Open AccessMajang nominal plurals with comparative notes
Author(s) -
Peter Unseth
Publication year - 1988
Publication title -
studies in african linguistics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.178
H-Index - 4
eISSN - 2154-428X
pISSN - 0039-3533
DOI - 10.32473/sal.v19i1.107468
Subject(s) - plural , linguistics , markedness , noun , agreement , computer science , mathematics , history , natural language processing , philosophy
This paper describes the complex Majang system of noun plural formation. Majang uses singulative suffixes, plural suffixes, and suppletive plural stems to mark number on nouns. Majang is seen to exemplify in many ways the *N/*K pattern of singular and plural marking as described by Bryan [1968] for many Nilo-Saharan languages. Tiersma's [1982] theory of "Local Markedness" is shown to provide an explanation for singulative marking on some nouns in Majang and other Surma languages. A comparison of Majang noun plurals with plural forms in other Surma languages allows the reconstruction of some number marking for Proto-Surma.