Reduplication as a tool for morphological and phonological analysis in Awetí (original) (raw)

0 Introduction This study describes reduplication in Awetí, a Brazilian indigenous language spoken byasmallpeoplelivinginthreevillagesintheregionoftheheadwatersoftheXingu river,MatoGrosso,centralBrazil. 1 Awetídoesnotbelongto,butistheclosestrelative of the well-known Tupí-Guaraní subfamily, the largest branch of the Tupí family. Mawé,AwetíandTupí-GuaranítogetherconstituteamajorbranchofTupí,"Mawetí-Guaraní"(RodriguesandDietrich1997;Drude2006;DrudeandMeirainprep.). The main interest this study may claim is of a methodological character: the contributionthatthestudyofreduplication(henceforth"RED",forshort)canmakefor the understanding of phonological and morphological units and processes, such as nasalization, abstract morpheme-final phonemes, identification of the stem and of morphemeboundaries,thederivation/inflectiondistinction,etc. Sections1and2serveasabasisfortheremainingpaper.Section1summarizes the phonological system of Awetí. Section2 gives some basic morphological properties and presents some diagnostic affixes used in the remaining sections. Then section3 gives a short general overview over RED in Awetí. Section4 describes the basic patterns of RED found with active (transitive and intransitive) verbs. The members of asmall particular subclass of these end in an unstressed syllable; these aretreatedinsection5.Section6usesevidencefromREDforacloserlookatcertain (morpho-)phonological alternations at the beginning and end of verbal stems. RED with stative verbs is treated in section7. Finally, the RED-related behavior of 1 ThegeneralknowledgeofAwetíunderlyingthisstudyisaresultoftenyearsofworkonAwetí,inclu-dingatotalofaroundfourteenmonthsoffieldwork.From2001to2005,theprojectwassupportedby the Volkswagen Foundation within the DOBES (Documentation of Endangered Languages) program, focusingondocumentingthelanguageandaspectsoftheculture.From2008on,myresearchhasbeen supportedbyaDilthey-fellowshipwhichagainallowsmetodofieldworkandtoinvitespeakerstothe Museu Goeldi in Belém. Reduplication has been studied, and the specific data used in this study has beenelicited,duringthefieldtripinApril/May2009.Iamverygratefulforthesupportbythefunding agencies, the Museu Goeldi and my Awetí teachers. I also owe thanks to several reviewers of earlier versions of this paper, in particular to an anonymous reviewer and the editors. Remaining shortcomingsareminealone.