Documentation and Description of Noun Morphology in Kafinoonoo
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Date
2013-04
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
This paper focuses on documenting and describing nominal inflectional and
derivational morphology in Kafmoonoo. Regarding inflection, nouns in Kafinoonoo
are inflected for gender, number and case. Gender is of two types in Kafinoonoo:
masculine or feminine. Masculine gender is marked by the suffix -0--00. In most
cases, the vowel -0(00) is the default ending for nouns. This morpheme also serves as
augmentative with inanimate objects. It also serves as a plural marker for naturally
feminine genders. Feminine gender is marked by -e- -ee or -i. Both vowels also serve
as diminutive marker with inanimate objects. Number is marked in many ways. The
suffix -nalo is the plural marker for regular nouns. When the PL marker -nalo is
attached to the base noun, the gender is neutralized to generic gender. In addition,
some nouns mark plural by reduplication of the fin al syllable or the whole stem, or by
using the masculine marker. Demonstrative and interrogative pronouns mark their
plural by the suffix -fi.
Case is marked by different strategies. Suffixation of the inflectional morpheme -n,
lengthening of terminal vowels, or using the unmarked noun or pronoun are
accusative case marking strategies. Genitive case is marked by attaching -ttfo- -ttfi or
-d3-dd3i to the citation form of nouns or pronouns. The morpheme -d3-dd3i only
occurs as genitive marker with nouns ending in a nasal preceded by a vowel.
Concerning derivation, abstract and result nouns can be derived from nouns and
adjectives. Agent nouns are derived from verb stems. Agent nouns are gender specific
and so that inflectional morphology is occurred in the process of agent noun
derivation. Certain euphemisms and manner nouns are derived by compounding.
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