KUOT a Non-Austronesian Language of New Ireland, Papua New Guinea
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Topics in the grammar of KUOT a non-Austronesian language of New Ireland, Papua New Guinea Eva Lindström PhD dissertation Department of Linguistics, Stockholm University, 106 91 Stockholm Doctoral dissertation 2002 Department of Linguistics Stockholms universitet 106 91 Stockholm Sweden © 2002 Eva Lindström ISBN 91-7265-459-7 Cover design: Eva Lindström & Anne Gailit Printed by Akademitryck AB, Edsbruk 2002 Abstract This thesis describes certain areas in the grammar of the little-known Kuot language, spoken by some 1,500 people in New Ireland Province in Papua New Guinea. Kuot is an isolate, and is the only non-Austronesian (Papuan) language of that province. The analyses presented here are based on original data from 18 months of linguistic fieldwork. The first chapter provides an overview of Kuot grammar, and gives details of earlier mentions of the language, and of data collection and the fieldwork situa- tion. The second chapter presents information about the prehistory and history of the area, the social system, kinship system and culture of Kuot speakers, as well as dialectal variation and prognosis of survival of the language. Chapter three treats Kuot phonology, with particular emphasis on the factors that govern allophonic variation, and on the expression of word stress and the functions of intonation. Word classes and the criteria used to define them are presented in Chapter four, which also contains a discussion of types of morphemes in Kuot. The last chapter describes in some detail the class of nouns in Kuot, their declensions, non-singular formation, and the properties of grammatical gender. Appendices give the full set of person-marking forms in Kuot, a transcription of a recorded text with interlinear glossing and translation, the Swadesh 100-word list for Kuot, and diagrams of kin relations and terminology. iii CONTENTS ABBREVIATIONS AND GLOSSING ............................................................. ix PREFACE.........................................................................................................xiii MAPS ..............................................................................................................xvii PLATES............................................................................................................ xxi 1 INTRODUCTION......................................................................................... 1 1.1 Grammatical overview .......................................................................... 1 1.1.1 Nominals ........................................................................................ 2 1.1.2 Predicates and verb phrases ........................................................... 3 1.1.2.1 Verbs and adjectives ..................................................................... 3 1.1.2.2 The verb phrase ............................................................................ 7 1.1.3 Possessives..................................................................................... 7 1.1.4 Prepositions.................................................................................... 8 1.1.5 Locationals and directionals .......................................................... 9 1.1.6 Adverbs and adverbial clitics....................................................... 10 1.1.7 Negation....................................................................................... 10 1.1.8 Clauses ......................................................................................... 11 1.1.8.1 Relative clauses.......................................................................... 13 1.1.8.2 Questions ................................................................................... 13 1.1.8.3 Tense/irrealis.............................................................................. 14 1.2 Kuot as a linguistic type ...................................................................... 14 1.3 Language name and previous sources................................................. 16 1.4 Data ..................................................................................................... 24 1.5 Fieldwork situation.............................................................................. 26 2 KUOT AND ITS SPEAKERS.................................................................... 29 2.1 Geographic location ............................................................................ 29 2.2 Prehistory............................................................................................. 30 2.3 History................................................................................................. 33 2.3.1 Abandoning the mountains .......................................................... 36 2.3.2 Population decline and increase................................................... 37 2.4 Ethnographic background and linguistic contact ................................ 38 2.5 Social organisation .............................................................................. 40 2.6 Kinship ................................................................................................ 42 2.6.1 The structure of kinship ............................................................... 42 2.6.2 Kinship terminology .................................................................... 45 2.6.3 Extension of kin terms ................................................................. 48 2.6.4 Kin-based prescribed behaviour .................................................. 50 TOPICS IN THE GRAMMAR OF KUOT 2.6.5 Name taboos and alternative forms of address.............................53 2.7 Other ethnographic notes .....................................................................55 2.7.1 Rituals in life and death................................................................55 2.7.2 Spirits............................................................................................62 2.7.3 Magic............................................................................................64 2.7.4 Church and administration: today’s social arena .........................65 2.7.5 Identity..........................................................................................67 2.8 Subsistence...........................................................................................69 2.9 Housing ................................................................................................75 2.10 Dialects and other sub-types within the language ...............................77 2.11 Language health...................................................................................80 2.12 Orthography .........................................................................................83 3 PHONOLOGY ............................................................................................85 3.1 Phoneme inventory ..............................................................................85 3.2 Consonants...........................................................................................86 3.2.1 Production and distribution of consonants ...................................86 3.2.2 Processes and other types of variability applying to consonants .88 3.2.2.1 Lenition and voicing of /p/ and /k/ intervocalically........................88 3.2.2.2 Lenition and voicing of /t/, and the status of /r/ .............................89 3.2.2.3 Non-lenition of voiceless stops.....................................................91 3.2.2.4 /n/ vs. /l/ – allophony and phonemic contrast ................................93 3.2.2.5 [n], [l] and [r]..............................................................................96 3.2.3 /f/ and /s/: newer phonemes in the language ................................97 3.2.4 The roles of consonants in the grammar ......................................99 3.3 Vowels .................................................................................................99 3.3.1 Length? .......................................................................................101 3.3.2 Vowel sequences and sub-phonemic glides ...............................104 3.3.3 Processes applying to vowels .....................................................107 3.3.4 Labialisation harmony................................................................110 3.4 Syllables.............................................................................................111 3.5 Stress ..................................................................................................112 3.6 Intonation ...........................................................................................117 3.7 Other speech sounds, hesitation and emphasis ..................................123 3.8 Child-directed speech, children’s speech...........................................125 3.9 Phonological treatment of foreign words...........................................126 3.10 Areal phonology.................................................................................127 4 WORD CLASSES AND OVERVIEW OF MORPHOLOGY...............129 4.1 Word classes ......................................................................................129 4.1.1 Nouns..........................................................................................130 4.1.2 Verbs...........................................................................................130 4.1.3 Adjectives ...................................................................................131 4.1.4 Adverbs.......................................................................................132