| Noun |
| Any word whose occurence,
allows the use of a determiner/case word in the same construction
is treated as a noun in the present description. Gender has no grammatical
significance. There are certain nouns that are inherently masculine
or faminine as exemplified below : |
|
milo
|
‘husband’
|
|
mihi
|
‘wife’
|
|
milobo
|
‘man’
|
ny m
|
‘woman’
|
|
yapa
|
‘youth (male)’
|
nym
|
‘youth (female)’
|
|
hime
|
‘boy’
|
nym
|
‘girl’
|
|
|
The regular pattern
of gender marking is through the addition of suffix to the reduplicated
syllable of the generic noun. The suffix ‘po/bo’ is added to the generic
noun to indicate masculine gender and ‘ni’ is added
to indicate feminine gender. A sample is givne below : |
|
si
|
‘cattle’
|
|
|
|
shbo
|
‘bull’
|
|
|
|
‘cow’
|
|
paro
|
‘fowl’
|
|
|
|
paroropo
|
‘cock’
|
|
|
paroron
|
‘hen’
|
|
subu
|
‘mithun’
|
|
|
|
subusido
|
‘mithun (male)’
|
|
|
subusin
|
‘mithun (female)’
|
|
sibi
|
‘monkey’
|
|
|
|
sibibipo
|
‘monkey (male)’
|
|
|
sibibin
|
‘monkey (female)’
|
|
|
| Instances are found
where only the reduplicated syllable and the gender marker are used
to specify the masculine feminine distinction leaving the first part
(i.e., generic noun). See the illustrations below : |
|
aki
|
‘dog’
|
|
|
|
okib
|
‘dog’
|
|
|
kin
|
‘bitch’
|
|
ami
|
‘cat’
|
|
|
|
mipo
|
‘tom-cat’
|
|
|
min
|
‘cat’
|
|
|
Another way of marking
the gender is through compounding. The words - milobo ‘man’ and
nyimi ‘woman’ are added to the generic
nouns to form compound. This technique is usually used with borrowed
nouns as shown below : |
