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Re: Construct States

From:Steg Belsky <draqonfayir@...>
Date:Tuesday, March 2, 1999, 21:10
On Tue, 2 Mar 1999 12:27:20 PST Edward Heil <edheil@...> writes:
>>Cool...my conlang, Rokbeigalmki, has the same thing. It's also known >as >>a "construct state".
>Ah, I've heard of these. I was perusing an Akkadian grammar I found >in >a used bookstore; Akkadian has construct states. I understand Hebrew >does too?
>I didn't read enough to get a firm grasp on the concept.
Yup, Hebrew has it too. It's called _smikhut_ ("juxtaposition") in Hebrew. A "construct state" is like the opposite of a genitive case. Instead of having _island of-peace_, you have _island-of peace_. There are different ways of doing it, and Hebrew uses a few of them. Normal masculine singular nouns just get put next to the second noun, which never changes. degel = flag shalom = peace _degel shalom_ = "flag of peace". Feminine nouns that end in _-a_ get a _t_ added on. darga = level hashalom = the peace _dargat hashalom_ = "(the) level of the peace". In smikhut the construct-state noun can't have _ha-_ "the" attached to it. Masculine plural nouns have the plural ending _-im_ changed to _-ei_. hhayalim = soldiers hamedina = the state _hhayalei hamedina_ = "(the) soldiers of the state" Feminine plural nouns don't change. malkot = queens angliya = england _malkot angliya_ = "(the) queens of england" Irregular nouns whose plural ending doesn't match the grammatical gender, such as _beitza_ (egg) >> _beitzim_ (not *_beitzot_), are changed according to the plural ending, _beitzei_. The same holds true for feminine words that don't end in _-a_ and masculine words that do. There are also irregular changes, such as _milhhama_ (war) >> _milhhEmet_ (war of) and not *_milhhamAt_. (capital letters are the accented syllable) In Modern Israeli Hebrew, they sometimes do strange things, such as coining new words by running a construct compound together. _migdal or_ = "tower of light" (plural - _migdalei or_) --->> _migdelor_ = "lighthouse" with the plural form _migdelorim_. -Stephen (Steg) ___________________________________________________________________ You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail. Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com/getjuno.html or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866]