Lebanese: Difference between revisions

*The absolute state is the basic form of a noun. It expresses indefiniteness, comparable to the English indefinite article "a(n)" (for example, 𐤎𐤐𐤓 sifer, "a book"), and can be used in most syntactic roles. To nouns in this state (and also to attributive adjectives) a definite article can be added, which is traditionally considered to be an actual part of the definite noun. However, in modern use, the definite article is taken as a clitic, attaching to a noun. For example, the term for school is 𐤁𐤕𐤎𐤐𐤓‎ (''bês-sifer'', “house-of book”); “the school” is 𐤄𐤁̄𐤕𐤎𐤐𐤓 (heb-bês-sifer, “the-house-of-book”). The article triggers gemination (in this example /b/ is techically geminated, but the word is actually pronounced [hɛ.beːs.ˈsiː.fɛr]. Here the assimilation of the final "th" into /s/ occurs).

*The [[w:Construct state|construct state]] is a form of the noun used to make possessive constructions (for example, 𐤌𐤒𐤌 𐤔𐤉𐤁𐤕𐤉 ''muqōm sivti'', "the place of his residing", where ''muqōm'' is the construct state of the noun ''maqōm''. In dialects ''muqōm sivto'' can often be heard due to the absence of the genitive case in them). In the masculine singular the form of the construct is often the same as the absolute, but it may undergo vowel reduction (usually into /u/). Unlike a genitive case (often dropped entirely), which marks the possessor, the construct state is marked on the possessed. This is mainly due to Lebanese word order: possessed[const.] possessor[abs./gen.] are treated as a speech unit, with the first unit (possessed) employing the construct state to link it to the following word.