allocutive agreement

{{Short description|Morphological feature marking the gender of the addresee}}

In linguistics, allocutive agreement (abbreviated {{sc|al}} or {{sc|alloc}}) refers to a morphological feature in which the gender of an addressee is marked overtly in an utterance using fully grammaticalized markersTrask, L. The History of Basque Routledge: 1997 {{ISBN|0-415-13116-2}} even if the addressee is not referred to in the utterance.{{cite journal|last1=Antonov|first1=Anton|title=Verbal allocutivity in a crosslinguisticperspective|journal=Linguistic Typology|date=2015|volume=19|issue=1|doi=10.1515/lingty-2015-0002 |s2cid=125831307 |url=https://www.academia.edu/1817520}} The term was first used by Louis Lucien Bonaparte in 1862.Bonaparte, L.-L. Langue basque et langues finnoises (1862) London

Basque

File:Hika.ogv

In Basque, allocutive forms are required in the verb forms of a main clause when the speaker uses the familiar (also called "intimate") pronoun {{lang|eu|hi}} "thou" (as opposed to formal {{lang|eu|zu}} "you"). This is distinct from grammatical gender as it does not involve marking nouns for gender; it is also distinct from gender-specific pronouns, such as English "he/she" or Japanese {{Transliteration|ja|boku}} ("I", used by males) and {{Transliteration|ja|atashi}} ("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 additional person marker in the verb form (marked {{sc|AL}}):

{{interlinear|glossing=link|indent=3

|Amaia n-a-iz

|Amaia ABS.1SG-PRES-be

|I am Amaia (speaking formally)}}

versus

{{interlinear|glossing=link|indent=3

|Amaia n-a-u-n

|Amaia ABS.1SG-PRES-have-AL.FEM

|I am Amaia (to a female addressee, speaking informally)}}

{{interlinear|glossing=link|indent=3

|Amaia n-a-u-k

|Amaia ABS.1SG-PRES-have-AL.MASC

|I am Amaia (to a male addressee, speaking informally)}}

File:Hi aizan.png}} magazine cover about the loss of {{lang|eu|noka}} (feminine {{lang|eu|hika}}). {{lang|eu|Hi, aizan!}} means "Thou [female], hear!".|alt=An old woman in traditional headwear says {{lang|eu|Hi, aizan!}} to a teen-aged girl, who can't hear her because she wears earphones.]]

Eastern dialects have expanded on this by adding the polite (formerly plural) pronoun {{lang|eu|zu}} to the system; in some, hypocoristic palatalization converts this to {{lang|eu|-xu}}:

Level	"I'll go"	"you'll go"
class=wikitable
Polite \| {{lang\|eu-FR\|joanen niz}} \|\| {{lang\|eu-FR\|joanen zira}}
Intermed. \| {{lang\|eu-FR\|joanen nuzu/nuxu}} \|\| {{lang\|eu-FR\|joanen xira}}
Familiar, masc. \| {{lang\|eu-FR\|joanen nuk}} \|\| rowspan=2\| {{lang\|eu-FR\|joanen hiz}}
Familiar, fem. \| {{lang\|eu-FR\|joanen nun}}

Some varieties have done away with the unmarked forms except in subordinate clauses: {{lang|eu-FR|joanen nuk / nun / nuzu}} vs. {{lang|eu-FR|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, making {{lang|eu|hika}} a genderless marker of solidarity.{{cite journal |last1=Bereziartua |first1=Garbiñe |last2=Muguruza |first2=Beñat |title=Basque informal talk increasingly restricted to men: The role of gender in the form of address hika |journal=Journal of Language and Linguistic Studies |date=30 March 2021 |volume=17 |issue=1 |pages=360–376 |doi=10.52462/jlls.22 |s2cid=233467609 |url=https://www.jlls.org/index.php/jlls/article/download/2424/806 |language=en |format=PDF|doi-access=free }}