Catalan nouns are inflected for gender (masculine or feminine), and number (singular or plural). There is no case inflection. Articles and adjectives agree in gender and number with the noun they refer to.
Usually, masculine nouns are unmarked, feminine nouns carry the suffix -a; and the plural is marked with the suffix -s, which makes the feminine ending turn into -e-. Thus, the most common declension paradigm for Catalan names is the one that follows:
masculine | feminine | |
---|---|---|
singular | gat | gata |
plural | gats | gates |
The grammatical gender of a Catalan noun does not necessarily correspond with the real-life object's biological sex (or lack thereof). Nouns denoting a person, such as home "man" or dona "woman", generally agree with the natural gender of what is described. However, Catalan assigns gender to nouns without natural gender in arbitrary fashion. For example, the word tamboret ("stool") is masculine, while the word cadira ("chair") is feminine.
Living beings of the same species usually are designed by two nouns: one of masculine grammatical gender for biologically male individuals, and one of feminine grammatical gender for biologically female individuals. Both names, masculine and feminine, are usually only differentiated by their ending; sometimes the second is derived from the first or vice versa. Rarely, both come from different roots.[1]
becomes voiced | remains unvoiced | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
change | masculine | feminine | gloss | masculine | feminine | gloss |
⟨-t⟩ → ⟨-d-⟩ /t/ → /ð/ |
nebot | neboda | "nephew – niece" | nét | neta | "grandson – granddaughter" |
⟨-p⟩ → ⟨-b-⟩ /p/ → /β/ |
llop | lloba | "wolf" | |||
⟨-f⟩ → ⟨-v-⟩ /f/ → /v~β/ |
serf | serva | "serf" | |||
⟨-s⟩ → ⟨-s-⟩ /s/ → /z/ |
espòs | esposa | "husband – wife" | gos | gossa | "dog – bitch" |
Like all the Western Romance languages, the formation of the plural involves the addition of the suffix -s to the singular. However, the stem may undergo some changes. The number inflection of adjectives follows the same rules.[3]
sound | transformation | singular (stem underlined) |
plural (stem underlined) |
IPA transcription |
gloss |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
/ɣ/ | ⟨g⟩ → ⟨gu⟩ | farga | fargues | /ˈfarɣə(s)/ | "forge(s)" |
/k/ | ⟨c⟩ → ⟨qu⟩ | oca | oques | /ˈɔkə(s)/ | "goose – geese" |
/ɣw/ | ⟨gu⟩ → ⟨gü⟩ | llengua | llengües | /ˈʎeŋɡwə(s)/ | "tongue(s)" |
/kw/ | ⟨qu⟩ → ⟨qü⟩ | pasqua | pasqües | /ˈpaskwə(s)/ | "Easter(s)" |
/s/ | ⟨ç⟩ → ⟨c⟩ | plaça | places | /ˈpɫasə(s)/ | "square(s)" |
/ʒ/ | ⟨j⟩ → ⟨g⟩ | pluja | pluges | /ˈpɫuʒə(s)/ | "rain(s)" |
/ddʒ/ | platja | platges | /ˈpɫaddʒə(s)/ | "beach(es)" |