Lebanese: Difference between revisions

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* 𐤉𐤊𐤕𐤁𐤀 '''yikhtuba'', may he write.

===Nouns and adjectives===

Lebanese nouns and adjectives are inflected to show gender, number and [[w:Construct state|state]].

Lebanese nouns and adjectives are inflected to show gender, number, case and [[w:Construct state|state]], though in a common speech cases are often dropped.

There are two grammatical genders: masculine and feminine. The feminine absolute singular is often marked by the ending 𐤕- '''-th'''. Nouns can be either singular or plural, but an additional dual number exists for some nouns that usually come in pairs. The dual number gradually disappeared in Old Phoenician over time and is still present as relics in some dialects. In the Standard it is treated as a form of plural.

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Lebanese nouns and adjectives can exist in one of two states. To a certain extent, these states correspond to the role of cases in the Indo-European languages:

*The absolute state is the basic form of a noun. It expresses indefiniteness, comparable to the English indefinite article "a(n)" (for example, 𐤎𐤐𐤓 sīfer, "a book"), and can be used in most syntactic roles.

*The [[w:Construct state|construct state]] is a form of the noun used to make possessive constructions (for example, 𐤌𐤒𐤌 𐤔𐤉𐤁𐤕 ''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.

==Writing system==

@@ Line 235: / Line 235: @@
 * 𐤉𐤊𐤕𐤁𐤀 '''yikhtuba'', may he write.
 ===Nouns and adjectives===
-Lebanese nouns and adjectives are inflected to show gender, number and [[w:Construct state|state]].
+Lebanese nouns and adjectives are inflected to show gender, number, case and [[w:Construct state|state]], though in a common speech cases are often dropped.
 There are two grammatical genders: masculine and feminine. The feminine absolute singular is often marked by the ending 𐤕- '''-th'''. Nouns can be either singular or plural, but an additional dual number exists for some nouns that usually come in pairs. The dual number gradually disappeared in Old Phoenician over time and is still present as relics in some dialects. In the Standard it is treated as a form of plural.
@@ Line 241: / Line 241: @@
 Lebanese nouns and adjectives can exist in one of two states. To a certain extent, these states correspond to the role of cases in the Indo-European languages:
 *The absolute state is the basic form of a noun. It expresses indefiniteness, comparable to the English indefinite article "a(n)" (for example, 𐤎𐤐𐤓 sīfer, "a book"), and can be used in most syntactic roles.
+*The [[w:Construct state|construct state]] is a form of the noun used to make possessive constructions (for example, 𐤌𐤒𐤌 𐤔𐤉𐤁𐤕 ''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.
 ==Writing system==