User:Neitrāls vārds/Moksha declension

Moksha nominal declension is usually determined by the final sound(s) of a word.

In rare cases additional considerations can come into play:

• syllable count
  • monosyllables ending in -и (-i) (ши, ки (ši , ki)) behave like the most regular vowel-stem type, 2 and more syllable words ending in -и (тонафни, мазы (tonafńi , mazi)) get an -е- (-e-) interfix in some forms. This may be due to the fact that the agentive -и contains an underlying (deleted) *-j element(?)
• etymology/derivation determines declension type:
  • deverbal -ма (-ma) nouns (няема (ńajema), etc.) have the most regular vowel-stem inflection.
    • няема : няемань
  • words like калма (kalma, “grave”) have orthographic shift to -о- (-o-)
    • калма : калмода
  • вельхтяма (veľhťama, “blanket, duvet”) unexpectedly behaves like the elision type (plural вельхтяпт (veľhťapt) (Poljakov)), although morphologically it could be viewed as one of the highly regular -ма deverbals (in this case of вельхтямс (veľhťams, “to cover”)). This is a special case, otherwise there are countless attestations of regular inflection of -ма deverbals.

Usage of soft sign (ь ( )) is governed by Appendix:Moksha spelling of soft consonants, this has bearing on Appendix:Moksha definite declension.

Appendix:Moksha possessive declension is partially derived from the indefinite paradigm.

Force no translit?

Vowel stems

• няема, ~нь, ~да, ~са, ~ста, ~с, ~ва, ~шка, ~фтома, ~кс, ~нкса; pl ~т; def ~сь

front-back

• сельм/е, ~онь, ~ода, ~оса, ~оста, ~ос, ~ова, ~ошка, ~офтома, ~окс, ~онкса; pl ~от; def ~ось

front vowel switching to back vowel could be explained by м not being one of the paired consonants

back-front

• уш/а, ~ень, ~еда, ~еса, ~еста, ~ес, ~ева, ~ешка, ~ефтома, ~екс, ~енкса; pl ~ет; def ~есь

words ending in -ша; switch could be explained by ш being always hard