The Twenty-Nine Enclitics of Meskwaki
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
The Twenty-Nine Enclitics of Meskwaki IVES GODDARD Smithsonian Institution INTRODUCTION Enclitics in Algonquian languages have received some attention (e.g., Bloom¿eld 1957:7, 131–132; Bloom¿eld 1962:459–462; Jolley 1984; Valentine 2001:72–73, 150–152; Goddard 2008:262–270; Quinn 2010; LeSourd 2011), but they are often classed with other particles and not explicitly labeled (Szabó 1981).1 Meskwaki enclitics will be of interest because they are clearly identi¿able as a formal class, and because it appears likely that Meskwaki has by far the largest repertoire of any language in the family. The present paper is perforce only a preliminary survey of the Meskwaki enclitics and their many interesting features. After the summary introduction there is a complete inventory followed by sections on idiomatic enclitic combinations, other idioms that include enclitics, multiple enclitics, and cognates and etymologies.2 The Meskwaki enclitics are particles (uninÀected words) of no more than three syllables that always attach to a preceding word (the host); in phonemic transcription they are separated from the host by a double hyphen (or equals sign: =) and this is also used to mark an enclitic when it is cited as a word. The questions of de¿nition and identi¿cation that dominate the recent general literature on enclitics thankfully do not arise. Meskwaki enclitics are 1. Of course, the terms enclitic and clitic have also sometimes been applied to af¿xes that are not enclitics, as in Szabó (1981). 2. The entries for the enclitics and other topical entries are numbered in parentheses and cross-referred to by non-italic numbers in parentheses (even within parentheses). Textual examples have an italicized designation and the cross-references to them are in italics. The example numbers are in phase with the entry numbers of the enclitics but necessarily not with the numbers of the topical entries. 72 THE TWENTY-NINE ENCLITICS OF MESKWAKI 73 identi¿able in vernacular writing by the consistent lack of a preceding word divider and, in the absence of other factors, are demarcated in speech by shifted stress (Goddard 1991:163–166): pe·hki ‘really’ (in isolation [pܭғ·hkiࡢ ]) be.ۃ enclitic =meko EMPH (19) ĺ pe·hki=meko (written in the syllabary + koࡢ ]).3 If an enclitic begins with _i_ this isܭhktm·ܭpronounced [p ;ۄ.ki me ko elided and the stress is on the next to last syllable of the host; the elision is indicated in the transcription by an apostrophe: ki·na ‘you (sg.)’ + enclitic pronounced [kt·napiࡢ ]). For ;ۄ.ki na bi.ۃ ipi_ HRSY (5) ĺ ki·na=’pi (written=_ consistency, when the host ends in _i_ the elision is noted the same way: pe·hki ‘really’ + _=ipi_ HRSY ĺ pe·hki=’pi ([pܭғ·hkipiࡢ ]). A long _i·_ is elided like a short _i_, with the vowel length transferred to the ¿nal vowel of the host: pya·no ‘come (you sg.)!’ + =i·nahi ‘with that’ (9) ĺ pya·no·=’nahi ‘you can come now!’ ([pyi·no·nàh(iࡢ )]). Also, with interrogative or emphatic sentence intonation a phrase-¿nal enclitic has the main stress and the peak of the special pitch contour on its ¿rst syllable.4 Native speakers are well aware of the special status of enclitics, which may be described by them as “extra” words. The written translations of bilinguals often leave them out, and my consultants sometimes resisted explicit translation and rejected my suggestions as superÀuous. Adeline Wanatee liked to refer to them as ahpahikanani ‘patches.’ Independent words of two or three syllables and any part of speech are frequently cliticized, but this multifaceted phenomenon will not be discussed here. These are not the same kind of word as the true enclitics, which are clearly not merely cliticized words even in cases where their etymological doublets are obvious. A word of more than three syllables at the end of a breath group may be run together with the preceding word with the same sandhi effects as in cliticization; as such words are too long to condition a stress shift they are not delimited as enclitics, but if there is vowel elision the lack of a written word divider is transcribed by a double hyphen. Meskwaki enclitics may be classi¿ed on the basis of several sets of properties. Some are PHRASE ENCLITICS (modifying words or phrases), others 3. Square brackets enclose broad phonetic transcriptions, with these conventions: acute () = primary stress; grave (C) = secondary stress; up arrow (Ĺ) = raised pitch register. 4. Emphatic stress explains the stress irregularities dubiously attributed to partial cliticization in Goddard (1991:165). 74 IVES GODDARD are SENTENCE ENCLITICS (modifying clauses or sentences), and some may be either. As to function, they may be classed as LINKING (like conjunctions), FRAMING (indicating frame of reference, point of view, attitude), SOURCING (evidentials), and QUALIFYING; they usually have just one function but may have two. Some occur singly, some may be repeated, and one in particular may be iterated multiply. Some never add a prosodic feature, some allow emphatic intonation (or another type of expressive intonation), and some usually have emphatic intonation. Mostly they are always enclitic, but a few may rarely appear as free particles (with or without word-order constraints), and one may switch status with its host. Some may combine idiomatically with a free particle or another enclitic as a lexical unit, some never combine this way, and two are always followed by another enclitic. Some have other idiosyncrasies. In effect, each enclitic has a grammar of its own. Phrase enclitics are cliticized after the ¿rst or only word of the phrase they modify, while sentence enclitics occur typically after the ¿rst word of a sentence or clause; some sentence enclitics also occur after the verb.5 In this preliminary survey, however, there are no more than a few cursory remarks about the syntax of these words. INVENTORY OF ENCLITICS WITH EXAMPLES The Meskwaki enclitics are listed here in alphabetical order with examples from texts written by native speakers and interleaved commentary. Each one is cited in the most complete, underlying form, followed by alternative surface shapes not predictable by general rules (if any), a brief gloss of convenience, an indication of whether it is a phrase enclitic (P) or a sentence enclitic (S), and a sample of other possible translations. The examples from Jones (1907) were written down from dictation by an accomplished semi- speaker and subjected to some editing. The other examples are from the collection of Meskwaki manuscripts written by native speakers for Truman Michelson of the Bureau of American Ethnology (Smithsonian Institution) over several years beginning in 1911; these have been rewritten in a phonemic transcription with added punctuation on the basis of general consultation with speakers and comparison with other materials, but not 5. More than one enclitic may occupy these positional slots; see below. THE TWENTY-NINE ENCLITICS OF MESKWAKI 75 every example was re-elicited. Underlines Àag the enclitic being exempli¿ed and its translation (if any). The translations in double quotes are those of native bilinguals; the word-for-word translations added in parentheses are tailored to the examples and do not give the full range of possible meanings.6 (1) _=a·pehe_ ‘usually’ (S) (‘always, generally, sometimes, would, used to’). The free particle a·pehe is rare (ca. 10 times out of 250 occurrences); one of the two sentence-initial occurrences was accepted as meaning “every so often” by Adeline Wanatee. Not followed by any enclitic except _=iyo·we_ PAST (see below). 1a. nema·ne·pen=a·pehe. ‘There would be a lot of us.’ (A 5E) (nema·ne·pena ‘we (excl.) are many’) 1b. pe·hki=mek=a·pehe neki·ša·koþi-kekye·htena·mi-=mek=a·pehe -neškima·wa. “And I would actually scold him of it some times.” (K-FC 237I, tr. HP) (pe·hki ‘really’; _=meko_ EMPH; ne...neškima·wa ‘I admonish him’; ki·ša·koþi PV ‘extremely’; kekye·htena·mi PV ‘seriously’) 1c. e·h=maki-ne·moþi=’p=a·pehe. “so he would breathe very hard occasionally.” (K-FC 400K, tr. HP) (e·h=...ne·moþi ‘he breathed’; maki PV ‘big’; _=ipi_ HRSY) 6. The editions are unpublished except for A (Goddard 2006) and O (Goddard 2007); several of these were prepared in collaboration with or with the assistance of Lucy Thomason. The writers are Alfred Kiyana (K, O), Charley H. Chuck (C), Sakihtanohkweha (S), Sam Peters (SP), and an anonymous woman (A). Accent and intonation are based on readings by Adeline Wanatee (AW), Everett Kapayou (EK), Pearl Bear (PB), and Edward Davenport (ED). Bilingual translators include also Horace Poweshiek (HP) and Thomas Brown (TB). In the word-for-word translations square brackets enclose English words that are redundant when combined with the glosses of the other Meskwaki words; curly braces enclose glosses that are place-holders for oblique complements. Other abbreviations: anim. = animate; Cr = Cree; EAb = Eastern Abenaki; EMPH = emphatic; ex. = example (exx. = examples); excl. = exclusive; HRSY = hearsay; inan. = inanimate; incl. = inclusive; Mes = Meskwaki; Men = Menominee; Mun = Munsee; NEG = negative; obv. = obviative; Oj = Ojibwe; Ott = Ottawa (Odawa); p., pl. = plural; prox. = proximate; PV = preverb; QUOT = quotative; s., sg. = singular; Sh = Shawnee; tr. = translated by; Un = Unami (Lenape); WAb = Western Abenaki. 76 IVES GODDARD 1d. ke·htena·=’nah=a·pehe neki·ši-mami·ši·hi. “I have served as a waiter” (K-FC 254E, tr. HP) (ke·htena ‘truly’; _=i·nahi_ ‘with that’; ne...mami·ši·hi ‘I have been a ceremonial attendant’; ki·ši PV ‘have done’) In (1b) the sentence enclitic is repeated with the verb, after a preverb, but note that Horace Poweshiek translates both occurrences separately.