Chapter 5. Number in Kambaata

The Cushitic language Kambaata (South Ethiopia) is a head-final and suffixing language with a rich nominal and verbal morphology. Number is marked on nouns and pronouns, and traces of number agreement are found on modifiers and verbs. This chapter concentrates on number marking on common nouns, thereby focusing on the interaction of number marking with lexical semantics. It demonstrates that in this language, number is a category between inflection and derivation.