How do noun genders work in Khoe languages?

In Khoe languages, noun genders are organized into three categories: masculine, feminine, and common. These genders are expressed through distinctive suffixes applied to singular, dual, and plural forms.1

The assignment of animate nouns to these categories is generally straightforward, while the assignment of inanimate nouns is considered arbitrary. However, these genders are also associated with semantic distinctions, such as shape—masculine often denotes long, narrow objects, while feminine typically refers to short, broad, or round objects—as well as specificity and countability.1

These gender categories also function as a system of agreement, or concord, where dependent forms within a sentence, such as numerals and object markers, must bear suffixes that agree with the gender of the noun. In some Non-Khoekhoe branches of the Khoe group, these gender suffixes may be omitted if the context makes the gender clear.1