This project is the first systematic study of the nominal domain of Gĩkũyũ. It is funded by ‘Strategischer Förderfond’ of Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf and will begin on July 1, 2026, with a duration of one year.
According to what criteria is the nominal system organized in Gĩkũyũ, a Central Kenyan Bantu language? The project aims to create a noun database based on dictionaries – and supplemented by elicited language data – which will be used to examine 1. gender assignment and 2. the morphological realization of evaluative morphology.
Gĩkũyũ is a relatively typical Western Bantu language. The language has 17 nominal classes, which form at least 9 pairs – so-called gender classes. ‘At least’, because it is not clear whether there might be additional gender classes. The project aims to systematically catalog the noun inventory and examine it with regard to genus class assignment. As a result, we will know – at least for a representative inventory of the noun inventory – how many nouns belong to each gender class and whether there is a systematic pattern (or patterns) in the assignment of gender classes. To this end, all nouns will be annotated with regard to semantic and phonological features.
Evaluative meaning – diminutive and augmentative – is realized through a change in gender class. In some cases, the actual nominal class prefixes are replaced by those of the diminutive and augmentative classes. In other cases, however, an additive strategy is used, in which the diminutive and augmentative class markers are prefixed in addition to the actual nominal class markers. There is also variation regarding the number variation of the actual markers. These can be fixed (only the singular marker is present), in which case number is realized solely by the diminutive/augmentative marker, or both markers can vary depending on number. The annotated data are intended to make it possible to identify systematic patterns in the choice of how evaluative morphology is realized.