Muranian

Classification and Dialects
Galindian is spoken in the Republic of Crimea and is the only Eastern Baltic language retaining the most archaic features of Proto-Indo-European.

Writing System

 * The letter j followed by a vowel is pronounced /j/, e.g. : lajka (=chamomile) /lajka/, but followed by a consonant it palatalizes the consonant, e.g. : šjaukas (=everyone) /ɕawkas/
 * The diphthong ai is pronounced /aɪ/, e.g. : taip (=yes) /taɪp/
 * The diphthong au is pronounced /aw/, e.g. : šjaukas (=everyone) /ɕawkas/
 * The diphthong ie is pronounced /i:ə/, e.g. : liepi (=nice) /li:əpi/

Nouns
Nouns in Galindian are either masculine or feminine and can be put in the singular, plural or paucal and declined into the nominative, vocative, accusative, dative, genitive, ablative, instrumental or locative case.

Nota bene : Galindian like the two other main Baltic languages, Lithuanian and Latvian, lost its neuter for the nouns, but unlike Lithuanian and Latvian, it retained the dual and developed it to the paucal.

Masculine

 * Masculine names having pluri-syllabic stem end also always in -us and are conjugated like the nouns in -us, e.g. Joanus ( Jo.an. us)

Use of the cases

 * Nominative : used to express the subject or the attribute of the verbs buty (=to be) and staty (=to become), e.g. : Joanus eje zužę. (=John eats fish. - subject), Joanus bude inženeras. (=John is an engineer. - attribute of buty), Joanus stati inženeras. (=John will become an engineer. - attribute of staty)
 * Vocative : used to express exclamation, e.g. : Joane, adij ekje! (=John, come here! - exclamation)
 * Accusative : used to express the direct object, the temporal duration and followed by some prepositions, e.g. Joanus eje zužę. (=John eats fish. - direct object), Petatime į Ameriką čjetris hore. (=We will be flying to America for four hours. - temporal duration), Joane, adij į tą krejmną! (=John, go to the shop! - preposition)
 * Dative : used to express the indirect object and followed by some prepositions, e.g. : Dam darę Joanej. (=I give John a gift. - indirect object), Kupjų darę dila Joanej. (=I'm buying a gift for John. - preposition)
 * Genitive : used to express the possessed object, the direct object in negative sentences, a temporal situation and followed by some prepositions, e.g. : Vidjų tą materą Joana. (=I see John's mother. - possessed object), Joanus neje zuža. (=John doesn't eat fish. - direct object in negative sentences), Lapikrita Joanus ajaditi į Kirimą. (=In September, John will come to Crimea. - temporal situation), Aprės ti vjėļki čjeni Joanus akupiti tą karą. (= Despite of the high price, John will buy the car. - preposition)
 * Ablative : used to express the passive object and followed by some prepositions, e.g. : Joanus jest akjedtas Tomašas. (=John is hit by Thomas. - passive object), Joanus nėsi tą knygą a to bibljoteko. (=John is bringing the book from the library. - preposition)
 * Instrumental : used to express the instrumental object, e.g. : Joanus paise paismą himikaļke. (=John is writing a letter with a pen. - instrumental object)
 * Locative : used to express the location, e.g. : Joanus jest Kirimej lapikrita. (=John is in Crimea in September. - location)

Difference between plural and paucal
The main difference between the plural and the paucal is the plural is used, when the plurality is undefined or in the opposite way (which may be simpler to understand) the paucal is used after numbers and some quantitative words, e.g. : Vidjų gjenąs. (=I see women. - it isn't known, how many women there are - plural), but : Vidjų trės gjene. (=I see three women. - it is known, how many women there are, actually three - paucal). The quantitative words are :
 * kejk (=how much/many) and all its derivatives, e.g. : Kejk gjene vidiš? (= How many women do you see?)
 * nula (=zero), e.g. : Nevidjų nula gjene. (=I see zero women. - very colloquial way to say "I see no women.", which is translated by the negative derivative of kejk : Nevidjų nekejk gjene.)