Wutun

Juha Janhunen, Marja Peltomaa, Erika Sandman, Xiawu Dongzhou
University of Helsinki

This is the first ever systematic grammatical description of the Wutun language, spoken by a compact population of some 4,000 individuals at Wutun, Qinghai Province, China, also known as the Amdo region of ethnic Tibet.

Wutun is an aberrant variety of Northwest Mandarin. Its basic vocabulary and the material resources of its grammar are mainly of a Chinese origin, but structurally it has almost completely adapted to its current linguistic environment, in which various local varieties of Amdo Tibetan are the dominant oral idioms.

Wutun may be characterized as a topic-prominent serial-verb language with a well-developed category of nominal case and a complex system of complement verbs and auxiliaries. Its other properties include a highly diversified consonant paradigm and the universally uncommon category of perspective.

The Wutun speakers are officially classified as members of the Tu nationality, but culturally they are closely connected with the Tibetan ethnicity. The locality of Wutun is an important center of Tibetan art and learning, Wutun remains a living language supported by the whole local community of all generations.

Juha Janhunen is Professor of East Asian Languages and Cultures at the Institute for Asian and African Studies, University of Helsinki. Marja Peltomaa and Erika Sandman are doctoral candidates at the same institute. Xiawu Dongzhou, a native speaker of Wutun, is a project manager based in Xining, Qinghai Province, China.

ISBN 9783895860263. Languages of the World/Materials 466. 136pp. 2008.

A Grammar of Lamaholot, Eastern Indonesia

The Morphology and Syntax of the Lewoingu Dialect

Kunio Nishiyama & Herman Kelen
Ibaraki University; University of Hawaii

This book describes a grammar (mainly morphology and syntax) of the Lewoingu dialect of Lamaholot, an Austronesian language (Central-Malayo-Polynesian subgroup) spoken by 150,000 ~ 200,000 people on the eastern tip of Flores and the surrounding area in eastern Indonesia. Lamaholot has 35 dialects, and although there are some descriptions and dictionaries for other dialects, the Lewoingu dialect has never been described before. The description in this book is basically theory-neutral, and analyses are kept to a minimum. This work will be of interest to descriptive linguists and Austronesian specialists, in particular because languages of eastern Indonesia in general are poorly documented and relations of several dialects of Lamaholot are poorly understood. Typologists and theoretical linguists would be interested in unique agreement in Lamaholot, where agreement emerges not only on verbs and adjectives, but also on adverbs, numerals, a preposition, and even on the conjunction (‘and’).

Theoreticians will also be interested in the chapter on resumptive pronouns, which is a rare description of the phenomena in Austronesian languages and shows that Lamaholot basically shares general properties of resumptive pronouns found in Irish and Semitic languages. Also of interest are possessive constructions, where the possessor can be either pronominal or postnominal, and each other has peculiar constraints.

ISBN 9783895867149. Languages of the World/Materials 467. 188pp. 2007.

Kurmanjî Kurdish

Gülşat Aygen
Northern Illinois University

This is a descriptive grammar of Kurmanjî, a major northern dialect of Kurdish spoken by the Kurds of Turkey, Eastern Syria, the Caucasus and parts of Iran. Considering that there is no reference grammar of any dialect of Kurdish published in English, and that there are only a few relevant grammars published in Turkish and Iranian, this book will be a unique resource as a reference grammar for the wider linguistics community.

This book covers the basic phonetic, phonological, morphological and syntactic structure of Kurmanjî, and includes some sample texts. The first chapter focuses on the phonetic inventory and phonotactics of Kurmanji Kurdish as well as some suprasegmental features, such as stress, and common phonological processes. The second chapter describes the morphological structure: parts of speech and the relevant inflectional morphology. The third chapter presents the Kurmanji sentence structure, both simple and complex, including subordinate clauses. Finally, chapter four contains some sample texts.

This grammar relies heavily on both the very few published material on Kurdic, particularly those of Bedir-Xan brothers and data elicited from native speakers of Kurmanjî. It adheres to the conventions of the Roman-based alphabet, following Bedir-Xan’s orthography and to IPA forms where relevant.

ISBN 9783895860706. Languages of the World/Materials 468. 102pp. 2007.

Grámatica del páez o nasa yuwe

Descripción de una lengua indígena de Colombia

Ingrid Jung
InWEnt, Capacity Building International, Alemania

El páez o nasa yuwe es una lengua hablada por el pueblo indígena nasa, que vive en el suroccidente de Colombia y tiene una población de 139.000 personas, de las cuales aproximadamente la mitad hablan todavía su lengua.

El libro contiene una introducción sobre la historia y la actualidad de los nasa, así como una breve introducción a las investigaciones sobre la lengua que aún no ha sido clasificada definitivamente. Después un capítulo sobre la fonología, se describe la oración desde una aproximación basada en la teoría de la valencia. Siguen la morfo-sintaxis del verbo, del sustantivo y otras clases de palabras, un análisis de la subordinación y oración complejas, así como una descripción de la interrogación y la negación. Al final se encuentran dos textos con transcripción.

El nasa yuwe o páez es una lengua principalmente aglutinante con formas sintéticas especialmente en la flexión verbal y en el sistema pronominal. El orden de palabras es sujeto, objeto, verbo y existe un sistema de declinación (sistema acusativo). El elemento de flexión que indica el sujeto y el modo se puede sufijar en ciertas condiciones a diferentes partes de la oración. La lengua marca morfológicamente la modalidad, haciendo una diferenciación epistémica basada en la evidencia o en el juicio. Existen una gama de medios morfológicos de cambio de valencia en los verbos. Una característica destacada es el sistema de formas verbales mediales (clause chaining).

Ingrid Jung, lingüista, es especialista en educación bilingüe y trabaja actualmente como responsable de los programas de educación en InWEnt. Realizó el análisis de la gramática del nasa yuwe o páez en el marco del doctorado en lingüistica en la Universidad de Osnabrück, Alemania

ISBN 9783895860188. Languages of the World/Materials 469. 214pp. 2008.

Inuktitut

Eine grammatische Skizze

Elke Nowak
Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster

Inuktitut wird in der kanadischen Arktis, im Territorium Nunavut und in Arctic Quebec, von ca. 30.000 Menschen gesprochen und steht in einem Varietätenkontinuum mit den benachbarten Sprachen der Familie „Eskimo-Aleut“, deren Verbreitungsgebiet sich von Ostgrönland bis zur Nordostspitze Asiens erstreckt.

Inuktitut ist eine polysynthetische Sprache und zeichnet sich durch uneingeschränkte morphologische Produktivität und Komplexität aus. Die vorliegende grammatische Skizze richtet ihr Augenmerk vorrangig auf diese synthetischen Prozesse, die sich keineswegs auf lexikalische Produktivität im Sinne einer ‚Wortbildung’ beschränken, sondern weitestgehend grammatisch konfigurierende Prozesse umfassen. Ausführlich behandelt werden auch die Kapazitäten der extrem differenzierten Flexionsparadigmen, insbesondere der Verbalflexion, die vollständige Propositionen konstituiert und durch die allein ein kohärenter Diskurs gewährleistet wird.

Inuktitut is the official name of the language of the Inuit, as it is spoken in the Canadian Arctic, in Nunavut Territory, where it has the status of an official language, and Arctic Quebec. Inuktitut is learned as first language by young children and spoken by approx. 30.000 speakers as mother tongue. It is a polysynthetic language, exhibiting full morphological productivity, not restricted to what might be thought of as ‘word formation’.

This sketch grammar focuses on synthetic processes, their range and capacities as being essentially grammatical in nature, creating full propositions, meta level utterances such as indirect speech and as sole means to establish a coherent discourse.

Inhalt

0. Vorwort
1. Bekanntschaft mit Inuktitut
1.1. Die Sprachgruppe Eskimo – Aleut
1.2. Eastern Eskimo: Inuktitut und Kalaallisut
2. Geschichte und Erforschung
3. Verschriftung und Standard
4. Morphologie und Synthese
4.1. Die morphologische Struktur von Inuktitut
4.2. Nuclei als freie Morpheme - Nuclei als gebundene Morpheme
4.3. Affixe
5. Grammatische Markierungen
5.1. Verbalkomplexe
5.1.1. Intransitiv – Transitiv
5.1.2. Modus
5.2. Nominalkomplexe
5.2.1. Kasus und Numerus
5.2.2. Possession (relationale Nomen)
5.2.3 Personalpronomen
6. Verbklassen - Nuclei
7. Synthese
7.1. Synthese als Prozess im Allgemeinen
7.2. Synthetische Prozesse im Einzelnen
7.2.1. Weiterbildende Affixe: nominale
7.2.2. Weiterbildende Affixe: verbale
7.2.3. Umkategorisierende Affixe: inkorporierende
7.2.4. Umkategorisierende Affixe nominalisierende
7.3. Lexikalisierte Affixkombinationen
7.4. Epistemische Affixe
7.5. Argumentmanipulation
7.5.1. Passiv
7.5.2. Antipassiv
7.5.3. Reflexiv
7.5.4. Kausativ

ISBN 9783895861246. Languages of the World/Materials 470. 92 S. 2008.

Efutu Grammar

Samuel Gyasi Obeng
Indiana University

Efutu, also called Awutu-Efutu or Senya is a Kwa language spoken by about 150,000 people in the Awutu, Efutu, and Senya areas of Ghana’s Central Region. "Efutu Grammar" deals broadly with the sound system, tone, and aspects of morphology and syntax of the language. Important aspects of the language that are explicated include verbal reduplication, tense and aspect, as well as the pronominal system and structure. Nouns and noun plurality, noun phrase structure, adjectival and adverbial constructions, complementation, relativization, as well as focus marking are also discussed and exemplified. Other aspects of the language that are subjected to synthesis and analysis are determiners (definite, indefinite, and demonstrative) and quantifiers).

Finally, Efutu ideophones and interjections (primary, secondary, and volitive) are also discussed and exemplified. Given the data oriented nature of Efutu Grammar, both theoretical and descriptive linguists will benefit from it considerably.

CONTENTS

1. Introduction
2. The sound system and verbal reduplication
3. The pronominal system of Efutu
4. Determiners
5. Verbal constructions in Efutu
6. Nouns and noun phrases in Efutu
7. Subordinate clauses/complementation
8. Focusing
9. Adjectives ad adjectical phrases
10. Ideophones
11. Questions
12. Relativization
13. Locatives and adverbs
14. Interjections

ISBN 9783895866739. Languages of the World/Materials 472. 122p. 2008.

Ventureño

Ingo Mamet
University of Bonn

Ventureño, a member of the Chumashan language family, was spoken in Coastal Southern California and is extinct since the middle of the 20th century. The language is documented in form of comprehensive notes by the renowned field linguist John Peabody Harrington (1884-1961). Ventureño exhibits numerous characteristics typical for the languages of Native Western North America. Noun incorporation, however, does not play a significant role.

Ventureño has an elaborated consonantal system with a multitude of complex segments and a velar-uvular distinction. The distribution of laryngeally marked segments is subject to numerous constraints. In contrast to this, the vowel system is simple, lacking a quantity distinction and diphthongs. Vowel sequences are never permitted.

Morphophonologically, the language shows a considerable degree of complexity. Ventureño’s most noticeable facet is sibilant harmony, regimenting the distribution of sibilant segments which are all anterior or non-anterior in a word. Different vowel harmonic processes are operative; consonantal ablaut is grammatically productive. Ventureño exhibits a tendency to express several grammatical categories by reduplication. The reduplicative patterns are variable and noticeable in cross-linguistic perspective.

Ventureño is a polysynthetic-agglutinating language and predominantly prefixing. It is head-marking and shows a nominative-accusative alignment. The distinction between active and passive voice is morphologically marked. Ventureño may be described as a «pronominal argument language»: nominals usually have the status of adjuncts, every verb can function as a sentence alone. The noun-verb distinction is not particularly robust; an establishment of lexical categories generally appears challenging. Pronominal prefixes, distinguishing three persons and numbers, refer to a possessor in construction with nouns and to the subject argument with verbs. Suffixed object markers distinguish two numbers only.

Ventureño verbs can exhibit a considerable degree of intricacy. The language has an elaborated set of over hundred derivational markers, traditionally labeled «instrumental» prefixes. They predominantly indicate manner meanings, cross-linguistically expressed by adverbs or adpositions. Ventureño nouns, which can be marked for tense, typically appear with a proclitic article and a demonstrative determiner. Nouns are not marked for case, there is no grammatical gender. With possessed nouns, an alienability distinction is morphologically marked to a certain extent. Ventureño shows a VOS basic constituent order; the roles of constituents are hardly morphosyntactically specified. The language exhibits a strong tendency for nominalization as well as relativization; furthermore, cleft-sentence constructions are common.

ISBN 9783895867873. Languages of the World/Materials 473. 120pp. 2008.

Gramática de la lengua guaymí (ngäbe)

Miguel Ángel Quesada Pacheco
Universitetet i Bergen

La presente gramática es un estudio referencial, descriptivo, de la lengua guaymí, llamada ngäbe o ngäbere por sus hablantes. El guaymí es una lengua perteneciente a la familia lingüística chibcha, compuesta por lenguas habladas desde Honduras hasta Venezuela, y es la lengua materna de aproximadamente 200.000 panameños, además de algunos miles de costarricenses que viven cerca de la frontera con Panamá. Es el idioma chibcha que cuenta con la mayor cantidad de usuarios, con lo cual se puede definir como una lengua en estado de resistencia. A pesar de esto, se le han dedicado muy pocos estudios sistemáticos de carácter lingüístico.

Tipológicamente, el guaymí se caracteriza por el orden sintáctico SOV, la ergatividad escindida, la colocación del adjetivo a la derecha del sustantivo; ausencia de género gramatical y de artículos. Los pronombres personales funcionan como adjetivos posesivos. Tiene un sistema de clasificación numérica según la forma del objeto. Respecto del verbo, tiene sufijos de tiempo para indefinido, pasado reciente, pasado remoto, perfecto, pasado testimonial, futuro reciente, futuro remoto e indefinido irrealis, una modalidad de subjuntivo con la cual se expresan prohibiciones, deseos y acciones que no han sucedido, como la condicionalidad irreal. Cuenta, además, con una serie de morfemas sufijados y verbos auxiliares que expresan la modalidad.

El presente trabajo intenta llenar un vacío con un estudio descriptivo, no exhaustivo, de los componentes fonético-fonológico, morfológico (nominal y verbal) y sintáctico del guaymí, cuyos resultados no solo servirán de consulta para el gremio de los lingüistas, sino también para investigadores en ciencias sociales y público en general. El estudio parte de un trabajo de campo en la comunidad de Salto Dupí (Chiriquí, Panamá), donde se logró reunir un corpus considerable de relatos tradicionales, además de encuestas lingüísticas.

ISBN 9783895861239. Languages of the World/Materials 474. 170pp. 2008.

Ossetian

Bela Hettich
University of North Dakota

Ossetian, a language of the Northeastern group of the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European stock of languages, has not received as much linguistic attention as it deserves. A few major studies on Ossetian were written in the 19th and 20th centuries, most of them in Russian. While these works are a solid foundation in the study of Ossetian, its description is not complete.

The present work, written in English, offers Ossetian to a wider international audience. Relying on new developments in linguistic theory, it reexamines phenomena in the inflectional morphology of Ossetian.

The preliminary chapter on phonology provides an overview of the phonemic inventory of Ossetian. In the chapter on nominal morphology, the variety and nature of case and number suffixes are reanalyzed, and they are described as phrasal affixes. In the chapter on verbal morphology, the forms previously described as infinitives are discussed and one of them is reanalyzed as a derived noun or adjective; the majority of verbs is regarded as having one stem form; tense is analyzed as a suffix that attaches to the stem; mood, person, number and transitivity marking is analyzed as one fused suffix.

A native speaker of Ossetian, Bela Hettich is currently Academic Director at ELS Language Centers on the campus of University of North Dakota in Grand Forks, ND, USA.

ISBN 9783929075229. Languages of the World/Materials 475. 115pp. 2010.