according to similarities in their meaning (semantic criterion); by grouping them with other nouns that have similar form (morphology); a special form of pronoun to replace the noun. Perhaps the most noun classes in any Australian language are found in Yanyuwa, which has 16 noun classes, including nouns associated with food, trees and abstractions, in addition to separate classes for men and masculine things, women and feminine things. 3In the Bantuist tradition, a noun class numeral indicates both class (gender) and number: odd-numbered noun classes are for singular and even-numbered for plural. frozen remnants of such attributive noun class prefixes will be investigated. If one follows broader linguistic tradition and counts singular and plural as belonging to the same class, then Swahili has 8 or 9 noun classes, Sotho has 11 and Ganda has 10. Nouns belong to a multitude of different classes, and they can be identified as belonging to those classes by the noun class prefix marker that they take. All living things, as well as sacred things and things connected to the Earth are considered powerful and belong to the animate class. JERRO-DISSERTATION-2016.pdf (1.120Mb) Date 2016-05. The N Class, known as classes 9 and 10, is the largest class in Modern Bantu. Each class is given a number corresponding to the same equivalent class in other Bantu languages. As mentioned above, noun classes in Bantu languages are defined in part by the formal marking of the noun (its class prefix), and in part by the association between a set of nouns on the one hand, and a set of `agreement markers' affixed to possessive pronouns, verb stems, etc., on the other. Your email address will not be published. As this was my final semester of my undergraduate studies, I completed the capstone for the Linguistics major. Many roots will take noun class agreement prefixes that indicate if the noun is singular or plural. Some Bantu languages such as Venda that express variations in size and shape as well as the emotive perception by means of suffixes, or by a combination of prefixes and suffixes Some members of the Northwest Caucasian family, and almost all of the Northeast Caucasian languages, manifest noun class. ), Greenberg, J. H. (1978) "How does a language acquire gender markers?". Like all Bantu languages, Lingala has a noun class system in which nouns are classified according to the prefixes they bear and according to the prefixes they trigger in sentences. [4] For example, Proto-Bantu class 10 contains plurals of class 9 nouns and class 11 nouns, while class 6 contains plurals of class 5 nouns and class 15 nouns. Bantu languages are characterised by a comprehensive noun class and con-cordial agreement system among terms. Many roots will take noun class agreement prefixes that indicate if the noun is singular or plural. For one thing, understanding the noun class system of Proto-Bantu can give us clues to how Bantu languages, and their associated ethnic groups, have migrated, merged, and diverged over time. Some sources argue that the distinction is between things which are powerful and things which are not. It refers exclusively to people, though not all nouns that have human referents are placed in this class: Among Northwest Caucasian languages, only Abkhaz and Abaza have noun class, making use of a human male/human female/non-human distinction. It was first introduced (as Bâ-ntu) by Wilhelm Bleek in 1857 or 1858 and popularised in his Comparative Grammar of 1862. The concept of noun classes is similar, except while Romance languages have 2-3 genders, Bantu languages can have up to 23 noun classes! The Noun Class System of the Bantu Languages: Part II, The Noun Class System of the Bantu Languages: Part I. The term gender, as used by some linguists, refers to a noun-class system composed with 2, 3, or 4 classes, particularly if the classification is semantically based on a distinction between masculine and feminine. For example, David Ker (p.c. The Bantu attribute noun class prefixes and their suffixal counterparts, with special reference to Zulu A mini dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Magister Artium: IsiZulu (course work) in the Department of African Languages at the UNIVERSITY OF PRETORIA by LINKIE MOHLALA Supervisor: Prof R Gauton Guthrie reconstructed both the phonemic inventory and the vocabulary of Proto-Bantu. Other words that related or referred to that noun, such as adjectives and verbs, also received a prefix that matched the class of the noun ("agreement" or "concord"). According to Carl Meinhof, the Bantu languages have a total of 22 noun classes called nominal classes (this notion was introduced by W. H. J. Bleek). Nouns belong to a multitude of different classes, and they can be identified as belonging to those classes by the noun class prefix marker that they take. Noun stems were prefixed with a noun prefix to specify their meaning. View/ Open. The labels used in this chapter (mostly reproduced from Creissels & Pozdniakov According to Steven Pinker, the Kivunjo language has 16 noun classes including classes for precise locations and for general locales, classes for clusters or pairs of objects and classes for the objects that come in pairs or clusters, and classes for abstract qualities.[3]. 1 1) Nouns are divided somewhat arbitrarily between these classes, although a few of them contain nouns which mostly fall into clear categories. Noun classes form a system of grammatical agreement. Some languages, such as Japanese, Chinese and the Tai languages, have elaborate systems of particles that go with nouns based on shape and function, but are free morphemes rather than affixes. Originally, Bantu languages had over 20 noun categories. SIL: Glossary of Linguistic Terms: What is a noun class? Class 11 for extended body parts. It is unique in that its prefix does not change for singular and plural, though verbs and other parts of speech do inflect differently. Common criteria that define noun classes include: See Swahili for the semantic motivations for an elaborate noun-class system. Refereed paper presented at the Workshop on Morphology, MIT, Cambridge. Most words in a Bantu sentence are marked by a prefix indicating the category to which the noun used as the subject of the sentence belongs, and, if there is an object, the words in that noun phrase and the verb are also marked by a prefix determined by the noun class of the object. Some classes are homonymous (esp. However not all Bantu languages have these exceptions. There are 15 noun classes in the bantu languages. The Meinhof numbering tends to be used in scientific works dealing with comparisons of different Bantu languages. Introduction Everyone who has ever worked with a Bantu language has faced the problem of deciding what kind of system is encoded with the gender class markers. Noun Classes in Proto-Bantu 129 The first of the two attempts at some kind of overall treatment referred to above is that of Leakey (1959) who presents his ideas very informally in the context of an introductory grammar of the Kikuyu language. While no single language is known to express all of them, most of them have at least 10 noun classes. Classes 6 and 10 are inherited as polyplural classes by most surviving Bantu languages, but many languages have developed new polyplural classes that are not widely shared by other languages. Genders are then considered a sub-class of noun classes. (a) a pair of prefixes attached to the nominal stem, one for singular, one for plural; Because there is no verb conjugation, but instead verb construction, the noun classes tend to be the most difficult part of the language. Classes 16-18 had no actual words. For example, by Meinhof's numbering, Shona has 20 classes, Swahili has 15, Sotho has 18 and Ganda has 17. Ohly, R., Kraska-Szlenk, i., Podobińska, Z. ... but that this constraint can be satisfied in various constrained ways on a verb class-by-verb class basis of which canonical object addition is just an option. Zulu nouns, like nouns in other Bantu languages, are divided into noun classes. Additionally, there are polyplural noun classes. Jerro, Kyle Joseph. The table below shows the noun classes of Lingala, ordered according to the numbering system that is widely used in descriptions of Bantu languages. The Zande language distinguishes four noun classes:[5]. Bantu noun classes normally group into 10 or more singular/plural pairings. Noun classes. A noun may belong to a given class because of the characteristic features of its referent, such as gender, animacy, shape, but such designations are often clearly conventional. Here is a complete list of nominal classes in Swahili: "Ø-" means no prefix. Also widely known are the tendencies for Sesotho, like all other Bantu languages, uses a set of "noun classes" and each noun belongs to one of the classes. While no single language is known to express all of them, most of them have at least 10 noun classes. ), The Ngangikurrunggurr language has noun classes reserved for canines and hunting weapons. All nouns are divided into 11 classes. For instance, in Swahili the word rafiki ‘friend’ belongs to the class 9 and its "plural form" is marafiki of the class 6, even if most nouns of the 9 class have the plural of the class 10. The system of organization is drawn up showing that divisions are made between unit and mass; under unit, shape and non-shape; under mass, liquid, lumpy, etc. For my capstone paper, I chose to undertake a data-based analysis of noun class semantics in Bantu languages. Kinyarwanda uses 16 of the Bantu noun classes. Morphologically, however, the distinctions are not expressed on the nouns themselves, but on the verbs of which the nouns are the subject or direct object. Prefix. However, most analysis of Bantu noun class semantics thus far has been conducted on a very narrow sample of these languages, primarily focusing on widely-spoken languages like Swahili. Reconstruction of relevant Bantu noun class prefixes Evident in the table is the fact that EGB languages (Bamileke, Ngemba, etc.) Specialists in Bantu emphasize that there is a clear difference between genders (such as known from Afro-Asiatic and Indo-European) and nominal classes (such as known from Niger–Congo). Why is this important? Noun class system. Class prefixes appear also on adjectives and verbs, e.g. The 19 noun classes of Proto-Bantu were: Classes 1-2 for people. While no single language is known to express all of them, most of them have at least 10 noun classes. The syntax and semantics of applicative morphology in Bantu. Noun Classes and Concord Bantu languages are described as noun-centered, the noun occupying the primary focus of the sentence or phrase. While I don’t address this social analysis in my research, it would be a fascinating follow-up to my work for an anthropologist to undertake. Nouns. The noun belonging to a given class may imply that all noun phrase … While no single language is known to express all of them, most of them have at least 10 noun classes. For another, uncovering semantic categories that were prominent in Bantu speakers’ verbal descriptions of the world around them could open up some interesting insight into their cultures and beliefs. Because the classes defined by these classifying words are not generally distinguished in other contexts, there are many linguists who take the view that they do not create noun classes. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Noun_class&oldid=998367130, Articles needing additional references from October 2019, All articles needing additional references, Articles needing examples from October 2019, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, plural: persons (a plural counterpart of class 1), plural: plants (a plural counterpart of class 3), plural: fruits (a plural counterpart of class 5, 9, 11, seldom 1), plural: things (a plural counterpart of class 7), plural: animals, things (a plural counterpart of class 9 and 11). For this reason, noun classes are often referred to by combining their singular and plural forms, e.g., rafiki would be classified as "9/6", indicating that it takes class 9 in the singular, and class 6 in the plural. Not all linguists recognize a distinction between noun-classes and genders, however, and instead use either the term "gender" or "noun class" for both. [example needed] There are a few words with both masculine and feminine forms, generally words for relatives (cousin: lehengusu (m)/lehengusina (f)) or words borrowed from Latin ("king": errege, from the Latin word rex; "queen": erregina, from regina). A few nouns also exhibit vestigial noun classes, such as stewardess, where the suffix -ess added to steward denotes a female person. Bantu languages. Proto-Bantu had nineteen classes which in Swahili have been reduced to fifteen. Koyukon (Northern Athabaskan) has a more intricate system of classification. However, in addition to these verb stems, Koyukon verbs have what are called "gender prefixes" that further classify nouns. The class of a noun is signalled by. Languages with nominal classes divide nouns formally on the base of hyperonymic meanings. 2.1. In WGB on the other hand, noun class prefixes may be H and the nasals are missing. Italian, for example, has a group of nouns deriving from Latin neuter nouns that acts as masculine in the singular but feminine in the plural: il braccio/le braccia; l'uovo/le uova. Jan. 1984: Zero-Derivation and Inflection. • noun class system: all Swahili nouns are grouped in classes, each marked by a distinctive prefix. Classes 7-8 were heterogeneous. Demuth describes Bantu noun classification system as such: they are realized as grammatical morphemes rather than independent lexical items. When -tonh is combined with different gender prefixes, it can result in daaltonh which refers to objects enclosed in boxes or etltonh which refers to objects enclosed in bags. In Xhosa two noun classes have been dropped but the numbering of the classes is retained for reference. According to Carl Meinhof, the Bantu languages have a total of 22 noun classes called nominal classes (this notion was introduced by W. H. J. Bleek). The Ojibwe language and other members of the Algonquian languages distinguish between animate and inanimate classes. For example, in the sentence Shi’éé’ tsásk’eh bikáa’gi dah siłtsooz "My shirt is lying on the bed", the verb siłtsooz "lies" is used because the subject shi’éé’ "my shirt" is a flat, flexible object. Still, the assignment is somewhat arbitrary, as "raspberry" is animate, but "strawberry" is inanimate. umfula (‘river’) is in noun class 3, where -fula is the stem and um- the pre x for that noun class. Classes 5-6 for objects that come in pairs or larger groups. Shona noun classes are a system of categorizing nouns on the basis of the prefix used when the noun is in the same sentence as a determiner, adjective, verb in past tense or a verb in third person. Required fields are marked *, Notify me of followup comments via e-mail. 1 1) (1) a. Lingala does have a full noun class system with agreement, your online source just didn't give all the facts. The statement, ‘agreement markers’ means that nouns function as part of a larger concordial agreement system. Lingala does have a full noun class system with agreement, your online source just didn't give all the facts. In the sentence Siziiz tsásk’eh bikáa’gi dah silá "My belt is lying on the bed", the verb silá "lies" is used because the subject siziiz "my belt" is a slender, flexible object. In Basque there are two classes, animate and inanimate; however, the only difference is in the declension of locative cases (inessive, locative genitive, allative, terminal allative, ablative and directional ablative). One unique feature of Bantu languages is their robust noun class system. You are probably familiar with the feminine/masculine gender system in Romance languages. miscellaneous (includes things not classifiable in the first three), Corbett, Geville (1994) "Gender and gender systems". The Andi language has a noun class reserved for insects. a class-specific word in the noun phrase. The category of nominal class replaces not only the category of gender, but also the categories of number and case. En R. Asher (ed. The Diyari language distinguishes only between female and other objects. Iturrioz, J. L. (1986) "Structure, meaning and function: a functional analysis of gender and other classificatory techniques". 1985: Some Problems in the Semantic Interpretation of Noun Classes in Bantu Languages. This type of noun affixation is not very frequent in English, but quite common in languages which have the true grammatical gender, including most of the Indo-European family, to which English belongs. … Certain nominal classes are reserved for humans. Bantu noun classes tend to come in pairs. Most words in a Bantu sentence are marked by a prefix indicating the category to which the noun used as the subject of the sentence belongs, and, if there is an object, the words in that noun phrase and the verb are also marked by a prefix determined by the noun class of the object. Atlantic–Congo languages can have ten or more noun classes, defined according to non-sexual criteria. The most widespread system, however, has four classes: male, female, animate beings and certain objects, and finally a class for the remaining nouns. Further, these noun classes are not only expressed on nouns and adjectives, but also on verbs, prepositions, and more. 2006) provides the following examples from Nyungwe. Bantu noun classes tend to come in pairs. The semantics of Bantu noun classification — Mark Dingemanse . While the grammatical structure of the Proto-Bantu noun class system is well-defined, any semantic basis is hazy at best. According to Carl Meinhof, the Bantu languages have a total of 22 noun classes called nominal classes (this notion was introduced by W.H.J. While no single language is known to express all of them, most of them have at least 10 noun classes. Mar. The table below shows the 16 noun classes and how they are paired in two commonly used systems. Your email address will not be published. The classes are morphologically realized as noun class prefixes, and agreement markers. Classes 9-10 included animals and miscellanea. In all Caucasian languages that manifest class, it is not marked on the noun itself but on the dependent verbs, adjectives, pronouns and prepositions. Noun classes. Table 1. Shape is divided into extended, curved, non-extended, etc. Sacred things and things connected to the animate class prefixes may be H and semantics. Between these classes, whereas Bats has eight a homorganic nasal, realized noun... 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( 1978 ) `` how does a language acquire markers... Presents a possible semantic hierarchy for Bantu noun classes m, N, or ny depending on base!, shape, and more nasals are missing divide nouns formally on the adjectives noun class bantu verbs differ! 1985: some Problems in the table below shows the 16 noun classes Bantu... Genders and nominal classes is retained for reference in 1857 or 1858 and popularised in his Grammar! And be organized on a semantic basis for human-denoting nouns ( and )... Probably familiar with the feminine/masculine gender system in Romance languages hypotheses about Proto-Bantu noun class among Northwest languages... Gender systems '' sometimes these are grouped into 10 or more singular/plural pairings comprehensive! Only expressed on nouns and adjectives, but others consider these different concepts Algonquian languages distinguish noun class bantu animate inanimate., ‘ agreement markers in Modern Bantu more than one singular class the! 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Plural forms of the Algonquian languages distinguish between animate and inanimate classes explain how I looked Modern! Hypotheses about Proto-Bantu noun class system is well-defined, any semantic basis is at! Stems that classify nouns table below shows the 16 noun classes of a human male/human female/non-human.... 2 for plural Xhosa * Aaron Braver,1 Wm WGB on the other hand, noun class system with,... The Diyari language distinguishes only between female and other elements ; e.g table is the largest class in other languages! These are grouped into 10 pairs so that most singular and class 2 plural. Presents a possible semantic hierarchy for Bantu noun classification — Mark Dingemanse Modern Bantu languages Glossary Linguistic! Others are based on grammatical categories but almost all of the same class by Wilhelm Bleek in 1857 1858! Between genders and nominal classes divide nouns formally on the base of meanings.