Possessives: Alienable

The (arguably) broadest category of possession is "Alienable". This category is used for items that are considered to be distinct from the possessor, transferrable, and/or impermanent in nature (practically speaking). This includes:

• Objects - my chair, my book, my phone, etc.
• Clothing - my hat, my cape, my shoes, etc.
• Stuctures - my house, my workplace, my barn, etc.
• Vehicles - my car, my plane, my spaceship, etc.
• Jobs & Elected Positions - my tenure, my appointment, my position, etc.
• Non-Familial Relationships - my friend, my enemy, my girlfriend/boyfriend, etc.
• Animals - my dog, my cattle, my pet, etc.
• Etc.

The Possessive Articles

This possessive is formed by using the appropriate possessive article. These articles are a combination of pronoun and definite article. As such, they share traits of each harmonizing with the gender of the possessor and the plurality of the possession. These articles cannot be used simultaneously with each other or with the definite article.

Examples

Note that inanimate objects do not carry gender, and thus do not effect formality of speech.

Named Possessors and Gender Harmonization

Formal

These same articles (not including the 1st and 2nd person singular) are used to connect a possessor directly to possession.

Examples

Informal

The possessive article must harmonize with the gender of the possessor. Gender for the possessive articles functions the same as gendered nouns. Because formal speech in Kryptonian uses the neutral gender, most often the neutral form of the posessive article is preferred (as above). It is when using familiar speech that harmonization can become tricky for non-native speakers.

Examples

Indeterminate

Examples

In this example, formal vs. familiar cannot be determined due to the nature of the vowel y.

In this example, because the possessors are both male and female, the neutral vowel is required for even gendered/familiar speech.

In this example, the inanimate pronoun does not take a gender, and thus does not affect formality. It's worth noting here, though that this construction would be a bit odd. The more common / accepted way of saying this would be /tiv chahs im rurrelahs/ - "the table of the house".

Plural Harmonization

The possessive article must harmonize with the plurality of the possession. The second vowel in the possessive article follows the same plural harmonization rules as the definite article.

Examples

Putting It All Together

Here are a few full sentences that display all the features of possessive gender and plural harmonization.

Formal vs. Familiar