Language Contact in Amazonia
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Is Kanakanavu an Ergative Language?
Voice and transitivity in Kanakanavu Dissertation zur Erlangung des akademischen Grades einer Doktorin der Philosophie (Dr. phil.) der Philosophischen Fakultät der Universität Erfurt vorgelegt von Ilka Wild Erfurt, März 2018 Gutachter der Arbeit: Prof. Dr. Christian Lehmann, Universität Erfurt Prof. Dr. Volker Gast, Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena Datum der Defensio: 6. August 2018 Universitätsbibliothek Erfurt Electronic Text Center URN:nbn:de:gbv:547-201800530 Abstract This is a dissertation on the Kanakanavu language, i.e. that linguistic phenomena found while working on the language underwent a deeper analysis and linguistic techniques were used to provide data and to present analyses in a structured manner. Various topics of the Kanakanavu language system are exemplified: Starting with a grammar sketch of the language, the domains phonology, morphology, and syntax are described and information on the linguistic features in these domains are given. Beyond a general overview of the situation and a brief description of the language and its speakers, an investigation on a central part of the Kanakanavu language system, namely its voice system, can be found in this work. First, it is analyzed and described by its formal characteristics. Second, the question of the motivation of using the voice system in connection to transitivity and, in the literature less often recognized, the semantic side of transitive constructions, i.e. its effectiveness, is discussed. Investigations on verb classes in Kanakanavu and possible semantic connections are presented as well as investigations on possible situations of different degrees of effectiveness. This enables a more detailed view on the language system and, in particular, its voice system. -
A View from Amazonia
1 The value of language and the language of value: a view from Amazonia Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald (The Cairns Institute/SASS, JCU) Abstract. The concept of 'value' is manifold. Something judged good, proper and desirable in human life is judged as 'valuable'. Being valuable may have economic connotations of 'worth' — to do with the degree to which desirable objects may bring material benefits. In this paper, I concentrate on the Tariana, a representative of the Vaupés River Basin linguistic area in the far-corner of north-west Brazilian Amazonia. I focus on how the value of language as the mark of identity is expressed in Tariana. I then turn to the expression of meanings to do with evaluation ('good, proper, as it should be' versus 'bad, adverse', 'other', or 'correct' versus 'incorrect'(), with a special focus on the danger of 'otherness'. The concept of monetary worth came into the society, and the language, through the introduction of market economy within the last two or three decades. At the end, the findings are put within the perspective of Amazonian languages and cultures in general. 1 Value in language The concept of 'value' is manifold. Something judged good, proper and desirable in human life may be looked upon as 'valuable'. Having 'value' may go together with economic connotations of 'worth', that is, the degree to which desirable objects may bring material benefits. The term 'value' in English (and also French, Portuguese and some other familiar Indo-European languages) extends beyond 'worth' and 'evaluation' into 'the ability of a thing to serve a purpose or cause an effect, as in news value'. -
Languages of the Middle Andes in Areal-Typological Perspective: Emphasis on Quechuan and Aymaran
Languages of the Middle Andes in areal-typological perspective: Emphasis on Quechuan and Aymaran Willem F.H. Adelaar 1. Introduction1 Among the indigenous languages of the Andean region of Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, northern Chile and northern Argentina, Quechuan and Aymaran have traditionally occupied a dominant position. Both Quechuan and Aymaran are language families of several million speakers each. Quechuan consists of a conglomerate of geo- graphically defined varieties, traditionally referred to as Quechua “dialects”, not- withstanding the fact that mutual intelligibility is often lacking. Present-day Ayma- ran consists of two distinct languages that are not normally referred to as “dialects”. The absence of a demonstrable genetic relationship between the Quechuan and Aymaran language families, accompanied by a lack of recognizable external gen- etic connections, suggests a long period of independent development, which may hark back to a period of incipient subsistence agriculture roughly dated between 8000 and 5000 BP (Torero 2002: 123–124), long before the Andean civilization at- tained its highest stages of complexity. Quechuan and Aymaran feature a great amount of detailed structural, phono- logical and lexical similarities and thus exemplify one of the most intriguing and intense cases of language contact to be found in the entire world. Often treated as a product of long-term convergence, the similarities between the Quechuan and Ay- maran families can best be understood as the result of an intense period of social and cultural intertwinement, which must have pre-dated the stage of the proto-lan- guages and was in turn followed by a protracted process of incidental and locally confined diffusion. -
Announcements
227 Journal of Language Contact – THEMA 1 (2007): Contact: Framing its Theories and Descriptions ANNOUNCEMENTS Symposium Language Contact and the Dynamics of Language: Theory and Implications 10-13 May 2007 Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology (Leipzig) Organizing institutions: Institut Universitaire de France : Chaire ‘Dynamique du langage et contact des langues’ (Nice) Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology: Department of Linguistics (Leipzig) Information and presentation: http://www.unice.fr/ChaireIUF-Nicolai/Symposium/Index_Symposium.html Thematic orientation Three themes are chosen. I. “‘Contact’: an ‘obvious fact ? A notion to be rethought?” The aim is to open theoretical reflection on the importance of ‘contact’ as a linguistic and anthropological phenomenon for the study of the evolution and dynamics of languages and of Language. II. “Contact, typology and evolution of languages: a perspective to be explored” Here the aim is to open discussion on what is constructed by ‘typology’. III. “Representation of the phenomena and the role of descriptors: a perspective to be established” In connection with the double requirement of theoretical reflection and empirical underpinning, the aim is to develop an epistemological reflection on the elaboration of knowledge in the domain of languages and Language. Titles of communications Peter Bakker (Aarhus) Rethinking structural diffusion Cécile Canut (Montpelllier) & Paroles et Agencements Jean-Marie Prieur (Montpelllier) Bernard Comrie (MPI-EVA, Leipzig & WALS tell us about the diffusion of structural features Santa Barbara) Nick Enfield (MPI, Nijmegen) Conceptual tools for a natural science of language (contact and change) Zygmunt Frajzyngier & Erin Shay (Boulder, Language-internal versus contact-induced change: the case of split Colorado) coding of person and number. -
Polysynthetic Structures of Lowland Amazonia
OUP UNCORRECTED PROOF – REVISES, Sat Aug 19 2017, NEWGEN Chapter 15 Polysynthetic Structures of Lowland Amazonia Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald 15.1 Lowland Amazonian languages: a backdrop The Amazon basin is an area of high linguistic diversity (rivalled only by the island of New Guinea). It comprises around 350 languages grouped into over fifteen language families, in addition to a number of isolates. The six major linguistic families of the Amazon basin are as follows. • The Arawak language family is the largest in South America in terms of its geographical spread, with over forty extant languages between the Caribbean and Argentina. Well- established subgroups include Campa in Peru and a few small North Arawak groupings in Brazil and Venezuela. Arawak languages are spoken in at least ten locations north of the River Amazon, and in at least ten south of it. European languages contain a number of loans from Arawak languages, among them hammock and tobacco. • The Tupí language family consists of about seventy languages; nine of its ten branches are spoken exclusively in Amazonia. The largest branch, Tupí- Guaraní, extends beyond the Amazonian Basin into Bolivia and Paraguay. Loans from Tupí-Guaraní languages include jaguar and jacaranda. • Carib languages number about twenty five, and are spoken in various locations in Brazil and Venezuela in northern Amazonia, and in the region of the Upper Xingu and adjacent areas of Mato Grosso in Brazil south of the River Amazon. The place name ‘Caribbean’ and the noun cannibal (a version of the ethnonym ‘Carib’) are a legacy from Carib languages. • Panoan languages number about thirty, and are spoken on the eastern side of the Andes in Peru and adjacent areas of Brazil. -
Blended Grammar: Kumandene Tariana of Northwest Amazonia
DOI: 10.26346/1120-2726-169 Blended grammar: Kumandene Tariana of northwest Amazonia Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald Central Queensland University, Cairns, Australia <[email protected]> Kumandene Tariana, a North Arawak language, spoken by about 40 people in the community of Santa Terezinha on the Iauari river (tributary of the Vaupés River in north-west Amazonia), can be considered a new blended language. The Kumandene Tariana moved to their present location from the middle Vaupés about two generations ago. They now intermarry with the Baniwa Hohôdene, speakers of a closely related language. This agrees with the principle of ‘lin- guistic exogamy’ common to most indigenous people within the Vaupés River Basin linguistic area. With Baniwa as the majority language, Kumandene Tariana is endangered. The only other extant variety of Tariana is the Wamiarikune Tariana dialect which has undergone strong influence from Tucano, the major language of the region. As a result of their divergent development, Kumandene Tariana and Wamiarikune Tariana are not mutually intelligible. Over the past fifty years, speakers of Kumandene Tariana have acquired numerous Baniwa-like features in the grammar and lexicon. The extent of Baniwa impact on Kumandene Tariana varies depending on the speaker. Kumandene Tariana shares some similarities with other ‘blended’, or ‘merged’ languages. The influence of Baniwa is particularly instructive in the domain of verbal categories – negation, tense, aspect, and evidentiality. Keywords: Tariana, Arawak languages, Amazonian languages, blended lan- guages, multilingualism. 1. Colonial expansion and linguistic repertoires in Amazonia Lowland Amazonia is renowned for its linguistic diversity in terms of number of languages, their genetic affiliation, and their structural patterns. -
ARAWAK LANGUAGES” by Alexandra Y
OXFORD BIBLIOGRAPHIES IN LINGUISTICS “ARAWAK LANGUAGES” by Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald © Oxford University Press Not for distribution. For permissions, please email [email protected]. xx Introduction General Overviews Monographs and Dissertations Articles and Book Chapters North Arawak Languages Monographs and Dissertations Articles and Book Chapters Reference Works Grammatical and Lexical Studies Monographs and Dissertations Articles and Book Chapters Specific Issues in the Grammar of North Arawak Languages Mixed Arawak-Carib Language and the Emergence of Island Carib Language Contact and the Effects of Language Obsolescence Dictionaries of North Arawak Languages Pre-andine Arawak Languages Campa Languages Monographs and Dissertations Articles and Book Chapters Amuesha Chamicuro Piro and Iñapari Apurina Arawak Languages of the Xingu Indigenous Park Arawak Languages of Areas near Xingu South Arawak Languages Arawak Languages of Bolivia Introduction The Arawak family is the largest in South America, with about forty extant languages. Arawak languages are spoken in lowland Amazonia and beyond, covering French Guiana, Suriname, Guiana, Venezuela, Colombia, Peru, Brazil, and Bolivia, and formerly in Paraguay and Argentina. Wayuunaiki (or Guajiro), spoken in the region of the Guajiro peninsula in Venezuela and Colombia, is the largest language of the family. Garifuna is the only Arawak language spoken in Belize, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Guatemala in Central America. Groups of Arawak speakers must have migrated from the Caribbean coast to the Antilles a few hundred years before the European conquest. At least several dozen Arawak languages have become extinct since the European conquest. The highest number of recorded Arawak languages is centered in the region between the Rio Negro and the Orinoco. -
Johann Natterer and the Amazonian Languages Johann Natterer E As Línguas Da Amazônia Willem F.H
Artigos • Articles Johann Natterer and the Amazonian languages Johann Natterer e as línguas da Amazônia Willem F.H. Adelaar Hélène B. Brijnen1 Abstract Johann Natterer (1787-1843) was a member of the Austrian scientific expedition that was sent to Brazil in 1817. As a zoologist, Natterer practised taxidermy in situ and provided the Austrian court with a large collection of stuffed animals and ethnographic objects. Less known is his dedication to the collection of linguistic data. After the expedition was called back in 1822, Natterer obtained permission to stay on. He remained in Brazil until 1835 and collected language materials (Sprachproben) of 72 indigenous languages. For many of the languages concerned, Natterer’s hand-written data are either the first or the only records in existence. They are accompanied by ethnographic observations, indicating the original location of groups. In several cases, the speakers of language groups documented by Natterer have since then been removed from their original territories, if their languages were not brought to extinction. After a turbulent history, Natterer’s original language data, which for a long time remained unnoticed, are now kept at the Library of the University of Basel in Switzerland, where they have also been digitalized. Their transcription and publication is being undertaken by the authors of the present article. Keywords: Indian languages from South-America. Language samples from South-America. South-American ethnography. Indians in Amazonia. Johann Natterer. Resumo Johann Natterer (1787-1843) foi membro da expedição científica austríaca enviada para o Brasil em 1817. Como zoólogo, Natterer praticou a taxidermia in situ e forneceu à corte austríaca uma vasta coleção de animais empalhados e de objetos etnográficos. -
Aikhenvald CV Latest.Revised.March 2021
ALEXANDRA Y. AIKHENVALD CURRICULUM VITAE Mailing address: 21Anne Street, Smithfield, Qld 4878 , Australia e-mail: [email protected], [email protected] phone: 61-(0)400 305315 Citizenship: Australian, Brazilian Educated • Department of Structural and Applied Linguistics, Philological Faculty, Moscow State University: BA in Linguistics 1978; MA in Linguistics 1979 (thesis topic: 'Relative Clause in Anatolian Languages') • Institute of Oriental Studies of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, Moscow: PhD in Linguistics, 1984 (thesis topic 'Structural and Typological Classification of Berber Languages') • La Trobe University, 2006: Doctor of Letters by examination of four books and 14 papers. Positions held • Research Fellow, Department of Linguistics, Institute of Oriental Studies of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, January 1980 - September 1988 • Senior Research Fellow, ibidem, September 1988 - July 1989 • Visiting Professor, Federal University of Santa Catarina, Florianópolis, Brazil, August 1989 - December 1991 • Associate Professor, ibidem, December 1991 - December 1992 • Full Professor with tenure, ibidem, December 1992 - February 1994 • Visiting Professor, State University of Campinas, Brazil, April 1992 - June 1992 • Visiting Professor, University of São Paulo, Brazil, July 1992 - December 1992 • Visiting Fellow, Australian National University, January - February 1993 • ARC Senior Research Fellow (with rank of Professor), Australian National University, February 1994 - 1999, Second Term: February 1999 - 2004 • Professor of Linguistics, Research Centre for Linguistic Typology, La Trobe University, from 2004 - 2008 • Associate Director of the Research Centre for Linguistic Typology, Australian National University, 1996-1999 • Associate Director of the Research Centre for Linguistic Typology, La Trobe University, 2000-2008 • Professor and Research Leader (People and Societies of the Tropics), Cairns Institute, James Cook University, 2009-present. -
And to the Speakers of Arawak Languages, Whose
v To Christian, Zoe, and Isabella and To Chris (notasanotakempi) and To the speakers of Arawak languages, whose patience, dedication, and hard work with linguists from around the world have made this volume possible vi vii Table of contents 1. Introduction........................................................................................... 1 2. Garifuna Negatives ............................................................................. 11 3. Negation in Guyanese Lokono/Arawak .............................................. 51 4. On negation in Kurripako Ehe-Khenim .............................................. 71 5. Negation in Tariana: A North Arawak perspective in light of areal diffusion .................................................................................................. 83 6. Negation in Apurinã .......................................................................... 117 7. Negation in Wauja discourse............................................................. 143 8. Standard and non-standard negation in Paresi .................................. 165 9. Negation in Nanti .............................................................................. 179 10. Irrealis and negation in Mojeño Trinitario ...................................... 211 11. A comparative perspective on negation in Arawak ......................... 235 References ............................................................................................ 293 Index .................................................................................................... -
Arawak Languages
446 Aramaic and Syriac is the religious poetry of Saint Ephrem, which East Aramaic dialects have been employed. Modern was much admired and imitated even beyond the literary Syriac (Swadaya) may be said to have begun Syriac language area. From the 10th century, Arabic with the printing of books in the local dialect by the replaced Syriac among Christians as the chief lan- American Presbyterian Mission at Urmia in North- guage of theology, philosophy, and medicine, but west Iran. Although the number of people currently the 13th century saw a veritable West Syriac renais- using some form of Aramaic is small, their determi- sance, embodied especially in the great polymath nation to keep it alive is a testimony to their pride in a Bar Hebraeus, who wrote with equal facility in language whose demonstrable lifespan extends to Syriac and Arabic. In contrast to the wide use of 3000 years. Syriac, Syro-Palestinian Christian Aramaic (alterna- tively designated Syro-Palestinian Syriac because it was written in the West Syriac script) was employed See also: Ancient Near-Eastern Religions; Arabic; Bible; only in Palestine and Syria, and the extant texts Bible Translations: Ancient Versions; Christianity in Cen- (mostly biblical, liturgical, or hagiographical) are all tral Asia and the Near East; Hebrew, Biblical and Medie- val; Iran: Language Situation; Iraq: Language Situation; translations from Greek. Israel: Language Situation; Judaism; Lebanon: Language Spoken Aramaic dialects have been in continuous Situation; Semitic Languages; Syria: Language Situation; use in a number of places right into modern times. Syriac; Translation: History; Turkey: Language Situation. Modern Western dialects of Aramaic are spoken, by Christians and Muslims, in three villages north of Damascus, namely Ma‘lula, Bah‘a, and Jubb ‘Addin. -
The Linguistic Expression of Affective Stance in Yaminawa (Pano, Peru)
The Linguistic Expression of Affective Stance in Yaminawa (Pano, Peru) By Kelsey Caitlyn Neely A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Linguistics in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in charge: Professor Lev D. Michael, Chair Professor Eve Sweetser Professor Justin Davidson Summer 2019 Copyright by Kelsey Caitlyn Neely Abstract The Linguistic Expression of Affective Stance in Yaminawa (Pano, Peru) by Kelsey Caitlyn Neely Doctor of Philosophy in Linguistics University of California, Berkeley Professor Lev D. Michael, Chair This dissertation explores affective expression in Yaminawa, a Panoan language ofPe- ruvian Amazonia. In this study, ‘affect’ is used to refer broadly to the English language concepts of ‘emotion’ and ‘feeling’. Affective expression is approached as an interac- tional phenomenon and it is analyzed in terms of affective stancetaking, i.e., the way speakers position themselves to objects in the discourse as well as their interlocutors via linguistic performance. This study considers affective resources at the levels of the lex- icon, morphology, prosody, acoustics (voice quality, speech rate and volume, etc.), and interactional features (turn duration, complexity of backchannels, etc.). This study contextualizes affective expression in Yaminawa with a detailed descrip- tion of Yaminawa ethnopsychology and the lexical resources that describe affective states, as well as behaviors and bodily sensations that are associated with particular affects by the Yaminawa. Using methods from Cognitive Anthropology, I investigate the ways that native Yaminawa speakers categorize emotion terms, and show that prosociality vs. anti- sociality is a major cultural axis along which emotion terms are conceptually organized.