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Great Angemon
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Post Conlang Gender
on: January 30, 2015 10:07
Can anyone explain how to make different genders/noun classes in a language? I'm having trouble understanding it.

Like, for example, if I created a small base word and added a vowel to the end, is that enough? e.g. sen is the base for person, then adding an a makes it Divine gender, adding e makes it Mortal and adding u makes it Evil? OR am I completely wrong and misunderstanding it?
dirk_math
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on: January 30, 2015 11:55
Gender is grammaticaly just a way to subdivide nouns and how they behave. You might for example have a look at Swahili a language with a lot of genders or classes: http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Appendix:Swahili_noun_classes

Gender doesn't have to be visible in the shape of the noun (e.g. in French) but of course when it is visible it is easier for people to learn the language as they don't have to memorize the gender with each noun.

Gender is however not simply how a noun is declined or how its plural is formed. This is called a declension class. To be a true gender the nouns of the group need to have certain similar influences on the words that accompany them (articles, adjectives, verbs, ...).

Again as in French: female words cause adjectives to get an extra -e: un homme grand, une maison grande. Each gender also has separate articles and in some tenses the verbs are also influenced: l'homme est allé au métro, la femme est allée au métro.

And finally there have to be some rules how to make a word of one gender into a word from another gender: e.g. wolf, she-wolf. But genders might be more complicated as your example of divine gender and mortal gender show.
But then after changing gender e.g. to you mortal gender, the articles, adjectives and verbs would behave as if the noun was a natural (i.e. non-derived) member of the gender.
Let's for the sake of argument assume that frup means 'love', the frupa would be the god of love or something. And that blop is a word for a god with wings.
Also the adjective tsyv might mean white: so we would have tsyv frup 'white love', tsyva frupa 'a white god of love', tsyva blop 'a white god with wings'.


Yassë engë lómë, anarties calali.
Great Angemon
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on: January 30, 2015 02:35
So, if the subject has a gender (because there is no neutral gender, then the adjectives need to follow suit and have the same gender?
dirk_math
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on: January 30, 2015 03:26
Yes, with that agreement between nouns and adjectives (and articles) it's easier to recognize word groups that form a whole.
But of course in designing your own language you can choose how many or how few rules of agreement exist in your own language.
Yassë engë lómë, anarties calali.
Great Angemon
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on: February 02, 2015 12:14
What sorts of words would you suggest for a race of Angels? I already have some, like man, temple, cloud and sky, but what else would you suggest?
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