Gender And Class
Transcript of Gender And Class
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