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Sceptrian: Difference between revisions
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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 ''ei''. The seven declensional patterns or simply declensions, which are determined by their absolutive ending, are distributed among these classes. | 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 ''ei''. The seven declensional patterns or simply declensions, which are determined by their absolutive ending, are distributed among these classes. | ||
*Abstract (Ab) class contains concepts, emotions, divine and magical subjects, verb forms etc., and they end in vowels ''a, æ, o, ó, ø'' and ''i''. | *Abstract (Ab) class contains concepts, emotions, divine and magical subjects, verb forms etc., and they end in vowels ''a, æ, o, ó, ø'' and ''i''. | ||
*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'', same voiced and affricates), 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. | *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. | ||
In official language, animate gender doesn't draw a distinction between masculine and feminine so that ''ras'' (horse) can stand for both "stallion" and "mare". If one wishes to emphasize the gender on a binary scale, clitics ''-duus'' and ''-tu'' may be added: ''gutsduus'' (bull). Some archaic words remain in dialects and in poetic use. | In official language, animate gender doesn't draw a distinction between masculine and feminine so that ''ras'' (horse) can stand for both "stallion" and "mare". If one wishes to emphasize the gender on a binary scale, clitics ''-duus'' and ''-tu'' may be added: ''gutsduus'' (bull). Some archaic words remain in dialects and in poetic use. | ||