Two concurrent systems of nominal classification in Ngəmba (Eastern Grassfields)

Abstract

Alongside a reduced gender system of the Bantoid type, the Eastern Grassfields language Ngəmba (Cameroon) of the Ghomala’ cluster operates an incipient numeral classifier system that is restricted to a given set of nouns. The present paper provides a first analysis of its semantic, morphosyntactic and etymological profile and explores its relation to the concurrent gender system following the model of Fedden & Corbett 2017. Semantically, Ngəmba numeral classifiers categorize counted items for their shape and texture (saliently one-dimensional long and rigid vs. two-dimensional flat shape vs. three-dimensional globular), their partition (morsel vs. lump vs. slice) and their arrangement or aggregation (pile vs. bunch vs. tuft) with an instance of conflation with the notion of counterexpectual scantiness and inferior quality (meagre portion). On the etymological level, Ngəmba numeral classifiers develop from ordinary generic nouns denoting concepts such as head, horn, grain, stick, pod, pile and lump. Eventual loss of nominal properties indexes an incipient functional split of the lexical source item and the newly emergent word class of numeral classifier. While Ngəmba conforms with the profile of numeral classifier systems found in other Bantoid languages such as Tiv (Angitso 2020) and beyond (Kießling 2018) in these respects, it diverges by its morphosyntax in establishing a close bond between classifier and numeral to the exclusion of the enumerated noun.