jeff_l
(Jeff_L)
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Chapter 4
Nominal and pronominal morphology
4.1 Noun morphology
4.1.1 Gender and number categories
4.1.1.1 Gender categories
Masculine and feminine are distinguished in singular and plural nouns (see
below), and in singular-subject (but not plural-subject) participles (§8.5). With
personal pronominals, which occur in independent and several distinct bound
(affixal or clitic) series, gender is distinguished in 3P1 and 2P1 forms, in some
but not all 3Sg and 2Sg forms, and in independent but not affixal or clitic 1P1
pronouns (IMaPl naekk-aen-ed versus IFePl naekk-aen-aet-ed). lSg is the only
pronominal category that is never gender-marked.
For inanimate nouns (including plant terms), the choice between masculine
and feminine is lexical. However, if the most common form of a noun is
masculine, one can use the corresponding feminine as a diminutive or for
some similar lexically specialized function.
An example of an unmarked/diminutive opposition is masculine e-haen
'dwelling (e.g. tent)', and the pejorative feminine t-e-haenni-t-t 'mediocre
dwelling (where a guest is poorly received)'. Another gender pair is masculine
d-dmar '(side of) chest; small dune', versus feminine t-a-dmar-t 'breast (meat
cut); small dune'. Another is ά-fars 'cut-off piece' and diminutive t-a-fdrsi-t-t
'small piece'.
Names of animals can generally shift between masculine or feminine
forms depending on biological sex, though one gender is unmarked for each
species. Given that the majority of adult domestic animals (sheep, goats, cattle,
camels) are female, feminine gender predominates in plural and unknown-sex
contexts for livestock species. Thus t-i-hatt-en 'ewes' is widely used in the
sense 'sheep (collective)' or '(herd of) sheep'.
4.1.1.2 Number categories
Number categories are singular and plural; there is no dual.
The common collective noun for 'people' is addina2t (variant aeddinaet,
from Arabic). Although the noun lacks plural morphology, agreement is
3MaPl.
For nonhuman nouns, plural is generally specified when denoting count
plurals. However, morphologically singular nouns (taking singular agreement)
denoting e.g. insects or small plants can be used with collective, generic, or
