There are in Chinese no case terminations as in Latin, e.g. domin-us, domin-i, domin-o, &c. Case signification is indicated, as in English, by the use of particles, chiefly prepositions, preceding or following the noun.
The Genitive, of, possession, ownership, pertaining to &c, is indicated:—
1. By position simply, or by employing an adjective form of speech.
- gūa-kok-nâng,
- people of outside nations.
- siâⁿ-chhiêⁿ,
- city wall, or, wall of a city.
- sì-so̍k,
- customs of the world.
- kuaⁿ-gê,
- Mandarin office, or, office of the Mandarin.
- uâng-bō,
- king crown, or, crown of the king.
2. By the classifier kâi denoting: one, an individual. It has the force of the apostrophic ’s in English, and is by far the most common sign of the Genitive. It always follows the noun. Sometimes chṳ, of, its is used, but this is bookish save in certain idiomatic phrases.
- uá-kâi-sṳ̄,
- an affair of mine.
- i kâi-pín-hẽng,
- his actions.
- i kâi-ì-sṳ̀,
- his meaning.
- hieⁿ-lí kâi-kui-kṳ́,
- the custom of the village.
- póu-thâu kâi-pèⁿ,
- the handle of the axe.
- i kâi chhiú-siá,
- his hand-writing.
3. So̍k, pertaining to is used in written language, but in certain cases becomes colloquial, and sometimes has a Genitive sense.
- i chhin-so̍k,
- belonging to his clan, i.e. of his clan.
- siang-so̍k,
- mutually pertaining to.
- chí-kâi-sieⁿ so̍k-tî-kūiⁿ só-kuán?
- this village belongs to the jurisdiction of what district?
- Tiê-Chiu káu-so̍k,
- the nine (districts) of Tie-Chiu.
Very commonly the Dative sense is discernible only from the connection. At other times the following auxiliaries are utilized, pun, to give to; to let, to allow, to; tùi, to respond to, used properly by inferiors to superiors; ṳ́, to, with; kāng, kiau, with, together with, and therefore, to, hiàng, to, towards; kàu, to reach to, to; in-ũi-tie̍h, for, on account of.
