Glossing
The syntax of glosses is based on the following principles (expanded from the Leipzig Glossing Rules, abbreviated here as LGR):
- When a single object-language element is rendered by several metalanguage elements (category labels), these are separated by periods. Ex: ANN.SG.M (Rule 4 of the LGR).
- When a single object-language element is rendered by several metalanguage elements (words), these are separated by underscores. Ex: be_tall (Rule 4A of the LGR)
- If a grammatical property in the object-language is signalled by a morphophonological alternation (ablaut, mutation, tone alternation, etc.), the backslash is used to separate the category label and the rest of the gloss. Ex: write\PFV (Rule 4D of the LGR)
- Morphological glosses are in capital letters; lexical glosses in small letters (exception: proper nouns have initial capitals, negative glosses have a small n as prefix (nFCT = non-factual);
- Lexical glosses refer to basic stems only, irrespective of the semantic changes induced by derivational and other material; e.g., Gawwada tʃox- ‘to milk’ is glossed “milk-”, tʃox~x ‘to milk one teat only of a cow’ is glossed “milk~SEM-”
- Digits are used for persons; no dot is used between them and the following alphabetic gloss: e.g.: SBJ.3SG.M ‘third singular masculine subject’. (exception to rule 4 of the LGR)
- Glosses reflect the order of elements: prefix(es), stem, suffix(es).
- The ordering of elements within a single tag reflects a general principle “the more inclusive (general) category precedes the more specific one(s)”.
LIST of GLOSSES.DOC (click to download the document)
If you wish to add a gloss to the list, please submit your proposal by filling in the following form. Your suggestion will be examined, and added to the list if it fits the requirements of the LGR and the CorpAfroAs extensions. Thank you.
GLOSS SUBMISSION FORM (click to download the document)
GLOSSES FOR ARABIC (click to download the document)