Balearic Hebrew/Nouns

Balearic Hebrew nouns and adjectives are declined according to gender, number, and sometimes state. Due to Latin influence, many nouns in Balearic Hebrew are not of Semitic origin. Thus, the emphasis of roots on noun derivations is much less than in Biblical Hebrew.

Nominal morphology
Nouns are marked for gender (masculine or feminine), number (singular, plural, and dual), and state (absolute or construct), and also definiteness. In nouns that end in a vowel in the singular, the plural form inserts an /h/ for prosodic reasons.

Number
The singular form refers to a single item. Masculine singular nounds have no suffixes. Feminine nouns do. For example, the word sū is the masculine singular form for horse (stallion), while sūhū is the feminine form (mare).

The plural form of a term refers to two or more of that item. In Balearic Hebrew, the plural form generally refers to multiple people or objects. However, idiomatic uses of the plural form of a word express different meanings about a single entity.

The common plural expresses more than one of a person or thing. In the case of words such as ʔilohī, "god," Balearic Hebrew utilizes a majestic plural. This plural use is likely related to the abstract plural also common in Balearic Hebrew. These nouns, while plural grammatically, are translated as singular. In English, these nouns have endings like -ness, -hood, or -ship. One example is "blindness," which in Balearic Hebrew is bahanbirī. No singular form exists.

The Dual
The dual form is usable on most nouns. On nouns which come in pairs, such as body parts (two legs) or expressions with time or numbers (twice: two times), the dual is required. While in Biblical Hebrew the dual might cause some vowel changes, it has been reduced to a suffix in Balearic Hebrew. Dual nouns agree with the plural form of a verb.

While in Biblical Hebrew a "pseudo-dual" developed with body parts that come in pairs (such as eyes), Balearic Hebrew has reanalyzed this number agreement. Therefore, while in Biblical Hebrew a spider might be described as having eight eyes, "eyes" not being plural but "pseudo-dual," speakers of Balearic Hebrew would describe the spider as having four pairs of eyes, using the dual and the cardinal number "four."

Sound changes have made the dual absolute indistinguishable from the dual construct.

Gender
Gender is often visible from the noun. Most nouns without a specific suffix are likely masculine, and these nouns with no unique ending are the standard dictionary ending of a form. The most common feminine endings are -ū and -t. Nouns agree with verbs in gender as well as in number.

Certain nouns, while appearing masculine or feminine, are actually the other gender. As a general rule, feminine nouns deal with the following topics: place names, cities, directions, instruments, tools, body parts, elements, powers, forces, abstract nouns, and women. Animate nouns, such as those referring to people or animals, have the grammatical gender corresponding to their natural gender. For example, the noun sū is a male horse (a stallion), while a female horse is sūhū, or a male horse with the feminine ending -hū.

State
Nouns can appear in either the absolute state or the construct state. The absolute state is the standard form of a noun. Adjectives, participles, and infinitives, while in Biblical Hebrew could be in either state, can only be in the absolute state in Balearic Hebrew.

The construct state is used when a word takes a suffix to connect to another term in a construct chain. These chains indicate a unique grammatical link, but do not indicate possession. These links have to do with familial relations (the son of), materials (pot of gold), unique items (the king of kings), and loaned compound nouns. For example, the feminine words kehū (cheese) and hūgū (cake) compounded together form hūgat kehū or "cheescake." A gloss for this construct chain is cake-of cheese.

Often, the absolute noun that has the linked relationship with the construct noun has a definite article.

Definiteness
Unmarked nouns are in the indefinite state. There are three main ways to define a noun: one, with the definite article ha prefixing the noun, two, with a pronominal suffix possessing a noun, and three, with a demonstrative pronoun.

While in Biblical Hebrew the definite prefix /ha-/ caused gemination of the initial consonant of the noun, no such process occurs in Balearic Hebrew. However, after prepositions and conjunctions, the initial consonant /h/ drops, just as in Biblical Hebrew.

Like in Spanish, nouns taken in a generic sense require definition. It is ungrammatical in Balearic Hebrew to say "milk is good" with no definite article, as one would say it in English. However, poetic Balearic Hebrew makes little use of the definite article, and so this rule has an exception.

Attributive adjectives are linked to nouns through the definite article, so that both the noun and its modifier have the definite article. This rule applies to participles as well.