Vanadovian

Classification and Dialects
White Ruthenian is an Eastern Germanic language spoken in the White Ruthenian Commonwealth, commonly called White Ruthenia.

Writing System
The White Ruthenian Cyrillic script has a lot of orthographical particularities due to conservative spelling :
 * The letter A is pronounced /a/, if stressed. If unstressed, it becomes reduced to /ɐ/, e.g. : aвга (=eye) /'awgɐ/
 * The letter B is pronounced as /w/, if it is followed by a consonant, e.g. : aв г а (=eye) /'awgɐ/
 * The letter Г is pronounced as /v/ followed by the letter O, e.g. : Григ о ра (=Gregor) /grivɐrɐ/
 * The letters Е and И palatalize "automatically" the preceeding consonant, e.g. хн и го (=book) /xɲivɐ/
 * The letter E is pronounced /i/, if unstressed, e.g. : дяскеў (=teacher) /djasciw/
 * The letter Л is pronounced /w/, it is followed by a consonant or the vowel A, O and У, e.g. : вул ф а (=wolf) /vuwfɐ/
 * The letter O is pronounced /ɐ/, if unstressed, e.g. : хниго (=book) /'xɲivɐ/
 * The letter У is pronounced /ɯ/, if it is in final position, e.g. : хвитрутенску (=White Ruthenian language) /xvjitrutjinskɯ/
 * The letter Ў standing for /w/ is only used for /w/ in final position, e.g. : дяскеў (=teacher) /djasciw/
 * The letter Ъ indicates that the letters Е and И do not palatalize the preceeding consonant, e.g. : объ е цѣнко (=promise) /ɐbitsjɛnkɐ/
 * The letter Ъ may stand for the phoneme /ɐ/, mostly with prefixes ending in the same consonant as the initial word begins, e.g. : с ъ с евѫ (=to see - perfective) /sɐsjɛvɐ/
 * The letter Ь is only used to indicate palatalization with the letter O, e.g. : гасть о (=guest) /gastjɐ/
 * The letter Ѫ stands for the phoneme /ɐ/ and has a purely morphological role (it is an archaism, having been pronounced /ã/), e.g. : съсевѫ (=to see - perfective) /sɐsjɛvɐ/
 * The letter Ѣ stands for the phoneme /jɛ/ and has a purely etymological role (it is an archaism, having been pronounced /æ/), e.g. : объецѣнко (=promise) /ɐbitsjɛnkɐ/

Nouns
Nouns in White Ruthenian are highly declined. They may be singular or plural, feminine, neuter or masculine. They may be put in cases depending on their function in the sentence, as follows : nominative, vocative, accusative, dative, genitive, partitive and locative.

First Declension -a
The First Declension is inferred through the nominative singular ending -a. All nouns of the First Declension are either masculine or neuter. There is no rule that would help memorizing, which nouns of the First Declension are masculin or neuter. They must be learnt by heart.

Second Declension -o
The Second Declension is typically marked by nouns ending with -o. All nouns of the Second Declension are feminine. * The letter Ѫ cancels the palatalization of the letter T out. The combination ьѫ does not exist.

** The real endig is -ac, but because of the palatalization of the letter T, the letter Я must be applied instead of the letter A.

Third Declension -y
The Third Declension is typically marked with nouns ending in -y or -ў. Nouns ending in -y are neuter, while nouns ending in -ў are masculine.

Fourth Declension -з/-р
Nouns of the Fourth Declension do always end either with -з or -р. They can be masculine or feminine, but there is no rule to predetermine, which noun is masculine or feminine. So here again, the genders must be learnt by heart. The vowel between the stem and the nominative singular ending drops, if the noun gets a case ending.

General use of the case system
The general use of the case system will be explained here, but note that it is an over-simplification of the grammatical reality, because many cases are used in different contexts, which will be explained later on. Due to the syntax of White Ruthenian, being generally SVO, there is a strict rule concerning, which cases come at what place in the sentence : Vocative - Locative - Nominative -  Verb  - Adverb - Dative - Accusative/Partitive ; first, note that the genitive case may be put additionally to any noun in any case, but it will always follow the noun it refers to, and secondly, note that the accusative and the partitive are counterparts of each other.
 * Nominative : expresses the subject of a sentence, e.g. : John eats fish.
 * Vocative : expresses an exclamation, e.g. : John, do you eat fish?
 * Accusative : expresses the direct object, e.g. : John eats fish.
 * Dative : expresses the indirect object, e.g. : John gives the children cookies.
 * Genitive : expresses the possessed object, e.g. : That is John's bag.
 * Partitive : expresses the direct partial object, e.g. : Give me some water.
 * Locative : expresses the location, e.g. : John is now in White Ruthenia.