Gender and Class

Grouping nouns by their behaviour

Gender

2 or 3 groups

• English German

• ‘natural gender’ natural+grammatical gender

• boy masc Junge

• girl fem Mädchen

• Door neut Tür

Jirrbal/Dyirbal, North Queensland, Australia

• Dyirbal has 4 genders or noun classes. A noun’s class determines what pronoun is used to mean he/she/it

• Class 1 ‘bayi’ means it

• Class 2 use balam

• Class 3 use balan

• Class 4 use bala

• ______ is big.

Traditional system

Class 1 BAYI

Male things

Males, kangaroos, fish, fishing lines, rainbow, moon, storm

Class 2 Balan

Women, fire, dangerous things

Girl, shield, coals, nettle, bird, sun, stonefish

Class 3 Balam

Edible things

fruits and vegetabls and the trees that produce them

Class 4 bala

Inanimate and inedible items,

Trees, stones, mud, noise, language

Young people’s Dyirbal

Class 1

All males

All animals

Class2

All females

Class 3 Class 4

Fruits, vegetables, fire, sun, moon, star, fishing lines, shields, etc