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Hylian Nouns
sonEn hilanan
Sonn
Hilanan
A noun is a person, place, thing, or idea. An important characteristic
of Hylian nouns is that the vast majority of them follow a regular pattern.
Unlike English, in which nouns can have almost any ending, Hylian nouns
all have the same ending. Plurality is also indictated by a regular pattern.
Below are the two noun endings.
|
Singular Nouns
|
Plural Nouns
|
|
=e
|
-e
|
All regular singular nouns
have an -e ending. No other part of speech has this ending. So a
word that ends in -e can only be a singular noun and nothing else.
Here are examples of nouns:
lErde Lrde
=
Book
brinste
Brinste =
Arm |
=En
|
-n
|
All regular plural nouns have
an -n ending. No other part of speech has this ending. So
a word that ends in -n can only be a plural noun and nothing
else. Here are examples of plural nouns:
lErdEn Lrdn
=
Books
BrinstEn Brinstn =
Arms |
Gender
Many languages, such as Spanish and French, assign nouns a grammatical
gender. For example, the Spanish word lapz, which means
"pencil," is masculine; while the word fotografa, which
means "photograph," is feminine. If this makes no sense to you, then you're
on the right track. In other languages grammatical gender is assigned to
all words, even inanimate objects. However, in English, words have no grammatical
gender. They only have a natural gener, i.e. "woman" is feminine, and "man"
is masculine. Hylian also uses natural gender for words. It has an invariable
definite article which does not change with gender. There are gender neutral
words, as well as gender specific words, as in English. There is a regular
way of turning a gender neutral word into a gender specific word. Here
are some examples:
| lErde |
lrde |
Book -
Gender neutral |
| piante |
piante |
Parent
- Gender neutral |
| pi&ntile |
pintile |
Father
- Gender specific, masculine |
| pi&ntine |
pintine |
Mother
- Gender specific, feminine |
Forming
Gender-Specific Words
Forming a gender-specific noun confroms to a regular pattern. It involves
taking the word stem and adding a suffix. When a gender suffix is added
to the word, please note that an accent mark is added to preserve the stress
of the original word. Here is an example using dege, which means
"deity" or "god": IMPORTANT NOTE: Only nouns can take a gender-specific
subject, adjectives don't. When using an adjective to describe a gender-specific
noun, the adjective only has to agree in number.
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Neutral
Word
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Stem
|
+
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Suffix
|
+
|
e
|
=
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New
Word
|
|
dege
|
deg
|
+
|
-il
|
+
|
e
|
=
|
dgile
|
|
dege
|
deg
|
+
|
-in
|
+
|
e
|
=
|
dgine
|
|
Original
Word
|
Definition
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New
Word
|
Definition
|
|
dege
|
"Deity", gender-neutral
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dgile
|
"God", masculine
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|
dege
|
"Deity", gender-neutral
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dgine
|
"Goddess", feminine
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Sections
Hylian to
English
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