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Numbers SG and PL | Numbers SG and PL | ||
==== | ====Gender==== | ||
There are three grammatical genders or classes, abstract, animate and inanimate, which can be fully recognized from their singular dative form endings, ''k'', ''i'' and ''éi''. | |||
*Abstract (Ab) | *Abstract (Ab) gender contains concepts, emotions, divine and magical subjects, verb forms etc., and they end in either vowel ''a'', ''ó'' or ''i''. Those ending with ''i'' lack all the plural forms. | ||
*Animate (An) class is preserved for nouns related to living things, e.g. people, animals, body parts, plants and comestibles, whose ending is either a fricative (''f, th, s, sh, h''), nasal (''m, n, ng'') or vowel ''u''. Mass nouns, such as meat, milk and food, have nasal endings. | *Animate (An) class is preserved for nouns related to living things, e.g. people, animals, body parts, plants and comestibles, whose ending is either a fricative (''f, th, s, sh, h''), nasal (''m, n, ng'') or vowel ''u''. Mass nouns, such as meat, milk and food, have nasal endings. | ||
*Inanimate (In) class has nouns such as objects, places and natural formations whose endings are either plosives (''p, t, k'') or consonant ''l''. Inanimate mass nouns, e.g. sand, salt and water, appear in the ''l''-ending group which also lacks plural forms. | *Inanimate (In) class has nouns such as objects, places and natural formations whose endings are either plosives (''p, t, k'') or consonant ''l''. Inanimate mass nouns, e.g. sand, salt and water, appear in the ''l''-ending group which also lacks plural forms. |
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