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The gender system of Anii

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Published/Copyright: July 8, 2021
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STUF - Language Typology and Universals
From the journal STUF - Language Typology and Universals Volume 74 Issue 2

Abstract

The present paper describes the gender system of Anii, a Na-Togo language spoken in Benin and Togo. Anii has a full-fledged and productive gender system that consists of 10 agreement classes. It also provides 10 nominal form classes that are not fully identical with the agreement classes. The assignment of gender follows largely morphological criteria, but the prevalent principle for the current classification system is the division of nouns along the animacy hierarchy.

Keywords: animacy; deriflection; gender; Na-Togo
Corresponding author: Ines Fiedler, Department of Asian and African Studies, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany, E-mail:

Acknowledgments

Part of the data comes from fieldwork conducted in 2008 in Bassila in the frame of the CRC (SFB) 632 “Information structure” (2003–2015), funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) who have also generously financed the present research project (project number 338110259). I am especially indebted to Stefanie and Martin Zaske, as well as all Anii language consultants, for their help and support during my stay in Bassila and for later answering all my questions. I also thank Lee Pratchett and Gianna Marks for English proofreading, as well as Tom Güldemann and an anonymous reviewer for their comments and suggestions that helped to improve the paper.

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Published Online: 2021-07-08
Published in Print: 2021-07-27

© 2021 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Frontmatter
  2. Preface
  3. More diversity enGENDERed by African languages: an introduction
  4. The gender system of Laal
  5. The gender system of Khoekhoegowab
  6. An areal and typological appraisal of gender in Ju
  7. The two concurrent gender systems of Mba
  8. The gender system of Longuda
  9. The gender system of Noon: insights into the reorganization of agreement
  10. The gender system of Anii
  11. Reassessing gender in Ogbe-Oloma
  12. The gender system of Durop
https://doi.org/10.1515/stuf-2021-1037
Keywords for this article
animacy; deriflection; gender; Na-Togo

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Frontmatter
  2. Preface
  3. More diversity enGENDERed by African languages: an introduction
  4. The gender system of Laal
  5. The gender system of Khoekhoegowab
  6. An areal and typological appraisal of gender in Ju
  7. The two concurrent gender systems of Mba
  8. The gender system of Longuda
  9. The gender system of Noon: insights into the reorganization of agreement
  10. The gender system of Anii
  11. Reassessing gender in Ogbe-Oloma
  12. The gender system of Durop
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