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Comitative case
Comitative case (abbreviated as COM) is the grammatical case that denotes accompaniment. In Nûrlâm it is marked with postposition “-sha” for both declension classes, which can be translated into English as preposition “together with” or just “with”. Comitative case changes the role of nouns and pronouns into adverbial. Typical applications include:
- to mark companion of an action: “Sauron conquered Gondor (together) with Saruman” = “Sauron paikuzâ Gunduzg Sharkûsha”1);
- to mark two patients of an action: “Put Uglûk together with stinking Saruman-filth into the dung-pit” = “Gaith Uglûk Saruman-globsha pushdug bagronkishi” (see also orcish curse);
- to mark the object that is present/absent closely to the subject: “Tabrus karm îmsha” = “He has a knife with him(self)”;
- to mark grammatical object that has grammatical subject in close proximity: “Karm kulâ tasha” = “Knife is with him”;
- with certain verbs, usually concerning speech: “he talks with orcs” = “tashugb uruksha”; but “Tagashnuz urukûr zamash …” (Dative case) = “he told (to) orcs that …”;
- invitation to do an action together: “Go with me” = “ukh dasha”, “sing with us” = “lash daksha”;
- marks simultaneous action if time is expressed with noun or pronoun: “Trolls turn to stone with dawn” = “Olog-hai ragû gundishi ânsh-sha”
Comitative vs. Instrumental case
Comitative case may be confused with Instrumental case, as both of them may be translated with English preposition “with”. The difference is that either word “together” or presence of companion or emotion is implied in Comitative case, while Instrumental case means “with use of”, “using”. Compare: “He speaks with fear in his voice” = “Tagashn ufursha mogtabishi” (COM) vs. “He speaks with flattery” = “Tagashn glizgirzi” (INS), “He talks with elves” = “Tashugb golugsha” (COM) vs. “He talks with his mouth” = “Tashugb pugtabirzi” (INS), “Kill the orc with knife”2) = “Dog urukum kirmsha” (COM) vs. “Kill the orc with (use of) knife”3) = “Dog urukum kirmirzi” (INS).
The verb “gûk-” (to fill) requires indirect object (if present) to be in Instrumental case: “Fill the barrels with fish” = “Gûk kralt skabirzi”. But “kralt skabsha” means that fish is already in the barrels.
