Adjective-Noun order

[Eleanor Coghill]

To add to the Afroasiatic languages:

In the North-eastern Neo-Aramaic (NENA) dialects NOUN-ADJECTIVE order is the norm. However, in the dialects of the Mosul Plain, such as Alqosh, the adjective xoš 'good' is placed before the noun. This is a loanword, probably from Kurdish, but also found in Turkish as hoş, and in Iraqi Arabic as xooš, cf. Matthew Dryer's contribution. Also ʔawwal 'first' (from Arabic) is preposed (cf. my PhD, Coghill 2004: 284). All other adjectives (including the native equivalents of these: ṭāwa 'good', qamāya 'first') come after the noun, except kabire (pl.) 'many', which can prepose or postpose the noun. Note that xoš and ʔawwal are preposed in the donor languages.

In other NENA dialects, such as Barwar (Khan 2008: 520-522), while xoš always comes before the noun, there are in addition adjectives which can come before or after. These are evaluative in meaning (good, poor, bad, clever). When they come before they are non-restrictive and express 'a subjective assessment', when after, 'more objective, factual assessments' (this looks to me rather like Romance). In addition, qamaya 'first', xaraya 'last', priše (pl.) 'different' and rabe (pl.) 'many' can prepose or postpose.

best wishes,

Eleanor Coghill