Class III

Nouns in Class III are mostly in the bestial gender. They derive from the old a-stem declension, whose initial prefix was the vowel, which nasalized at an early stage to [m] or [n]. As the animate gender split out, Class III nouns develop an emphatic [n] onset in contradistinction to the [m] onset of Class I.

Most nouns of this class set firmly into a clear bestial category. The majority of them refer either to animals directly or to parts of animals. References to female animals developed in some dialects as a distinct class, now classified as Class V nouns, but there was significant reanalysis along the way and at the stage of Pre-Kaddesol Class III and V can reference either male or female animals.

Paradigm

nadrē , dog: