Northian adjectives

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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 -o
OX m. adj. with heteroclitic n., in -ṓ, pīuuō "fat, fertile" 1. Productive es-stem, humen-ā̊ "well-intended", nhumen-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 (adjectives)

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 participles

Present and aorist verb-stems form an active participle with the suffix -nt. For thematic verbs, the suffix is -ont. The weak stem of the verb is used where it is present, so from the copula es the active participle is hą̄s from PNN *hants < PEE *h₁(e)sn̥ts. The vowel is nasalized in the masculine nominative singular but not in the neuter or feminine, suggesting that the cluster *-nt-s had probably been resolved first as *-ns-s prehistorically.

Many state the full-grade stem would have been used originally in all 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 feminine participle takes the like stem and adds the feminizing suffix -ī ~ iiā-. The neuter direct dual and plural forms fail to trigger the full-grade suffix and are in zero grade, contrary to the forms of the masculine and feminine duals and plurals. The nominative dual feminine form hātīịāḥ shows an unexpected long vowel in the suffix where a short vowel is expected. Possibly the long vowel was borrowed from the singular to differentiate the dual from the plural, which had become identical (in at least some dialects that did not distinguish front and back a in final position).

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 hą̄s hantōi haą̄ntiš hāt hātī hātā hātī hātīịāḥ hātiịāḫ
voc hāt
acc hātam hātā̊ hāčiiā̊ hāčiiaō
gen hātōḫ hātōš hātõm hāčiiāōš hāčiiaõm
loc haą̄nδi hātō hātštū hāčiiāyi hāčiiāō hāčiiāhū
dat hātai hāšmā hāšmus hāčiiāma hāčiiāmuš
ins hāta hāδβiiōḫ hāčiiā hāčiiāmβiiōḫ

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. sing. deδātīš < *de-dh₃-n̥t-ih₁-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