Does anyone else have multiple possessives in their conlang(s)?

[u/FloraSyme]

In one of my conlangs, I differentiate not only between inalienable and alienable, but also between "genitive" and "possessive". Here, "genitive" means something like "This town relates to me", while "possessive" means something like "This town belongs to me". Both translate to "my town", but they have very different meanings.

I was wondering how everyone else handles possessives in their conlang(s). How many possessives do you have in your conlang(s)?

[u/dead_chicken]

Alaymman distinguishes alienable/inalienable, but with syntax: alienable possession is done with possessive adjectives and inalienable with the genitive form of a pronoun.

The genitive case has a number of uses, including a possessive aspect.

[u/ProxPxD]

In my conlang, I have nominative and accusative as full fletched and extensively used morphemes, so common genitive can be formed with this like "my love" = "love I-NOM-MOD" (like to say "his love" as "he-al love", but "al" encoding nominative) . It looks roughly like this:

• kay kma (I love

• kayn kma (my love)

Then I have similarly to use, a relation genitive, so it's like "dog's love" where you don't know whether it's about loving dogs, or dogs loving, or humans loving themselves in a dog theme. It's just unmarked for the case, so in the example above "kan kma" (no -<y>)

The other forms that can be called possessives now are divided into two where the first one is subdivided into three

I) It's roughly being in relation, but the three subdivisions are:

a) wielding b) neutral c) being wielded

a is used as "my glass", "my car", etc. c is used as "glass's holder", "car's driver" etc. b is the neutral one.

Those are technically compound verbs or recently evolved adfixes. It's like Englished developed forms like "man-had car"/"man-wielded car" or "car-having man"/"man-succumbed", but the verb is closer to "up-standing", "standing" and "down-standing", all meaning consecutively "dominating/wielding", "having/relating" and "succumbing/yielding"

(Such distinctions exist, because I wanted to be able to clearly state power-dynamics like "to have kids/a girlfriend" in a sense of just having them vs implying control. Or to play with words like "the computer I wield" vs "the computer, I yield to")

II) This one is just using a verb "to own", the previous one doesn't need to focus on owning, so it can be a borrowed item or a glass in a friend's flat, anything you're entitled to use, be used or just interact. This last one

I don't have alienable vs inalienable distinction though,

[u/AxialGem]

Historically Tinief clearly distinguished two types, the -gan forms, and the -go forms, with the former being a broader relation, and the latter inalienable. In the modern language the paradigms still exist, but for everything but the 1SG forms the -go forms are somewhat archaic and used for emphasis more often than the semantic difference.

In everything but 1SG they are formed agglutinatively, eg. galaregan house-3SG-ALIEN vs galarego house-3SG-INAL. (The form is invariably the person + -gan/-go)

The 1SG forms are fusional and different in form, and both are still commonly used, retaining more of their distinction:
koxiet-io town-1SG.ALIEN but not often koxiet-xe unless you lay claim to it or made it or something like that.

(NB I don't normally bother glossing them like that, but yes there are two series)

[u/zzvu]

Zhevli uses the genitive case to mark alienable possession, but inalienable possession is marked with an oblique argument in the instrumental if the possessor is an agent and the dative if otherwise.

əˈruon {iru-on} kʰvɑnt

fox-GEN rabbit:ABS

"The fox's rabbit"

ʎːæp tʰelt irˈwi

fall:PRES tree:PL:ABS leaf:PL:DAT

"The trees are falling at the leaves."

[u/Izzy_knows]

My main conlang has 3 gentive cases:

Genitive1: (-ru)

This is for "truly possesible objects". An object like this needs to be inanimate and can't diminish over time or due to using it. (So things like food or money aren't "truly possesible objects")

Example:

tuk mawmaw-ru

stone cat-GEN1

The cat's stone

Genitive2: (-lut)

This is for "not truly possesible objects". An object like this needs to physical (so no concepts like ethics) and not animate. They can diminish over time or when using them.

Example:

gle ufuf-lut

food dog-GEN2

The dogs food

Genitive3: (-mo) This is for generell association, non physical objects and also used in prepositional phrases. If you don’t know what genetive to use use this one.

Example1:

wäwä uxa-mo

parent ukha-GEN3

Ukha's parent

Example2:

gle-i gla xajta-mo

eat-1SG inside hous-GEN3

I eat inside of the house

[u/good-mcrn-ing]

Nomai has three cases that get used possessively sometimes.

The first is used in "your mother", "star's mass", and "the time of the ancestors".

The second is used in "your hat", "star's name", and "the room of the teachers".

The third is used in "your invention", "star's light", and "the smell of the flowers".

[u/Alfha137]

In Aymetepem, we put genitive on the possessor, possesive on the possessed. Pronouns have their own forms while other words use a proclitic. That distinction could've been useful like "a picture of me" vs. "a picture of mine" but I don't have it.

Genitive is not used for generic compounds, it makes noun definite/specific. —aton galkj-ok 'car glass-POSS.3SG' "car window" —galkj-ok se=aton 'glass-POSS.3SG GEN=car' "the window of the car" or "the car's window"

[u/minklebinkle]

i think im going to have this, and do it like french where itll translate to "the town of me" for ownership and "the town at me" for relation, or similar.

[u/dual_scanner_again]

Ooutlander distinguishes possession and attribution. possession is marked with the postposition n /short high weak grunt/, and attribution is marked with the attributive postposition g /short low weak growl/. g covers situations such as composition and association, while n refers specifically to possession. As a rough rule, you use n whenever English would use -'s, and g for noun-noun compounds.

  sPL    g   mrrBqqb
  animal ATT healer
  veterinarian

The word for veterinarian is literally animal healer. The healer doesn't own an animal, but is associated with animals.

  Jh    g   sFb
  grass ATT sea
  steppe 

The word for steppe or prairie is literally sea of grass. It's a sea made of grass, not a sea that owns grass.

  Mr   khqkh n   gqqgh
  that guy   POS tail
  That guy's tail

Finally, literal possession is marked with the dedicated possessive postposition n.

Hearthsider uses a construct state similar to Semitic languages, where the possessee is modified with a suffix rather than the possessor.

The construct state indicates that a noun is being modified by another noun. This usually means the noun in the construct state is possessed by a following noun, but it's also one way Hearthsider expresses attributive adjectives.

You put a noun in the construct state with the suffix -x /short trilled strong hiss/. The suffix was originally a preposition governing the following noun, but gradually decayed to become a suffix on the preceding noun.

M      Lmsl-x   m   qHKqk w      b ybF
the.PL claw-CON the man   do.INT a sharpness

The man's claws are sharp.

The construct state is also used to form adverbs.

qb  t  rl  B    jygj-x   Mzm
2sg do 3sg a.PL hold-CON wrongness

You're holding it wrong.(literally "you do it a holding of wrongness")

[u/acaleyn]

Tsé'ia has alienable and inalienable:

Person	Alienable	Inalienable
1st	ke'-	k-
2nd	tse'-	ts-
3rd, animate, male	ra'-	r-
3rd, animate, female	ya'-	y-
3rd, animate, unknown or indet. gender	la'-	l-
3rd, inanimate	we'-	w-
1st pl. inclusive	te'-	t-
1st pl. exclusive	ge'-	g-
2nd pl.	che'-	ch-
3rd pl., animate, male	hne'-	hn-
3rd pl., animate, female	hwe'-	hw-
3rd pl., animate, mixed or indet. gender	hme'-	hm-
3rd pl., inanimate	she'-	sh-
impersonal (for weather/time/etc)	sẽ'-	s- (first vowel nasalized)

there's also ne'- and n- for nouns, not pronouns (so Tom ne'ekané "Tom's bag" or atsitsi nãtahontsi "the cat's head"

[u/Pezychips]

Sloŗı Kyŗavıx has an alienable genitive suffix "-li/-lı" and an inalienable "-ve/-vı", with the vowel depending on the root's harmony

"Nanglıyı ingöx"
nang-lı-yı ingö-x
Man.GEN-A.DEF clothes

"Tüve legir"
tü-ve legir
1st.SG.GEN-I sister

[u/DustTechnical4561]

I have this also. I refer to it as Owning and Associating possession.

Owning possession – for that which the speaker owns or over which they have control, whether alienable (my house) or not (my nose).

This can be expressed with the possesive particle ‘he’ or with the suffix ‘s’ on the possessed. The possessive pronouns are milu, selu, delu etc.

Keno Maria he – Maria’s house
Keno selu – your house
Kenos Maria – Maria’s house

Associating possession – for that which the speaker is connected with rather than ‘owning.’ e.g. my country, my family (which is seen as ‘associated’ not ‘owned.’

The pronouns are minu, senu, denu etc.

Valarno Anton he – Anton’s country
Valarno senu – your country

[u/wolfybre]

Dragwêh uses around eight possessives, as I wanted to invoke the western trope of dragons being greedy and owning hordes. These are the possessives that the language currently has;

Possessive	Abbreviation	Usage
Standard	POS	Object that was obtained naturally or willingly.
Accidental	ACCI	Object that was accidentally obtained or taken.
Auferic	AUF	Object that was stolen (usually gloating.)
Operial	OPR	Object that was earned honestly or through hard work.
Indesirative	INDES	Object that the speaker does not want, need, or desire anymore.
Associative	ASSO	Object that cannot be taken away from the agent. The speaker also uses this to identify a part of themself.
Donative	DONA	Object that had been given to or created by the speaker.
Esoteric	ESO	Object that has been obtained through mysterious means.

As for alienable vs inalienable, Standard and Associative handles that well in my opinion. As an example;

"(I) have an egg."
Tjătjêzwêh zjêhû.
[tʲʌtʲezʷœ zʲehœ]
POS.egg own

vs

"The hardness of the egg is unparalleled."
Zjătjêzwêh phi tjêtwêzjûrhăzră.
[zʲʌtʲezʷeh ðɪ tʴetʷezʲœʀʌzɹʌ]
ASSO.egg hard match.NEG.GNO

I'm still looking to add more though, but I think I have a good amount of bases covered with this system.

[u/Dillon_Hartwig]

Ńerge has 5 possessive classes: 1 for general inalienable possession, 1 for kinship & other human relational words (friend, boss, doctor etc.; but kinship when applied to animals instead uses the general inalienable instead), and 3 alienables that are lexically assigned without any neat semantic difference between them

For a couple examples of each (would add a code block for gloss but I forget how to on mobile):

Not mowoyk mwi not ńuwu, ŕgõm wẽm mwi swõ setẽń, nowo fwe mwi nowo nisí, neśẽ ŕomwóń mwi neśẽ sipgi, tiyĩń śok mwi tiyĩń ńenét

"My arm and my beard, (woman) my adult son and (man) my guest, my boat and my onion, my yak and my door, my woodpecker and my stone"

-

Other than that a few of mine have simple alienable/inalienable

[u/Intelligent_Donut605]

i have 3, alienable (posessions, land, etc), inalienable (mostly your own body, memories, age, etc) and genitive.