Editing Chuvash language (section)

====Nouns====
Chuvash nouns decline in number and case and also take suffixes indicating the person of a possessor. The suffixes are placed in the order possession - number - case.<ref name="Róna-Tas 1997: 4"/> There are six [[declension|noun cases]] in the Chuvash declension system:

{| class="wikitable"
|+ [[Grammatical case]]s:
!
! Singular
! Plural
|-
! [[Nominative case|Nominative]] 
| -∅
| -сем (dial. -сам)
|-
! [[Genitive case|Genitive]] (of)  
| -(ӑ)н/-(ӗ)н
| -сен
|-
! [[Dative case|Dative]]-[[Accusative case|Accusative]] (for)
| -(н)а/-(н)е
| -сене
|-
! [[Locative case|Locative]] (in, on)
| -ра/-ре, -та/-те
| -сенче
|-
! [[Ablative case|Ablative]] (from)
| -ран/-рен, -тан/-тен
| -сенчен
|-
! [[Instrumental-comitative case|Instrumental]] (with) 
| -па(лан)/-пе(лен)
| -семпе(лен)
|-
! [[Abessive case|Abessive]] (without)
| -сӑр/-сӗр
| -семсӗр
|-
! [[Causative]]
| -шӑн/-шӗн
| -семшӗн
|}

In the suffixes where the first consonant varies between р- and т-, the allomorphs beginning in т- are used after stems ending in the dental sonorants -р, -л and -н. The allomorphs beginning in р- occur under all other circumstances.<ref>Rona-Tas 1997: 4</ref> The dative-accusative allomorph beginning in н- is mostly used after stems ending in vowels, except in -и, -у, and -ӑ/-ӗ, whereas the one consisting only of a vowel is used after stems ending in consonants.<ref>Chuvash manual, Unit 3</ref>

The nominative is used instead of the dative-accusative to express indefinite or general objects, e.g. утӑ типӗт 'to dry hay'.<ref>Павлов 2017: 84</ref> It can also be used instead of the genitive to express a possessor, so that the combination gets a generalised compound-like meaning (лаша пӳҫӗ 'a horse head' vs лаша'''н''' пӳҫӗ 'the horse's head'); with both nominative and genitive, however, the possessed noun has a possessive suffix (see below).<ref>[https://en.chuvash.org/e/554e49542054574f20284356204d616e75616c2c204772616d6d617229 Chuvash manual, Unit 2]</ref><ref>Павлов 2017: 62-64</ref>

In the genitive and dative-accusative cases, some nouns ending in -у and -ӳ were changed to -ӑв and -ӗв (ҫыру → ҫыр'''ӑв'''ан, ҫыр'''ӑв'''а, but ҫырура; пӳ → п'''ӗв'''ен, п'''ӗв'''е, but пӳре). In nouns ending in -ӑ, the last vowel simply deletes and may cause the last consonant to geminate (пулӑ 'fish' > пу'''лл'''ан). Nouns ending in consonants sometimes also geminate the last letter (ҫын 'man' → ҫын'''н'''ан).<ref>{{cite web|url=https://en.chuvash.org/e/554e49542054574f20284356204d616e75616c2c204772616d6d617229|title=UNIT TWO|website=Chuvash People's Website|access-date=21 April 2022}}</ref>

There are also some rarer cases, such as:
* [[Terminative case|Terminative]]–[[antessive case|antessive]] (to), formed by adding -(ч)чен
* relic of [[distributive case|distributive]], formed by adding -серен: кунсерен "daily, every day", килсерен "per house", килмессерен "every time one comes"
* [[Semblative case|Semblative]] (as), formed by adding пек to pronouns in genitive or objective case (ман '''пек''', "like me", сан '''пек''', "like you", ун '''пек''', "like him, that way", пирӗн '''пек''', "like us", сирӗн '''пек''', "like you all", хам '''пек''', "like myself", хӑвӑн '''пек''', "like yourself", кун '''пек''', "like this"); adding -ла, -ле to nouns (этемле, "humanlike", ленинла, "like Lenin")
* [[Postfix (linguistics)|Postfix]]: ха (ha); adding -шкал, -шкел to nouns in the dative (actually a postposition, but the result is spelt as one word: унашкал 'like that').

Taking кун (day) as an example:

{| class="wikitable"
! Noun case
! Singular
! Plural
|-
! [[Nominative case|Nominative]]
| кун
| кунсем
|-
! [[Genitive]]
| кунӑн
| кунсен
|-
! [[Dative case|Dative]]-[[Accusative case|Accusative]]
| куна
| кунсене
|-
! [[Locative case|Locative]]
| кунта
| кунсенче
|-
! [[Ablative case|Ablative]]
| кунтан
| кунсенчен
|-
! [[Instrumental case|Instrumental]]
| кунпа
| кунсемпе
|}

Possession is expressed by means of constructions based on verbs meaning "to exist" and "not to exist" ("пур" and "ҫук"). For example, to say, "The cat had no shoes":

: {{lang|cv|кушак + -ӑн ура атӑ(и) + -сем ҫук + -ччӗ}}
: {{lang|cv|(кушакӑн ура аттисем ҫукччӗ)}}

which literally translates as "cat-of foot-cover(of)-plural-his non-existent-was."

The '''possessive suffixes''' are as follows (ignoring vowel harmony):
{| class="wikitable"
|+
!
!singular
!plural
|-
!1st person
| -(ӑ)м
| -мӑр
|-
!2nd person
| -у
| -ӑр
|-
!3rd person
| -ӗ/и
| -ӗ/и<ref name="Róna-Tas 1997: 4"/>
|}

Stem-final vowels are deleted when the vowel-initial suffixes (-у, -и, -ӑр) are added to them. The 3rd person allomorph -ӗ is added to stems ending in consonants, whereas -и is used with stems ending in vowels. There is also another postvocalic variant -шӗ, which is used only in designations of family relationships: аппа 'elder sister' > аппа-шӗ.<ref>Róna-Tas 1997: 3</ref> Furthermore, the noun атте 'father' is irregularly declined in possessive forms:<ref>{{cite web|url=https://en.chuvash.org/e/554e4954204649564520284356204d616e75616c2c204772616d6d617229|title=UNIT FIVE|website=Chuvash People's Website|access-date=21 April 2022}}</ref>
{| class="wikitable"
|+
!
!singular
!plural
|-
!1st person
| атте<br>аттем
| аттемӗр
|-
!2nd person
| аҫу
| аҫӑр
|-
!3rd person
| ашшӗ
| ашшӗ
|}

When case endings are added to the possessive suffixes, some changes may occur: the vowels comprising the 2nd and 3rd singular possessive suffixes are dropped before the dative-accusative suffix: (ывӑл-у-на 'to your son', ывӑл-ӗ-нe 'to his son' > ывӑлна, ывӑлнe), whereas a -н- is inserted between them and the locative and ablative suffixes: ывӑл-у-н-та 'in/at your son', ывӑл-ӗ-н-чен 'from his son'.<ref>[https://en.chuvash.org/e/554e49542053495820284356204d616e75616c2c204772616d6d617229 Chuvash Manual, Unit 6]</ref>