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Part of
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. 200–225

Chapter 7
Gender, classifiers, and diachrony in Khasian

| NTU , Singapore |

The Khasian family is striking in exhibiting both grammatical gender and numeral classifier systems, as well as the additional feature of grammatical plural marking within numeral classifier phrases (Rabel 1961; Nagaraja 1985; Ring 2015). Located in the Northeast Indian state of Meghalaya in an area well known as a contact zone for cultures and language groups (Chelliah & Lester 2016), this group of lects belongs to the Austroasiatic phylum, but remains separated from their closest relatives by Indo-Aryan and Tibeto-Burman languages. As gender marking in particular is unusual for Austroasiatic languages, it is currently an open question how this system arose. This paper provides a description of the gender and classifier systems in Khasian varieties as well as an initial hypothesis for how gender developed, based on an ongoing research project among the Khasian group.

Keywords: gender, numeral classifiers, plural, grammaticalization, Austroasiatic, Khasian
Article outline
  • 1.Overview of Khasian varieties
    • 1.1Linguistic context
    • 1.2Outline of this paper
  • 2.Khasian gender
    • 2.1Description of Khasian gender
    • 2.2Gender agreement
      • 2.2.1Khasi gender agreement
      • 2.2.2Pnar gender agreement
      • 2.2.3War gender agreement
      • 2.2.4Khasi subject agreement?
  • 3.Khasian numeral classifiers
    • 3.1Description of Khasian numeral classifiers
    • 3.2Realization of classifier phrases
    • 3.3Plural marking in classifier phrases
    • 3.4Pnar plural marking on the numeral?
  • 4.Gender grammaticalization in Khasian
    • 4.1Time depth of the Proto-Khasian people
    • 4.2Gender variation in Khasian varieties
    • 4.3Classifier variation in Khasian varieties
    • 4.4Sources of gender in Khasian varieties
  • 5.Conclusion
  • ?ack?
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 1 December 2023
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/cilt.362.07rin
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