Status constructus

In Afro-Asiatic languages, the first noun in a genitive phrase of a possessed noun followed by a possessor noun often takes on a special morphological form, which is termed the construct state (Latin status constructus). For example, in Biblical Hebrew, the word for "queen" standing alone is malka מלכה‬, but when the word is possessed, as in the phrase "Queen of Sheba" (literally "Sheba's Queen"), it becomes malkat šəba מלכת שבא‬, in which malkat is the construct state (possessed) form and malka is the absolute (unpossessed) form.

The phenomenon is particularly common in Semitic languages (such as Arabic, Hebrew, and Syriac), in the Berber language, and in the extinct Egyptian language.

In Semitic languages, nouns are placed in the construct state when they are modified by another noun in a genitive construction. That differs from the genitive case of European languages in that it is the head (modified) noun rather than the dependent (modifying) noun which is marked. However, in Semitic languages with grammatical case, such as Classical Arabic, the modifying noun in a genitive construction is placed in the genitive case in addition to marking the head noun with the construct state.

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