Neuter gender in the languages of Aru

Neuter gender in the languages of Aru

Blog Article

This paper LOWER LINK ARM SET examines gender agreement in three little-known languages of the Aru Islands and places them within the larger pattern of "neuter gender" in eastern Indonesia.For each language, I look first at the variety of agreement targets that are controlled by gendered nouns.Secondly, I look at the semantics of nouns that control agreement.I show that whilst having a strongly semantic base involving animacy, gender in Aru languages is a Foot Care grammatical category in which many nouns denoting certain types of entities that lack discernable biological animacy are assigned to the same gender as that of animate referents.

I conclude by considering the system of gender in proto-Aru.