ESSENTIALS OF ASHÉNINKA PERENÉ GRAMMAR by Elena Mihas A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy In Linguistics at The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee December 2010 http://www.etnolinguistica.org/tese:mihas_2010 está disponível para download no seguinte endereço: Este arquivo, fornecido pela autora em dezembro de 2010, ESSENTIALS OF ASHÉNINKA PERENÉ GRAMMAR by Elena Mihas A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy In Linguistics at The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee December 2010 ________________________________________________________________________ Major Professor Date ________________________________________________________________________ Graduate School Approval Date ii ABSTRACT ESSENTIALS OF ASHÉNINKA PERENÉ GRAMMAR by Elena Mihas The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 2010 Under the Supervision of Fred Eckman The objective of this dissertation is to present a preliminary grammatical account of Ashéninka Perené, an endangered Arawak language of Southeastern Peru. The description and analysis of the language is based on the 29-week field research conducted in an area of the Southwest Amazonian high jungle. Interesting issues of Ashéninka Perené grammar include a lack of phonemic voice distinction in stops, fricatives, and affricates, a series of palatalized stops, and a set of palatalized alveolar phonemes. Grammatical morphemes exhibit a great deal of multifunctionality. Possession is marked on the possessee or by juxtaposition. Non-masculine is the default gender. There is a small underived adjective class with mere thirteen members. The nominal classification system is fairly extensive. There is an array of highly productive applicative derivations. Aspectual and modal systems are very complex. Ashéninka Perené shows a straightforward correspondence between unreal events and their encoding in the language as irrealis. Negated irrealis is expressed on the verb as realis. There is an abundance of clausal conjunctions. The language has a nominative-accusative system of grammatical iii alignment combined with the frequently occurring split intransitive phenomenon which is grammatically and pragmatically conditioned. _______________________________________________________________________ Major Professor Date iv © Copyright by Elena Mihas, 2010 All rights reserved v TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. The language and its speakers 1 1.1 Linguistic profile of Ashéninka Perené 4 1.2 Ashéninka Perené within the Kampan subgroup and the Arawak language family 14 1.3 The regional history and status of Ashéninka Perené 16 1.4 Prior research on the language 26 1.5 Fieldwork materials, research methods, and consultants 28 2. Phonology 44 2.1 Vowels 44 2.1.1 Short vowels 45 2.1.2 Long vowels and diphthongs 50 2.2 Consonants 54 2.2.1 Phoneme inventory 54 2.2.2 Stops /p/, /t/, /k/ and their palatalized counterparts /p ʲ/, /t ʲ/, and /k ʲ/ 55 2.2.2.1 The phonemes /p/ and /p ʲ/ 55 2.2.2.2 The phonemes /t/ and /t ʲ/ 56 2.2.2.3 The phonemes /k/ and /k ʲ/ 57 2.2.3 Affricates ts /ts ʰ/, tz /ts/, and ch /ʧ/ 58 2.2.4 Alternative analyses of palatalized segments and affricates 59 2.2.5 Fricatives s/s/, sh /ʃ/, and h /h/ 60 2.2.6 Nasals n /n/, m /m/, ny /ɲ/, and the archiphoneme N 62 2.2.7 Liquids r/ ɾ/ and / ɾʲ/ 63 2.2.8 Semivowels v /w/ and y /j/ 64 2.3 Sounds in Spanish loanwords 68 2.4 Phonotactics 70 2.4.1 Syllable structure 72 2.4.2 The minimal word 73 2.1.3.3 Stress 75 2.5 Intonation 77 2.6 Phonological differences among Ashéninka Perené speech communities 79 2.7 Orthography 81 2.8 Morphophonemics 85 2.8.1 Lenition 86 2.8.2 Epenthesis 87 2.8.3 Deletion 88 2.8.4 Sibilant neutralization 89 3. Morphology 91 3.1 Grammatical word vs. phonological word in Ashéninka Perené 91 3.2 Morphological typology 95 3.3 Formative classes 97 vi 3.3.1 Definitions of free and bound morphemes, roots, and formatives 97 3.3.2 Core formatives: affixes 102 3.3.3 Peripheral formatives: clitics and particles 108 3.3.4 Other morphological processes 115 3.4 Word classes 121 3.4.1 Nouns 121 3.4.2 Verbs 126 3.4.3 Adjectives 142 3.4.4 Adverbs and adverbial expressions 151 3.4.5 Pronouns 159 3.4.6 Numerals 184 3.4.7 Interjections, ideophones, and discourse particles 185 4. Clause linking 191 4.1 Relative clauses 191 4.1.1 The = ri/=ni relativizing strategy in headed relative clauses 193 4.1.2 Relativzing strategies in headless clauses 201 4.1.3 Other relativizing strategies 204 4.1.4 Other functions of the forms =ri and =ni 210 4.2 Complementation 217 4.2.1 The grammatical profile of the complement clause 220 4.2.2 Semantic types of complement-taking verbs 225 4.2.2.1 Complement-taking primary verbs 227 4.2.2.2 Complement-taking secondary verbs 235 4.3 Adverbial clauses 244 4.3.1 Temporal clause linking 245 4.3.2 Conditional clause linking 257 4.3.3 Consequence clause linking 265 4.4 Other types of clause linking 280 References & Bibliography 286 Appendix A. Basic word list 296 Appendix B. Text samples 299 B.1 Narrative 299 B.2 Song 312 B.3 Riddle 314 B.4 Conversation 314 Curriculum Vita 320 vii LIST OF FIGURES Maps: Map 1 Ashéninka Perené settlements 2 Map 2 Kampan languages 3 Figures: Figure 1 The Pampa Michi historian Raul Bernata 19 Figure 2 Transcript of a story about a clash of Upper Perené Indians with colonists 19 Figure 3 A hill slope with chacras in the Perené District 22 Figure 4 A craft stand in Pampa Michi 22 Figure 5 Language consultants from Bajo Marankiari and Pampa Michi 43 Figure 6 The devoiced high front vowel [i̥] in kapicheeni ‘little’ 46 Figure 7 Medial and word-final realization of the phoneme [e] in shetene ‘afternoon’ 46 Figure 8 Formant plots of vowels of female and male speakers from PM 48 Figure 9 Formant plots of vowels of female and male speakers from BM 48 Figure 10 Articulation of the bilabial approximant in ivito ‘his canoe’ 62 Figure 11 Phonetic realization of the bilabial approximant in pava ‘god’ 65 Figure 12 Phonetic realization of the bilabial approximant in novori ‘my leg’ 65 Figure 13 Phonetic realization of the bilabial approximant in ivito ‘his canoe’ 66 Figure 14 The palatalized stop /t ʲ/ in novityero ‘I will fell it’ 68 Figure 15 Continuum of headedness of RC 204 viii LIST OF TABLES Table 1 Vowel phonemes 45 Table 2 Phonetic realizations of short vowels 45 Table 3 Diphthongs 51 Table 4 Consonant phonemes and their allophones 55 Table 5 Ashéninka writing systems developed from the 1980s to date 83 Table 6 Verbal suffixes 104 Table 7 Nominal suffixes (an overview) 106 Table 8 Class terms 106 Table 9 Nominal classifiers 106 Table 10 Suffixes which occur with multiple word classes 108 Table 11 Verbal proclitics 111 Table 12 Verbal enclitics 112 Table 13 Plant-based parts in compounds 118 Table 14 Gender agreement patterns 122 Table 15 Summary of the cumulating reality status/reflexivity values of verbs 131 Table 16 Lexical classes of verbs 133 Table 17 Existential/possessive verbs 137 Table 18 Copulas 139 Table 19 A set of underived adjectives 143 Table 20 Properties of underived adjectives 146 Table 21 Properties of derived adjectives 150 Table 22 Temporal adverbs 153 Table 23 Locative-existential adverbs 156 Table 24 Simple personal pronouns 160 Table 25 Four sets of personal pronouns 161 Table 26 Possessive pronouns 168 Table 27 Forms and functions of bound pronominal forms 169 Table 28 Allomorphy of bound pronominal forms 170 Table 29 Nominal demonstrative pronouns 174 Table 30 Indefinite pronouns 182 Table 31 Elicited numeral forms 185 Table 32 Interjections 186 Table 33 Ideophones 188 Table 34 Discourse particles 189 Table 35 Summary of clause linkage 192 Table 36 Syntactic functions of the common argument in MC and RC 197 Table 37 Types of relative clauses 209 Table 38 Synchronic uses of the ri and ni forms 217 Table 39 Primary complement-taking verbs 228 Table 40 Secondary complement-taking verbs 236 Table 41 Temporal clause linking devices 246 Table 42 Possible and counterfactual clause linking devices 258 ix Table 43 Consequence clause linking devices 266 Table 44 Contrast, disjunction, manner linking devices 280 x LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS A subject of transitive clause ABS absolutive ADJ adjectivizer ADV adverbial ADV.P adverbial past APPL generalized applicative APPL.BEN applicative benefactive APPL.INST applicative instrumental APP.INT applicative of intent APPL.PRES presential applicative APPL.REAS applicative of reason APPR apprehensive AUG augmentative CAUS causative CAUS.AGT causative agentive CAUS.SOC causative sociative CC coordinate clause CL classifier CNT.F counterfactual COM comitative CONN connective COND conditional COP.C copula of capacity CUST customary aspect DE dependent event DEM demonstrative DIM diminutive DIR directional DIST distributive DUB dubitative DUR durative EMPH emphatic EP epenthetic EXCL exclamative (general focus) EXIST existential FOC focus FOC.O focused object FRUS frustrative HAB habitual ICPL incompletive IDEO ideophone IMP.P impersonal passive INCH inchoative xi INST instrumental IRR irrealis IRR.REFL irrealis reflexive LOC locative m. masculine MC main clause M.CAUS malefactive causative N.C.FOC non-contradictory focus NEG negative NEG.EXIST negative existential NEG.IRR negative irrealis NEG.P negative polarity NEG.REAL negative realis n.m non-masculine NMZ nominalizer NP noun phrase O object of transitive clause OPT optative PL plural poss possessive PP positive polarity PRF perfective PROG progressive Q interrogative RC relative clause RCP reciprocal REGR regressive REL relativizer REP repetitive REV reversative S subject of intransitive clause SG singular SEP separative applicative STAT stative STAT.T temporal stativity VP verb phrase WH content interrogative 1 first person 2 second person 3 third person < > infix ~ ~ reduplicated element xii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS My profound gratitude is extended to my Ashéninka Perené teachers Gregorio Santos Pérez (Villa Perené), Delia Rosas Rodríguez (Bajo Marankiari), Raul Martin Bernata (Pampa Michi), and Bertha Rodríguez de Caleb (Bajo Marankiari) whose comprehensive knowledge of the language enormously contributed to my understanding of the language’s grammar and Ashéninka culture.