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Topics in Uduk Phonology and Morphosyntax CORE Metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk Provided by Helsingin yliopiston digitaalinen arkisto Topics in Uduk Phonology and Morphosyntax Don Killian [email protected] University of Helsinki Finland September 2015 Key Words General Terms: dissertation, descriptive grammar, language typology, phonology, morphosyntax Additional Key Words and Phrases: language description, African languages, Nilo-Saharan languages Copyright ©Don Killian 2015 Department of World Cultures, African Studies University of Helsinki ISBN 978-951-51-1489-1 (paperback) ISBN 978-951-51-1490-7 (PDF) Helsinki 2015 Abstract This dissertation investigates the grammar and phonology of Uduk, a language belonging to the Koman branch of the Nilo-Saharan language family. Uduk is spoken by approximately 20 to 25,000 speakers, whose community homeland was in the southern part of the former Blue Nile Province of Sudan. Due to continuing war conditions since the late 1980s, the majority are now living scattered in the international diaspora, as well as in refugee camps in Ethiopia and South Sudan. The description provides an analysis of the phonology, morphology, and syntax based on thirteen months of fieldwork between 2011 and 2014. Included in the grammatical description are sixteen glossed texts, to help illustrate the grammar in context. Most major aspects of the language are described and analyzed in detail. This includes the segmental and suprasegmental phonology, nouns and noun phrases, pronouns and agreement marking, nominal and verbal modifiers, verbs and verb phrases, major clause types, and clause linking. Uduk has a rich phonology; the main dialect of Uduk has 55 contrastive con- sonant phonemes, 21 of which occur as a result of the secondary feature labi- alization. There are three contrastive tone levels in Uduk, and seven possible register/contour melodies on a single TBU. There is also a complex interaction between consonants and tone which has given rise to a depressor consonant effect. This is one of the first Nilo-Saharan languages known to have such. Argument structure and morphosyntax are equally interesting. Uduk has morph- ologically marked cases for both Accusative as well as Ergative, depending on the constituent order. Uduk nouns exhibit grammatical gender, the assignment of which has nearly no semantic correlations, even minimal ones relating to an- imacy or biological sex. Uduk verb forms use polysemous grammatical suffixes which mark either the location of an action or its internal aspect, and spatial deixis and aspect are heavily intertwined. Spatial orientation and location thus form a fundamental part of basic verbal inflectional categories. In addition to morphological marking on the basic verb root, many verbs ad- ditionally carry discontinuous incorporated nouns called Partarguments. Par- targuments are typically body parts, and may function either to classify an argument or then to change the basic meaning of the verb. These as well as other linguistic features make this description a valuable re- source for Nilo-Saharan linguists as well as those interested in the typology of African languages. Tiivistelmä Tämä väitöskirja tarkastelee nilosaharalaisen kielikunnan komakielten haaraan kuuluvan udukin kielen kielioppia ja fonologiaa. Udukilla on noin 20 000 - 25 000 puhujaa, joiden muodostaman kieliyhteisön alkuperäinen asuinalue sijaitsi aikoinaan Sudanin entisen Sinisen-Niilin provinssin eteläosassa. 1980- luvun lopulta jatkuneiden sotatoimien vuoksi suurin osa kielen puhujista on ha- jaantunut useiden valtioiden alueille sekä pakolaisleireille Etiopiassa ja Etelä- Sudanissa. Tämä väitöskirja tutkii udukin fonologiaa, morfologiaa ja syntaksia, ja siinä käytetty aineisto perustuu kolmentoista kuukauden kenttätyöhön, joka on to- teutettu vuosien 2011 ja 2014 välillä. Kieliopin kuvaukseen sisältyy kuusitoista kieliopillisesti analysoitua tekstiä, jotka havainnollistavat kielioppia käyttökon- tekstissaan. Kieliopin tärkeimmät ilmiöt on tässä tutkimuksessa kuvailtu ja analysoitu yksi- tyiskohtaisesti. Näihin kuuluvat segmentaalinen ja suprasegmentaalinen fonolo- gia, nominit ja nominilausekkeet, pronominit ja kongruenssi, nomini- ja ver- bimääreet, verbit ja verbilausekkeet, tärkeimmät lausetyypit sekä lauseiden yhdistäminen. Udukin fonologia on rikasta: valtamurteessa on 55 eri konsonanttifoneemia, joista 21 realisoituu sekundaarisen labialisaation seurauksena.Kielessä on kolme toonin perustaajuutta ja seitsemän mahdollista rekisterin/kontuurin sävelkulkua yhdessä toonia kantavassa yksikössä. Lisäksi konsonantit ja toonit vaikuttavat toisiinsa monimutkaisella tavalla, joka on tuottanut kieleen niin sanotun toonia madaltavan konsonantin vaikutuksen. Uduk on yksi ensimmäisistä nilosahar- alaisista kielistä, jossa tämä ilmiö on tavattu. Argumenttirakenne ja morfosyntaksi ovat yhtä lailla kiinnostavia. Udukissa voidaan merkitä morfologisesti sekä akkusatiivi- että ergatiivisija riippuen kon- stituenttien järjestyksestä. Udukissa nomineilla on kieliopillinen suku, jonka merkinnällä ei ole juuri minkäänlaista semanttista korrelaatiota edes elollisu- uden tai biologisen sukupuolen suhteen. Udukin verbimuodoissa käytetään polyseemisiä kieliopillisia suffikseja ilmaise- maan joko toiminnan sijaintia tai sen aspektia ja spatiaalinen deiksis ja aspekti ovat voimakkaasti sidoksissa toisiinsa. Näin ollen spatiaalisen orientaation ja lokaation merkintä on yksi tärkeimmistä verbien taivutuskategorioista. Verbivartaloon liittyvän morfologisen merkinnän lisäksi moniin verbeihin yhdis- tyy liitenomineja, osa-argumentteja. Ne ovat tyypillisesti kehonosien nimityk- siä ja voivat joko antaa tietoa argumentin luokasta tai muuttaa verbin perus- merkitystä. Yllä mainittujen ja eräiden muiden udukin kieliopin erityispiirteiden ansiosta tämä tutkimus toimii arvokkaana tietolähteenä nilosaharalaisten kielten tutk- ijoille sekä Afrikan kielten typologiasta kiinnostuneille kielitieteilijöille. Contents 1 Introduction 1 1.1 Demographics and Sociolinguistic Situation . 1 1.2 Classification . 3 1.3 Geography . 4 1.4 Historical and Cultural Notes . 6 1.5 Previous Research . 8 1.6 A typological overview of Uduk . 9 1.6.1 Phonology . 9 1.6.2 Basic Alignment and Word Order . 10 1.6.3 Morphosyntax . 12 1.6.3.1 Nominal and pronominal morphology . 12 1.6.3.2 Verbal morphology . 13 1.6.3.3 Syntax . 15 2 Segmental Phonology 17 2.1 Introduction . 17 2.2 Phonotactics . 19 2.3 Consonants . 20 2.3.1 Consonant Inventory . 20 2.3.2 Evidence for Consonantal Contrasts . 21 2.3.3 Interpretation of Labialization . 23 2.3.4 Distributional Restrictions . 25 2.3.5 Consonant Harmony . 27 2.3.6 Phonological Processes . 28 2.3.6.1 Word-final unreleased glottalized consonants . 29 2.3.6.2 Consonant Lenition . 29 2.3.6.3 Nasal Assimilation . 29 2.3.6.4 Plosive Insertion . 30 2.3.6.5 Automatic Labialization . 30 2.3.6.6 Processes Across Morpheme Boundaries . 30 2.3.7 Voiced Plosives . 31 2.4 Vowels . 32 2.4.1 Vowel Inventory . 32 2.4.2 Vowel Length . 33 2.4.3 Vowel Distribution . 34 2.4.4 Phonological Processes . 35 2.4.4.1 Vowel Insertion . 35 2.4.4.2 Vowel Assimilation . 35 2.5 Segmental Phonology of Loan Words . 37 i ii CONTENTS 3 Suprasegmental Phonology 39 3.1 Introduction . 39 3.2 Tone Inventory . 40 3.3 Diachronic Tonal Change and Depressor Consonants . 41 3.4 Tone in Lexical Roots . 45 3.4.1 Nouns . 45 3.4.2 Verbs . 46 3.4.3 Stative Verbs . 47 3.4.4 Other Tonal Patterns . 47 3.5 Leftward Realignment . 48 3.6 Tonal Interactions in Morphology . 51 3.6.1 Tone in Agreement Marking . 52 3.6.2 Tone Lowering . 52 3.6.2.1 Imperative . 52 3.6.2.2 Individuative . 53 3.6.2.3 Identification . 54 3.6.2.4 Genitive . 54 3.6.2.5 Associative . 55 3.6.2.6 Accusative . 56 3.6.2.7 Ergative . 57 3.6.3 Number-marking through tone . 59 4 Nominal Morphology and Phrase Structure 61 4.1 Introduction . 61 4.2 Number marking . 62 4.2.1 Introduction . 62 4.2.2 Associative Plural . 64 4.2.3 Individuative and Collective . 65 4.3 Gender . 67 4.3.1 Gender Marking . 70 4.4 Case . 73 4.4.1 Introduction . 73 4.4.2 Accusative . 76 4.4.3 Ergative . 78 4.4.4 Genitive . 84 4.4.5 Associative . 86 4.4.5.1 Associative Nasal . 88 4.5 Nominal Derivation and Compounding . 90 4.6 Generic Nouns . 93 4.6.1 Tō and mò .......................... 93 4.6.2 Definite Generic Nouns . 95 4.6.3 Indefinite Generic Nouns . 96 4.7 The Nominal Phrase . 96 4.7.1 Introduction . 96 4.7.2 Ordering inside the NP . 97 4.7.3 Agreement in the NP . 98 4.7.4 Attributive Possession and Association . 100 4.7.5 Prepositional phrases . 108 4.7.6 Relational noun phrases . 110 CONTENTS iii 5 Pronouns 113 5.1 Personal . 113 5.2 Pronominal clitics . 116 5.3 Possessive . 118 5.4 Emphatic . 119 5.5 Relative . 120 5.6 Reflexive and Reciprocal . 122 6 Modifiers and Modifying constructions 123 6.1 Introduction . 123 6.2 Prenominal modifiers . 123 6.3 Quantifiers . 129 6.3.1 Numerals . 129 6.3.2 Ordinal Numbers . 132 6.3.3 Other Quantifiers . 133 6.4 Color terms . 134 6.4.1 Adjectival Colors . 134 6.4.2 Other Color terms . 136 6.5 Modifiers derived from Stative verbs . 138 6.6 Ideophones . 139 6.7 Comparative Constructions . 140 6.8 Similative Constructions . 142 6.9 Adverbial constructions . 143 7 Demonstratives 149 7.1 Introduction . 149 7.2 Adnominal Demonstratives . 152 7.3 Adverbial Demonstratives . 156 7.4 Locative Demonstratives . 158 7.5 Predicative Demonstratives . 162 8 Verbal Predicates 167 8.1 Introduction . 167 8.2 The Structure of Verb Forms . ..
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