| |
|
|
| 2.1.4
In inalienable possessive constructions, the object (i.e. the
object possessed) if it has a prefix or a classifier agrees
with the subject (i.e. the possessor) by replacing the classifier
with the person marker of the pronominal form of the subjects. |
| |
 ny
‘son’ |
 k
 ny
s
b
|
‘They have three sones |
| pu
puny
s
b
|
‘Hehasthreesons |
n li h 1
puny
s
b
|
‘Niliehouhasthreesons |
|
| ________________ |
Note
that it is t f
kt
‘black dog’ and not *tf
t
because kti
‘black is a verbal participle (and not a verb) functioning as
an adjective. |
| |
 ji ny |
‘finger’ |
pu1
pujikny2
k rpu
b
|
‘He
has
elevenfingers |
jikny
kr b
|
‘I1 have
tenfingers |
thz |
‘name’ |
| pu
puz
kni
b
|
‘she
hastwonames |
|
z
pu
b
|
‘I1 have
onename |
|
| |
2.1.5.
In contrast with the foregoing examples which drop the classifier/first
syllable,  iny
‘cat’ drops the final syllable ny
with the addition of gender suffixes |
| |
|
iny
|
‘cat’ |
|
ipf
|
‘male cat’ |
|
in
|
‘female cat’ |
|
| |
| 2.2.
Gender |
| |
|
Gender in Angami is semantics-based. It is based on the non-linguistic
or natural recognition of sex and hence is applied only to animate
substantives. Gender of animate substantives is morphologically
marked except some kinship terms which have different lexical
ites or absolute forms. |
| |
|
Gender is not marked in the verb but the ‘adjective’ may be
marked for gender optimally when the gender of the substantive
is emphasised (cf 5.1.0) |
| |
|
On a semantico-morphological basis, Angami substantives may
be broadly classified into Inanimate and Animate classes. The
Animate class has a binary split into the Human and Non-human
classes as they take different sets of gender suffixes. The
Human and non-human classes in their turn fall into a three-way
opposition : Masculine, Feminine, and Common gender. Common
gender denotes a class of animate substantives, which is neutral
to sex. In the Human class, Feminine gender is mared for gender
will be non-feminine which may either be common gender or masculine
gender or that substantives not marked for feminine gender denote
common gender and that common gender may be used to refer to
masculine gender. Typically, Human Masculine is unmarked. In
a limited number of words, however, -pf
an unproductive affix marks Human masculine. |
| |
e.g. pl pf
‘male lover; fiance’ |
|
plpf
‘female lover; financee’ |
| |
|
Human Feminine may be marked by pfor
n,
the latter like pf,
being rather unproductive. In the Non-human class, |
| |
|
Feminine is marked by kr
and Masculine is expressed by four differnt suffixes, which
mark different semantic classes. Substantives marked neither
for Masculine nor for Feminine gender will denote common gender. |
| |
|
In terms of markedness, Angami gender system may be graphically
represented as follows: |
| |
|
| |
| Illustrative
Examples: |
| Each set of
examples illustrates the foregoing statements about gender in
Angami. |
