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Syntax relationships |
Dual (abbreviatedDU) is agrammatical number that some languages use in addition to singular andplural. When a noun or pronoun appears in dual form, it is interpreted as referring to precisely two of the entities (objects or persons) identified by the noun or pronoun acting as a single unit or in unison. Verbs can also have dual agreement forms in these languages.
The dual number existed inProto-Indo-European and persisted in many of itsdescendants, such asAncient Greek andSanskrit, which have dual forms across nouns, verbs, and adjectives;Gothic, which used dual forms in pronouns and verbs; andOld English (Anglo-Saxon), which used dual forms inits pronouns. It can still be found in a few modern Indo-European languages such asIrish,Scottish Gaelic,Lithuanian,Slovene, andSorbian languages.
The majority of modern Indo-European languages, including modern English, have lost the dual number through their development. Its function has mostly been replaced by the simple plural. They may however show residual traces of the dual, for example in theEnglish distinctions:both vs.all,either vs.any,neither vs.none, and so on. A commonly used sentence to exemplify dual in English is "Both go to the same school." whereboth refers to two specific people who had already been determined in the conversation.
ManySemitic languages have dual number. For instance, in Hebrewיים- (-ayim) or a variation of it is added to the end of some nouns, e.g. some parts of the body (eye, ear, nostril, lip, hand, leg) and some time periods (minute, hour, day, week, month, year) to indicate that it is dual (regardless of how the plural is formed). A similar situation exists in classical Arabic, whereان-ān is added to the end of any noun to indicate that it is dual (regardless of how the plural is formed).
It is also present inKhoisan languages that have an extensiveinflectional morphology, particularlyKhoe languages,[1] as well asKunama, aNilo-Saharan language.[2]
Many languages make a distinction between singular andplural: English, for example, distinguishes betweenman andmen, orhouse andhouses. In somelanguages, in addition to such singular and plural forms, there is also adual form, which is used when exactly two people or things are meant. In many languages with dual forms, the use of the dual is mandatory as in some Arabic dialects using dual in nouns as inHejazi Arabic, and the plural is used only for groups greater than two. However, the use of the dual is optional in some languages such as other modern Arabic dialects includingEgyptian Arabic.
In other languages such asHebrew, the dual exists only for words naming time spans (day, week, etc.), a fewmeasure words, and for words that naturally come in pairs and are not used in the plural except in rhetoric: eyes, ears, and so forth.
InSlovene, the use of the dual is mandatory except for nouns that are natural pairs, such as trousers, eyes, ears, lips, hands, arms, legs, feet, kidneys, breasts, lungs, etc., for which the plural form has to be used unless one wants to stress that something is true for both one and the other part. For example, one saysoči me bolijo ('my eyes hurt'), but if they want to stress that both their eyes hurt, they sayobe očesi me bolita. When using the pronounobe/oba ('both'), the dual form that follows is mandatory. But the use of "obe (both)" is not mandatory since "očesi (two eyes)" as it is, implies that one means both eyes.
Although relatively few languages have the dual number, using different words for groups of two and groups greater than two is not uncommon.English has words distinguishing dual vs. plural number, including:both/all,either/any,neither/none,between/among,former/first, andlatter/last.Japanese, which has no grammatical number, also has wordsdochira (どちら, 'which of the two') anddore (どれ, 'which of the three or more'), etc.
Among living languages,Modern Standard Arabic has a mandatory dual number, marked on nouns, verbs, adjectives, and pronouns. (First-person dual forms, however, do not exist; compare this to the lack of third-person dual forms in the old Germanic languages.) Many of the spoken Arabic dialects have a dual marking for nouns (only), and its use can be mandatory in some dialects, and not mandatory in others. Likewise,Akkadian had a dual number, though its use was confined to standard phrases like "two hands", "two eyes", and "two arms". The dual inHebrew has also atrophied, generally being used for only time, number, and natural pairs (like body parts) even in itsmost ancient form.
Inuktitut and the relatedCentral Alaskan Yup'ik language use dual forms; however, the relatedGreenlandic language does not (though it used to have them).
Khoekhoegowab and otherKhoe languages mark dual number in their person-gender-numberenclitics, though theneuter gender does not have a dual form.
Austronesian languages, particularlyPolynesian languages such asHawaiian,Niuean, andTongan, possess a dual number for pronouns but not for nouns, as nouns are generally marked for plural syntactically and not morphologically. Other Austronesian languages, particularlythose spoken in the Philippines, have a dual first-person pronoun; these languages includeIlokano (data),Tausug (kita), andKapampangan (ìkatá). These forms mean "we", but specifically "you and I". This form once existed inTagalog (katá or sometimeskitá) but has disappeared from standard usage (save for certain dialects such as inBatangas) since the middle of the 20th century, withkitá as the only surviving form (e.g.Mahál kitá, loosely "I love you").
The dual was a standard feature of theProto-Uralic language, and lives on in theSamoyedic branch and in mostSami languages, while other members of the family likeFinnish,Estonian, andHungarian have lost it. Sami languages also feature dual pronouns, expressing the concept of "we two here" as contrasted to "we".Nenets, two closely relatedSamoyedic languages, features a complete set of dualpossessive suffixes for two systems, the number of possessors and the number of possessed objects (for example, "two houses of us two" expressed in one word).
The dual form is also used in several modern Indo-European languages, such asIrish,Scottish Gaelic,Slovene, andSorbian (see below for details). The dual was a common feature of all early Slavic languages around the year 1000.
InModern Standard Arabic, as well as inClassical Arabic, the use of dual is compulsory when describing two units. For this purpose,ان-ān is added to the end of any noun or adjective regardless of gender or of how the plural is formed. In the case of feminine nouns ending withةta marbuta, this letter becomes aتta. When the dual noun or adjective is rendered in the genitive or accusative cases, theان-ān becomesين-ain.
Besides the noun and adjective dual, there are also dual verb forms of compulsory use for second and third person, together with their pronouns, but none for the first person.
The use of dual inspoken Arabic varies widely and is mostly rendered asين-ain even when in nominative context. Whereas its use is quite common inLevantine Arabic, for instanceكيلوينkilowain meaning "two kilograms", dual forms are generally not used inMaghrebi Arabic, where two units are commonly expressed with the wordزوجzuʒ, as inزوج كيلوzuʒ kilu meaning "a pair of kilograms", with the noun appearing in singular.
InBiblical,Mishnaic, andMedieval Hebrew, likeArabic and otherSemitic languages, all nouns can have singular, plural or dual forms, and there is still a debate whether there are vestiges of dual verbal forms and pronouns.[3] However, in practice, most nouns use only singular and plural forms. Usually־ים-īm is added tomasculine words to make them plural for exampleספר / ספריםsēfer / səfārīm "book / books", whilst withfeminine nouns the־ה-ā is replaced with־ות-ōṯ. For example,פרה / פרותpārā / pārōṯ "cow / cows". The masculine dual form is shown in pointed text with a pathach; in a purely consonantal text, masculine dual is not indicated at all by the consonants. The dual for (two) days is יוֹמַ֫יִם with pathach under the mem. An example of the dual form isיום / יומיים / ימיםyōm / yomạyim / yāmīm "day / two days / [two or more] days". Some words occur so often in pairs that the form with the dual suffix-ạyim is used in practice for the general plural, such asעין / עיניםʿạyin / ʿēnạyim "eye / eyes", used even in a sentence like "The spider has eight eyes." Thus words likeʿēnạyim only appear to be dual, but are in fact what is called "pseudo-dual", which is a way of making a plural. Sometimes, words can change meaning depending on whether the dual or plural form is used, for example;ʿayin can mean eye or water spring in the singular, but in the plural eyes will take the dual form ofʿenayim whilst springs areʿeynot. Adjectives, verbs, and pronouns have only singular and plural, with the plural forms of these being used with dual nouns.
InModern Hebrew as used inIsrael, there is also a dual number, but its use is very restricted. The dual form is usually used in expressions of time and number. These nouns have plurals as well, which are used for numbers higher than two, for example:
| Singular | Double | Triple |
|---|---|---|
| פעם páʿam ("time", frequency) | פעמיים paʿamáyim ("twice") | שלוש פעמים shalosh pəʿamim ("thrice") |
| יום yom ("day") | יומיים yomáyim ("two days") | שלושה ימים shəlosha yamim ("three days") |
| שנה shaná ("year") | שנתיים shnatáyim ("two years") | שלוש שנים shalosh shanim ("three years") |
| שבוע shavúaʿ ("week") | שבועיים shəvuʿáyim ("two weeks") | שלושה שבועות shəlosha shavuʿot ("three weeks") |
| מאה meʾa ("one hundred") | מאתיים matáyim ("two hundred") | שלוש מאות shalosh meʾot ("three hundred") |
The pseudo-dual is used to form the plural of some body parts, garments, etc., for instance:
In this case, even if there are more than two, the dual is still used, for instance יש לכלב ארבע רגלייםyesh lə-ḵélev arbaʿragláyim ("a dog has fourlegs").
Another case of the pseudo-dual isduale tantum (a kind ofplurale tantum) nouns:
InNama, nouns have threegenders and threegrammatical numbers.[4]
| Singular | Dual | Plural | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Feminine | piris | pirira | piridi | goat |
| Masculine | arib | arikha | arigu | dog |
| Neuter | khoe-i | khoera | khoen | people |
The non-Khoe Khoesan languages (Tuu andKx'a), do not have dual number marking of nouns.[5]
The category of dual can be reconstructed forProto-Indo-European, the ancestor of allIndo-European languages, and it has been retained as a fully functioning category in the earliest attested daughter languages. The best evidence for the dual among ancient Indo-European languages can be found in Old Indo-Iranian (Vedic Sanskrit andAvestan),Homeric Greek andOld Church Slavonic, where its use was obligatory for all inflected categories including verbs, nouns, adjectives, pronouns and some numerals. Various traces of dual can also be found inGothic,Old Irish, and Latin (more below).
Due to the scarcity of evidence, the reconstruction of dual endings for Proto-Indo-European is difficult, but at least formally according to thecomparative method it can be ascertained that no more than three dual endings are reconstructible for nominal inflection.[6]Mallory & Adams (2006) reconstruct the dual endings as:
The Proto-Indo-European category of dual did not only denote two of something: it could also be used as an associative marker, the so-calledelliptical dual.[7] For example, theVedic deityMitrá, when appearing in dual formMitrā́, refers to both Mitra and his companionVaruṇa. Homeric dualΑἴαντε refers toAjax the Greater and his fighting companionTeucer, and Latin pluralCastorēs is used to denote both the semi-godCastor and his twin brotherPollux.
Beside nominal (nouns, adjectives and pronouns), the dual was also present in verbal inflection where the syncretism was much lower.
Of living Indo-European languages, the dual can be found in dialects ofScottish Gaelic,[8] but fully functioning as a paradigmatic category only inSlovene, andSorbian. Remnants of the dual can be found in many of the remaining daughter languages, where certain forms of the noun are used with the number two (see below for examples).
The dual is widely used in Sanskrit. Its use is mandatory when the number of objects is two, and the plural is not permitted in this case, with one exception (see below). It is always indicated by the declensional suffix (and some morphophonemic modifications to the root resulting from addition of the suffix).
For nouns, the dual forms are the same in the following sets of cases, with examples for the masculine nounbāla (boy):
In Sanskrit, adjectives are treated the same as nouns as far as case declensions are concerned. As for pronouns, the same rules apply, except for a few special forms used in some cases.
Verbs have distinct dual forms in the three persons in both the ātmanepada and parasmaipada forms of verbs. For instance, the root pac meaning "to cook", takes the following forms in the dual number of the present tense, called laṭ lakāra:
| Person | Parasmaipada | Ātmanepada |
|---|---|---|
| 3rd (prathama) | pacataḥ | pacete |
| 2nd (madhyama) | pacathaḥ | pacethe |
| 1st (uttama) | pacāvaḥ | pacāvahe |
(In Sanskrit, the order of the persons is reversed.)
The one exception to the rigidness about dual number is in the case of the pronoun asmad (I/we): Sanskrit grammar permits one to use the plural number for asmad even if the actual number of objects denoted is one or two (this is similar to the "royal we"). For example, whileahaṃ bravīmi,āvāṃ brūvaḥ andvayaṃ brūmaḥ are respectively the singular, dual and plural forms of "I say" and "we say",vayaṃ brūmaḥ can be used in the singular and dual sense as well.
The dual can be found in Ancient Greek Homeric texts such as theIliad and theOdyssey, although its use is only sporadic, owing as much to artistic prerogatives as dictional and metrical requirements within thehexametric meter. There were only two distinct forms of the dual in Ancient Greek: thenominative-accusative-vocative and thegenitive-dative.
By the fifth century BC, the dual had been lost in some dialects, and had become rare in those that retained it. In theAttic dialect ofAthens (which formed the basis ofClassical Greek), its use depended on the author, and it was generally limited to certainfossilized expressions. The dual fell out of use entirely by the fourth century BC, with the exception of the occasional intentionalarchaism.
InKoine Greek andModern Greek, the only remnant of the dual is the numeral for "two",δύο,dýo, which has lost its genitive and dative cases (bothδυοῖν,dyoīn) and retains its nominative/accusative form. Thus it appears to be undeclined in all cases. Nevertheless,Aristophanes of Byzantium, the foremost authority of his time (early 2nd century BC) on grammar and style, and a staunch defender of "proper" High Attic tradition, admonishes those who write[δυσί (dysí) (dative, plural number) rather than the "correct"δυοῖν (dyoīn) (dative, dual number).[citation needed]
The dual was lost in Latin and its sisterItalic languages. However, certainfossilized forms remained, for example,viginti (twenty), buttriginta (thirty), the wordsambo /ambae (both, compare Slavicoba /obě from earlier *abō / *abāi),duo /duae with a dual declension.
ReconstructedProto-Celtic nominal and adjectival declensions contain distinct dual forms; pronouns and verbs do not. InOld Irish, nouns and the definite article still have dual forms, but only when accompanied by the numeral*da "two". Traces of the dual remain inMiddle Welsh, in nouns denoting pairs of body parts that incorporate the numeral two: e.g.deulin (fromglin "knee"),dwyglust (fromclust "ear").[9]
In the modern languages, there are still significant remnants of dual number inIrish andScottish Gaelic in nominal phrases containing the numeraldhá ordà (including the higher numerals 12, 22, etc.). As the following table shows,dhá anddà combines with a singular noun, which islenited. Masculine nouns take no special inflection, but feminine nouns have aslenderized dual form, which is in fact identical to the dative singular.[10]
| Singular | Dual | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| lámh ("a hand" in Irish) | dhá láimh ("two hands") | trí lámh ("three hands") |
| clach ("a stone" in Scottish Gaelic) | dà chloich ("two stones") | trì clachan ("three stones") |
Languages of theBrythonic branch do not have dual number. As mentioned above for Middle Welsh, some nouns can be said to have dual forms, prefixed with a form of the numeral "two" (Bretondaou- / div-, Welshdau- / deu- / dwy-, Cornishdew- / diw-). This process is not fully productive, however, and the prefixed forms are semantically restricted. For example, Bretondaouarn (<dorn "hand") can only refer to one person's pair of hands, not any two hands from two different people. Welshdeufis must refer to a period of two consecutive months, whereasdau fis can be any two months (compare "fortnight" in English as opposed to "two weeks" or "14 days"; the first must, but the second and third need not, be a single consecutive period).[11]The modern Welsh termdwylo (= hands) is formed by adding the feminine (and conjoining) form of 'two' (dwy) with the word for 'hand' —llaw becominglo as it is no longer in a stressed syllable.
InProto-Germanic, the dual had been entirely lost in nouns, and since verbs agreed with nouns in number, the third person dual form of verbs was also lost. The dual therefore remained only in the first and second person pronouns and their accompanying verb forms.Old English further lost all remaining dual verbs, keeping only first and second person dual pronouns. The Old English first person dual pronoun waswit in thenominative andunc in theaccusative, and the second person equivalents weregit andinc respectively. The West Saxon dialect also had thegenitive forms ofuncer for first person andincer for second person. The dual lasted beyond Old English into theEarly Middle English period in the Southern and Midland dialects. Middle English sawgit evolve intoȝit, andinc can be seen in various different forms includingȝinc,ȝunc,unk,hunk, andhunke. The dual mostly died out in the early 1200s, surviving to around 1300 only in the East Midland dialect.[12]
In a small number of modern English dialects, dual pronouns have independently returned. These include:
Gothic retained the dual more or less unchanged from Proto-Germanic. It had markings for the first and second person for both the verbs and pronouns, for examplewit "we two" as compared toweis "we, more than two".Old Norse and other old Germanic languages, like Old English, had dual marking only in the personal pronouns and not in the verbs.
The dual has disappeared as a productive form in all the living languages, with loss of the dual occurring inNorth Frisian dialects only quite recently.[17] InAustro-Bavarian, the old dual pronouns have replaced the standard plural pronouns: nominativees, accusativeenk (from Proto-Germanic*jut and*inkw,*inkwiz). A similar development in the pronoun system can be seen inIcelandic andFaroese. Another remnant of the dual can be found in the use of the pronounbegge ("both") in the Scandinavian languages ofNorwegian andDanish,bägge inSwedish andbáðir / báðar / bæði in Faroese and Icelandic. In these languages, in order to state "all + number", the constructions arebegge to /báðir tveir / báðar tvær / bæði tvö ("all two") butalle tre /allir þrír / allar þrjár / öll þrjú ("all three"). In German, the expressionbeide ("both") is equivalent to, though more commonly used than,alle zwei ("all two").
Norwegian Nynorsk also retains the conjunctionkorgje ("one of two") and its inversekorkje ("neither of two").
A remnant of a lost dual also survives in the Icelandic and Faroese ordinals first and second, which can be translated two ways: First there isfyrri / fyrri / fyrra andseinni / seinni / seinna, which mean the first and second of two respectively, whilefyrsti / fyrsta / fyrsta andannar / önnur / annað mean first and second of more than two. In Icelandic the pronounsannar / önnur / annað ("one") andhinn / hin / hitt ("other") are also used to denote each unit of a set of two in contrast to the pronounseinn / ein / eitt ("one") andannar / önnur / annað ("second"). Therefore in Icelandic "with one hand" translates asmeð annarri hendi notmeð einni hendi, and as in English "with the other hand" ismeð hinni hendinni. An additional element in Icelandic are the interrogative pronounshvor / hvor / hvort ("who / which / what" of two) andhver / hver / hvert ("who / which / what" of more than two).[18]
Among theBaltic languages, the dual form existed but is now nearly obsolete in standardLithuanian. The dual formDu litu was still used on two-litas coins issued in 1925, but the plural form (2 litai) is used on later two-litas coins.
| Singular | Dual | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| vyras ("a man") | vyru ("two men") | vyrai ("men") |
| pirštas ("finger") | pirštu ("two fingers") | pirštai ("fingers") |
| draugas ("a friend") | draugu ("two friends") | draugai ("friends") |
| mergina ("a girl") | mergini ("two girls") | merginos ("girls") |
| einu ("I go") | einava ("We two go") | einame ("We (more than two) go") |
| eisiu ("I will go") | eisiva ("We two will go") | eisime ("We (more than two) will go") |
Common Slavic had a complete singular-dual-plural number system, although the nominal dual paradigms showed considerablesyncretism, just as they did inProto-Indo-European. Dual was fully operable at the time ofOld Church Slavonic manuscript writings, and it has been subsequently lost in most Slavic dialects in the historical period.
Of the extant Slavic languages, onlySlovene andSorbian have preserved the dual number as a productive form. In all of the remaining languages, its influence is still found in the declension of nouns of which there are commonly only two: eyes, ears, shoulders, in certain fixed expressions, and the agreement of nouns when used with numbers.[19]
In all the languages, the words "two" and "both" preserve characteristics of the dual declension. The following table shows a selection of forms for the numeral "two":
| language | nom.-acc.-voc. | gen. | loc. | dat. | instr. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Common Slavic | *dъva (masc.) *dъvě (fem./nt.) | *dъvoju | *dъvěma | ||
| Belarusian | дваdva (masc./nt.) дзвеdzve (fem.) | двухdvukh (masc./nt.) дзвюхdzvyukh (fem.) | двумdvum (masc./nt.) дзвюмdzvyum (fem.) | двумаdvuma (masc./nt.) дзвюмаdzvyuma (fem.) | |
| Czech | dva (masc.) dvě (fem./nt.) | dvou | dvěma | ||
| Polish | dwa (masc./nt.) dwie (fem.)1 | dwu dwóch | dwu dwóm | dwoma dwiema | |
| Russian | дваdva (masc./nt.) двеdve (fem.) | двухdvukh | двумdvum | двумяdvumya (usual form) двемяdvemya (seldom used, dialectal; fem. in some dialects) | |
| Serbo-Croatian | два /dva (masc./nt.) две /dvije (fem.) | двају /dvaju (masc./nt.)двеју /dviju (fem.) | двaма /dvama (masc./nt.)2 двема /dvjema (fem.) | ||
| Slovak | dva (masc. inanim.) dvaja / dvoch (masc. anim.) dve (fem., nt.) | dvoch | dvom | dvoma / dvomi | |
| Slovene | dva (masc.) dve (fem./nt.) | dveh | dvema | ||
| Sorbian | dwaj (masc.) dwě (fem./nt.) | dweju | dwěmaj | ||
| Ukrainian | дваdva (masc./nt.) двіdvi (fem.) | двохdvokh | двомdvom | двомаdvoma | |
Notes:
In Common Slavic, the rules were relatively simple for determining the appropriate case and number form of the noun, when it was used with a numeral. The following rules apply:
With the loss of the dual in most of the Slavic languages, the above pattern now is only seen in the forms of the numbers for the tens, hundreds, and rarely thousands. This can be seen by examining the following table:
| Language | 10 | 20 | 30 | 50 | 100 | 200 | 300 | 500 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Common Slavic | *desętь | *dъva desęti | *trije desęte | *pętь desętъ | *sъto | *dъvě sъtě | *tri sъta | *pętь sъtъ |
| Belarusian | дзесяць dzesyats′ | дваццаць dvatstsats′ | трыццаць tritstsats′ | пяцьдзесят pyats′dzesyat | сто sto | дзвесце dzvestse | трыста trista | пяцьсот pyats′sot |
| Bulgarian | десет deset | двадесет dvadeset | тридесет trideset | петдесет petdeset | сто sto | двеста dvesta | триста trista | петстотин petstotin |
| Czech | deset | dvacet | třicet | padesát | sto | dvě stě | tři sta | pět set |
| Macedonian | десет deset | дваесет dvaeset | триесет trieset | педесет pedeset | сто sto | двесте dveste | триста trisa | петстотини petstotini |
| Polish | dziesięć | dwadzieścia | trzydzieści | pięćdziesiąt | sto | dwieście | trzysta | pięćset |
| Russian | десять desyat′ | двадцать dvadtsat′ | тридцать tridtsat′ | пятьдесят pyatdesyat | сто sto | двести dvesti | триста trista | пятьсот pyatsot |
| Serbo-Croatian | десет deset | двадесет dvadeset | тридесет trideset | педесет pedeset | сто sto | дв(ј)еста dv(j)esta | триста trista | петсто petsto |
| Upper Sorbian[20] | dźesać | dwaceći | třiceći | pjećdźesat | sto | dwě sćě | tři sta | pjeć stow |
| Slovak | desať | dvadsať | tridsať | päťdesiat | sto | dvesto | tristo | päťsto |
| Slovene | deset | dvajset | trideset | petdeset | sto | dvesto | tristo | petsto |
| Ukrainian | десять desyat′ | двадцять dvadtsyat′ | тридцять trydtsyat′ | п'ятдесят p″yatdesyat | сто sto | двісті dvisti | триста trysta | п'ятсот p″yatsot |
The Common Slavic rules governing the declension of nouns after numerals, which were described above, have been preserved in Slovene. In those Slavic languages that have lost the dual, the system has been simplified and changed in various ways, but many languages have kept traces of the dual in it. In general, Czech, Slovak, Polish and Ukrainian have extended the pattern of "three/four" to "two"; Russian, Belarusian and Serbo-Croatian have, on the contrary, extended the pattern of "two" to "three/four"; and Bulgarian and Macedonian have extended the pattern of "two" to all numerals. The resulting systems are as follows:
These different systems are exemplified in the table below where the word "wolf" is used to form nominative noun phrases with various numerals. The dual and forms originating from it areunderlined.
| "wolf" | "wolves" | "two wolves" | "three wolves" | "five wolves" | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Noun form | nom. sing. | nom. plur. | varies | ||
| Common Slavic | *vьlkъ | vьlci | dъva vьlka (nom. dual) | tri vьlci (nom. pl.) | pętь vьlkъ (gen. pl.) |
| Slovene | volk | volkovi | dva volka (nom. dual) | trije volkovi (nom. pl.) | pet volkov (gen. pl.) |
| Czech | vlk | vlci | dva/tři vlci (nom. pl.) | pět vlků (gen. pl.) | |
| Polish | wilk | wilki wilcy (rare) | dwa/trzy wilki (nom. pl.) dwaj/trzej wilcy (nom. pl.) | pięć wilków (gen. pl.) | |
| Slovak | vlk | vlky (concrete) vlci (abstract) | dva/tri vlky (nom. pl.) dvaja/traja vlci (nom. pl.) | päť vlkov (gen. pl.) piati vlci (nom. pl.) | |
| Ukrainian | вовкvovk | вовки́vovký | два/три во́вкиdva/try vóvky (nom. pl.) | п'ять вовківp″yat′ vovkiv (gen. pl.) | |
| Belarusian | воўкvowk | ваўкіvawki | два/тры ваўкіdva/try vawki (nom. pl.) | пяць ваўкоўpyats′ vawkow (gen. pl.) | |
| Russian | волкvolk | волкиvolki | два/три волкadva/tri volka (gen. sg.) | пять волковpyat volkov (gen. pl.) | |
| Serbo-Croatian | вук /vuk | вукови /vukovi (concrete) вŷци /vûci (abstract) | два/три вука /dva/tri vuka (gen. sg.) | пет вукова /pet vukova (gen. pl.) | |
| Bulgarian | вълкvǎlk | вълциvǎltsi | два/три/пет вълкаdva/tri/pet vălka (count form) | ||
The dual has also left traces in the declension of nouns describing body parts that humans customarily had two of, for example: eyes, ears, legs, breasts, and hands. Often the plural declension is used to give a figurative meaning. The table below summarizes the key such points.
| Language | Examples |
|---|---|
| Czech | Certain paired body parts (eyes, ears, hands, legs, breasts; but not pair organs e.g. lungs) and their modifying adjectives require in the instrumental and genitive plural cases dual forms:se svýma očima (instrumental dual: "with one's own (two) eyes") oru nohou (genitive dual: "at the (two) feet"). Colloquial Czech will often substitute the dual instrumental for the literary plural instrumental case. |
| Polish | Oko ("eye") anducho ("ear") have plural stems deriving from old dual forms, and alternative instrumental and genitive plural forms with archaic dual endings: gen. pl.oczu/ócz/oczów,uszu/uszów; instr. pl.oczami/oczyma,uszami/uszyma. The declension ofręka ("hand, arm") also contains old dual forms (nom./acc./voc. plręce, instr. pl.rękami/rękoma, loc. sg./pl.rękach/ręku). The historically dual forms are usually used to refer a person's two hands (dziecko na ręku "child-in-arms"), while the regularized plural forms are used elsewhere. Other archaic dual forms, including dual verbs, can be encountered in older literature and in dialects:Jak niechceta, to niemusita "If you don't want to, you don't have to".[26] |
| Slovak | In Slovak, the genitive plural and instrumental plural for the words "eyes" and "ears" has also retained its dual forms when speaking about actual body parts:očiam/očí andušiam/uší. The regular plural forms are used in metaphorical uses such as "bull eyes" (fried eggs) or the "ears" (handles) of jugs. |
| Ukrainian | The words "eyes" and "shoulders" had dual forms in the instrumental plural case:очимаochyma ("eyes") andплечимаplechyma ("shoulders"). Furthermore, the nominative plural wordвусаvusa, which is the dual ofвусvus ("whisker"), refers to the moustache, while the true nominative plural wordвусиvusy refers to whiskers. |
| Bulgarian | Some words such asръкаrăka "hand" use the originally dual form as a plural (ръцеrătse). |
| Russian | In Russian the wordколеноkoleno ("knee", "tribe (Israelites)") has different plurals:коленаkolena ("Israelites") is pure plural andколениkoleni (body part) is a dual form. Some cases are different as well:коленамиkolenami vs.коленямиkolenyami (instr.pl.). |
Some scribes ofOld Church Slavonic usedgraphic variants of O when writing forms of "eye", contrasting singularꙩкꙩ, "eye" with dualꙭчи orꙪчи, "[two] eyes".The difference was graphic, not in pronunciation.[27]
Along with theSorbian languages,Chakavian, someKajkavian dialects, and the extinctOld Church Slavonic,Slovene uses the dual. Although popular sources claim that Slovene has "preserved full grammatical use of the dual,"[28] Standard Slovene (and, to varying degrees, Slovene dialects) show significant reduction of the dual number system when compared with Common Slavic.[29] In general, dual forms have a tendency to be replaced by plural forms. This tendency is stronger in oblique cases than in the nominative/accusative: in standard Slovene, genitive and locative forms have merged with the plural, and in many dialects, pluralization has extended to dative/instrumental forms. Dual inflection is better preserved in masculine forms than in feminine forms.[30] Natural pairs are usually expressed with the plural in Slovene, not with the dual: e.g.roke "hands",ušesa ears. The dual forms of such nouns can be used, in conjunction with the quantifiersdva "two" oroba "both", to emphasize the number: e.g.Imam samo dve roki "I only have two hands". The words for "parents" and "twins" show variation in colloquial Slovene between plural (starši,dvojčki) and dual (starša,dvojčka).[31] Standard Slovene has replaced the nominative dual pronouns of Common Slavic (vě "the two of us",va "the two of you",ja/ji/ji "the two of them" [m./f./n.]) with new synthetic dual forms:midva/midve (literally, "we-two"),vidva/vidve,onadva/onidve/onidve.[32]
Nominative case of nounvolk "wolf", with and without numerals:
| nom. sg. (wolf) | nom. dual (2 wolves) | nom. pl. (wolves) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Slovene | volk | volkova | volkovi |
| wolf | 2 wolves | 3 (or 4) wolves | 5(+) wolves (gen. pl.) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Slovene | en volk | dva volkova | trije volkovi | pet volkov |
The dual is recognised by many Slovene speakers as one of the most distinctive features of the language and a mark of recognition, and is often mentioned in tourist brochures.
For verbs, the endings in the present tense are given as-va,-ta,-ta. The table below shows a comparison of the conjugation of the verbdelati, which means "to do, to make, to work" and belongs to Class IV in the singular, dual, and plural.
| Singular | Dual | Plural | |
|---|---|---|---|
| First person | delam | delava | delamo |
| Second person | delaš | delata | delate |
| Third person | dela | delata | delajo |
In the imperative, the endings are given as-iva for the first-person dual and-ita for the second-person dual. The table below shows the imperative forms for the verbhoditi ("to walk") in the first and second persons of the imperative (the imperative does not exist for first-person singular).
| Singular | Dual | Plural | |
|---|---|---|---|
| First person | — | hodiva | hodimo |
| Second person | hodi | hodita | hodite |
As in Slovenian, the Sorbian language (both dialects Upper and Lower Sorbian) has preserved the dual. For nouns, the following endings are used:
| Masculine | Feminine or neuter | |
|---|---|---|
| Nominative, accusative, vocative | -aj/-ej | -e2/-y/-i |
| Genitive1 | -ow | -ow |
| Dative, instrumental, locative | -omaj | -omaj |
For example, the declension ofsin (masculine) andcrow (feminine) in the dual in Upper Sorbian would be given as
| hrěch ("sin") | wróna ("crow") | |
|---|---|---|
| Nominative, accusative, vocative | hrěchaj | wrónje |
| Genitive | hrěchow | wrónow |
| Dative, instrumental, locative | hrěchomaj | wrónomaj |
For verbs, the endings in the present tense are given as-moj,-tej/-taj,-tej/-taj. The table below shows a comparison of the conjugation of the verbpisać, which means "to write" and belongs to Class I in the singular, dual, and plural.
| Singular | Dual | Plural | |
|---|---|---|---|
| First person | pisam | pisamoj | pisamy |
| Second person | pisaš | pisatej | pisaće |
| Third person | pisa | pisatej | pisaja |
