The phonology, morphology and semantics of Shilluk cattle nouns
Date
2018Author
Martin, Amy
Metadata
Abstract
Shilluk, a Western-Nilotic language spoken in South Sudan, is of particular interest due to its rich phonological
and morphological systems. A dataset of 32 cattle nouns was transcribed for this project through
controlled elicitation sessions with a Shilluk language consultant. Many of these nouns have di erent forms
depending on the maturity and age of the animal. It is found that the cattle noun lexicon is a rich morphological
area, involving a large amount of pre xation. The pre xes on the cow and bull forms are unpredictable
from the phonological properties of the stem. Di erent pre xation strategies are used to mark age; pre xation
in bullcalves is compositional (ñ aa- + bull pre x + stem) but not in the heifer form, where one pre x
is used. Approximately half of the cattle noun roots are derived from other Shilluk words but many source
words have di erent tonal speci cations and plural forms to the cattle nouns. Number marking in the cattle
noun lexicon is found to be more regular than in the larger Shilluk lexicon, since 21.2% of nouns use one
number marking pattern. However, it is not the case that number marking is completely predictable in cattle
nouns, as there are many less frequent number marking patterns in the cattle noun lexicon.