Atlas of Pidgin and Creole Language Structures Online

This feature considers the formal identity or differentiation between the terms referring to ‘(body) hair’ and ‘feather’.

No difference is made between words, compounds, or phrases. This means that the Ternate Chabacano phrase pilyého del páhro (lit. ‘hide of bird’) is considered equivalent to the Sranan compound fowru-wiwiri (lit. ‘bird hair’) or the Norf’k monomorphemic feather . Also, words/phrases referring to ‘(body) hair’ and ‘feather’ are counted as separate expressions even if there is formal overlap between them, as in e.g. Kinubi su-rás ‘hair’ (lit. ‘hair head’) and su-téri ‘feather’ (lit. ‘hair bird’). This feature has four values:

Differentiation: One word denotes ‘(body) hair’ and another (possibly related) word denotes ‘feather’.

Identity: A single word denotes both ‘(body) hair’ or ’feather’ and no word denotes only ‘(body) hair’ or only ‘feather’.

Overlap: This covers cases of semantic overlap, where there are two different (possibly related) words, but one of them denotes ‘(body) hair or feather’, and the other one denotes only ‘(body) hair’ or only ‘feather’.

Identity and differentiation: There are at least three words; one denotes ‘(body) hair’, one denotes ‘feather’, and the third denotes ‘(body) hair or feather’.