DefinePK

Abstract

The present study tries to analyze the derivation of feminine nouns from the masculine base forms in Rangri language using the Word-and-Paradigm Morphology of Haspelmath and Sims (2010) as a theoretical guide. It is an Indo-Aryan language spoken in different regions of Punjab and Central Sindh of Pakistan. It is a marker of Rangar identity of mostly the Rajput clans that migrated from the Haryana region of India during the Partition in 1947. The data were collected in the form of recordings of interviews with old rural men and women from Sanghar, Nawabshah and Matiari districts of Sindh. The derivation of feminine nouns from masculine base forms is reasonably regular. Most of the nouns ending with the regular masculine marker /ɑ/ are converted into feminine nouns by removing the masculine marker and then attaching the regular feminine marker /ɪ/, and the masculine nouns ending with the marker /ɪ/ are converted into feminine by the addition of the formative /æɳ/ in place of the masculine terminal phoneme. The nouns ending with consonants usually take /ʌn/ or /nɪ̃/ as the feminine marker to derive the feminine nouns. The efficacy of the Word-and-Paradigm Morphology as a theoretical framework for derivational processes was proved as successful as for inflectional processes.