5: Uses of Nouns - Cases
IN THIS LESSON
How does a noun show possession?
Now, finally, we can jump into cases! First up is the Genitive of Possession. As you remember, the genitive is one of the cases that nouns can take up, with endings to indicate that the noun belongs to the genitive.
One of the foremost uses of the genitive case is to show possesion. In fact, English has something similar—when we want to say something owns something else, we add an ‘s ending to the end, declining it. Thus, by adding the genitive endings to an Oscan noun, we also denote how that noun possibly owns another.
Here are some examples, with the genitive noun in bold:
sakaraklúm Herekleís - the temple of Hercules/Hercules’ temple
Pettíeis meddikiaí - in the meddixship of Pettius/in Pettius’ meddixship