Editing Semitic languages (section)

===Cases in nouns and adjectives===
The proto-Semitic three-case system ([[nominative case|nominative]], [[Accusative case|accusative]] and [[genitive case|genitive]]) with differing vowel endings (-u, -a -i), fully preserved in Qur'anic Arabic (see [[ʾIʿrab]]), Akkadian and [[Ugaritic language|Ugaritic]], has disappeared everywhere in the many colloquial forms of Semitic languages. Modern Standard Arabic maintains such case distinctions, although they are typically lost in free speech due to colloquial influence. An accusative ending ''-n'' is preserved in Ethiopian Semitic.{{NoteTag|"In the historically attested Semitic languages, the endings of the singular noun-flexions survive, as is well known, only partially: in Akkadian and Arabic and Ugaritic and, limited to the accusative, in Ethiopic."{{sfn|Moscati|1958|pp=142–43}}}} In the northwest, the scarcely attested [[Samalian language|Samalian]] reflects a case distinction in the plural between nominative ''-ū'' and oblique ''-ī'' (compare the same distinction in Classical Arabic).{{sfn|Hetzron|1997|p=123}} Additionally, Semitic nouns and adjectives had a category of state, the indefinite state being expressed by [[nunation]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Semitic-languages|title=Semitic languages {{!}} Definition, Map, Tree, Distribution, & Facts|website=Encyclopedia Britannica|language=en|access-date=2020-01-23|archive-date=25 April 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200425075122/https://www.britannica.com/topic/Semitic-languages|url-status=live}}</ref>