Noun classification systems in Africa between gender and declension (deriflection)
Final Report Abstract
Many languages on the globe possess gender systems. These involve the categorization of nouns which is obligatorily reflected on words depending on them, e.g., the change of demonstratives and adjectives in German according to the three grammatical genders feminine, masculine and neuter: diese/schöne Sprache vs. dieser/schöner Baum vs. dieses/ schönes Buch 'this beautiful language/tree/book'. This phenomenon applies in particular in Africa. Estimates reckon with about two thirds of African languages classifying nouns into different genders, making the continent a "global hotbed of noun classification systems". Therefore, Africa represents an extraordinary research laboratory for the comparative and typological study on this and related phenomena. The typical gender system of numerous languages of the Niger-Congo group, with ca. 1.500 languages the largest family on the globe, is far more complex than in German. Commonly known as „noun class system“, it has much more than three genders and does not involve a distinction according to sex. This holds, e.g., in Swahili (Bantu) where gender shows itself i.a. at the agreement marking on the demonstrative pronoun 'that/those', the numeral 'two' and also on the noun itself. a. wa-toto wa-le wa-wili 'those two children' (human) b. mi-ti mi-le mi-wili 'those two trees' (tree) c. vi-su vi-le vi-wili 'those two knives' (artifact) X-noun X-that/those X-two The project investigates gender in African languages with particular focus on its relation to nominal morphology on the basis of a new analytical approach that is applicable to languages globally. Hence, the project pursues two central goals. On the one hand, the project contributes to the advancement of the linguistic theory in this domain by developing a fine-grained worldwide typology of gender systems based on unitary parameters. This research contribution pertains to the field of general linguistics. On the other hand, the project analyzes particularly the historical dynamics of gender systems in Niger-Congo, in order to arrive at an approximate reconstruction of the proto-system and intermediate historical stages. Since such earlier language states also inform population history, this component is not only important for narrow linguistics or the research on the history of the numerically and geographically largest language family in Africa but also for the ancient past of the continent as a whole.
Publications
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The multiple challenges of Niger-Congo “noun classes”. Workshop on gender, noun class and classifier systems, Lund, digital, 12.3.2021
Güldemann, Tom & Fiedler, Ines
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The Niger-Congo family in time and space: a first attempt. Afrikalinguistisches Kolloquium, Berlin, 1.12.2020.
Güldemann, Tom
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Cliticization cycles: Adnominal gender-number affixes in Niger-Congo. - International Symposium "West-central African linguistic history between Macro-Sudan. 2021/2/3
Güldemann, Tom & Ines Fiedler
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Contact-induced change in gender systems of northern Bantu languages. 10. World Congress on African Linguistics, Leiden, digital, June 2021
Tom Güldemann, Francesca Di Garbo & Annemarie Verkerk
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From differential grammatical treatment to gender: animacy-based noun classification in Central Africa. Afrikalinguistisches Kolloquium, Berlin, 27.4.2021
Güldemann, Tom
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From differential grammatical treatment to gender: animacy-based noun classification in Central Africa. International Symposium "West-central African linguistic history between Macro-Sudan. 2021
Güldemann, Tom
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How reliable are reconstructions of noun class markers in Niger-Congo? The case of KV-markers. 10. World Congress on African Linguistics, Leiden, digital, June 2021
Fiedler, Ines
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How reliable are reconstructions of noun class markers in Niger-Congo? The case of KV-markers. 24. Deutscher Afrikanist*innentag, Frankfurt/Main, digital, July 2021.
Fiedler, Ines
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More diversity enGENDERed by African languages. Sprachtypologie und Universalienforschung, special issue 74,2.
Güldemann, Tom & Fiedler, Ines
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More diversity enGENDERed by African languages: an introduction. STUF - Language Typology and Universals, 74(2), 221-240.
Güldemann, Tom & Fiedler, Ines
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On the typological variation in tripartite number systems of Nilo-Saharan languages. 15th Nilo-Saharan Linguistics Colloquium, Edinburgh, August 2021
Junglas, Jan
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The four-way meaning of tripartite number: implications for a typology of number morphology. - 10. World Congress on African Linguistics, Leiden, digital, June 2021
Güldemann, Tom & Junglas, Jan
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The gender system of Anii. STUF - Language Typology and Universals, 74(2), 369-385.
Fiedler, Ines
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The gender system of Khoekhoegowab. STUF - Language Typology and Universals, 74(2), 263-278.
Job, Sylvanus & Güldemann, Tom
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The gender system of Longuda. STUF - Language Typology and Universals, 74(2), 327-346.
Elstermann, Julius-Maximilian; Fiedler, Ines & Güldemann, Tom
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The semantics and morphology of transnumeral nouns within Northeastern Africa’s tripartite number marking languages. 24. Deutscher Afrikanist*innentag, Frankfurt/Main, digital, July 2021
Junglas, Jan
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The two concurrent gender systems of Mba. STUF - Language Typology and Universals, 74(2), 303-325.
Fiedler, Ines; Güldemann, Tom & Winkhart, Benedikt
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A diachronic approximation to singulative number marking within NE Africa’s tripartite number languages. 44. Jahrestagung der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Sprachwissenschaft, Tübingen, February 2022
Junglas, Jan
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Gur languages and nominal classification diversity. Gur Monographs 13. Cologne: Rüdiger Köppe. ISBN 978-3- 89645-613-7. 2022
Fiedler, Ines, Michael Schulze & Jan Junglas
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Restructured Niger-Congo gender systems as another type of concurrent nominal classification. Journal of African Languages and Linguistics, 43(2), 139-163.
Güldemann, Tom & Fiedler, Ines
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The gender and deriflection system of Miyobe. In: Fiedler, Ines, Michael Schulze & Jan Junglas (eds.). 2022. Gur languages and nominal classification diversity. Cologne: Rüdiger Köppe. 149-175. 2022
Fiedler, Ines & Benedikt Winkhart
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Towards reconstructing the nominal system of Taa. International Conference "Kalahari Basin Area Languages and Cultures", Riezlern, July 2022
Güldemann, Tom
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Classifying Adamawa languages by combining nominal morphology and lexicon. 2nd Adamawa Conference, Paris, 13-15 September 2023.
Elstermann, Julius, Ines Fiedler & Tom Güldemann
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Katlaic number systems reloaded. 25. Deutscher Afrikanist:innentag, Leipzig, May 2023
Nüsslein, Ulrike
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Katlaic number systems reloaded. Vielfaltslinguistik 5, Hamburg, May 2023
Nüsslein, Ulrike
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Singulative number marking in NE Africa’s non-Afroasiatic languages. 25. Deutscher Afrikanist:innentag, Leipzig, May 2023
Junglas, Jan
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The four-way meaning of tripartite number: implications for a typology of number morphology. Colloquium on the occasion of M. Haspelmath’s 60th birthday, Potsdam, 2.3.2023
Güldemann, Tom & Junglas, Jan
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Tripartite number marking in the languages of the Nuba Mountains. 4th Nuba Mountain Languages Conference, Khartoum, Sudan, February 2023
Junglas, Jan
