Allocutive agreement

Inlinguistics,allocutive agreement(abbreviatedALorALLOC) refers to amorphologicalfeature in which the gender of anaddresseeis marked overtly in an utterance using fullygrammaticalizedmarkerseven if the addressee is not referred to in the utterance.The term was first used byLouis Lucien Bonapartein 1862.

Basque

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

Native Basque speakers talking in Basque about the perception ofhika.

InBasque,allocutive forms are required in the verb forms of a main clause when the speaker uses the familiar (also called "intimate" ) pronounhi"thou" (as opposed to formalzu"you" ).This is distinct fromgrammatical genderas it does not involve marking nouns for gender; it is also distinct fromgender-specific pronouns,such asEnglish"he/she" orJapaneseboku( "I", used by males) andatashi( "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 additionalpersonmarker in the verb form (markedAL):

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)

2019Argiamagazine cover about the loss ofnoka(femininehika).Hi, aizan!means "Thou [female], hear!".

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

Level	"I'll go"	"you'll go"
Polite	joanen niz	joanen zira
Intermed.	joanen nuzu/nuxu	joanen xira
Familiar, masc.	joanen nuk	joanen hiz
Familiar, fem.	joanen nun

Some varieties have done away with the unmarked forms except in subordinate clauses:joanen nuk / nun / nuzuvs.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, makinghikaa genderless marker of solidarity.

Beja

Beja,aCushitic language,has allocutive forms, marking the gender of a masculine addressee with the clitic=aand with=ifor feminine addressees:

rihja

see.PST.3SG

=heːb

=1SG.ACC

=a

=AL.2SG.MASC

rihja =heːb =a

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

He saw me (said to a man)

rihja

see.PST.3SG

=heːb

=1SG.ACC

=i

=AL.2SG.FEM

rihja =heːb =i

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

He saw me (said to a woman)

External links

• Allocutive agreement at Everything2