Overview of the Case System in Old Church Slavonic

Jan 27, 2015 by

lunt_2001Old Church Slavonic (OCS) had six cases, plus the vocative form. For the endings in the various cases, declensions, genders, stem types and parts-of-speech, consult “OCS Declension Tables” or Lunt (2001: 52-80).

When is each case used in OCS?

 

Nominative:

  • subject: reče že emu bogъ ‘And God said to him’
  • nominal predicate of the subject: sь estъ ioanъ krьstitelь ‘This is John the Baptist’

Accusative:

  • direct object: čьto sъtvorjǫ ‘what will I do?’
  • nominal predicate of the direct object: proroka iměaxǫ i ‘(they) consider him a prophet’
  • terminus of the directed motion (‘toward’): vъ bogъ ‘toward God’

Genitive:

  • possession (loosely defined as a relation between two entities): ženy filipa bratra svoego ‘of the wife of his brother Philip’
  • masculine direct objects denoting male persons (the “genitive-as-accusative”): imъ ioana ‘seized John’
  • object of certain prepositions: otъ tebe ‘from you’

Locative:

  • object of certain preposition: o nemь ‘in him’
  • location in space or time: iisusъ prikosnǫ sę očьju ima ‘Jesus touched their eyes’

Dative:

  • indirect object: rekǫ duši moei ‘I will say to my soul’
  • possessor (person or thing) affected by the action: iisusъ prikosnǫ sę očьju ima ‘Jesus touched their eyes’

Instrumental:

  • instrument (loosely defined): cъ klętvojǫ izdreče ‘(he) promised with an oath’
  • subjects (agents) of passives: navaždena materjǫ svoejǫ ‘instructed by her mother’

Vocative:

  • direct address: bezumьne ‘O fool!’

 

Sources:

Lunt, Horace G. (2001) Old Church Slavonic Grammar. Mouton de Gruyter.

 


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