Kokborok Grammar - Gender

Gender

In Kokborok there are four genders: masculine gender, feminine gender, common gender, and neuter gender. Words which denote male are masculine, words which denote female are feminine, words which can be both male and female are common gender, and words which cannot be either masculine or feminine and neuter gender.

Gender examples
borok man - masculine
bwrwi woman - feminine
chwrai child - common
buphang tree - neuter

There are various ways to change genders of words:

Using different words
bwsai husband bihik wife
phayung brother hanok sister
kiching male friend mare female friend
Adding in at the end of the masculine word
sikla young man sikli young woman
achu grandfather achui grandmother
When the masculine words ends in a, the a is dropped.
Adding jwk at the end of the masculine word
bwsa son bwsajwk daughter
kwra father-in-law kwrajwk mother-in-law
Words of common gender are made masculine by adding suffixes, like sa, chwla, jua and feminine by adding ma, jwk, bwrwi
pun goat punjua he goat punjuk she goat
tok fowl tokchwla cock tokma hen
takhum swan takhumchwla drake takhumbwrwi duck

Read more about this topic:  Kokborok Grammar

Famous quotes containing the word gender:

    “Most women of [the WW II] generation have but one image of good motherhood—the one their mothers embodied. . . . Anything done “for the sake of the children” justified, even ennobled the mother’s role. Motherhood was tantamount to martyrdom during that unique era when children were gods. Those who appeared to put their own needs first were castigated and shunned—the ultimate damnation for a gender trained to be wholly dependent on the acceptance and praise of others.”
    —Melinda M. Marshall (20th century)

    “Anthropologists have found that around the world whatever is considered “men’s work” is almost universally given higher status than “women’s work.” If in one culture it is men who build houses and women who make baskets, then that culture will see house-building as more important. In another culture, perhaps right next door, the reverse may be true, and basket- weaving will have higher social status than house-building.”
    —Mary Stewart Van Leeuwen. Excerpted from, Gender Grace: Love, Work, and Parenting in a Changing World (1990)

    “... lynching was ... a woman’s issue: it had as much to do with ideas of gender as it had with race.”
    —Paula Giddings (b. 1948)