Šlomo Surayt

Grammar 4

a) The grammatical gender

In Surayt, there are two grammatical genders: masculine (abbreviated: m) and feminine (abbreviated: f). Moreover, both nouns and adjectives can appear in either singular (abbreviated: sg.) or plural (abbreviated: pl.).

Usually, singular feminine words end in either -to ـܬܐ or -ṯo ـܬ̣ܐ:

camṯo	aunt (sister of the father), paternal aunt	ܥܰܡܬ݂ܐ
ṭawto	good (f.)	ܛܰܘܬܐ

Singular masculine nouns end in -o ـܐ:

cammo	uncle (paternal uncle)	ܥܰܡܡܐ
ṭawwo	good (m.)	ܛܰܘܘܐ

Exceptions to this rule are feminine nouns ending in -o / ـܐ and masculine nouns ending in -to / ـܬܐ:

Feminine: -o / ـܐ

i emo	the mother	ܐܝ ܐܶܡܐ
i dado	wife of the uncle, (paternal uncle’s wife)	ܐܝ ܕܰܕܐ
i dukano	the store, the shop	ܐܝ ܕܘܟܰܢܐ

Feminine words ending in -o / ـܐ denote female beings, body parts that occur in pairs naturally, or are loan words.

Masculine: -to / ـܬܐ

u bayto	the house	ܐܘ ܒܰܝܬܐ
u mawto	the death	ܐܘ ܡܰܘܬܐ

The ending /t ܬ/ of the masculine words above is part of the word root and thus only coincidentally identical with the feminine ending. The gender of all nouns is clearly marked by the article.

b) The Copula

In Surayt, the copular verb (e.g., the English auxiliary verb ‘to be’) is omitted. Instead, a clipped form of the personal pronoun is used, which comes after the respective word or phrase.

	Singular			Plural
1^st Person	no	(I) am	ܢܐ	na	(we) are	ܢܰܐ
2^nd Person	hat	(you) are	ܗܰܬ	hatu	(you) are	ܗܰܬܘ
3^rd Person	yo	(he, she, it) is	ܝܐ	ne	(they) are	ܢܶܐ

Examples:

arbci ëšne yo	he/she is forty years old	ܐܰܪܒܥܝ ܐܷܫܢܶܐ ܝܐ
b Ṭurcabdin ne	they are in Turabdin	ܒܛܘܪܥܰܒܕܝܢ ܢܶܐ
gawire na	we are married	ܓܰܘܝܪܶܐ ܢܰܐ
qašto hat	you (f.) are a grandmother	ܩܰܫܬܐ ܗܰܬ