Feature GB192: Is there a gender system where a noun's phonological properties are a factor in class assignment?

Patrons: Hannah J. Haynie

Description ⇫

Summary

A noun class/gender system categorizes nouns for the purposes of grammatical agreement with other constituents in the noun phrase or other inflectional morphology. See the classification wiki page for more information on our definition of noun class/gender. Noun class/gender assignment may be based on one or several factors. This feature focuses on whether the phonological properties of a noun constitute one of these factors for a given language. For this feature to be coded 1, there must be a clear preference for certain nouns to be classified in certain gender categories as a result of specific phonological properties. That is, some phonological property of a noun must be one relevant factor in the assignment of gender; however it does not need to be an absolute deciding factor or the only relevant factor in gender/class assignment. Examples of phonological properties that may play a role in gender/class assignment include tone, initial consonants, or root-final segments. Note that noun class/gender morphology may create phonological similarities across members of a certain noun class or gender; however, this is not sufficient for a 1 coding for this feature. Phonological properties must contribute to the categorization of nouns to classes/genders, rather than simply result from associated morphology.

Procedure

  1. If there is a system of nominal classification where some markers vary based on the category of the noun,
  2. And if these markers are not used only with numerals, demonstratives, and possessors (or some subset of these categories),
  3. And if these markers are involved in agreement within the noun phrase, inflectional marking of the noun, or indexing,
  4. And if there seems to be a correlation between a noun's noun class/gender and specific phonological properties of the noun, then code 1.
  5. Code 0 if there is no class/gender system or the assignment of nouns to classes/genders does not pattern according to phonological properties of the noun.

Examples

Kilen (Glottolog: kile1243)

There are two classes of nouns in Kilen: one for /n/-final stems and one for vowel-final stems. Allomorphy of nominal suffixes is determined by these two categories, which correspond to the final sound of the stem (Zhang 2013: 77).

Case V-final n-final
--- xas̨i ‘warehouse’ jafuxən ‘garden’
NOM xas̨i-Ø jafuxən-Ø
ACC xas̨i-wə jafuxən-mə
GEN xas̨i-ji jafuxən-i
DAT xas̨i-də jafuxən-du
LOC xas̨i-lə jafuxən-dulə
PROL xas̨i-li jafuxən-duli

Table 5.1 Case Suffixes (Zhang 2013: 80)

Kilen is coded as 1.

North Levantine Arabic (ISO 639-3: apc, Glottolog: nort3139)

For nouns that are neither names nor human designations, gender cannot be inferred from meaning but usually from form: singular nouns ending in -e/-a/-ʔ/-t are feminine (Cowell 1964: 209). This language is coded 1.

Further reading

Corbett, Greville G. 1991. Gender. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Senft, Gunter. 2000. Systems of nominal classification. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

References

Cowell, Mark W. 1964. A reference grammar of Syrian Arabic (based on the dialect of Damascus). (Arabic Series, 7.) Washington, D.C.: Georgetown Univ. Press.

Zhang, Paiyu. 2013. The Kilen language of Manchuria: grammar of a moribund Tungusic language. Hong Kong: University of Hong Kong. (Doctoral dissertation.)


To display the datapoints for a particular language family on the map and on the classification tree, select the family then click "submit".

You may combine this variable with a different variable by selecting on in the list below and clicking "Submit".

Customize map markers:
0 absent 1953
1 present 132
? Not known 143
reload

Map ⇫


Values ⇫

Name Glottocode Family Macroarea Contributor Value Source Comment