Status constructus

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The status constructus or construct state is a noun form occurring in Afro-Asiatic languages. It is particularly common in Semitic languages (such as Arabic and Hebrew), Berber languages, 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.

[edit] Arabic

In Arabic grammar, the status constructus is called الإضافة al-iḍāfa (lit. "addition, annexion").

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:

ˀummun — "a mother"
ˀ(a)l-ˀummu — "the mother"
ˀummu — "the mother of"

ˀUmmun jamilah — "A mother is beautiful" (by definition, for instance because of her persistent devotion)
ˀAl-ˀummu jamilah — "The mother is beautiful" (e.g. despite her age and the fact that she bore several children)
ˀUmmu 'l-shaykhi jamilah — "The sheikh's mother is beautiful".

In Classical Arabic, words in the status constructus do not occur with the article al, nor do they receive an -n after their case marking vowel (nunation). 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 ˀUmm-'al-shaikh jamillah.