Preface

Nouns in Balearic decline for number and definiteness. Nouns are also classified into feminine or masculine.

1 - Declension

Balearic nouns decline for number and definiteness: (Singular) "A Dog" > "Celb"; but "The Dog" > "Celbus"; (Plural) "Dogs" > "Cielvim"; but "The Dogs" > "Cielvide".

Masculine and Feminine nouns decline for all categories, but feminine nouns are subdivided into three classes, whereas masculine nouns fall into a single class.

1.1 - Masculine Declension

Below is the declension table for all masculine nouns:

Some masculine nouns can undergo umlaut, lenition, or both (ex.) "Celb" > "Cielvim"*. This is a remnant of the old Canaanite plural (*C¹VC²C³ [Sing.] > *C¹VC²aC³ūna [Plur.])

*Sometimes "Cielvim" is regularized into "Celbim", or other times "Celb" may become "Cielv". It depends on the dialect.

1.2 - Feminine Declension I

This class is the most common by far. Most feminine nouns usually end in an -a, similar to other Semitic languages, or the surrounding Romance languages. In fact, it is thought that -a replaced earlier -ot via influence from Latin.

In any case, the above declension is highly regular, with no stem changes. This class is also highly productive.

1.3 - Feminine Declension II

This declension clas is a mix of old semitic suffixless feminines, and feminines that ended in -in, or some Latin 3rd Declension feminines that also had a final -i or no suffix. This is class is not productive.

1.4 - Feminine Declension III

This class is also very productive, although it tends to occur more as a derivational suffix, or as a component in derivational suffixes.

It comes from earlier *-ūn and *-ūt, which after the loss of final n and t, merged.

This affix by itself can be used for abstract nouns or collective nouns. This declension also assimilated all feminine -ō, -ōnem nouns borrowed from Latin, so the -azu suffix (akin to English -ation) falls into this class via analogy.

2 - Adjectives

Adjectives follow their head nouns. They decline for gender and number.

There are 2 declensions: the Nisba and the Regular declensions.

The Regular Declension is by far the more common one. Most adjectives fall into this declension.

The Nisba Declension is similar to the Nisba of the other Semitic languages. It derives from Proto-Semitic '*-iyy-', and still marks Adjectives of belonging or possesssion.

2.1 - Regular Adjective Declension

This declension is used in all adjectives except those with the nisba.

2.2 - Nisba Adjective Declension

The Nisba suffix is used to make adjectives of belonging, relation, or pertinence.