Athabaskan Morphology

LING 481/581 Winter 2011 Organization

• Athabaskan • Athabaskan consonant inventories • Athabaskan word formation types Athabaskan language family

(Athapaskan, Athabascan) [æTbæskn]

Kwalhioqua- Tlatskanie

Navajo Apachean languages Na- language family

Na-Dene

Tlingit Proto-Athabaskan-Eyak

Eyak Proto-Athabaskan 2 5 0 CAY CBC NW Can 0 y Deg Xinag Witsuwit’en Tsek’ene r s. CAY = Central -; CBC = Central BC; NW Can = NW

Dene-Yeniseian: http://www.uaf.edu/anlc/dy/ Northern Athabaskan languages

Deg Xinag (Ingalik) Tsek’ene () Witsuwit’en (Babine) Athabaskan phonology • Witsuwit’en consonants labial alveolar palatal labio- uvular glottal velar stop p p p’ t t t’ c c c’ kw kw q q q’ / kw’ ts ts ts’

t t t’

fricative s z ç xw X h  nasal m n

approx. l j w  Uvular sounds in Witsuwit’en

[qhE] ‘footwear’ [XE] ‘grease’ [ntq] ‘straight up’ [qis] ‘king (Chinook) salmon’ Ejectives Ejective vs. voiceless unaspirated stops and

Witsuwit’en [ntq] ‘straight up’ [nt’q] ‘your collarbone’ Tsek’ene [tsèh] ‘gum, pitch’ [mtsheh] ‘in front of him/her’ [ts’èh] ‘sinew’ Athabaskan morphology

. Morphological processes affixation (simple cases) compounding ablaut position-class morphology (complex affixation) Major lexical categories in Ath. languages

. Categories that affixes can be added to . nouns . verbs . postpositions . directional adverbs . adjectives Affixation (simple cases)

Affixes to nouns. A possessive paradigm in Witsuwit’en:

[to] ‘water’ [sto/] ‘my water’ [nto/] ‘your (sg.) water’ w [nx to/] ‘your (pl.), our water’ [pto/] ‘his/her/its water’ [hpto/] ‘their water’ Morphological analysis

root, free morpheme to ‘water’ -/ possessed affixes (bound morphemes) suffix s- ‘my’ prefixes n- ‘your (sg.)’ nxw- ‘our, your (pl.)’ p- ‘his, her, its’ hp- ‘their’ Adpositions

Prepositions: preposition - noun count for me verb preposition noun

Postpositions: noun – postposition. Witsuwit’en: [s- pe c’otw] me for you (sg.) count noun postposition verb ‘count for me’ Affixation to postpositions

[spe] ‘for me’

[mpe] ‘for you (sg.)’

[nxwpe] ‘for us, you (pl.)’

[ppe] ‘for him, her, it’

[hppe] ‘for them’ Morphological analysis

Prefixes to nouns/postpositions:

sg pl 1 person s- n xw- 2 person n/m- 

3 person p- hp- Nouns vs. postpositions Really different categories? Yes. Two morphological differences between nouns and postpositions in Witsuwit’en. 1. Prefixation to nominal vs. postpositional objects of verbs with third person singular subject Nouns: p- 3sg. possessor. -le ‘hand’ (noun) h ple yunq at ‘hei slapped hisj hand’ his hand he slapped it Postpositions: y- 3sg. object of postposition. -le ‘hand to’ (postposition)

yle yin/ay ‘hei handed it to himj’ hand to him he handled it 2. Reflexive (‘-self’) prefixes to nouns vs. postpositions. Nouns: t- reflexive used with third person singular subjects only – -ne/ ‘mother’ (noun) • sne/ pq’Esy’ ‘I love my mother’ my mother I love her • tne/ yq’Entsy’ ‘she loves her mother’ her mother she loves her Postpositions: t- reflexive used with subjects of all persons and numbers – - ‘with’ (postposition) • t neyecltc ‘I’m talking to myself’ with self I’m talking • t neyeltc ‘she’s talking to herself’ with self she’s talking Directional adverbs tq ‘up’ jq ‘down’ nq ‘uphill, back’ tshn’ ‘downhill’ nu/ ‘upstream’ te/ ‘downstream’ ns ‘ahead’ ni/ ‘behind’ /n ‘side’ /ats ‘side, outside’ jen ‘across’ Affixes to directional adverbs Prefixes n- neutral distance ts’e- ‘in a straight, direct line’

te-, nte- ‘right here’

u-, i- ‘way out there’

Suffixesw- ?

-xw~-xwy ‘in general area in direction’ -t~-tst ‘at place in direction’ -ts ~ -tits ‘from place in direction’ -sts’n ~ -sts’y ‘other side of place in direction’ -li, -sljez ‘further, little ways further in direction’ Directional adverb examples to tq /ce ‘there is high water’ ntqstits hanje ‘he came down from above’ ts utq hatit’ay ‘the mountain sticks way up’ schnle utxw nesje ‘he walked around above timberline’ -zeq utxw ‘roof of mouth’ njqstits hanje ‘he came up from below’ -tshole ujxw ‘under the tongue’ Compounding • Noun + noun examples. Varying degrees of compositionality. – tho ‘water’ + tsut ‘coat’ = ‘raincoat’ – -nin ‘face’ + ts’n ‘bone’ = ‘cheek bones’ – tni ‘person’ + nin ‘face’ = ‘penny’ – wq’z ‘cold’ + u ‘tooth’ = ‘icicle’ – c’tsht ‘ruffed grouse’ + qhE ‘foot’ =‘the letter X’ – tlkw’aX ‘frog’ + netc ‘blanket’ =‘broad-leaved plantain’ Verbal time categories in Athabaskan

• imperfective: uncompleted action, state • perfective: completed action, state • future: action, state to take place in future (some degree of certainty) • optative: wish for future action, state

Witsuwit’en has all four categories. Tsek’ene has all four categories, except future > immediate future. Deg Xinag has largely abandoned the optative. Imperfective is used instead (with adverbs). Ablaut in Witsuwit’en verb root impf/opt perfective future -/qes/ ‘scratch hard’ –[qes] –[qez] –[qs] -/qz/ ‘do with arms’ –[qis] –[qz] –[qs]

Ablaut patterns: /e/ --> // in the future // --> /i/ in the imperfective/optative (Voicing changes to the root-final consonant are predictable, analyzable as affixation of phonological feature [±voiced].) Complex affixation: Affixation to verbs

• Unusual features of verbs in Athabaskan languages 1. Position class morphology: prefix order restrictions

Verb prefix positions Root Suffix

postposition/adverbial12 – iterative11 negative - tense – multiple10 – negative9 – incorporated root8 – inceptive7 – distributive plural6 – pronominal object/subject5 – qualifier4 – tense/neg3 – subject2 – valence1 2. Discontinuous morphemes.

Form: affixa + affixb + ... = ‘’ Some examples of discontinuous morphemes:

we9-i3- ... -l perfective negative we9-s3- ... -/ non-perfective (impf, fut, opt) negative

je10-t4- ‘all over’

nepe12- ‘in circle’

nepe12-t4- ‘turn around’ u3- ... -/ optative Some verbs (dictionary entry)

• Simple cases. Verb = bound root – -jin ‘sg./du. stand’ – -tseq ‘be lightweight’ – -/as ‘du./group goes, walks’ – -/a ‘sun, moon goes’ Some verbs (actual words) • Minimal verb word: dictionary form of verb + tense affix(es) • Some verb words based on: – -jin ‘sg./du. stand’ • [hjin] ‘he’s standing’

[]3- imperfective (Phonology in this example: epenthetic word-initial [h]) • [ujin’] ‘let him stand’

[u]3- ... -[/] optative More verbs (dictionary form)

 Complex cases. Verb = prefix(es) + root

 O-u4-jin ‘pick O (berries) while stationary’  t4-t1-/as ‘du. pick berries (while walking around)’

O = object required (transitive verb) Some more verb words

1. [tci ujin] ‘he/she is picking huckleberries’

Morphemes in this example: tci ‘huckleberry’

O-u4-jin ‘pick O (berries) while stationary’

3- imperfective

Phonology in this example:

  Ø / u __ 2. [c’ojin] ‘he/she is picking (something)’

Morphemes in this example:

O-u4-jin ‘pick O (berries) while stationary’ 3- imperfective

c’5- unspecified object

Additional phonology in this example: c’ + u  c’o 3. [c’onjin] ‘he/she is picking (round things)’

Morphemes in this example:

O-u4-jin ‘pick O (berries) while stationary’ 3- imperfective

c’5- unspecified object

n4- ‘round’

4. [wec’onsjin’] ‘he/she isn’t picking (round things)’

Morphemes in this example:

O-u4-jin ‘pick O (berries) while stationary’ 3- imperfective

c’5- unspecified object n4- ‘round’ we9-s3-... -/ non-perfective negative

Order restrictions within position 3:

3- impf > s3- negative

Additional phonology in this example:

n + /  n’ 5. [wec’onzsjin’] ‘I’m not picking (round things)’

Morphemes in this example:

O-u4-jin ‘pick O (berries) while stationary’ 3- imperfective

c’5- unspecified object n4- ‘round’ we9-s3-... -/ non-perfective negative

s2- 1sg. subject

Additional phonology in this example: /s/  [z] / ___ V 6. [wec’onthzisyit] ‘I won’t pick (round things)’ Morphemes in this example:

O-u4-jin ‘pick O (berries) while stationary’ c’5- unspecified object n4- ‘round’ we9-s3-... -/ non-perfective negative

s2- 1sg. subject h t 3-i3-...- future

Order restrictions within position 3: h3 t - fut > s3- negative

Additional phonology in this example: Ø   / th __ C // + /  t /n/  Ø / ___ C]syllable Morphemes in 6. ‘I’m not going to pick (round) things’

negative round 1 sg. subject

[we- c’- o- n- th- [] z- i- s- ji -t -]

unspecified object future ‘pick (berries) while stationary’ Athabaskan word formation: summary • Lexical categories: nouns vs. postpositions • Word formation types in Ath languages – Ablaut – Compounding – Affixation • with nouns, postpositions: relatively simple (one or two bound morphemes per word) • with verbs: multiple prefixes possible, prefixes strictly ordered (position classes), discontinuous morphemes