|
(iv)
|
There is
another class of compound nouns which may be termed as onomatopoetic
words. These denote the vocal imitation of the sound associated with it.
Most of these forms occur in reduplication. A few examples are:
|
|
cĩ-cĩ
|
‘squash’
|
|
sU -sU
|
‘sniff’
|
|
kh -kh
|
‘a kind of knocking noise’
|
|
pUt-pUt
|
‘bouncing’
|
|
|
|
|
Gender agreement is also exhibited by other word categories like
adjectives, participles etc., and on the basis of all these it is
ascertained that {-o} marks masculine gender and {-i} marks feminine
gender along with the singular number. {-a} and {-i)}
denote masculine and feminine plural respectively. A few examples are
listed for illustration:
|
|
1. cngo
|
gero
|
geyo
|
‘The
|
good
|
boy
|
went’
|
|
1
|
2 |
3 |
|
1 |
2 |
3 |
|
| |
| 2. |
cngi
|
geri
|
geya
|
‘The
|
good
|
girl
|
went’
|
|
1
|
2 |
3 |
|
1 |
2 |
3 |
|
| |
|
3.
|
cnga
|
gera
|
geya
|
‘The
|
good
|
boys
|
went’
|
|
1 |
2 |
3 |
|
1 |
2 |
3 |
|
| |
| |
|
4.
|
cng
|
ger
|
gĩ
|
‘The
|
good
|
girls
|
went’
|
|
1 |
2 |
3 |
|
1 |
2 |
3 |
|
| |
| |
|
5.
|
nIkko
|
bu o
|
 ho
|
‘The
|
small
|
tree
|
fell’
|
|
1 |
2 |
3 |
|
1 |
2 |
3 |
|
| |
| |
|
|
| |
| |
|
7.
|
cnga
|
gera
|
na
|
blao
|
‘Call
|
the
|
good
|
boy’
|
|
1
|
2 |
3 |
4 |
4 |
|
1 |
2-3 |
|
| |
| |
|
8.
|
cngã
|
gerã
|
na
|
blao
|
‘call
|
the
|
good
|
boys’
|
|
1
|
2 |
3 |
4 |
4 |
|
1 |
2-3 |
|
| |
|
In sentence (1) /cngo/
‘good’ /gero/ ‘boy’ and /geyo/ ‘went’ all these end in /0o/
and in sentence (2) all the words /cngi/
‘good’ /geri/ ‘girl’ /gi/
‘went’ end in /-i/. Thus the examples show that {-o} marks masculine
gender and {-i} marks feminine gender. Besides the gender when (1) is
compared with (3) and (6) and (2) with (4). {-o} is replaced by {-a} and
{-i} is replaced by {- i)}
to get the plurals. Thus {-o} not only marks masculine gender but also
singular number and {-a} marks masculine gender and plural number. But
when sentences (1) and (7) are compared /cnga
gera/ is masculine and singular in (7) but occurring before postposition /na/
so these are oblique case forms. So here {-a} in (7) marks not only gender
and number but also case i.e. masculine, singular and oblique. Thus it is
not possible to isolate single morph for a single grammatical category.
Two to tree categories are fused together. For example /gero/. ‘boy’
is masculine, singular and direct form, os {-o} marks all these three
grammatical categories and in the verb /geyo/ ‘went’ {-o} marks
masculine and singular. There can be alternative analysis also in which
suffixes then {-f}
zero would mark the direct form etc., which has not been followed here.
The description follows would make it clear.
|
|
|
|
As pointed out above, the nouns in addition to gender show the
distinction of number and case and there is no overt case suffix rather it
is fused with number and in some nouns with gender and number. All the
nouns are inflected for two numbers (singularand
plural)
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