SIL-Mexico Electronic Working Papers #020:Flexible Animacy in Comaltepec Chinantec
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SIL-Mexico Electronic Working Papers #020: Flexible animacy in Comaltepec Chinantec Judith Lynn Anderson Cheryl A. Black Anderson, Judith Lynn and Cheryl A. Black. 2016. Flexible animacy in Comaltepec Chinantec. SIL-Mexico Branch Electronic Working Papers #020. [http://mexico.sil.org/resources/archives/68283] (©) SIL International. These working papers may be periodically updated, expanded, or corrected. Comments may be sent to the authors at: [email protected] and [email protected]. 2 SIL-Mexico Electronic Working Papers #020:Flexible animacy in Comaltepec Chinantec Contents 1 Introduction . 2 2 Basic facts about animacy in Chinantec . 3 3 Flexible animacy . 5 3.1 Animates become inanimates . 6 3.2 Inanimates become animates . 7 4 Conclusion . 10 A Orthography—IPA Equivalents . 11 A.1 Consonants . 11 A.2 Vowels . 11 A.3 Diacritics . 12 References . 12 1 Introduction Animacy is an important feature in the grammars of the languages of certain Otomanguean lan- guage families, including Chinantecan and Tlapanecan. These facts have been described or referred to in published descriptions, including Merrifield (1968), Robbins (1968), Rupp (1989), J. Ander- son (1989), Westley (1991), Foris (2000), Skinner & Skinner (2000), Merrifield & A. Anderson (2007) and especially Rupp (2009) for Chinantecan languages; and in Suárez (1983), APLT (1988), Carrasco Zúñiga (2006) and Marlett (2012) for Tlapanecan. The present paper looks at a special twist to the use of animacy in the Comaltepec variety of Chinantec (ISO 639-3 code [cco]) that apparently is not found in other varieties—at least nothing has appeared in the literature—although something similar is reportedly possible in at least one variety of Tlapanec (Me'phaa). Chinantec languages are spoken in the state of Oaxaca, in southern Mexico. Comaltepec Chinan- tec, a sub variety of what is referred to as Chinanteco de la Sierra in INALI (2008:60), is spoken in the municipalities of Santiago Comaltepec (17° 36' N, 96° 34' W), San Juan Bautista Atatlahuca, and reportedly in San Juan Bautista Valle Nacional. Quiotepec Chinantec is also included under the label of Chinanteco de la Sierra by INALI 2008. The mutual intelligibility study reported in Egland (1978:12) indicated a 69% understanding on the part of Comaltepec Chinantec speakers listening to Quiotepec Chinantec speakers, and 87% in the opposite direction, with lesser percentages reported for some other towns of the immediate area. While animacy is relevant in Otomanguean language families such as Amuzgoan, Mixtecan, and Zapotecan for the choice of pronoun (person vs. animal vs. thing), in Chinantecan and Tlapanecan animacy is a far more pervasive feature. Agreement in animacy is reflected inside of the noun phrase and on the verb, as briefly shown in section 2. In addition, however, arguably as a result of contact with Zapotecan languages, Comaltepec Chinantec also uses three distinct pronouns for people, animals, and things (while the other varieties of Chinantec only distinguish between animate and inanimate pronouns)—with some extra complications, as mentioned below. What is even more interesting in the Comaltepec variety of Chinantec is that the animacy of a noun may vary under certain conditions or in certain contexts, including the kind of involvement Basic facts about animacy in Chinantec 3 with or attitude towards the referent of that noun that the speaker has. Nothing like this has been reported for other varieties of Chinantec, and conversations with researchers on them have not turned up unreported facts in this regard. The data are presented here in two types of transcription. The first is the one used in the lan- guage community, readable by Comaltepec Chinantec speakers. The second is a broad phonetic transcription in the tradition of the International Phonetic Association (IPA 1999) with morpheme breaks included. See appendix A for a concise explanation of the orthographic symbols. For a brief orientation to general Chinantec phonology, see Silverman (2006).1 2 Basic facts about animacy in Chinantec All nouns in Chinantec are classified as either animate or inanimate, and the classification is usually quite straightforward in semantic terms. (See the discussion of this topic in Rupp 2009.) Nouns that refer to living beings that can move of their own volition are classified as animate; typical examples are people, mammals, reptiles, and insects. Most other nouns are classified as inanimate. Some simple examples of each class of noun are given in (1)-(2). (1) Some animate nouns a. dseaˋ d͡ʒæ˩ person b. ta̱ˊ tã˩˧ bird c. jiuung˜ hʲuːŋ˥˩˥ child d. dsiiˋ d͡ʒìː˩ dog e. júuˆ •huː˥ opossum f. ji ̱ꞌˋ hĩʔ˩ wasp g. taꞌˊ taʔ˩˧ bee h. quɨꞌˊ kɯʔ˩˧ lizard i. mɨꞌˋ mɯʔ˩ snake 1 The following abbreviations are used: 3 = third person, 3a = third person animal, 3h = third person human, an = animate, caus = causative, cmpl = completive, cont = continuative, cs = change to stative, def = definite, dem = demonstrative, dim = diminutive, dist = distal, em = emphatic, inan = inanimate, intns = intensifier, loc = location, med = medial, neg = negative, opl = object plural, pfv = perfective, pl = plural, poss = possessive, pot = potential, prox = proximal, rel = relativizer, sg = singular. The data in this paper were collected by the first author from 1970 to the present, especially during the years 1970- 1979 while usually living in the Chinantec community of Santiago Comaltepec. While the Chinantec people have generally not wanted to be recognized, appreciation goes to Juventino López López for the whole idea for this paper and to the main language associates during those first nine years in the village: Virginia Hernández M. de Luna and Isaac Hernández Martínez. The examples presented here were discussed long ago with Keneth L. Pike. Help on this paper was also gratefully received from Stephen A. Marlett and H. Andrew Black. 4 SIL-Mexico Electronic Working Papers #020:Flexible animacy in Comaltepec Chinantec (2) Some inanimate nouns a. líˆ •li˥ flower b. jɨˋ hɯ˩ fire c. jníiˊ •hniː˩˧ cloud d. ca̱˜ kã˩˥ corn dough e. júuˆ •huː˥ word f. ji ̱ꞌˋ hĩʔ˩ orange g. taꞌˊ taʔ˩˧ honey h. cuuˉ kuː˧ money i. ꞌmaquɨ́ɨˋ ʔma•kɯː˩ pine tree j. ꞌmatooˋ ʔmatoː˩ banana tree Various other details about animacy classes in Chinantec are discussed in Rupp (2009). Note that nothing in the form of the word itself indicates its animacy class. As examples 1g ‘bee’ and 2g ‘honey’ show, the same word form sometimes may be classified as animate and inan- imate, with related, but distinct, meanings. In other cases, the two identical word forms are simply unrelated homophones; compare 1e ‘opossum’ and 2e ‘word’. A noun that refers to a non-living representative of the animate class is still classified as animate; for example, ꞌlɨɨ˜ /ʔlɯː˥˩˥/ ‘dead person’ and dsealɨɨ˜ /d͡ʒælɯː˥˩˥/ ‘doll’. Some nouns that are unexpectedly animate on strictly semantic grounds, at least from a Western perspective, include those in (3). All of these, with the exception of the word for thunder, use the pronoun that is typically reserved for people (–r, –iñ). The word for thunder uses the pronoun that is typically reserved for animals (–reꞌ, –neꞌ). Many of these can be explained by an understanding of Chinantec mythology, in which the moon is a female deity, the sun is a male deity, and the stars are the souls of babies who have died. (3) Some animate nouns that refer to (normally) inanimate entities a. sɨꞌˋ sɯʔ˩ moon b. nʉ́ʉˊ •nøː˩˧ star c. ieeˋ ieː˩ sun d. dsealɨɨ˜ d͡ʒælɯː˥˩˥ doll, figure e. i ̱i̱ˉ güɨꞌñeáˋ iː̃˧ ɡʷɯ•ʔɲæ˩ thunder2 f. jɨ˜ güɨꞌñeáˋ hɯ˩˥ ɡʷɯ•ʔɲæ˩ lightning g. crúuˆ •kɾuː˥ (Christian) cross The classification of a noun in Chinantec languages is generally known by the agreement that it determines on words in the noun phrase that it heads, as it is in Tlapanecan languages (see Marlett 2012). Agreement is overtly marked on definite articles, indefinite articles, quantifiers, adjectives and relativizers. In some cases, the forms are suppletive; see table 1. In the case of adjectives, the inanimate form appears to be the unmarked form, and animacy agreement is indicated by the addition of a nasalization suffix, often with a vowel change (although there are many exceptions). See the simple examples (4)-(5) and table 1. 2This noun güɨꞌñeáˋ has two related meanings: if it sounds it is ‘thunder’, if it gives light, it is ‘lightning’. Flexible animacy 5 (4) e taꞌˊ e néeˉ e taʔ˩˧ e •neː˧ def.inan honey rel.inan yellow.inan ‘the honey that is yellow’ (5) i ̱ taꞌˊ i ̱ neáangˉ ĩ taʔ˩˧ ĩ •næːŋ˧ def.an bee rel.an yellow.an ‘the bee that is yellow’ Table 1 Inanimate-Animate Pairs Inanimate Animate a. Definite article e e i ̱ ĩ b. many, much jmiguiʉˊ hmiɡʲø˩˧ jmiguiúungˋ hmi•ɡʲuːŋ˩ c. yellow néeˉ •neː˧ neáangˉ •næːŋ˧ d. one co̱o̱ˋ kõː˩ jaangˋ haːŋ˩ e. two tú̱ˉ •tũ˧ gángˉ •ɡáŋ˧ f. five ꞌñeáˋ •ʔɲæ˩ ꞌñíingˉ •ʔɲiːŋ˧ g. all lajɨˋ lahɯ˩ lajɨɨngˋ lahɯːŋ˩ h. Plural jaléꞌˋ ha•leʔ˩ jaléngꞌˋ ha•leŋʔ˩ Agreement in animacy is also indicated on the verb, with the absolutive (viz., the subject of an intransitive verb and the direct object of a transitive verb) of the clause determining the agreement. Table 2 Inanimate-Animate Verb Pairs Inanimate Animate a. fall (sg.) tóꞌˋ •toʔ˩ tøiñꞌ` tɤiɲʔ˩ b. hit báɾ` •baɾ˩ bǿøiñ ̄ •bɤːiɲ˧ c. abandon tʉ́rˋ •tør˩ tiúuiñˉ •tʲuːiɲ˧ d. give cuørˊ kʷɤr˩˧ cuǿøiñˋ •kʷɤːiɲ˩ e. disgust eꞌr` eʔr˩ eiñꞌˋ eiɲʔ˩ f. leave séerˊ •seːr˩˧ seáaiñˊ •sæːiɲ˩˧ g. bury óorˊ •oːr˩˧ áaiñˉ •aːiɲ˧ h. go (sg.) not home dséeˊ •d͡ʒeː˩˧ dséerˊ •d͡ʒeːr˩˧ i. grow cuaangˋ kʷaːŋ˩ cuaaiñˋ kʷaːiɲ˩ j. is swollen ye̱e̱ˋ yẽː˩ yaaiñˋ yaːiɲ˩ 3 Flexible animacy The use of the noun class which normally refers to animals instead of the human noun class as a means of demoting the status of a person being talked to or talked about has been reported in Bantu languages (Bill Mann, p.c.).