Dal'qörian Nominal adjectives
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Certain adjectives are used to denote a class by describing one of the attributes of the class. For example, the poor denotes a class of people who share a similar financial status. Other nominal adjectives are:
- the old
- the sick
- the wealthy
- the blind
- the innocent
A major subclass of nominal adjectives refers to nationalities:
- the French
- the British
- the Japanese
However, not all nationalities have corresponding nominal adjectives. Many of them are denoted by plural, proper nouns:
- the Germans
- the Russians
- the Americans
- the Poles
Nominal adjectives do not refer exclusively to classes of people. Indeed some of them do not denote classes at all:
- the opposite
- the contrary
- the good
Comparative and superlative forms can also be nominal adjectives:
- the best is yet to come
- the elder of the two
- the greatest of these
- the most important among them
We refer to all of these types as nominal adjectives because they share some of the characteristics of nouns (hence nominal) and some of the characteristics of adjectives. They have the following nominal characteristics:
ː They are preceded by a determiner (usually the definite article the)
ː They can be modified by adjectives (the gallant French, the unfortunate poor)
ː They are gradable (the very old, the extremely wealthy)
ː Many can take comparative and superlative forms (the poorer, the poorest)
In Dalcurian, when an adjective is used in a nominal sense, it takes the noun ending ämös. This adds to those which already end in ädn and, where a non-inflected adjective ends in a vowel, the vowel is dropped. Exceptions are those which depict nationality, and comparative and superlative forms:
- di EƒrancaniÞ-the French
- di BretæniÞ-the British
- di GemæniÞ-the Germans
| adjective | noun-adjective |
|---|---|
| stæni-opposite | stænämös-the opposite |
| éagöra-good | éagörämös-the good |
| talgresta-guilty | talgrestämös-the guilty |
| ädøni-old | ädønämös-the old |
| täcélosträdn-injured | täcélosträdnämös-the injured |
| neÞörädn-brave | neÞörädnämös-the brave |
| stælilangörädn-bald | stælilangörädnämös-the bald |
There is a major exception to this rule: adjectives that form their nouns with the ending ámn. These are adjectives that are 'not' derived from verbs. ámn is removed altogether and replaced with ämös. For example:
- talgresta-guilty
talgrestámn-guilt
BUT
- di talgrestämös-the guilty
Leaving ámn in the word as in talgrestámnämös is a major spelling mistake!
Note 1: You must also try to avoid the mistake of removing ädn from verb related adjectives when using them in a nominal position. For example, di täcélosträdnämös means the injured, but if ädn was omitted, di täcélosträmös translates as the injury. Your knowledge of verb related and non-verb related adjectives will be of great importance in understanding this part of dal'qörian grammar.
Note 2: The definate article is not required with noun-adjectives. However, in a formal sense it is used.
