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The Songhay language of Hombori, Mali, has rapidly developed head-marking in nouns

What is it about?

A substantially new system of directly marking pronominal-possessor categories on possessed nouns has been developed in a few hundred years in this Songhay language.

Why is it important?

Some linguists claim that head-marking versus dependent-marking is a stable feature of languages. This case study shows how a language can "flip" in a short time.

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The following have contributed to this page:
Jeffrey Heath
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