The gender system of Longuda
-
Julius-Maximilian Elstermann
,
Ines Fiedler
Abstract
This article describes the gender system of Longuda. Longuda class marking is alliterative and does not distinguish between nominal form and agreement marking. While it thus appears to be a prototypical example of a traditional Niger-Congo “noun-class” system, this identity of gender encoding makes it look morpho-syntactic rather than lexical. This points to a formerly independent status of the exponents of nominal classification, which is similar to a classifier system and thus less canonical. Both types of class marking hosts involve two formally and functionally differing allomorphs, which inform the historical reconstruction of Longuda noun classification in various ways.
Acknowledgments
We are very grateful to Ulrich Kleinewillinghöfer, who provided the primary data for this research, and to him and Friederike Vigeland for discussing relevant Longuda data and previous drafts of this article with us.
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© 2021 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Preface
- More diversity enGENDERed by African languages: an introduction
- The gender system of Laal
- The gender system of Khoekhoegowab
- An areal and typological appraisal of gender in Ju
- The two concurrent gender systems of Mba
- The gender system of Longuda
- The gender system of Noon: insights into the reorganization of agreement
- The gender system of Anii
- Reassessing gender in Ogbe-Oloma
- The gender system of Durop
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Preface
- More diversity enGENDERed by African languages: an introduction
- The gender system of Laal
- The gender system of Khoekhoegowab
- An areal and typological appraisal of gender in Ju
- The two concurrent gender systems of Mba
- The gender system of Longuda
- The gender system of Noon: insights into the reorganization of agreement
- The gender system of Anii
- Reassessing gender in Ogbe-Oloma
- The gender system of Durop
