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In
Afro-Asiatic languages The Afroasiatic languages (or Afro-Asiatic), also known as Hamito-Semitic, or Semito-Hamitic, and sometimes also as Afrasian, Erythraean or Lisramic, are a language family of about 300 languages that are spoken predominantly in the geographic su ...
, the first noun in a genitive phrase of a possessed noun followed by a possessor noun often takes on a special morphological form, which is termed the construct state (
Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
''status constructus''). For example, in
Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...
and
Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...
, the word for "queen" standing alone is ''malika'' and ''malka'' respectively, but when the word is possessed, as in the phrase "Queen of Sheba" (literally "Sheba's Queen"), it becomes ''malikat sabaʾ'' and ''malkat šəva'' respectively, in which ''malikat'' and ''malkat'' are the construct state (possessed) form and ''malika'' and ''malka'' are the absolute (unpossessed) form. In
Geʽez Geez (; ' , and sometimes referred to in scholarly literature as Classical Ethiopic) is an ancient Ethiopian Semitic language. The language originates from what is now northern Ethiopia and Eritrea. Today, Geez is used as the main liturgi ...
, the word for "queen" is ንግሥት nəgə''ś''t, but in the construct state it is ንግሥተ, as in the phrase " heQueen of Sheba" ንግሥተ ሣባ nəgə''śta śābā.'' . The phenomenon is particularly common in
Semitic languages The Semitic languages are a branch of the Afroasiatic language family. They are spoken by more than 330 million people across much of West Asia, the Horn of Africa, and latterly North Africa, Malta, West Africa, Chad, and in large immigra ...
(such as
Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...
,
Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...
, and
Syriac Syriac may refer to: *Syriac language, an ancient dialect of Middle Aramaic *Sureth, one of the modern dialects of Syriac spoken in the Nineveh Plains region * Syriac alphabet ** Syriac (Unicode block) ** Syriac Supplement * Neo-Aramaic languages a ...
), in Berber languages, and in the extinct
Egyptian language The Egyptian language or Ancient Egyptian ( ) is a dead Afro-Asiatic language that was spoken in ancient Egypt. It is known today from a large corpus of surviving texts which were made accessible to the modern world following the decipher ...
. In
Semitic languages The Semitic languages are a branch of the Afroasiatic language family. They are spoken by more than 330 million people across much of West Asia, the Horn of Africa, and latterly North Africa, Malta, West Africa, Chad, and in large immigra ...
, nouns are placed in the construct state when they are modified by another noun in a
genitive construction In grammar, a genitive construction or genitival construction is a type of grammatical construction used to express a relation between two nouns such as the possession of one by another (e.g. "John's jacket"), or some other type of connection ( ...
. That differs from the genitive case of European languages in that it is the head (modified) noun rather than the dependent (modifying) noun which is marked. However, in Semitic languages with
grammatical case A grammatical case is a category of nouns and noun modifiers ( determiners, adjectives, participles, and numerals), which corresponds to one or more potential grammatical functions for a nominal group in a wording. In various languages, nomin ...
, such as Classical Arabic, the modifying noun in a genitive construction is placed in the genitive case in addition to marking the head noun with the construct state (compare, e.g., "that book of John's" where "book" is in the rough English equivalent of the construct state, while "John" is in the genitive ossessivecase). In some non-Semitic languages, the construct state has various additional functions besides marking the head noun of a genitive construction. Depending on the particular language, the construct state of a noun is indicated by various phonological properties (for example, different suffixes, vowels or stress) and/or morphological properties (such as an inability to take a definite article). In traditional grammatical terminology, the possessed noun in the construct state ("Queen") is the ''nomen regens'' ("governing noun"), and the possessor noun, often in the genitive case ("Sheba's"), is the ''nomen rectum'' ("governed noun").


Semitic languages

In the older Semitic languages, the use of the construct state is the standard (often only) way to form a
genitive construction In grammar, a genitive construction or genitival construction is a type of grammatical construction used to express a relation between two nouns such as the possession of one by another (e.g. "John's jacket"), or some other type of connection ( ...
with a semantically definite modified noun. The modified noun is placed in the construct state, which lacks any
definite article An article is any member of a class of dedicated words that are used with noun phrases to mark the identifiability of the referents of the noun phrases. The category of articles constitutes a part of speech. In English, both "the" and "a(n)" a ...
(despite being semantically definite), and is often phonetically shortened (as in Biblical Hebrew). The modifying noun is placed directly afterwards, and no other word can intervene between the two, though in Biblical Hebrew a prefix often intervenes, as in the case of śimḥat ba/qāṣîr in Isaiah 9:2. For example, an adjective that qualifies either the modified or modifying noun must appear after both. (This can lead to potential ambiguity if the two nouns have the same gender, number and case; otherwise, the agreement marking of the adjective will indicate which noun is modified.) In some languages, e.g. Biblical Hebrew and the modern
varieties of Arabic The varieties (or dialects or vernacular languages) of Arabic, a Semitic language within the Afroasiatic family originating in the Arabian Peninsula, are the linguistic systems that Arabic speakers speak natively. There are considerable variati ...
, feminine construct-state nouns preserve an original ''-t'' suffix that has dropped out in other circumstances. In some modern Semitic languages, the use of the construct state in forming genitive constructions has been partly or completely displaced by the use of a preposition, much like the use of the modern English "of", or the omission of any marking. In these languages (e.g.
Modern Hebrew Modern Hebrew ( he, עברית חדשה, ''ʿivrít ḥadašá ', , '' lit.'' "Modern Hebrew" or "New Hebrew"), also known as Israeli Hebrew or Israeli, and generally referred to by speakers simply as Hebrew ( ), is the standard form of the H ...
and
Moroccan Arabic Moroccan Arabic ( ar, العربية المغربية الدارجة, translit=al-ʻArabīya al-Maghribīya ad-Dārija ), also known as Darija (), is the dialectal, vernacular form or forms of Arabic spoken in Morocco. It is part of the Maghreb ...
), the construct state is used mostly in forming compound nouns. An example is Hebrew ''bet ha-sefer'' "the school", lit. "the house of the book"; ''bet'' is the construct state of ''bayit'' "house". Alongside such expressions, the construct state is sometimes neglected, such as in the expression ''mana falafel'' (a portion of
falafel Falafel (; ar, فلافل, ) is a deep-fried ball or patty-shaped fritter in Middle Eastern cuisine (especially in Levantine and Egyptian cuisines) made from ground chickpeas, broad beans, or both. Nowadays, falafel is often served ...
), which should be ''menat falafel'' using the construct state. However, the lack of a construct state is generally considered informal, and is inappropriate for formal speech.


Arabic

In
Arabic grammar Arabic grammar or Arabic language sciences ( ar, النحو العربي ' or ar, عُلُوم اللغَة العَرَبِيَّة ') is the grammar of the Arabic language. Arabic is a Semitic language and its grammar has many similarities with ...
, the construct state is used to mark the first noun (the thing possessed) in the
genitive construction In grammar, a genitive construction or genitival construction is a type of grammatical construction used to express a relation between two nouns such as the possession of one by another (e.g. "John's jacket"), or some other type of connection ( ...
. The second noun of the genitive construction (the possessor) is marked by the genitive case. In Arabic, the genitive construction is called '' ʼiḍāfah'' (literally "attachment") and the first and second nouns of the construction are called ''muḍāf'' ("attached"; also the name for the construct state) and ''muḍāf ʼilayhi'' ("attached to"). These terms come from the verb ''ʼaḍāfa'' "he added, attached", verb form IV from the root ''ḍ-y-f'' (Form I: ضاف ḍāfa) (a hollow root). In this conceptualization, the possessed thing (the noun in the construct state) is attached to the possessor (the noun in the genitive case). The construct state is one of the three grammatical states of nouns in Arabic, the other two being the indefinite state and the definite state. Concretely, the three states compare like this: In Classical Arabic, a word in the construct state is semantically definite if the following word is definite. The word in the construct state takes neither the
definite article An article is any member of a class of dedicated words that are used with noun phrases to mark the identifiability of the referents of the noun phrases. The category of articles constitutes a part of speech. In English, both "the" and "a(n)" a ...
prefix ''al-'' nor the indefinite suffix ''-n'' (
nunation Nunation ( ar, تَنوِين, ' ), in some Semitic languages such as Literary Arabic, is the addition of one of three vowel diacritics (''ḥarakāt'') to a noun or adjective. This is used to indicate the word ends in an alveolar nasal without ...
), since its definiteness depends on the following word. Some words also have a different suffix in the construct state, for example masculine plural ' "teachers" vs. ' "the teachers of ...". Formal Classical Arabic uses the feminine marker ''-t'' in all circumstances other than before a pause, but the normal spoken form of the literary language omits it except in a construct-state noun. This usage follows the colloquial spoken
varieties of Arabic The varieties (or dialects or vernacular languages) of Arabic, a Semitic language within the Afroasiatic family originating in the Arabian Peninsula, are the linguistic systems that Arabic speakers speak natively. There are considerable variati ...
. In the spoken
varieties of Arabic The varieties (or dialects or vernacular languages) of Arabic, a Semitic language within the Afroasiatic family originating in the Arabian Peninsula, are the linguistic systems that Arabic speakers speak natively. There are considerable variati ...
, the use of the construct state has varying levels of productivity. In conservative varieties (e.g.
Gulf Arabic Gulf Arabic ( ' local pronunciation: or ', local pronunciation: ) is a variety of the Arabic language spoken in Eastern Arabia around the coasts of the Persian Gulf in Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, southern Iraq, eastern Sa ...
), it is still extremely productive. In
Egyptian Arabic Egyptian Arabic, locally known as Colloquial Egyptian ( ar, العامية المصرية, ), or simply Masri (also Masry) (), is the most widely spoken vernacular Arabic dialect in Egypt. It is part of the Afro-Asiatic language family, and ...
, both the construct state and the particle ''bitāʿ'' "of" can be used, e.g. ''kitāb Muḥammad'' "Muhammad's book" or ''il-kitāb bitāʿ Muḥammad'' "the book of Muhammad". In
Moroccan Arabic Moroccan Arabic ( ar, العربية المغربية الدارجة, translit=al-ʻArabīya al-Maghribīya ad-Dārija ), also known as Darija (), is the dialectal, vernacular form or forms of Arabic spoken in Morocco. It is part of the Maghreb ...
, the construct state is used only in forming compound nouns; in all other cases, ''dyal'' "of" or ''d-'' "of" is used. In all these varieties, the longer form with the "of" particle (a
periphrastic In linguistics, periphrasis () is the use of one or more function words to express meaning that otherwise may be expressed by attaching an affix or clitic to a word. The resulting phrase includes two or more collocated words instead of one in ...
form) is the normal usage in more complicated constructions (e.g. with an adjective qualifying the head noun, as in the above example "the beautiful queen of the nation") or with nouns marked with a dual or sound plural suffix.


Aramaic

In
Syriac Aramaic The Syriac language (; syc, / '), also known as Syriac Aramaic (''Syrian Aramaic'', ''Syro-Aramaic'') and Classical Syriac ܠܫܢܐ ܥܬܝܩܐ (in its literary and liturgical form), is an Aramaic dialect that emerged during the first century ...
, the construct state evolved much in the same way as in Modern Hebrew, becoming a relic by the time of the
Peshitta The Peshitta ( syc, ܦܫܺܝܛܬܳܐ ''or'' ') is the standard version of the Bible for churches in the Syriac tradition, including the Maronite Church, the Chaldean Catholic Church, the Syriac Catholic Church, the Syriac Orthodox Church, ...
.


Hebrew

In
Hebrew grammar Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved th ...
, the construct state is known as ''smikhut'' () (, lit. "support" (the noun), "adjacency"). Simply put, smikhut consists of combining two nouns, often with the second noun combined with the definite article, to create a third noun. : — — "(a) house" : — — "the house" : — — "house-of" : — — "(a) book" : — — "(a) school" (''literally'' "house(-of) book") : — — "the school" (formal; ''literally'' "house(-of) the book") : — — "cake" (feminine) : — — "cheese" : — — "cheesecake" : — — "speech" : — — "freedom" (an example of a noun for which the ''smikhut''-form is identical to the regular form) : — — "freedom of speech" (''literally'' "freedom(-of) speech") : — — "the freedom of speech" (''literally'' "freedom(-of) the speech") As in Arabic, the ''smikhut'' construct state, the indefinite, and definite states may be expressed succinctly in a table:


Modern Hebrew

Modern Hebrew grammar makes extensive use of the preposition ''shel'' (evolved as a contraction of ''she-le-'' "which (is belonging) to") to mean both "of" and "belonging to". The construct state ( ''smikhút'') — in which two nouns are combined, the first being modified or possessed by the second — is not highly productive in Modern Hebrew. Compare the classical Hebrew construct-state ''’em ha-yéled'' "mother:CONSTRUCT the-child’ with the more analytic Israeli Hebrew phrase ''ha-íma shel ha-yéled'' "the-mother of the-child’, both meaning "the mother of the child", i.e. "the child’s mother". Zuckermann, Ghil'ad (2006)
Complement Clause Types in Israeli
''Complementation: A Cross-Linguistic Typology'' (RMW Dixon & AY Aikhenvald, eds),
Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...
, Oxford, pp. 72–92.
However, the construct state is still used in Modern Hebrew fixed expressions and names, as well as to express various roles of the dependent (the second noun), including: * A qualifier (e.g. ''repúblika-t banánot'' "Banana Republic"; ''hofaa-t bkhora'' "premiere", lit. "performance-CONSTRUCT precedence") * A domain (e.g. ''mevakér ha-mdiná'' "the State Comptroller", lit. "critic:CONSTRUCT the-state"; ''more derekh'' "guide", lit. teacher:CONSTRUCT way") * A complement (e.g. ''orekh din'' "lawyer", lit. "arranger:CONSTRUCT law") * A modifier (e.g. ''menora-t kir'' "wall lamp", lit. "lamp-CONSTRUCT wall"). Hebrew adjectival phrases composed of an adjective and a noun feature adjectives in the construct state, as in e.g. ''sh'vúr lév'' ("heartbroken", lit. "broken-CONSTRUCT heart").


Berber

In Berber, the construct state is used for the possessor, for objects of prepositions, nouns following numerals, and subjects occurring before their verb (modified from the normal VSO order). In some cases, (not) applying the construct state could completely alter the meaning of the phrase. The Berber particle d means "and" and "is/are". To decrease the confusion the Berber word for "and" can be written "''ed''". Also, a large number of Berber verbs are both transitive and intransitive, according to context. In the intransitive case, the construct state is required for the subject. Examples: *''Aryaz ed weryaz'' — lit. "The man and the man" — (instead of *''Aryaz ed aryaz''). *''Taddart en weryaz'' — lit. "The house of the man" — (instead of *''Taddart en aryaz''). *''Aɣyul ed userdun'' — lit. "The donkey and the mule" — (instead of *''Aɣyul ed aserdun''). *''Udem en temɣart'' — lit. "The face of the woman" — (instead of *''Udem en tamɣart''). *''Afus deg ufus'' — lit. "Hand in hand" — (instead of *''Afus deg afus''). *''Semmust en terbatin'' — lit. "Five girls" — (instead of *''Semmust en tirbatin''). *''Yecca ufunas'' — "The bull has eaten" — (while ''Yecca afunas'' means: "He ate a bull"). *''Ssiwlent temɣarin'' - "The ladies have spoken" - (instead of *''Ssiwlent timɣarin'').


Dholuo

The
Dholuo language The Dholuo dialect (pronounced ) or ''Nilotic Kavirondo'', is a dialect of the Luo group of Nilotic languages, spoken by about 4.2 million Luo people of Kenya and Tanzania, who occupy parts of the eastern shore of Lake Victoria and areas to the ...
(one of the
Luo languages The dozen Luo, Lwo or Lwoian languages are spoken by the Luo peoples in an area ranging from southern Sudan to western Ethiopia to southern Kenya, with Dholuo extending into northern Tanzania and Alur into the Democratic Republic of the Congo. ...
) shows alternations between voiced and voiceless states of the final consonant of a noun stem. In the "construct state" (the form that means 'hill of', 'stick of', etc.) the voicing of the final consonant is switched from the absolute state. (There are also often vowel alternations that are independent of consonant mutation.) * 'hill' (abs.), (const.) * 'stick' (abs.), (const.) * 'appearance' (abs.), (const.) * 'bone' (abs.), (const.) * 'book' (abs.), (const.) * 'book' (abs.), (const.)


Similarities in other language groups

It has been noted since the 17th century that Welsh and other
Insular Celtic languages Insular Celtic languages are the group of Celtic languages of Brittany, Great Britain, Ireland, and the Isle of Man. All surviving Celtic languages are in the Insular group, including Breton, which is spoken on continental Europe in Brittany, ...
have a genitive construction similar to the Afro-Asiatic construct state in which only the last noun can take the definite article: * Breton: ''dor an ti'' oor the house'the door of the house' * Welsh: oor the house'the door of the house'; and aughter manager the bank'the bank manager's daughter'. * Irish: ''doras an tí'' oor.NOMINATIVE the-house.GENITIVE'the door of the house' (Compare, for example, colloquial Arabic ''bāb al-bayt'' oor the-house'the door of the house' and Classical Arabic ''bāb-u l-bayt-i'' oor.NOMINATIVE the-house.GENITIVE) It has been suggested that the Insular Celtic languages may have been influenced by an Afro-Asiatic
substrate language In linguistics, a stratum (Latin for "layer") or strate is a language that influences or is influenced by another through contact. A substratum or substrate is a language that has lower power or prestige than another, while a superstratum or sup ...
or that languages in both groups were influenced by a common substrate language that is now entirely lost. However, it is also possible that the similarities with the construct state are coincidental.


See also

* Compound (linguistics) *
Definiteness In linguistics, definiteness is a semantic feature of noun phrases, distinguishing between referents or senses that are identifiable in a given context (definite noun phrases) and those which are not (indefinite noun phrases). The prototypical ...


References

{{Refimprove, date=January 2008 Semitic linguistics Grammatical cases