In linguistics, allocutive agreement refers to a morphological feature in which the gender of an addressee is marked overtly in an utterance.[1]
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In Basque, allocutive forms are required in the verb forms of a main clause when the speaker uses the familiar (also called "intimate") pronoun hi "thou" (as opposed to formal zu "you").[1] This is distinct from grammatical gender as it does not involve marking nouns for gender; it is also distinct from gender-specific pronouns, such as English "he/she" or Japanese boku ("I", used by males) and atashi ("I", used by females). In Basque, allocutive agreement involves the grammatical marking of the gender of the addressee in the verb form itself.
Grammatically this is done by introducing an additional second person marker in the verb form (marked ALL):
versus
| Amaia | n-a-u-n |
| Amaia | ABS.1SG-PRES-have-ALL.FEM |
| I am Amaia (to a female addressee, speaking informally) | |
| Amaia | n-a-u-k |
| Amaia | ABS.1SG-PRES-have-ALL.MASC |
| I am Amaia (to a male addressee, speaking informally) | |
Eastern dialects have expanded on this by adding the polite (formerly plural) pronoun zu to the system; in some, hypocoristic palatalization converts this to -xu:
| Level | "I'll go" | "you'll go" |
|---|---|---|
| Polite | joanen niz | joanen zira |
| Intermed. | joanen nuzu/nuxu | joanen xira |
| Familiar, masc. | joanen nuk | joanen hiz |
| Familiar, fem. | joanen nun |
Some varieties have done away with the unmarked forms except in subordinate clauses: joanen nuk / nun / nuzu vs. joanen nizela 'that I go'