Emil Perder A Grammatical Description of Dameli Emil Perder A Grammatical Description of Dameli A Grammatical ISBN 978-91-7447-770-2 Department of Linguistics Doctoral Thesis in Linguistics at Stockholm University, Sweden 2013 A Grammatical Description of Dameli Emil Perder A Grammatical Description of Dameli Emil Perder ©Emil Perder, Stockholm 2013 ISBN 978-91-7447-770-2 Printed in Sweden by Universitetsservice AB, Stockholm 2013 Distributor: Department of Linguistics, Stockholm University ماں َتارف تہ ِاک توحفہ، دامیاں A gift from me, Dameli people Abstract This dissertation aims to provide a grammatical description of Dameli (ISO-639-3: dml), an Indo-Aryan language spoken by approximately 5 000 people in the Domel Valley in Chitral in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province in the North-West of Pakistan. Dameli is a left-branching SOV language with considerable morphological complexity, particularly in the verb, and a complicated system of argument marking. The phonology is relatively rich, with 31 consonant and 16 vowel phonemes. This is the first extensive study of this language. The analysis presented here is based on original data collected primarily between 2003-2008 in cooperation with speakers of the language in Peshawar and Chitral, including the Domel Valley. The core of the data consists of recorded texts and word lists, but questionnaires and paradigms of word forms have also been used. The main emphasis is on describing the features of the language as they appear in texts and other material, rather than on conforming them to any theory, but the analysis is informed by functional analysis and linguistic typology, hypotheses on diachronical developments and comparisons with neighbouring and related languages. The description is divided into sections describing phonology, morphology and syntax, with chapters on a range of individual subjects such as particular word classes and phrase types, phonological and syntactical phenomena. This is not intended to be an exhaustive reference grammar; some topics are only touched upon briefly while others are treated in more detail and suggestions for further research are given at various points throughout the work. Contents Abbreviations ....................................................................................... vii On transcription ..................................................................................... ix Acknowledgements ................................................................................ xi Background .......................................................................................... 3 1 Introduction ................................................................................... 3 1.1 The name of the language ............................................................................ 3 1.2 Genealogical classification ........................................................................... 4 1.3 Dameli and other languages ......................................................................... 7 1.4 Previous research ........................................................................................ 9 1.5 Variation within the language ...................................................................... 10 1.6 Language vitality ....................................................................................... 11 1.7 Geographic location ................................................................................. 12 1.8 The Dameli people .................................................................................... 12 2 Methods and data collection .......................................................... 14 2.1 Field research .......................................................................................... 14 2.2 Text corpus .............................................................................................. 15 2.3 Wordlists ................................................................................................ 17 2.4 Paradigms ............................................................................................... 18 2.5 Questionnaires ......................................................................................... 18 2.6 Other kinds of data ................................................................................... 19 Phonology .......................................................................................... 21 3 Phonemes ................................................................................... 23 3.1 Vowels ................................................................................................... 24 3.1.1 Vowel quality ................................................................................. 25 3.1.2 Vowel length .................................................................................. 25 3.1.3 Nasality ........................................................................................ 27 3.1.4 Diphthongs and vowel sequences ...................................................... 27 3.2 Consonants ............................................................................................. 27 3.2.1 Place of articulation ......................................................................... 28 3.2.2 Manner of articulation ...................................................................... 28 3.2.3 Voicing and aspiration ..................................................................... 31 i Contents 3.3 Tone ...................................................................................................... 32 4 Syllable structure .......................................................................... 33 4.1 Onset ..................................................................................................... 33 4.2 Nucleus .................................................................................................. 34 4.3 Coda ..................................................................................................... 34 5 Prosody ..................................................................................... 36 5.1 Stress ..................................................................................................... 36 5.2 Intonation ................................................................................................ 37 6 Phonological processes ................................................................. 38 6.1 Vowel sequences ...................................................................................... 38 6.1.1 Elision ........................................................................................... 38 6.1.2 Lengthening ................................................................................... 39 6.1.3 Coalescence .................................................................................. 39 6.1.4 Epenthetic semivowels ...................................................................... 39 6.1.5 Hiatus ........................................................................................... 40 6.1.6 Diphthongs or vocalic sequences ....................................................... 40 6.2 Conditioned vowel lengthening ................................................................... 41 6.3 Word-final processes ................................................................................. 41 6.3.1 Reduction of clusters ........................................................................ 42 6.3.2 Deaspiration .................................................................................. 43 6.3.3 Obstruent devoicing ........................................................................ 43 Morphology ........................................................................................ 47 7 Nouns ....................................................................................... 49 7.1 Noun stems ............................................................................................. 49 7.1.1 Noun roots .................................................................................... 49 7.1.2 Compounds ................................................................................... 50 7.2 Animacy ................................................................................................. 50 7.3 Gender ................................................................................................... 51 7.3.1 Gender assignment ......................................................................... 52 7.3.2 Gender agreement .......................................................................... 53 7.3.3 Decline of gender ........................................................................... 54 7.4 Noun inflection ......................................................................................... 55 7.4.1 Number ........................................................................................ 56 7.4.2 Case ............................................................................................ 58 7.5 Kinship nouns ........................................................................................... 62 7.5.1 Kinship system ................................................................................ 62 7.5.2 Kinship person suffixes ..................................................................... 69 7.5.3 Vocative ........................................................................................ 70 7.5.4 Special plural