Gender and class grouping systems categorize nouns in languages. Some languages have natural gender systems like English that group nouns as masculine, feminine or neutral. Dyirbal, an Australian Aboriginal language, has a more complex 4 class noun system. The class a noun belongs to determines the pronoun used to refer to it. The traditional Dyirbal system grouped inanimate items, edible plants, dangerous things, and women separately from males and animals. Younger speakers now use a simplified 2 class system of natural gender.

1. Gender and Class Grouping nouns by their behaviour

2. Gender 2 or 3 groups English German ‘ natural gender’ natural+grammatical gender boy masc Junge girl fem Mädchen Door neut Tür

3. Jirrbal/Dyirbal, North Queensland, Australia Dyirbal has 4 genders or noun classes. A noun’s class determines what pronoun is used to mean he/she/it Class 1 ‘bayi’ means it Class 2 use balam Class 3 use balan Class 4 use bala ______ is big.

4. Traditional system Class 4 bala Inanimate and inedible items, Trees, stones, mud, noise, language Class 3 Balam Edible things fruits and vegetabls and the trees that produce them Class 2 Balan Women, fire, dangerous things Girl, shield, coals, nettle, bird, sun, stonefish Class 1 BAYI Male things Males, kangaroos, fish, fishing lines, rainbow, moon, storm

5. Young people’s Dyirbal Class 4 Fruits, vegetables, fire, sun, moon, star, fishing lines, shields, etc Class 3 Class2 All females Class 1 All males All animals