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Linglib.Fragments.Swahili.Basic

Swahili: Basic Types #

Shared types for the Swahili fragment, primarily the noun class system. Swahili has 18 noun classes (1–10, 14–18), following the standard Bantu numbering. Classes 1/2 are singular/plural animate (human), classes 3–10 are inanimate with various semantic associations, and classes 15–18 are infinitive and locative classes.

Noun class is the fundamental organizing principle of Swahili morphosyntax: it conditions subject/object agreement on the verb, possessive agreement, demonstrative agreement, and — crucially for relativization — the form of resumptive pronouns (@cite{scott-2021}).

Noun Class and Gender #

Following @cite{carstens-1991} and @cite{kramer-2015}, noun class in Bantu expresses the combination of number and gender. Classes come in singular/plural pairs that define a "gender" (e.g., gender A = cl1/cl2 = human sg/pl).

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inductive Fragments.Swahili.NounClass :
Type

Swahili noun classes. Standard Bantu numbering (1–10, 14–18). Classes 11–13 are absent in Swahili.

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    @[implicit_reducible]
    instance Fragments.Swahili.instDecidableEqNounClass :
    DecidableEq NounClass
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    @[implicit_reducible]
    instance Fragments.Swahili.instReprNounClass :
    Repr NounClass
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    def Fragments.Swahili.instReprNounClass.repr :
    NounClass → ℕ → Std.Format
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      def Fragments.Swahili.NounClass.isAnimate :
      NounClass → Bool

      Whether a noun class is animate (classes 1 and 2). Animate classes trigger person-matching resumptive pronouns in relativization.

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        def Fragments.Swahili.NounClass.isLocative :
        NounClass → Bool

        Whether a noun class is a locative class (16, 17, 18).

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          def Fragments.Swahili.NounClass.isSingular :
          NounClass → Bool

          Whether a noun class is singular.

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            def Fragments.Swahili.NounClass.subjPrefix :
            NounClass → String

            Subject prefix for each class on the verb.

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              inductive Fragments.Swahili.Gender :
              Type

              Bantu genders: singular/plural noun class pairings. @cite{carstens-1991}: different number/gender combinations constitute different noun classes. @cite{scott-2021} Table 3.

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                @[implicit_reducible]
                instance Fragments.Swahili.instDecidableEqGender :
                DecidableEq Gender
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                def Fragments.Swahili.instReprGender.repr :
                Gender → ℕ → Std.Format
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                  @[implicit_reducible]
                  instance Fragments.Swahili.instReprGender :
                  Repr Gender
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                  def Fragments.Swahili.Gender.singularClass :
                  Gender → NounClass

                  Singular class for a gender.

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                    def Fragments.Swahili.Gender.pluralClass :
                    Gender → NounClass

                    Plural class for a gender.

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                      def Fragments.Swahili.Gender.status :
                      Gender → Bantu.GenderStatus

                      Semantic core status for each Swahili gender.

                      Swahili's General Animate Concords (GAC) — class 1/2 agreement for all animate nouns regardless of class — suggests [animate] may be grammaticalized as a feature (@cite{carstens-2026} §8, (109)–(110)). The core assignments below follow the pattern established for Xhosa and Shona, with gender E (9/10) bearing [animal] given the predominance of animal terms in this class. Genders B–D lack salient entity-class associations.

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                        def Fragments.Swahili.Gender.toSurfaceGender :
                        Gender → Features.SurfaceGender

                        Map Swahili gender classes to the shared surface-level gender type. Gender A (cl1/cl2, human) → animate; all others → inanimate. This is the coarsest descriptive mapping — Bantu class distinctions within the inanimate domain are not captured at the SurfaceGender level.

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