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Nouns

Grammatical categories of nouns in Biblical Hebrew:

  • Gender: Masculine, Feminine
  • Number: Singular, Dual, Plural
  • State: Absolute, Construct
  • Definiteness: Definite, Indefinite

Pluralization

Let the noun be n. and take סוּס (horse) as an example, the declension of the noun is:

Singular (= 1) Dual (= 2) Plural (≥ 3)
♂ n. (סוּס, a male horse) n.ayim (סוּסַיִם, two horses) n.im (סוּסִים, male horses)
♀ n.ah (סוּסָה, a female horse) n.ot (סוּסוֹת or סוּסֹת, female horses) ⁠
Exceptions
  1. Feminine nouns without the feminine ending: אֶרֶץ (land), עִיר (city), אֶבֶו (stone)
  2. Some plural nouns have the ending of the other gender: אָב (father) → אָבוֹת (fathers)
  3. Some nouns semantically singular only have dual or plural forms: מַיִם (water), שָׁמַיִם (heaven), מִצְרַיִמ (Egypt), אֱלֹהִים (God)
  4. Some nouns have irregular plurals: יוֹם (day) → יָמִים (days), בֵּו (son) → בָּנִים (sons), אִישׁ (man) → אֲנָשִׁים (men), אִשָּׁה (woman) → נָשִׁים (women)

Sound change rules:

  • Propretonic Reduction: TODO
  • Segholate Nouns: TODO
  • Geminate Nouns: TODO

参考这篇

Construct Chain

The construct chain is a chain of nouns in a possessive relationship. The possessor is said to be in the absolute state (base form) and the possession should be changed into the construct state.

The word in the construct state is unstressed. So its vowels are reduced and it needs a maqaf (־) to connect with the following word. Sometimes the maqaf is omitted.

Sound change rules: TODO，放个表格在这

Definite Article ה

The base form of a noun is indefinite and there's no indefinite article in Hebrew. To make a noun definite, we need to add a definite article before the noun. Note that proper nouns are always definite by definition and do not need a definite article.

The basic form of the definite article is a הַ followed by the first consonant of the noun, written as a daghesh forte in the first consonant.

Sound change rules: TODO

Conjunctive ו

When nouns are coordinated, the conjunction וְ is added before every noun except the first one.

Sound change rules: TODO