Download Definition: All German nouns belong to one of three grammatical

Definition: All German nouns belong to one of three grammatical genders: masculine, feminine, or
neuter. For example: Peter [Peter], Koffer [suitcase], Firma [company], Buch [book] are also nouns.
Nouns in German are easy to identify because they are all capitalized.
Examples in German:
Our son is driving to the city by car.
Unser Sohn fährt mit dem Auto in die Stadt.
Sohn (son), Auto (car), Stadt (city) are nouns.
NOUNS TYPES:
Proper nouns are names of specific people, things, locations, or ideas:
Karl =Karl
the United Nations = die Vereinten Nationen
Communism = Kommunismus
Common nouns are names of general 'categories' of people, objects, places, or concepts:
boy = Junge
organisation = Organisation
Countable nouns are names of anything that can be counted:
1
www.dennisdeus.wordpress.com
one suitcase = ein Koffer
three books = drei Bücher
many thanks = vielen Dank
Uncountable nouns name what cannot be counted:
wine = Wein
air = Luft
The gender is most easily identified by the noun's definite article in the nominative case: der
(masculine), die (feminine and plural), and das (neuter).
Masculine
Femenine
the man
der Mann
the woman
die Frau
the table
der Tisch
the sun die Sonne
the rock
der Stein
the question
die Frage
Neuter
the child
das Kind
the fire das Feuer
the book
das Buch
AAAA
2
www.dennisdeus.wordpress.com
Definition: In German, the articles are the main indicators of grammatical case. Articles are words
mostly used before nouns. In German, articles are the key to understand the gender of nouns because
they are divided in three genders.
Masculine
Feminine
Neuter
German has two numbers:
Singular
Plural
In German the matter of grammatical gender is quite different. Gender does not depend entirely on sex.
German grammar treats all these as neuter. Use das for all three.
Woman = Weib
Girl = Mädchen
Young lady = Fräulein
Adjectives with articles:
Definite articles.
Indefinite articles.
3
www.dennisdeus.wordpress.com
Adjectives with Definite Articles
Masc. Fem.
Neut.
Nom.
der guteMann die guteFrau
das guteBuch
Acc.
den gutenMann
die guteFrau
das guteBuch
Dat.
dem gutenMann
der guteFrau
dem gutenBuch
Gen.
des gutenMannes
der guteFrau
des gutenBuches
Plural.
- die gutenLeute
- die gutenLeute
- den gutenLeuten
- der gutenLeute
Adjectives with Indefinite Articles
Masc. Fem.
Neut.
Nom.
ein guter Mann eine gute Frau ein gutes Buch
Acc.
einen guten Mann
eine gute Frau ein gutes Buch
Dat.
einem guten Mann
einer guten Frau
einem guten Buch
Gen.
eines guten Mannes
einer guten Frau
eines guten Buch es
Plural.
- keine guten Leute
- keine guten Leute
4
www.dennisdeus.wordpress.com
- keine guten Leuten
- keiner guten Leute
Adjectives with No Articles
Masc. Fem.
Neut.
Nom.
guter Kuchen
kalte Milch
frisches Brot
Acc.
guten Kuchen kalte Milch
frisches Brot
Dat.
gutem Kuchen kalter Milch
frischem Brot
Gen.
guten Kuchens kalter Milch
frischen Brotes
Plural.
- frische Würste
- frische Würste
- frischen Würsten
- frischer Würste
BBBB
Definition: All German nouns belong to one of three grammatical genders: masculine, feminine, or
neuter. For example: Peter [Peter], Koffer [suitcase], Firma [company], Buch [book] are also nouns.
Nouns in German are easy to identify because they are all capitalized.
Examples in German:
5
www.dennisdeus.wordpress.com
Our son is driving to the city by car.
Unser Sohn fährt mit dem Auto in die Stadt.
Sohn (son), Auto (car), Stadt (city) are nouns.
NOUNS TYPES:
Proper nouns are names of specific people, things, locations, or ideas:
Karl =Karl
the United Nations = die Vereinten Nationen
Communism = Kommunismus
Common nouns are names of general 'categories' of people, objects, places, or concepts:
boy = Junge
organisation = Organisation
Countable nouns are names of anything that can be counted:
one suitcase = ein Koffer
three books = drei Bücher
many thanks = vielen Dank
Uncountable nouns name what cannot be counted:
6
www.dennisdeus.wordpress.com
wine = Wein
air = Luft
The gender is most easily identified by the noun's definite article in the nominative case: der
(masculine), die (feminine and plural), and das (neuter).
Masculine
Femenine
the man
der Mann
the woman
die Frau
the table
der Tisch
the sun die Sonne
the rock
der Stein
the question
die Frage
Neuter
the child
das Kind
the fire das Feuer
the book
das Buch
CCC
Definition: Pronouns replace or stand for a noun and generally they take the place of a noun already
mentioned in the speech or text. Their behaviour is very similar to nouns. They change their form
according to gender, number and case (nominative, accusative, dative, genitive). All these three factors
can affect the pronoun. For example: Personal Pronouns (refer to the persons speaking, the persons
spoken to, or the persons or things spoken about), Relative Pronouns (connect parts of sentences),
7
www.dennisdeus.wordpress.com
Reflexive Pronouns (in which the object of a verb is being acted on by verb's subject), demonstrative,
and interrogative pronouns.
The pronouns are divided in direct object and indirect object:
Direct object pronouns: Take the place of the direct object nouns.
Examples in German:
“I see a woman”, “a woman” can be replaced in English by the direct object pronoun “her”, so it would
be “I see her”, the same thing happens in German:
“Ich sehe eine Frau” becomes “Ich sehe sie”.
Note: Direct object pronoun in German is associated with the accusative case:
Singular Direct Object Pronouns
me
mich
you (familiar)
dich
you (formal)
Sie
him, her, it
ihn, sie, es
Plural Direct Object Pronouns
us
uns
8
www.dennisdeus.wordpress.com
you (familiar)
euch
you (formal)
Sie
them
sie
Indirect object pronouns: are used to replace nouns (people or things) in a sentence, In English usually it
is preceded by a preposition.
Examples in German:
“I give the book to Schneider”, the name “Schneider(Taylor)” is an indirect object noun, to replace it
with a pronoun we would say in English “her”, in German we would say “ihr”.
Singular Indirect Object Pronouns
to me mir
to you (familiar)
dir
to you (familiar)
Ihnen
to him, to her, to it
ihm, ihr, ihm
Plural Indirect Object Pronouns
to us
uns
to you (familiar)
euch
to you (formal) Ihnen
to them
ihnen
9
www.dennisdeus.wordpress.com
DDD
Definition: Prepositions define relationships between words in the sentence. The case of the object is
determined by the preposition, or by the preposition and how it is used. Certain prepositions have
objects in only one case; accusative, dative, or even genitive. Other prepositions can have objects in
either accusative or dative case.
Examples in German:
Vienna is not in Switzerland.
Wien ist nicht in der Schweiz.
The train arrives at 11:30.
Der Zug kommt um elf Uhr dreißig.
This is a hot coffee without sugar.
Das ist ein heißer Kaffee ohne Zucker.
Accusative/Dative Case:
at, to
an
on
auf
behind hinter
in, (into)
in
beside neben
10
www.dennisdeus.wordpress.com
above, over
über
under unter
before vor
between
zwischen
Examples in German:
Ich sitze in einem großen Zimmer.
Ich trete in ein großes Zimmer hinein.
Er steht zwischen dem Studenten und dem Professoren.
Sie schleicht zwischen den Studenten und den Professoren.
Accusative Case:
until
bis
through
durch
along
entlang
for
für
against gegen
without
ohne
at, around
um
against wider
Examples in German:
11
www.dennisdeus.wordpress.com
Wir trennen uns jetzt bis Freitag. (until)
Wir fahren nur bis Leipzig zusammen. (to)
Gegen Frühling wird es allmählich wärmer. (toward)
EEE
Definition: German verbs are words that describe a state of being or an action. In German verbs are
categorized into three categories:
Weak verbs: do not change the stem vowel in the past tense and the past participle and they’re
considered like regular verbs in English.
Examples in German:
to work(arbeiten)
to play(spielen)
Strong verbs: do change the stem vowel in both the past tense and the past participle.
Examples in German:
to speak(sprechen)
to drive, go(fahren)
12
www.dennisdeus.wordpress.com
Mixed verbs: contain parts of both weak and strong verbs. They’re used very often and therefore they
should not be overlooked.
Examples in German:
to bring(bringen)
to send(senden)
FFFColors in German
Die Farben
beige
beige
black
schwarz
blue
blau
brown braun
dark blue
gold
dunkel blau
gold
green grün
13
www.dennisdeus.wordpress.com
grey
grau
light blue
hell blau
orange orange
pink
rosa
purple violett / lila / purpur
red
rot
silver
silber
turquoise
türkis
white weiß
yellow gelb
GGGG
Top 20 German Verbs Conjugator:
14
www.dennisdeus.wordpress.com
to be
sein
to have haben
to become
werden
to be able, can können
to have to
müssen
to want (to)
to like (to)
mögen to know
to make, do
machen
to be called
heißen to say, tell
to go
wollen
wissen
ought to
sollen
sagen
gehen to see sehen
to give geben to come
to let, allow
kommen
lassen to find finden
to stay bleiben to take nehmen
GGG
A pronoun in German as well as in English is like a shortcut to refer to a noun, a word that stands for or
represents a noun or noun phrase, a pronoun is identified only in the context of the sentence in which it
is used. So you must have a prior idea about who "he or she" "er or sie" is. In English we find "I, her,
what, that, his", In German pronouns use is governed by cases (nominative, accusative, dative, genitive),
number and gender. All these three factors can affect the pronoun.
Types of pronouns include personal pronouns (refer to the persons speaking, the persons spoken to, or
the persons or things spoken about), indefinite pronouns, relative (connect parts of sentences),
reciprocal or reflexive pronouns (in which the object of a verb is being acted on by verb's subject),
demonstrative, and interrogative pronouns.
German Personal Pronouns
15
www.dennisdeus.wordpress.com
The personal (subject) pronouns in German are (ich, du, er, sie, es, wir, ihr, Sie, sie.), and make the
equivalent of (I, you, he, she, it, we, you people, you all, they) in English, usually they take the
nominative form, since they’re the subject of the sentence. They’re very important and therefore they
must be memorized by heart.
I have a pen = Ich habe einen Kugelschreiber.
Personal Pronouns in German
Singular
I
ich
you (familiar)
du
you (formal)
16
www.dennisdeus.wordpress.com
Sie
he, she, it
er, sie, es
Plural
we
wir
you (familiar)
ihr
you (formal)
Sie
they
17
www.dennisdeus.wordpress.com
sie
German Object Pronouns
Object pronouns replace the object of a sentence; direct object pronouns take the place of the direct
object nouns, let’s take this example “I see a man”, “a man” can be replaced in English by the direct
object pronoun “him” and not “he”, so it would be “I see him”, the same thing happens in German:
Ich sehe einen Mann becomes Ich sehe ihn.
Note that the direct object pronoun in German is associated with the accusative case:
Direct Object Pronouns in German
Singular
me
mich
18
www.dennisdeus.wordpress.com
you (familiar)
dich
you (formal)
Sie
him, her, it
ihn, sie, es
Plural
us
uns
you (familiar)
19
www.dennisdeus.wordpress.com
euch
you (formal)
Sie
them
sie
The indirect object pronouns (IOP) are used to replace nouns (people or things) in a sentence to which
the action of the verb occurs. In English usually it is preceded by a preposition, “I give the book to Katja”,
the name “Katja” is an indirect object noun, to replace it with a pronoun we would say in English “her”,
in German we would say “ihr”, note that since the IOP is associated with the dative, the preposition “to”
that we would usually use in English is not used in German, or rather we would say that it’s mixed with
the pronoun (look at the table below to understand the concept better), for example “to her” in German
will become one word “ihr”.
Indirect Object Pronouns in German
Singular
20
www.dennisdeus.wordpress.com
to me
mir
to you (familiar)
dir
to you (familiar)
Ihnen
to him, to her, to it
ihm, ihr, ihm
Plural
to us
21
www.dennisdeus.wordpress.com
uns
to you (familiar)
euch
to you (formal)
Ihnen
to them
ihnen
German Possessive Pronouns
The possessive is another aspect that you need to master in German, the possessive pronouns indicate
ownership and they replace a noun just like in English, example: “it is my house” becomes “it is mine”.
but while in English you can use “mine” to the singular and feminine, in German you have to add an “e”
to for the feminine,
22
www.dennisdeus.wordpress.com
Possessive Pronouns in German
Singular
mine
mein/e
yours
mein/e
yours (formal)
Ihr/e
his, hers, its
sein/e
23
www.dennisdeus.wordpress.com
Plural
our
unser/e
yours (familiar)
eur/e
yours (formal)
Ihr/e
theirs
ihr/e
24
www.dennisdeus.wordpress.com
Now we will look at possessive adjectives, which are used more than the pronouns we’ve seen above.
And since we’re talking about “adjectives” it means that they will take different forms in different cases.
For example let’s have a look at “my” and “our” in German:
Possessive Adjectives in German
Nominative
Accusative
Dative
Genitive
Masculine
mein
25
www.dennisdeus.wordpress.com
meinen
meinem
meines
Feminine
meine
meine
meiner
meiner
Neuter
26
www.dennisdeus.wordpress.com
mein
mein
meinem
meines
Plural
meine
meine
meinen
27
www.dennisdeus.wordpress.com
meiner
Nominative
Accusative
Dative
Genitive
Masculine
unser
uns(e)ren
28
www.dennisdeus.wordpress.com
uns(e)rem
uns(e)res
Feminine
uns(e)re
uns(e)re
uns(e)rer
uns(e)rer
Neuter
unser
29
www.dennisdeus.wordpress.com
unser
uns(e)rem
uns(e)res
Plural
uns(e)re
uns(e)re
uns(e)ren
uns(e)rer
30
www.dennisdeus.wordpress.com
Note that we add an “e” when we deal with the feminine, either in the singular or the plural; I put it
between parentheses above.
As we have learned in the verbs section, reflexive verbs express an action that acts upon the subject,
and with the reflexive verbs you will find reflexive pronouns, which are placed after of the conjugated
verb, for example: Ich washe mich (I wash myself). Ich stelle mir vor (I imagine “myself”). Note that
these pronouns have two forms, one with the accusative and another with the dative. When to use each
one of them will depend on the verb, some reflexive verbs are associated with the accusative, and some
others are associated with the dative, you can check the verbs page to learn more.
German Reflexive Pronouns
Accusative
myself
mich
yourself (familiar)
dich
31
www.dennisdeus.wordpress.com
yourself (formal)
sich
himself, herself, itself
sich
ourselves
uns
yourselves (familiar)
euch
yourselves (formal)
sich
32
www.dennisdeus.wordpress.com
themselves
sich
Dative
myself
mir
yourself (familiar)
dir
yourself (formal)
sich
33
www.dennisdeus.wordpress.com
himself, herself, itself
sich
ourselves
uns
yourselves (familiar)
euch
yourselves (formal)
sich
themselves
sich
34
www.dennisdeus.wordpress.com
A brief summery of the pronouns we’ve learned so far:
German Pronouns
nominative
accusative
dative
genitive
1st singular
35
www.dennisdeus.wordpress.com
ich
mich
mir
mein-
2nd singular
du
dich
dir
dein-
36
www.dennisdeus.wordpress.com
3rd singular feminine
sie
sie
ihr
ihr-
3rd singular masculine
er
ihn
ihm
37
www.dennisdeus.wordpress.com
sein-
3rd singular neuter
es
es
ihm
sein-
1st plural
wir
uns
38
www.dennisdeus.wordpress.com
uns
unser-
2nd plural
ihr
euch
euch
eur-
3rd plural
sie
39
www.dennisdeus.wordpress.com
sie
ihnen
ihr-
formal (singular and plural)
Sie
Sie
Ihnen
Ihr-
German Demonstrative Pronouns
40
www.dennisdeus.wordpress.com
Demonstratives usually refer to a previously mentioned noun in a sentence, just like adjectives they
must agree with the gender and number of the noun. The equivalent to them in English would be
“this/these”.
German Demonstratives
masculine
feminine
neuter
plural
Nominative case
41
www.dennisdeus.wordpress.com
dieser
diese
dieses
diese
this/ these
Accusative case
diesen
diese
dieses
42
www.dennisdeus.wordpress.com
diese
this/ these
Dative case
diesem
dieser
diesem
diesen
to this/ these
Genitive cases
43
www.dennisdeus.wordpress.com
dieses
dieser
dieses
dieser
of this/ these
Other Pronouns:
Relative Pronouns: in German they are der, die, das (who, that, which), wer, was (who, that) and
welcher (who, that). The gender, number, and case of the relative pronoun should agree with its
antecedent.
Interrogative Pronouns: the most important in German are: wer (who), wen (whom), wem (to whom),
wessen (whose), was (what), welcher (which).
44
www.dennisdeus.wordpress.com
Indefinite pronouns are: all- (all), ander- (other), einig- (one), etwas (some), jed- (each), kein- (no), nichts
(nothing), man (we, one), niemand (no one).
HHHH
Nouns, Adjectives & Personal Pronouns
1. introduction
?1.1 No definite or indefinite article
?1.2 Plurals of nouns and pronouns
?1.3 Personal pronouns
2. Nouns
?2.1 Number
?2.2 Gender
?2.3 Case
?2.3.1 Genitive
?2.4 Compound nouns
?2.5 Summary 3. Adjectives
?3.1 Position of adjectives
?3.2 Comparison
Appendix: Vocabulary
1. Introduction
We have already come across personal pronouns and some nouns on the Verbs page; we shall look
more closely at nouns and pronouns on this page as well as adjectives. From the Verbs page we have
learnt the following three things.
1.1 No definite or indefinite articles
It will have been noticed that there are no definite or indefinite articles in Outidic. Dr Outis did at first
consider retaining a definite article because ancient Greek had it; but he was concerned that different
languages do not use their definite article in the same way, for example, that the use of the definite
article is rather different in English, in French and in Ancient Greek.
45
www.dennisdeus.wordpress.com
He was also aware that not only Latin but Russian, Turkish and some other languages managed with
no definite or indefinite article and he, therefore, decided that in a language to facilitate communication
between statesmen, merchants and scholar of different languages it would be simpler to dispense with
articles entirely.
1.2 Plurals of nouns and pronouns
We saw also that plurals of nouns and pronouns are formed with the suffix -as, e.g.
keir hand ~ keiras hands
kun dog ~ kunas dogs
ut he, she, it ~ utas they
(See also subsection below).
1.3 Personal pronouns
We saw the personal pronouns used as subjects of verbs. We shall find also that the same pronouns
may be used as direct objects of verbs. To summarize, the pronouns are:
SingularPlural Probable etymology
1st person
em
I, me emas
we, us
em ? ?µ? (emé) me, ?µ?? (emoû) of me, ?µ?? (emoí) to me;
emas ? ?µe?? (hemeîs) we, ?µ?? (hemâs) us
2nd person
um
thou, thee; you
ye, you
umas
umas ? ?µe?? (humeîs) ye, you, ?µ?? (humâs) you;
um is a back formation from umas
1st person
ut
he, him; she, her; it
they, them
utas
Stem ut abstracted from Greek 3rd person pronoun supplied by:
46
www.dennisdeus.wordpress.com
??t?? (hoûtos) this in the nominative case
a?t?? (autón) self in the oblique cases
Top
2. Nouns
Students of Greek and Latin will know that nouns ere characterized by number, gender and case; so
let us consider these three properties below.
2.1 Number
Dr Outis never seriously considered having the dual number found in earliest Greek and some other
languages.; it was not common in later Greek and eventually died out. But he seems to have considered
that it was "natural" to mark plurals.
He consider several possible plural endings but eventually settled on -as since not only did the
accusative plural masculines & feminines of the 1st and 3rd declensions end in -a? (as), he also he
considered it neatly combined the common nominative, vocative and accusative neuter plural -a (-a)
with the -? (-s) found at the end of all masc. & fem. accusative plurals and the masc. & fem. nominative
and vocative plural of the 3rd declension., i.e.
1st m. & f.
2nd m. & f.
2nd neuter
3rd m. & f.
nominative plural
-ai
-oi
-a
-a
accusative plural
-as
-ous
-as
-es
3rd neuter
The same ending -as, as we have seen, is used for pronouns as well as nouns.
2.2 Gender
Dr Outis' own native language as well Turkish (which he seems have had some knowledge of) get
along nicely without any grammatical gender; therefore, in common with all other auxlangs (as far as I
47
www.dennisdeus.wordpress.com
know) he dispensed with that aspect of Greek and Latin grammar. Therefore, there is no grammatical
gender in Outidic.
However, on the analogy of the ancient pairs such as ßas??e?? (basileús) king ~ ßas??e?a (basíleia)
queen, and ?e?e?? (?iereús) priest ~ ???e?a (?iéreia) priestess, Dr Outis allowed natural sex to be
distinguished, if necessary, with the endings -eu (plural -euas) for males and -ei (plural -eias)for females;
e.g. kun dog, kuneu male dog, kunei female dog, bitch; dlep brother or sister, sibling, dlepeu brother,
dlepei sister; paid child, paideu boy, paidei girl; zer priest or priestess, zereu priest, zerei priestess;
A few commonly used nouns already denote a specific sex and should not be used with those suffixes,
e.g. pap father, mam mother; ner man, adult male human, gun woman, adult female human; cf. drop
human being, person, man (generic), dropeu male human (whether baby, child or adult), dropei female
human (whether baby, child or adult).
2.3 Case
Dr Outis was aware that neuter nouns never distinguished between nominative, vocative and
accusative in classical Greek (or Latin or, as far as he knew, in any other language). As he had decided
against grammatical gender, he decided to extend this peculiarity of neuters to all nouns.
But he was less certain about genitive and dative. That the ending of dative singulars was -? (-i) and in
the plural often --s? (-si) intrigued him and he flirted with the idea of having a a dative marker -i which
would give a dative plural -asi (he had, like many other auxlang designers from the 17th century to the
20th and, probably, still some in the 21st, decided to use agglutination). But in the end he dropped this
and simply used a preposition po (? Epic Greek p?t?, p?t [= Attic p???]) - cf. Labbé's use of da ? Latin ad).
In effect, he decided that subject and direct object were adequately shown by placing the subject
before the verb and the object after it, whether the subject or object was a noun or pronoun, and that
all other verbal arguments and adjuncts should be shown by using a prepositional phrase.
So what about the genitive?
2.3.1 Genitive
The ancient genitive had more than one function but, perhaps, the two most common are partitive
and possessive.
48
www.dennisdeus.wordpress.com
Dr Outis decided that the partitive use could well be shown by using the preposition ke (? Greek ??,
??) = out of, e.g. poul ke domas = many of the houses, pen ke utas = five of them.
For possession, Dr Outis had resolved that he would imitate the ancient Greek practice of appending
personal pronouns as enclitics to their nouns, e.g. pat?? µ?? (pate´r mou) my father, µ?t?? s?? (mete´r
sou) your mother; hence Outidic: pap-em my father, mam-um your mother. Dr Outis extended this
construction to all personal pronouns, e.g. kunas-ut her dogs, domas-emas our houses, psol-utas their
city. The use of the hyphen is to show that the whole compound is pronounced as one phonological
word.
In the first three quarters of the 17th century the "his genitive" was still in vogue, e.g. for Christ His
sake, in the Prince his company, Ned his house, etc. We even find "Pallas her Glasse" = Pallas' glass
(Pallas Athene's glass). This practice, which first made its appearance in the 16th century, was possibly
due both to hypercorrection and and to the occurrence of such use of 'his' (and possibly 'her') in some
spoken dialects, since similar constructions are found in other germanic languages. Whatever its origin,
Dr Outis was clearly familiar with the practice and thought it quite neat and that it would mean he could
dispense with noun cases entirely; thus we fin in Outidic pap dom-ut (father his house) father's house,
mam keiras-ut (mother her hands) mother's hands, neras domas-utas ([the] men their houses) the
men's houses. One can have two possessives as, e.g. pap-em dom-ut (my father his house) my father's
house.
2.4 Compound nouns
In Greek compound of nouns were readily formed where the first noun in some manner qualifies the
second one. We often do this in English as well, though we often write such phrases as two separate
words.We may also form similar compounds in Outidic where the two nouns are joined by "euphonic u";
this is to prevent any awkward combination of consonants occurring.
Dr Outis stated the he chose this as u is the weakest of the vowels, though he did not explain why he
considered it so. It might have been also practical considerations as one will find that no suffixes begin
with u-, thus -u- more unambiguously show a compound of two root morphemes. examples of
compounds are:
psol city + drop person ? psoludrop = a city person, a person who works and/or lives in a city
mam mother + psol city ? mamupsol = mother city, metropolis
2.5 Summary:
49
www.dennisdeus.wordpress.com
Nouns have no grammatical gender
Plural is shown by the suffix -as, e.g. pap = father ~ papas = fathers; psol = city ~ psolas = cities
The noun does not change to denote verbal arguments or adjuncts:
The subject and direct object of the verb are shown by the Subject-Verb-Object word order, e.g.
kun adagan ner = the dog bites the man
ner adagan kun = The man bites the dog
All other verbal arguments and adjuncts are denoted by prepositional phrases.
Possessive are denoted by pronouns used as enclitics as in 2.3.1 above.
It will thus be seen that like his 17th century contemporary, Labbé, in his "Lingua Universalis" and
Faiguet in his "Langue Nouvelle" of the 18th century, Dr Outis scrapped a all case distinctions, which
makes their survival in so many of the 19th century auxlangs, including the two most popular ones, i.e.
Volapük and Esperanto, all the more surprising.
Top
3. Adjectives
Adjectives are not especially marked in Outidic as they are in some later languages such Volapük and
Esperanto. The suffix -ik is indeed found, but it is used to derive adjectives from nouns, with the
meaning "of or pertaining to, relating to", e.g. kun dog ? kunik canine; pool city ? psolik urban; ner man,
adult male ? nerik manly, virile; drop man, person, human being ? dropik human [adj].
It never occurred to Dr Outis, however, that all lexical roots should be either nominal or verbal; he
seems not to question that a language will have adjectival roots also. Therefore, we find, for example:
gat good (cf. Volapük gud 'goodness' ~ gudik 'good'); kak bad; meg large, great; mik little, small.
Anticipating Faiguet's "Langue Nouvelle" of the following century, Dr Outis decided that adjectives
should be invariable and not change to agree with their head noun.
50
www.dennisdeus.wordpress.com
3.1 Position of adjectives
The most common position for an attributive adjective in Greek was before its noun; Dr Outis decided
to retain this, which is also the normal position for adjective and noun in English and the Germanic
languages, in his "Lingua Communis"; thus, e.g. meg kunas large dogs; mik louras small cats. But, of
course, kunas ain meg the dogs are big; louras ain mik the cats are small.
But in Greek it was possible to place the adjective after the noun if the article were repeat, thus the
wise person =
? s?f?? ?????p?? (?o sop?òs ánt?ropos)
or
? ?????p?? ? s?f?? (?o ánt?ropos ?o sop?ós).
Dr Outis realized that some people may prefer the adjective to follow the noun. He allowed this with
the particle o, thus, e.g, a large house = meg dom or dom o meg.
The particle o is reminiscent of the Persian ezâfe, but there is no evidence that Dr Outis was familiar
with that language. It is possibly coined from the -o- which occurred so often between the two elements
of a compound word in which the first element was a noun or adjective; but it is more likely, I think, to
be from the ancient relative pronoun ?? (?os [m.]), ? (?e [f.]), ? (?o [n.]), since we find it also when a
prepositional phrase is used adjectivally, e.g. kun o ne kep = the dog [which is] in the garden, and we
shall find it used to introduce full relative clauses. It is of course possible that Dr Outis coined o from
both sources.
Any possessive suffix is added to the first element in a noun phrase, thus, e.g.
my large house = meg-em dom or dom-em o meg
3.2 Comparison
Comparatives and superlatives were marked by Dr Outis with proclitics, thus:
ProcliticPossible
etymology
Example
Absolute superlative za-
?a51
www.dennisdeus.wordpress.com
za(ancient Epic prefix) Sokrat ein za-sop
Socrates was very wise
Superlative (of superiority)
malista
mai-
µ???sta
Sokrat ein mai-sop drop ne Atenas
Sokrat ein drop o mai-sop ne Atenas
Socrates was the wisest person in Athens
Comparative (of superiority) mamallon
µ?????
Sokrat ein ma-sop so Aristopan
Socrates was wiser than Aristophanes
Equative
(Comparative of equality)
so-
??
hos Platon ein so-sop so Sokrat
Plato was as wise as Socrates
Note:
The morpheme so is used as a proclitic meaning "as" as well as a conjunction meaning "than" or
"as."
The proclitics mai- and ma-, however, cannot stand as independent words, cf.
mai-poul brek apesan ne keim = most rain falls in winter;
ein ma-poul louras so dropas ne dom = there were more cats than people in the house
A comparative of inferiority may be expressed by ma-loig "less" or by using a negative statement,
e.g.:
Aristopan ein ma-loig sop so Sokrat = Aristophanes was less wise than Socrates;
Aristopan ouk ein so-sop so Sokrat = Aristophanes was not as wise as Socrates.
52
www.dennisdeus.wordpress.com
The Epic prefix ?a- was derived from d?a (día) = through, which was ?? in the Aiolic dialect. we find
that za was also used in Outidic to mean through; thus Sokrat ein za-sop means more literally Socrates
was wise through & through, or Socrates was thoroughly wise.
In addition to the prefixes above, Dr Outis also prefixed the prepositions pru above, over and pu
beneath, under to adjectives with the meanings of too and not … enough respectively; e.g.:
dom ain pru-meg, la kep ain pu-meg the house is too big, but the garden is not big enough.
Top
Appendix: Vocabulary
Reminder:
On the Verbs page we had: dom = house; inai to be; keir = hand; kun = dog; ne in.
From kun we have derived forms: kunei = female dog, bitch; kuneu = male dog; kunik [adj.] =
pertaining to dogs, canine.
Vocabulary new to this page:
Reminder - Outidic alphabet: A B G D E Z I K L M N O P R S T U
gat [adj.] = good
ma- = more, -er (comparative prefix)
gun = woman (adult female human)
gunik = womanly
mai- = most, -est (superlative prefix)
mam = mother
53
www.dennisdeus.wordpress.com
mamik = motherly, maternal
dagai = to bite
dlep = sibling
dlepei = sister
dlepeu = brother
dlepik = fraternal, brotherly/sisterly
meg [adj.] = big, large
mik [adj.] = little, small
ner = man, adult human male
nerik [adj.] = manly, virile
drop = person, human being, man (generic)
dropei = female person (baby, child or adult)
dropeu = male person (baby, child or adult)
dropik [adj.] = human
paid = child
paidei = girl
paideu = boy
54
www.dennisdeus.wordpress.com
paidik = childish
za- (prefix) = very
o relative particle
zer = priest(ess)
zerei = priestess
zereu = (male) priest
zerik = priestly
pap = father
papik = fatherly, patrenal
pesai = to fall
kak [adj.] = bad
pen = five
ke [prep.] = out of, of (partitive)
psol = city
psolik [adj.] = urban
keim = winter
keimik = wintery
poul [adj.] =
55
www.dennisdeus.wordpress.com
(before singular noun) much
(before plural noun) many
kep = garden
la = but
pru [prep.] = above, over
loig [adj.] =
(before singular noun) little [amount]
(before plural noun) few
pu [prep.] = below, under
so [conj.] = as, than
lour = cat
lourei = female cat
loureu = male cat, tom
lourik [adj.] = feline
so- = as (equative prefix)
56
www.dennisdeus.wordpress.com