User:Ceige/Something Germanic

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Grammar

Nouns

Gender

There are 3 genders, which are applied with semantic intent:

  • Male:
Male-gendered animals, things being emphasised in a masculine way*, and technically the -er suffix.
e.g. ram, soldier
  • Female
Female-gendered animal, things being emphasised in a feminine way*, romanticised concepts and abstractions, most derivational suffixes
e.g. ewe, valkyrie
  • Neuter
Animals (in a collective or non-individualistic sense), vehicles (but personified vehicles are typically female), machines (see prev., female gender can act as a respectful familiar diminutive), diminutives suffixes, etc.
e.g. sheep, land


*The use of emphasis is determined by the speaker's intent and background.


Number

Nouns form the plural with:

  • -er if they end in a consonant, are unaffixed, and are male,
  • -en if they end in a consonant or suffix, and are female,
  • and -s if they end in a (phonemic) vowel.

These affixes also have secondary and tertiary partitive and derivational meanings.

Neuter nouns do not need to mark for plurality, but often employ umlauting, sometimes with a final dummy vowel (-e).


Pronouns

Personal

Determiners

Verbs

Phrasing