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==Nouns== | ==Nouns== | ||
{{PAGENAME}} nouns decline in definiteness, three numbers (singular, dual and plural), and four cases (nominative, accusative, genitive, oblique). Unusually for a modern Semitic language, case plays a very important and productive role. There is no counterpart to the construct state or possessed forms of other Semitic languages; however, the possessor always follows the head unless the possessor is a pronoun. This state of affairs presumably came about because absolute and construct forms merged very early in the language's history. | {{PAGENAME}} nouns decline in definiteness, three numbers (singular, dual and plural), and four cases (nominative, accusative, genitive, oblique). Unusually for a modern Semitic language, case plays a very important and productive role. There is no counterpart to the construct state or possessed forms of other Semitic languages; however, the possessor always follows the head unless the possessor is a pronoun. This state of affairs presumably came about because absolute and construct forms merged very early in the language's history, thus allowing the speakers to analyze them as free case-declined forms instead of bound, "construct-locked" forms. | ||
The accusative is identical to the genitive for animate nouns, and identical to the nominative for inanimate nouns. | The accusative is identical to the genitive for animate nouns, and identical to the nominative for inanimate nouns. | ||