Editing Enets language (section)

== Grammar ==
Enets nouns vary for number, case, and person-number of the possessor. There is also an intriguing nominal case in which ‘destinativity’ determines the entity is destined for someone. Possessor markers are also used for discourse related purposes, where they are completely devoid of the literal possessive meaning. Enets postpositions are marked for person-number; many postpositions are formed from a small set of relational nouns and case morphology.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Leipzig |first=Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology |title=Former Dept. of Linguistics {{!}} Documentation of Enets |url=http://www.eva.mpg.de/linguistics/past-research-resources/documentation-and-%20description/documentation-of-enets.html?Fsize=0 |website=www.eva.mpg.de |language=en}}</ref>

=== Morphology ===
The parts of speech in Enets are: nouns, adjectives, numerals, pronouns, verbs, adverbs, postpositions, conjunctions, interjections and connective particles.<ref name=":0" />

The grammatical number is expressed by means of the opposition of the singular, dual and plural forms. There are three declensions, the main (non-possessive), possessive and desiderative declensions, and seven cases in Enets: the nominative, genitive, accusative, lative, locative, ablative and prolative case. The meaning of those cases is expressed by means of suffixes added to nouns, adjectives, pronouns and substantivized verbs. In their fixed forms they also belong to adverbs and postpositions. The possession is expressed by means of the genitive case or possessive suffixes.<ref name=":0" />

Local orientation is based on the three-member distribution: the suffixes of local cases of nouns, adverbs and postpositions are divided among the [[Lative case|lative]] (''to where?''), [[Locative case|locative]] (''where?'') and [[Ablative case|ablative]] (''from where?''). The [[Prolative case|prolative]] case (''along what?'' or ''through what?'') expresses an additional fourth local characteristic.

The verbal negation is expressed by the combination of the main verb with a preceding auxiliary negative verb. The auxiliary verb is conjugated according to general rules, but the main verb is in a special inconjugated negative form. There are also some verbs of absence - non-possessiveness. Six moods are contrasted in the Enets language: indicative, conjunctive, imperative, optative, quotative and interrogative.  There are three tenses: [[aorist]], [[preterite]] and [[Future tense|future]].<ref name=":0" />

The category of person with nouns is expressed by means of possessive suffixes, differing in all three numbers of all three persons and used in nouns, pronouns, substantivized verbs, adverbs and postpositions. The category of person with verbs is expressed by means of particular personal suffixes of the verb, differing in all three numbers of all three persons.

There are three conjugations in Enets: subjective, objective and reflexive. These conjugations differ from each other by personal suffixes. Additionally, the objective conjugation uses numerical suffixes, referring to all three numbers of the object. In the case of the reflexive conjugation, the person of the subject and object is the same and a separate suffix indicates reflexivity.<ref name=":0" />

==== Nouns ====
Depending on the final sounds of the word stem, nouns can be divided into two groups: 
# nouns with a final sound other than a laryngal plosive stop, e.g. ''dʲuda'' 'horse'
# nouns with a final laryngal plosive stop, e.g. ''tauʔ'' 'Nganasan'
Either group uses variants of suffixes with a different initial sound (e.g. Loc ''dʲuda-han'', ''tau-kon'').

There are seven cases in Enets: the nominative, genitive, accusative, lative, locative, ablative and prolative case. The case suffixes are combined with numeral markers, often in a fairly complex manner.<ref name=":0" />

{| class="wikitable"
!
!Singular
!Plural
|-
|'''Nominative'''
| style="text-align:center" | -
| style="text-align:center" | -ʔ
|-
|'''Genitive'''
| style="text-align:center" | -ʔ
| style="text-align:center" | -ʔ
|-
|'''Accusative'''
| style="text-align:center" | <nowiki>-</nowiki>
| style="text-align:center" | -ʔ
|-
|'''Lative'''
| style="text-align:center" | -d/-t
| style="text-align:center" | -hɨð/-gɨð/-kɨð
|-
|'''Locative'''
| style="text-align:center" | -hVn/-gon/-kon
| style="text-align:center" | -hɨn/-gɨn/-kɨn
|-
|'''Ablative'''
| style="text-align:center" | -hVð/-gɨð/-kɨð
| style="text-align:center" | -hɨt/-gɨt/-kɨt
|-
|'''Prolative'''
| style="text-align:center" | -on/-mon
| style="text-align:center" | -ɨn/-on
|}

The dual case forms are produced on the basis of an uninflected dual form with the suffix ''-hɨʔ/-gɨʔ/-kɨʔ'' by adding the respective singular case endings of some postpositions (mainly ''nə-'') in local cases.<ref name=":0" />

==== Adjectives ====
There are a number of adjectives that have no specific suffixes, e.g. ''utik'' 'bad', ''sojδa'' 'good', ''lodo'' 'low' and ''piδe'' 'high'.

Alongside these, there are various suffixal adjectives, e.g. ''buse̮-saj ne̮'' 'a married woman', ''bite-δa'' 'waterless', ''uδa-šiδa'' 'handless', ''mȯga-he'' 'belonging to the forest', ''same-raha'' 'wolf-like', ''narδe-de̮'' 'red', ''polδe-de̮'' 'black'.

The adjective does not agree with its head either in number or case, e.g. ''agga koja'' 'big sterlet', ''agga koja-hone'' (locative), ''agga koja-hi̮t'' (plural ablative). As an exception, we can refer to the use of the adjective instead of an elliptical noun and as a predicate in the nominal conjugation.

To strengthen a possessive connection, sometimes a respective possessive suffix may be added to the head of an attribute, e.g. ''<u>keδerʔ</u> '''koba-δa''' ŋul'ʔ mujuʔ'' 'the wild reindeer skin is very strong' ("'''its-skin''' <u>of-the-wild-reindeer</u>...").

The comparative degree is formed by means of an adjective in the positive degree (in the nominative form) with the word to be compared in the ablative form.<ref name=":0" />

==== Verbs ====
The verbs in Enets can be distributed into two groups in principally the same manner as the noun depending on the final sounds of the word stem. Either group uses the variants of suffixes with different initial sounds.

Seven moods are contrasted: indicative, conjunctive, imperative, optative, quotative and interrogative. There are three tenses: aorist, preterite and future. (These tenses exist practically only in the indicative mood.) The verb has three conjugations: subjective, objective and reflexive. These conjugations differ from each other by personal suffixes. In addition to this the objective conjugation uses numerical suffixes, referring to all three numbers of the object. In the case of reflexive conjugation a separate suffix indicates reflexivity.<ref name=":0" />

===== Finite forms =====
The aorist is either unmarked or with the marker ''-ŋV-/-V-''. The temporal meaning of the aorist depends on the aspect of the verb. A prolonged or recurrent action should be understood as taking place in the present, a short-time or single action as having taken place in the past, whereas the influence of the latter is still felt in the present. A distinctly past action is expressed by the preterite with the marker ''-ś/-š/-d'/-t'/-č'', whereas the marker is placed after personal suffixes. The future action is expressed by the future marker ''-d-/-dV-/-t-/-tV-'' before personal suffixes.

The objective conjugation uses one type of personal suffixes when the object is in the singular and another type of them with the object in the dual or the plural. In the case of the dual object the dual marker ''-hu-/-gu-/-ku-'' precedes the dual personal suffixes of the second type, whereas in the case of the plural object, the rise of the stem vowel can be observed. The marker of the reflexive mood is ''-i-'', which is standing before personal suffixes.<ref name=":0" />

=== Syntax ===
The [[syntax]] of Enets is typical for the family and the area. The Enets language follows [[Subject-object-verb]], [[head marking]] in the [[noun phrase]], both head and [[dependent marking]] within the clause, non-finite verbal forms used for clause combining. Consequently, the finite verb form (the [[Predicate_(grammar)|predicate]]) is always at the end of a sentence. The negative auxiliary verb immediately precedes the main verb. The object of a sentence always keeps to the word it belongs to.<ref name=":0" />