Strong noun
Encyclopedia
A strong noun is a phenomenon of both Icelandic
and Irish
, marked in each by case or number markings.
, a strong noun is one which falls into one of four categories, depending on the endings of the characteristic cases, i.e., the nominative and genitive singular and the nominative plural. For masculines this gives the following four-way split to be counted as strong:
For feminines this looks like:
Most neuters are strong, and end in -s in the genitive singular with the exception of fé, genitive fjár. Although strong neuters technically only belong to one category, it is a diverse group, so about a dozen paradigms are necessary to account for varieties and exceptions.
The weak neuters are so few, that a list suffices, to be found on the page for weak nouns
.
, a strong noun is one in which a noun maintains the same form of the plural
in all cases, especially both the nominative
and genitive
plurals.
The strong-noun endings are -(a)í, -ta/-te, -the, -(e)acha, and (e)anna. Certain other nouns that take plain -a or -e may be strong if the nominative and genitive plural are the same. All nouns ending in vowels in Irish are considered strong.
Icelandic language
Icelandic is a North Germanic language, the main language of Iceland. Its closest relative is Faroese.Icelandic is an Indo-European language belonging to the North Germanic or Nordic branch of the Germanic languages. Historically, it was the westernmost of the Indo-European languages prior to the...
and Irish
Irish language
Irish , also known as Irish Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family, originating in Ireland and historically spoken by the Irish people. Irish is now spoken as a first language by a minority of Irish people, as well as being a second language of a larger proportion of...
, marked in each by case or number markings.
Icelandic
In the Icelandic languageIcelandic language
Icelandic is a North Germanic language, the main language of Iceland. Its closest relative is Faroese.Icelandic is an Indo-European language belonging to the North Germanic or Nordic branch of the Germanic languages. Historically, it was the westernmost of the Indo-European languages prior to the...
, a strong noun is one which falls into one of four categories, depending on the endings of the characteristic cases, i.e., the nominative and genitive singular and the nominative plural. For masculines this gives the following four-way split to be counted as strong:
- The latter two cases end in -s and -ar.
- The latter two cases end in -s or -ar and -ir.
- The latter two cases end in -ar and -ir.
- Irregular but not a weak nounWeak nounSee also Weak inflectionIn the Icelandic language nouns are considered weak, if they fulfill the following conditions:Masculines:An example of the latter is nemandi , plural nemendur. The words bóndi and fjandi belong to this class with some irregularities. The plural of bóndi is bændur...
.
For feminines this looks like:
- The latter two cases end in -ar or -r and -ar.
- The latter two cases end in -ar and -ir.
- The latter two cases end in -ar or -ur and -ur or -r.
- Irregular but not a weak nounWeak nounSee also Weak inflectionIn the Icelandic language nouns are considered weak, if they fulfill the following conditions:Masculines:An example of the latter is nemandi , plural nemendur. The words bóndi and fjandi belong to this class with some irregularities. The plural of bóndi is bændur...
.
Most neuters are strong, and end in -s in the genitive singular with the exception of fé, genitive fjár. Although strong neuters technically only belong to one category, it is a diverse group, so about a dozen paradigms are necessary to account for varieties and exceptions.
The weak neuters are so few, that a list suffices, to be found on the page for weak nouns
Weak noun
See also Weak inflectionIn the Icelandic language nouns are considered weak, if they fulfill the following conditions:Masculines:An example of the latter is nemandi , plural nemendur. The words bóndi and fjandi belong to this class with some irregularities. The plural of bóndi is bændur...
.
Irish
In the Irish languageIrish language
Irish , also known as Irish Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family, originating in Ireland and historically spoken by the Irish people. Irish is now spoken as a first language by a minority of Irish people, as well as being a second language of a larger proportion of...
, a strong noun is one in which a noun maintains the same form of the plural
Plural
In linguistics, plurality or [a] plural is a concept of quantity representing a value of more-than-one. Typically applied to nouns, a plural word or marker is used to distinguish a value other than the default quantity of a noun, which is typically one...
in all cases, especially both the nominative
Nominative case
The nominative case is one of the grammatical cases of a noun or other part of speech, which generally marks the subject of a verb or the predicate noun or predicate adjective, as opposed to its object or other verb arguments...
and genitive
Genitive case
In grammar, genitive is the grammatical case that marks a noun as modifying another noun...
plurals.
The strong-noun endings are -(a)í, -ta/-te, -the, -(e)acha, and (e)anna. Certain other nouns that take plain -a or -e may be strong if the nominative and genitive plural are the same. All nouns ending in vowels in Irish are considered strong.
See also
- Weak nounWeak nounSee also Weak inflectionIn the Icelandic language nouns are considered weak, if they fulfill the following conditions:Masculines:An example of the latter is nemandi , plural nemendur. The words bóndi and fjandi belong to this class with some irregularities. The plural of bóndi is bændur...
- Icelandic languageIcelandic languageIcelandic is a North Germanic language, the main language of Iceland. Its closest relative is Faroese.Icelandic is an Indo-European language belonging to the North Germanic or Nordic branch of the Germanic languages. Historically, it was the westernmost of the Indo-European languages prior to the...
- Irish languageIrish languageIrish , also known as Irish Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family, originating in Ireland and historically spoken by the Irish people. Irish is now spoken as a first language by a minority of Irish people, as well as being a second language of a larger proportion of...