Språkenes

Språkenes is a grammatical form in Norwegian used to express possession relating to languages. It functions as the genitive or possessive construction for the definite plural noun språke­ne­-ne (the languages). In practical terms, språkenes marks things that belong to or concern multiple languages, such as their history or development. The form is a standard feature of Norwegian noun inflection and is commonly found in academic writing, linguistic surveys, and descriptive texts about language.

Formation and usage: The base noun for this construction is språket eller språkene in its definite plural form språkene. To indicate possession by the languages, the suffix -s is added, producing språkenes. This results in phrases like språkenes historie (the languages’ history), språkenes utvikling (the languages’ development), or språkenes rettigheter (the languages’ rights). The possessive can also be expressed with other grammars, such as possessive pronouns or periphrastic constructions, depending on style and emphasis, but språkenes remains the concise, written form in formal contexts.

Relationship to the concept of language: Språkenes does not denote a separate language or a linguistic system by itself. Instead, it is a way to attribute attributes, events, or properties to more than one language collectively. It is useful when comparing multiple languages, describing language families, or outlining policies and histories that affect several languages simultaneously.

See also: språk, språktrekk, språkfamilie, norsk grammatikk.