Number marking in Nuer nouns
This paper investigates the formation of number in the nouns of
Nuer, a Nilo-Saharan language spoken both in South Sudan and Ethiopia. Forming
plurals in Nuer is by itself quite irregular: there are many different ways.
Suffixing the [-ni̤] after words that end in sounds other than [l] and [r] is the
first way. [l] and [r]take [-i̤] after them, which is the second way. There are also
many other ways of forming a plural from singular, including suppletion, vowel
shortening, change in vowel quality and internal vowel modification (this last way
is quite unpredictable in nature). There is also a null (Ø) formation of plurals
with no distinction between singular and plural. Other closely related languages
like Dinka (South Sudan) and Anyuak (both Ethiopia and South Sudan), see Reh (1996), share many of the same plural
formation processes.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Literature and the three numbers of Nuer
- 3.Methodology
- 4.The present study
- 4.1Suffixation of -ni̤/-i̤
- 4.2Increase in vowel duration and tone shift
- 4.3Vowel shortening and shift in tone
- 4.4Change in tone
- 4.5Internal vowel and final consonant alternation and tone shift
- 4.6Dropping a vowel and tone shift
- 4.7Shift in vowel quality (voice) and tone shift
- 4.8Zero/null formation
- 4.9Addition of glide j, vowel change and tone shift
- 4.10Suppletion and tone shift
- 4.11Singulative
- 5.Productivity
- 6.Concluding remarks
-
Acknowledgements
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Abbreviations
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References