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This study of the nominal forms of Bilin follows the theoretical approach and expositional framework of a previous paper that dealt with the verbal forms of the language, but the linguistic statement is both phonologically and morphologically of a very different type.
The forms associated with the scatter of the noun are far less numerous than those of the verb; the maximum number theoretically obtainable from the analysis presented here is 84. Some of the forms could be regarded as composed of three elements (and in some cases four), but for a general statement it is more appropriate to treat Bilin as inflected rather than as agglutinative. For there are again phonetic features that preclude a purely segmental analysis; these include pitch pattern, but not vowel harmony, and two new features, one of reduplication, and the other involving alternating types of consonantal articulation.
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- Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies , Volume 21 , Issue 2 , June 1958 , pp. 376 - 391
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- Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London 1958
References
page 376 note 1 ‘ The verb in Bilin’, BSOAS, XIX, I, 1957, 131–59Google Scholar (referred to here as Verb). Details of the theoretical approach, the exposition, and the transcription of the Bilin forms are not repeated here. An earlier work on Bilin is that of Reinisch, Leo, Die Bilīn-Sprache in Nordoat-Afrika, Wien, 1882.Google Scholar
page 376 note 2 It must again be stressed that names and translations are used for identification only; the analysis does not employ any notional criteria that might appear to be implied by them.
page 376 note 3 Possible names for the cases would be—nominative, accusative, comitative, dative, genitive, directive, and ablative. For ‘comitative’ and ‘directive’ see Hjelmslev, L., La catégorie des cos (Acta Jutlandica, VII, 1), Aarhus, 1935.Google Scholar
page 377 note 1 Hence the difference between the system here and that suggested in Verb, Appendix.
page 377 note 2 Verb, § 13.
page 377 note 3 Except where stated, the forms quoted are the case (a) (nominative) forms.
page 378 note 1 cf. Verb, § 21, where the infix is part of the ending. But infix as interpreted for the noun corresponds rather to the additional phonematic elements of the themes (Verb, § 5) than to the infix of the verb.
page 378 note 2 cf. § 2133 and § 54.
page 378 note 3 Verb, § 213.
page 379 note 1 The statements in these two sections would not, however, exclude the possibility of ٭gərwə, which is, in fact, not attested. This form may be excluded either by stating that the exponent of ə in word final position is nil only, or by stating that where ə is the term in the V system of the junction syllable, the exponent of a ə the stem-final syllable is always half close central vowel.
page 379 note 2 It would be possible to set up a as a term in the V system of every syllable and make the syllable statement in terms of CV syllables only. Cf. ‘“Openness” in Tigre: a problem in prosodic statement’, BSOAS, XVII, 3, 1955, 561–77.Google Scholar But the position in Bilin is more complex than in Tigre.
page 379 note 3 cf. Verb, § 221.
page 381 note 1 cf. Verb, § 41.
page 381 note 2 Verb, § 231, is defective in not distinguishing initial and medial systems, which are identical with those stated here for the noun.
page 382 note 1 This final vowel may be regarded as a structural feature similar to, and in this case, an alternative of, the half close central vowel exponent of a. In fact, for the case (f) form of paradigm I a variant is gədəŋél. It is interesting that in the Semitic languages Tigre and Tigrinya, with which Bilin has much ‘phonological affinity’, the syllabic feature is of the one type in Tigre, and of the other in Tigrinya, e.g. Tigre , Tigrinya
, ‘thread’.
page 383 note 1 And the adjectives of §§ 53 and 54.
page 383 note 2 Prominence as stated even for prominence pattern (i) forms.
page 383 note 3 And also the case (e) form where the stem-final C is r, 1, or n (cf. § 225) e.g. ‘Solomon’).
page 384 note 1 §§ 421 and 422 ; plural forms ∫án and .
page 385 note 1 A feature of all nouns of this class (and this class only).
page 385 note 2 The phonological differences between the examples quoted are, of course, accounted for in terms of different case paradigms and the alternative exponents of ə.
page 386 note 1 A very common type of verbal ‘formation’—jə?na ‘to be drunk’.
page 386 note 2 The prominence pattern of the two forms is identical since the infix is defined as part of the stem, cf. § 21.
page 387 note 1 Or gáq (Class B).
page 387 note 2 As the translations show, most of the words of this class refer to parts of the body.
page 388 note 1 But this could be treated in terms of a prosodic feature of cluster (‘assimilation’), in the singular (Tigre singulative) form.
page 390 note 1 cf. Verb, Appendix and n. 2 on p. 391 below.
page 390 note 2 cf. § 2133, and Verb, § 5.
page 391 note 1 One plural noun form requiring this prominence pattern was recorded— (masc.
‘hoof’, class D).
page 391 note 2 This accounts for the forms stated in Verb, Appendix, to which there appear to be no corresponding forms in the statement of case here (cf. § 11). , and
are the case (a) forms of the masculine, feminine, and plural paradigms respectively of the genitival-adjectival forms;
and
are morphologically the case (d) forms of the masculine and plural paradigms.
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