Nominative–absolutive language

A nominative–absolutive language, also called a marked nominative language, is a language with an unusual morphosyntactic alignment similar to, and often considered a subtype of, a nominative–accusative alignment. In a prototypical nominative–accusative language with a grammatical case system, like Latin, the object of a verb is marked for accusative case, and the subject of the verb may or may not be marked for nominative case.

The nominative, whether or not marked morphologically, is also used as the citation form of the noun. In a marked nominative system, on the other hand, it is the nominative case alone that is marked morphologically, and it is the unmarked accusative case that is used as the citation form of the noun. Because that resembles an absolutive case, it is often called a nominative–absolutive system.

Marked nominative languages are relatively rare. They are well-documented in only two regions of the world: in northeastern Africa, where they occur in several branches of the Cushitic and Omotic families of Afro-Asiatic, as well as in the Surmic and Nilotic languages of the Eastern Sudanic family; and in the southwestern United States and adjacent parts of Mexico, where they are characteristic of the Yuman family. Other languages interpreted by some authors as having a marked nominative system include other Afro-Asiatic languages such as some Berber varieties, Igbo, Aymara and Wappo.

Some earlier Germanic languages, such as Gothic and Old Norse, also used a marked nominative. The table below shows an abbreviated declension of Gothic dags, 'day', and Old Norse armr, 'arm' (note that Indo-European linguistic tradition uses the nominative as the citation form, whether marked or not) both of which show a marked nominative and an unmarked accusative:

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