A Grammar of Bora with Special Attention to Tone ©2012 SIL International SIL International® Publications in Linguistics Publication 148 Publications in Linguistics are published by SIL Inter- national®. The series is a venue for works covering a broad range of topics in linguistics, especially the analytical treatment of minority languages from all parts of the world. While most volumes are authored by members of SIL, suitable works by others will also form part of the series. Editor in Chief Michael C. Cahill Volume Editor Mary Ruth Wise Production Staff Bonnie Brown, Managing Editor Barbara Alber, Cover design Diana Weber, Cover photograph ©2012 SIL International A Grammar of Bora with Special Attention to Tone Wesley Thiesen and David Weber SIL International® Dallas, Texas ©2012 SIL International ©2012 by SIL International® Library of Congress Catalog No: 2012933805 eISBN: 978-1-55671-353-8 ISSN: 1040-0850 Printed in the United States of America All Rights Reserved Electronic edition published 2013 No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, record- ing, or otherwise—without the express permission of the SIL International®. However, short passages, generally understood to be within the limits of fair use, may be quoted without written permission. Typeset by the second author with XƎTEX. The Bora texts were formatted with the interlinear text package of Kew & McConnel (1990). Copies of this and other publications of the SIL International® may be obtained from: SIL International Publications 7500 W. Camp Wisdom Road Dallas, TX 75236-5629 Voice: 972-708-7404 Fax: 972-708-7363 [email protected] www.ethnologue.com/bookstore.asp ©2012 SIL International In memory of Eva Thiesen (1925–2009) ©2012 SIL International ©2012 SIL International Contents List of Figures xviii List of Tables xxi Preface xxv Authorship . xxv Acknowledgments . xxvi Why is Bora so interesting? . xxvii Abbreviations and Conventions xxix Abbreviations . xxix Conventions . xxxii 1 The Bora People 1 1.1 Demographics and history . 1 1.2 The future of the Bora language . 5 1.3 Social structure . 6 1.3.1 Festivals . 7 1.3.2 The patrón system . 11 1.4 Work . 12 1.4.1 Agriculture and gathering . 12 1.4.2 Food preparation . 13 1.4.3 Hunting . 15 1.4.4 Fishing . 15 1.4.5 Animal husbandry . 16 1.4.6 House construction . 16 1.4.7 Weaving . 18 1.5 Dress and personal adornment . 18 1.6 Religion . 19 1.6.1 The boa constrictor . 20 1.6.2 Burial . 21 1.7 Music . 21 vii ©2012 SIL International viii CONTENTS 1.8 The Bora signal drums . 21 1.8.1 Various functions of the drums . 22 1.8.2 How the signal drums are made . 23 1.8.3 How messages are drummed . 23 2 Phonology 27 2.1 The Bora writing system . 27 2.2 Syllables . 28 2.3 Vowels . 29 2.3.1 Rules applying to vowels . 30 2.3.2 Vowel length . 31 2.4 Consonants . 33 2.4.1 The glottal stop . 35 2.4.2 Palatalization . 37 2.4.3 Preaspiration . 40 2.5 Apocope . 42 2.6 Reduplication . 43 2.7 Quantity . 47 2.7.1 The minimal word . 48 2.7.2 “Heavy” syllables . 48 2.7.3 Suffixes that add weight to a monosyllabic root .49 2.7.4 Quantity alternations . 50 2.7.4.1 Length suppressed by -ːcu ‘duIn’ and -ːne ‘plural’ . 50 2.7.4.2 Vowel length alternating with [ˣ] before vowel length . 51 2.7.4.3 Maintaining syllable weight in imperatives 51 2.7.4.4 Length in pronouns . 52 2.7.4.5 Allomorphy conditioned by preceding syl- lable weight . 52 2.8 Unresolved issues . 53 3 Tone 55 3.1 Some basic facts and overview . 56 3.2 The tonal elements . 60 3.3 Default tones . 60 3.3.1 Final default low tone . 60 3.3.2 Default high tone . 62 3.4 The cyclical nature of suffixation . 63 3.5 Lexically marked tones . 64 3.5.1 Lexically marked low tones . 65 3.5.2 Lexically marked high tones . 66 ©2012 SIL International CONTENTS ix 3.5.3 Nonfinite verbs .................... 68 3.6 The *llx constraint . 69 3.7 Phrase final tone changes . 70 3.7.1 Penultimate low tone split . 70 3.7.2 Final low tone split . 73 3.8 The interaction of tone and vowel length . 75 3.9 The tones of isolated words (“citation forms”) . 76 3.10 Tone changes caused by suffixes . 76 3.10.1 Suffixes affecting the host’s final tones . 77 3.10.2 Affixes that affect the host’s initial tones . 78 3.10.3 Suffixes affecting both initial and final tones .79 3.11 Tone conflicts and their resolution . 79 3.11.1 Blocking . 80 3.11.2 Delinking . 82 3.11.2.1 Delinking by the person markers . 83 ⃝ ⃝ 3.11.2.2 Delinking by - L di ‘animate’, - L ke ‘objAn’, ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ - L ki ‘purpose’, - L ma ‘with’, - L te ‘go.do’ ⃝ and - L du ‘like’ . 84 ⃝ 3.11.2.3 Delinking by # H …-jɨɨ(va) ‘deny’ . 85 ⃝ 3.11.2.4 Delinking by - L σ ‘future’ . 86 3.11.2.5 Delinking by -ro ∼ -ra ‘frustrative, contra- expectation’ . 87 3.11.3 Bumping . 88 3.12 Grammatical tone . 88 3.12.1 Tone on the verbs of subordinate clauses . 89 3.12.2 The tones of proclitics . 93 3.12.3 The default tone of nouns and classifiers . 94 3.13 The rule of three and boundary marking . 95 3.14 Areas for further study . 96 4 Word Formation 99 4.1 Derivation with tone: nonfinite verbs . 100 4.2 Compounding . 103 4.2.1 Compound nouns . 103 4.2.1.1 Headed by classifiers . 103 4.2.1.2 Headed by nouns . 103 4.2.1.3 Object incorporation . 105 4.2.2 Compound verbs . 106 4.3 Affixal derivation . .108 4.3.1 Verbs derived from verbs . 108 4.3.2 Verbs derived from nouns . 109 4.3.2.1 -lle ‘treat like, regard as’ . 109 ©2012 SIL International x CONTENTS 4.3.2.2 -nu ‘do’ . 110 4.3.2.3 -ːve ‘sIn’ and -te ‘become’ . 111 4.3.2.4 -va ‘have’ . 111 4.3.2.5 -jkimei ‘behave like’ . 112 4.3.3 Nouns from verbs with -ta ‘corresponding to’ . 113 4.3.4 Participles . 113 4.3.5 Negative deverbal adjectives . 116 4.3.6 Affixal “verbs” . .116 4.3.6.1 -pi ‘excessive’ . 117 4.3.6.2 -lle ‘try’ . 117 4.3.6.3 -pejtso ‘upon encountering’ . 117 4.3.6.4 Relocation to or from doing . 118 4.3.7 Adverbs and adjectives . 121 4.4 Verbs with incorporated instruments . 123 5 Main Clauses and Verbs 125 5.1 Basic sentence structure . 125 5.2 Subjects indicated with classifiers . 127 5.3 Predicate complements . 129 5.4 End of main verb markers . 131 5.4.1 -hi ∼ -h hti . 131 5.4.2 -ne hni . 132 5.5 Statements of fact . 133 5.6 The structure of the verb . 135 5.7 Verbal categories . 136 5.7.1 Transitive, intransitive, stative . 136 5.7.2 Single or multiple action . 137 5.7.3 Marking multiple action with intransitive verbs . 140 5.8 Valence-changing suffixes . 144 5.8.1 -tso ‘causative’ . 144 5.8.2 -mei ‘reflexive or passive’ . .147 5.8.3 -jcatsi ‘reciprocal’ . 148 5.9 Tense . 149 5.9.1 The present-past tense . 149 5.9.2 The future tense . 149 5.9.3 Tense-marking second-position clitics . 151 5.9.3.1 -pe ‘remote past’ . 152 5.9.3.2 -ne ∼ -hne ‘recent past’ . 152 5.9.3.3 -i ∼ -iíkye ‘projected time (PT)’ . 153 5.10 Aspect . 154 5.10.1 Aspect and the singular versus multiple contrast . 154 5.10.2 Aspect indicated by -ʔiˣkʲʰa ‘habitual’ . 154 ©2012 SIL International CONTENTS xi 5.11 Mood . .............................157 5.12 Adverbs . 157 5.12.1 Affixal adverbs . .157 5.12.1.1 -juco (ː) ‘now’ . 157 5.12.1.2 -ro ∼ -ra ∼ -yo ∼ -ya ‘frustrative, contra- expectation’ . 158 5.12.2 Lexical adverbs . 159 6 Classifiers 163 6.1 Form, distribution, tone . 163 6.1.1 General facts about animate and inanimate classi- fiers . 163.