CasesystDegr: Case marking is degressively asymmetrical; a limited group within its nominals (such as pronouns or nouns within a defined lexical area) shows a smaller number of cases than the majority of nominals.
noun | personal pronoun | ||
Nom. | barát ‘friend’ | én ‘I’ | ő ‘he/she/it’ |
Acc. | barát-ot | engem(et) | ő-t |
Dat. | barát-nak | nekem | neki |
Ine. | barát-ban | bennem | benne |
Elat. | barát-ból | belőlem | belőle |
Ill. | barát-ba | belém | belé |
Ade. | barát-nál | nálam | nála |
Abl. | barát-tól | tőlem | tőle |
All. | barát-hoz | hozzám | hozzá |
Sup. | barát-on | rajtam | rajta |
Del. | barát-ról | rólam | róla |
Sub. | barát-ra | rám | rá |
Com-Inst. | barát-tal | velem | vele |
Caus-Fin. | barát-ért | értem | érte |
Tra. | barát-tá | - | - |
Term. | barát-ig | - | - |
For. | barát-ként | - | - |
Ess-Form. | barát-ul | - | - |
The case-marking system of nouns and pronouns is asymmetrical in Hungarian. Nouns can take 18 (or according to other definitions 27) different case markers, while personal pronouns can have 14 cases (cf. Kenesei et al. 1998: 192, 270‒271). Except for the nominative and the accusative, the cases of the personal pronouns are formed by attaching a person marker to the case-marking suffixes used as stems. The nominative form of the personal pronoun can extend these compositional forms in an emphatic function: e.g. tőlem ‘from me’ - éntőlem ‘from me’ (D. Mátai 2003a: 212‒216).