Hi Mark, you wrote in response to me:

For example, how would one translate 10 cemisî south of Pelym?

I would write azh Pelymán erán po dec cemisen.

Ah, thanks. Having looked up azh in the dictionary, I can see the precedent for such use.

The one grammatical oddity is that the direction in a region's name is declined as a noun. That is, it doesn't agree with the toponym in gender.

So east of South Viminia would be azh Erán(masc. dat.) Vimínian(fem. dat.) sarán? And I hate South Viminia, disai Er(masc. acc.) Vimíniam(fem. acc.)?

I have another question. How would the River Elbe be translated into Verdurian? For my recent posting in Cadhinor, I guessed the equivalent of soa Elbe selë, with both Elbe and selë in the feminine singular nominative, and when I declined it, I declined both words equally (treating Elbe as a feminine noun due to its -e ending): azh soan Elben selen erán, south of the(fem. dat.) Elbe(fem. dat.) river(fem. dat.).

What would one say in Verdurian, however? In German, river is nearly always left off, and only the name of the river is used (and takes the feminine article except for very large rivers such as the Nile, the Amazon, or the Mississippi, which are masculine). In English, river is optional, but when present, usually comes before the name (boating on the (River) Nile). In Greek, the word for river usually comes after the name of the river: ο Έλμπε ποταμός (o Élbe potamós), but I'm not sure how the name of the river declines in different cases.

I could imagine any of the folllowing:

• Only the name of the river, with gender determined from the ending: so (gliny) Nil, soa (gliny) Elbe, soa (gliny) Mississippi; soei (glinii) Nilei, soe (glinye) Elbei, soe (glinye) Mississippë; soán (glinín) Nilán, soan (glinyan) Elben, soan (glinyan) Mississippin
• Only the name of the river (changing according to its grammatical ending), with definiate article and adjectives having feminine gender due to an implicit feminine selë: soa (gliny) Nil, soa (gliny) Elbe, soa (gliny) Eärdur, soa (gliny) Shayu; soe (glinye) Nilei, soe (glinye) Elbei, soe (glinye) Eärdurei, soe (glinye) Shayui; soan (glinyan) Nilán, soan (glinyan) Elben, soan (glinyan) Eärdurán, soan (glinyan) Shayun
• selë explicitly stated before or after the name of the river (in lower case?), with the name of the river in the nominative and changing according to its grammatical ending: soa selë Nil, soa selë Elbe, soa selë Svetla, soa selë Shayu; soe selëi Nilei, soe selëi Elbei, soe selëi Svetle, soe selëi Shayui; soan selen Nilán, soan selen Elben, soan selen Svetlan, soan (glinyan?) selen Shayun or soa Nil selë, soa Elbe selë, soa Svetla selë, soa Shayu selë; soe Nilei selëi, soe Elbei selëi, soe Svetle selëi, soe Shayui selëi; soan Nilán selen, soan Elben selen, soan Svetlan selen, soan (glinyan? glinín?) Shayun selen
• selë with the name of the river in the genitive case (the river of the Nile, as it were): soa selë Nilei, soa selë Svetle, soa selë Shayui; soe selëi Nilei, soe selëi Svetle, soa selëi Shayui; soan selen Nilei, soan selen Svetle, soan selen Shayui
• selë together with the name of the river, which does not change: soa selë Svetla, soa selë Shayu; soe selëi Svetla, soe selëi Shayu; soan selen Svetla, soan selen Shayu

Which would you go for? Or maybe none of the above, as with my guesses at compass directions?

Oh -- and are foreign common and proper nouns declined at all (according to their ending), or are they invariant? Would it perhaps be soan Nil and soan Elbe (foreign, invariant) but soan Shayun and soan Svetlan (native, change ending)? And lädai Hamburg but lädai Pelymán?

And if foreign nouns that have not been naturalised are invariant, are they all considered masculine, or all feminine, or maybe either according to the ending the word happens to have? Could it be, perhaps, Tenao dhuni(masc. pl. acc.) chip and Lelnai dhunem(fem. pl. acc.) muvi? (And yes, I know about dhëska and bezhecî.)

Cheers,
Philip.