| |
|
Common |
male |
female
without issue |
female
with issue |
| (a) |
`tiger’ |
a sś |
asśkipi
timģ |
.
. |
a´sśtotimģ |
| (b) |
`dog’ |
ac |
acölģ |
acqł |
acöqu |
| |
`cat’ |
akhosa |
akhosalģ |
akhosanģ |
akhosaqu |
| |
`pig’ |
awo |
awolģ |
awonģ |
awoqu |
| (c) |
`cattle’ |
amsi |
amsic
Ū |
amsili |
amsiqu |
| |
`goat’ |
ane |
anecŪ |
aneli |
anequ |
| |
`mithun’ |
awi |
awicŪ |
awili |
awiqu |
| |
`elephant’ |
akha |
akhacŪ |
akhali |
aköhaqu |
| (d) |
`fowl’ |
awu |
awdu |
awlķ |
awuqu |
| |
peacock/hen |
awuFķ |
awuFidu |
auwFili |
awuFqu |
| |
`phesant’ |
aFi |
aFdu |
aFlģ |
aFöqu
etc. |
|
|
| The
illustrative examples given above show that the nouns referring to
the birds take different gender suffixes for indicating their male
and female beings. And these gender suffixes are different, also from
the ones taken by the nouns referring to the animals within the animal
class, as the nouns referring to different animals show different
gender suffixes. Hence depending upon the particular gender suffix
taken by the noun nouns referring to the animate non-human beings,
they could be sub-grouped into four sub-classes, viz : |
| (i)
Tiger, panther etc. are considered as human beings. Hence the nouns
referring to them take the same gender suffixes as those taken by
the human beings. The nouns referring to the tiger, panther, etc.
also do not show separate gender suffixes for indicating whether or
not their female beings has/had issue. |
| (ii)
The nouns referring to animals like pig, dog, cat etc. that do not
have horns were defined as belonging to Animate non-human animal hornless
class of nouns (An Hahl class of nouns). The nouns belonging to this
sub-group take the gender marker /li/ for the masculine gender. In
this group, all nouns excepting the noun referring to the dog take
/nģ/ while the noun referring to a dog take /qł / for the female beings
without issue. |
|
(iii)
The nouns referring to animals like goat, mithun, cattle etc. that
have horns and the elephants (the tusks of the elephants being considered
on par with horns) were defined as belonging to the Animate non-human
animal horn class of nouns (An Hah class of nouns). Nouns belonging
to this group take /cö/ for the masculine gender and /li/ for the
feminine gender of the animals without issue.
|
|
(iv)
The nouns referring to the birds and of the fowl family were defined
as belonging to the Animate non-human bird class of nouns (AnHb
class of nouns). The nouns in this group take the masculine gender
suffix /du/ for their male beings and the feminine gender suffix
/lķ / for their female beings that has not laid eggs.
|
| The
feminine gender suffix for the birds that have laid eggs and the animals
with issues cut across the sub-classification given above, and uniformly
take the feminine gender marker /qu/ for all the nouns animate non-human
being class (AnH class of nouns) if the birds/animals indicated by
these nouns have laid eggs or had issues, as such animals/birds cannot
be used as sacrificial animals for the rituals. |
| It
was mentioned at the beginning of this section that the gender of
the nouns does not affect any other grammatical class in a sentence
in Sema. The few sentences given below would illustrate this statement
|
| imś
śwe |
`my
brother went’ |
| ifo
śwe |
`my
elder sister went’ |
| imu
śnanģ |
`my
brother will go’ |
| ifo
śnanģ |
`my
elder sister will go’ |
| anuno
pazuithulu |
`the
child sees him’ |
| anuno
lizuithulu |
`the
child sees her’ |
| pano
lizu ithulu |
`he
sees her’ |
| ilimģ
mcemli tipaw akiwu |
`that
slim girl is good’ |
| apu
mcemli tipaw akiwu |
`that
slim boy is good’ etc. |
|
|
| From
the illustrative examples given above, it can be stated that gender
is not an obligatory grammatical feature of nouns in Sema. Gender
is applicable only to some nouns viz. AnH class of nouns and nouns
referring to some professions. Gender is also overtly marked in the
traditional personal names of women. |
