Tameï: Difference between revisions
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* The neuter class (''đalūnaŧow chiâ'') includes all nouns ending in ''-u'' and ''-o'', all those nouns ending in ''-x'' and ''-z'', and many ''-a'' ones. | * The neuter class (''đalūnaŧow chiâ'') includes all nouns ending in ''-u'' and ''-o'', all those nouns ending in ''-x'' and ''-z'', and many ''-a'' ones. | ||
There is no general pattern, not even semantic, for which ''-a'' nouns are feminine and which ones are neuter: for example among geographical features ''neyna'' "island" and ''r′ulka'' "beach" are feminine, while ''łäna'' "stream" is neuter, while among body parts ''kilka'' "foot" is neuter and ''nʌmisa'' "leg" is feminine. Furthermore, deadjectival nouns from adjectives in ''-a'' are usually masculine (e.g. ''täzifeyza'' "red hue"). | There is no general pattern, not even semantic, for which ''-a'' nouns are feminine and which ones are neuter: for example among geographical features ''neyna'' "island" and ''r′ulka'' "beach" are feminine, while ''łäna'' "stream" is neuter, while among body parts ''kilka'' "foot" is neuter and ''nʌmisa'' "leg" is feminine. Furthermore, deadjectival nouns from adjectives in ''-a'' are usually masculine (e.g. ''täzifeyza'' "red hue"). | ||
Some prescriptivists try to match Russian borrowings to their Russian gender, resulting thus in e.g. ''rubuli'' "ruble" being masculine (while in Tameï it is usually feminine). With this particular word it is notable, as Tameï banknotes until the 2000 series used the prescriptivist masculine form (''tamei rubuli''), while since the 2000 series the more natural feminine form, which has always been used colloquially, (''tameiyâ rubuli'') is printed on them. | |||
A notable feature of Tameï classes is that they almost never correlate with natural gender: as such the word ''p′ūki'' "man" is feminine, while ''niny'' "woman" is masculine (as is ''đalūn'' "stone", which is the root ''đalūnaŧe'' "neuter" is built on). | A notable feature of Tameï classes is that they almost never correlate with natural gender: as such the word ''p′ūki'' "man" is feminine, while ''niny'' "woman" is masculine (as is ''đalūn'' "stone", which is the root ''đalūnaŧe'' "neuter" is built on). | ||