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Edit: And you looked it up! As we suspected, this is all a translation problem.

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In English, the case "my" is in is NOT called genitive, it is called possessive. In other words, English uses two different words for genitive and possessive, but Dutch uses the same word for both of them. Therefore, if you are writing in Dutch you are correct to use that word to describe a case that only deals with ownership. But if you are writing in English, you need to check whether "genitive" or "possessive" is the correct word to use. If it only deals with ownership, "possessive" is the correct word.

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Now, in order that we may figure out what this case really is, explain what the non-possessive uses are. Your example, I believe, once you started to say that it was not use simply for possession was "his palace of kingship." Is that still accurate?

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Originally written by spiders in my brain get them out:


Myth 2 is itself a work of Art with a capital A, but one of my favorite moments of detail comes while sneaking a saboteur into a castle. If you wait near a pair of guards you can eavesdrop on their conversation about the world's largest turnip.

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The point is that a case that can serve the same function as the "of" in both "a glass of milk" and "the home of the man" is genitive, and a case that can't isn't.

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Thralni - practice the English phrase "Thanks for your help, I appreciate the help you are giving me." You are receiving feedback because the participants find the subject interesting. That means you are creating something that is interesting. Good job! In fact, it is so interesting that these people want to help you make it as good and useful as possible. It is nice to be polite to people that want to help, otherwise they tend to just ignore and not help, which is bad.

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brick wall

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*facepalm* *facepalm* *facepalm*
Thralni, you do realize that the only reason I was arguing with you about this was because you said its genitive was only used for possession? OY.

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(The whole point of an ergative case is that it's not like a nominative case.)

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Yes. Yes, there should be an example sentence for an intransitive verb. I'm NOT suggesting that you delete the sentence; I AM suggesting that you take out the bit about "with the dog". "I walk" is just as good an example of a sentence with an intransitive verb as "I walk with the dog" — better, because it doesn't throw in other confusing words.

To summarize: the sentence should just say "I walk," not "I walk with the dog."

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Yes, as long as the plural of "nephil" in the nephil language is something that could be interpreted as sounding like "nephilim." That is, "nephilfarh" doesn't sound a heck of a lot like "nephilim," so it's hard to imagine how the two could be confused.

However, you could say that in the later language (when the nephil race actually comes into contact with the human race) the F drops out, and the RH sounded enough like an M by that point that humans heard something more like "nephilam," which they (for ease of pronunciation) turned into "nephilim."

This sort of stretches credibility, but meh.

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