Case inflection of construct state constructions in Dinka

Dinka, a Nilo-Saharan language, is largely monosyllabic, but nevertheless it has a fairly rich morphology. Thus, most of its morphology is expressed by alternations in phonological material of the root. The inflectional categories of nouns manifested in this way include state and case in addition to number. The state category consists of an absolute state and two construct states. The case category includes a nominative, a genitive, an allative, and an essive/ablative. The present article shows how case inflection is manifested in complex noun phrases consisting of a noun in a construct state and a following modifier. It is demonstrated that the case inflection of such noun phrases is manifested almost exclusively by tonal overlays on the nominative (lexical) tones, and that such overlays may occur either in the head or in the modifier or in both the head and the modifier. In this way, a head noun may simultaneously carry state information and case information. Thus, the case inflection of construct state constructions in Dinka adds yet another layer of nonlinear morphology to nouns in this language.