# All Slavic languages: Comparison of declension patterns



## cajzl

Edit: This post was written as a reply to this post.



> On the other hand, in the north, differences are huge. For instance, the female noun declension (first standard, then northern čakavian):
> 
> N žena - žena
> G žene - ženi
> D ženi - žene
> A ženu - ženu
> V ženo! - ženo!
> L o ženi - o žene
> I sa ženom - zi ženun
> 
> n žene - ženi
> g ženâ - žen
> d ženama - ženan
> a žene - žene
> v žene! - žene!
> l o ženama - o ženah
> i sa ženama - zi ženami


Interestingly, the declension difference between two Croatian dialects is significantly bigger than between Czech and Russian.

The Czech declension of *ryba* looks rather like a transcription of the Russian one into the Latin script.

ры́ба - ryba
ры́бы - ryby
ры́бе - rybě
ры́бу - rybu
(ры́бо!) - rybo!
ры́бе - o rybě
ры́бой, ры́бою - s rybou

ры́бы - ryby
рыб - ryb
ры́бам- rybám
рыб - ryby
(ры́бы!) - ryby!
ры́бах - o rybách
ры́бами - rybami

I see only one difference: in plur. accusative, obviously Russian employs the plur. genitive form (it is possible in Czech, too, but we still call it genitive).


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## Tolovaj_Mataj

Cajzl,
can you say that this pattern suits to all nouns of feminine gender ending on -a?

Hm, if I add Slovene version, you'll see it's somewhere between Czech and Croatian.  
And someone could make a wrong conclusion our accusative is equal to others vocative. 


N ры́ба - ryba - riba
G ры́бы - ryby - ribe
D ры́бе - rybě - ribi
A ры́бу - rybu - ribo
V (ры́бо!) - rybo! - /
L ры́бе - o rybě - pri ribi
I ры́бой, ры́бою - s rybou - z ribo

ры́бы - ryby - ribe
рыб - ryb - rib
ры́бам- rybám - ribam
рыб - ryby - ribe
(ры́бы!) - ryby! - /
ры́бах - o rybách - pri ribah
ры́бами - rybami - z ribami


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## cajzl

> Cajzl,
> can you say that this pattern suits to all nouns of feminine gender ending on -a?


Yes, for all a-stem feminine nouns with a hard (non-palatal/ized) consonant before the vowel "a".
There are some peculiarities, of course:
e.g. the ending -e/-ě causes the palatalisation of the preceding consonant; some nouns have irregular plural: ruka - ruce, in fact it is dual (dual of ryba would be rybě: jedna ryba - dvě rybě - tři ryby in Old Czech)


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## Thomas1

Polish seems to have more differences here, especially in the plural:


cajzl said:


> Interestingly, the declension difference between two Croatian dialects is significantly bigger than between Czech and Russian.
> 
> The Czech declension of *ryba* looks rather like a transcription of the Russian one into the Latin script.
> 
> ры́ба - ryba - ryba
> ры́бы - ryby - ryby
> ры́бе - rybě - rybie
> ры́бу - rybu - rybę
> (ры́бо!) - rybo! - rybo
> ры́бе - o rybě - o rybie
> ры́бой, ры́бою - s rybou - z rybą
> 
> ры́бы - ryby - ryby
> рыб - ryb - ryb
> ры́бам- rybám - rybom
> рыб - ryby - ryby
> (ры́бы!) - ryby! - ryby
> ры́бах - o rybách - o rybach
> ры́бами - rybami - z rybami
> 
> I see only one difference: in plur. accusative, obviously Russian employs the plur. genitive form (it is possible in Czech, too, but we still call it genitive).


As for vocative we wouldn't probably use it in this particular case.



> ры́бой, ры́бою - s rybou


Are you sure this one is correct/used too? If so when is it employed?

Tom


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## Kolan

cajzl said:


> Interestingly, the declension difference between two Croatian dialects is significantly bigger than between Czech and Russian.
> 
> The Czech declension of *ryba* looks rather like a transcription of the Russian one into the Latin script.
> ...
> (ры́бо!) - rybo!
> ...
> I see only one difference: in plur. accusative, obviously Russian employs the plur. genitive form (it is possible in Czech, too, but we still call it genitive).


A little correction to the vocative singular, in modern Russian the difference between vocative and nominative almost disappeared (except of very few masculine words in a specific context, like *Бог - Боже*, *Отец - Отче*, *Сын - Сыне*, *Господь - Господи*), so that voc.sing for *рыба* is *рыба!*


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## Tolovaj_Mataj

cajzl said:


> (dual of ryba would be rybě: jedna ryba - dvě rybě - tři ryby in Old Czech)


This is interesting! In Slovene it is vice versa:
ena riba - dve rib*i* - tri rib*e*

So don't be surprised, if you ask for "ribi/ryby" here and you'll get only two.


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## Athaulf

Tolovaj_Mataj said:


> This is interesting! In Slovene it is vice versa:
> ena riba - dve rib*i* - tri rib*e*
> 
> So don't be surprised, if you ask for "ribi/ryby" here and you'll get only two.



I'm surprised you're not pointing out that the issue is about the dual number being fully preserved only in Slovenian.


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## hinko

Tolovaj_Mataj said:


> This is interesting! In Slovene it is vice versa:
> ena riba - dve rib*i* - tri rib*e*


It is worth of mentioning that when we come to 5, it is pet rib. Therefore:

ena riba - dve rib*i* - tri rib*e* - štiri rib*e* -pet rib - šest rib - ... - 101 riba - 102 rib*i - ...*

My opinion about differences between Slavic languages is following: 
I can understand about 90% of Croatian, Serbian and bosnian or more. In the fact, until this very moment, I didn't even know that bosnian is a language. I always tought that Bosnians speak "Serbo-Croatian". Besides, I find no or very little difference between Serbian and croatian, I have many times talked to Croatians and Serbs (and Bosnians) and their languages just seemed the same to me. When I ask them what is "the big difference" between your languages, they say "oh, it is a huge diffrence", which has an implied meaning of the political diffrences, which arose after the decay of Yougoslavia. As an example they would give me few words that are different( like kruh and hleb). In the former Yougoslavia there has only been Serbo-Croatian, which was taught in schools in Slovenia and that is probably the reason why Slovenians speak and understand "Serbo-Croatian". I, however, have learned Croatian spontaneously, when being on vacations there (multiple times). My experiences tell me that Croatians, Serbs or Bosnians don't realy understand a lot of Slovenian, no matter how comprehensible you are trying to be.
As far as other Slavic languages are concerned I don't understand them at all. I catch familiar words from time to time but that is all. However I find listening to Russian and Czech language extremly funny and also I should mention that the best jokes in Slovenia are Croatian. Not just because of its content but very much because of the language itself.


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