Pluralization, feminization and pitch accent in Djibouti Somali nouns

Bibliographic Data

ID5810220
AuthorsNicola Lampitelli (0000-0002-7486-9206, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, corresponding author)
Year2017
Volume38
Issue1
Publication date2017-01-01
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of African Languages and Linguistics (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0167-6164 • E-ISSN: 1613-3811
PublisherDe Gruyter Mouton (PUBLISHER • DE)
DOI10.1515/jall-2017-0004
OpenAlexW2615626870
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited3

The goal of this paper is to present newly collected data of Djibouti Somali and show how it offers insight into the architecture of nouns. Djibouti Somali, like Standard Somali, is characterized by the presence of inflectional classes. Building on my own fieldwork material, I discuss both the empirical statements and the theoretical implications that emerge from the observation of three aspects of noun inflection: (1) pluralization strategies, (2) the position of pitch accent with respect to gender and (3) the opposition between Absolutive and Nominative case. In particular, the fact that Djibouti Somali uses mainly two suffixes to pluralize nouns, leads us to the hypothesis that the inflectional system of this variety consists of only two inflectional types. Basic non-derived nouns belong to what I call type A, whereas suffixed nouns belong to type B. This dichotomy is confirmed by the behavior of pitch accent with respect to both gender and syntactic case. Finally, I propose that the distinction between type A and type B can be accounted for, in the context of a formal analysis, by postulating the existence of a contrast between null vs. overt nominalizer

Somali · Stress · Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies · Multilingual Education and Policy · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation

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