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Nominal Classification in Asia and Oceania: Functional and diachronic perspectives
Edited by Marc Allassonnière-Tang and Marcin Kilarski
[Current Issues in Linguistic Theory 362] 2023
► pp. 58–112

Chapter 4
Gender marking in Shumcho

| Austrian Academy of Sciences |
Grammatical gender generally does not play a prominent role in Tibeto-Burman languages. Apart from lexical differentiation, the natural gender of a nominal with an animate referent can be specified by sex-indicating formatives but pronouns, adjectives or determiners are typically neutral in this respect and no agreement takes place. The West Himalayish languages, a subgroup of the Tibeto-Burman family, have borrowed a large number of lexical items from neighbouring Indo-Aryan languages, which have elaborate gender systems. Some of them have adopted a number of gendered terms in their masculine as well as feminine form. One such language is Shumcho, which is spoken in the district Kinnaur of the State of Himachal Pradesh in North India. The present chapter discusses all hitherto attested marking patterns in Shumcho and, where possible, presents potential cognates or sources of a loan.
Keywords: gender, Humcho, Shumcho, Tibeto-Burman, West Himalayish
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1Organization of the chapter
    • 1.2The language
    • 1.3Demonstratives, pronouns, agreement: Some preliminaries
  • 2.Kinship terms and breeding animals
  • 3.Gender marking
    • 3.1Prefixes
    • 3.2Suffixes
    • 3.3Interim synthesis and discussion
  • 4.Agreement
    • 4.1Agreement with nouns denoting human entities
    • 4.2Agreement with nouns denoting non-human or inanimate entities
      • 4.2.1Objects
      • 4.2.2Animals
    • 4.3Interim synthesis and discussion
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 1 December 2023
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/cilt.362.04hub
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