In linguistics, allocutive agreement (abbreviated AL or ALLOC) refers to a morphological feature in which the gender of an addressee is marked overtly in an utterance using fully grammaticalized markers[1] even if the addressee is not referred to in the utterance.[2] The term was first used by Louis Lucien Bonaparte in 1862.[3]

Basque

See also Basque verbs: Familiar forms and allocutive indices (hika).

In Basque, allocutive forms are required in the verb forms of a main clause when the speaker uses the familiar (also called "intimate") pronoun hi "thou" (as opposed to formal zu "you").[1] This is distinct from grammatical gender as it does not involve marking nouns for gender; it is also distinct from gender-specific pronouns, such as English "he/she" or Japanese boku ("I", used by males) and atashi ("I", used by females). In Basque, allocutive agreement involves the grammatical marking of the gender of the addressee in the verb form itself.

Grammatically this is done by introducing an additional person marker in the verb form (marked AL):

Amaia

Amaia

n-a-iz

ABS.1SG-PRES-be

Amaia n-a-iz

Amaia ABS.1SG-PRES-be

I am Amaia (speaking formally)

versus

Amaia

Amaia

n-a-u-n

ABS.1SG-PRES-have-AL.FEM

Amaia n-a-u-n

Amaia ABS.1SG-PRES-have-AL.FEM

I am Amaia (to a female addressee, speaking informally)

Amaia

Amaia

n-a-u-k

ABS.1SG-PRES-have-AL.MASC

Amaia n-a-u-k

Amaia ABS.1SG-PRES-have-AL.MASC

I am Amaia (to a male addressee, speaking informally)

An old woman in traditional headwear says Hi, aizan! to a teen-aged girl, who can't hear her because she wears earphones.
2019 Argia magazine cover about the loss of noka (feminine hika). Hi, aizan! means "Thou [female], hear!".

Eastern dialects have expanded on this by adding the polite (formerly plural) pronoun zu to the system; in some, hypocoristic palatalization converts this to -xu:

Level"I'll go""you'll go"
Polite joanen nizjoanen zira
Intermed. joanen nuzu/nuxujoanen xira
Familiar, masc. joanen nukjoanen hiz
Familiar, fem. joanen nun

Some varieties have done away with the unmarked forms except in subordinate clauses: joanen nuk / nun / nuzu vs. joanen nizela 'that I go'

Its use is diminishing, especially the feminine forms.

Basque speakers who use allocutive agreement sometimes apply the masculine forms to women, making hika a genderless marker of solidarity.[4]

Beja

Beja, a Cushitic language, has allocutive forms, marking the gender of a masculine addressee with the clitic =a and with =i for feminine addressees:[2]

rihja=heːb=a

see.PST.3SG=1SG.ACC=AL.2SG.MASC

rihja=heːb=a

see.PST.3SG=1SG.ACC=AL.2SG.MASC

He saw me (said to a man)

rihja=heːb=i

see.PST.3SG=1SG.ACC=AL.2SG.FEM

rihja=heːb=i

see.PST.3SG=1SG.ACC=AL.2SG.FEM

He saw me (said to a woman)

References

  1. 1 2 Trask, L. The History of Basque Routledge: 1997 ISBN 0-415-13116-2
  2. 1 2 Antonov, Anton (2015). "Verbal allocutivity in a crosslinguisticperspective". Linguistic Typology. 19 (1). doi:10.1515/lingty-2015-0002. S2CID 125831307.
  3. ↑ Bonaparte, L.-L. Langue basque et langues finnoises (1862) London
  4. ↑ Bereziartua, Garbiñe; Muguruza, Beñat (30 March 2021). "Basque informal talk increasingly restricted to men: The role of gender in the form of address hika" (PDF). Journal of Language and Linguistic Studies. 17 (1): 360–376. doi:10.52462/jlls.22. S2CID 233467609.


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