Re: Gender as suffixaufnahme?

Jeff Rollin wrote:
> Hi
>
> Does anyone know of a language that includes gender affixes in
> suffixaufnahme?
>
> To clarify:
>
> Suffixaufnahme: Imagine a language with the two nouns "cat" and "fur". A
> noun in the ergative case takes the ergative suffix: cates
> (CAT-(e)-erg) and
> noun in the genitive case takes both genitive suffix AND a case suffix to
> agree with its head noun - "catens fures" CAT-(e)-gen-erg
> FUR-(e)-erg): "The
> fur (agent) of the cat".
>
> Now, imagine a language which in addition to case suffixes, has gender
> suffixes. In this language, "gat-a" (CAT-fem) means "she-cat", and
> "gat-a-n"
> (CAT-fem-gen) is the genitive case of "gata". Similarly, "furr-o"
> (FUR-masc)
> means "fur" and "furr-o-s" (FUR-masc-erg) is the genitive of "furro".
> However, when the genitive depends on another noun, the genitive takes
> (a) a
> genitive suffix (b) the gender and case of the head noun: furr-o-s
> gata-n-o-s (FUR-masc-erg CAT-fem-gen-masc-erg) "The fur (agent) of the
> cat".
>
> Is this possible?
>
> Thanks.
>
>
>
Maybe you could describe your hypothetical language a bit differently:

  -n : noun > adj derivational suffix
  -a/-o : gender suffixes - inherent for any given noun, required for
adjectives to agree with the head noun
  -s : ergative case suffix - add to nouns for case, add to adjectives
to agree with the case of the head noun

gata = cat
gatan = feline
furro = fur
furros = fur (erg)
furro gatan = cat fur
furros gatanos = cat fur (erg)

The idea is that the gender of _gatanos_ is masculine, to agree with the
head noun, _furros_.  The fact that _gatan_ is an adjective derived from
a feminine noun makes no difference.  It could well have been _furros
vermelos_ "red fur" from _vermel_ "red", which has no inherent gender,
being an adjective.

Just some ideas.

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