the noun class system of chufie' (bafanji) - sil cameroon

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nzichwonzɨgɨwɨzɨgɨpieŋ’gɨʉnzɑɑpieŋ’nzɑɑnchʉ’fɨpieŋ’nzɑɑndaŋnchɨkoŋmɑmitemɑmiŋgʉŋkwɨʉnzɨʉlɑmɑmiŋgʉŋkwɨʉndienzichwonzɨgɨwɨzɨgɨpieŋ’gɨʉnzɑɑpieŋ’nzɑɑnchʉ’fɨpieŋ’nzɑɑndaŋnchɨkoŋmɑmitemɑmiŋgʉŋkwɨʉnzɨʉlɑmɑmiŋgʉŋkwɨʉndie’nzichwonzɨgɨwɨzɨgɨpieŋ’gɨʉnzɑɑpieŋ’nzɑɑnchʉ’fɨpieŋ’nzɑɑndaŋnchɨkoŋmɑmitemɑmiŋgʉŋkwɨʉnzɨʉlɑmɑmiŋgʉŋkwɨʉndie’nzichwonzɨgɨwɨzɨgɨpieŋ’gɨʉnzɑɑpieŋ’nzɑɑnchʉ’fɨpieŋ’nzɑɑndaŋnchɨkoŋmɑmitemɑmiŋgʉŋkwɨʉnzɨʉlɑmɑmiŋgʉŋkwɨʉndie’nzichwonzɨgɨwɨzɨgɨpieŋ’gɨʉnzɑɑpieŋ’nzɑɑnchʉ’fɨpieŋ’nzɑɑndaŋnchɨkoŋmɑmitemɑmiŋgʉŋkwɨʉnzɨʉlɑmɑmiŋgʉŋkwɨʉndie’nzichwonzɨgɨwɨzpinzɑɑndaŋnchɨkoŋmɑmitemɑmiŋgʉŋkwɨʉnzɨʉlɑmɑmi ŋgʉŋkwɨʉndie’

Ministry of Scientific Research

and Innovation

The Noun Class System of Chufie’ (Bafanji)

Cameron Hamm

SIL

B.P. 1299, Yaoundé

Cameroon

2011

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Table of Contents 1. Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 4 2. Noun classes ....................................................................................................................... 5

2.1. Class 1 ........................................................................................................................ 8 2.2. Class 2 ........................................................................................................................ 9 2.3. Class 3 ...................................................................................................................... 10 2.4. Class 6 ...................................................................................................................... 10 2.5. Class 7 ...................................................................................................................... 11 2.6. Class 9 ...................................................................................................................... 12

3. Genders ............................................................................................................................. 12 3.1. Double class genders ................................................................................................. 12

3.1.1. Gender 1/2 ......................................................................................................... 13 3.1.2. Gender 1/6 ......................................................................................................... 16 3.1.3. Gender 3/6 ......................................................................................................... 16 3.1.4. Gender 7/6 ......................................................................................................... 17 3.1.5. Gender 9/6 ......................................................................................................... 17

3.2. Single class genders ................................................................................................... 18 3.2.1. Gender 1 ............................................................................................................. 18 3.2.2. Gender 3 ............................................................................................................. 18 3.2.3. Gender 6 ............................................................................................................. 19 3.2.4. Gender 7 ............................................................................................................. 19 3.2.5. Gender 9 ............................................................................................................. 19

4. Noun Modifiers ................................................................................................................. 20 4.1. Modifiers that agree with the full six-class system................................................... 20

4.1.1. Possessive Pronoun ............................................................................................ 20 4.1.2. Relative Pronoun ............................................................................................... 22

4.2. Modifiers that agree with the reduced four-class system ......................................... 23 4.2.1. Demonstratives .................................................................................................. 26 4.2.2. Indefinite quantifier ........................................................................................... 28 4.2.3. Numerals ............................................................................................................ 28 4.2.4. Wh-question: which? ......................................................................................... 30 4.2.5. Definite determiner ............................................................................................ 31 4.2.6. Relative clause marker....................................................................................... 32

4.3. Modifiers that agree with the reduced three-class system ....................................... 33 4.3.1. Anaphoric Demonstrative .................................................................................. 33 4.3.2. Quantity question: how many? ......................................................................... 34

4.4. Modifiers that agree with the reduced two-class system ......................................... 35 4.4.1. Wh-question: what? ........................................................................................... 35 4.4.2. Wh-question: who? ............................................................................................ 36

5. Conclusion ........................................................................................................................ 37 References ................................................................................................................................ 38 Appendix A: Agreeing Modifiers ............................................................................................. 40 Appendix B: Semantics of the Chufie‟ noun class system ....................................................... 41

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Abbreviations

ANAP Anaphoric demonstrative CA Noun class agreement (Class Agreement) CAIS Class agreement inanimate singular CAAP Class agreement animate plural C1, C2, C3, etc. Class 1, 2, 3, etc. DEF Definite determiner DEM Demonstrative DU Dual EX Exclusive FUT Future tense HAB Habitual aspect IN Inclusive N Homorganic nasal consonant NEG Negative PL Plural PREP Preposition PROG Progressive aspect REL Relative clause marker RELP Relative pronoun SG Singular

1, 2, 3 First, Second, Third person * Proto-form - Morpheme boundary ~ Reduplication Downstep

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The Noun Class System of Chufie‟ (Bafanji) by Cameron Hamm, SIL Cameroon

1. Introduction

The aim of this paper1 is to give a description of the system of noun classes in Bafanji (speakers call their language Chufie‟), a Nun language within Eastern Grassfields (Mbam-Nkam), whose ISO 639-3 language code is (bfj) (Lewis 2009). Situated on the Ndop Plain, it is spoken in the village of Bafanji, Balikumbat Subdivision, Ngoketunjia Division, North West Region, Cameroon, by about 18,000 people.

There have been two previous works focusing on some aspect of the morpho-syntax of nouns in Chufie‟. Nkemnji (1994) proposes four noun classes and is a paper found in a collection of working papers on grammar topics in Chufie‟. It was the fruit of a field methods class at UCLA. Kural and Moritz (1994), also found in the same volume, worked with numerous determiner phrases, for a specific syntactic purpose (investigating WH movement).

The present analysis agrees in large part with Nkemnji‟s analysis, however Nkemnji does not attest the six-class system described here in the possessive pronouns. The source of this may be that the data was elicited from one speaker who grew up outside the language community and was residing in the USA.

The author has consulted a number of recent noun class descriptions concerning Nun languages: Bamenyam (Ndedje 2003), Baba (Nashipu 2005), Bamukumbit (Devisser 2006), Bambalang (Wright 2009), and Bangolan (Hamm 2010). In addition to these, the large number of other Grassfields language noun class descriptions have helped to inform this analysis. Probably the most important has been Hyman‟s (1980) reconstruction of Proto-Eastern Grassfields noun class formatives.

One of the general features that characterizes Nun languages and sets them apart from some other Eastern Grassfields languages are their reduced noun class systems (see Hombert 1980, Watters 2003:242). With the exception of some languages like Mfumte (an Eastern Grassfields, North, language which marks the singular-plural distinction uniquely with tone), Nun languages have the most reduced noun class systems in all of Grassfields. Hyman (1980) reconstructs ten classes for Proto-Eastern Grassfields (PEG), while the Nun languages Bamun and Mungaka have six and five classes, respectively (Hombert 1980). It will be shown here that Chufie‟ also has six noun classes, but only the possessive paradigm manifests the concord system fully. All other noun modifiers have fewer concord distinctions, the majority of which agree in number (singular/plural) and animacy (animate/inanimate) yielding a symmetrical four-way system. Some modifiers are even further reduced to three and two classes of agreement (singular and plural). What is of

1 The research for this paper was conducted under Research Permit MINRESI/B00/C00/C10/C13/0000023. Acknowledgements go to : Robert Hedinger, Janelle Lonbeck, Clifford Africa Tiemideng, Awawu Tiengwe, Miranda Zipoh, traditional and government officials, and other residents of the village of Bafanji for their help.

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interest is that as the traditional noun class system has undergone reduction, there is a corresponding emergence of semantic classification rising to the foreground (in the four classes that remain). Aikhenvald, in her work on noun classifiers, states, “No system of noun classes is completely devoid of semantic motivation” (2003:25). As we will see, semantics has an important role to play in most of the modifiers in Chufie‟.

The data for this paper was taken from texts and the noun modifier paradigms were completed with the able help of Clifford Africa Tiemideng, a speaker who grew up in the village of Bafanji, and is 33 years of age. The database from which we worked has 576 nouns.

2. Noun classes

Although making a correlation between the Chufie‟ noun class system and the noun class numbering system commonly used for Bantu languages is challenging and not particularly helpful in describing Chufie‟ noun morphology, it becomes helpful when tracing the path of class reduction and when comparing Chufie‟ to related languages, many of which have preserved more class distinctions.

Chufie‟ nouns are made up of an optional noun class prefix, followed by the noun stem. The majority of noun stems consist of a single syllable. This can be symbolized as follows.

(1) Chufieʼ noun: (Noun Class Prefix) - Noun Stem

(C) (V) - CV

All noun class prefixes bear a low tone with the exception of the set of prefixes for gender 1/2 which bear a high tone on the surface, mu- and mboo-. Underlyingly, it will be shown that there are more tones involved. The etymology of these prefixes cannot be traced to the inherited noun class system of Proto-Eastern Grassfields, but is rather seen as a grammaticalisation of the word for child/children which may have spread areally to Chufie‟ (see 2.1 for more discussion).

In some cases, it is not immediately clear whether a noun bears two class prefixes, one directly following another, or if one of the prefixes has been reanalysed as part of the stem. These cases are seen when a noun has, at some point in the reduction of noun class system, been reassigned to a different class. These commonly appear in the data as a stem that begins with a prenasalised consonant.

Since there has been so much reduction in the noun class system, entailing changing of class membership, it becomes quite difficult to attempt a classification based on the nominal prefixes alone. As a result of merged classes which historically had unique prefixes, one finds many different prefixes attached to nouns of the same class, as can be seen in the chart in (2). For this reason, the present classification has been based solely on the agreement features which are present on the modifiers and not on the prefixes of the noun itself (cf. Mutaka 2005:377-8, 390).

Each class has a corresponding consonant and tone which manifest themselves on noun modifiers (not the noun itself). Throughout this paper, the combination of consonant and

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tone are called concord or agreement, and together they identify unique noun classes. A summary of the noun class system is presented in (2).

(2) Chufie’ Noun Class Prefixes and Concord2

Bantu noun class

Noun Prefix

Concord

Consonant

Concord

Tone

Example Gloss

1 ø-

mu-

N-

m-

ŋ-

w L ø-ŋɡɔ

mu-mbi

m-bou

n-dɔ

ŋ-ɡu

m-ee

ŋ-o o

stranger

goat

poor person

husband

mother-in-law

child

person

2 pɑ-

wu-

mboo-

ø-

p H pɑ-ŋgɔ

p-ɑ i

p-ə

wu-pou pou

mboo- mbi

ø-lɔ

ø-ɣu

strangers

children

people

poor people

goats

husbands

mothers-in-law

3 ø- w H ø-ntʃɔɔ mouth

6 mə-

N-

m-

m H mə-ntʃɔɔ

mə-fɯ

mə-ɣɑ

m-bwɔ

m-i

mouths

blind people

thieves

arms

eyes

7 ø-

l-

j3 H ø-pwɔ

l-i

arm

eye

9 ø-

N-

j3 L ø-fɯ

ŋ-ɡɑ

blind person

thief

It is worth noting that there are null prefixes (ø) in all classes except class 6. This shows that there are nouns that have been reanalysed.

2 Data is presented is a broad phonetic transcription using IPA. Phonetic tone is given for all tone-bearing units. Because prenasalised consonants do not bear contrastive tone, nor are they syllabic, no tone is marked for them. In isolation, they surface with low tone, but in some environments, they can bear a high tone. These segments seem to be toneless, although this has not been investigated in detail. 3 The concord consonant for both class 7 and 9 is also realized as [z] in some possessive pronouns.

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If we take a look at the prefixes shown for class 1, it is clear that the homorganic nasal is a prefix for the words „poor person‟, „husband‟, and „mother-in-law‟, because the plurals of these nouns are found without the homorganic nasal4. However, the homorganic nasal in „stranger‟ seems to be part of the stem. This is an example of the result of a change in class membership. One can conceive the process where a homorganic nasal prefix has become part of the stem while changing from class 9 to class 1 (the stems are underlined).

(3) *ŋ-ɡɔ ----> ø-ŋɡɔ „stranger‟

This is also seen in „mouth‟ and „goat‟ from the chart in (2). However for „goat‟, a more complicated transformation has taken place, which will be discussed in detail in 2.1.

There are a small number of nouns where the singular form of the stem is different from the plural stem. The following items have been documented thus far (gender and stem differences are noted in parentheses):

(4) [mee]5 ~ [pɑ i ] (1/2) „child/children‟ (vowel quality and nasalization)

[ŋɔ ɔ ] ~ [pə ] (1/2) „person/people‟ (vowel quality and vowel length)

[li] ~ [mi ] (7/6) „eye/s‟ (nasalization)

[ŋɡɥɛ ] ~ [ŋɡjɛ ] (1/2) „wife/wives‟ (glide modification)

Two nouns have been found whose stem is reduplicated6 in the plural form:

(5) [fũɔ ] ~ [wufũɔ fũɔ ] „chief/s‟

[mbou] ~ [wupou pou] „poor person/people‟7

The alternation in tone between singular and plural seen here in „chief‟ is a general pattern with many reduplicated nouns, of which there are a sizeable set in Chufie‟. Some of these show tone patterns where the singular stem tonal melody is different from when the noun is plural. The tonal alternations have yet to be described in detail.

(6) [ɣɯɣõ] ~ [məɣɯ ɣõ] ‘stupid person’

[tətou] ~ [mətə tou] ‘basket’

[kɯkɯ] ~ [məkɯ ɯ] ‘breastbone’

[nduɔ luɔ ] ~ [pɑnduɔ luɔ ] ‘beggar’

[ŋəŋɥæ] ~ [məŋə ɥæ] ‘earthworm’

4 There are several morphophonemic hardening processes typical of Grassfields languages that take place when a noun stem is prenasalised. See Hamm and Hamm (2007) for more details. 5 „child‟ seems to have an underlying final nasal which surfaces when a vowel-initial word follows it: [miŋ-i] „his child‟. 6 The reduplication as a formation of plural is also attested in the Nun languages of Bamun and Mungaka (Hombert 1980). 7 This word can also be unreduplicated as seen in (11).

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Having noted some of the general features of the noun class system in Chufie‟, we now turn to a discussion of each of the noun classes individually.

2.1. Class 1 concord: w + L tone

There are five prefixes for this class of singular nouns: N- (a homorganic nasal), mu-, m-, ŋ-, and a null prefix. The m- and ŋ- prefixes are mentioned separately from the homorganic nasal prefix because they precede vowel-initial stems (of which there are a small number in our data). The concord consonant is w and the concord tone is L. The majority of the membership of class 1 is made up of animate beings. Plural forms of these class 1 nouns are given to facilitate discussion.

(7) [n-dzi ] ~ [ø-zi ] ‘brother/s’

[mu-mbi] ~ [mboo- mbi] ‘ɡoat/s’

[m-ee] ~ [p-ɑ i ] ‘child/children’

[ŋ-o o ] ~ [p-ə ] ‘person/people’

[ø-fu] ~ [wu-fu] ‘co-wife/co-wives’

The majority of class one nouns exhibit the homorganic nasal as its prefix. The lack of a class prefix for „co-wife‟ may be attributed to the fact that voiceless fricatives usually do not co-occur with homorganic nasals in Chufie‟. However, there are some other examples of class 1 nouns which feature stem-initial consonants that do not have a constraint against prenasalisation, and these words are also not prenasalised:

(8) [kwɛʔi] „namesake, grandchild‟

[piæ] „servant‟

[təgæ] „father‟

[tɰə] „kind of title‟

These are examples where the typical homorganic nasal prefix has been lost, or it never had a prefix.

Note in (7) that the homorganic nasal in the singular form of „brother‟ has been separated from the stem as a prefix, while it has not been separated from the stem of „goat‟. This is the result of a change of class membership. It is well attested in related languages that gender 9/10 has many animal members (Katamba 2003:114, Denny and Creider 1986:232-9), and that there is a homorganic nasal prefix for both classes 9 and 10 (Katamba 2003:104). This was obviously an earlier stage in the development of Chufie‟: *m-bi (class 9 „goat‟) and *m-bi (class 10, „goats‟). In present-day Chufie‟, this noun is in gender 1/2, and has added the high-toned prefixes mu- and mboo- while also retaining the original prefixes which have been reanalysed as part of the stem. Hyman (1976:67) reconstructs low tone for all noun class prefixes in proto-Eastern Grassfields, so what we have here is a morphological innovation. The prefixes mu- and mboo- are probably derived from the words „child‟ and „children‟ respectively, which in present day Chufie‟ are [mee] and [pɑ i ].

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This may have originated in related languages and spread areally to Chufie‟, since it is not easy to derive these prefixes from their historical antecedents (The Grassfields languages of Bamukumbit and Limbum also have the same grammaticalisation and the etymology is more transparent - see Devisser 2011 and Fransen 1995:140-141). The tones of these lexemes have remained intact after they have become semantically bleached, becoming grammaticalised into noun class prefixes, usually attaching to non-human animates. The effects of their original contour tones can be seen in the following example.

(9) [mu- ɯ ɡɯ ] „bird‟ [mboo- ɯ ɡɯ ] „birds‟

HL- H H -----> [mu-sɯɡɯ] HL - H H -----> [mboo-sɯɡɯ]8

Voiceless stem-initial fricatives prohibit prenasalisation in Chufie‟ nouns and so the second part of the contour tone is not able to be realized, thus leaving a floating low tone. This triggers downstep with the result that in the singular form, the realization of the high toned stem „bird‟ is on a lower register than the previous high tone. It is not possible at this time to say why the stem is lowered even further as we see in the plural example above. More analysis of the tone system will reveal these details.

The effect of a prenasalised stem is to give segmental support for the realization of the L tone of the prefix as seen below:

(10) [mu-mbi] ‘goat’

HL HL -----> H - LHL [mu-mbi] or [mu-mbi]

2.2. Class 2 concord: p + H tone

Class 2 is the plural class of singular class 1 nouns (animate nouns in Chufie‟). Just as in class 1, there are five prefixes for this class: pɑ-, wu-, ø-, ŋ-, mboo-. The concord consonant for class 2 is p and the concord tone is H.

(11) [pɑ-ŋgɔ ] „strangers‟

[wu-pou] „poor people‟

[ø-lɔ ] „husbands‟

[mboo- mbi] „goats‟

[p-ə ] „people‟

The vowel in the prefix pɑ- is elided when attached to a vowel-initial stems as can bee seen in the last example, „people‟.

The class 2 prefix wu- is unique. It does not seem to be related to the Proto-Eastern Grassfields class 2 prefix, *bə-, as is more apparent with pɑ-. Instead, this prefix is either borrowed or a morphological innovation. It is worth noting that this same prefix (wu-) is

8 It appears that this word is showing double downstep. At this stage, it is a working hypothesis to explain the facts of the tonal alternation. Further tone analysis will shed more light in cases such as these.

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also found in Wushi (Babessi), a South Ring language also found on the Ndop Plain, and it generally is found on animate plural nouns, just as in Chufie‟9. This could be an areal feature of plural animacy. An interesting case is the Chufie‟ word „blind person‟. It is normally in gender 9/6, but the plural can also be with this plural animate prefix.

(12) [fɯ] „blind person‟ (class 9)

[mə-fɯ] „blind people‟ (class 6) OR

[wu-fɯ] „blind people‟ (class 2)

The null prefix for class 2 is again, either attributable to a loss of a noun class prefix, or where a word did not have a prefix for plural.

2.3. Class 3 concord: w + H tone

Class 3 is a singular class of nouns, all of which have a null prefix (ø-). The concord consonant is w, while the concord tone is H. This is the smallest class in Chufie‟, with only 21 members in our corpus (see more frequency information in §3). It is likely that there were more class 3 nouns previously, but that these have reanalysed and are now found in a different class10.

(13) [ntʃɔɔ] ‘mouth’

[ŋkɑʔɑ] ‘fence’

[tətɰə] ‘ant sp.’

[ŋkwɔ] ‘pestle’

[ɣɯɣõ] ‘fool’

It could be argued that several of the examples above have a homorganic nasal prefix. However, the plural forms of these words conserve the homorganic nasal, thus it would be necessary to posit two prefixes for the plural forms. By analyzing the homorganic nasal to be part of the stem, this is avoided.

2.4. Class 6 concord: m + H tone

Nouns in class 6 usually have mə- as their class prefix. The concord consonant is m and the concord tone is H. Class 6 is taking over as the most common plural class in Chufie‟ and most loan words take class 6 in the plural.

(14) [məpusi] ‘cats’ <English: pussy

[məkɑsənɛk˺] ‘fishing nets’ <Pidgin English: catch net

9 Babessi, however, has only noun class suffixes, apart from this morpheme. 10 It is interesting to note that Bambalang, a neighbouring language, has no trace of class 3 in their noun class system (Wright 2009:10).

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[məfuʔu] ‘weevils’

[məkəzɑŋ] ‘iron leg rattles’

[mənɑʔɑ] ‘cows’

The vowel in this prefix becomes rounded when followed by a stem beginning in [w]:

(15) [mowu] ‘oil’

[mowei] ‘hail’

There is also one other prefix that is used for class 6: N-.

(16) [mbə ] ‘breasts’ sg: [pə ]

[mbɯʔə] ‘buttocks’ sg: [pɯʔə]

[mbwɔ] ‘arms, hands’ sg: [pwɔ]

[mbə] ‘pus’

[mbɛ] ‘excrement’

Since the words „pus‟ and „excrement‟ are mass nouns, they have no singular form, and as such one cannot say with certainty whether these words have a homorganic nasal prefix or a null prefix, as we have seen with some of the examples in class 3. However, since there are no other examples of null prefixes for class 6 in the language, it is appropriate to say that these are homorganic nasal prefixes.

2.5. Class 7 concord: j + H tone

Class 7 is a very common singular class and has no segmental prefix (ø-). The concord consonant for this class is j while its concord tone is H. Similar to class 3, some words are prenasalised, but instead of being homorganic nasal noun class prefixes, these nasals have been reanalysed as part of the stem (as can be seen from their plurals). This becomes clear in the sections that discuss genders.

(17) [pɯɯ] ‘cam wood’

[mbɑŋ] ‘cocoyam variety’

[ntɑ ] ‘horn (musical instrument)’

[ŋgwɛ ɛ ] ‘plague locust’

[ʃu] ‘fish’

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2.6. Class 9 concord: j + L tone

Class 9 is another singular class in Chufie‟. Nouns in class 9 normally have no segmental prefix (ø-). Similar to class 3 and 7, some stems are prenasalised, but these have been reanalysed as part of the stem. The concord consonant for class 9 is j and its concord tone is L.

(18) [tʃəntʃɑʔɑ] ‘mud’

[mbɑ ĩ] ‘sheath’

[ndəgæ] ‘house’

[ŋkjǽ] ‘raphia palm’

[nɑʔɑ] ‘cow’

3. Genders

3.1. Double class genders

Count nouns in Chufie‟ belong in two classes: a singular class and a plural class. Together these are known as double class genders. Chufie‟ has three major genders (1/2, 7/6, 9/6) into which the majority of nouns fall, and two minor genders (1/6, 3/6) which have fewer members. The chart below illustrates which singular classes pair with which plural classes. Singular classes are on the left, and plural classes are on the right.

(19) Gender pairing chart

Sg. Pl.

1 2

3 6

7

9

The gender pairing chart makes it clear that class 6 is overtaking class 2 as the most common plural.

The frequency with which Chufie‟ nouns fall in particular genders is summarized in (20) below. There is also a chart for single class genders which are reserved for non-count nouns shown in (21).

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(20) Frequency of double class genders

Class 2 Class 6 Total Class 1 78 48 126 Class 3 --- 19 19 Class 7 --- 230 230 Class 9 --- 101 101 Total 78 397 476

(21) Frequency of single class genders

Class 1 5

Class 2 ---

Class 3 2

Class 6 22

Class 7 35

Class 9 23

TOTAL 87

Some observations can be made from the charts above. Starting with the double class genders in (20), almost half of all nouns in the singular (the odd numbered classes) are in class 7. This is likely the result of „receiving‟ a number of nouns which were formerly in other classes. One also sees that class 3 has only a few members, showing that it is in process of loss, transferring its members into class 7. The reason that class 7 is the recipient of reanalysed nouns is that the emerging system of animacy and number dictates that class 7 is the singular inanimate class. This also explains the great number of nouns in this class, since there are more inanimate than animate nouns in Chufie‟.

There are only two plural classes in Chufie‟. Since class 2 is normally reserved for animates, this leaves the vast majority of inanimate nouns to form their plural with class 6.

As for the single class genders, there are very few members from classes 1, 2, and 3. This leaves classes 6, 7, and 9 as the major single class genders.

We now turn our attention to some of the specific issues in each gender.

3.1.1. Gender 1/2

This is a major gender, used primarily for animate nouns. As we have seen above, there are five prefixes for each class in gender 1/2. It is possible to note some sub-groupings within this gender based on their prefix pairings as follows.

mu-, mboo-

This pair contains mostly animals and insects as can be seen in the examples below.

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(22) ẽẽ] ~ [mboo ẽẽ] ‘crab’

[mundʒɑɑ] ~ [mboondʒɑɑ] ‘sheep’

[mu əʔɯ] ~ [mboo əʔɯ] ‘rooster/cock’

[múzɥìʔi] ~ [mbooʒɥiʔi] ‘sand fly’

[mu tʃi] ~ [mboo tʃi] ‘mole cricket’

Note well that there is a tone difference between the singular and plural forms of all but „sheep‟. This shows once again that the underlying tone of mu- is H with a floating L. What is not clear is how the stem tone for the plural mboo- is downstepped once again in these words, but not for sheep. It is possible that since the stem starts out with L tone, it is difficult to hear an audible difference between that and a (double) downstepped L.

Most often, these prefixes surface with H tone, but there are some examples of other tones surfacing, which are presented here:

(23) [mumbu] ~ [mboo mbu] ‘dog’

[mumbi] ~ [mboo mbi] ‘goat’

[muŋɡu] ~ [mboo ɡu] ‘chicken’

The examples above illustrate the derivation shown in (10), repeated here as (24).

(24) [mu-mbi] „goat‟

HL HL -----> H - LHL [mu-mbi] or [mu-mbi]

The only words with this set of prefixes which are not animals or insects are the following:

(25) [mu nwi] ~ [mboo nwĩ] ‘knife’

[mu ʃɰə] ~ [mboo ʃɰə] ‘clitoris’

[muʃɥẽẽ] ~ [mbooʃɥẽẽ] ‘penis’, ‘rat’

Note that in the example for „knife‟, the prefix tone is not falling. This is because the stem consonant is not a labial approximant that is prenasalised, but a nasal with labialization. Nasals in C1 position never allow tones to dock on them (the tone is left floating).

N-, wu-

There are a number of gender 1/2 nouns whose singular form has a homorganic nasal prefix N-, while the plural has the wu- prefix.

(26) [mboʔu] ~ [wupoʔu] ‘innocent person’

[ntʃi] ~ [wutʃi] ‘in-law’

15

[ndɔ ] ~ [wulɔ ] ‘husband’11

[ŋkũ] ~ [wukũ] ‘noble’

ø-, pɑ-

If a class 2 noun has the pɑ- prefix, its singular is always a null prefix.

(27) [hɔ ŋɡɥɛ] ~ [pɑhɔ ŋɡɥɛ] ‘first female twin’

[mbɑɑ] ~ [pɑmbɑɑ] ‘successor’s title/father’

[ŋɡɔ ] ~ [pɑŋɡɔ ] ‘guest, stranger’

[mmɑ ] ~ [pɑmmɑ ] ‘mother’

[kəkəʔi] ~ [pɑkəkəʔi] ‘grandparent/ancestor’

The only examples of non-animates in this prefix pair set are the following two words:

(28) [mbiemutɑ ĩ] ~ [pɑmbiemutɑ i ] ‘small market day’12

[məkɛə] ~ [pɑmə keə] ‘morning’

The last example here is derived from the verb [keə] „to break‟ with the infinitive verbal prefix [mə-]. When the plural prefix is added, the L tone appears to be spreading to this verbal prefix.

N-, ø-

This is a set of prefix pairs that are found in the following examples of kinship relationships and some professions:

(29) [ndi] ~ [li] ‘older sibling’

[ndzi ] ~ [zi ] ‘relative (by blood)’

[ŋɡũ] ~ [ɣu] ‘mother-in-law’

[ŋɡɑ fwɔ] ~ [ɣɑ fwɔ] ‘traditional healer’

[ŋɡɑ pɑ ] ~ [ɣɑ pɑ ] ‘hunter’

[ŋɡɑ lẽẽ] ~ [ɣɑ lẽẽ] ‘blacksmith’

11 „husbands‟ can also be pronounced [lɔ ], without any prefix, thus it could fit into example (29). 12 The name for every day of the traditional week can be pluralized with this pattern.

16

ø-, ø-

The following two words are the only ones where there is no difference between singular and plural forms, as they both have null prefixes. The concord on the agreeing modifiers are the only way to show the difference between singular and plural.

(30) [kwɛʔi] ~ [kwɛʔi] ‘grandchild’

[soŋ] ~ [soŋ] ‘friend’

There is one further prefix pair, mə-, ø-, that is highly irregular and only found in the following two items:

(31) [məmbɛ ʔɛ ] ~ [mbɛ ʔɛ ] ‘man’

[məŋɡɥɛ] ~ [ŋɡjɛ] ‘woman’

It is not unusual cross-linguistically for very common words to develop irregular morphology as is the case here. The mə- prefix is usually reserved for inanimate plurals (found in class 6) but here it is used for animate singular (in class 1).

3.1.2. Gender 1/6

This is a minor gender whose semantic content is mostly animate, but does not restrict its membership to animates as much as gender 1/2. This gender always has the noun class prefix pair of ø-, mə-.

(32) [fèê] ~ [məfèê] ‘African paradise flycatcher’

[mbəɡi] ~ [məmbɨɡi] ‘kind of juju dancer’

[mũʔũ] ~ [məmũʔũ] ‘deaf/mute person’

[ntʃwɔ ] ~ [məntʃwɔ ] ‘civet cat’

[nu ʔɑ ] ~ [mənu ʔɑ ] ‘tradition/custom’

[lɯlɯ ʔɯ] ~ [məlɯlɯ ʔɯ] ‘argument’

3.1.3. Gender 3/6

This is a minor gender whose members are mostly inanimate. Exceptions to this generalization are presented at the bottom of the list in the following examples. The noun class prefixes associated with this gender are ø-, mə-. The only formal difference between this gender and gender 1/6 are the agreement morphemes found on noun modifiers (the difference in concord between class 1 and class 3 is only marked by tone: L for class 1 and H for class 3).

(33) [ntʃɔɔ] ~ [məntʃɔɔ] ‘mouth’

17

[ŋɡǽ] ~ [məŋɡǽ] ‘gun’

[ŋkɯɯ] ~ [məŋkɯɯ] ‘rope, string’

[ntɑɑ] ~ [məntɑɑ] ‘waist’

[ŋɡwɔ] ~ [məŋɡwɔ] ‘area of ethnic group/village’

[mbɰə] ~ [məmbɰə] ‘family’

[ɣɯɣõ] ~ [məɣɯ ɣõ] ‘stupid person/fool’

[tɑfuu] ~ [mətɑfuu] ‘carpenter bee’

[tətɰə] ~ [mətətɰə] ‘ant species’

3.1.4. Gender 7/6

Gender 7/6 is a major gender in Chufie‟ into which almost half of all nouns are classified. The most frequently occurring noun class prefixes associated with this gender are ø-, mə-.

(34) [fə ] ~ [məfə ] „shin‟

[kæ] ~ [məkæ] ‘arrow’

[mbɔɔ] ~ [məmbɔɔ] ‘hole’

[puʔɑ] ~ [məpuʔɑ] ‘mushroom’

[vəgə] ~ [məvəɡə] ‘tulip tree’

There are also three words whose noun class prefixes are ø-, N-. This is the only time a homorganic nasal prefix is used for a plural noun, and they are found with paired body parts.

(35) [pə ] ~ [mbə ] ‘breast’

[pɯʔə] ~ [mbɯʔə] ‘buttock’

[pwɔ] ~ [mbwɔ] ‘arm, hand’

3.1.5. Gender 9/6

Gender 9/6 is a major gender whose noun class prefixes are ø-, mə-. The only difference between this gender and gender 7/6 is the tone of the concord, parallel to the difference between gender 1/6 and 3/6 whose only difference is tonal concord. Membership in gender 9/6, however, seems to be more stable with 100 out of 476 count nouns in contrast to gender 1/6 and 3/6 which are minor genders. See the following examples of gender 9/6:

(36) [fei] ~ [məfei] ‘mud wasp’

18

[ndugɔ] ~ [məndugɔ] ‘horn, cup’

[səʔɯ] ~ [məsəʔɯ] ‘termite’

[ŋkəɯ] ~ [məŋkəɯ] ‘peace plant’

[nəʔə] ~ [mənəʔə] ‘speargrass’

There is one word in gender 9/6 whose noun class prefixes are N-, mə-.

(37) [ŋɡɑ ] ~ [məɣɑ ] ‘thief’

It is also possible for the plural to be with no prefix [ɣɑ ]. The choice of plural form

depends on specificity - general plural is without prefix but specific plural (when making reference to specific thieves) is with class 6 prefix.

3.2. Single class genders

Single class genders are generally mass nouns which include liquids and other uncountable nouns for which there is no natural singular/plural distinction. However there are ways to count some mass nouns by using numeral classifiers in a noun + noun phrase (associative phrase). The most common classifier is [ndi] „grain/piece‟ which is found with nouns which are usually small and non-round, such as seeds and insects13. These phrases are subject to the normal tone rules of the associative construction which are not detailed here.

3.2.1. Gender 1

Gender 1 is a minor gender with only five instances in the database. Its prefixes are either ø- or mu-. All examples are listed below.

(38) [səɡə] ‘moon’ 14

[fi] ‘njamanjama, vegetable’

[fɯfɑ] ‘wind’

[múndʒùó] ‘groundnut’

[nənnɔ ‘honey’

3.2.2. Gender 3

This is an even smaller minor gender with only these two members:

13 There are other numeral classifiers which exist in Chufie as well, however a discussion of these is outside the scope of this paper.

14 When the form [məsəɡə] is used, it refers only to months, not moons. The use of a numeral classifier is needed to discuss more than one moon: [məli səɡə].

19

(39) [ŋki] ‘water’

[nənnɔ ‘honey bee’

3.2.3. Gender 6

Gender 6 is a major single class gender into which a number of liquids are classified. The most frequent prefix is mə-.

(40) [mətjɛ] ‘saliva’

[mətʃei] ‘urine’

[mətʃi] ‘blood’

[məlẽẽ] ‘sap’

[məloʔu] ‘palm wine’

3.2.4. Gender 7

Gender 7 is another major single class gender where there are a number of food substances classified along with a variety of other uncountable nouns.

(41) [kòʔú] ‘cocoyam, achu’ 15

[ndzə] ‘egg’

[fæ] ‘meat’

[ŋgũɔ ] ‘plantain’

[ŋkwei] ‘wood’

3.2.5. Gender 9

Gender 9 is a major gender that contains food substances and some abstract items.

(42) [ŋgəŋ] „corn‟

[ntwɔ] „pap, mushy food‟

[ndʒùó] „Bambara groundnut‟

[sei] „profit‟

[ŋɡɯ əŋɡɯ ə] „peace‟

15 A number of examples here seem like they should be count nouns. They are only countable with numeral classifiers. In these examples, they are: [tiʔæ ndi koʔu] „one eye of cocoyam‟, [tiʔæ ndi ndzə] „one eye of egg‟, [tiʔæ ndi ŋɡu ɔ ] „one fruit of plantain‟.

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4. Noun Modifiers

There are ten modifiers in the noun phrase which agree with the head noun. The only modifiers that agree with the noun class system in its fullest array are the possessive pronouns16. Many other modifiers agree only using the concord consonant of the head noun, showing a four-way agreement system. Some modifiers have further reduced their agreement system to three-way agreement. Additionally, there are two wh-questions who can agree in number with its antecedent. This section will give the paradigms of modifiers that agree with the noun, starting with those that agree with the full noun class system, and ending with those that show the least agreement.

Most noun modifiers follow the noun in the noun phrase, but there are some that precede the noun, marked for contrastive focus. These will be discussed in the relevant sections.

For an overview to the noun modifiers, see the Appendix A.

4.1. Modifiers that agree with the full six-class system

4.1.1. Possessive Pronoun

As is typical of Grassfields languages, the system of possessives pronouns show the most noun class distinctions. The table below presents the possessive pronoun paradigm. In these tables, the columns refer to noun class and the title for each column includes the concording elements for that class shown in parentheses.

(43) Possessive pronouns (non-emphatic) - follows noun17

number singular noun plural noun

class 1 (w, L) 3 (w, H) 7 (j, H) 9 (j, L) 2 (p, H) 6 (m, H)

1SG wə wə jə jə pəgə məŋə

2SG ɔ ɔ ɔ ɔ pɔ mɔ

3SG ɛ ɛ ɛ ɛ pɛ mɛ

1DU wuʔu wuʔu juʔu juʔu puʔu muʔu

1EX.PL vɯ ɯ vɯgɯ zɯgɯ zɯ ɯ pɯgɯ mɯŋɯ

1IN.PL wi ʔɛ wiʔɛ jiʔɛ ji ʔɛ piʔɛ miʔɛ

2PL wɑ i wɑ i jɑ i jɑ i pɑ i mɑ i

3PL ɣo u ɣou zou zo u pou mou

16 The relative pronoun can also optionally agree with the full noun class system, but more often it agrees with animacy and number of the head noun.

17 It is beyond the scope of this paper to discuss the irregularities found in the forms of the possessive pronouns. It should be noted that the concord consonant for classes 7 and 9 in some of the possessive pronouns alternates between j and z.

21

The following are some examples of the non-emphatic possessive pronouns (CA=class agreement).

(44) ndoŋ wə fɛə ŋgəɯ

C1.husband CA1.my come.out go

„My husband has gone out.‟

(45) ntwo no ɛ ə mbəŋ jə mbwe

1.SG.come to take C9.money CA9.my PREP.him

„I have come to request my money from him.‟

(46) jiʔ no poʔu kwɑ jɑ kiʔe mbaa vɯ ɯ sɥei wə ɲɛ

this story REL as C1.father CA1.our tell me it

„This story is how our father told it to me.‟

Possessive pronouns follow the noun in the noun phrase, unless one is contrasting one noun phrase with another, in which case the emphatic pronoun precedes the noun and has different tone patterns. The emphatic possessive pronoun paradigm is shown below.

(47) Possessive pronouns (contrastive emphatic) - precedes noun



1SG wə wə jə jə pəgə məŋə

2SG ɣɔ ɣɔ zɔ zɔ pɔ mɔ

3SG wɛ wɛ zɛ zɛ pɛ mɛ

1DU wuʔu wuʔu juʔu juʔu puʔu muʔu

1EX.PL vɯgɯ vɯgɯ zɯgɯ zɯgɯ pɯgɯ mɯŋɯ

1IN.PL wiʔɛ wiʔɛ jiʔɛ jiʔɛ piʔɛ miʔɛ

2PL wɑ i wɑ i jɑ i jɑ i pɑ i mɑ i

3PL ɣou ɣou zou zou pou mou

See the following examples which illustrate the change of position of the emphatic possessive in relation to the head noun.

(48) jə ndə ləɡe əge lwo ŋkoʔu ndəə

CA9.my C9.time hiding as enough now

„Now it is my turn to be hiding.‟

(49) ndɑ i ɔ zɛ ntʃɔɔ fɑʔɑ kə mbə nɔ ni fuʔ sjɛ

pass to CA7.his C7.duty only be to walk dig soil

„From that time on, his duty is to walk and dig soil.‟

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(50) muŋɡu ɣiʔɛ ŋkɑ pii ə jə læʔæ pə tə

chicken say 1SG.NEG PST be.at me home NEG so

məŋə məsuɡɔ ə

CA6.my C6.teeth where?

„Chicken said, “I wasn‟t at home then, so where are my teeth?”‟

4.1.2. Relative Pronoun

The relative pronoun can also agree with the noun class of the head noun, but more often, it agrees according to animacy and number of the head noun. It always follows the head noun, whether in statements or questions.

(51) Relative Pronoun - follows noun



animacy animate inanimate animate inanimate

ɛ ɛ ɛ ɛ ɛ ɛ ɛ ɛ

The table here shows the two possibilities for agreement. In the forms for class 3 and 9, there are two forms. The first form of each of these classes is the form that agrees according to noun class. The second form of each is the form that agrees according to animacy and number.

See the following examples which illustrate the noun class concord.

(52) me e ɛ wə „Whose child is this?‟

C1.child CA1.RELP who

(53) ŋkwɔ ɛ wə „Whose pestle is this?‟

C3.pestle CA3.RELP who

(54) kɯ ə ɛ wə „Whose dish is this?‟

C7.dish CA7.RELP who

(55) ndəɡæ ɛ wə „Whose house is this?‟

C9.house CA9.RELP who

(56) p-ɑ i ɛ wə „Whose children are these?‟

C2-child CA2.RELP who

(57) mə-soɡɑ ɛ wə „Whose hoes are these?‟

C6-hoe CA6.RELP who

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In addition to the above, it is also acceptable to most speakers to produce the reduced four-way agreement system on these pronouns, so that the examples with nouns from class 3 and 9 are found with the concordial elements of class 7. The following examples show that instead of mismatched concord, the agreement system is changing to agree according to animacy and number of the head noun. Aikhenvald maintains that this is common across Bantu and other African languages (2003:38). I offer an alternative word gloss here to show this system (CAIS = class agreement inanimate singular).



CAIS.RELP

(59) ndəɡæ ɛ wə „Whose house is this?‟

C9.house CA7.RELP who

CAIS.RELP

In the indicative mood, the modifier agrees with the animacy/number system, which is especially apparent in the second example below. Here the class 6 noun, „thieves‟, shows agreement with the animate plural consonant concord p (which is glossed as class 2 agreement), and not the m from class 6 agreement.

(60) ɑ wei pwo tɯ ɛ zɔɔ ɑ pəʔɯ

3SG hold C7.hand C7.tree CAIS.RELP be.dry 3SG break

„He held a dry branch, and it broke.‟

(61) ɑ wei məɣɑŋ pɛ lɛ ʔɛ ~lɛ ʔɛ

3SG catch C6.theif CAAP.RELP18 large

„He caught large thieves.‟

The fact that this noun phrase element may follow the traditional six-way system of noun class agreement or the reduced four-way agreement system shows that there is a transition happening currently in Chufie‟, a topic which we will now discuss.

4.2. Modifiers that agree with the reduced four-class system

The majority of noun phrase modifiers that agree with the head noun show a four-way agreement system where the modifier only displays the concord consonant agreement (tonal contrasts that distinguish class 1 from 3 and 7 from 9 are neutralized). The central point in the change of systems is that this four-way agreement system has given rise to a semantically-based noun class system. Animate nouns show a w agreement morpheme in the singular and a p in the plural. In the same way, inanimate nouns display a j agreement

18 For reasons of simplicity, the noun class numbers will continue to be used throughout the paper to show agreement, even if agreement showing animacy and number is more appropriate.

24

morpheme in the singular and a m in the plural. Looking back to example (58) (repeated here as (62)), we see that the head noun is an inanimate object and in this case, its concord consonant is reassigned (the normal class 3 concord is w).



CAIS.RELP

Thus there emerges a system of agreement of animacy and number among the following six modifiers: demonstratives, the indefinite quantifier, numerals, the wh-question which?, the definite determiner, and the relative clause marker. The noun class numbering system is retained in the table headings in this section and serves to illustrate that there is some variation among Chufie‟-speakers (specifically in one demonstrative).

When there is a change in agreement systems, there is the potential for changing consonant concord, as we have seen. Consider the following example in which there is variation between speakers according to age.

(63) ŋkwɔ wiʔi „this pestle‟ (older speakers)

C3.pestle CA3.this

ŋkwɔ jiʔi „this pestle‟ (younger speakers)

C3.pestle CA7/9.this

Elderly speakers tend to choose the agreement consonant of class 3 w (noun class agreement system), while others chose the inanimate singular j (semantic agreement system), which is equivalent to the agreement consonant for class 7 or 9. One elderly speaker found both forms acceptable, but preferred w agreement. This shows that while the older generation prefers the noun class agreement in this form of the demonstrative, it is also acceptable to use the semantic agreement system. The change, therefore, must have been in fairly recent times. In addition, since the change is in progress, Chufie‟-speakers do not always share the same opinion regarding grammatical agreement. In certain cases, some speakers prefer one concord consonant over another, while others prefer the opposite. Even the same speaker can express differences at different times. This is typical of change in process and an attempt to summarize the change from the six-class to the four-class system is shown below.

(64) Stages of change from the six-class to the four-class system

a. four formal singular classes: 1 (w, L), 3 (w, H), 7 (j, H), 9 (j, L)

b. two formal singular classes (with no tone distinction, no reanalysis of nouns into different classes): 1 (w), 3 (w), 7 (j), 9 (j)

c. two formal singular classes: animate (w), inanimate (j) (some nouns are reanalysed as a member of a different class and change their concord consonant accordingly)

The fullest system in Chufie‟ exhibits four singular classes (plural classes are not concerned here) that have two consonant concords and two tonal concords as seen in (a). This is

25

reduced to two classes when tonal contrasts are neutralized, but the original consonant concords are maintained as we see in (b). In the next step, the semantic feature of animacy causes some singular nouns (like example (63) above) to change their consonant concord to conform to the animacy feature of the head noun, an illustration of stage (c).

There is some variation among Chufie‟-speakers because some people are at stage (b) and others are at stage (c). This last stage is when the semantic agreement system is introduced so that the consonant agreement for the class 3 word „pestle‟ is changed from w to j so that its concord consonant agrees in animacy. Although it has not been thoroughly studied, it seems that elderly speakers are at stage (b), while the majority of speakers are somewhere in the process of moving from stage (b) to stage (c).

At this point it is worth considering what kind of agreement is in force with modifiers that agree according to the semantic system, given that the nouns are classified according to the six-class system, and there are animate and inanimate members of each class.

Class 1 (traditional concord consonant: w, inanimate concord consonant: j)

When an inanimate noun in class 1 agrees with the modifiers which follow the semantic agreement system, the majority (6 out of 8) conserve the traditional concord consonant and do not change to [j] to agree with the inanimate status of these nouns19.

Class 3 (traditional concord consonant: w, inanimate concord consonant: j)

For class 3, about half of the inanimate nouns have their class agreement consonant change to [j]. For example, in a phrase with a demonstrative, „this village‟ should be [ŋɡwɔ wiʔi]. Instead, what is heard is [ŋɡwɔ jiʔi].

Class 7 (traditional concord consonant: j, animate concord consonant: w)

Because class 7 and 9 have [j] as their traditional noun class concord, we investigate the animate nouns to look for change. Almost half of animate nouns in class 7 have their class agreement consonant change to [w].

Class 9 (traditional concord consonant: j, animate concord consonant: w)

Animate nouns in class 9 show a different pattern. Out of 13 animate class 9 nouns, only 4 agree with animacy, changing their concord consonant to [w]. This shows that class 9 might be more resistant to change, as is class 1.

Gender 1/6 is an interesting case. This gender is made up of class 1, which is usually reserved for animate nouns, and class 6, usually reserved for inanimate nouns. When these nouns are in phrases with semantically agreeing modifiers, the plurals (class 6), remain unchanged (they all retain their m concord from class 6, whether the noun is animate or inanimate), while the singulars are more complicated. Among the singular nouns (class 1), about one-third retain the w agreement, about one-quarter change their concord to agree

19 The data for this section on consonant agreement change was exclusively from Clifford Tiemideng, 33 years of age, a representative of the non-elderly population, most likely to change consonant concord.

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according to the semantic system, and about one third seem to show the opposite agreement of either semantic or noun class agreement, ie. animate nouns in class 1 that change their concord consonant from w to j inexplicably. Finally, two words will take either agreement consonant. Some examples are in order here.

(65) Gender 1/6 agreement: semantic, class-governed, or other?

Retain w concord (semantic and/or class-governed)

Change to j concord (semantic-governed)

Change to j concord (neither semantic nor class-governed)

kunɑ wiʔi „this pig‟ llo jiʔi „this tree sp.‟ ntʃəntʃe e jiʔi „this toad‟

fee wiʔi „this bird sp.‟ lɯ lɯʔɯ jiʔi „this argument‟ nnɔ jiʔi „this snake (generic)‟

ndəɡi wiʔi „this monkey sp.‟ ʃjɛ jiʔi „this opportunity‟ ndʒu jiʔi „this antelope sp.‟

səɯ wiʔi „this snake sp.‟ tətou jiʔi „this basket‟ ŋɡjɛ jiʔi „this crocodile‟

ntʃɥi wiʔi „this hippopotamus‟ nuʔɑ jiʔi „this custom‟ ŋkɑ i fu jiʔi „this monkey sp.‟

Gender 1/6 nouns are clearly a mismatched gender, since two-thirds of the gender are animate nouns, yet their plurals are all in class 6 (the majority of animate nouns are found in gender 1/2). And to add to that, there are nouns which seem to agree with the opposite of both the traditional noun class system and the semantic system. This is the clearest picture that there is a shift taking place in the concord system, and while this is taking place, there is some disorder in the system.

Having discussed some of the issues of the change in agreement systems, we now turn to the data for the six modifiers. All tables from this point on will give data based on the non-elderly population (the majority of Chufie‟-speakers who are in the process of reaching stage (c)). This aids in visualizing the change of systems.

4.2.1. Demonstratives

The demonstratives agree in animacy and number with the head noun and can be used in two ways, emphatic (which precede the noun) and non-emphatic (which follow the noun). The tone pattern on each of the demonstratives is identical, regardless of the class of the head noun.

We first treat the non-emphatic demonstratives. The only non-emphatic demonstrative that displays four-way agreement is the „near speaker‟ form (the other forms of the demonstrative have no concord for singular nouns). Plural nouns, on the other hand, enforce agreement in all three forms of the demonstrative.

As will be noted from the table below, classes 3, 7, and 9 have merged to form the singular inanimate class which has j for its consonant agreement. The other classes have conserved

27

their concord consonants, but the tonal concord is now an irrelevant distinction20. This is consistent across all six of the modifiers presented in this section.

(66) Demonstratives (non–emphatic) - follows noun




proximal (near speaker)

this

mbɑɑ wiʔi

this father

ŋkwɔ jiʔi

this pestle

kɯ ə jiʔi

this dish

ndəgæ jiʔi

this house

pɑmbɑɑ piʔi

these fathers

məsogɑ miʔi

these hoes

distal (near hearer)

that

mbɑɑ lɑ

that father

ŋkwɔ lɑ

that pestle

kɯ ə ɑ

that dish

ndəgæ ɑ

that house

pɑmbɑɑ pəlɑ

those fathers

məsogɑ mə ɑ

those hoes

far distal (far from hearer)

that (over there)

mbɑɑ lɛ

that father

ŋkwɔ lɛ

that pestle

kɯ ə ɛ

that dish

ndəgæ ɛ

that house

pɑmbɑɑ pəlɛ

those fathers

məsogɑ mə ɛ

those hoes

Similar to the possessive pronouns described earlier (in 4.1.1), the demonstratives also show a word order distinction between unmarked and emphatic constructions. Tone patterns on the demonstrative and the shape of agreement morphemes also differ between the two sets of demonstratives. In contrast to the non-emphatic demonstratives, all emphatic forms agree with the concord consonant of the head noun, as seen in the table below.

(67) Demonstratives (emphatic) - precedes noun




near speaker

gloss

wiʔi mbɑɑ

this father

jiʔi ŋkwɔ

this pestle

jiʔi ɯ ə

this dish

jiʔi əgæ

this house

piʔi pɑmbɑɑ

these fathers

miʔi məsoɡɑ

these hoes

near hearer

gloss

wulɑ ɑɑ

this father

jilɑ ɔ

this pestle

jilɑ ɯ ə

this dish

jilɑ əgæ

this house

pəlɑ pɑmbɑɑ

these fathers

məlɑ məsoɡɑ

these hoes

far from hearer

gloss

wulɛ ɑɑ

that father

jilɛ ɔ

that pestle

jilɛ ɯ ə

that dish

jilɛ əgæ

that house

pəlɛ pɑ ɑɑ

those fathers

məlɛ mə soɡɑ

those hoes

20 Tonal concord is still shown in the headings of the tables to give a reference as to how the system is changing from the six-class system with tonal concord, to the four-class system with no tonal concord.

28

Animate singular nouns in the bottom two rows include a wu- prefix (which is reduced to w- for the vowel-initial stem „near speaker‟), while inanimate singular nouns include a ji- prefix (reduced to j- for vowel-initial stem). Plural nouns add the prefix pə- and mə- whose vowels coalesce in the same way for vowel-initial stems.

4.2.2. Indefinite quantifier

This modifier agrees in number and animacy of the head noun. It means something like „a certain...‟ or „some (of)...‟.

(68) Indefinite quantifier - precedes noun




example

gloss

wutʃəɯ

a certain

jitʃəɯ

a certain

jitʃəɯ

a certain

jitʃəɯ

a certain

pəɡətʃəɯ

some

məŋətʃəɯ

some

See the following examples.

(69) wutʃəɯ mbɑɑ tə mbə əɡæ

CA1.certain C1.father stand wall

„A certain father is standing next to the house.‟

(70) pəɡətʃəɯ ɑmbɑɑ tə mbə əɡæ

CA2.certain C2.father stand wall

„Some of the fathers are standing next to the house.‟

(71) jitʃəɯ ɯ ə tə mbə əɡæ

CA7.certain C7.dish stand wall

„A certain dish standing next to the house.‟

(72) məŋətʃəɯ mə ɯ ə tə mbə əɡæ

CA6.certain C6.dish stand wall

„Some of the dishes are standing next to the house.‟

4.2.3. Numerals21

Although numerals can agree in animacy and number with its head noun, it is common to neutralize the distinction in plural nouns and only use the animate prefix pəɡə-.

21 Since the phonetic tone in these phrases cannot be easily transcribed with accents, it is marked with numbers. Higher numbers mark higher relative pitch and lower numbers mark lower relative pitch.

29

These numerals are used when answering the question:

“ɑ... ... jiŋkə” “how many X are there?”

it [plural noun] how.many

For reasons of space, the table is in two sections, the first being data which show the concord when the response is one (illustrating singular classes). The second table shows the concord when the response is more than one (illustrating plural classes).

(73) Numerals - follows noun

number singular noun

class 1 (w, L) 3 (w, H) 7 (j, H) 9 (j, L)

animacy animate inanimate

one ɑ mbɑɑ wimuʔu 7 3 5 5 4 one father

ɑ ŋkwɔ jimuʔu 7 3 5 5 4 one pestle

ɑ kɯə jimuʔu 7 6 5 5 4 one dish

ɑ ndəɡæ jimuʔu 7 6 6 5 5 4 one house

number plural noun

class 2 (p, H) 6 (m, H)

animacy animate inanimate

two ɑ pɑmbɑɑ pəɡəpɑɑ 7 3 35 5 5 54 two fathers

ɑ məsoɡɑ məŋəmbɑɑ 7 5 6 6 4 4 43 two hoes

three ɑ pɑmbɑɑ pəɡətii 7 3 35 5 5 54 three fathers

ɑ məsoɡɑ məŋətii 7 5 6 6 5 5 53 three hoes

four ɑ pɑmbɑɑ pəɡəkwə 7 3 3 5 5 21 four fathers

ɑ məsoɡɑ məŋəkwə 7 5 6 6 5 5 21 four hoes

There is another form of the numeral which precedes the noun and is used for counting objects, but it does not agree with the head noun at all. These are the most common forms of numerals. For example, one obtains what is found in example (74), but example (75) is ungrammatical.

(74) ndzəɯ tii məsoɡɑ sjɛ fɑʔ ɑ22 ndɛ ʔɛ

1SG.saw three C6.hoe farm my today

„I saw three hoes in my farm today.‟

22 This form of the possessive pronoun is used when it is in a locative phrase („in my farm‟).

30

(75) ndzəɯ *məŋə-tii məsoɡɑ sjɛ fɑʔ ɑ ndɛ ʔɛ

1SG.saw CA6-three C6.hoe farm my today

„I saw three hoes in my farm today.‟

4.2.4. Wh-question: which?

This modifier is used to ask the question „which (one)?‟ and it agrees in animacy and number with its antecedent. It has two forms, one with the morpheme nɔ (when more material follows) and one in which this word is not found, but its tone shifts leftward to the wh-question marker (in cases when this word is the only word in a clause with interrogative mood).

(76) Wh-question: which? - precedes noun




example

gloss

ŋɥɛ /

ŋɥɛ nɔ

which one?

ɲɛ /

ɲɛ nɔ

which one?

ɲɛ /

ɲɛ nɔ

which one?

ɲɛ /

ɲɛ nɔ

which one?

pjɛ /

pjɛ nɔ

which ones?

mjɛ /

mjɛ nɔ

which ones?

It seems that the underlying form for the morpheme is jɛ . The concord consonants are less transparent in the singular, where a nasal has been added. However, one can see a correlation in class 1 between w concord and the labio-palatal approximant. In classes 3, 7, and 9, the concord j is absorbed into the stem of the wh-question marker. The provenance of the nasal element in singular classes is unknown.

See the example dialogue for illustration:

(77) Person A: ndzəɯ ndi-o mə ɑ i

1SG.see elder-your market

„I saw your elder brother in the market‟

Person B: ŋɥɛ nɔ ndii wə ?

CA1.which? one C1.elder my

„which one?‟

Person A: wɛ mbɔʔukwɔ

CA1.RELP Mbou‟kwo

„The one at Mbouʼkwo (quarter).‟

31

4.2.5. Definite determiner

The definite determiner follows the noun and agrees according to animacy and number of the head noun, but only when it co-occurs with the possessive pronoun. This modifier specifies a certain noun apart from other nouns in the discourse, somewhat like the English article „the‟.

(78) Definite determiner - follows noun




(w)ɑ (j)ɑ (j)ɑ (j)ɑ pɑ mɑ

(79) me e mbɛ ʔ ɑ ɑʔɑ ɑʔɑ

C1.boy CA1.DEF work

„The boy has done (something terrible).‟

(80) tɯ ɑ kwɯ mbwo tʃuʔule e

C7.tree CA7.DEF die PREP parasite

„The tree has died from parasites.‟

(81) ŋɡjɛ ɑ ləɡə nɔ zou nɔ tʃuʔ koʔ ɑ

C2.woman CA2.DEF here self their PREP pound C7.achu CA7.DEF

„The women have worked hard to pound the achu.‟

The following are examples of the combination of possessive pronoun and definite determiner together in one phrase. Notice that the concord consonants that are elided above appear and agree according to animacy and number as we have seen above in other modifiers.

(82) ɑ ɣiʔɛ ndɔ wə fɛə ŋgəɯ ŋkə ntʃwɔ tʃwɔ ɣɥiʔæ ɛ -ɛ jɑ

he say husband my come.out go only sit PROG grind C7.fufu-her CA7.DEF

„She said, “My husband has gone out” and sat there grinding that her fufu.‟ (grinding the fufu of hers.)

(83) mbɑ-æ wɑ tʃwo ŋɡwo ‘That her father is sick.‟

C1.father-her CA1.DEF PROG sick

(84) ŋku-e jɑ „that her pestle‟

C3.pestle-her CA3.DEF

(85) kɯ -i jɑ „that her dish‟

C7.dish-her CA7.DEF

32

(86) ndəɡæ-æ jɑ „that her house‟

C9.house-her CA9.DEF

(87) pɑmbɑɑ pɛ pɑ „those her fathers‟

C2.father CA2.her CA2.DEF

(88) məsoɡɑ mɛ mɑ „those her hoes‟

C6.hoe CA2.her CA2.DEF

4.2.6. Relative clause marker

The relative clause marker follows the noun and introduces relative clauses. This is not the same as the relative pronoun seen above in 4.1.2, which has the same distribution as subject pronouns. The relative clause marker serves to link the head noun with a subordinate clause describing the head noun. It agrees in animacy and number, but the inanimate singular concord consonant is routinely elided.

(89) Relative clause marker - follows noun




wɑ ɑ ɑ ɑ pɑ mɑ


(90) fə mbwo ɑɑ wɑ ɑ siæ

give PREP C1.father CA1.REL 3SG tall

„Give (it) to father who is tall!‟

(91) fə mbwo ɑmbɑɑ pɑ pou siæ

give PREP C2.father CA2.REL 3PL tall

„Give (it) to fathers who are tall!‟

(92) fə ŋko ɑ ɑ ljɛ

give C3.pestle CA3.REL 3SG clean

„Give a pestle that is clean!‟

(93) fə kɯ ɑ ɑ ljɛ 23

give C7.dish CA7.REL 3SG clean

„Give a dish that is clean!‟

23 In examples (93) and (94), the downstep shown preceding the relative clause marker is arising from the lexical tone of the preceding word.

33

(94) fə mə soɡa ɑ ɑ24 ljɛ

give C6.hoe CA6.REL 3SG clean

„Give hoes that are clean!‟

(95) fə ʃoʔ ɑ ɑ ɛ

give C9.container CA9.REL 3SG clean

„Give a container that is clean!‟

4.3. Modifiers that agree with the reduced three-class system

When a modifier agrees in three ways with the head noun, the agreement for a singular noun only has one form, while the agreement for a plural noun retains the animacy distinction.

4.3.1. Anaphoric Demonstrative

Anaphoric demonstratives follow the noun and refer to a particular noun which has already been mentioned in the discourse. The plural forms differentiate animate from inanimate nouns, but this distinction is not maintained in the singular. In fact, there is no concord consonant for singular nouns.

The fact that the singular and plural stems for the anaphoric demonstrative are quite different from each other remains unexplained.

(96) Anaphoric demonstrative - follows noun



animacy (irrelevant) animate inanimate

example

gloss

mbɑɑ tʃəɯ

the father (already mentioned)

ŋkwɔ tʃəɯ

the pestle (already mentioned)

kɯə tʃəɯ

the dish (already mentioned)

ndəɡǽ tʃəɯ

the house (already mentioned)

pɑmbɑɑ pou

the fathers (already mentioned)

məkɯə mo u

the dishes (already mentioned)


24 It is uncertain why this is a singular pronoun rather than a plural pronoun. It is possible that what is marked as 3SG in this example is rather an inanimate plural pronoun.

34

(97) ... ɑ nto nɔ ndʒɯ ʔɯ .fɑʔɑ məpə fɛ ə ɔ mbwɔ mɛ ...

3SG work.hard PREP cultivate blisters come.out PREP hands his

„...he worked so hard cultivating that blisters appeared on his hands...‟

... ɑ kwəɯ mbjæ ŋkəntɰə ŋgwei məpə mo u ɔ

3SG return warm handle hold C6.blister CA6.ANAP PREP

„...he returned and warmed a (hoe) handle and held (the aforementioned) blisters on it.‟

(98) lɑ i nɔ lɑ əŋ- e tʃəɯ jɑ kɰimɑŋkɔʔ fuɡɑ lɑ ...

pass to DEM C9.money-his CA9.ANAP REL tortoise lend DEM

„From then, (the aforementioned) money of his that Tortoise lent him ...‟

kɰimɑŋkɔʔ ɑ ʒu mbəŋ tʃəɯ

tortoise 3SG eat C9.money CA9.ANAP

„Tortoise appropriated (the aforementioned) money.‟

4.3.2. Quantity question: how many?

The quantity question marker agrees in animacy and number with the noun questioned, and always follows the noun. This has the meaning of asking the question, „how many?‟

(99) Quantity question: how many? - follows noun



animacy (irrelevant) animate inanimate

example

gloss

jiŋkə

how many?

jiŋkə

how many?

jiŋkə

how many?

jiŋkə

how many?

pəɡəŋkə

how many?

məŋəŋkə

how many?

The following are dialogue examples, the sign „-‟ signifying a change of speaker.

(100) two lɑ ndzo jə - ɑ pe e jiŋkə?

come there buy mine 3SG C7.bag CA7.how.many

„Come and buy my own (things)!‟ - „How many bags are there?‟

(101) ɔ ndwɔ ɑ i vɯ ɡɯ? - pɑ i pəɡəŋkə?

2SG FUT carry us 2PL CA2.how.many

„Will you carry us?‟ - „How many are you?‟

(102) pou əɡəŋkə nɔ ɣəɯ mboʔunde e ?

3PL CA2.how.many PREP go Mbouda

„How many (people) are going to Mbouda?‟

35

(103) məkunɑ mou məŋəŋkə?

C6.pig CA6.DEF CA6.how.many

„How many pigs are there (in that group)?‟

4.4. Modifiers that agree with the reduced two-class system

There are two elements that can take concord which only make a singular/plural distinction. These are the question words, „what?‟ and „who?‟. Although these are not typical noun modifiers, they do exhibit agreement in number with their expected responses.

4.4.1. Wh-question: what?

If one is expecting the answer to be a plural noun for a content question employing the word „what?‟, one can use the question marker prefixed with the inanimate plural class prefix as its concord. Generally, however, one uses the form without any prefix. The concord prefixes here are identical to noun class prefixes.

(104) Wh-question - what?



animacy (irrelevant) (irrelevant)

example kə kə kə kə məkə məkə

Consider the following examples in different syntactic functions in an interrogative sentence.

Subject position (clefted25):

(105) ɑ ə mɔ mbɑ lɑ?

3SG what inside pot there

‘What (thing) is in the pot there?’

(106) ɑ mə ə mɔ mbɑ lɑ?

3SG C6.what inside pot there

‘What (things) are in the pot there?’

25 See Kural and Moritz (1994) for more on wh-question clefting.

36

Object position:

(107) mbə o luɑ kə ntɑʔɑ nnɔ poɑ ku ndəgæ?

can 2SG use what drive.away snake and ant house

„What (else) can you use to drive away snakes and ants from the house?‟

(108) ɑ tʃɥi məkə?

3SG hit C6.what

„What (things) did he hit?‟

Indirect Object position:

(109) ɑ pɔʔu mumbu nɔ kə?

3SG hit dog PREP what

„What did he hit the dog with?‟

(110) pou tɑ ntuɡo fɑ nɔ kə ntiɛ pəgi?

3PL HAB blow flute PREP what kind dance

‘For what kind of dance do they play a flute?’

Locative position:

(111) ɑ tʃwɔ ŋku kə?

3SG sit on what

‘What is he is sitting on?’

4.4.2. Wh-question: who?

The second content question that shows only singular/plural agreement is the question word „who?‟ The concord consonant chosen for plural is from class 2 (as expected, since it is inherently animate), while the singular modifier bears no agreement marking at all.

(112) Content question marker - what?



animacy (irrelevant) (irrelevant)

example wə wə wə wə pawə pawə

The following examples show its use in differing types of syntactic environments.

37

Subject position (clefted):

(113) ɑ wə jɑ tɑ ŋkɥiʔæ me e ?

3SG who REL HAB care child

‘Who usually takes care of a child?’

(114) ɑ ŋku mumbi wə ŋku ŋgə liisoʔo ?

3SG eat goat who eat corn Liiso ʔo

‘Whose goat was destroying Liisoŋʼs corn?’

(115) ɑ əɯ pɑwə læʔǽ mbɑɑ kwɑ wə ?

3SG go CA2.who compound father Kwa wə

‘Who (pl.) went to Pa Kwawə’s compound?’ (answer will be in plural)

Object position:

(116) ɑ vəɡə wə?

3SG beat who

„Who did he beat?‟

Indirect object position:

(117) ɑ zo mbwo pɑwə ?

3SG buy PREP CA2.who

„He bought it for/from who (pl.)?‟ (answer will be in plural)

Locative position:

(118) ɑ pə ŋku wə ?

3SG be.at on who

„Whose back is he on?‟

5. Conclusion

It can be concluded from the data presented in this paper that Chufie‟ still employs six noun classes, but it is now being reduced to four, attested by the fact that many modifiers follow a four-way semantic agreement system. The only modifiers that have retained the six-class system are the possessive pronouns and the relative pronoun, and even the latter is often reduced to the four-way system. Two modifiers (the anaphoric demonstrative and the

38

quantity question marker) have partially eliminated the animacy distinction, so that when they modify a singular noun, there is one invariable form while the animacy distinction is retained with plural nouns.

It is a fact that cross-linguistically, some modifiers agree fully and others do not show the full agreement system. (Aikhenvald 2003:399). Aikhenvald also noticed that agreement seems to be more stable on pronouns and demonstratives in her typology of noun classifiers. Chufie‟ seems to substantiate this claim, however demonstratives have begun the change from six to four-way agreement.

The four-way system correlates with a semantic agreement system with two features: animacy and number. Since animacy and number are basic categories in human language, it is not surprising that these features emerge as a classification device for nouns in Chufie‟ when the morphology allows a convenient way to encode them (cf. Aikhenvald 2003:271-306, 407). This is a generalization, and we have noted that the system is still changing, so that there is not always agreement by different speakers as to how a certain modifier should agree with its head noun. We have only begun to deal with the intricacies of how the semantic and the syntactic agreement systems have played out in Chufie‟. Much more could be done in this regard.

While it would be desirable to see a treatment of the associative phrase in this paper, the tonal alternations need more analysis before this can be adequately described. In fact, since the tone system has a significant part to play in the morphology of the language in general, and a thorough analysis of lexical and grammatical tone has not yet been completed, this paper should be seen as a work in progress. Work on tone will certainly explain a number of perplexing issues that remain in the noun phrase.

References

Aikhenvald, Alexandra Y. 2003. Classifiers: A typology of noun categorization devices. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Denny, J. P. and C. A. Creider. 1986. The semantics of noun classes in Proto-Bantu. In C. G. Craig, ed. Noun classes and categorization: Proceedings of a symposium on categorization and noun classification. pp 217-40. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Devisser, Christine. 2006. A sketch of the Bamukumbit (Mankong) Noun Class System. Yaoundé: SIL.

Devisser, Christine. 2011. The Mankong (Bamukumbit) Noun Phrase. Ms. Fransen, Margo A.E. 1995. A Grammar of Limbum: a Grassfields Bantu language spoken in

North-West Province. PhD Thesis, Free University of Amsterdam. Hamm, Cameron and Valerie Hamm. 2007. A phonological sketch of Bafanji (Chufie‟).

Yaoundé: SIL. Hamm, Cameron. 2010. A summary of the noun class system in Bangolan. Ms. Hombert, Jean-Marie. 1980. Le groupe noun. In Larry M. Hyman and Jan Voorhoeve, eds.

Les classes nominales dans le bantou des Grassfields. L‟expansion bantoue 1, Numero special 9:143-163. Paris: SELAF.

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Hyman, Larry M. 1980. Reflections on the nasal classes in Bantu. In Larry M. Hyman, ed. Noun classes in the Grassfields Bantu borderland. Southern California Occasional Papers in Linguistics (SCOPIL), Volume 8:179-210.

Hyman, Larry M. and Maurice Tadadjeu. 1976. Floating tones in Mbam-Nkam. In Larry M. Hyman, ed. Studies in Bantu Tonology. Southern California Occasional Papers in Linguistics (SCOPIL), Volume 3:57-111. Los Angeles: USC.

Katamba, Francis. 2003. Bantu Nominal Morphology. In: D. Nurse and G. Philippson eds. The Bantu Languages, pp 103-120. London, UK: Routledge.

Kural, Murat and Luc Moritz. 1994. Nchufie Wh in situ and locality. In Koopman and Kural, eds. Aspects of Nchufie grammar. UCLA Occasional Papers in Linguistics, vol 14, May 1994, pp 147-164.

Lewis, M. Paul. 2009. Ethnologue: Languages of the World. 16th edition. Dallas: SIL International. Web version: www.ethnologue.com.

Mutaka, Ngessimo M. 2005. Harmonization of nominal classes in Bantu Zone A and Grassfields Bantu languages. In: Koen Bostoen and Jacky Maniacky, eds. Studies in African comparative linguistics, with special focus on Bantu and Mande. pp 361-393. Tervuren: Musee Royal de l‟Afrique Centrale.

Nashipu, J.P. 2005. The morpho-syntax of Baba 1. Ph.D. Diss., University of Yaoundé I. Ndedje, René. 2003. La morphologie nominale du məŋɡambo. Maitrise thesis, University of

Yaoundé I. Nkemnji, Michael. 1994. Aspects of the morpho-syntax of Nchufie nominals. In Koopman

and Kural, eds. Aspects of Nchufie grammar. UCLA Occaisonal Papers in Linguistics, vol 14, May 1994, pp 57-77.

Watters, John. 2003. Grassfields Bantu. In: D. Nurse and G. Philippson eds. The Bantu Languages. London, UK: Routledge.

Wright, Jennifer. 2009. The Noun and Verb Phrase in Chrambo (Bambalang). Yaoundé: SIL.

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Appendix A: Agreeing Modifiers

The following table provides a summary of the modifiers that agree with the head noun. Classes 1, 3, 7, and 9 are for singular nouns and classes 2 and 6 are for plural forms. The last two wh-question words are included here at the end.

Sec.

#

Modifier Class 1 (w, L)

mbɑɑ father

Class 3 (w, H)

ŋkwɔ pestle

Class 7 (j, H)

kɯə dish

Class 9 (j, L)

ndəgæ house

Class 2 (p, H)

pɑmbɑɑ fathers

Class 6 (m, H)

məsogɑ hoes

Concord System

4.1.1 1SG Poss Pronoun wə wə jə jə pəgə məŋə six

4.1.2 Relative Pronoun wɛ wɛ / jɛ jɛ jɛ / jɛ pɛ mɛ six/four

4.2.1 Demonstr (prox) wiʔi wiʔi / jiʔi jiʔi jiʔi piʔi miʔi four

4.2.2 Indef Quant wutʃəɯ jitʃəɯ jitʃəɯ jitʃəɯ pəɡətʃəɯ məŋətʃəɯ four

4.2.3 Numeral (one) wimu ʔu jimu ʔu jimu ʔu jimu ʔu pəɡəpɑ ɑ məŋəmbɑ ɑ /

pəɡəpɑ ɑ

four/three

4.2.4 Wh-quest: which? ŋɥɛ ɲɛ ɲɛ ɲɛ pjɛ mjɛ four

4.2.5 Definite Determ (w)ɑ (j)ɑ (j)ɑ (j)ɑ pɑ mɑ four/three

4.2.6 Rel Clause Mk wɑ ɑ ɑ ɑ pɑ mɑ four

4.3.1 Anaph Dem tʃəɯ tʃəɯ tʃəɯ tʃəɯ pou mo u three

4.3.2 Quant: how many? jiŋkə jiŋkə jiŋkə jiŋkə pəɡəŋkə məŋəŋkə three

4.4.1 Wh-quest: what? --- kə kə kə --- məkə two

4.4.2 Wh-quest: who? wə --- --- --- pɑwə --- two

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Appendix B Semantics of the Chufie’ noun class system

Gender Frequency in database

Semantic range

1/2 78 humans, animals, sexual organs, some insects, sun, spirit

1/6 48 animals, insects, defective humans, religious people/animals, trees, abstract nouns

3/6 19 long and thin objects 7/6 230 inanimate objects, insects, some defective

humans 9/6 100 inanimate objects, insects, some large

animals

the noun class system of chufie' (bafanji) - sil cameroon

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