Gender and Number
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Gender and Number
High Qhālan preserves the inherited Qebaric gender and number system, especially in ritual, astronomical, legal, and literary language.
Gender influences plural, dual, and paucal marking, though many distinctions are weakened in ordinary speech.
Noun Formula
[ROOT] + [NUMBER] + [CASE]
Number suffixes precede case suffixes.
Gender Classes
Masculine
Feminine
Neuter/Inanimate
Animate beings are usually masculine or feminine, while objects, places, abstractions, celestial bodies, and materials are commonly neuter/inanimate.
Singular
The singular uses the bare root.
Examples:
qatan = mountain
mora = sea
bala = land
Plural
Plural suffixes vary by gender.
Gender | Plural |
|---|---|
Masculine | -en |
Feminine | -un |
Neuter/Inanimate | -ad |
Examples:
ǂalen-en = star-priests
mora-ad = seas
bala-ad = lands
Dual
Dual forms mark exactly two.
Gender | Dual |
|---|---|
Masculine | -et |
Feminine | -ut |
Neuter/Inanimate | -et |
Examples:
ǃatan-et = two sacred mountains
mora-et = two seas
Paucal
Paucal forms mark a small number greater than two.
Gender | Paucal |
|---|---|
Masculine | -em |
Feminine | -um |
Neuter/Inanimate | -em |
Examples:
ǂalen-em = several star-priests
ǀāra-em = several oaths