11 



To make the contrast even more stark, the two form(table : table's) variation of English 

 could be reduced to one by using "of the table" instead of the possessive form "table's". 

 The Russian forms may now be arranged and identified as to case in the following manner: 



Russian has, like English, a plural(pl.) number and so presents further distinctions for 

 the plurals of these six cases. Thus, 



Closer inspection of this welter of forms will show a considerable amount of overlapping. 

 In the singular, for example, this situation is this: 



(CTOJl 

 1 CTOJT 



03epo\ 

 osepof 



CTOjia, osepa 

 CTOjiy, osepy 



CTOJie, 



CTOJIOM. 



osepe 

 osepoM 



The plural is much less complex, since "ending" distinctions disappear entirely for 

 three cases; e.g., ^>, ^—.^^ 



N jCTOJIH 

 A t CTOJIU 

 G CTOJIOB 



osepa \ 

 osepa f 

 osep 4^ 



/ KapTH 

 t KapTH 

 -^ KapT 



flBepw \ 



OTSpM f 



flsepeK 



CTOJiaM, osepaM, KapTaw, flBspflM 

 CTOJiax, osepax, KapTax, jiBepfix 

 CTOJiaMM, osepaMH, KapTaMW, flBepHMM 



GENDER 



The four sets of nouns under consideration are distinguished by different "endings' 

 Looking only at the nominative singular(N-sg.) forms, e.g. 



Set 



B 



osepo 



C 



KapTa 



D 



flBepb 



one could say that the distinctive difference for set B is the ending -o_, for set C the ending 

 -^ and the ending b for set D. Set A is distinguished by not ending in a vowel, in fact, by 

 having no ending(Zero ending); this basic form has, characteristically, a consonant letter 

 in final position. 



If one considers the meanings assigned to Russian words, it becomes obvious that 



*A longer "ending" is optionally (and infrequently) used in this category, e.g. KapTOK). 



