Status constructus

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The status constructus or construct state is a noun form occurring in Semitic languages (such as Arabic and Hebrew) and in the extinct Egyptian language. It occurs when a semantically definite noun (marked by the definite article the in English translation) is succeeded by another noun in a genitive relation to the first. In Arabic, for example, words in the status constructus do not occur with the article al, nor do they receive an -n after their case marking vowel (nunation).

The construct is one of the three states of nouns in Arabic, the other two being the status absolutus (indefinite state) and the status emphaticus (definite state; also called the status determinatus). Concretely, the three states compare like this:

'ummun — "a mother"
'(a)l-'ummu — "the mother"
'ummu — "the mother of"

'Ummun jamillah — "A mother is beautiful" (by definition, for instance because of her persistent devotion)
'Al-'ummu jamillah — "The mother is beautiful" (e.g. despite her age and the fact that she bore several children)
'Ummu l-shaykhi jamillah — "The sheikh's mother is beautiful".

In Classical Arabic, words in the status constructus can never get pausal pronunciation; that is, they are always marked for case. When the following word begins with an article, however, dialectic and colloquial Arabic do allow this; in such a case, the above example would be 'Umm-'al-shaikh jamillah.

Hebrew

The status constructus is known in Hebrew as smikhut (סמיכות).

davar — "a thing (or saying)"
ha-davar — "the thing"
dvar — "the saying of"
davar qadosh — "a holy thing"
ha-davar ha-qadosh — "the holy thing"
dvar ha-melekh ha-qadosh — "the word (or thing) of the holy King"

Celtic languages

There is a parallel construction in the Celtic languages. Like Arabic, they possess a definite article only. At least in the case of the Irish language, genitive constructions involving two definite nouns are formed by using the article only with the second noun.

a dalta — "the student"
máthair — "mother"
máthair a dalta — "the mother of the student", i.e., "the student's mother"
máthair dhalta — "the mother of a student", i.e., "a student's mother"

The parallel is not exact, of course, since although Irish Gaelic marks nouns for case, it is generally in the form of changes to the initial consonant (e.g., the d in dalta), not to the word ending.

Status constructus

Hebrew

Celtic languages

See also