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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'' " | 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(h)'' "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'' "men, women", ''qralaa'' "houses", ''fakaa'' "people". | ||
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;" | {| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;" | ||
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| colspan="2;" | Animate <br> ''-ii'' || Inanimate/Collective <br> ''-aa'' | | colspan="2;" | Animate <br> ''-ii'' || Inanimate/Collective <br> ''-aa'' | ||
|- | |- | ||
|+ style="text-align: | |+ style="text-align: center;" | 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 | 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 nouns connected with the life of the warrior elite. Some 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)''. Other masculine nouns fell together with the new class. | ||
By the better attested Middle Kelt period the gender system was based on two largely semantic classes: | |||
* 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. | |||
As gender is semantically determined, stems usually have inherent gender but some nouns may belong to more than one gender with a difference of meaning, e.g. the root ''HATAL'' "child" may be masculine ''qehatal'' "the boy" or other ''qahatal'' "the girl, the child". Masculine nouns may be declined as 'other' to give a pejorative sense, e.g. ''putah'' "effeminate or weak man". | As gender is semantically determined, stems usually have inherent gender but some nouns may belong to more than one gender with a difference of meaning, e.g. the root ''HATAL'' "child" may be masculine ''qehatal'' "the boy" or other ''qahatal'' "the girl, the child". Masculine nouns may be declined as 'other' to give a pejorative sense, e.g. ''putah'' "effeminate or weak man". | ||