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Lesson Nine.

1. Dative of adjectives.

Similar to substantives, adjectives take dative, depending on the case in which the attributed noun stands. As with substantives, in plural dative the common ending -on is used. Moreover, it is also present in singular masculine (instead of -i of the substantive declension). Neuter has -u and feminine -ari:

Possessive pronouns and the word hvar ‘who, which’ have the same endings – M.sg. minon, voron, hvaron, F.sg. minari, vorari, hvarari, N. sg. minu, voru, hvaru, pl. minon, voron, hvaron.

Exercise 9.1.
Translate into Nynorn:

In a yellow house, in your (du sg.) boats, together with a happy girl, off my tables, against kind-hearted boys, out of black buildings (bygging nm.s1), from your (di pl.) fathers, under grey cliffs (klett nm (s1)).

girl - dokka nf.
building - bygging nm. (s1)
cliff - klett nm. (s1)

2. Interrogative pronouns (continued)

The interrogative pronoun hvar always takes the number, gender and case of the noun it refers to. This can be any case, including accusative and dative. So if a question is raised about any member of a sentence, the interrogative pronoun in the interrogative phrase will take the same case, number and gender as the respective noun is supposed to have.

Examples:

1. Accusative:
Eg kenni hana. -> Hvarn kenner du? I know her. -> Whom do you know?
Eh kalla å hana. -> Hvarn kallar du å? I'm calling her. -> Whom are you calling?

2. Dative
Eg takka dem. -> Hvaron takkar du? I'm thanking them. -> Whom are you thanking?
Eg hjålpa dinni syster. -> Hvarari hjålpar du? I'm helping your sister. -> Whom (=which woman) are you helping?

3. Mixed examples:
Eg se. -> Hvar ser? I'm seeing. -> Who's seeing?
Eg se. -> Hvatna gerer du? I'm seeing. -> What are you doing?
Eg se hana. -> Hvar ser hana? I'm seeing her. -> Who's seeing her?
Eg se hana. -> Hvarn ser du? I'm seeing her. -> Whom are you seeing?
Eg se hana. -> Hvatna gerer du? I'm seeing her. -> What are you doing?

Eg takka. - > Hvar takkar? I'm thanking. -> Who is thanking?
Eg takka. - > Hvatna gerer du? I'm thanking. -> What are you doing?
Eg takka henni. – Hvar takkar henni? I'm thanking her. -> Who's thanking her?
Eg takka henni. -> Hvaron takkar du? I'm thanking her. -> Whom are you thanking?
Eg takka henni. -> Hvatna gerer du? I'm thanking her. -> What are you doing?

Eg gev -> Hvar gever? I'm giving. -> Who's giving?
Eg gev. -> Hvatna gerer du? I'm giving. -> What are you doing?
Eg gev henni fisk. <- Hvar gever henni fisk? I'm giving her fish. -> Who's giving her fish?
Eg gev henni fisk. <- Hvaron gever du fisk? I'm giving her fish. -> Whom are you giving fish?
Eg gev henni fisk. <- Hvat gever du henni? I'm giving her fish. -> What are you givng her?
Eg gev henni fisk. <- Hvatna gerer du? I'm giving her fish. -> What are you doing?

Notice also that if there is a preposition between the verb and object, the interrogative word takes the case of the object (as it has to be) and the preposition is moved to the final position in the sentence (as it is normally done in English):

Eg tenki um dog. -> Hvat tenker du um? I'm thinking about you. -> What are you thinking about?
Eg driv at di. -> Hvaru driver du at? I'm occupied with it. -> What are you occupied with?

Exercise 9.2.
Translate into Nynorn:

What are you seeing? Whom are you talking with? What are you occupied with? Whom are you writing? What are you writing? Whom are you writing letters? What are you writing to her?

3. Declension of adjectives in -el,-en,-er.

Adjectives of this type have almost the same declension as other regular adjectives. The main difference here is that -e- of the last syllable drops if the ending begins in a vowel. Words in -en preserve -en in the accusative of masculine singular and replace it with -ið in the nominative and accusative of singular neuter. The world litel 'little' is an exception and undergoes the latter change too, swapping -el with –ið in neuter singular, while all other adjectives in -el have here -elt:

gamel 'old':

NB. -ml- is pronounced here as [mbl]: gamlan [gamblan], gamlu [gamblu] etc.

vaksen 'grown, adult':

litel 'little':

mager 'lean':

Exercise 9.3.
Translate into Nynorn:

Old buildings and old houses look beautiful. My dogs are slack (doven). She came with a drunk (drukken) man. She has a little child. We have lean horses. Wolfs (ulv) are greedy (hjårken).

slack - doven
drunk - drukken
wolf - ulv nm. (s1)
greedy - hjårken

Reading

Dað er mitt hus. Dað er ikke sturt, men ikke litið helder. Min brui er ikke uppvoksen i voru husi, hann buði hema hjå abba og ammu, hjejer vorer foreldrar vuru ung og ikke åttu sitt hus enndå. Vorer foreldrar buðu då sjålver hjå abba og ammu. Hjejer min brui vard voksen, køptu de vort nuvarandi hus og fluttu higar.
– Så hvad heder du?
– Eg hedi Gunnbjørn. Og du?
– Eg hedi Gunnar, nesten dað sama.
– Hever du bånn?
– Ja, eg hevi liten son og voksna dotter. Hvat veð djer?
– Dað er dvars imut hjå mjer, eg hevi litla dotter og voksen son.

Vocabulary:

helder – either
uppvoksen part. – grown up
bua vs. (past buði) – to live
hema adv. – at home
hjå prep. + Dat. – at, by
abbi nm. (w) – grandfather
amma nf. (w) – grandmother
hjejer conj. – when (is only used in subordinate clauses and never in questions)
foreldrar nm. (s1) – parents
ega vpp. (past åtti, åttu) – to own (a preterite-present verb, to be explained in detail in Lesson Twelve)
enndå part. – still, yet
sjålv pron. – oneself (declines as an adjective)
køpa vw. (1) – to buy
nuvarandi adj. (indecl) – current, today's
flyta vw. (1) (past fluttu) – to move
higar adv. – hither, hereinto, over here
nesten – almost
dað sama – the same
hvat veð djer? – what about you?
dvars imut adv. – opposite, on the contrary
hjå mjer – for me, with me

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