Northian adjectives

Northian adjectives modify nouns. They take declensional endings that are the same as those for nouns, though there are also multiple paradigms applicable to adjectives that specify gender. An adjective that modifies a noun must agree with the noun it modifies in gender, number, and case.

Stem types

	-n	-s	-i	-u	-nt	-ā	-o
OX	m. adj. with heteroclitic n., in -ṓ, pīuuō "fat, fertile"	1. Productive es-stem, humen-ā̊ "well-intended", n -ā humen-ā; 2. productive comp in -iiā̊ -išṓ, θəñ-iiā̊ "thinner"; 3. productive pf.act.ptcpl.m in -uuā̊ -ušṓ, tita-uuā̊ "having made", f -uśiiā, n -uš	No	A handful, in -uš -uuṓ, meδ-uš "sweet"	1. Productive derivative meaning "rich in, bearing" in -uuā̊, β-uuā̊ "rich in power"; 2. productive pres.act.ptcpl of athm.v with mobile accent in -ā̆t -ā̆tṓ, and of thm.v, in -ṓs -əṇtō	Masculine and feminine in -ō, some obligatory feminine in -ā, neuter in -õm
PX	No	No	Productive, adjectives in -uš, feminine in -ū or -uuī, neuter -ū, pr̥t-uš pr̥š-wī pr̥t-ū "flat"	Productive, adjectives in -iš, feminine in -yī, neuter -i, hámil-iš hámil-ayī hámil-i "similar"	No
PP	No	No	No	No	pres.act.ptcpl of athm.v with static accent, mn -ā̆t, -ā̆s, f -ā̆sī, -ā̆sī

Adjectives need to agree with the nouns they modify not only in number and case but also in gender, but forms for each gender may not necessarily be distinct from each other. Synchronically, many adjectives have a single form for animate (both masculine and feminine) referents, and a handful have the same forms for all three grammatical genders. Whether an adjective has distinct forms for each gender is lexical, and there is no obvious semantic difference which appears to condition their presence or absence. The usual historical explanation is that the feminine gender was a late grammatical development and did not always correspond to semantics of biological gender, though the mechanisms of the grammaticalization of the feminine gender is uncertain.

For o-stem adjectives with a masculine nom. sing. terminating in -ō, there is always a separate neuter form ending in -õ. Those which have a distinct, obligatory feminine form will have one ending in -ā. Thus these adjectives are called "three-ending" o-stem adjectives. Those without a distinct, obligatory feminine ending terminate in -ōḫ for both masculine and feminine referents. These are "two-ending" o-stem adjectives. It should be noted that feminine forms of o-stems add the -ā directly to the stem, not after the -o theme vowel; this is in contrast to the *-h₂ stems (see below) which is usually added following an existing suffix.

Adjectives terminating in -n and -s generally do not have distinct forms for masculine and feminine referents, but a handful will have a -ī suffix following the existing suffix to create a distinct feminine form. The netuer form is distinguished from the animate form in one of two manners. It may be by ablaut, taking a short vowel grade when the animate has long grade or taking a zero grade when the animate has short. Or it may be by the absence of final -s in the nominative, where the animate nom. has -s.

Adjectives in -i and -u often have distinct feminine forms ending in -ī, but there are also adjectives which have just one form for animate refernets or even one form for referents of all genders. Furthermore, there are feminine forms which have a long vowel where the masculine has a short vowel, e.g. fem. nom. sing. -ī and -ū, contra masc. nom. sing. -iš and -uš. The long vowel is conditioned by final *-h₂, which is the same as in *-ih₂ > the usual feminizing suffix -ī.

Adjectives in -nt and -wos, mostly participles, create their feminine forms by adding -ī.

There are a few aberrant adjectives not provided above. The k-stem adjective mera-xš "soft" shows amphikinetic pattern, while the t-stem duš-ṯ "bad" has acrostatic pattern. The item máz-š "big" has a stem ending in laryngeal.

There is also a class of heteroclitic adjectives based on heteroclitic nouns, which are all neuter except hāuuərə "Sun", a feminine term. Those heteroclitic items which have PP inflection take the PX inflection for their primary adjectival forms, which are also neuter and have zero grade in the suffix. The masculine form is produced by adding OX n-stem endings, and the feminine by the -ī suffix to the neuter form. In the feminine, the heteroclitic suffix has full grade and the suffix zero grade in the strong cases, and vice versa in the oblique cases.

It has been noted that adjectives often show a different ablaut pattern compared to nouns derived from the same stems. That is to say, a noun with proparoxytone or paroxytone accent can often respectively form an adjective of similar meaning with a paroxytone or oxytone accent or oxytone accent. The source of this derivation is academically debated but remained visible and productive in Northian.

All Nordic languages have an extant distinction or some vestige of it between strong and weak declensions for the same adjective, where the "strong" represents the adjective's inherited declension and the "weak" its declension as an n-stem. This is not true of Northian, which lacks a weak declension.

u-stem

As mentioned above, there are three types of u-stem adjectives: some are sensitive only to animacy, having a two-way contrast between masculine and feminine referents together with neuter ones, and others have a three-way contrast. Further, the ones with a three-way contrast are divided by their feminine forms, which could take the feminizing suffix *-h₂ directly after their stems ending in -u, or added *-i- to create the compound suffix *-w-ih₂ ~ -w-i̯eh₂ instead. Note it is only the root and *-h₂- ~ -eh₂- suffix that participates in ablaut in feminine forms, and never *-u- ~ -eu̯- there.

Only the last type was productive in the Northian family, but there are many examples of inherited items in the former patterns.

Oxytone

Seen in the case of meδuš "sweet" and a handful of others. These are usually held to be archaicisms as meδuš is obviously related to the neuter noun meδū "honey" (which is still attested as its neuter form), created by shifting its accent rightwards in internal derivation.

	m. and f. meδuš, "sweet" = μέθυ			n. meδū, "sweet"
	sing	du	pl	sing	du	pl
nom	meδuš	meδauuō	meδauuō	meδū	mezuuī	meδū
voc	meδū
acc	meδum		meδū
gen	āzuuō	āduHō	āzuuām
loc	meδū		ādušū
dat	āzuuoi	ādumō	ādumuš
ins	āzuuōi

Three-ending

The type of u-stem adjective differs from the following type only in that the feminizing suffix was a bare *-h₂ ~ -eh₂, rather than the more common *-ih₂. The strong feminine stem was thus from *tenuh₂, and the weak *tn̥weh₂-. It is a rule that all the u-stem adjectives with feminine ending in -ūḥ show root ablaut.

	m. ϑənuš, "thin" = thin			n.			f.
	sing	du	pl	sing	du	pl	sing	du	pl
nom	ϑənuš	ϑənō	ϑənauuō	ϑənū	ϑənuuī	ϑənū	ϑənū	ϑənū	ϑənuHā
voc	ϑənū
acc	ϑənōi		dāuuā				ϑənum		znuHā
gen	znō	znaōHuš	dāuuām				dāuuā̊	dāuuaHuš	dāuuaHam
loc		znaōHū	znaōšū				dāuuā	dāuuaHū	dāuuaHū
dat		znaōmō	znumuš					dāuuāmō	dāuumuš
ins							dāuuaHā

The feminine forms of fərətūvīḥ "broad" < *pl̥tH-w-ih₂ are provided by way of illustration of the u-stem adjectives with feminine forms in -īḥ. As a rule, the nominative singular shows the zero-grade root. As an exception to ablaut behaviour expected under normal accentuation, some u-stem feminine adjectives have a "promoted" root syllable that shows full grade, i.e. fretūvīḥ as though < *pletH-w-ih₂, especially when speaking of personal entities. Note that the oblique cases show the stem fərətūmβiia-, which represents *fr̥tiwya-, where the short i was altered to ū before w, generating a nasal in the process, and the w further became β when sandwiched between a nasal and a following approximant. This series of alterations does not occur when the feminizing suffix is in the zero grade, which resolves into a vocalic i.

	f. fərətūvīḥ, "broad" = "flat"
	sing	du	pl
nom	paršuuī	partuiiaHī	partuiiaHā
voc
acc			partuiiā̊
gen	fərətūmβiiā̊	fərətūmβiiāvuš	fərətūmβiiaą̄̊m
loc	fərətūmβiiayi	fərətūmβiiāvū	fərətūmβiiāštū
dat		fərətūmβiiāma	fərətūmβiiāmuš
ins	fərətūmβiiā

i-stem

The i-stem adjectives are not very common and all take the PX inflection. For example is θraištiš "sad".

	m. θraištiš, "sad"			n. θraišti, "sad"			f. θrištayīḥ, "sad"
	sing	du	pl	sing	du	pl	sing	du	pl
nom	θraištiš	θraištī	θráištaiiāḫ	θraišti	θrištayīḥ	θraištī	θrištayīḥ	θrištayīḥ	θrištáyyaā̊
voc	θraišti
acc	θraištin		θraištis				θrištayī		θrištáyiyāḫ
gen	θrištaiš	θrištaiiuš	θrištiõm				θrištiyā̊	θrištiyāvuš	θrištiyaą̄̊m
loc	θrištaiiai	θrištaiiū	θrištēšu				θrištiyāyi	θrištiyāvū	θrištiyāźiiū
dat		θrištaima	θrištēmuš					θrištiyāma	θrištiyāmuš
ins	θrištaiiōi						θrištiyā

nt-stem

This stem shows two variants: the amphikinetic one has a zero-grade suffix, and the hysterokinetic one, an o-grade suffix. The former type is recovered only from the frequent term hanūs, from *ǵʰen-unt-s, "bearing value, honour", from *ǵʰen-, "esteem, honour". This word is used primarily of gods in their roles as sources of value (in objects) and honour (in persons).

The co-ordinating term honōḫ, cognate to Venetian honos, in objects, means their worth, valuation, or function, and in persons, their position in public society. A person's "worth" or "function" was evidently assessed by the role they play in society; thus, a person's honōḫ can mean either, literally, their profession or office, or, by extension, the esteem in which they are held, coming close to the modern meaning of "honour". Hence, the fonδā̊ honáhāḫ, literally "path of honour", names the priesthood, as the sacerdotal profession was evidently one of the earliest to receive general accreditation in Northian culture, cp. the cursus honorum "course of honours" in Venetian culture.

	m. and n. hanūs, "bearing value, honour"			f. jñuuáṇδīḥ
	sing	du	pl	sing	du	pl
nom	hanūs	hanuṇδōi̯	hanuṇδiš	jñuuáṇδīḥ	jñuuáṇźiiayīḥ	jñuuáṇźiiaā̊ḫ
voc	hanuṇ
acc	hanuṇδəm		hanuṇδā̊	jñuuáṇźiiā̊ḫ		jñuuáṇδī
gen	jñuuātōḫ	jñuuātōš	jñuuātõm	jñuuāčiiā̊	jñuuāčiiāvuš	jñuuāčiiāą̄̊m
loc	jñuuoṇδi	jñuuātō	jñuuāštū	jñuuāčiiayi	jñuuāčiiāvū	jñuuāčiiāhū
dat	jñuuātai	jñuuātmus	jñuuātmuš		jñuuāčiiāma	jñuuāčiiāmuš
ins	jñuuāta	jñuuātmōḥ	jñuuāϑβiiōḫ	jñuuāčiiā		jñuuāčiiāβiiōḫ

Present/aorist active participle

pres. aor. verb-stems form a participle with active meaning with the suffix -nt. For thematic verbs, the suffix is -ənt. The weak stem of the verb is used where it is present, so from the copula ešti the active participle is zat, zatī, zat.

The full-grade stem is visible in related languages in direct forms, since their endings are uniformly in zero grade. But the zero-grade stem is found in the oldest received texts, and metrical restoration does not reveal any additional syllables that diagnose the strong (syllabic) stem. Thus if the strong stem was once used, it was replaced in a remote time. On the other hand, the full-grade stem *-ent- is visible in the nominative dual and plural, and it has been argued its selective replacement in the nominative singular and accusative would be rather bizarre. Thus, the forms with zero-grade suffix may also be old.

The f. participle takes the like stem and adds the feminizing suffix -ī ~ iiā-.

Verbs which have mobile accent in the weak forms also have mobile accent in the participle. The ending is in full grade in the oblique cases (in all genders).

	m. hą̄s, "being"			n. hāt, "being"			f. hātī, "being"
	sing	du	pl	sing	du	pl	sing	du	pl
nom	zat	həntōi	həntaHā	zat	zatī	zati	zatī	zasiiā	zasiiaHā
voc	zat
acc	zatā		zatā̊				zasiiā̊		zasiiaHō
gen	zatō	zatō	zatām					zasiiāHō	zasiiaHam
loc	hənti		zašū				zasiiā		zasiiāHū
dat	zatā	zasmō	zasmuš					zasiiāmō	zasiiāmuš
ins	zatōi		zaδβiyō				zasiiā		zasiiāβiyō

Verbs which take a persistent accent, such as the s-stem aorist and present and some reduplicated present verbs, also form a participle with persistent accent. Despite appearances, the feminine forms of the PP participle is formed with the same feminizing suffix as the OX participles, except it remains in zero-grade throughout the entire paradigm, e.g. gen. gen.sg. deδātī < *de-dh₃-n̥t-ih₂-s. As is the usual case with this suffix, if the ending began with a vowel the final laryngeal scanned with the following syllable and does not lengthen the preceding vowel in the suffix; otherwise, the suffix appears as long -ī. In late Galic texts, this participle could also appear with a -ū̆ suffix in the dative singular, such as G. 4435, deδāδuu̯i, "to the giveress".

	m. deδāt, "giving"			n. deδāt, "giving"			f. deδātīḥ, "giving"
	sing	du	pl	sing	du	pl	sing	du	pl
nom	deδāt	deδāta	deδātiš	deδāt	deδātī	deδāta	deδātīḥ	deδātīịa	deδātiyāḫ
voc
acc	deδātam		deδātaṇġ				deδātī		deδātiyā̊
gen	deδās	deδātuš	deδātõm				deδātīš	deδātīyuš	deδātiyõm
loc	deδāt	deδātū	deδāštū				deδātī	deδātīyū	deδātīštū
dat	deδāti	deδātma	deδāšmus				deδātiyi	deδātīma	deδātīmuš
ins	deδāta		deδāδβiiōḫ				deδātī		deδātīβiiōḫ

es-stems

	m. and f. huménōḫ, "well-intended"			n. hāminiš, "well-intended"
	sing	du	pl	sing	du	pl
nom	humenāḫ	humenahōi̯	humenišiš	humeniš	humenahī	humenaza
voc	huméniš
acc	humenizam		huménizaṇġ
gen	humenahōḫ	humenizōš	humenahõm	= m. and f.
loc	huminiš	humenizō	humeništū
dat	humenahai̯	humenizmō	humenizmus
ins	humenahōi̯

Perfect active participle

The perfect active participle, which was very productive in Galic down to Epic times, was formed by an ablauting suffix -u̯ōs- ~ -u̯os- ~ -uš- to the zero grade of the perfect stem. The nom. sing. of the masculine has the lengthened-grade ending -u̯ōs-, and full-grade -u̯os- appears in other direct forms. The zero-grade ending -uš- manifests elsewhere in the masculine and neuter. The feminine participle added the -īḥ- ~ -i̯ā- suffix to the zero grade -uš- of the perfect active participle suffix. Thus, all the suffixes would be in zero-grade in the nominative singular of the feminine and neuter, and so the accent retracts to stand on the reduplication syllable; that retraction usually prevents initial *e- from weakening to i- (as seen below).

	m. beβizwā̊, "sympathetic" = πεποιθώς			n. beβizwō, "sympathetic"			f. beβiδušī, "sympathetic"
	sing	du	pl	sing	du	pl	sing	du	pl
nom	beβižwā̊	beβižwóhōi	beβižwóhiš	beβižwō	beβižwóhī	beβižwóha	beβiδuštī	beβiδuźyā	beβiδuźyáā̊
voc	βéβižwō
acc	beβižwozā		beβižwózā̊				beβiδuźyā̊		beβiδuźyaHā
gen	beβiδušō	beβiδuźyō	beβiδušõm					beβiδuźyaHuš	beβiδuźyāõm
loc	beβiδuši		beβiδuštū				beβiδuźyayi	beβiδuźyaHū	beβiδuźyazū
dat	beβiδušā	beβiδužma	beβiδužmuš					beβiδuźyāma	beβiδuźyāmuš
ins	beβiδušōi		beβiδužβyō				beβiδuźyā		beβiδuźyāmβyō

While this paradigm may appear somewhat confusing, there are only two stems. The strong stem is βiβižuuós-, with final -s altered to -št before other vowels and to -ž before resonants. The weak stem is βiβiδuš-, with final -š altered to -ž before resonants, including the laryngeal that begins the dual gen. and dat. endings. If the resonant has a vowel inserted, the -ž is appended with -ii- and further becomes to -ź. The nom. sing. of the masculine has the long grade -uuā̊ < *-ōs.

As exceptions to this rule, the perfect active participles of wōiδa "know" and mimóna "remember" have nominative singular forms wāiδuš, wāiδū, wāiδuštīḥ and menuš (similar) respectively. These are probably continuations of the original amphikinetic inflection of perfect active participles, with full-grade root for nominative forms. Other members of their class have evolved to take the hysterokinetic pattern, which have an non-ablauting root. Curiously, the participle of mimóna loses its reduplication—some scholars have taken this as an indication that perfect active participles may have originally been unreduplicated, as an independent formation from the e-grade root and not from the perfect verb stem.

Comparatives

Many (but not all) adjectives formed comparative forms with the suffix -i̯os- ~ -iš-. Unlike the perfect active participle, the comparative form does not have a distinct feminine form; otherwise, the distribution of strong and weak forms of the stem are exactly the same.

	m. and f. xrésyā̊, "more powerful" = κρείττων			n. xrétiš, id
	sing	du	pl	sing	du	pl
nom	xrésyā̊	xrésyahi	xrésyohā	xrétiš	xrésyohī	xrétīš
voc	xrésyō
acc	xrésyaŋhā		xrétizā
gen	xrétišō	xrétiźyō	xrétišõm	= m.
loc	xrésyā		xrétišū
dat	xrétišā	xrétižmō	xrétižmuš
ins	xrétišōi

It should be noted that the -yos- adjectives can lean more towards the sense of "quite so", rather than "more so" than a particular object compared to. Thus, for certain adjectives, two separate comparatives with contrastive meanings are in use, e.g. yəuuā̊ "quite young, younger" vs. yuterōḫ "the younger of two siblings". Where an adjective implies a definite comparative standard, the forms in -ter- are more often encountered.

And like the perfect active participle, there is a variation of the comparative suffix that has amphikinetic form, i.e. zero-grade suffix in the nominative, used in adjectives such as máɣis "larger" and foris "more"; note the non-retroflexed -s of the ending < *máɣis-s, with prehistorically restored nominative *-s, as otherwise the masculine and feminine would be identical to the neuter.

r/n-stem

This class of adjectives were principally derived from the heteroclitics neuter nouns. The neuter singular was identical to the heteroclitic noun. The masculine was formed as an n-stem, while the feminine was formed as with the suffix -ih₂ from the zero grade of the neuter stem. The example provided included the petrified suffix *-wr ~ wn-, but other adjectives of this class could include other suffixes such as *-mr ~ mn- and *-tr ~ tn-, with their associated phonetic peculiarities.

	m. fīuuō, "fat" = fat			n. faə̄uuərə			f. fūvurīḥ
	sing	du	pl	sing	du	pl	sing	du	pl
nom	fīuuō	fīuuonōi	fīuuoniš	faə̄uuərə	faiiurīḥ	faə̄uuā̊	fūvurīḥ	fūvuriiāḥ	fūvuriiaāḫ
voc	fīuuon
acc	fīuuonam		fīuuonā̊				fūvuriiā̊		fūvuriiaō
gen	fūvunōḫ	fūvunōš	fūvunõm					fūvuriiāous	fūvuriiaõm
loc	fūvoni	fūvunō	fivəŋhū				fūvuriiāyi	fūvuriiāoū	fūvuriiāziiū
dat	fūvunai	fūvunmō	fūvunmuš					fūvuriiāma	fūvuriiāmuš
ins	fūvunōi						fūvuriiā

maxiš "large"

The stem of this very common adjective ended in an Erani-Eracuran laryngeal. Before guttural consonants and word-finally, it generally appears as /a/, and before coronal consonants as /i/. In the feminine, which has the suffix -iiā- in the oblique forms, the laryngeal disappears under Pinault's law; the laryngeal disappeared early enough that the guttural came into contact with the yod, causing it to palatalize.

	m. maxiš, "large"			n. maɣa, "large"			f. maxīḥ, "large"
	sing	du	pl	sing	du	pl	sing	du	pl
nom	maxiš	maɣaā	maxāḫ	maxa	maxīḥ	mahīḥ	maxīḥ	majiiā	majiiaāḫ
voc	maɣa
acc	maɣā̊		āɣā̊				majiiā̊		majiiaō
gen	āxōḫ	āxōš	āɣõm				ājiiā̊	ājiiāvuš	ājiiaą̄m
loc	āɣáyi	āxō	āɣištū				ājiiayi	ājiiāvū	ājiiāŋhū
dat	āɣái	āxamō	āɣamuš					ājiiāma	ājiiāmuš
ins	āɣā		āɣaβiiōḫ				ājiiā

	m. mahii̯āu̯, "larger"			n. mahii̯ōḫ, "larger"			f. mahii̯ahīḥ, "larger"
	sing	du	pl	sing	du	pl	sing	du	pl
nom	mahii̯āu̯	mahii̯oha	mahii̯ohiš	mahii̯ōḫ	mahii̯ohī	mahii̯oha	mahii̯ahīḥ	mahii̯ahīi̯a	mahii̯ahii̯āḫ
voc	mahii̯ōḫ
acc	mahii̯āham		mahii̯ohāṇġ				āmjii̯ahīi̯am		āmjii̯ahīi̯aṇġ
gen	āmjihōḫ	āmjihōš	āmjihõ	= m.			āmjii̯ahi̯āu̯	āmjii̯ahi̯āu̯uš	āmjii̯ahi̯ą̄̊
loc	mahii̯ahi	āmjihō	āmjihššu				āmjii̯ahi̯āḥ	āmjii̯ahi̯āu̯u	āmjii̯ahi̯āhu
dat	āmjihei̯	āmjihmō	āmjihmuš				āmjii̯ahi̯ai̯i	āmjii̯ahi̯āma	āmjii̯ahi̯āmuš
ins	āmjihōi̯						āmjii̯ahi̯å

pəruš

	m. poluš, "many"			n. polu, "many"			f. polūḥ, "many"
	sing	du	pl	sing	du	pl	sing	du	pl
nom	poluš	maɣā	maɣāḫ	polu	mahīḥ	mahīḥ	polūḥ	mahīi̯a	mahii̯āḫ
voc	maɣā
acc	maɣåm		maɣåṇġ				mahīi̯am		mahii̯āṇġ
gen	āmhōḫ	āmhōš	āmhõ	= m.			āmjii̯āu̯	āmjii̯āu̯uš	āmjii̯ā
loc	āmha	āmhō	āmhšu				āmjii̯ā	āmjii̯āu̯u	āmjii̯āhu
dat	āmhei̯	āmhmō	āmhmuš				āmjii̯ai̯i	āmjii̯āma	āmjii̯āmuš
ins	āmhōi̯						āmjii̯å

	m. mahii̯āu̯, "more"			n. mahii̯ōḫ, "more"			f. mahii̯ahīḥ, "more"
	sing	du	pl	sing	du	pl	sing	du	pl
nom	mahii̯āu̯	mahii̯oha	mahii̯ohiš	mahii̯ōḫ	mahii̯ohī	mahii̯oha	mahii̯ahīḥ	mahii̯ahīi̯a	mahii̯ahii̯āḫ
voc	mahii̯ōḫ
acc	mahii̯āham		mahii̯ohāṇġ				āmjii̯ahīi̯am		āmjii̯ahīi̯aṇġ
gen	āmjihōḫ	āmjihōš	āmjihõ	= m.			āmjii̯ahi̯āu̯	āmjii̯ahi̯āu̯uš	āmjii̯ahi̯ą̄̊
loc	mahii̯ahi	āmjihō	āmjihššu				āmjii̯ahi̯āḥ	āmjii̯ahi̯āu̯u	āmjii̯ahi̯āhu
dat	āmjihei̯	āmjihmō	āmjihmuš				āmjii̯ahi̯ai̯i	āmjii̯ahi̯āma	āmjii̯ahi̯āmuš
ins	āmjihōi̯						āmjii̯ahi̯å

See also

• Northian grammar
  • Northian nouns
  • Northian verbs