The first person imperative is always defective: a speaker expressing a requirement for oneself would use the future tense.  For all dual forms, the imperative is the same as the indicative, there being no sign that these ever had distinct imperative endings in Northian.
|-
!rowspan="2"| !!colspan="3"| sā sokrō, "mother-in-law" = ''socrus''
|-
! style="width:7em"| Singular !!style="width:7em"| Dual !!style="width:7em"| Plural
|-
! Nominative
|rowspan="2"| sokrō ||rowspan="3"| sokrēu̯ ||rowspan="2"| sokrēu̯iš
|-
! Vocative
|-
! Accusative
| sokrēu̯õ || sokrēṇġ
|-
! Genitive
| sokrēu̯s || sokrēu̯uš || sokrēu̯õ
|-
! Locative
|rowspan="2"| sokrēi̯e || sokrēu̯ō || sokrēu̯ru
|-
! Dative
| rowspan="2"| sokrēu̯ma ||rowspan="2"| sokrēu̯muš
|-
! Instrumental
| sokrēu̯[a?]
|}


The term ''pūlθvēs'' "crowd, multitude" has a unique pattern and is only found in the singular.
{| class="wikitable"
{| class="wikitable"
!colspan="4"| Athematic imperative active endings !!colspan="7"| Athematic imperative middle endings
|-
|-
!rowspan="2"| !! sā pūlθvēs, "crowd, multitude" = ''plebs''
!rowspan="2"| !!style="width: 8em" rowspan="2"| {{smallcaps|sing}} !!style="width: 8em" rowspan="2"|  {{smallcaps|du}} !!style="width: 8em" rowspan="2"{{smallcaps|pl}} !!rowspan="2"|  !!colspan="2"| {{smallcaps|sing}}!! colspan="2"| {{smallcaps|du}} !!colspan="2"|  {{smallcaps|pl}}
|-
! style="width:7em"| Singular  
|-
! Nominative
| pūlθvēs  
|-
! Vocative
| pūlθvē
|-
! Accusative
| pūlθvēum
|-
! Genitive
| pūlθuō
|-
|-
! Locative
!style="width: 8em"| {{smallcaps|trans}} ||style="width: 8em"| {{smallcaps|intrans}} ||style="width: 8em"|{{smallcaps|trans}} ||style="width: 8em"| {{smallcaps|intrans}} ||style="width: 8em"|{{smallcaps|trans}} ||style="width: 8em"| {{smallcaps|intrans}}
| pūlθvē
|-
|-
! Dative
! {{smallcaps|2p}}
| pūlθuē
| -δi ~ ϑi ~ zi, -Ø || -tā || -te, -se, -s
! {{smallcaps|2p}}
|colspan="2"| -(s)wə ||colspan="2"| -ātiϑi ||colspan="2"| -duwə
|-
|-
! Instrumental
! {{smallcaps|3p}}
pūlθuē
| -tū || -tāmū, -(s)mū || -'''ə'''ṇtū, -ā̆tū
! {{smallcaps|3p}}
| -te || -e || -tā || -ātā || -'''ə'''ṇtro || -ro
|}
|}


===r/n-stems===
{{smallcaps|'''2 sg'''}} either endingless or *-dʰí, which normally yielded -δíA preceding laryngeal devoices the voiced stop and disappears, giving -ϑíAll nasal-suffix verbs (but not the nasal infix) have the endingless form.
The r/n-stems, or heteroclitics, continue a class of (mostly agreed to be) archaic EE nouns that had different suffixes depending on case even at the level of the proto-languageThey are special in that they are all neuter nouns with fundamental meanings and show acrostatic > PPX or proterokinetic > PX ablaut in the singular and dual.  These nouns do not take plural endings in Galic times but rather form a "collective" which take OX singular endings.  In this respect they are similar to mn-stems and dissimilar to es/os-stems, which are both reserved to neuter nounsIn the Epic language, many heteroclitics also formed ordinary plurals from the zero-grade stem, which agree with singular verbs and have meanings different to their collective brethren.


In the Galic language, many heteroclitic nouns have opaque forms owing to their (generally) short stem and susceptibility to ablaut, vocalization, and internal sandhi.  From a historical angle, there are three heteroclitic stems that give rise to differing forms in Northian—those in *-wr̥/wn-, *-Hr̥/Hn-, and *-rr̥/rn-.  The type of '''' "dwelling" ended in PEE *-r-r̥ in the nominative, but the second *r is syncopated into the first in its evolution to Northian; the oblique stem assimilates to -nn-.  The type with nom. ending in -ō such as ''perå'' "mountain" ended in *-wr̥ in the proto-language.  This ending would first become PNN *-wur, then Northian *-wor; in Galic, *-wo- following a vowel regularly becomes -å.  For the stems ending in laryngeal, the effect is most noticeable before the PX ending *-ens; this ending surfaces as -āš after *h₂- and -ōḥ after *h₃-.
{{smallcaps|'''2 du & pl'''}} endings mimic the indicative endings; suffixed verbs drop the suffix.


PP ''i̯å'' "year", is from *yoh₁-r̥ > *yō-ur, gen. *yeh₁-n̥-s > *yē-uns.  In Galic, unaccented final -ur regularly drops and lengthens preceding syllable.  The strong stem with *-r- is visible in the dual nom.  In the gen., *uns > *ə̄ṇġ.  In the dat. the long vowel resists mutation caused by final short *-i.  The ins. ending has dropped, but the preceding long vowel cannot be further lengthened to *å because it is closed.  The rest of the du. behaves as expected.  In the collective, the stems are from the e-grade and zero grade (as opposed to o-grade and e-grade of the PPX singular and dual).  The nom. has a vṛddhied ending.  The zero-grade stem is from *ih₁-n- > Galic īn-, and OX endings follow as usual.
{{smallcaps|'''3 sg & du'''}} appear to be the corresponding secondary ending plus the particle *-u, which is used in all {{smallcaps|3p}} forms.  The {{smallcaps|act 3du}} in some verbs was recessively accented, and this formation -smū must reflect a zero-grade morph *-th₂m-u.


''i̯å'' is famously found in G.Nr. 59/2, contemplating the relationship between a single revolution of the annual cycle and the cycle of annual cycles, ''i̯ā̊ toi̯ i̯ə̄ṇġ, īnō i̯å'' "years of that year, that year of years!"
{{smallcaps|'''3 pl'''}} has the variable vowel quality as in the secondary ending, which is -antū if the stem ended in *-h₂, and the zero-grade form -ā̆tū if the accent was in the stem. 


The imperative forms for thematic verbs are as follows:
{| class="wikitable"
{| class="wikitable"
!colspan="4"| Thematic imperative active endings !!colspan="4"| Thematic imperative middle endings
|-
|-
!rowspan="2"| !!colspan="3"| tod i̯å, "year" = ὥρα
! !!style="width: 8em"| {{smallcaps|sing}} !!style="width: 8em"| {{smallcaps|du}} !!style="width: 8em"| {{smallcaps|pl}} !!  !!style="width: 8em"| {{smallcaps|sing}}!!style="width: 8em"| {{smallcaps|du}} !!style="width: 8em"| {{smallcaps|pl}}
|-
! style="width:7em"| Singular !!style="width:7em"| Dual !!style="width:7em"| Collective
|-
! Nominative
|rowspan="3"| i̯å ||rowspan="3"| i̯ōrī ||rowspan="3"| i̯ā̊
|-
! Vocative
|-
! Accusative
|-
|-
! Genitive
! {{smallcaps|2p}}
| i̯ə̄ṇġ || i̯ēnuš || īnō
| -Ø || -etā || -esi
! {{smallcaps|2p}}
| -ēwə || -ātiθi || -ezwə
|-
|-
! Locative
! {{smallcaps|3p}}
|rowspan="2"| i̯ēne || i̯ēno || iei̯ne
| -etū || -etāmū || -əṇtū
|-
! {{smallcaps|3p}}
! Dative
| -eta || -ā̊tā || -əṇtro
| rowspan="2"| i̯ēṇma ||īnē
|-
! Instrumental
| i̯ēn || īnā
|}
|}
Only a few forms require comment due to the homogeneity to the athematic forms.


''pāu̯or'' "fire" represents the heteroclitic nouns with proterokinetic pattern, with accented stem in the oblique cases.  The PNN form is *pāwur and gen. *pəwens, from PEE *peh₂-wr̥ and gen. *ph₂wen-s.  In the nom., the sequence *-wu- differentiates to *-wo- prehistorically.  In the gen. *ə before -e- regularly becomes -a-.  Final *-s drops and causes the preceding *-e- to lengthen.  Mutation occurs in the dat. with *-e- > -ei̯-.
{{smallcaps|'''2 pl'''}} has the active ending -esi, which shows *t fricativized before *i.


{| class="wikitable"
{{smallcaps|'''3 pl'''}} does ''not'' have the variable vowel or ablaut as the ending reflects invariant *-onto, which is not susceptible to laryngeal influence. Nevertheless, some thematic verbs do secondarily display -aṇtrō, particularly if they are thematizations of pre-existing athematic stems that have -aṇtrō in this position.
|-
!rowspan="2"| !!colspan="3"| tod pāu̯or, "fire" = πῦρ
|-
! style="width:7em"| Singular !!style="width:7em"| Dual !!style="width:7em"| Collective
|-
! Nominative
|rowspan="3"| pāu̯or ||rowspan="3"| pāu̯orī ||rowspan="3"| pāu̯å
|-
! Vocative
|-
! Accusative
|-
! Genitive
| pau̯ēn || pau̯enuš || pūnō
|-
! Locative
|rowspan="2"| pau̯ei̯ne || pau̯eno || pūne
|-
! Dative
| rowspan="2"| pau̯eṇma || pūnē
|-
! Instrumental
| pau̯ēn || pūn
|}


Other common heteroclitic nouns include:
====Perfect====
*PX ''aɣə̄ ɣēn'' "day"
The perfect was an athematic formation, irrespective of the thematicity of the present or aorist stems.  For the relatively tame verbal system of Northian that tends to agree with the Tennite and Syaran evidence, the evolution of the Northian prefect has been the subject of most attention. 
*PX ''petə̄ ptå'' "feather"
*PPX ''ōθə̄ ōθə̄ṇġ'' "water"
*PPX ''perō perō'' "mountain"
*PPX ''på perə̄ṇġ'' "house"


===l/n-stems===
The perfect system is structurally different to the present and aorist as far as the modal forms are concernedWhereas the present and aorist stems use the same set primary and secondary indicative endings to form its subjunctive and optative moods, the endings of the perfect indicative do ''not'' reprise in the perfect subjunctive and optative. Thus, the perfect subjunctive and perfect optative are regarded as analogous formations on the model of the present/aorist subjunctives and optatives.
''sā̊l'', phonologically probably ''sāōl'', "the Sun" continues the PEE heteroclitic stem in *-l/n-The strong stem descends from PEE *seh₂w- > sāw-; the weak stem from *sh₂ew- > saw-.  The nominative is due to the regular sound change of *wu > wo.  Genitive has ''hu̯ə̄ṇġ'', for expected *hwēn < *swens < *sh₂wens; this possibly suggests the proterokinetic ending *-ens was replaced by acrostatic ending *-n̥s prehistorically, as from from PNN *swuns < PEE *sh₂wn̥s.  However, because other Nordic languages show a reflex of *sh₂wens, the insertion of the acrostatic ending must have occurred only after Northian diverged from PNN.


The word ''sā̊l'' signifies a heavenly body that is considered a god in early Northian religion and is usually found in the singular in the Galic languageThere in in the dual, "the two Suns" is an ellipsis for "the Sun and the Moon".  After the Late Canon period, the genitive dual ''sunuš'' < PEE **sh₂wn-us displaced the singular ''hu̯ə̄ṇġ'' in all but ritualistic contexts as the normal word for "Sun's"During the imperial period, the stem from the dual was re-interpreted as an o-stem and formed the neologism ''sunō'' for the nom. sing., which also replaced ''sā̊l'' in non-ritualistic contexts.
Some scholars argue for the existence of two parallel conjugations in the perfect system, representing roots of present or aorist originsThe two conjugations would be diagnosed by their ablaut patterns and their endings in the dual and plural, with the present-origin verbs having the o-grade stem in the singular and the zero-grade elsewhere, and the aorist-origin ones having the o-grade stem everywhere other than the {{smallcaps|3 pl}}Should it have been true at some point, such a situation is necessarily a Pre-Galic one, though it does explain the indeterminacy of the vocalism of the {{smallcaps|1 & 2 pl}} in early Galic with considerable success. But since this theory requires the perfect to be (at least in part) a derivative strategy, it is not accepted by those who maintain a tripartite aspectual system of the Erani-Eracuran verb.


{| class="wikitable"
{| class="wikitable"
!colspan="4"| Perfect endings
|-
|-
!rowspan="2"| !! colspan="2"|sā sā̊l, "the Sun"
! !!style="width: 8em"| {{smallcaps|sing}} !!style="width: 8em"|  {{smallcaps|du}} !!style="width: 8em"| {{smallcaps|pl}}
|-
! style="width:7em"| Singular !!style="width:7em"| Dual
|-
! Nominative
|rowspan="3"| sā̊l ||rowspan="3"| sāwa
|-
! Vocative
|-
|-
! Accusative
! {{smallcaps|1p}}
| -a || -wōi || -mōi
|-
|-
! Genitive
! {{smallcaps|2p}}
| hu̯ə̄ṇġ || sunuš
| -ta || -Hōt, -ātō || -ōi, -ā, -ō
|-
|-
! Locative
! {{smallcaps|3p}}
| rowspan="2"| hu̯ei̯n  || sunui̯
| -'''e''' || -Htō, -ātō || -
|-
! Dative
| rowspan="2"| suṇma
|-
! Instrumental
| hu̯ēn
|}
|}


===d-stems===
{{smallcaps|'''1 & 2 sg'''}} of the perfect are the same as secondary forms of the middle voice.
The d-stems are a special class in Northian because *-d behaves like a resonant, rather than an obstruent, in certain phonetic environments and permits compensatory lengthening when final *-ə drops after it, cf. dual nom. in paroxytone.
 
{| class="wikitable"
{{smallcaps|'''3 sg'''}} has *-e as opposed to middle *-o, which makes it very probable they are ablaut variants of each other. This ending is susceptible to laryngeal and semivowel colouring.
|-
 
!rowspan="2"| !!colspan="3"| sā xͮrēθs, "root" !!colspan="3"| tod kerd, "heart" = καρδία
{{smallcaps|'''1 du'''}} has -wōi in attested texts, but this cannot lead back to *-weH in the same way that {{smallcaps|1 pl}} -mōy leads to *-meH, because in this environment the *e always becomes *o and would give *-wō. The ending also cannot reflect an unmotivated *-wōi, since this would also regularly become *-wō.  The final long vowel is best thought as contamination from the {{smallcaps|1 pl}}, and not a very early one.
|-
 
! style="width:7em"| Singular !!style="width:7em"| Dual !!style="width:7em"| Plural
{{smallcaps|'''2 du'''}} has two forms, -ātō which is seen everywhere and -Hōt which is only seen in G1. The former is not sensitive to the weight of the previous syllable, which means the long vowel must contain -eh₂. The latter is archaic but unfortunately opaque; some have interpreted it as *-h₃eH-t, but in this position it cannot be confirmed.  There is also disagreement whether the two alloforms have any connection with each other, particularly around the element -t-.
! style="width:7em"| Singular !!style="width:7em"| Dual !!style="width:7em"| Plural
|-
! Nominative
| xͮrēθs ||rowspan="3"| xͮrēθē ||rowspan="2"| xͮrēθiš
|rowspan="3"| kerd ||rowspan="3"| krēd ||rowspan="3"| kordō
|-
! Vocative
| xͮrēd
|-
! Accusative
| xͮrēdum
|  xͮrēdəṇġ
|-
! Genitive
| ōrdō || ōrdōs || ōrdō
| krēθs || kreθuš || kurdō
|-
! Locative
| xͮrēd || ōrdo || ōrššu
| rowspan="2"| kerde || kreθu || kerde
|-
! Dative
| ōrdē ||rowspan="2"| ōrhmō ||rowspan="2"| ōrhmuš
| rowspan="2"| kresma ||rowspan="2"| kurdē
|-
! Instrumental
| ōrdē
| krēd
|}


===t-stems===
{{smallcaps|'''3 du'''}} also has two forms, -ātō and -Htō in the same distribution. While the former is superficially the same as with the corresponding {{smallcaps|2 du}} form, this need not be the underlying situation, in principle.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
!rowspan="2"| !!colspan="3"| sa nēp, "grandchild"
|-
! style="width:7em"| Singular !!style="width:7em"| Dual !!style="width:7em"| Plural
|-
! Nominative
|rowspan="2"| nēpōt ||rowspan="3"| nepotē ||rowspan="2"| nepotiš
|-
! Vocative
|-
! Accusative
| nepotum || neptəṇġ
|-
! Genitive
| neptō || neptōs || neptõ
|-
! Locative
| nepoti || neptō || neptru
|-
! Dative
| nepte || rowspan="2"| neptmō ||rowspan="2"| neptmuš
|-
! Instrumental
| nepta
|}


{| class="wikitable"
{{smallcaps|'''2 pl'''}} is usually reconstructed as *-e-H, the first segment apparently being the same as the {{smallcaps|3 sg}} ending.  The additional laryngeal is of uncertain origin and has spread to the {{smallcaps|1 pl}} and possibly {{smallcaps|1 du}}.  In this regard, Kankrit retains the original state of affairs, while Northian introduced alterations.  As it contains an exposed *e, this ending is also subject to laryngeal and semivowel colouring.
|-
!rowspan="2"| !!colspan="3"| sā nōi̯h, "evening, night"
|-
! style="width:7em"| Singular !!style="width:7em"| Dual !!style="width:7em"| Plural
|-
! Nominative
|rowspan="2"| nōi̯h ||rowspan="3"| nexͮša ||rowspan="2"| noxͮšiš
|-
! Vocative
|-
! Accusative
| noxͮšum || noxͮšəṇġ
|-
! Genitive
| nēh || nexͮšuš || nexͮšõ
|-
! Locative
| rowspan="2"|nexͮše || nexͮšo || nexͮššu
|-
! Dative
| rowspan="2"| naohma ||rowspan="2"| naohmuš
|-
! Instrumental
| nexͮša
|}


From PEE *n̥-mr̥teh₂ts > PNN *ummurtāts > Galic ''āṇmurtāθs''.
====Perfect and pluperfect imperative====
{| class="wikitable"
Uniquely, Northian has specialized perfect imperative forms, all of which are poorly attested.  The perfect stem is also used with conventional imperative endings, termed the ''pluperfect imperative'' because some of its forms resemble those of the pluperfect.  There appears to be little difference between the meaning of the two formations, and there is no obvious distinction between stems that take the perfect or pluperfect imperatives.
|-
!rowspan="2"| !!colspan="3"| sā āṇmurtāθs, "immortality"
|-
! style="width:7em"| Singular !!style="width:7em"| Dual !!style="width:7em"| Plural
|-
! Nominative
|  āṇmurtāθs ||rowspan="3"| āṇmurtātē ||rowspan="2"| āṇmurtātiš
|-
! Vocative
| āṇmurtāḥ
|-
! Accusative
| āṇmurtātum || āṇmurtātəṇġ
|-
! Genitive
| āṇmurtātō || āṇmurtātōs || āṇmurtātõ
|-
! Locative
| rowspan="2"|āṇmurtāθ || āṇmurtātō || āṇmurtāššu
|-
! Dative
| rowspan="2"| āṇmurtātē ||rowspan="2"| āṇmurtāsmuš
|-
! Instrumental
| āṇmurtāta
|}


===nt-stems===
The nt-stems are very closely associated with the formation of the present active participle in -nt-.  But while participles have distinct masculine, feminine, and neuter forms, nt-stem nouns have the form of masculine participles and lexical gender.  With nouns in -m, nt-stems often have three ablaut grades.
{| class="wikitable"
{| class="wikitable"
!colspan="4"| Perfect imperative endings
|-
|-
!rowspan="2"| !!colspan="3"| sā wēθš, "wind"
! !!style="width: 8em"| {{smallcaps|sing}} !!style="width: 8em"| {{smallcaps|du}} !!style="width: 8em"| {{smallcaps|pl}}
|-
! style="width:7em"| Singular !!style="width:7em"| Dual !!style="width:7em"| Plural
|-
! Nominative
| wēθš ||rowspan="3"| ōnθē ||rowspan="2"| ōnθiš
|-
! Vocative
| wēnṯ
|-
! Accusative
| ōnθum || ōnθəṇġ
|-
! Genitive
| uunθō || uunθōs || uunθõ
|-
! Locative
| ōnθe || uunθō || uunššo
|-
|-
! Dative
! {{smallcaps|2p}}
| uunθē || rowspan="2"| uunθmō ||rowspan="2"| uunθmuš
| -ti || ? || -s
|-
|-
! Instrumental
! {{smallcaps|3p}}
| uunθē
| ? || ? || -ō
|}
|}


===ponθōs===
Very little has been firmly adduced from these forms, and they depart greatly from analogous forms in the present and aorist.  At the very least, it is clear that prehistoric Northian placed the perfect in its own category and not in parallel to the present and aorist; its re-characterization as a parallel category was a process already complete by the Late Galic period, when perfect imperatives exhibited the regular endings found in the present and aorist, that is to say the pluperfect imperative has become dominant.
The word ''ponθōs'' "path" had a stem ending in PEE *póntoh₁- ~ pn̥th₁-, with dual ablauting syllables that always show the same grades.  This word appears to be unique in all Erani-Eracuran languages in the stem formation it has.


{| class="wikitable"
The {{smallcaps|2 sg}} ending -ti could in principle represent *-ti just as the athematic present indicative, though there is no motivation for the ending here.  It could also represent *-tH, or more specifically *-th₂, as seen in the perfect ending *-th₂e.  The {{smallcaps|2 pl}} ending -s is connected to a variety of forms in the most archaic daughter languages and is sure to be a relic of great antiquity.  Unfortunately, much of the paradigm of the perfect imperative is missing.
|-
!rowspan="2"| !!colspan="3"| sa ponθōs, "path, way"
|-
! style="width:7em"| Singular !!style="width:7em"| Dual !!style="width:7em"| Plural
|-
! Nominative
|rowspan="2"| ponθōs ||rowspan="3"| ponθōi̯ ||rowspan="2"| ponθōiš
|-
! Vocative
|-
! Accusative
| ponθōm || punθōn
|-
! Genitive
| punθō || punθōs || punθõ
|-
! Locative
| ponθō || punθō || punθu
|-
! Dative
| punθē || rowspan="2"| punθmō ||rowspan="2"| punθmuš
|-
! Instrumental
| punθē
|}


===a-stems===
There are a handful of instances of strangely-placed perfect participles that have been often interpreted as periphrastic forms of the imperative.  One such is ''ēwā̊'' < *h₁eh₁swōs.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
!rowspan="2"| !!colspan="3"| sā mihrā, "mist"
|-
! style="width:7em"| Singular !!style="width:7em"| Dual !!style="width:7em"| Plural
|-
! Nominative
|rowspan="2"| mihrā ||rowspan="3"| mihrāī ||rowspan="2"| mihrās
|-
! Vocative
|-
! Accusative
| mihrām || mihrāṇġ
|-
! Genitive
| mihrās || mihrāōs || mihrõ
|-
! Locative
| mihrāi || mihrāō || mihru
|-
! Dative
| mihrāi̯ || rowspan="2"| mihrāmō ||rowspan="2"| mihurmuš
|-
! Instrumental
| mihrā
|}


===o-stems===
===Moods===
{| class="wikitable"
====Subjunctive====
|-
{| class="wikitable floatright"
!rowspan="2"| !!colspan="3"| sa θūmō, "smoke" !!colspan="3"| tod i̯uɣõ, "yoke"
|-
!  style="width:7em"| Singular !!style="width:7em"| Dual !!style="width:7em"| Plural
!  style="width:7em"| Singular !!style="width:7em"| Dual !!style="width:7em"| Plural
|-
! Nominative
| θūmō ||rowspan="3"| θūmō ||rowspan="2"| θūmōis
|rowspan="3"| i̯uɣõ  ||rowspan="3"| i̯uɣōī ||rowspan="3"| i̯uɣō
|-
|-
! Vocative
! Mood !! %
| θūme
|-
|-
! Accusative
! Indicative
| θūmõ || θūmōn
| 32
|-
|-
! Genitive
! Injunctive
| θūmōhi̯o || θūmōuš || θūmōõ
| 29
| i̯uɣōhi̯o || i̯uɣōuš || i̯uɣōõ
|-
|-
! Locative
! Imperative
| θūmē || θūmōu || θūmōi̯o
| 20
| i̯uɣē || i̯uɣōu || i̯uɣōi̯o
|-
|-
! Dative
! Subjunctive
| θūmōi̯ ||rowspan="2"| θūmōma ||rowspan="2"| θūmōmuš
| 15
| i̯uɣōi̯ ||rowspan="2"| i̯uɣōma ||rowspan="2"| i̯uɣōmuš
|-
|-
! Instrumental
! Optative
| θūmō
| 4
| i̯uɣō
|}  
|}


====Acrean words====
The subjunctive mood had a variety of functions in GalicIn direct discourse, the subjunctive most often expresses "neutral potentiality" without indicating the speaker's personal wish, standing in contrast to the optative that does soIn subordinate clauses, the subjunctive often expresses futurity rather than mere potentiality.
Many words in Northian are Old Nordic loanwords from speakers of Acrean, which was used as a lingua franca in western Eracura for centuries under the influence of the Acrean Empire.  These words were so numerouš that many were not nativized and were declined according to an approximation of the thematic declension in Old NordicFor the most part, these endings are exact cognates with the thematic ones in Northian, but because of intervening sound changes, they are taught separately.  Where there was a distinct vocative, the nominative form has displaced it.  There are also no {{wp|dual (grammar)|dual forms}} for these nouns, for which neologisms have sometimes been suggested, to no general acceptanceSince Old Nordic had no locative case, this form is always identical to the dative where Northian syntax demands the locative.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
!rowspan="2"| !!colspan="2"| sa wulhʷā, "any lupine animal" = ''lupus'' !!colspan="2"| tod ēta, "food"
|-
!  style="width:7em"| Singular !!style="width:14em"| Dual and plural
!  style="width:7em"| Singular !!style="width:14em"| Dual and plural
|-
! Nominative
| rowspan="2"|wulhʷā ||rowspan="2"| wulhʷōs
|rowspan="3"| ēta    ||rowspan="3"| ētō
|-
! Vocative
|-
! Accusative
| wulhʷuŋ || wulhʷān
|-
! Genitive
| wulhʷas  || wulhʷõ
| ētas  || ētõ
|-
! Locative
|rowspan="2"| wulhʷāi  ||rowspan="2"| wulhʷamas
|rowspan="2"|  ētai̯  ||rowspan="2"|  ētamas
|-
! Dative
|-
! Instrumental
| wulhʷō || wulhʷamis
| ētō || ētamis
|}


===Irregular nouns===
It is agreed the ''sine qua non'' of the subjunctive, across the Erani-Eracuran languages, is the thematic vowel, which in most daughter languages was added directly to the full-grade stem.  In Early Galic, there is more diversity.  In the past, it was often thought the modal stem was an innovation tending towards abbreviation from the indicative, but more recent scholarship has preferred to view the indicative stem as more innovative and the subjunctive stem, which is frequently the same as the injunctive, as more basalDifferences in modal stems were levelled out in the transition from the Galic language to the Epic language by 650 BCE, always in favour of the indicative, and so a distinct subjunctive stem is also called the "Galic subjunctive".
====Country names====
All country-names in Northian are feminine in gender, though the declensions may not reflect this readilyNevertheless they agree with feminine adjectives and participles in all cases.


"[[Æþurheim]]", the name of the country to the southwest of [[Shalum]], has an invariant stem with full grade throughout and initial persistent accent in Aí̯θrō-, which takes oxytone endings.  The vocative form is identical to the nominative, showing full gradeBecause the accent is in its expected position in the nom. and voc. forms, the acute accent on the ''i'' is not necessary there, while it is found in all other forms to denote the irregular accent.   
A curious phenomenon in Galic is that some aorist verbs have the accented o-grade of the root, followed by the thematic vowel and primary endings.  This is called a type-III subjunctiveMost ''xaŋzat''-aorists have this kind of subjunctive, which is understandable if it is understood the ancestral paradigm of this class had o-grade in all positions other than the {{smallcaps|3 pl}}. But some root aorists of the m-type also unpredictably have this subjunctive. The perfect subjunctive, where it appears, ''never'' has the o-grade of the root, even though the o-grade is compulsorily present in the perfect indicativeThus, the quality of the strong grade of the root vowel cannot be firmly associated with that of the subjunctive.


"Shalum" behaves in a manner more reminiscent of a regular n-stem noun in oxytone and has the expected endings and accentual positions, but the stem does not display apophony as is usual in this class of nouns.
A type-IV subjunctive also existed, binding the thematic endings to the zero-grade of the root.  The origin of this class is unresolved, as nowhere in the family is anything comparable; some take it as a formation based on the optative, though motivation thither is unclear.


"Acrea" is named ''Aṇhrōs'', which is a compound from ''aṇh-'' "lord" and ''rōs'' "realm, power", gen. ''Aṇhurō''.
In the Tennite languages, primary and secondary endings are applied to the subjunctive stem without discrimination or an obvious difference in meaning, while the other daughters exclusively apply the primary endings.  This anomaly of the Tennite languages reminisces of the subjunctive endings used in Galic Northian, which are primary only by the addition of the ''hic et nunc'' particle *-i to the secondary thematic endings.  "Genuine" primary endings are associated with the athematic indicative, partiuclarly {{smallcaps|1 du}} ending -woiñi and {{smallcaps|1 pl}} -məŋhi, ''contra'' subjunctive -owōhi and -əmōhi.


{| class="wikitable"
The subjunctive was a reasonably frequent formation in Galic text, particularly in Late Galic, where around 15% of all verbs are subjunctive, compared to around 4% or so that are optatives.  They are both dwarfed by the injunctive, which occupies 29% of all finite forms in Galic.  The mode receded in importance after the Galic period, seemingly together with the injunctive, being replaced by the optative in most contexts.
|-
!rowspan="2"| !! sā Ai̯θrō, "Æþurheim" !! sā Halō, "Shalum" !! sā Aṇhrōs, "Acrea" !! sā Silū, "Silua" !! sā Hu̯inī, "Svinia" !! sā Ossorī, "Ossoria"
|-
! style="width:9em"| Singular !! style="width:9em"| Singular !! style="width:9em"| Singular !! style="width:9em"| Singular !! style="width:9em"| Singular !! style="width:9em"| Singular
|-
! Nominative
|rowspan="2"| Ai̯θrō  ||rowspan="2"| Halō
|-
! Vocative
|-
! Accusative
| Aí̯θrōnum || Halomnum
|-
! Genitive
| Aí̯θrōnō || Halomnō
|-
! Locative
| Aí̯θrōni || Halomei̯ne
|-
! Dative
| Aí̯θrōnē || Halomnē
|-
! Instrumental
| Aí̯θrōn || Halomna
|}


==Adjectives==
====Optative====
Adjectives agree with the nouns they modify in gender, number, and case, within their lexical paradigmsInasmuch as nouns have differing endings that convey the same number and case, so too do adjectives have lexical paradigms; adjectives do not agree with the paradigms of nouns that they modify.
The optative is the other principal modality apart from the subjunctive.  In terms of functionality, it expresses the wish of the speaker: if in the first person, the speaker wishes themself do something, and in the third, the speaker wishes the named or implied person do soIt is usually translated into Shalumite as "I wish..." or "would that...", e.g. ''iyā̊'' "I wish you would go".  


===u-stems===
The optative is signified by the suffix -ī-, which ablauts to -yā- under the accent, and to which are added secondary endings.  The accent of the optative is as follows: if the root took mobile accent, the modal suffix takes the accent from the root in the singular active, while the ending takes it in all other forms; if it took persistent accent, the accent remains persistent. The correspondence between the accent and the full grade form is totally predictable. Thus, for verbs with persistent accent, the suffix is always -ī-. While this morpheme looks somewhat like the feminizing suffix, they contain a different prehistoric laryngeal and are, as far as conventional linguistics is aware, not related.  
====Two-stem====
meθus; umθeus
{| class="wikitable"
|-
!rowspan="2"| !!colspan="3"| m. and f. meθus, "sweet" !!colspan="3"| n. meθu, "sweet" 
|-
! style="width:7em"| Singular !!style="width:7em"| Dual !!style="width:7em"| Plural
!  style="width:7em"| Singular !!style="width:7em"| Dual !!style="width:7em"| Plural
|-
! Nominative
| meθus ||rowspan="3"| meθēu ||rowspan="2"| meθeuiš
|rowspan="3"| meθu ||rowspan="3"| meθuī ||rowspan="3"| meθū
|-
! Vocative
| meθu
|-
! Accusative
| meθum || meθūŋ
|-
! Genitive
| umθeus || umθeuō || umθeuõ
| umθeus || umθeuō || umθeuõ
|-
! Locative
| umθeu || umθeuo || umθeuhu
| umθeu || umθeuo || umθeuhu
|-
! Dative
| umθeui ||rowspan="2"| umθeuma ||rowspan="2"| umθeumus
| umθeui ||rowspan="2"| umθeuma ||rowspan="2"| umθeumus
|-
! Instrumental
| umθēu
| umθēu
|}


====-us/-o/-ō====
Within the present system, the optative has the same stem as the present indicative. In the aorist system, it is formed from the root exclusively in Galic, though later texts may have the optative suffix added to the sigmatic stem. The perfect optative, like other modal forms of the perfect, is rare in Early Galic but becomes reasonably common in Late Galic and continues to be productive into Epic times. From whichever stem the optative is made, the secondary endings are always used, even in the perfect.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
!rowspan="2"| !!colspan="3"| m. tenus, "thin" !!colspan="3"| n. teno, "thin" !!colspan="3"| f. tenō, "thin" 
|-
!  style="width:7em"| Singular !!style="width:7em"| Dual !!style="width:7em"| Plural
!  style="width:7em"| Singular !!style="width:7em"| Dual !!style="width:7em"| Plural
!  style="width:7em"| Singular !!style="width:7em"| Dual !!style="width:7em"| Plural
|-
! Nominative
| tenus ||rowspan="3"| tenēu̯ ||rowspan="2"| teneu̯iš
|rowspan="3"| teno  ||rowspan="3"| teneu̯ī ||rowspan="3"| tenēu̯
|rowspan="2"| tenō ||rowspan="3"| tenū ||rowspan="2"| tenuas
|-
! Vocative
| teno
|-
! Accusative
| tenum || tenuṅ
| tenūum || tenūūŋ
|-
! Genitive
| tuneu̯s || tuneu̯ō || tuneu̯õ
| tuneu̯s || tuneu̯ō || tuneu̯õ
| tunu̯ōs || tunu̯ōus || tunu̯ōõ
|-
! Locative
| tuneu̯ || tuneu̯o || tuneu̯hu
| tuneu̯ || tuneu̯o || tuneu̯hu
| tunu̯ōi || tunu̯ōu || tunu̯ōhu
|-
! Dative
| tuneu̯i ||rowspan="2"| tuneu̯ma ||rowspan="2"| tuneu̯mus
| tuneu̯i ||rowspan="2"| tuneu̯ma ||rowspan="2"| tuneu̯mus
| tunu̯ōi ||rowspan="2"| tunu̯ōma ||rowspan="2"| tunu̯ōmus
|-
! Instrumental
| tunēu̯
| tunēu̯
| tunu̯å
|}


====-us/-u/-wī====
The behaviour of the optative in the present system thus differs from that of the subjunctive but is like it in the aorist. The significance of this divergence is still debated by researchers.  At any rate, derivative verbs (that is, the desiderative, future, passive, future perfect, perfect passive, and causative) did not form corresponding optatives until the very end of the Epic period.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
!rowspan="2"| !!colspan="3"| m. hu̯ēθus, "sweet" !!colspan="3"| n. hu̯ēθo, "sweet"  !!colspan="3"| f. hu̯ēsu̯ī, "sweet" 
|-
!  style="width:7em"| Singular !!style="width:7em"| Dual !!style="width:7em"| Plural
!  style="width:7em"| Singular !!style="width:7em"| Dual !!style="width:7em"| Plural
!  style="width:7em"| Singular !!style="width:7em"| Dual !!style="width:7em"| Plural
|-
! Nominative
| hu̯ēθus ||rowspan="3"| hu̯ēθēu̯ ||rowspan="2"| hu̯ēθeu̯iš
|rowspan="3"| hu̯ēθo  ||rowspan="3"| hu̯ēθeu̯ī ||rowspan="3"| hu̯ēθēu̯
|rowspan="2"| hu̯ēsu̯ī ||rowspan="3"| hu̯ēsu̯īi ||rowspan="2"| hu̯ēsu̯ias
|-
! Vocative
| hu̯ēθo
|-
! Accusative
| hu̯ēθum || hu̯ēθuṅ
| hu̯ēsu̯īəm || hu̯ēsu̯īə̄ṅḫ
|-
! Genitive
| hūθeu̯š || hūθeu̯ō ||hūθeu̯õ
| hūθeu̯š || hūθeu̯ō ||hūθeu̯õ
| hūθui̯ēs || hūθui̯ēus || hūθui̯ēõ
|-
! Locative
| hūθeu̯ || hūθeu̯o || hūθeu̯šu
| hūθeu̯ || hūθeu̯o || hūθeu̯šu
| hūθui̯ēi || hūθui̯ēu || hūθui̯ēhu
|-
! Dative
| hūθeu̯i ||rowspan="2"| hūθeu̯ma ||rowspan="2"| hūθeu̯muš
| hūθeu̯i ||rowspan="2"| hūθeu̯ma ||rowspan="2"| hūθeu̯muš
| hūθui̯ēi ||rowspan="2"| hūθui̯ēma ||rowspan="2"| hūθui̯ēmuš
|-
! Instrumental
| hūθēu̯
| hūθēu̯
| hūθui̯ō
|}


===i-stems===
====Imperative====
{| class="wikitable"
The imperative mood encodes the speaker's demands. The difference from the optative, which encompasses the speaker's mere wish (which the speaker may or may not intend to be fulfilled), is encapsulated in the following timeless quote by Himinastainas:{{quote|mōt ''hāyō'' ak nē ''hāhí'' kweþaną.  
|-
!rowspan="2"| !!colspan="3"| m. θrēstiš, "sad" !!colspan="3"| n. θrēste, "sad"  !!colspan="3"| f. θristēī, "sad" 
|-
!  style="width:7em"| Singular !!style="width:7em"| Dual !!style="width:7em"| Plural
!  style="width:7em"| Singular !!style="width:7em"| Dual !!style="width:7em"| Plural
!  style="width:7em"| Singular !!style="width:7em"| Dual !!style="width:7em"| Plural
|-
! Nominative
| θrēstiš ||rowspan="3"| θrēstī ||rowspan="2"| θrēstēiš
|rowspan="3"| θrēste  ||rowspan="3"| θristēī ||rowspan="3"| θristē
|rowspan="2"| θristēī ||rowspan="3"| θristēīi ||rowspan="2"| θristēas
|-
! Vocative
| θrēste
|-
! Accusative
| θrēstim || θrēstiuṅ
| θristēīəm || θristēīə̄ṅḫ
|-
! Genitive
| θristēš || θristēus ||θristēõ
| θristēš || θristēus ||θristēõ
| θristiēs || θristiēus || θristiēõ
|-
! Locative
| θristēi̯ || θristēo || θristēhu
| θristēi̯ || θristēo || θristēhu
| θristiēi || θristiēu || θristiēhu
|-
! Dative
| θristēi ||rowspan="2"| θristēma ||rowspan="2"| θristēmuš
| θristēi ||rowspan="2"| θristēma ||rowspan="2"| θristēmuš
| θristiēi ||rowspan="2"| θristiēma ||rowspan="2"| θristiēmuš
|-
! Instrumental
| θristēi̯
| θristēi̯
| θristiē
|}


===nt-stems===
(It is permitted to say "I wish you would kill..." but not to say "kill!")}}
From PEE *rh₁-wénts, "rich in possessions", from *reh₁s, "possession".


{| class="wikitable"
The Northian imperative is a fairly straightforward continuation of the parent language's largely-agreed imperative structure, where there are second and third person forms in the singular, dual, and plural numbers. The first person imperative is defective, even though it seems at least putatively cogent to use an imperative for the dual and plural numbers, i.e. "let us..."; for this function, the subjunctive is generally used in the singular and the optative in the dual and pluralThe imperative is always positive in tone: a negative demand, i.e. "do not...", is expressed by the injunctive with the particle ''mōy'' "do not".
|-
!rowspan="2"| !!colspan="3"| m. raå, "wealthy" !!colspan="3"| n. raōn, "wealthy"  !!colspan="3"|  f. raōnθī, "wealthy"
|-
! style="width:7em"| Singular !!style="width:7em"| Dual !!style="width:7em"| Plural
!  style="width:7em"| Singular !!style="width:7em"| Dual !!style="width:7em"| Plural
!  style="width:7em"| Singular !!style="width:7em"| Dual !!style="width:7em"| Plural
|-
! Nominative
| raå ||rowspan="3"| raōnθē ||rowspan="2"| raōnθiš
|rowspan="3"| raōn  ||rowspan="3"| raōnθī ||rowspan="3"| raōnθa
|rowspan="2"| raōnθī ||rowspan="3"| raōnθī ||rowspan="2"| raōnθias
|-
! Vocative
| raōn
|-
! Accusative
| raōnθum || raōnθə̄ṇġ
| raōnθīum || raōnθīə̄ṇġ
|-
! Genitive
| raunθō || raunθōs || raunθõ
| raunθō || raunθōs || raunθõ
| raunθi̯ēs || raunθi̯ōus || raunθi̯ōõ
|-
! Locative
| raōn || raunθō || raunššu
| raōn || raunθō || raunššu
| raunθi̯ō || raunθi̯ōu || raunθi̯ōhu
|-
! Dative
| raunθē ||rowspan="2"| raūṇhmō ||rowspan="2"| raunθmus
| raunθē ||rowspan="2"| raūṇhmō ||rowspan="2"| raunθmus
| raunθi̯ēi̯ ||rowspan="2"| raunθi̯ōma ||rowspan="2"| raunθi̯ōmus
|-
! Instrumental
| raunθē
| raunθē
| raunθi̯å
|}


The present active participles of verbs have a stem ending in -nt-.  From PEE *h₁es-n̥ts.
As the imperative is built to aspectual stems, it generally expresses aspectual meaning in consort with the co-ordinating indicative; the contrast between present and aorist imperatives is particularly salient when the action differs between a punctual or repetitive nature, such as between "plough" (push the plough once) and "plough" (continuously, as a profession, i.e. to farm)The grammatical nuance of the perfect imperative depends on the particular verb and often expresses an intense meaningContrast {{smallcaps|pf imp}} ''ānoxzi'' "arrive!" (i.e. "be having come!"), {{smallcaps|pres imp}} ''āzi'' "be coming!", and {{smallcaps|aor imp}} ''naxš'' "come!"   
{| class="wikitable"
|-
!rowspan="2"| !!colspan="3"| m. ehūš, "being" !!colspan="3"| n. ehūnθ, "being" !!colspan="3"|  f. ehunθī, "being"
|-
! style="width:7em"| Singular !!style="width:7em"| Dual !!style="width:7em"| Plural
! style="width:7em"| Singular !!style="width:7em"| Dual !!style="width:7em"| Plural
!  style="width:7em"| Singular !!style="width:7em"| Dual !!style="width:7em"| Plural
|-
! Nominative
| ehūš ||rowspan="3"| ehunθē ||rowspan="2"| erunθiš
|rowspan="3"| ehūnθ ||rowspan="3"| ehunθī ||rowspan="3"| ehunθa
|rowspan="2"| ehunθī ||rowspan="3"| ehunθī ||rowspan="2"| ehunθīas
|-
! Vocative
| ehūθ
|-
! Accusative
| senθum || senθə̄ṇġ
| senθīum || senθīə̄ṇġ
|-
! Genitive
| hunθō || hunθōs || hunθõ
| hunθō || hunθōs || hunθõ
| hunθi̯ēs || hunθi̯ōuš || hunθi̯ōõ
|-
! Locative
| senθe || hunθō || hunššu
| senθe || hunθō || hunššu
| hunθi̯ō || hunθi̯ōu || hunθi̯ōhu
|-
! Dative
| hunθē ||rowspan="2"| huṇhmō ||rowspan="2"| hunθmuš
| hunθē ||rowspan="2"| huṇhmō ||rowspan="2"| hunθmuš
| hunθi̯ēi̯ ||rowspan="2"| hunθi̯ōma ||rowspan="2"| hunθi̯ōmuš
|-
! Instrumental
| hunθē
| hunθē
| hunθi̯å
|}


===es-stems===
The perfect imperative is infrequent in any part of the Galic corpus but consistently formed, particularly for the verb ''woyd-'' "know" in {{smallcaps|3p}}.  It has two paradigms, one with {{smallcaps|2 sg}} -ti, {{smallcaps|2 pl}} -s, {{smallcaps|3 pl}} -ō, and another that is the same as the present and aorist imperatives. The perfect imperative has o- and zero grades of the stem, but the accent recedes onto the reduplication syllable (if there is one) even in the singularThe {{smallcaps|2 pl}} vacillates between the o- and zero grades, with earlier texts preferring the o-grade. The {{smallcaps|3 pl}} ending is thus always the zero-grade form -ātū, e.g. ''xázaˀātū''  < *ǵéǵn̥h₁n̥tu "let ... exist".
{| class="wikitable"
|-
!rowspan="2"| !!colspan="3"| m. and f. humenēs, "well-intended" !!colspan="3"| n. huméniš, "well-intended"  
|-
!  style="width:7em"| Singular !!style="width:7em"| Dual !!style="width:7em"| Plural
!  style="width:7em"| Singular !!style="width:7em"| Dual !!style="width:7em"| Plural
|-
! Nominative
| humenēs ||rowspan="3"| humenezē ||rowspan="2"| humeneziš
|rowspan="3"| huméniš ||rowspan="3"| humenezī ||rowspan="3"| hunmeneha
|-
! Vocative
| huméniš
|-
! Accusative
| humenehum || hunenehəṇġ
|-
! Genitive
| humenezō || humenehōs || humenehõ
| humenezō || humenehōs || humenehõ
|-
! Locative
| humenes || humenehō || humenessu
| humenes || humenehō || humenessu
|-
! Dative
| humenezē ||rowspan="2"| humenehmō ||rowspan="2"| humenehmus
| humenezē ||rowspan="2"| humenehmō ||rowspan="2"| humenehmus
|-
! Instrumental
| humenezē
| humenezē
|}


===woḏs-stems===
There is a particle -tót that is appended to regular imperative forms to create the "future imperative"This particle is consistently accented and apparently cancels the recessive accent that characterizes the imperative.
From PEE *bʰebʰidʰ-wṓs, forms perfect active participles from the zero-grade perfect rootThe exact proto-form of the perfect active participle in Northian has long been an unresolved issue, as the final *-s of the stem does not undergo {{wp|rhotacism}} as expected in other words.  This has led to be postulation that the pre-form was actually *-wos-s or *-wōs-s, with a restored final *-s. The first *s then changed into a consonant of unknown value usually written *ḏ, which then disappeared in all forms except in the neuter nominative singular, where it surfaces as an anomalous -ḫ.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
!rowspan="2"| !!colspan="3"| m. vevizvå, "sympathetic" = πεποιθώς !!colspan="3"| n. vevizōḫ, "sympathetic" = πεποιθός !!colspan="3"|  f. veviθuzī, "sympathetic" = πεποιθυῖα
|-
!  style="width:7em"| Singular !!style="width:7em"| Dual !!style="width:7em"| Plural
!  style="width:7em"| Singular !!style="width:7em"| Dual !!style="width:7em"| Plural
!  style="width:7em"| Singular !!style="width:7em"| Dual !!style="width:7em"| Plural
|-
! Nominative
| vevizvå ||rowspan="3"| vevizōha ||rowspan="2"| veviθōziš
|rowspan="3"| vevizōh  ||rowspan="3"| vevizōhī ||rowspan="3"| vevizōha
|rowspan="2"| veviθūhī ||rowspan="3"| veviθūhī ||rowspan="2"| veviθūhias
|-
! Vocative
| veviθōh
|-
! Accusative
| vevizōhum|| veviθūhē
| veviθūhīum || veviθūhīəṇġ
|-
! Genitive
| veviθūhō || veviθūhōs || veviθūhõ
| veviθūhō || veviθūhōs || veviθūhõ
| veviθūhi̯ēs || veviθūhi̯ōus || veviθūhi̯ōõ
|-
! Locative
| veviθūhe || veviθūhō || veviθūššu
| veviθūhe || veviθūhō || veviθūššu
| veviθūhi̯ō || veviθūhi̯ōu || veviθūhi̯ōhu
|-
! Dative
| veviθūhē ||rowspan="2"| veviθūhmō ||rowspan="2"| veviθūhmus
| veviθūhē ||rowspan="2"| veviθūhmō ||rowspan="2"| veviθūhmus
| veviθūhi̯ēi̯ ||rowspan="2"| veviθūhi̯ōma ||rowspan="2"| veviθūhi̯ōmus
|-
! Instrumental
| veviθūhē
| veviθūhē
| veviθūhi̯å
|}


===yos-stems===
====Injunctive====
i̯å, irō, i̯orum; i̯erī, ihi̯ēs, i̯erīum; i̯ō
The injunctive covers a number of different functions that appear not to have much connection amongst them, and so their exact meanings must often be gleamed from context.  There are the following cases that medieval grammarians have named:
wesyoss, wesyos, wesyesiH; wesisos, wesisyeHs; wesyesm, wesyesiHm
#'''Resultative''': in a conditional construction, the injunctive may alternately appear as the protasis or apodosis, occupying the place of the subjunctive in later texts.
{| class="wikitable"
#'''Adpositive''': when an injunctive follows another finite verb or a conjunction that implies connection, it usually takes on the same tense and aspect as the finite verb it follows.
|-
#'''Oppositive''': when used after a conjunction that implies contrast, the injunctive usually negates the tense and aspect that is separated by the conjunction.
!rowspan="2"| !!colspan="3"| m. ōhi̯å, "better" !!colspan="3"| n. ōhi̯ō, "better" !!colspan="3"|  f. ōhi̯ēzī, "better"
#'''Prohibitive''': following the particle ''mōy'' "do not", the injunctive has the meaning of the imperative.
|-
#'''Jussive''': the first person imperative is expressed using the bare injunctive.
!  style="width:7em"| Singular !!style="width:7em"| Dual !!style="width:7em"| Plural
#'''Affirmative''': specifically used as a positive answer to a yes-no question.
!  style="width:7em"| Singular !!style="width:7em"| Dual !!style="width:7em"| Plural
#'''Gnomic''': when the injunctive does not follow any construction, it is agnostic as to the proper tense and aspect and usually states facts that are always, usually, assumed to be, or in the nature of something to be one way or another; the sense of its current reality is suppressed in comparison to the indicative.
!  style="width:7em"| Singular !!style="width:7em"| Dual !!style="width:7em"| Plural
|-
! Nominative
| ōhi̯å ||rowspan="3"| ōhi̯eha ||rowspan="2"| ōhi̯ehiš
|rowspan="3"| ōhi̯ō  ||rowspan="3"| ōhi̯ezī ||rowspan="3"| ōhi̯eha
|rowspan="2"| ōhi̯ēzī ||rowspan="3"| ōhi̯ēzīạ ||rowspan="2"| ōhi̯ēzīas
|-
! Vocative
| ōhi̯ō
|-
! Accusative
| ōhi̯ehum || ōhi̯ehūŋ
| ōhi̯ēzīum || ōhi̯ēzīəṇġ
|-
! Genitive
| ōzizō || ōzizōs || ōzizõ
| ōzizō || ōzizōs || ōzizõ
| ōzihi̯ēs || ōzihi̯ōus || ōzihi̯ōõ
|-
! Locative
| ōzize || ōzizō || ōziššu
| ōzize || ōzizō || ōziššu
| ōzihi̯ō || ōzihi̯ōu || ōzihi̯ōhu
|-
! Dative
| ōzizē ||rowspan="2"| ōzihmō ||rowspan="2"| ōzihmus
| ōzizē ||rowspan="2"| ōzihmō ||rowspan="2"| ōzihmus
| ōzihi̯ēi̯ ||rowspan="2"| ōzihi̯ōma ||rowspan="2"| ōzihi̯ōmus
|-
! Instrumental
| ōzizē
| ōzizē
| ōzihi̯å
|}


===r/n-stem===
Understanding the various uses of the injunctive is of prime importance to Galic studies, as it is the second most common mood after the indicative, representing 29% of all finite verb forms (the indicative has 42%). But outside of the Gales, it is actually quite rare and disappears by the middle of the Epic periodThere may be some connection to the genre of the Galic hymns that explains such a large share of injunctives.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
!rowspan="2"| !!colspan="3"| m. pei̯wō, "fat" !!colspan="3"| n. pei̯ōr, "fat" !!colspan="3"| f. pīə̄rī, "fat"
|-
!  style="width:7em"| Singular !!style="width:7em"| Dual !!style="width:7em"| Plural
!  style="width:7em"| Singular !!style="width:7em"| Dual !!style="width:7em"| Plural
!  style="width:7em"| Singular !!style="width:7em"| Dual !!style="width:7em"| Plural
|-
! Nominative
| pei̯wō ||rowspan="3"| pei̯ōnē ||rowspan="2"| pei̯ōniš
|rowspan="3"| pei̯ōr  ||rowspan="3"| pei̯ōrī ||rowspan="3"| pei̯ōr
|rowspan="2"| pīə̄rī ||rowspan="3"| pīə̄rīạ ||rowspan="2"| pīə̄rias
|-
! Vocative
| pei̯ōn
|-
! Accusative
| pei̯ōnum || pei̯ōnə̄ṇ
| pīə̄rīum || pīə̄rīə̄ṇġ
|-
! Genitive
| pīənō || pīənōs || pīənõ
| pīə̄n || pīə̄nuš || pīə̄nõ
| pīuri̯ēs || pīuri̯ōus || pīuri̯ōõ
|-
! Locative
| pei̯ōn || ōzizō || pīəṅḫu
|rowspan="2"| pīə̄i̯ne || pīə̄no || pīə̄ṅhu
| pīuri̯ō || pīuri̯ōu || pīuri̯ōhu
|-
! Dative
| pīənē ||rowspan="2"| pīəṅmō ||rowspan="2"| pīəṅmus
| rowspan="2"| ōzihmō ||rowspan="2"| pīə̄ṅmus
| pīuri̯ēi̯ ||rowspan="2"| pīuri̯ōma ||rowspan="2"| pīuri̯ōmus
|-
! Instrumental
| pīənē
| pīə̄n
| pīuri̯å
|}


===''mehas''===
One of the more notable instances of the injunctive is in G.Nr. 42: {{quote|''zyā ptər, panti zyā̊ təršt, āmōy βā dədəršti.''
mehas, meha, aṇhī
{| class="wikitable"
|-
!rowspan="2"| !!colspan="3"| m. pei̯wō, "fat" !!colspan="3"| n. pei̯ōr, "fat" !!colspan="3"|  f. pīə̄rī, "fat"
|-
!  style="width:7em"| Singular !!style="width:7em"| Dual !!style="width:7em"| Plural
!  style="width:7em"| Singular !!style="width:7em"| Dual !!style="width:7em"| Plural
!  style="width:7em"| Singular !!style="width:7em"| Dual !!style="width:7em"| Plural
|-
! Nominative
| pei̯wō ||rowspan="3"| pei̯ōnē ||rowspan="2"| pei̯ōniš
|rowspan="3"| pei̯ōr  ||rowspan="3"| pei̯ōrī ||rowspan="3"| pei̯ōr
|rowspan="2"| pīə̄rī ||rowspan="3"| pīə̄rīạ ||rowspan="2"| pīə̄rias
|-
! Vocative
| pei̯ōn
|-
! Accusative
| pei̯ōnum || pei̯ōnə̄ṇ
| pīə̄rīum || pīə̄rīə̄ṇġ
|-
! Genitive
| pīənō || pīənōs || pīənõ
| pīə̄n || pīə̄nuš || pīə̄nõ
| pīuri̯ēs || pīuri̯ōus || pīuri̯ōõ
|-
! Locative
| pei̯ōn || ōzizō || pīəṅḫu
|rowspan="2"| pīə̄i̯ne || pīə̄no || pīə̄ṅhu
| pīuri̯ō || pīuri̯ōu || pīuri̯ōhu
|-
! Dative
| pīənē ||rowspan="2"| pīəṅmō ||rowspan="2"| pīəṅmus
| rowspan="2"| ōzihmō ||rowspan="2"| pīə̄ṅmus
| pīuri̯ēi̯ ||rowspan="2"| pīuri̯ōma ||rowspan="2"| pīuri̯ōmus
|-
! Instrumental
| pīənē
| pīə̄n
| pīuri̯å
|}


===Numerals===
(Father Sky, Sky sees all things, and it sees me.)}}Here, the first "see" is injunctive, and the second "see" is indicative.  This passage is nearly always consulted in essays seeking to explain the usage of the injunctive.


==Verbs==
While than the prohibitive and gnomic uses survive, the adpositive and oppositive injunctive uses generally disappeared before the Epics, and their functions are captured by the participles and infinitives agreeing with the subject of the finite verb.  The syntax of the injunctive, other than one introduced by "do not", is a murky area of historical Northian literature and, from medieval times, has generated much comment about what their instances in the Gales exactly mean. Yet because much content of the Galic religion has been lost to history, this context upon which the injunctives are employed is also nearly completely lost, in turn hampering a more precise description of the uses of the injunctive, particularly against a co-ordinating indicative.
===Athematic verbs===
The athematic conjugation is demonstrated with the verb ''ed-d-eod-ēd'' "eat".  Its present stems are from PEE *h₁ed- ~ h₁d-, and perfect stems *h₁eh₁od- ~ h₁eh₁d-. This verb does not create an aorist stem, but all applicable endings are found below had it formed an aorist stem.


{| class="wikitable"
Formally, the injunctive is like the modal forms in that it is obligatorily built from the root, except in the present where it optionally takes the present stem if it is reduplicatedIf the root is conjugated with lengthened vowel in the present, the injunctive formation loses the lengthFor root present stems, therefore, the injunctive appears merely an unaugmented imperfect; for suffixed verbs, the injunctive loses the suffixTo the injunctive stem the secondary endings are attachedThe injunctive sometimes irregularly shows full grade throughout the active and middle, where full and zero grades alterate in the indicative; in this shape it thus appears like a subjunctive with secondary, athematic endings.   
!colspan="4"| Indicative active endings !!colspan="4"| Indicative middle endings
|-
!  !!style="width: 7em"| Sing. !!style="width: 7em"| Du. !!style="width: 7em"| Pl. !! !!style="width: 7em"|  Sing. !!style="width: 7em"| Du. !!style="width: 7em"| Pl.
|-
! 1P
| edme || sōne || smei̯ne
! 1P
| sai || sōzθa || smozθa
|-
! 2P
| esse || stas || ste
! 2P
| stai || stom || zθō
|-
! 3P
| este || stes || dunθe
! 3P
| stoi || stēm || dūs
|}


{| class="wikitable"
It has been noted that a "motley of different formations" are classified as "injunctive", and more than a few scholars consider it imprudent to assign a modal label to forms that share nothing but "an absence of diverse characters". Yet as there is yet to be a root that indubitably attests multiple injunctive stems, most manuals describe them as injunctive and assign a standard injunctive form to roots.
!colspan="4"| Injunctive active endings !!colspan="4"| Injunctive middle endings
|-
!  !!style="width: 7em"| Sing. !!style="width: 7em"|  Du. !!style="width: 7em"|  Pl. !!  !!style="width: 7em"|  Sing. !!style="width: 7em"|  Du. !!style="width: 7em"|  Pl.
|-
! 1P
| edum || sō || sme
! 1P
| da || sōθa || meθa
|-
! 2P
| es || stas || ste
! 2P
| sta || date || zθō
|-
! 3P
| est || stes || sunθ
! 3P
| sto || datē || də̄
|}


{| class="wikitable"
===Participles===
!colspan="4"| Subjunctive active endings !!colspan="4"| Subjunctive middle endings
Each verbal stem is usually capable of forming a corresponding participle or verbal adjective.  
|-
!  !!style="width: 7em"| Sing. !!style="width: 7em"|  Du. !!style="width: 7em"|  Pl. !!  !!style="width: 7em"|  Sing. !!style="width: 7em"|  Du. !!style="width: 7em"|  Pl.
|-
! 1P
| edō || edou̯ōs || edomōs
! 1P
| esōi || edou̯ōzθa || edomozθa
|-
! 2P
| edei̯ze || edetas || edete
! 2P
| edetai || edetom || edeθō
|-
! 3P
| edei̯te || edetes || edo
! 3P
| edetoi || edetēm || edēr
|}


{| class="wikitable"
For all present and aorist active stems, the participle utilized the affix -nt- and followed the accentual pattern of the verb. Athematic verbs with mobile accent had participles with mobile accent, with accent over the -nt- syllable in the strong cases and the ending in othersVerbs with static accent and reduplicated verbs in the present or aorist had participles consistently accented on the root syllable.
!colspan="4"| Opatative active endings !!colspan="4"| Opatative middle endings
*{{smallcaps|'''m'''}} ''həs, zatō''; {{smallcaps|'''f'''}} ''həntī, zasiiā̊''
|-
*{{smallcaps|'''m'''}} ''xrbaHas, xrbaHatō''; {{smallcaps|'''f'''}} ''xrbaHantī, xrbaHāsiiā̊''
!  !!style="width: 7em"| Sing. !!style="width: 7em"|  Du. !!style="width: 7em"|  Pl. !!  !!style="width: 7em"|  Sing. !!style="width: 7em"| Du. !!style="width: 7em"|  Pl.
*{{smallcaps|'''m'''}} ''wēnas, wēnatō''; {{smallcaps|'''f'''}} ''wēnasī, wēnasī''
|-
*{{smallcaps|'''m'''}} ''krnuuəs, krnuntō''; {{smallcaps|'''f'''}} ''krnuuəntī, krnunsiiā̊''
! 1P
| si̯ēm || dīō || dīme
! 1P
| dị || dīōθa || dīmeθa
|-
! 2P
| di̯ēs || dītas || dīte
! 2P
| īta || dịte || dīθō
|-
! 3P
| di̯ēt || dītes || dīnθ
! 3P
| dīto || dịtē || dīə̄
|}


{| class="wikitable"
The perfect stem formed its own participle using the ablauting suffix -us-. Unlike the present/aorist active participle, the perfect participle had an amphikinetic pattern.
!colspan="4"| Imperative active endings !!colspan="4"| Imperative middle endings
*{{smallcaps|'''m'''}} ''βeβoiduš, βeβidušō'' and {{smallcaps|'''nom pl'''}} ''βeβizuuoHā''
|-
!  !!style="width: 7em"| Sing. !!style="width: 7em"|  Du. !!style="width: 7em"|  Pl. !!  !!style="width: 7em"|  Sing. !!style="width: 7em"|  Du. !!style="width: 7em"|  Pl.
|-
! 1P
| — || — || —
! 1P
| — || — || —
|-
! 2P
| sθe || sta || este
! 2P
| sto || ste || sunθo
|-
! 3P
| stō || ste || zθō
! 3P
| stō || stē || sunθō
|}


{| class="wikitable"
==Syntax==
!colspan="4"| Perfect active endings !!colspan="4"| Perfect middle endings
===Copula===
|-
In Early Galic, {{wp|Nominal sentence|nominal sentences}} were the normal construction to express the sense of equivalence or identity as found in the word "is", e.g. GNr 112 ''maxrō tu-at'' "but thou art tall".  The finite verb ''ešti'' is only rarely used for this function.  When it does appear, it often connotes contrast with a previous statement.
!  !!style="width: 7em"| Sing. !!style="width: 7em"|  Du. !!style="width: 7em"|  Pl. !!  !!style="width: 7em"|  Sing. !!style="width: 7em"|  Du. !!style="width: 7em"|  Pl.
|-
! 1P
| eoda || ēsō || ēsme
! 1P
!colspan="3" rowspan="3"| Where the perfect has transitive meaning, the middle is formed with the injunctive of ''es'' "to be" + perfect active participle
|-
! 2P
| eosta || ēdeta || ēde
! 2P
|-
! 3P
| eode || ēdēte || ēdr
! 3P
|}


{| class="wikitable"
==Notes==
!colspan="4"| Perfect imperative active endings !!colspan="4"| Perfect imperative middle endings
<references />
|-
!  !!style="width: 7em"| Sing. !!style="width: 7em"|  Du. !!style="width: 7em"|  Pl. !!  !!style="width: 7em"|  Sing. !!style="width: 7em"|  Du. !!style="width: 7em"|  Pl.
|-
! 1P
|  ||  || 
! 1P
!colspan="3" rowspan="3"| Where the perfect has active meaning, the middle is formed with the imperative of ''es'' "to be" + perfect active participle
|-
! 2P
| eosso || ēdata || ēda
! 2P
|-
! 3P
| ēde || ēdāte || ēdūr
! 3P
|}


==See also==
==See also==
*[[Northian language]]
*[[Northian language]]
**[[Northian nominals]]
**[[Northian adjectives]]
**[[Northian verbs]]
**[[Epic Northian grammar]]


[[Category:DNS]]
[[Category:DNS]]

Latest revision as of 00:10, 27 July 2024

Northian grammar is highly synthetic and fusional. This page aims to cover some of the more technical and historical points regarding Northian garmmar, specifically that of its oldest form, Early Galic Northian. The coverage will take a systemic, bird's eye view for the most part, relegating specific conjugational and declensional paradigms on appendical pages Northian nominals and Northian verbs.

Northian grammar, particularly in nouns, has been important to the reconstruction of Proto-Erani-Eracuran owing to its conservativeness. Though the Galic corpus is hardly large, its 12,000 or so words have been endorsed by historical linguists as a trove of relics that are either unique or corroborating forms for unique items elsewhere. As C. Cloverdale said, "Northian Gales are valued in this science for their fidelity in transmission and consistency in grammar." However, the outward conservativeness of Northian is attributed to the early date of its compositions, where archaic formations are expected, and its exceptional position in the field owes mainly to the fidelity of the transmission that has prevented the loss of relics.

Historical development

Nominals

The category of nominals in Northian encompasses nouns, adjectives, pronouns, demonstratives, reflexives, and certain adverbs. They are considered to belong to this class as they undertook similar grammatical processes and showed the same set of endings.

Endings

Athematic

The following chart recapitulates the ordinary endings of athematic nouns in Galic Northian. Because the ablative is syncretized with the genitive in the singular, with the dative and instrumental in the dual, and with the dative in the plural, it is usually not listed separately in grammatical tables for athematic nouns.

Forms are often unpredictable and variable under the influence of ablaut, laryngeals reflexes, analogy, vowel contraction, and compensatory lengthening for illegal consonant clusters in coda position. All endings are subject to modification according to the suffix. OX stands for the oxytone group of patterns, and PX for the paroxytone group. Certain neuter nouns take a collective ending; these nouns are not formally predictable. Because neuter nouns always have the same nominative and accusative forms, only their nominative endings will be listed, and in grey. Other than root nouns, there are virtually no neuter nouns that take the OX pattern; as such, their endings are listed together with the PX stems.

The cells listed in gree are typically paired with the full-grade noun stem, and the orange ones only sometimes; these do not apply for nouns with invariant stems.

Athematic endings
Singular Dual Plural Collective
OX PX NTR OX PX NTR M/F NTR
Nominative -ō, -ā̊, -s -s, -š -ōi, -ā, -ō -i, -ī, -ū, -ōi -ī, -Ø, -ū -aH, -aHaH -a, -i, -ō
Vocative
Accusative -m, -n, -ā̆, -ā̊, -ō, -ōi -ā̊, -ā, -ō, -ūš, -ī
Locative -Ø, -i -Hō -Hū -hū, -šū
Genitive -ō, -ā̊, -ā -š, -ō, -ŋh, -ā̊, -Ø -Huš, -Hū, -Hā, -Hō -Hõm
Ablative -mō -muš
Dative -i
Instrumental -ōi -i, -Ø -(m)βyō, -(m)βiyō, -βiš, -βīš

nom sing nntr A general discussion of the athematic declension cannot omit the comment that, while many divergent forms are phonetically conditioned, there too are divergences resulting from divergent proto-forms. In no other place is this statement truer than in the nominative singular.

The marker of the nominative singular has been a tormented subject, in part also for the radical schism on the parent language's morphosyntactic alignment. By sole comparison, animate (= masculine and feminine) nouns may have been in the proto-language sigmatic, that is ending in *-s, or asigmatic, that is without final *-s and taking a long-grade suffix; as root nouns had no suffix, they were (at least thought to have been) obligatorily marked by *-s. Neuter nouns, in contrast, generally have the zero-grade of the suffix in the nominative and correspond well with the accent.

Because the long-grade and final -s are mostly in complimentary distribution, some authorities regard the long-grade as the legacy of compensatory lengthening having dropped final *-s after a resonant, but others hold there was no *-s originally and attribute the long vowel to ablaut variation sensitive to the case. On the other hand, there are also nouns that have an exceptional zero-grade suffix, e.g. hanuš "jaw" and notoriously ϑeɣā "earth", and some of these could not have had *-s. There are also forms that show simultaneous *-s and the long-grade ending, in some root nouns and the present/aorist active participle *-ōnt-s. Some such forms in root nouns appear to have been results of monosyllabic lengthening, though this process cannot explain the forms that are not monosyllabic.

In Northian, final *-s has been suffixed to animate nouns quite broadly but haphazardly in prehistory, so there is no obvious pattern to its distribution; many words have alternative forms differing by -s. We may distinguish three situations in Northian as to the nom. sing., stems ending in vowel, in resonant, and in non-resonants.

  1. -s is always present and surfaces as -š after *i- and *u- in animate nouns, and its absence in these stems indicates neuter gender, both instance without regard to ablaut pattern.
  2. Final *-s was absent in resonant-stems (-m, -n, -r, -l), whose nom. sing. was often signified by lengthened o-grade in OX and PX (though a few nouns have zero-grade). The long final syllable ending in a resonant was then opened, giving rise to -ā̊ and -ō.
  3. After obstruents the distribution of *-s is not predictable: bā̊ "wife" and ϑənū "body" were asigmatic, but āβrtās "immortality" certainly had *-s.

In OX resonant stems, the lengthened o-grade is altered prehistorically by the opening of closed long syllables ending in a resonant.

voc sing The vocative consists of the bare strong stem in all cases. Where the nom. had *-s it is dropped, and where it did not the voc. is the full- or short-vowel-grade.

acc sing nntr In the proto-language, the accusative ended in *-m and, as the morph contained no vowel, could theoretically not bear an original accent; this rule is violated by the semivowel (i-, u-) stems, where the vocalized vowel usually does bear accent.

Normal ending. In stems ending in non-resonants, the ending is vocalized as -m̥ > -ā̆, length varying according to Cloverdale's law.

Ending after semivowels. For the semivowel i- and u-stems, the accusative singular ended in -in and -um. Technically, these forms violate the normal vocalization pattern, which requires the first sonorant from the right in a sequence of multiple to vocalize when not bordering a true vowel; under this canon words like huiium are expected to be *huuiuuā̆, since both semivowels and nasals are sonorants. Semivowels are not preferred to nasals in vocalization in other places, viz. krauuati vs. karənute (reflex of *-nu- in the proto-language bolded). For this and other considerations, the semivowels are often deemed an anomalous class of athematic nouns, and indeed some view them as i-thematic and u-thematic, respectively, given the observed overriding tendency to preserve the semivowel as vowel at all other costs.

Ending after long vowels. If the stem contained a long vowel, such as effected by compensatory lengthening for the deletion of like consonants or Stang's law after *y, *w, and *m, the deletion of codas yielded -ā̊, -ō, or -ōi, e.g. ziiōi < *dyēm. This is particularly salient in the case of n-stems, where the accusative singular was in long vowel.

loc sing The locative generally took the accusative stem and either added final -i or was endingless. Thus, for PX nouns, the locative and dative were often syncretized. For the effects of -i on the preceding vowel, see dat. sing. entry.

gen sing In OX the gen. singular nearly always ends in -ō < *-os; its consistency led grammarians to consider it a feature of the OX declension. But there are a handful of instances where the genitive ending was -ā, which only occurs sporadically in the environment of *-h₂es > *-ah. Thus, both alloforms of the genitive singular in the parent language were inherited into Northian, but where *-es did not follow *h₂ it was replaced wholesale by *-os, so the original distribution of the two forms cannot be readily detected from Northian.

In PX, the ending *-s when attached to the stem generated a motley of forms, and this (compared to OX) irregularity in turn is deemed the feature of PX nouns. The Northian evidence is important to the phonetic process Szemerényi's law: by its regular operation, final *-s is dropped after resonants and lengthens the preceding vowel, but in Northian as in most languages, restorations are common. In n-stems, *-s was either not dropped or was early on restored and became something like a glottal stop, as in puwaŋh < *ph₂wén-s = fire's; yet in the in- and un-stems, *-s was not restored, resulting in gen. endings -ī and -ū, obtained by *-in-s and *-un-s.

In liquid stems, final *-s is usually retroflexed, as in māϑrš < PEE *meh₂tr̥s. If the stem contained a long vowel, usually indicating a laryngeal, the result is -ā̊ < *-ās, e.g. zñiϑriyā̊. In s-stems, the ending generally disappears, e.g. mā̊ < *mn̥s-s. In the semivowel stems (i- and u-) the ending *-s, obeying Szemerényi's law, disappeared and caused compensatory lengthening. But such long diphthongs in final position, as in other long syllables closed by resonants, lost the final glide, giving in the i-stems the ending *-ei̯-s > -ā and u-stems *-ou̯-s > -ō. For at least the u-stems, the intermediate form *-ōw must have obtained, since a following enclitic *-kʷe delabializes to -ke.

abl sing For all athematic nouns, the ablative singular was syncretized wtih the genitive singular.

dat sing In OX the dat. sigular ending was originally *-ei̯. This ending susceptible to colouring by a preceding *h₂- or *h₃-, as well as the influence of i̯- and *u̯-, to become -ai and -oi respectively.

In PX, the ending was regularly *-i. But this ending was replaced by the OX ending in the i-stems early. For all nasal and laryngeal stems, the ending -i caused a preceding /e/ or /a/ to mutate to /i/ and /ai/ (written <aē>). For stems ending in -n, the -n sandwiched between i became /ñ/. In nouns of the type taēuuī, the ending was full-grade even if the PX endings are otherwise employed, and there it appears after the suffix as -iiaē. In all cases the dat. singular ending following a vowel was a separate syllable. In u-stems, the ending is dropped just like final *-s of the genitive; the result is identical forms for the gen., dat., and loc. in the singular.

ins sing The OX ending -ōi for the ins. singular originated as *-eh₁ in the proto-language. This ending is rarely problematic by phonological processes, but it is liable to be replaced in some stems, e.g. endings -ī and -ū in the i- and u-stems respectively, from the PX declension. The PX ending evolved from *-h₁. This ending was preserved only after plosives as -a. Following resonants, the preceding vowel was lengthened and opened. Following laryngeals, it disappeared.

nom-voc-acc du For animate nouns in plosives and resonant stems, the du. ending for all direct cases in OX was generally -ōi < *-ē, which is coloured in the usual ways to -ā and -ō, which do not mutate. After stems ending in laryngeals, there are concomitant spelling changes. In semivowel stems and all PX stems, the ending -a is visible after only after plosives, as it had the proto-form of *-h₁. After i- and u-stems stems, the ending was dropped causing the preceding vowel to lengthen, e.g. dorū. After laryngeals, it disappeared.

nom-acc du ntr For all neuter nouns, other than the u-stems, the ending was -ī.

voc du nntr Northian has a unique vocative in the dual, which is -ū, appearing only sometimes. The ancestry of the form is debated, and recent conclusions hold that while superficially similar to loc du -ū, it is associated instead with recessive accent and is not length-variable, suggesting *-u-H, which could be an ablaut variant of something given the recessive accent.

loc du In OX the loc du ending was -ō < *-ou̯. In PX, the ending was -ū, which developed from original *-u lengthened in final position.

gen du The proto-form of the dual genitive is sometimes considered that of the locative with added *-s at the end, borrowed from the singular. Thus in OX the ending was usually -ō < *-ōw < *-ou̯-s, which was identical to the loc. form even in sandhi. But in some instances, the loc. form takes the strong grade stem, which provides a difference with the gen. In PX, the ending was -uš, which like the locative dissimilated to *-āḫ if there was a preceding u. In this case, the ending was -ō. For the feminine nouns ending in *-eh₂, which are athematic in origin, the ending was a special -ō < *-eu̯s; see below.

The gen. du., unlike any of the other oblique cases outside the locative, was sometimes a strong case taking the full grade of the suffix. It has been argued the weak stem was replaced to disambiguate this form from the gen. sing. and that the strong grade was taken over from the collective; if the latter be true, the practice would probably be ancient. But neither explanation has received general acclaim because very few items are attested uniquely in the strong stem.

abl-dat-ins du These three forms were syncretized in Northian as -mō.

nom-voc pl nntr There were two proto-forms here. The simplex ending in full grade was *-es, regularly > -aH. However, if it followed a stem ending in -w or (in some cases) -uH, w-colouring operates and generates -ō instead. A zero-grade version of this ending *-s is also found following -iH and (likely secondarily) -uH. In sandhi, the uncoloured ending can appear as -eš or -ē. The simplex ending -ā is attested only rarely, possibly because it was similar to the thematic nom pl ntr ending -ā.

Instead, the form -aHaH is seen, representing reduplicated < *-es-es.

nom-voc pl ntr The ending prehistorically was *-h₂. After -m, it became -ă, and after any other stop, -i. In the n- and s-stems, the laryngeal dropped and triggered compensatory lengthening of the full-grade suffix vowel. The resulting syllable was subsequently opened and became -ō in the n-stems (fnumō < *pnew-men-h₂) and -ā̊ for es-stems (neβā̊ < *nebʰ-es-h₂). In the i- and u-stems, the ending caused the zero-grade stem vowel to lengthen, resulting in endings -ī and -ū. After another laryngeal, the ending disappeared without a trace, e.g. oštō < *h₁osth₁-h₁.

acc pl nntr This ending was derived from *-m̥s following consonants or *-ms following vowels. In the case of semivowel stems, which occur in the weak grade in this form: for *-i-ms, the resulting ending was just -ī, except uniquely in the word for "three", where it remains as -īš (not *-īs!); for *-u-ms, the outcome was regularly -ū. That the pre-form contained *-ms rather than *-ns is argued to indicate Northian was more archaic than most other daughter languages, which mostly show the reflex of *-ms > *-ns; in Northian, *-ms is diagnosed because at least *-ums seems to have a different reflex than *-uns, which occurs regularly in the wn-stems of nouns and becomes -ənh.

For consonant stems, the vocalization of *-n̥s (not distinguishable in this context from *-m̥s) is regular under Cloverdale's Law, where a syllabic resonant's surface quantity depends on the preceding syllable's (underlying) weight. Thus, where it was underlyingly heavy, the form *-ah > *-ā is created, and where it was light, *-āh > -ā̊ is used instead. Yet due to analogical replacement of the stem, the syllable on which the ending is based is not always present, and so the ending is not synchronically predictable; since the weak stem tends to replace the strong in this position, the combination of a heavy ending with a heavy stem is common. Additionally, a vocalized resonant that is superficially long under Cloverdale's Law still counts as a short vowel for the purposes of other instances of Cloverdale's Law.

Ending in nasal-stems. Since the ending -ms began with a nasal, it is susceptible to assimilation and then deletion in nasal-stems. Thus the acc pl ending of n-stems was -əŋh < *-ens rather than *-enn̥s, while that of the m-stems was (at least originally) -ōi < *-ems rather than *-emm̥s, but the two were interchangeable since early times.

The form of the acc pl was evidently a driving factor in the replacement of the simple nom pl ending, which had also become *-ah under the colouring influence of *-h, and it became reduplicated as *-ahah in most contexts, leaving *-ah as an irregular alternative. The form -ō is used in the laryngeal stems, though it is disputed whether this is merely an orthographical alteration to avoid contraction of like vowels or a genuine sound change.

gen pl The ending was consistently -õm.

abl-dat pl The ending was -muš.

ins pl The ending evidently consisted of the element *-bʰi̯- in the proto-language. It was usually added to *-os > -βiiō, with Sievers's alteration to disyllabic -βiyō following heavy syllables (long vowel or short and two consonants). The disyllabic form was noticeably more common. In demonstratives the equivalent sequence was -βīš or -βiš; it is not completely clear if this was simply an ablaut variant or reflects a different combination of morphemes.

Thematic

Basic ā-stem endings Basic o-stem endings
sing du pl sing du pl
nom -aHī -aHā
e
-õm -oHī -ā̊, -aŋhā
voc -e
acc -ā̊
e
-ā̊
e
-õm
gen -āHuš, -aHuš -aHõm -ōyō -õm
loc -aē -āHū, -aHū -āhū -ōi -ohū
dat -āmiyā -āmβiyō -omyā -oβyō
abl -aoṯ -ōṯ
ins -āyš -oiš

nom sg The ā-stems showed the expected ending -ā. M. and f. o-stems have -ōḫ < *-os, which scans short at the end of sentences and other pauses. N. o-stems have -õm.

voc sg The ā-stems have the same form as the nom. M. and f. o-stems have -i < *-e, while n. o-stems have the same form as the nom. In both cases, the accent is always retracted to the first syllable of the word.

acc sg for ā-stems is affected by Stang's law, which appears as -ā̊. The ending for m. and f. o-stems is the same as the n., -õm.

loc sg ā-stems have dysyllabic -ayi; o-stems have monosyllabic -oy.

gen sg ā-stems show -ā̊ for *-eh₂-s; o-stems have the compound suffix -ōyo, for *-osyo.

abl sg in ā-stems is dysyllabic aā̊ṯ; the quantity owes to dissimilation.

dat sg ā-stems

ins sg ā-stems

Noun stems

Adjective stems

Adjectives agree with the nouns they modify in gender, number, and case, within their lexical paradigms. Inasmuch as nouns have differing endings that convey the same number and case, so too do adjectives have lexical paradigms; adjectives do not agree with the paradigms of nouns that they modify.

Numerals

1 – 4

Cardinal numbers one through four are declinable as athematic adjectives of various declensional patterns, agreeing with the nouns (explicit or implicit) they modify in gender, case, and number. Of course, "one" is only inflected in the singular, "two" in the dual, and "three" and "four" in the plural. Numbers five and above are indeclinable.

"one" "two" "three" "four"
m n f m n f m n f m n f
nom hā̊ hámī swō duHā, tuHī ϑráiiā ϑrī́ ϑrižrā koswárā
lg koswóraŋhā
kótur kóswr̥žrā
voc
acc hā̊ ϑrī́s ϑrižrā̊ koswárā̊ kóswr̥žrā̊
loc hám hāyaHā
lg hāyaHē
duHā duHō ϑrištū ϑrižr̥štū kóswr̥štū kóswr̥žr̥štū
dat zmā
lg
dumō duHāmō ϑrimuš ϑrižr̥muš kóswr̥muš kóswr̥žr̥muš
abl zmō
lg
hāyā̊
lg hāyaHē
gen duHō duHaHuš ϑriyõ ϑrižrõ kóturõ kóswr̥žrõ
ins zmōi
lg mōi
hmiHā dumī duHā ϑrimβiiō ϑrižr̥βiiō kóswr̥βiiō kóswr̥žr̥βiiō

1 is a root noun with a stem ending in -m. As with other stems ending in -m, the accusative preform *sem-m̥ would by regular phonetic change become *sēm, i.e. the same as nominative *sēm, because the PEE ending *-m̥ regularly absorbs the previous resonant, hence also nom. syō but acc. syā̊; in the number, -am is often but not always restored. In the oblique cases, the stem is in zero grade and appears as hm- < *sm-. If the position requires the /m/ to be vocalized, the result is the hā-, such as seen in feminine forms with accent over the suffix; these are a perfect match with Syaran μιᾶς = hāyā̊ , etc.

2 is only declined in the dual number. There are two stems in use: the full-grade zwo- and zero-grade tuH-. The feminine form nom tuHā only appears sporadically..

3 is a regular i-stem and is only declined in the plural. Nom. ϑráiiā shows regular development of *e > a bordering yod. As with others, the accusative plural has a zero-grade suffix followed by a zero-grade ending: *tri-ns > ϑrī́s. The sequence *-ins developed irregularly, usually appearing as -ī in Northian; alternatively it may reflect a more archaic *tri-m-s, without assimilation in the ending. It is a notorious false friend to Nordic þrīz, which was not the accusative but the nominative = Northian ϑráiiā. The feminine forms employ the feminizing infix -sr-, which is always found in the zero grade, and take regular athematic endings. There is also a particular form for three women or goddesses, as in ϑaewiyā ϑraežrā "three goddesses".

4 behaves like most athematic nouns and also employs the feminizing infix -sr- for its feminine forms. Note however that the ablauting element was the second syllable of the stem -tuuor-, which in zero grade appears would be -tuur-. Which of the two resonants vocalize depends on the phonetic environment. Where the suffix stands alone the *-w- is vocalized, as in neuter nominative kotur < *kʷetw̥r, but where an obstruent follows the suffix it is the *-r- that becomes syllabic, as in kóśwr̥muš < *kʷetwr̥mus. There was also a singular form košuuō < *kʷetwōr = Venetian quattuor.

The feminine forms for "four" have the particularly long stem of koswr̥-žr̥-, which is for *kʷétwr̥-sr̥- where the ending begins with a consonant. The masculine stem for "four" frequently supplants the feminine owing to the sheer length of the etymological stem, which is metrically unusable. Note that the accent is on the suffix syllable in the strong forms owing to the effects of the eponymous kʷetwóres rule, which shifts the accent from a preceding *e to the following *o if followed by only one other syllable.

5 and higher

5 pəṇto is from *pénkʷe.

6 xšwaxš from *kswéks, a match with Xevdenite xšuuah.

7 hafθa from *septm̥.

8 oxθō, the proto-form of this word is disputed. Northian oxθō can be traced back to both *(H)oktow and *(H)oktoH, with or without an initial laryngeal; the form with initial laryngeal is preferred on root phonotactic grounds, since most vowel-initial words can be shown to have had an initial laryngeal. Morphologically, it is the dual of óxθō "fingers", in ei-stem.

9 nauuā

10 tegā

Pronouns

First person

sing du pl
tonic enclitic tonic enclitic tonic enclitic
nom áxa, áɣā̊, ázəm wāy
acc mḗ mi āŋhō ə̄mmé
gen méni mai áŋrō
dat mézya nanā́ ā̊(s)

nom sg The term for "I", usually áxa, comes from Erani-Eracuran *éǵ-h₂, with regular devoicing of a stop before *h₂. The long form áɣā̊ must have *éǵ-ōm, without laryngeal, but cognate extensions to the pronoun with this suffix all have the laryngeal. This would suggest that an unattested Northian form of *ák < *éǵ may have existed independently for the suffix to be added.

Second person

sing du pl
stressed enclitic stressed enclitic stressed enclitic
nom tū́ yṓ  yā̊
acc swe ti ūmé ušpé wā̊
gen ϑáya toi yuϑr- yušr-
dat ϑə̄mβyō wanā́ ušmái

Demonstrative

sing du pl
m n f m n f m n f
nom ha ϑaṯ ϑō ϑoyī ϑāyī ϑoi ϑa ϑai
acc ϑõm ϑā̊ ϑā̊ ϑáō
loc ϑoi ϑahiiai ϑṓhō ϑohū ϑāhū
gen ϑōiio ϑahiiā̊ ϑṓhōš ϑoiiõm ϑāõm
dat ϑōžmōi ϑahiiayi ϑṓzma ϑoiiomuš ϑāmuš
ins ϑō ϑahiiā ϑoiiomβīš ϑāβīš

Interrogative

sing du pl
m f n m f n m f n
nom kiš kiṯ kə̄ ϑoi ϑa
acc kim ϑā̊
loc kāsmi kiyō ϑohū
gen kāiio kiyōš ϑoiiõm
dat kāsmai kimō ϑoiiomuš
abl kāṯ ϑoiiõm
ins koi ϑoiiomβīš

Indefinite article

The Northian indefinite article, which introduces an indefininte noun phrase, is derived from the PEE root *oywos, meaning "one". Note that the endings are those of demonstratives.

aiwō, "a, an"
M & F N
nom aiwō aiwó
voc
acc aiwõm
loc aiwōi
dat
abl aiwōṯ
gen aiwōiš
ins aiwō

Verbs

Paradigm

Unlike nouns, multiple derivations of the same verb root may be considered the same lexical item, whereas nouns are restricted to one derivation, and a different derivation creates lexically distinct noun. It is thus necessary to describe the relationship between the various derivations as a complete system.

According to the canonical description of the Erani-Eracuran verb, each root may form one stem in each of the three grammatical aspects called primary derivations, while the root itself may stand as a stem within an "inherent" or "lexical" aspect assigned (largely arbitrarily) to it. Thus, for example, an aorist root like štaˀ- "stand" may form a stem with no further alteration that has aorist aspect, since it is the same as the lexical aspect of the root. To use this root in a different aspect, some sort of marker is necessary to denote those aspects, and in this behalf are attested the present stem štaˀ-u-, with suffix -u-, and perfect stem teštō̆ˀ-, with reduplication and o-grade root.

Apart from the stems that encode grammatical aspects, secondary derivations provide more specific meanings. The canonical difference with primary derivations is that secondary derivations 1) are all aspectually present and 2) cannot derive modal stems containing its derivational marker; thus, while they may have significant semantic departures from any of the primary formations, they are grammatically still dependent on the root's primary formations to express those meanings. This mandatory present aspect is only grammatical and rarely semantic, and in later stages of the language the restriction is altogether abandoned. In Early Galic, the secondary verbs did not form injunctives, subjunctives, and optatives but did form imperfects and imperatives, as well as participles and infinitives.

While this structure holds true in varying degrees for most Erani-Eracuran languages, the very most archaic forms of the daughters often show clues that the canonical structure may reflect a basic prohibition of multiple derivative markers upon a root, rather than a more elaborate system within the parent language. These clues are corroborated by the system's own idiosyncratic peculiarities. The particulars more fully appears elsewhere in this and related articles.

The various secondary derivations generally behaved as tenses in the Gales, but in the Epics they often became independent stems to which a variety of tenses were formed. That is, in abstract terms, the secondary derivations have been promoted to primary status by the Epic period and were thus permitted to form their own modal forms. After all, if a passive form existed and evolved to be completely parallel to the active and middle, then there appeared to be little reason why it should not form a corresponding imperfect, subjunctive, optative, etc. Looking backwards in time, some have commented that the non-root primary forms behave more like secondary forms in the Pre- and Early Galic periods, largely defective in modal formations. Thus, the evolution of the basic verbal grammar seems to be a gradual extension of cross-classification or permutations of various attributes, reaching the canonical Erani-Eracuran form in the Late Galic period and exceeding it in the Epic age.

Tenses attested in Early Galic are in bold; in Late Galic, in normal face; in the Epics, in italics.

Present stem Aorist stem Perfect stem Root
Present indicative
Present injunctive Aorist injunctive Perfect injunctive Prohibitive
Imperfect Aorist Pluperfect
Perfect
Present optative Aorist optative Perfect optative
Present subjunctive Aorist subjunctive Perfect subjunctive First subjunctive
Present imperative Aorist imperative Perfect imperative
Future imperative Aorist future imperative Perfect future imperative
Derivatives
Passive I (stem) Passive II (stem) Future perfect (stem)
Perfect passive (stem)
Desiderative
Inchoative
Future
Causative
Denominative
Stative
Non-finite forms
Present active participle Aorist active participle
Perfect active participle
Present middle participle Aorist middle participle Perfect middle participle
Present active infinitive Aorist active infinitive
Perfect active infinitive
Present middle infinitive Aorist middle infinitive Perfect middle infinitive

Voice

There are two sets of endings that encode the grammatical "active" and "middle" voices, attached to stems, to form the finite verb. For the majority of verbs, the active voice placed the nominative subject of the sentence in the position of agent, which acted upon an accusative patient, while the middle voice of the same usually indicated the subject was somehow affected or benefited by its own action, i.e. has a position as patient as well. Such verbs, where the meaning of the middle is a modification of the active, are called active verbs. However, there is also a sizeable group of verbs that either did not have an active voice or had one that modified the meaning of the middle; such are called media tantum verbs. While linguists prefer to see a transitivity-based distinction between the active and middle verbs, many media tantum have transitive meanings and take accusative objects.

Clues found in old Northian deponents have been interpreted to suggest, at a very early stage of the parent language, stems once took either set of endings, but not both. Some old middle forms that complement active verbs demonstrate a surprising degree of "independence" from the form of the active; for example, G.Nr. 771 has tuzitay "it lactates", with zero-grade root, in present middle, while the active has tuzinawši "thou milkst" with the nu-suffix. tuzi- "milk" is a root of aorist origin, but its present active and middle forms have been created by separate primary derivational processes. Some words appear to be aorist middle forms with the hic et nunc particle -i added, where such a particle is proper only to present stems. Some hold this peculiarity to obtain that deponent verbs may not have had an original aspectual distinction between present and aorist.

Attinger argued there are at least three possible origins of middle forms, 1) formed directly from an active, 2) media tantum, and 3) derived separately from the active and subsequently paired with it. This classification was originally aimed at ablaut aberrancy of the middle compared to the active: according to him, only class 1 middle forms consistently took the weak grade of the active stem "because only they were formed on the basis of the active". But if lexically active and middle verbs were originally exclusive, and if actives secondarily acquired class 1 middle forms, it has been asked if middles also secondarily acquired active forms. That opposite process has however proven much more elusive. To date, there are few plausible examples of such a transition, though the absence of ablaut in a handful active stems could be attributed to the middle.

Endings

Athematic I & II

The athematic verb endings, like their noun counterparts, are directly attached to the verbal stem without an intervening theme vowel. The primary endings are used for the present indicative and all subjunctives, and the secondary endings for the aorist indicative and all injunctives, imperfects, and (with the suffix) the optative. As is clear, outside of the present indicative, the present and aorist stems take the same set of endings, and their distinction consequently lies in the stem itself.

In the two following charts, this convention is observed: where variant endings are conditioned by surrounding phonetic environment, they are separated by the tilde, and where they are instead conditioned by ablaut or another unanalyzable process, by the comma instead. We may reason that environmental variations were more transparent to ancient Northians, as these mostly represent post-Erani-Eracuran phonetic divergences, while ablaut variations had become more opaque as its conditioning factor had become non-operational by the last phase of the proto-language. Thus, phonetic variations have tended to resist levelling for longer, while ablaut variations tended to disappear over time.

The most important ablaut variation in endings comes in the mid 2 & 3du and act 3pl; of these, the more frequently used 3pl survived longer. At least in the 3pl ablaut variation was more conservatively observed, since in the extension of the *-(e)nt marker of the active to the middle, the zero-grade morph *-n̥t is always selected in the Gales acknowledging and in front of the accented ending -o. The dual variations are only imperfectly observed in the Gales, while two morphs of the act 1pl are only marginally associated with ablaut patterns.

Primary active Primary middle
sing du pl sing du pl
trans intrans trans intrans trans intrans
1p -mi -wəni ~ uwəni
lg -ūni
-máŋhi, -maʸhi 1p -wōδi ~ uwōδi -mōihi
lg -māhi
2p -si ~ hi ~ ši -tā -te, -e 2p -tā -ātiϑi, -(i)tiϑi -ϑūwə ~ ϑuwə ~ huwə
lg -ϑū ~ hū
3p -ti ~ si -tā, -zā -əṇti, -ā̆si
lg -ənti, -ā̆si
3p -tō -(i)ϑā -ā̆zrō
lg -ārē
-ro, -rō
Secondary active Secondary middle
sing du pl sing du pl
trans intrans trans intrans trans intrans
1p -ā̆ ~ m -wə ~ uwə
lg
-me 1p -a -wohi ~ uwohi -maʸhi
2p -h ~ š -tõm -te, -e 2p -ta -ātiϑi, -(i)tiϑi -ϑuwə ~ huwə
lg -ϑū ~ hū
3p -t ~ s -tā̊ -ən, -ā̆ṯ, -r
lg -ən, -as
3p -to -o -āϑā, -(i)ϑā -ā, -i -ā̆zro
lg -ā̆zro
-ro

1 sing The primary and secondary active endings differ with the hic et nunc particle *-i in the proro-language, for the singular active. The element m is accepted in mainstream reconstructions of Proto-Erani-Eracuran to signify the first person. As -m is a resonant, the ending -i in the primary conjugation can trigger mutation in the preceding syllable, particularly apparently in a syllable generated by an interconsonantal laryngeal. In the secondary conjugation, final -m can vocalize to -ā̆ if following a stop. But if the verb stem ended in a full- or long-grade vowel plus resonant, the final -m triggers Stang's law resulting in a lengthened vowel that subsequently loses the final -m. In late texts, this -m is usually restored following the long vowel.

In the middle voice, the ending evolves from *-h₂ey > -ay. This ending is agnostic as to any preceding laryngeal. The secondary middle ending loses the hic et nunc particle, as with the rest of the singular middle.

2 sing In the primary conjugation, the signifying element of the active second singular *s can become [h] or [š] depending on the phonetic context; if the latter, epenthetic [t] is introduced to separate it from the following -i. In secondary sequence it usually triggers compensatory lengthening in resonant stems. In the case of *-H or semivowel stems, it usually becomes identical to the 1 sg form, but in contrast thereto, final -s is never restored.

The middle ending here is *-th₂ey > -tai. If there is a preceding laryngeal, it appears as -itai.

3 sing This -ti ending is usually retained in the primary conjugation. If the stem ended in a dental, the ending was liable to mutate in several ways. In the secondary, -t can displace preceding stops or be dropped in some contexts.

The middle ending of the third singular depends on the meaning of the word and the stem used, which is peculiar. In root verbs and many stem-classes, a middle verb with intransitive menaing will take the ending -o, and those with transitive meaning, -toi. In other cases, such as the -naō ~ nu- stems, the ending -toi is always used, regardless of meaning. If a laryngeal preceded the ending, it appears as -itoi. Where the ending is not accented, it appears as trans. -itai or intrans. -a.

1 du The primary active ending is from *-wen-i and appears as accented -uuóni and unaccented -uuiñi. If a laryngean preceded the ending, it became *-u-weni, whereupon nasalization induced -u-mβóni.

In the middle, the form -wṓδa < *-wesdʰh₂ is found.

2 du Here the active ending -tāḫ is for *-th₂es. An epenthentic -s- is sometimes found if the stem ended in a dental to avoid a sequence of two dentals together, and the resulting combination is sometimes resolved to prehistoric *-ss-. But this was not a universal phenomenon, and sometimes the geminate dental either drops or evne surfaces. Such examples are often interpreted by analogical restoration. Secondary -tõm is found in the middle for *-tom.

The middle ending is -ātiϑayi, which is structurally complex and the subject of much debate. First, the final -i must have been added only after the final laryngeal vocalized; otherwise, the monosyllabic ending *-ϑi would be expected for *-dʰH-i; indeed, it is often omitted in Galic. The element -ϑa- is often considered identical to that found in the 1 pl mid ending -mōi-δa, with the initial dental devoiced following a laryngeal reflected as -i-. That this element should be deemed a particle is clarified by the development of 1 pl mid -mōi-δa < *-mes-dʰH, which is only regular word-finally, and also that it is shared with the 1 du mid ending. The distinct part of the ending is thus -āti-, which has the zero-grade variant -(i)ti that appears after roots with persistent accent. The element -ti- < *-tH- has been identified as a zero-grade variant of the Kankrit 2 pl act ending -tha < *-tHe.

Curiously, Northian presents both parallel and contradictory information to Kankrit comparanda, which has 2 du mid primary athematic -āthai̯ and thematic -a-i̯thai̯. Kankrit has distinct secondary -ātham, while Northian attests no distinct secondary form. If the particle -ϑa- were to be omitted in Northian, the resulting sequence *-ātiyi would be very similar in structure to the Kankrit, especially if a full-grade vowel can be posited in the second syllable and superficially deleted in unaccented position. Disputes cloud the identification of the first part of the ending, which behaves differently in both languages. In Kankrit, the variant appearing after the thematic vowel cannot be identified as a laryngeal, but that is nearly required in Northian.

3 du -tāʰ reflects *-tes. As with all endings which begin with /t/, it is liable to an epenthetic -s- following another dental. There is thus a superficial identity between the 2 du and 3 du primary endings; this identity was often extended to the secondary where it is not a regular outcome in later materials, usually at the expense of the 2 du ending, which was apparently less frequently used.

The secondary ending is -tā̊ < *tām < *teh₂m. The -m ending is confirmed by the co-ordinating imperative ending, which shows the particle -u attached, producing *-tā́mū.

In the middle, this personal form is also sensitive to the transitivity of the verb stem. Where the 3 sg & pl forms require transitive endings, this form will canonically take the ending -ātā, and the intransitive ending is -ā, with the particle -i added in the primary sequence. But in the received text, -ātā is often seen in place of expected -ā; considering they have a differing number of syllables, this could hardly be a metrical alteration.

1 pl In the primary active one finds -məŋhi < *-mensi. This is usually explained as a concactenation of the 1 pl. suffix *-men plus the (redundant) plural marker *-s, with the hic et nunc particle *-i. For verbs with recessive accent, a different form -maʸhi is used; this would be from *-mesi. The secondary form is always -mo.

The subjunctive does not take the normal primary ending of -máŋhi but rather the ending -omōhi, which is best explained as the thematic ending -omō plus the segment -hi extracted from the athematic.

In the primary middle, the ending -mōyδi is encountered, usually thought to be for *-mesdʰh₂. The expected phonetic outcome is *-mezδi > *-mēδi, but it seems the *z was elided in such a way that it caused the preceding vowel to lengthen, which then resolved as though it were at the end of a word *-ē > -ōy. Alternatively, the ending could have been -meh₁dʰh₂, which would produce the same result. In either event, it indicates the *-dʰh₂ could have been considered an independent particle, thus triggering the word-final phonetic change for the long vowel. While *-mes is preferred in the interest of comparison to archaic Syaran -μέσθα, *-meh₁ would compare very well with the 1 pl perf ending -mōy < *-meH.

In the secondary, the ending was -máha is used.

2 pl The allomorphs are -te or -se after vowels. About half of the time the primary ending shows -te even after vowels, which has been interpreted as a sign that the primary ending shared the same of *-tHe as in Kankrit, but as it only occurs as an alternative, the Northian readings permits but does not require it as the ending proper to the primary. The secondary endings are identical except for the xaŋzat-aorists, where it is merely -e and subjec to laryngeal and semivowel colouring.

The middle endings primary -dūvó and secondary -duvó has caused some controversy amongst academics as its provenance is open to many interpretations. No other Erani-Eracuran language attests a difference between primary and secondary endings in this position, and much Galic material also does not distinguish between them. But in the Early Galic, -dūvó is clearly preferred as the primary ending, being attested ten times over the two times of -duvó. In secondary sequence, -dūvó never appears at all. Some prefer to see the length difference as militated by that found in the 1 pl, where the elision of *-z created a long vowel in the primary but not the secondary. But the quantitative difference did not disappear in that form, while the putatively connected contrast disappeared rapidly.

The general shape of these two endings also require some comment. The u-vocalism itself could have two origins. First, as in Kankrit, it could be attributed to a form of Sievers's law that created a syllabic *u before non-syllabic *w following a heavy syllable, but this variety of Sievers's law did not operate generally in Northian. Second, the pre-form *-dʰh₂wé would regularly vocalize as *-δiwó > -δuwó, since /i/ before /u/ is always assimilated to it. Because *w always follows two consonants and thus a heavy syllable, the Sievers's form *-dʰh₂uwé is generated, which has been argued as the source of primary -dūwó by way of metathesis to *-dʰuh₂wé, though this hypothesis creates the absence of the metathesis restricted to secondary -duwó.

3 pl In the active, the ending -ən(ti) is used, which is -ant(i) if following h- or *h₂-. Note that final -t seems to be regularly dropped after -ən. In verbs with persistent accent, this ending takes the zero-grade form of *-n̥t > -ā̆t(i); some preceding vowels are altered by the vocalized nasal. There is a specialized form -r that appears in the aorist injunctive and optative of xaŋzat verbs, a special class of root aorist verbs that have full-grade root throughout, and the present indicative of most i- and u-stem verbs, i.e. 3 pl -ir and -ur. Where -r does not follow a semivowel, it is vocalic and written <arə> word-finally, i.e. <xáŋhiyarə> xáŋhiˀr̥ (the optative suffix ended in a laryngeal, not -i).

For the middle voice, there are several endings that share (what is usually interpreted as) a morpheme *-r. Most present, and all derivative, stems show -ntro, but a few merely -ro. This -r in -ro is thought to be connected in some wise to the active ending -r mentioned above. The ending is furthermore found in the same place in the perfect. It is thus unclear in which direction the borrowing occurred.

Thematic I and II

The primary and secondary thematic endings include a theme vowel between the stem and the ending-proper, varying between *e ~ o. The thematic endings formally differ in the 1 & 2 sing from the athematic ones but are transparently the same, with the addition of the theme vowel, in others. It is still a matter of active debate what the contrast between athematic and thematic endings was in the proto-language. The primary and secondary thematic endings are used in present and aorist stems in the same manner as the athematic ones, with the addition of the same thematic vowel.

Thematic active endings Thematic middle endings
sing du pl sing du pl
1p -owō -əmōhi 1p -oHā -owōδi -əmōihi
2p -e -ete 2p -e -etiϑi -eδuwə
3p -esi -əṇti 3p -e -e -əṇtō

1 sg The first singular active ending is -ō. The middle ending is -oay for *o-h₂e-y—the ending is always disyllabic in Galic.

2 sg The ending for the second active singular is -aꜤi. The middle ending is the same as the athematic one, with the theme vowel /e/ inserted.

3 sg In the third singular one finds the ending -eyi; note that this ending is disyllabic, unlike that of the second singular; ditto for the middle.

1 - 3 du and 1, 2 pl For all these items the thematic forms are the same as the athematic ones, with thematic /e ~ o/ added.

1 pl Ending -omōhi does not show -s, in contrast to the 1 du.

3 pl The endings here are active -o and middle -ō.

Thematic secondary endings, active or middle, are all the same as athematic ones, with thematic vowel inserted in like manner as the primary.

Imperative

The imperative in Northian does not have opposition between primary and secondary. It is observed that the imperative usually implies immediacy, while the stem has aspectual value regarding the action required. The first person imperative is always defective: a speaker expressing a requirement for oneself would use the future tense. For all dual forms, the imperative is the same as the indicative, there being no sign that these ever had distinct imperative endings in Northian.

Athematic imperative active endings Athematic imperative middle endings
sing du pl sing du pl
trans intrans trans intrans trans intrans
2p -δi ~ ϑi ~ zi, -Ø -tā -te, -se, -s 2p -(s)wə -ātiϑi -duwə
3p -tū -tāmū, -(s)mū -əṇtū, -ā̆tū 3p -te -e -tā -ātā -əṇtro -ro

2 sg either endingless or *-dʰí, which normally yielded -δí. A preceding laryngeal devoices the voiced stop and disappears, giving -ϑí. All nasal-suffix verbs (but not the nasal infix) have the endingless form.

2 du & pl endings mimic the indicative endings; suffixed verbs drop the suffix.

3 sg & du appear to be the corresponding secondary ending plus the particle *-u, which is used in all 3p forms. The act 3du in some verbs was recessively accented, and this formation -smū must reflect a zero-grade morph *-th₂m-u.

3 pl has the variable vowel quality as in the secondary ending, which is -antū if the stem ended in *-h₂, and the zero-grade form -ā̆tū if the accent was in the stem.

The imperative forms for thematic verbs are as follows:

Thematic imperative active endings Thematic imperative middle endings
sing du pl sing du pl
2p -etā -esi 2p -ēwə -ātiθi -ezwə
3p -etū -etāmū -əṇtū 3p -eta -ā̊tā -əṇtro

Only a few forms require comment due to the homogeneity to the athematic forms.

2 pl has the active ending -esi, which shows *t fricativized before *i.

3 pl does not have the variable vowel or ablaut as the ending reflects invariant *-onto, which is not susceptible to laryngeal influence. Nevertheless, some thematic verbs do secondarily display -aṇtrō, particularly if they are thematizations of pre-existing athematic stems that have -aṇtrō in this position.

Perfect

The perfect was an athematic formation, irrespective of the thematicity of the present or aorist stems. For the relatively tame verbal system of Northian that tends to agree with the Tennite and Syaran evidence, the evolution of the Northian prefect has been the subject of most attention.

The perfect system is structurally different to the present and aorist as far as the modal forms are concerned. Whereas the present and aorist stems use the same set primary and secondary indicative endings to form its subjunctive and optative moods, the endings of the perfect indicative do not reprise in the perfect subjunctive and optative. Thus, the perfect subjunctive and perfect optative are regarded as analogous formations on the model of the present/aorist subjunctives and optatives.

Some scholars argue for the existence of two parallel conjugations in the perfect system, representing roots of present or aorist origins. The two conjugations would be diagnosed by their ablaut patterns and their endings in the dual and plural, with the present-origin verbs having the o-grade stem in the singular and the zero-grade elsewhere, and the aorist-origin ones having the o-grade stem everywhere other than the 3 pl. Should it have been true at some point, such a situation is necessarily a Pre-Galic one, though it does explain the indeterminacy of the vocalism of the 1 & 2 pl in early Galic with considerable success. But since this theory requires the perfect to be (at least in part) a derivative strategy, it is not accepted by those who maintain a tripartite aspectual system of the Erani-Eracuran verb.

Perfect endings
sing du pl
1p -a -wōi -mōi
2p -ta -Hōt, -ātō -ōi, -ā, -ō
3p -e -Htō, -ātō -ṓ

1 & 2 sg of the perfect are the same as secondary forms of the middle voice.

3 sg has *-e as opposed to middle *-o, which makes it very probable they are ablaut variants of each other. This ending is susceptible to laryngeal and semivowel colouring.

1 du has -wōi in attested texts, but this cannot lead back to *-weH in the same way that 1 pl -mōy leads to *-meH, because in this environment the *e always becomes *o and would give *-wō. The ending also cannot reflect an unmotivated *-wōi, since this would also regularly become *-wō. The final long vowel is best thought as contamination from the 1 pl, and not a very early one.

2 du has two forms, -ātō which is seen everywhere and -Hōt which is only seen in G1. The former is not sensitive to the weight of the previous syllable, which means the long vowel must contain -eh₂. The latter is archaic but unfortunately opaque; some have interpreted it as *-h₃eH-t, but in this position it cannot be confirmed. There is also disagreement whether the two alloforms have any connection with each other, particularly around the element -t-.

3 du also has two forms, -ātō and -Htō in the same distribution. While the former is superficially the same as with the corresponding 2 du form, this need not be the underlying situation, in principle.

2 pl is usually reconstructed as *-e-H, the first segment apparently being the same as the 3 sg ending. The additional laryngeal is of uncertain origin and has spread to the 1 pl and possibly 1 du. In this regard, Kankrit retains the original state of affairs, while Northian introduced alterations. As it contains an exposed *e, this ending is also subject to laryngeal and semivowel colouring.

Perfect and pluperfect imperative

Uniquely, Northian has specialized perfect imperative forms, all of which are poorly attested. The perfect stem is also used with conventional imperative endings, termed the pluperfect imperative because some of its forms resemble those of the pluperfect. There appears to be little difference between the meaning of the two formations, and there is no obvious distinction between stems that take the perfect or pluperfect imperatives.

Perfect imperative endings
sing du pl
2p -ti ? -s
3p ? ?

Very little has been firmly adduced from these forms, and they depart greatly from analogous forms in the present and aorist. At the very least, it is clear that prehistoric Northian placed the perfect in its own category and not in parallel to the present and aorist; its re-characterization as a parallel category was a process already complete by the Late Galic period, when perfect imperatives exhibited the regular endings found in the present and aorist, that is to say the pluperfect imperative has become dominant.

The 2 sg ending -ti could in principle represent *-ti just as the athematic present indicative, though there is no motivation for the ending here. It could also represent *-tH, or more specifically *-th₂, as seen in the perfect ending *-th₂e. The 2 pl ending -s is connected to a variety of forms in the most archaic daughter languages and is sure to be a relic of great antiquity. Unfortunately, much of the paradigm of the perfect imperative is missing.

There are a handful of instances of strangely-placed perfect participles that have been often interpreted as periphrastic forms of the imperative. One such is ēwā̊ < *h₁eh₁swōs.

Moods

Subjunctive

Mood %
Indicative 32
Injunctive 29
Imperative 20
Subjunctive 15
Optative 4

The subjunctive mood had a variety of functions in Galic. In direct discourse, the subjunctive most often expresses "neutral potentiality" without indicating the speaker's personal wish, standing in contrast to the optative that does so. In subordinate clauses, the subjunctive often expresses futurity rather than mere potentiality.

It is agreed the sine qua non of the subjunctive, across the Erani-Eracuran languages, is the thematic vowel, which in most daughter languages was added directly to the full-grade stem. In Early Galic, there is more diversity. In the past, it was often thought the modal stem was an innovation tending towards abbreviation from the indicative, but more recent scholarship has preferred to view the indicative stem as more innovative and the subjunctive stem, which is frequently the same as the injunctive, as more basal. Differences in modal stems were levelled out in the transition from the Galic language to the Epic language by 650 BCE, always in favour of the indicative, and so a distinct subjunctive stem is also called the "Galic subjunctive".

A curious phenomenon in Galic is that some aorist verbs have the accented o-grade of the root, followed by the thematic vowel and primary endings. This is called a type-III subjunctive. Most xaŋzat-aorists have this kind of subjunctive, which is understandable if it is understood the ancestral paradigm of this class had o-grade in all positions other than the 3 pl. But some root aorists of the m-type also unpredictably have this subjunctive. The perfect subjunctive, where it appears, never has the o-grade of the root, even though the o-grade is compulsorily present in the perfect indicative. Thus, the quality of the strong grade of the root vowel cannot be firmly associated with that of the subjunctive.

A type-IV subjunctive also existed, binding the thematic endings to the zero-grade of the root. The origin of this class is unresolved, as nowhere in the family is anything comparable; some take it as a formation based on the optative, though motivation thither is unclear.

In the Tennite languages, primary and secondary endings are applied to the subjunctive stem without discrimination or an obvious difference in meaning, while the other daughters exclusively apply the primary endings. This anomaly of the Tennite languages reminisces of the subjunctive endings used in Galic Northian, which are primary only by the addition of the hic et nunc particle *-i to the secondary thematic endings. "Genuine" primary endings are associated with the athematic indicative, partiuclarly 1 du ending -woiñi and 1 pl -məŋhi, contra subjunctive -owōhi and -əmōhi.

The subjunctive was a reasonably frequent formation in Galic text, particularly in Late Galic, where around 15% of all verbs are subjunctive, compared to around 4% or so that are optatives. They are both dwarfed by the injunctive, which occupies 29% of all finite forms in Galic. The mode receded in importance after the Galic period, seemingly together with the injunctive, being replaced by the optative in most contexts.

Optative

The optative is the other principal modality apart from the subjunctive. In terms of functionality, it expresses the wish of the speaker: if in the first person, the speaker wishes themself do something, and in the third, the speaker wishes the named or implied person do so. It is usually translated into Shalumite as "I wish..." or "would that...", e.g. iyā̊ "I wish you would go".

The optative is signified by the suffix -ī-, which ablauts to -yā- under the accent, and to which are added secondary endings. The accent of the optative is as follows: if the root took mobile accent, the modal suffix takes the accent from the root in the singular active, while the ending takes it in all other forms; if it took persistent accent, the accent remains persistent. The correspondence between the accent and the full grade form is totally predictable. Thus, for verbs with persistent accent, the suffix is always -ī-. While this morpheme looks somewhat like the feminizing suffix, they contain a different prehistoric laryngeal and are, as far as conventional linguistics is aware, not related.

Within the present system, the optative has the same stem as the present indicative. In the aorist system, it is formed from the root exclusively in Galic, though later texts may have the optative suffix added to the sigmatic stem. The perfect optative, like other modal forms of the perfect, is rare in Early Galic but becomes reasonably common in Late Galic and continues to be productive into Epic times. From whichever stem the optative is made, the secondary endings are always used, even in the perfect.

The behaviour of the optative in the present system thus differs from that of the subjunctive but is like it in the aorist. The significance of this divergence is still debated by researchers. At any rate, derivative verbs (that is, the desiderative, future, passive, future perfect, perfect passive, and causative) did not form corresponding optatives until the very end of the Epic period.

Imperative

The imperative mood encodes the speaker's demands. The difference from the optative, which encompasses the speaker's mere wish (which the speaker may or may not intend to be fulfilled), is encapsulated in the following timeless quote by Himinastainas:

mōt hāyō ak nē hāhí kweþaną.

(It is permitted to say "I wish you would kill..." but not to say "kill!")

The Northian imperative is a fairly straightforward continuation of the parent language's largely-agreed imperative structure, where there are second and third person forms in the singular, dual, and plural numbers. The first person imperative is defective, even though it seems at least putatively cogent to use an imperative for the dual and plural numbers, i.e. "let us..."; for this function, the subjunctive is generally used in the singular and the optative in the dual and plural. The imperative is always positive in tone: a negative demand, i.e. "do not...", is expressed by the injunctive with the particle mōy "do not".

As the imperative is built to aspectual stems, it generally expresses aspectual meaning in consort with the co-ordinating indicative; the contrast between present and aorist imperatives is particularly salient when the action differs between a punctual or repetitive nature, such as between "plough" (push the plough once) and "plough" (continuously, as a profession, i.e. to farm). The grammatical nuance of the perfect imperative depends on the particular verb and often expresses an intense meaning. Contrast pf imp ānoxzi "arrive!" (i.e. "be having come!"), pres imp āzi "be coming!", and aor imp naxš "come!"

The perfect imperative is infrequent in any part of the Galic corpus but consistently formed, particularly for the verb woyd- "know" in 3p. It has two paradigms, one with 2 sg -ti, 2 pl -s, 3 pl -ō, and another that is the same as the present and aorist imperatives. The perfect imperative has o- and zero grades of the stem, but the accent recedes onto the reduplication syllable (if there is one) even in the singular. The 2 pl vacillates between the o- and zero grades, with earlier texts preferring the o-grade. The 3 pl ending is thus always the zero-grade form -ātū, e.g. xázaˀātū < *ǵéǵn̥h₁n̥tu "let ... exist".

There is a particle -tót that is appended to regular imperative forms to create the "future imperative". This particle is consistently accented and apparently cancels the recessive accent that characterizes the imperative.

Injunctive

The injunctive covers a number of different functions that appear not to have much connection amongst them, and so their exact meanings must often be gleamed from context. There are the following cases that medieval grammarians have named:

  1. Resultative: in a conditional construction, the injunctive may alternately appear as the protasis or apodosis, occupying the place of the subjunctive in later texts.
  2. Adpositive: when an injunctive follows another finite verb or a conjunction that implies connection, it usually takes on the same tense and aspect as the finite verb it follows.
  3. Oppositive: when used after a conjunction that implies contrast, the injunctive usually negates the tense and aspect that is separated by the conjunction.
  4. Prohibitive: following the particle mōy "do not", the injunctive has the meaning of the imperative.
  5. Jussive: the first person imperative is expressed using the bare injunctive.
  6. Affirmative: specifically used as a positive answer to a yes-no question.
  7. Gnomic: when the injunctive does not follow any construction, it is agnostic as to the proper tense and aspect and usually states facts that are always, usually, assumed to be, or in the nature of something to be one way or another; the sense of its current reality is suppressed in comparison to the indicative.

Understanding the various uses of the injunctive is of prime importance to Galic studies, as it is the second most common mood after the indicative, representing 29% of all finite verb forms (the indicative has 42%). But outside of the Gales, it is actually quite rare and disappears by the middle of the Epic period. There may be some connection to the genre of the Galic hymns that explains such a large share of injunctives.

One of the more notable instances of the injunctive is in G.Nr. 42:

zyā ptər, panti zyā̊ təršt, āmōy βā dədəršti.

(Father Sky, Sky sees all things, and it sees me.)

Here, the first "see" is injunctive, and the second "see" is indicative. This passage is nearly always consulted in essays seeking to explain the usage of the injunctive.

While than the prohibitive and gnomic uses survive, the adpositive and oppositive injunctive uses generally disappeared before the Epics, and their functions are captured by the participles and infinitives agreeing with the subject of the finite verb. The syntax of the injunctive, other than one introduced by "do not", is a murky area of historical Northian literature and, from medieval times, has generated much comment about what their instances in the Gales exactly mean. Yet because much content of the Galic religion has been lost to history, this context upon which the injunctives are employed is also nearly completely lost, in turn hampering a more precise description of the uses of the injunctive, particularly against a co-ordinating indicative.

Formally, the injunctive is like the modal forms in that it is obligatorily built from the root, except in the present where it optionally takes the present stem if it is reduplicated. If the root is conjugated with lengthened vowel in the present, the injunctive formation loses the length. For root present stems, therefore, the injunctive appears merely an unaugmented imperfect; for suffixed verbs, the injunctive loses the suffix. To the injunctive stem the secondary endings are attached. The injunctive sometimes irregularly shows full grade throughout the active and middle, where full and zero grades alterate in the indicative; in this shape it thus appears like a subjunctive with secondary, athematic endings.

It has been noted that a "motley of different formations" are classified as "injunctive", and more than a few scholars consider it imprudent to assign a modal label to forms that share nothing but "an absence of diverse characters". Yet as there is yet to be a root that indubitably attests multiple injunctive stems, most manuals describe them as injunctive and assign a standard injunctive form to roots.

Participles

Each verbal stem is usually capable of forming a corresponding participle or verbal adjective.

For all present and aorist active stems, the participle utilized the affix -nt- and followed the accentual pattern of the verb. Athematic verbs with mobile accent had participles with mobile accent, with accent over the -nt- syllable in the strong cases and the ending in others. Verbs with static accent and reduplicated verbs in the present or aorist had participles consistently accented on the root syllable.

  • m həs, zatō; f həntī, zasiiā̊
  • m xrbaHas, xrbaHatō; f xrbaHantī, xrbaHāsiiā̊
  • m wēnas, wēnatō; f wēnasī, wēnasī
  • m krnuuəs, krnuntō; f krnuuəntī, krnunsiiā̊

The perfect stem formed its own participle using the ablauting suffix -us-. Unlike the present/aorist active participle, the perfect participle had an amphikinetic pattern.

  • m βeβoiduš, βeβidušō and nom pl βeβizuuoHā

Syntax

Copula

In Early Galic, nominal sentences were the normal construction to express the sense of equivalence or identity as found in the word "is", e.g. GNr 112 maxrō tu-at "but thou art tall". The finite verb ešti is only rarely used for this function. When it does appear, it often connotes contrast with a previous statement.

Notes


See also