Language and Culture DigitalResources Documentation and Description 14 ® PAYA KUNA AN INTRODUCTORY GRAMMAR D. Keith Forster PAYA KUNA AN INTRODUCTORY GRAMMAR D. Keith Forster SIL International® 2011 SIL Language and Culture Documentation and Description 14 ©2011 D. Keith Forster and SIL International ISSN 1939-0785 Fair Use Policy Documents published in the Language and Culture Documentation and Description series are intended for scholarly research and educational use. You may make copies of these publications for research or instructional purposes (under fair use guidelines) free of charge and without further permission. Republication or commercial use of Language and Culture Documentation and Description or the documents contained therein is expressly prohibited without the written consent of the copyright holder(s). Series Editor George Huttar Copy Editors Mickey Brussow Compositor Judy Benjamin CONTENTS ABSTRACT .......................................................................................................................................... ix THE PAYA KUNA ALPHABET .......................................................................................................... x 1 BASIC GREETINGS AND TAKING LEAVE ............................................................................. 1 1.1 Dialogue ................................................................................................................................. 1 1.2 Pronunciation .......................................................................................................................... 1 1.2.1 Intonation (Ex. 1–2) ........................................................................................................ 1 1.2.2 Consonant pronunciation ................................................................................................ 2 1.2.3 Pronunciation of individual vowel and lenis consonant sounds ..................................... 2 1.3 Culture .................................................................................................................................... 8 1.4 Grammar ................................................................................................................................. 8 1.4.1 Mai versus chi................................................................................................................. 8 1.4.2 Use of personal pronouns ............................................................................................... 8 2 BASIC NEEDS EXPRESSED: FOOD AND SHELTER ............................................................ 10 2.1 Dialogue ............................................................................................................................... 10 2.2 Pronunciation ........................................................................................................................ 10 2.2.1 Intonation (Ex. 1–3) ...................................................................................................... 10 2.2.2 Fortis consonants .......................................................................................................... 11 2.2.3 Pronunciation of individual fortis consonant sounds (Ex. 4–8) ................................... 11 2.2.4 Vowel length (Ex. 9) .................................................................................................... 13 2.2.5 Distinguishing between fortis and lenis consonants (Ex. 10–27) ................................. 14 2.2.6 Consonant clusters (Ex. 28) .......................................................................................... 18 2.3 Culture .................................................................................................................................. 19 2.4 Grammar ............................................................................................................................... 19 2.4.1 Word order (Ex. 29–30) ............................................................................................... 19 2.4.2 Desiderative (Ex. 31–35) .............................................................................................. 21 2.5 Vocabulary ........................................................................................................................... 23 3 CONVERSATIONAL REPLIES ................................................................................................. 24 3.1 Dialogue ............................................................................................................................... 24 3.2 Pronunciation ........................................................................................................................ 24 3.2.1 Intonation (Ex. 1–2) ...................................................................................................... 24 3.2.2 Pronunciation of consonant cluster with lenis consonant g or fortis consonant k before nasals m and n (Ex. 3) .................................................................................................. 24 3.2.3 Intonation patterns of questions and answers (Ex. 4–10) ............................................. 25 3.2.4 Pronunciation of consonants at the beginning of a word .............................................. 26 3.2.5 Pronunciation of monosyllabic words (Ex. 11) ............................................................ 27 3.3 Culture .................................................................................................................................. 27 3.4 Grammar ............................................................................................................................... 28 3.4.1 Yes/No questions .......................................................................................................... 28 3.4.2 Verb tense aspect - immediate future (Ex. 12–16) ....................................................... 28 3.4.3 Intransitive sentence word order ................................................................................... 30 3.4.4 Long and short forms of words..................................................................................... 30 3.4.5 Contrast of subject ........................................................................................................ 31 3.5 Vocabulary ........................................................................................................................... 32 4 QUESTIONS ................................................................................................................................ 33 4.1 Dialogue ............................................................................................................................... 33 4.2 Pronunciation ........................................................................................................................ 33 4.2.1 Intonation (Ex. 1–2) ...................................................................................................... 33 iii iv Contents 4.2.2 Pronunciation of consonants at the end of words (Ex. 3) ............................................. 33 4.2.3 Pronunciation of labialized consonants (Ex. 4–7) ........................................................ 34 4.2.4 Pronunciation of transitional w ..................................................................................... 36 4.2.5 Fluctuation and phonological changes of fricatives, affricates and the semi-vowel j ........... 36 4.3 Culture .................................................................................................................................. 37 4.4 Grammar ............................................................................................................................... 37 4.4.1 Verb tense in completive aspect ................................................................................... 37 4.4.2 Verb form in completive aspect (Ex. 8–10) ................................................................. 37 4.4.3 Content Questions (Ex. 11–18) .................................................................................... 39 4.5 VOCABULARY .................................................................................................................. 44 5 TRADE LANGUAGE.................................................................................................................. 45 5.1 Dialogue ............................................................................................................................... 45 5.2 Pronunciation and Intonation (Ex. 1–4) ............................................................................... 45 5.2.1 Conversation ................................................................................................................. 45 5.2.2 Listing ........................................................................................................................... 45 5.3 Culture .................................................................................................................................. 46 5.4 Grammar ............................................................................................................................... 46 5.4.1 Numbers (Ex. 5–15) ..................................................................................................... 46 5.4.2 Listing ........................................................................................................................... 55 5.5 Vocabulary ..........................................................................................................................