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Pulqer/Kelt: Difference between revisions
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====Gender==== | ====Gender==== | ||
The earliest recorded examples of Kelt appear to have had an unbalanced gender system in which singular nouns could be masculine (denoted by the suffix ''-e'' or ''-eh''), feminine (''-ah'') or neuter (''-a''). These classes appear to have been semantically driven based largely on natural gender, with some exceptions, for example ''fake'' "male", ''fakah'' "female", ''qrala'' "house". In the plural there were only two endings: ''-ii'' which seems to have been an animate plural (for both masculine and feminine nouns), and ''-aa'' which appears to have been an inanimate or neuter plural, but was also used to create animate collective nouns. For example, ''fakii'' "males and/or females", ''qralaa'' "houses", ''fakaa'' "people". | |||
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;" | |||
|- | |||
! Singular | |||
| Masculine <br> ''-e(h)'' || Feminine <br> ''-ah'' || Neuter <br> ''-a'' | |||
|- | |||
! Plural | |||
| colspan="2;" | Animate <br> ''-ii'' || Inanimate/Collective <br> ''-aa'' | |||
|- | |||
|+ style="text-align: left;" | Early Kelt Gender System | |||
|} | |||
Already in the earliest historical period this system appears to have been breaking down due to the creation of a new masculine class with suffixes ending in ''-k'', probably derived from the honorific ending ''ke'' originally applied only to those involved in the warrior elite. Remaining nouns from this class initially passed into the feminine (with sg. ''-ah'', pl. ''-ii''), blurring the purely semantic boundaries of the classes, while the use of the collective plural for feminine nouns eventually led to the merger of the feminine and neuter classes (with sg. ''-ah'', pl. ''-aa(h)''. | |||
The exact nature of the gender system is unclear, but it appears to be based on two largely semantic classes: a masculine class and an other class. The '''masculine''' class (also called the E-class) included male humans, animals and deities along with other 'masculine' objects denoted by shape (i.e. long/tall and narrow), material (all metal and some stone objects belong here), purpose (e.g. weapons) or importance (including many celestial bodies). The '''other''' class (or A-class) contains all other nouns that don't belong to the masculine category, including all female living beings and deities, and many abstracts. | The exact nature of the gender system is unclear, but it appears to be based on two largely semantic classes: a masculine class and an other class. The '''masculine''' class (also called the E-class) included male humans, animals and deities along with other 'masculine' objects denoted by shape (i.e. long/tall and narrow), material (all metal and some stone objects belong here), purpose (e.g. weapons) or importance (including many celestial bodies). The '''other''' class (or A-class) contains all other nouns that don't belong to the masculine category, including all female living beings and deities, and many abstracts. | ||