A GRAMMAR OF KAKUA Published by LOT phone: +31 30 253 6111 Trans 10 3512 JK Utrecht e-mail: [email protected] The Netherlands http://www.lotschool.nl Cover illustration: Kakua hut. Wacará. Vaupés, Colombia. 2016. ISBN: 978-94-6093-215-1 NUR 616 Copyright © 2016: Katherine Bolaños. All rights reserved. A GRAMMAR OF KAKUA ACADEMISCH PROEFSCHRIFT ter verkrijging van de graad van doctor aan de Universiteit van Amsterdam op gezag van de Rector Magnificus prof. dr. ir. K.I.J. Maex ten overstaan van een door het College voor Promoties ingestelde commissie, in het openbaar te verdedigen in de Agnietenkapel op woensdag 12 oktober 2016, te 14:00 uur door Katherine Elizabeth Bolaños Quiñonez geboren te Cali, Colombia Promotiecommissie: Promotor: prof. dr. P.C. Hengeveld, Universiteit van Amsterdam Copromotores: prof. dr. P.L. Epps, The University of Texas at Austin dr. F.C. Seifart, Universiteit van Amsterdam Overige leden: prof. dr. E.O. Aboh, Universiteit van Amsterdam prof. dr. W.F.H. Adelaar, Universiteit Leiden prof. dr. F. Gobbo, Universiteit van Amsterdam dr. K. Stenzel, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro dr. O.J. Zwartjes, Universiteit van Amsterdam Faculteit: Faculteit der Geesteswetenschappen The research of this doctoral thesis received financial assistance from the Max Planck Society (doctoral fellowship), the Amsterdam Center for Language and Communication of the University of Amsterdam; a LLILAS grant from funds granted by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to the University of Texas at Austin (Bolaños, Epps); and a Joel Sherzer fieldwork grant. This doctoral thesis was published with financial support from the Amsterdam Center for Language and Communication, University of Amsterdam. For the Kakua people, and those who left. Y para mi papi y mami, que permanezca lo bello. Acknowledgments After the many years it took me to sew this grammar together, I couldn’t possibly come up with a fair list of all the people who helped me on my way. Completing a dissertation is not only a writing process, but also an emotional ride of happiness, excitement and despair. First, I owe the most heartfelt gratitude to the Kakua people, who allowed for me to meet them back in 2008, and who later became a group of friends, a family, taking care of me during the long walks in the inhospitable forest. With patience they taught me the simplest, most beautiful appreciation for the sublime things and beings in life. I thank those Kakua ‘who left’ to the forest and did not return, who left life and kept on going, who passed away and are deeply missed. I especially want to thank the women of Wacará for their power, for lovingly taking care of me, and for showing me the formidable force of female wisdom. No acknowledgments section is long enough, and no language is fair enough to express my gratitude for the Kakua people. I greatly thank my supervisors who had to struggle along with my own difficulties and periods of being stuck with a single problem, periods that seemed like a string of eternities. At times I was filled with motivation, but at many others it felt as if I was only being dragged through to barely make it to an end, or even a starting, point. Some other times, I was delivering only because I couldn’t bare the embarrassment of not keeping up with all of the support that seemed to have been earned without fair merit from my end. I owe my gratitude to Frank Seifart who had to face the worst effects of frustration, and who had made many sacrifices to walk along with me and make this dissertation possible; I’m sure that I am still unaware of many of his sacrifices. Kees Hengeveld always intervened with warm enthusiasm, and he always offered emotional motivation that transcended beyond the dissertation itself. Finally, I blame Pattie Epps more than anyone for both the beginning and the end of this project. It was she who first encouraged me to undertake the documentation and description of Kakua, and through the inspiration that she spreads with her passion and endless motivation, even at the least promising times, I kept on enjoying the ride of building the puzzle that the grammar of Kakua represents to me, always positively affected by Pattie’s fascination for the project as if it was herself going through every second of the time it took me to understand Kakua. Thank you also for warmly taking care of me, personally and academically. At the University of Texas at Austin, where I spent my first years of academic training in linguistics, I also splash some of the blame onto Nora England, who would unconditionally offer me support, care and force, filling me with the confidence to face the best parts and the nasty bits of these past years. Also at UT Austin, my professors and fellow students provided me with an inspirational academic environment from which this grammar has greatly benefited. My friends Ana Paula Brandao,̃ Telma Can, and Thiago Vital were the familiar and loving support that only friends can offer when home is far away. The department of linguistics at the Max Planck Institute in Leipzig stepped in in 2012 to offer an unbeatable setting for academic development. I thank my colleagues there for the academic inspiration towards a growth in the fascination for science. My time in Leipzig was filled with colors and love from my friends Iren Hartmann and Diana Schackow, reaffirming and redefining the meaning of friendship and family beyond what I have ever experienced: Diana, motivated by such caring love that she even suffered an uncomfortable train ride to come to my rescue, and Iren, guiding me out of the darkest places with her strength, compassion and love. Not only did both my friends provide me with important doses of much needed alcohol and food, but also left a permanent impression of inspiration and of strong loving women in academics, as well as friends and family. May life continue to bring us together, and keep both of you as beautiful, strong and loving as the women as you are. Also in Leipzig, Heriberto Avelino made sure of my emotional wellbeing, and while he wasn’t exactly a model of decency (more of moral decay and chocolate overdoses), I hold him deep in my heart for his friendship and love. In the world in general I have always run into Martin Kohlberger and always will, and since I’m such a superstitious person I rapidly learnt that it meant he was going to be that big part of my heart. I gave in and I couldn’t have had better times and better laughs. Even during the most obscure times I would always be cheered by the joy and love that he spreads. Thank you for helping me getting through the rough unpaved parts of these past years. This grammar is silently infested with your greatness. I thank Sasha Aikhenvald for the time in Cairns and the enthusiasm towards the completion of this dissertation, and for her comments in some chapters of this grammar. I also thank Kasia Wojtylak for every warm word and every smile. In Cairns I also had the emotional and pharmacological-caffeinated support and friendship of Nick Piper, whose mere voice and presence was already a motivation for happiness, not to mention our shared embarrassing TV preferences. Natacha Chevrier, for sharing the endless cold nights in Leiden, and always offering an alternative in case of the apocalypse: ‘an incomplete grammar of Kakua’. I also thank the academic panel who revised this grammar for their insights and stimulating comments. En Colombia, a mis amigos que me llenaban de fuerza silenciosa para seguir trabajando. Saber que regresaba a verlos siempre era un aliciente para los días de desespero y de ausencias. Federico Viadero, Daniel Castro, Mauricio Concha, Sharay Cruz, Camilia Gómez Cotta, Madelaynne Montaño, Claudia Andrade, Pilar Blanco. Finalmente gracias a mi familia. A mis hermanos Soraya y Vladimir, por el amor que es lo que hace hermosa la vida. A mis padres, de quienes lo recibí todo, y que vivieron con fuerza las alegrías de esta aventura Kakua, y me ayudaron a llevar el peso de las angustias y frustraciones. Solo ustedes saben lo que pasa más allá del corazón y la mente, cuando la fuerza no es suficiente. Este trabajo es solo parte del reflejo del inmenso amor, porque sin ese amor, confianza y cuidado, no podría haber tomado el primer paso. ix Table of Contents List of tables ............................................................................................................. xv List of maps and figures ........................................................................................ xvii List of abbreviations ............................................................................................... xix Chapter 1. Introduction: Kakua and its speakers ...................................................... 1 1.0 Introduction ........................................................................................................ 1 1.1 Linguistic profile of Kakua ................................................................................ 2 1.2 Sociolinguistic setting ........................................................................................ 3 1.3 Contact ............................................................................................................... 8 1.4 A problematic grouping: The linguistic classification of Kakua .................... 13 1.5 Kakua’s history of documentation ................................................................... 15 1.6 Kakua dialects and clans .................................................................................. 16 1.7 Field work and data