Gender marking in Tanii

In Tanii a in most Tibeto-Burman languages there is no gender inflection for nouns as there is, for example, in hindi. There are, however, a series of compounds denoting gender for animal species, all formed the same way : a gender marking suffix is added to the reduplicated root of the generic name

prefix	root	reduplicated root	gender suffix
a	ki	ki	bo

aki-kibo = male dog

The Tanii gender suffixes are -bo,or -po, for males, -nii for females, and -chu for infants (juveniles, babies). Nii may derive from anii, 'mother'.

aki-kibo = male dog, or simply => kibo

aki-kinii = female dog (bitch), or simply => kinii

aki-kichu = puppy, or simply => kichu

In kibo, kinii, kichu, ki identifies the type of animal (dog), whereas -bo, -nii and -chu specify the gender (male, female, infant). This construction is very much similar to the one used for counting objects (see previous post). Gender differentiation is not marked for all animals, but it is the case for the most prominent species :

species	Engl.	Male	Engl.	Female	Engl.	Infant	Engl.
aki	dog	kibo	male dog	kinii	bitch	kichu	puppy
ami	cat	mipo	tomcat	minii	she-cat	ami atu	kitten
alyi	pig	lyipo	boar	menii	sow	alyi atu	piglet
subu	mithun	subu-siibo	mithun bull	subu-siinii	mithun cow	subu atu	mithun calf
sii	cattle	siibo	bull	siinii	cow	sii atu	calf
paro	chicken	ropo	cock	ronii	hen	pachu	chick
siibi	monkey	bipo	male monkey	binii	female monkey	siibi atu	baby/ juvenile monkey
siidin	deer	dimbo	male deer, hart, stag	dinnii	female, deer, doe	siidin atu	deer calf

Note the irregularity of menii for sow (female pig). Suffixation with -chu is not possible for every generic name; more often, juveniles or babies are identified by adjunction of the adjective atu, meaning 'small'.

Gender distinction for humans, especially among kin categories, is normally unmarked. Children only are differentiated between sons and daughters by the addition of milobo (male) and nyimii (female) respectively to the generic word (iinga) :

=> iinga milobo (boy)

iinga (child)

=> iinga nyimii (girl)

PB

Gender distinction