Advances in the Study of Bilingualism

nominative and accusative case. Similarly, der indicates masculine in the
nominative, but feminine in the dative (and genitive: feminine and plural)
(see Table 3.1.). Thus, gender assignment in German is not highly transpar-
ent, although there may be regularities that can aid the learning process.

The Welsh gender system

There are two gender classes in Welsh – masculine and feminine. Unlike
most other gender languages, Welsh has one gender-neutral definite article,
and no indefinite article. In the absence of gender-marked determiners,
gender is marked by mutation: a morpho-phonological system that affects
the initial consonant sound of words when those words appear in an appro-
priate syntactic or a lexical context (see Table 3.2). Two mutation types are
used in marking gender: the Soft Mutation (SM), whereby stops, liquids,
and /m/ undergo a process of lenition, and /ɡ/ gets deleted; and Aspirate
Mutation (AM), whereby stops undergo a process of fricativisation, and /h/
is inserted before vowels (see, e.g. Ball & Müller, 1992; Thomas, 2001;
Thorne, 1993).

Cross-linguistic Influence and Patterns of Acquisition 43

Table 3.1 Gender/case marked determiners in German

Masculine Feminine Neuter Plural

Def Indef Def Indef Def Indef Def Indef

Nominative der ein die eine das ein die die

Accusative den einen die eine das ein die die

Dative dem einem der einer dem einem den den

Genitive des eines der einer des eines der der

Table 3.2 The sound changes affected by mutation in Welsh

Soft Mutation Nasal Mutation Aspirate Mutation

  

  

  

  –

  –

 gets deleted  –

  ––

  ––

 ––