Avar noun classifiers
From UniLang Wiki
Avar has no grammatical gender, strictly speaking. It uses a system of noun classifiers (similar to those found in languages like Swahili) to show gender agreement in nouns and adjectives.
There are four classes/markers in Avar:
в - male humans
й - female humans
б - everything else (objects, animals, even babies)
р/л - plurals of all of the above. р usually occurs at the beginning of a word, and л everywhere else. With a few exceptions the system is regular, i.e. nouns marked with в almost always refer to male humans, й to females, etc.
кIудияб рукъ - big house
кIудияб чу - big horse
кIудияв чи - big man
кIудияй чIужу - big woman
кIудиял рукъзал - big houses
кIудиял чуял - big horses
кIудиял чагIи - big men
кIудиял руччаби - big women
вачIунев чи - the man who is coming (lit "the coming man")
ячIуней чIужу - the woman who is coming
рачIунел чагIи/руччаби/чуял - the men/women/horses who are coming
Noun classifiers are not restricted to substantives. They also appear in verbs:
дун вачIуна - i (male) am coming
дун ячIуна - i (female) am coming
ниж рачIуна - we are coming
эбелалъ гьабуна квен - mother made food
эбелалъ гьавуна вас - mother bore a son
эбелалъ гьаруна хинкIал - mother made khinkal (caucasian meat dumplings)
demonstratives:
гьаб тIехь - this book
гьав гьалмагъ - this friend
гьай яс - this girl
гьал гьалмагъзаби - these friends
гьал ясал - these girls
гьал чуял - these horses
locatives:
дун гьанив вуго - i (male) am here
дун гьаний йиго - i (female) am here
ниж гьанир руго - we are here
чу гьанибе бачIана - the horse came here
гьалмагъ гьаниве вачIана - the friend came here
гьалмагъзаби гьанире рачIана - the friends came here
вац рокъов вуго - the brother is in the house
яц рокъой йиго - the sister is in the house
вацалги яцалги рокъор руго - the brothers and sisters are in the house
тIехь рокъоб буго - the book is in the house
вац рокъове ана - the brother went to the house
яц рокъое ана - the sister went to the house
тIехь гъанссинибе лъуна - the book was put into the box
Some nouns referring to people have preserved a contrast between masculine and feminine:
вас - boy яс - girl
вац - brother яц - sister
вакьад - father-in-law якьад - mother-in-law
