Editing Breton language (section)

===Nouns===
Breton nouns are marked for gender and number. While Breton gender is fairly typical of gender systems across western Europe (with the exception of Basque and modern English), Breton number markers demonstrate rarer behaviors.

====Gender====
Breton has two genders: masculine ({{lang|br|gourel}}) and feminine ({{lang|br|gwregel}}), having largely lost its historic neuter ({{lang|br|nepreizh}}) as has also occurred in the other Celtic languages as well as across the Romance languages. Certain suffixes (''-ach/-aj,<ref name=BallGender/> -(a)dur,<ref name=BallGender/> -er, -lecʼh, -our, -ti, -va''<ref name="Stephens"/>) are masculine, while others (''-enti, -er, -ez, -ezh, -ezon, -i'', ''-eg'', ''-ell'', and the singulative ''-enn'') are feminine.<ref name="Stephens">{{Cite book|last=Stephens|first=Janig|title=The Celtic Languages|publisher=Routledge|year=2002|isbn=041528080X|editor-last=Ball|editor-first=Martin|series=Routledge Language Family Descriptions|location=London|pages=379|chapter=Breton|editor-last2=Fife|editor-first2=James}}</ref> The suffix ''-eg'' can be masculine or feminine.<ref name=BallGender/>

There are certain non-determinant factors that influence gender assignment. Biological sex is applied for animate referents. Metals, time divisions (except for {{lang|br|eur}} "hour", {{lang|br|noz}} "night" and {{lang|br|sizhun}} "week") and mountains tend to be masculine, while rivers, cities and countries tend to be feminine.<ref name=BallGender>{{cite book|author=Martin J. Ball|title=The Celtic Languages|page=364|year=1993}}</ref>

However, gender assignment to certain words often varies between dialects.<ref name=BallGender/>

====Number====
Number in Breton is primarily based on an opposition between singular and plural.<ref name=BallNumber>{{cite book|author=Martin J. Ball|title=The Celtic Languages|pages=365–369|year=1993}}</ref> However, the system is full of complexities<ref name=Fortson/> in how this distinction is realized.

Although modern Breton has lost its ancestral dual number marker, relics of its use are preserved in various nouns pertaining to body parts, including the words for eyes, ears, cheeks, legs, armpits, arms, hands, knees, thighs, and wings. This is seen in a prefix (formed in {{lang|br|daou}}, {{lang|br|di}} or {{lang|br|div}}) that is etymologically derived from the prefixation of the number two.<ref name=BallNumber/><ref name=Fortson/> The dual is no longer productive, and has merely been lexicalized in these cases rather than remaining a part of Breton grammar. The (etymologically) already dual words for eyes ({{lang|br|daoulagad}}) and ears ({{lang|br|divskouarn}}) can be pluralized "again" to form {{lang|br|daoulagad'''où'''}} and {{lang|br|diskouarn'''où'''}}.<ref name=BallNumber/><ref name=Stephens/>

Like other Brythonic languages, Breton has a [[singulative]] suffix that is used to form singulars out of [[collective nouns]], for which the morphologically less complex form is the plural. Thus, the singulative of the collective {{lang|br|logod}} "mice" is {{lang|br|logod'''enn'''}} "mouse".<ref name=BallNumber/> However, Breton goes beyond Welsh in the complications of this system. Collectives can be pluralized to make forms which are different in meaning from the normal collective-- {{lang|br|pesk}} "fish" (singular) is pluralized to {{lang|br|pesked}}, singulativized to {{lang|br|peskedenn}}, referring to a single fish out of a school of fish, and this singulative of the plural can then be pluralized again to make {{lang|br|peskedennoù}} "fishes".<ref name=Fortson/>

On top of this, the formation of plurals is complicated by two different pluralizing functions. The "default" plural formation is contrasted with another formation which is said to "emphasize variety or diversity" – thus two semantically different plurals can be formed out of {{lang|br|park}}: {{lang|br|parkoù}} "parks" and {{lang|br|parkeier}} "various different parks".<ref name=Fortson/> Ball reports that the latter pluralizer is used only for inanimate nouns.<ref name=BallNumber/> Certain formations have been lexicalized to have meanings other than that which might be predicted solely from the morphology: {{lang|br|dour}} "water" pluralized forms {{lang|br|dourioù}} which means not "waters" but instead "rivers", while {{lang|br|doureier}} now has come to mean "running waters after a storm". Certain forms have lost the singular from their paradigm: {{lang|br|keloù}} means "news" and {{lang|br|*kel}} is not used, while {{lang|br|keleier}} has become the regular plural,<ref name=BallNumber/> 'different news items'.

Meanwhile, certain nouns can form doubly marked plurals with lexicalized meanings – {{lang|br|bugel}} "child" is pluralized once into {{lang|br|bugale}} "children" and then pluralized a second time to make {{lang|br|bugaleoù}} "groups of children".<ref name=Fortson/>

The diminutive suffix {{lang|br|-ig}} also has the somewhat unusual property of triggering double marking of the plural: {{lang|br|bugelig}} means "little child", but the doubly pluralized {{lang|br|bug'''ale'''ig'''où'''}} means "little children"; {{lang|br|bag}} boat has a singular diminutive {{lang|br|bagig}} and a simple plural {{lang|br|bagoù}}, thus its diminutive plural is the doubly pluralized {{lang|br|bag'''où'''ig'''où'''}}.<ref name=Fortson/><ref name=BallNumber/>

As seen elsewhere in many Celtic languages, the formation of the plural can be hard to predict, being determined by a mix of semantic, morphological and lexical factors.

The most common plural marker is {{lang|br|-où}}, with its variant {{lang|br|-ioù}};<ref name=BallNumber/> most nouns that use this marker are inanimates but collectives of both inanimate and animate nouns always use it as well.<ref name=BallNumber/>

Most animate nouns, including trees, take a plural in {{lang|br|-ed}}.<ref name=BallNumber/> However, in some dialects the use of this affix has become rare. Various masculine nouns including occupations as well as the word {{lang|br|Saoz}} ("Englishman", plural {{lang|br|Saozon}}) take the suffix {{lang|br|-ien}}, with a range of variants including {{lang|br|-on}}, {{lang|br|-ion}}, {{lang|br|-an}} and {{lang|br|-ian}}.<ref name=BallNumber/>

The rare pluralizing suffixes {{lang|br|-er}}/{{lang|br|-ier}} and {{lang|br|-i}} are used for a few nouns. When they are appended, they also trigger a change in the vowel of the root: {{lang|br|-i}} triggers a [[vowel harmony]] effect whereby some or all preceding vowels are changed to {{lang|br|i}} ({{lang|br|kenderv}} "cousin" → {{lang|br|kindirvi}} "cousins"; {{lang|br|bran}} "crow" → {{lang|br|brini}} "crows"; {{lang|br|klujur}} "partridge" → {{lang|br|klujiri}} "partridges"); the changes associated with {{lang|br|-er}}/{{lang|br|-ier}} are less predictable.<ref name=BallNumber/>

Various nouns instead form their plural merely with [[ablaut]]: {{lang|br|a}} or {{lang|br|o}} in the [[Word stem|stem]] being changed to {{lang|br|e}}: {{lang|br|askell}} "wing" → {{lang|br|eskell}} "wings"; {{lang|br|dant}} "tooth" → {{lang|br|dent}} "teeth"; {{lang|br|kordenn}} "rope" → {{lang|br|kerdenn}} "ropes".<ref name=BallNumber/>

Another set of nouns have lexicalized plurals that bear little if any resemblance to their singulars. These include {{lang|br|placʼh}} "girl" → {{lang|br|mercʼhed}}, {{lang|br|porcʼhell}} "pig" → {{lang|br|mocʼh}}, {{lang|br|buocʼh}} "cow" → {{lang|br|saout}}, and {{lang|br|ki}} "dog" → {{lang|br|chas}}.<ref name=BallNumber/>

In compound nouns, the head noun, which usually comes first, is pluralized.<ref name=BallNumber/>