A typology of frustrative marking in Amazonian languages (original) (raw)
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Nonverbal predication in Amazonia: typological and diachronic considerations
The present volume is a collection of 13 articles selected from 32 presentations at a special session on nonverbal predication at the international conference Amazônicas V, that took place in Belem, Brazil, in May 2014. 1 The papers are primarily descriptive and historical, offering abundant data generally from original and extensive periods of fieldwork, often on languages with relatively little prior description. Thus, each contribution in this volume contains a great deal of new data and analyses, presenting a far more detailed picture of nonverbal predication in individual languages than is found in published grammatical descriptions. Several contributions also offer historical reconstructions, from either comparative data or internal reconstruction.
Chapter 1 Amazonian narrative verbal arts and typological gems
2017
This volume owes its development to a confluence of circumstances, not least of which is the veritable explosion of scholarship on Amazonian languages that has taken place over the last several decades. Though the description and analysis of the 300 or so still-existing languages spoken in Amazonia1 is still far from comprehensive, repositories of linguistic and anthropological academic references, such as the Etnolinguistica web site, clearly reflect exponential growth in the field since the 1990s.2This same period of expanding academic focus on Amazonian languages also saw the rise of new language documentation efforts and
The contribution of Amazonian languages to the typology of purpose clauses
LIAMES: Línguas Indígenas Americanas , 2022
This investigation offers an analysis of the variation in the expression of purpose relations in a sample of 49 Amazonian languages. The most common strategies are conjunctions and converbs. Interestingly, in a number of Amazonian languages, positive purpose meanings are expressed with a conjunction or a converb in combination with other morphosyntactic properties. We briefly examine the areality of positive purpose clauselinkage patterns in four contact zones in the Amazonia: the Vaupés region, the Caquetá-Putumayo region, the Southern Guiana region, and the Marañon-Huallaga region. Besides analyzing the range of ways by which positive purpose clauses are realized in the sample, we also investigate avertive clauses in a number of languages of the database. Amazonian languages show an interesting typological picture in that they tend to have avertive markers which may be intraclausal or relational.
Multilingual imperatives: the elaboration of a category in north-west Amazonia
The Vaupés River Basin in north-west Amazonia is a well-established linguistic area. Its major feature is obligatory societal multilingualism which follows the principle of linguistic exogamy: 'those who speak the same language as us are our brothers, and we do not marry our sisters'. Speakers of East Tucanoan languages, and of one Arawak language, Tariana, participate in the exogamous marriage network, and share the obligatory multilingualism. Long-term interaction between East Tucanoan languages and Tariana has resulted in the rampant diffusion of grammatical and semantic patterns and calquing of categories. A typologically unusual system of eleven imperatives in Tariana bears a strong impact from East Tucanoan languages. But to say that imperative meanings were just borrowed or calqued from East Tucanoan languages would be a simplification. The markers come from different non-imperative categories, via distinct mechanisms. I discuss the mechanisms involved in the development of Tariana multiple imperatives, and then address the crucial question: which factors facilitate the diffusion of commands? International Journal of American Linguistics 74: 189-225.
On this and other worlds: Voices from Amazonia - Studies in Diversity Linguistics 17, Language Science Press, 2017
This edited volume offers a collection of twelve interlinear texts reflecting the vast linguistic diversity of Amazonia as well as the rich verbal arts and oral literature traditions of Amazonian peoples. Contributions to the volume come from a variety of geographic regions and represent the Carib, Jê, Tupi, East Tukano, Nadahup, and Pano language families, as well as three linguistic isolates. The selected texts exemplify a variety of narrative styles recounting the origins of constellations, crops, and sacred cemeteries, and of travel to worlds beyond death. We hear tales of tricksters and of encounters between humans and other beings, learn of battles between enemies, and gain insight into history and the indigenous perspective of creation, cordiality and confrontation. The contributions to this volume are the result of research efforts conducted since 2000, and as such, exemplify rapidly expanding investment and interest in documenting native Amazonian voices. They moreover demonstrate the collaborative efforts of linguists, anthropologists, and indigenous leaders, storytellers, and researchers to study and preserve Amazonian languages and cultures. Each chapter offers complete interlinear analysis as well as ample commentary on both linguistic and cultural aspects, appealing to a wide audience, including linguists, historians, anthropologists, and other social scientists. This collection is the first of its type, constituting a significant contribution to focused study of Amazonian linguistic diversity and a relevant addition to our broader knowledge of Amerindian languages and cosmologies. Media files complement the interlinear texts and are available for download.
Blended grammar: Kumandene Tariana of northwest Amazonia
Abstract: Kumandene Tariana, a North Arawak language, spoken by about 40 people in the community of Santa Terezinha on the Iauari river (tributary of the Vaupés River, not far from the Upper Rio Negro, a major tributary of the Amazon), can be considered a new blended language. The Kumandene Tariana moved to their present location from the middle Vaupés about two generations ago, escaping pressure from the Catholic missionaries. The Kumandene Tariana intermarry with the Baniwa Hohôdene, speakers of a closely related language. This agrees with the principle of 'linguistic exogamy' common to most indigenous people within the Vaupés River Basin linguistic area. Baniwa is the majority language in the community, and Kumandene Tariana is endangered. The only other extant variety of Tariana is the Wamiarikune Tariana dialect (for which there is a grammar and a dictionary, by the present author) which has undergone strong influence from Tucano, the major language of the region. As a result of their divergent development and different substrata, Kumandene Tariana and Wamiarikune Tariana are not mutually intelligible. Over the past fifty years, speakers of Kumandene Tariana have acquired numerous Baniwa-like features in the grammar and lexicon. The extent of Baniwa impact on Kumandene Tariana varies depending on the speaker, and on the audience. Kumandene Tariana shares some similarities with other 'blended', or 'merged' languages — including Surzhyk (a combination or Russian and Ukrainian), Trasjanka (a mixture of Russian and Belorussian), and Portunhol (a merger of Spanish and Portuguese). The influence of Baniwa is particularly instructive in the domain of verbal categories — negation, tense, aspect, and evidentiality on which we concentrate in this presentation.
Different histories, different results: the origin and development of two Amazonian languages
2011
Tupinambá, a member of branch III of the Tupi-Guarani linguistic family of the Tupi linguistic stock (Rodrigues 1984/ 1985) is-in so far as it is known-the only Brazilian indigenous language that has had an important role in the development of two Amazonian languages, namely Kokáma/ Omágua and Amazonian Língua Geral or Nheengatú. These are two languages that originated in contact situations and, even though having Tupinambá in common as a source language, have become typologically different in several aspects due to the peculiarities of the social histories of their speakers. With regard to Kokáma/Omágua, there are three concurring hypotheses on its origin: (a) it is simply another language of the Tupi-Guarani genetic family, (b) it is a descendant of the Amazonian Língua Geral, or (c) it developed from contact between speakers of Tupinambá and speakers of other languages, including an Arawakan one, and is not the continuity of any particular language. With regard to the Amazonian Língua Geral, some scholars treat it as a creole language, but to others it is a continuation of Tupinambá spoken outside the indigenous villages, subjected to external influences over the course of time. In this paper I present arguments in favor of the different development possibilities of both Kokáma/Omágua and Amazonian Língua Geral, taking into account aspects of 1 I am thankful to Gabriel Antunes de Araujo and Margarida Petter for having invited me to present a paper on Amazonian languages and linguistic contact at the 5 th ABECS meeting, as well as to Prof. Aryon D. Rodrigues for his criticism and suggestions, which was particularly important for me since he is the most well versed scholar of the linguistic history of the Tupi stock of languages. ANA SUELLY ARRUDA CÂMARA CABRAL 10 the social history of the respective speakers, as well as lexical and grammatical features of each of the two languages.