Cover not available

In:The Diachrony of Classification Systems
Edited by William B. McGregor and Søren Wichmann
[Current Issues in Linguistic Theory 342] 2018
► pp. 33–76

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload Book PDF
authorization required

Niger-Congo numeral classifiers in a diachronic perspective

Published online: 14 May 2018
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/cilt.342.03kie
Numeral classifier systems have only recently come to be recognized in various African languages where they either co-exist with fully fledged noun class systems or supersede residual ones. This chapter explores the semantic and morphosyntactic properties of Niger-Congo numeral classifier systems in a typological and a diachronic perspective. Due to an incipient stage of development, most of these systems are fairly transparent etymologically. With respect to lexical source concepts, the classifier items originate in nouns for concrete objects such as body parts or in basic level terms, most of which relate to the botanical domain. Syntactically, the emergent classifier constructions provide counter-evidence to current generalizations in that they separate the classifier from the numeral, allowing for morphophonological fusion of classifier and enumerated noun rather than classifier and numeral. These syntactic properties reflect constituency relations directly inherited from associative predecessor constructions.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The numeral classifier systems in Niger-Congo
  • 3.Lexical sources and cognitive models of classifiers
    • 3.1Body parts
    • 3.2Basic level terms
    • 3.3Botanical terms
    • 3.4Terms of aggregation and partition
    • 3.5Obscure etymology
  • 4.Syntactic sources of classifier constructions
  • 5.Grammaticalization: From noun to classifier
  • 6.Puzzles
  • 7.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgments
  • Notes
  • References
  • Appendix
References (52)
References
Aikhenvald, Alexandra Y. 2000. Classifiers: A typology of noun categorization devices. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Allan, Keith. 1977. “Classifiers”. Language 53.285–311. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Anderson, Stephen. 1983. Tone and Morpheme Rules in Bamileke-Ngyemboon. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Southern California.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Beyer, Klaus. 2006. La langue pana. Köln: Rüdiger Köppe.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bisang, Walter. 1999. “Classifiers in East and Southeast Asian Languages. Counting and beyond”. Numeral Types and Changes Worldwide ed. by Jadranka Grozdanovic, 113–185. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Claudi, Ulrike. 1997. “Some Thoughts on the Origin of Gender Marking”. African Linguistics at the Crossroads: Papers from Kwaluseni, 1st World Congress of African Linguistics, Swaziland, 18–22. VII. 1994. ed. by Robert K. Herbert, 63–74. Köln: Rüdiger Köppe.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Craig, Colette. ed. 1986. Noun Classes and Categorization. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1994. “Classifier Languages”. The Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics ed. by Ronald E. Asher & James M. Y. Simpson, Vol. II, 565–569. Oxford: Pergamon Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
de Blois, Kornelis Frans. 1970. “The Augment in the Bantu Languages”. Africana Linguistica 4.87–165.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
de Wolf, Paul. 1971. The Noun Class System of Proto-Benue-Congo. The Hague: Mouton.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dixon, R. M. W. 1986. “Noun Classes and Noun Classification in Typological Perspective”. Noun Classes and Categorization ed. by Colette Craig, 105–112. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gil, David. 2005. “Numeral Classifiers”. The World Atlas of Language Structures. Martin Haspelmath, Matthew S. Dryer, David Gil & Bernard Comrie, eds. 2005, 226–229. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Greenberg, Joseph H. 1966. The Languages of Africa (2nd edition). Bloomington & The Hague: Mouton & Co.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1972.“Numeral Classifiers and Substantival Number: Problems in the genesis of a linguistic type”. Working Papers in Language Universals 9 .1–39. [Reprinted in Greenberg (1990: 166–193)].Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1990. On Language: Selected writings of Joseph H. Greenberg. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Grinevald, Colette & Frank Seifart. 2004. “African and Amazonian Noun Classes: Towards a comparison”. Linguistic Typology 8.243–285. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Güldemann, Tom. 2008. “The Macro-Sudan Belt: Towards identifying a linguistic area in northern sub-Saharan Africa”. A Linguistic Geography of Africa ed. by Bernd Heine & Derek Nurse, 151–185. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hamm, Cameron. 2010. “Numeral Classifiers in Bafanji (Nun, Eastern Grassfields)”. Ms., SIL Cameroon.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Harro, Gretchen & Nancy Haynes. 1991. Grammar Sketch of Yemba. Yaoundé: SIL.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Haspelmath, Martin, Matthew S. Dryer, David Gil & Bernard Comrie, eds. 2005. The World Atlas of Language Structures. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Heine, Bernd. 1976. A Typology of African Languages. Berlin: Dietrich Reimer.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hombert, Jean-Marie. 1980. “Le groupe noun”. L’Expansion bantou I ed. by Luc Bouquiaux, 143–163. Paris: SELAF.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hyman, Larry. 2005. “Initial Vowel and Prefix Tone in Kom: Related to the Bantu augment?” Studies in African Comparative Linguistics with Special Focus on Bantu and Mande ed. by Koen Bostoen & Jacky Maniacky, 313–341. Tervuren: Royal Museum for Central Africa.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ikoro, Suanu M. 1994. “Numeral Classifiers in Kana”. Journal of African Languages and Linguistics 15.7–28. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1996. The Kana Language. Leiden: CNWS.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jones, Ross M. 1998. The Boko/Busa Language Cluster. München: Lincom.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2004. Busa dictionary. München: Lincom.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kähler-Meyer, Emmi. 1941/42. “Märchen in der Balisprache aus dem Grasland von Kamerun”. Zeitschrift für Eingeborenensprachen 32.135–160, 224–236.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Katamba, Francis. 2003. “Bantu Nominal Morphology”. The Bantu Languages ed. by Derek Nurse & Gérard Philippson, 103–120. London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kaufman, Elaine Marlow. 1972. Ibibio Dictionary. Washington, D.C.: Office of Education.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lovegren, Jesse. 2010. “Notes on Ngwe Numeral Classifiers”. Ms., University at Buffalo.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Manessy, Gabriel. 1961. “Le Bwamu et ses dialectes”. Bulletin de l’Institut Fondamental de l’Afrique Noire 23.119–178.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mbuagbaw, Tanyi Eyong. 1996. Denya phonology. Yaoundé: Cameroon Bible Translation Association.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Moritz, Luc. 1994. “The Facts of Nchufie DP’s: A report”. Aspects of Nchufie Grammar ed. by Hilda Koopman & Murat Kural, 91–113. Los Angeles: University of California, Los Angeles.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mous, Maarten. 1999. “ Numeral Classifiers in Toussian: First preliminary version”. Ms., Leiden University.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pasch, Helma. 1985. “Possession and Possessive Classifiers in 'Dongo-ko”. Afrika und Übersee 68.69–85.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1986. Die Mba-Sprachen: Die Nominalklassensysteme und die genetische Gliederung einer Gruppe von Ubangi-Sprachen. Hamburg: Helmut Buske.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Prost, André. 1969. “Le pana”. Bulletin de L’Institut Français de l’Afrique Noire B 31:3886–911.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rowland-Oke, Mary. 2003. Description systématique de la langue Obolo-Andoni – langue du groupe Cross River. Paris: L‘Harmattan.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schadeberg, Thilo C. 2001. “Number in Swahili Grammar”. Afrikanistische Arbeitspapiere 68 (= Swahili Forum, VIII).7–16.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tischhauser, Georg & Johannes Stöckle. 1993. Mungaka (Bali) Dictionary. Köln: Rüdiger Köppe.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
van der Velde, Mark. 2009. “Two Non-Prototypical Uses of the Bantu Connective Construction”. Paper presented at the WOCAL 6, Cologne 17–21.08.2009.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Vinogradov, Viktor. 2009. “Strange Kinds of Nominal Classification in some West African Languages”. Paper presented at the WOCAL 6, Cologne 17–21.08.2009.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Watters, John R. 1981. A Phonology and Morphology of Ejagham, with Notes on Dialect Variation. Ph.D. dissertation, University of California, Los Angeles.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wedekind, Klaus. 1972. An Outline of the Grammar of Busa (Nigeria). Ph.D. dissertation, University of Kiel.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Welmers, William E. 1973. African Language Structures. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Williamson, Kay. 1993. “The Noun Prefixes of New Benue-Congo”. Journal of African Languages and Linguistics 14.29–45. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2000. “Towards Reconstructing Proto-Niger-Congo”. Proceedings of the 2nd World Congress of African Linguistics, Leipzig 1997 ed. by H. Ekkehart Wolff & Orin Gensler, 49–70. Köln: Rüdiger Köppe.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Williamson, Kay & Roger Blench. 2000. “Niger-Congo”. African Languages: An introduction ed. By Bernd Heine & Derek Nurse, 11–42. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Zaugg-Coretti, Siliva. 2005. Le syntagme nominal en toussian du nord (langue voltaïque du Burkina Faso). M.A. thesis (Lizenziatsarbeit), University of Zürich.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Zheltov, Alexander. N.d. “Numeral Classifiers in Gban (South Eastern Mande, Niger-Congo) – preliminary remarks”. Ms., St. Petersburg State University .Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (6)

Cited by six other publications

Aikhenvald, Alexandra Y.
2025. A Guide to Gender and Classifiers, DOI logo
Angitso, Michael Terhemen & Roland Kießling
2024. Towards reconstructing the numeral classifier system of Proto-Tivoid. Afrika und Übersee ► pp. 204 ff. DOI logo
Mekamgoum, Solange & Roland Kießling
2024. Two concurrent systems of nominal classification in Ngəmba (Eastern Grassfields). Afrika und Übersee ► pp. 162 ff. DOI logo
Hegedűs, Irén
2022. Two plant-based numeral classifiers in Nuristani languages: grain and branch . Journal of South Asian Languages and Linguistics 9:1-2 ► pp. 69 ff. DOI logo
Güldemann, Tom & Ines Fiedler
2021. More diversity enGENDERed by African languages: an introduction. STUF - Language Typology and Universals 74:2 ► pp. 221 ff. DOI logo
Güldemann, Tom & Ines Fiedler
2022. Restructured Niger-Congo gender systems as another type of concurrent nominal classification. Journal of African Languages and Linguistics 43:2 ► pp. 139 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 6 december 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue