| |
The genders (referred to as noun classes in Telkese) are:
I) Rational Feminine
II) Rational Masculine
III) Non-Rational Animate
IV) Non-Rational Inanimate
All Class I& II nouns and some Class III nouns belong to the Warm subgender. Remaining Class III & all IV nouns belong to the Cold subgender. The criterion for inclusion in either Warm or Cold is warm-bloodedness. Cold nouns trigger initial consonant mutation in associated verbs, participles, demonstratives and possessed nouns. Initial mutations are shown below:
/m/ > [v]
/n/ > [d]
/ŋg/ > [ʒ]
/p/ > [m]
/t/ > [n]
/k/ > [ŋg]
/ts/ > [s]
/tɬ/ > [ɬ]
/tʃ/ > [ʃ]
/kx/ > [h] |
| Tangachi |
The split between the two genders is mainly sex based, but with a particular twist.
The two genders are: the Masculine (I gloss it as 'm'), and the Non-Masculine or Common ('c').
The masculine gender is used to indicate male persons or animals, professions, plants, abstract nouns, and augmentatives.
The common gender indicates female persons or animals, other inanimate objects, non-finite verbs, places, and diminutives. |
