Scottish Gaelic Grammar Wiki - User contributions [en]

Pharyngeal (definition)

2011-02-26T06:06:49Z

JohnDoyleWagner: definition given, as well as symbols for the pharyngeals, its relevency to ScG and languages in which they can be found.

Pharyngeal is a place of articulation, wherein sounds are achieved by pressing the tongue root against the pharynx. In the International Phonetic Alphabet, they are rare and contain only voiced and unvoiced pharyngeal fricatives. The symbols of these sounds are [ħ] and [ʕ] and they are not found in Scottish-Gaelic. Languages that do, however, have pharyngeal sounds are Modern Standard Arabic, Somali, most languages of the Northern Caucasus and Berber.

==See Also==
*[[Velar (definition)]]
*[[Glottal (definition)]]
*[[Alveolar (definition)]]
*[[Dental (definition)]]
*[[Palatal (definition)]]
*[[Labial (definition)]]
*[[Place of Articulation (definition)]]
*[[Consonant (definition)]]

==External Links==
*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pharyngeal_consonant
*[http://www.paulmeier.com/ipa/charts.html Interactive IPA Charts]

==References==
*Crystal, David. (1997) ''A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics.'' Oxford, UK: Blackwell.
*Ladefoged, Peter (1993) ''A Course in Phonetics'' Third Edition. London: Harcourt Press.
*Matthews, P. H. (1997) ''The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Linguistics.'' Oxford: Oxford University Press.

[[Category: Technical Definitions]]
[[Category: Phonetics]]

Null Subject Constructions

2011-02-21T09:17:27Z

JohnDoyleWagner:

Null subject constructions are linguistic constructions found in languages that are typologically classified as null subject languages. null subject languages contain the pro-drop parameter, which is a language specific parameter, that is described as 'on' or 'off'. This parameter is also common in languages that contain a very rich system of verbal inflectional morphology, which enables the language to convey the number, person and even the gender of the pronoun or agent of the inflected verb. This parameter is found in multiple languages throughout the world, therefore null subject constructions are found in languages that are otherwise not related according to genetic classification.

==Example of a Null Subject Constructions==
===Persian===

'''Perso-Arabic script:''' ایرانی هستم 
'''Transliteration:''' Irâni hastam 
'''Literal Translation:''' Iranian am 
'''Actual Translation:''' I am Iranian 

[[Category: Syntax]]

Null Subject Constructions

2011-02-21T09:07:10Z

JohnDoyleWagner:

Null subject constructions are linguistic constructions found in languages that are typologically classified as null subject languages. null subject languages contain the pro-drop parameter, which is a language specific parameter, that is described as 'on' or 'off'. This parameter is also common in languages that contain a very rich system of verbal inflectional morphology, which enables the language to convey the number, person and even the gender of the pronoun or agent of the inflected verb. This parameter is found in multiple languages throughout the world, therefore null subject constructions are found in languages that are otherwise not related according to genetic classification.

==Example of a Null Subject Constructions==
===Persian===

من( ایرانی هستم) 
(man) Irâni hast.am 
(I) Iranian am 
"I am Iranian" 

Elements in parentheses, are not usually spoken in colloquial Persian, however, including the pronoun does not make the utterance any more or less grammatically correct.

[[Category: Syntax]]

Null Subject Constructions

2011-02-21T09:05:41Z

JohnDoyleWagner:

Null subject constructions are linguistic constructions found in languages that are typologically classified as Null subject languages. Null subject languages contain the pro-drop parameter, which is a language specific parameter, can only be described as 'on' or 'off'. This parameter is also common in languages that contain a very rich system of verbal inflectional morphology, which enables the language to convey the number, person and, in some languages, even the gender of the pronoun or agent of the inflected verb. This parameter is found in multiple languages throughout the world, therefore Null subject constructions are found in languages that are otherwise not related according to genetic classification.

==Example of a Null Subject Constructions==
===Persian===

من( ایرانی هستم) 
(man) Irâni hast.am 
(I) Iranian am 
"I am Iranian" 

Elements in parentheses, are not usually spoken in colloquial Persian, however, including the pronoun does not make the utterance any more or less grammatically correct.

[[Category: Syntax]]

Null Subject Constructions

2011-02-21T09:04:03Z

JohnDoyleWagner: Definition given, as well as a given example in Persian. Would like to know if ScG is or is not pro-drop

Null subject
[[Category: Syntax]]

Null subject constructions are linguistic constructions found in languages that are typologically classified as Null subject languages. Null subject languages contain the pro-drop parameter, which is a language specific parameter, can only be described as 'on' or 'off'. This parameter is also common in languages that contain a very rich system of verbal inflectional morphology, which enables the language to convey the number, person and, in some languages, even the gender of the pronoun or agent of the inflected verb. This parameter is found in multiple languages throughout the world, therefore Null subject constructions are found in languages that are otherwise not related according to genetic classification.

==Example of a Null Subject Constructions==
===Persian===

من( ایرانی هستم) 
(man) Irâni hast.am 
(I) Iranian am 
"I am Iranian"

Gender (definition)

2011-02-21T08:50:51Z

JohnDoyleWagner: formating and some typo corrections

Grammatical gender, in the linguistics sense, refers to classes of particular nouns based on their inflectional endings and over all word structure. This is not be confused with the sex related gender, often referred to as 'biological gender,' which is used in cases where the grammatical gender agrees with the biological sex of the concept to which a noun refers. This means that words such as 'woman' would have feminine gender and 'man' would have masculine gender due to the fact that they are biologically defined as something feminine or masculine. Many languages that use cases also exhibit grammatical gender, as is the case with German, Russian and French, as well as Scottish Gaelic.

==Examples in other languages==
===Russian===
In languages like Russian, gender is rather predictable and is based upon the ending of the word (in most cases). Russian has 3 genders - masculine, feminine and neuter:

{| class="wikitable" border="2"
|-
! Masculine/Мужской род
! Feminine/Женский род
! Neuter/Средний род
|-
|align="left"| ends in a consonant
|align="left"| ends in an 'а' or 'я'
|align="left"| ends in an 'о' or 'е'
|-
|align="left"| ex: стол (table), город (city)
|align="left"| ex: книга (book), Россия (Russia)
|align="left"| ex: окно (window), приглашение (invitation)
|}

===German===

In languages like German, gender is less consistent; however it often times can be determined by derivational endings:

'''die Madel''' - the maiden (biological determined).
'''das Mäd[[chen]]''' - the girl (-chen always assigns neuter gender to a word, regardless of biological gender).

'''das Leben''' - life
'''die Lebenig[[keit]]''' - vitality (keit/heit indicates 'the state of being X' and always assigns feminine gender).

'''entschulden''' - to apologize/to pardon
'''die Entschuldig[[ung]]''' - apology (-ung assigns feminine gender and nominalizes verbs).
[[''HOWEVER'']]
''der Sprung'' - spring, bounce (-ung in this case does not assign gender because it is NOT derivational; Sprung is a word in its own right and is not derived from a verb).

'''der Berg''' - mountain
'''das [[Ge]]birge''' - mountain range (Ge- indicates collectives and is often times accompanied by a vowel mutation. It assigns neuter gender).

==Examples in Scottish Gaelic==

In Scottish-Gaelic, nouns belong principally to two grammatical genders: masculine and feminine. This affects the lenition of initial consonants for adjectives as well as the initial consonants of verb initial nouns when the definite article is used.

====See Also====

==External Links==
Note: Wikipedia can be edited by anyone and often pages are vandalized or uninformed, So be careful with any links posted below!
*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grammatical_gender

==References==
*Matthews, P. H. (1997) ''The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Linguistics.'' Oxford: Oxford University Press.
*Crystal, David (1999) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Language.'' London: Penguin.

[[Category:Technical Definitions]]
[[Category:Morphology]]

Gender (definition)

2011-02-21T08:47:28Z

JohnDoyleWagner: Added examples in Russian and German; waiting for examples for Scottish Gaelic; also added a table and testing out formating for the page with new table. This is kind of the litmus test.

Grammatical Gender, in the linguistics sense, refers to classes of particular nouns based on their inflectional endings and over all word structure. This is not be confused with the sex related gender, often referred to as 'biological gender,' which is used in cases where the grammatical gender agrees with the biological gender of the concept it is referring to. Many languages that use cases also exhibit grammatical gender, as is the case with German, Russian and French, as well as Scottish Gaelic.

=Examples in other languages=

In languages like Russian, gender is rather predictable and is based upon the ending of the word (in most cases). Russian has 3 genders - masculine, feminine and neuter:

{| class="wikitable" border="2"
|-
! Masculine/Мужской род
! Feminine/Женский род
! Neuter/Средний род
|-
|align="left"| ends in a consonant
|align="left"| ends in an 'а' or 'я'
|align="left"| ends in an 'о' or 'е'
|-
|align="left"| ex: стол (table), город (city)
|align="left"| ex: книга (book), Россия (Russia)
|align="left"| ex: окно (window), приглашение (invitation)
|}

In languages like German, gender is less consistent; however it often times can be determined by derivational endings:

'''die Madel''' - the maiden (biological determined).
'''das Mäd[[chen]]''' - the girl (-chen always assigns neuter gender to a word, regardless of biological gender).

'''das Leben''' - life
'''die Lebenig[[keit]]''' - vitality (keit/heit indicates 'the state of being X' and always assigns feminine gender).

'''entschulden''' - to apologize/to pardon
'''die Entschuldig[[ung]]''' - apology (-ung assigns feminine gender and nominalizes verbs).
[[''HOWEVER'']]
''der Sprung'' - spring, bounce (-ung in this case does not assign gender because it is NOT derivational; Sprung is a word in its own right and is not derived from a verb).

'''der Berg''' - mountain
'''das [[Ge]]birge''' - mountain range (Ge- indicates collectives and is often times accompanied by a vowel mutation. It assigns neuter gender).

==Examples in Scottish Gaelic==

In Scottish-Gaelic, nouns belong principally to two grammatical genders: masculine and feminine. This affects the lenition of initial consonants for adjectives as well as the initial consonants of verb initial nouns when the definite article is used.

===See Also===

==External Links==
Note: Wikipedia can be edited by anyone and often pages are vandalized or uninformed, So be careful with any links posted below!
*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grammatical_gender

==Refernces==
*Matthews, P. H. (1997) ''The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Linguistics.'' Oxford: Oxford University Press.
*Crystal, David (1999) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Language.'' London: Penguin.

[[Category:Technical Definitions]]
[[Category:Morphology]]