Trumai language

This inventory is atypical of Amazonian languages (Trumai is a recent immigrant to the Xingu basin) in its ejective consonants, the lateral fricative /ɬ/, and the alveolar–dental distinction. Guirardello, who specializes on Trumai, has presented varied inventories of these phonemes: Guirardello (1999a)[4] lists /t̪ t̪' ts ts' s/ as dental, and /t t' d n l ɬ ɾ/ as alveolar; whereas Guirardello (1999b) lists only /t/ and /t'/ as alveolar.[18] Younger speakers do not make the ejective distinction.

The vocalic inventory is /i, e, a, o, u/ and ɨ. Syllable structure is maximally CVC, and stress always falls on the final syllable of a word.

The morphological aspects of Trumai as covered in Guirardello’s grammar of the language include the parts of speech: nouns, verbs, and auxiliaries. Under nouns, she investigates the effect of adjectives, plurality in the language, and count versus mass nouns, among others. Under verbs, she focuses on causality, negation, intensity, and imperativity in verb particles. And under auxiliaries, she discusses body posture, mood and aspect, and directional auxiliaries. Chapter 5 explores further analyses of each of these aspects of the parts of speech in terms of “Simple Declarative Clauses”.[4]

Pronouns in Trumai are distinguished by person, gender, number, and listener inclusion/exclusion in the first-person plural pronoun. Like in English, gender is only seen in the third-person singular pronoun, while number is categorized as singular, dual, and plural (whereas English only has singular and plural). They are also affected by the type of Noun Phrase (henceforth “NP”) they appear in (absolutive, ergative, or dative), which are distinguished by suffix insertion. The following are tables of the Trumai personal pronouns with examples included for the absolutive case:[4]

Absolutive:

ha hu’tsa chï(_in) [huksitukuk yi]-ki [yayanke tam]

1 see Foc/Tens capivara YI-Dat deer Com

“I saw a capivara and a deer.”[4]

Ergative:

[Karu], [Kumaru], [Atawaka] hai-ts amidoxos ke.

Karu Kumaru Atawaka 1-Erg call KE

‘I called Karu, Kumaru, and Atawaka.’[4]

Dative:

kiki-k atlat-ø kï̡tï ha wan-ki.

man-Erg pan-Abs give 1-Dat

‘The man gave it to us.’[4]

1st-person/exclusive pronouns are formed in ha, inclusive with ka, 2nd person with hi, and 3rd with in. Dual number is indicated by the suffix -a, and plural by -wan. Masculine and feminine are distinguished in the 3rd person. Alienable possession is indicated by the suffix -kte or -kate on the possessor (Kumaru-kte tahu "Kumaru's spoon"), and inalienable possession by juxtaposition (dinoxo kuʃ "the girl's head", ha kuʃ "my head"). Suffixes are used to mark ergative (-ts for 1sg, otherwise -ek/-ak), dative, locative, allative, comitative, and instrumental case.

One interesting phenomena in Trumai morphology is the use of particles in the language. Guirardello first discusses them as a form of identifying tense in lieu of the tense-aspect-mood affixes used in English. These word formations are ‘ka in’, used for present or the recent past, and ‘chï in’, for past tense, but they are only used when the tense is not indicated via context. In a sentence, these particles appear as so:

ka_in:

[[Yaka] chumuchu] ka_in tehnene-n.

Yaka lie.down Foc/Tens floor-Loc

‘Yaka lay.down on the floor.’

chï_in:

[ha ayen]-atl chï_in [hai]-ts [oke yi] kï̡tï.

1 grandfather-Dat Foc/Tens 1-Erg medicine YI give

‘I gave medicine to my grandfather (emphasis).’

As a whole, particles in Trumai are defined as a verb modifier that is not an adverb or auxiliary instead of being placed in a class of its own. There are four classes of particles in Trumai: Intensity, Negation, Causative, and Intensity. These modifiers fall under the ‘particle’ label because of their characteristics which differentiate them from auxiliaries. For example, while auxiliaries can only modify verbs, Intensity and Negation particles can also modify adverbs and quantifiers.[4]

The use of auxiliaries in Trumai is also very fascinating. In the language, they are defined as verb modifiers “associated with the domain of aspect, mood, and spatial orientation (this last domain is subdivided into body posture of the entity performing the event and directionality of the event being performed)”. Here are some examples of each of these auxiliaries used in sentences:

Aspect/Mood:

iyi sone-kma-n de.

IYI drink-Perf-3Abs already

‘He already finished drinking.’ OR ‘He already drank all.’

Body Posture:

iyi ma chumuchu-n.

IYI eat lie-3Abs

‘He is eating lying (on the floor).’

Directionals:

ha ka’chï lako.

1 walk Dir(down hill)

‘I go down walking.'

Guirardello makes a point of noting the significant differences between auxiliaries and verbs in Trumai: there is no independent argument structure, no lexical content, some experience phonological reduction, and they form a closed class. Their syntactic position is restricted to following a verb in the VP, which distinguishes them from adverbs, which hold a more flexible position in sentences. Apart from appearing inside the VP following the Verb, a property of some auxiliaries is that “they can bear the 3Abs enclitic –n/-e”.[4]

Trumai is a language with ergative-absolutive case assignment and therefore has three argument types: absolutive, ergative, and dative. The ergative-absolutive language system is described as that “in which a subject in an intransitive construction is realized in the same way as a patient or object in a transitive construction, and is thus distinguished from the subject or agent in the transitive”.[19] It is “manifested through case-marking, verb-marking, and word order”.[4]

Dative case is used for verbs such as 'eat', 'see', and 'talk with'. There are two verbs 'kill', one, -fa, which takes a dative, and one, disi, which takes the ergative. Constituent order is basically ergative-absolutive-verb-dative (SV, SVB, AOV, AOVB). Ergative and dative arguments, which are marked by postpositions, may occur on the other side of the verb, but for an absolutive to do this, it needs to be marked with ke.

In noun phrases (including pronouns), the grammatical case is marked by an enclitic. For example, an ergative NP would end in either –ek or –k. Case marking using enclitics also occurs for Dative, Locative, and Genitive cases. In the case of personal pronouns, the first person singular pronoun also allows the enclitic –ts. The first person singular pronoun is also changed from ha in Absolutive case to hai for Ergative and Dative cases.

An interesting phenomenon in Trumai syntax is the NP morpheme iyi/yi because of its lack of a clear function. It always appears phrase-final, as iyi when only the noun itself is included in the phrase, but as yi when pluralizers or other lexical items are also included. However, despite this rule, there are still occasions where iyi appears in an NP with a lexical item. When it is present in Ergative and Dative sentences, the enclitics for each case are still added to the end of the NP:

Reduced form:

[inatl yi] pech ka_in.

3Pr(Fem) run Foc/Tens

‘She is running.’

No lexical item:

[iyi] pech-e ka_in.

run-3Abs Foc/Tens

‘She/he is running.’

Ergative/Dative:

[ni’dak wan yi]-k chï_in ha disi.

that.one PL -Erg Foc/Tens 1 beat

‘They (these ones) beat me.’

For verb phrases in Trumai, case marking provides four verb categories: Intransitive, Transitive, Extended Intransitive, and Extended Transitive, where Intransitive verbs can have Absolutive case, Transtive verbs have Absolutive and Ergative case, and the Extended categories also have Dative case on top of this. Guirardello labels arguments as S, A, O, and DAT for case-marking instead of terms such as “agent” and “patient”.

Guirardello observed three types of clauses in Trumai sentences. Intransitive clauses attach the case marking /-ø/ to the S noun phrase or attach the third person enclitic –n/-e to the end of the verb phrase. Transitive clauses have A marked by –(V)k and O marked by –ø. Similarly to Intransitive clauses, the third person enclitic is added to the VP when A is absent. In Ditransitive clauses, the same marking occurs for A and O that we see in Transitive clauses. The DAT argument is marked by either –(V)tl, -ki, or –(V)s “depending on the characteristics of the head of the NP”. No marking is attached to the VP when DAT is absent from the sentence. These clauses are proof of the Ergative-Absolutive argument of Trumai, as we see S and O undergo the same marking, while A is treated differently. In sentences, they would appear as follows:

Intransitive:

S V

pet’ew-ø achïkida

frog-Abs jump

‘The frog jumps.’ (256)

Transitive:

A V

ine-k Ø mapa-n

3-Erg break-3Abs

‘He broke it (a valuable pan).'

Ditransitive:

A O V DAT

kiki-k atlat-ø kï̡tï kasoro-s

1-Erg rice-Abs give dog-Dat

‘I gave rice to the dogs.'

The Absolutive argument is obligatory and therefore occurs in all clause types. Its case-marking is –ø or it has none at all and its syntactic placement is within the VP, before the verb (Guirardello is not clear as to whether it appears immediately before the verb or if other lexical items can be placed between them).

The Ergative argument is marked by –(V)k and only occurs in Transitive clauses, where it is the main argument of the verb and is therefore always required. Its syntactic placement is preceding the VP. While there are certain scenarios where it can be absent from a sentence that mainly occurs when there is discourse continuity. If it occurs without this, then the sentence has passive or middle voice.

The Dative argument is marked by –(V)tl, -ki, or –(V)s. Like the Ergative argument, it occurs before and outside of the VP. It is only obligatory in Extended clauses, where it is the main argument of the verb.

Trumai’s causative construction uses the particle ka, which appears after the verb and can modify it. For Intransitive and Extended Transitive verbs, the causee is marked as Absolutive, while the causer is marked as Ergative. While this makes it similar to a simple Transitive clause, the difference is that the Absolutive enclitic is marked on the particle instead of the verb. For Transitive verbs, both the causee and causer are marked Ergative:

a.

hai-ts Yakairu-ø sa ka.

1-Erg Yakairu-Abs dance Caus

‘I made Yakairu dance.’ [Intransitive verb]

b.

hai-ts sa ka-n.

1-Erg dance Caus-3Abs.

‘I made her dance.'

In Trumai, quantifiers appear before the noun they modify. For numerals, while the language includes the names for 1-10, most often only numbers 1-5 are spoken:

‘1’ mihin ‘2’ huch ‘3’ huch tahme

‘4’ pine pine-kte len ‘5’ ine k’ad kel-an

    Friend   friend-Gen   group               3Masc  hand finger-Loc

Other quantifier words (ex. ‘few’, ‘many’, etc.) change depending on whether they appear before count or mass nouns. They also vary from speaker to speaker, as in the case of “few” versus “a little”, some speakers can distinguish the two based on how they appear before count vs. non-count words, while others cannot except for “high quantities”. When they are distinguished, the quantifiers used by some speakers are:

While most speakers, who cannot distinguish between count and mass nouns for small quantities, say:

Aside from the above forms, there is an alternate form to describe small quantities: pa̡t “few”, which is meant to describe a small portion of an object. Here are some examples for each type of the above quantifiers:

Many/a lot: a’di ka_in k’ate yi.

(count) many Foc/Tens fish YI

‘There are many fish.’ (or: ‘The fish are many/big in quantity.’)

Many/a lot: pïx ka_in misu yi.

(mass) a.lot Foc/Tens water YI

‘There is a lot of water.’ (or: ‘The water is big in quantity.’)

Few/a little: a’di tak ka_in k’ate yi.

(some speakers) many Neg Foc/Tens fish YI

‘There are a few fish.’ (or: ‘The fish are not many.’)

Few/a little: pïx tak ka_in k’ate yi.

(most speakers) a.lot Neg Foc/Tens fish YI

‘There are a few fish.’ (or: ‘The fish are not many.’)

Few: atlat pa̡t.

         clay.pan  small

‘small clay.pan.’

Just as is seen above where “few/a little” are formed as “many/a lot” plus a negation, there is no word for “none”, so negation is added in its place as well:

katnon take tak [kiki wan yi].

work Desid Neg man PL YI

‘No man wants to work.’ (lit: ‘The men do not want to work.’)

Quantifiers (numeral and otherwise) can also appear as a clause predicate or a focussed unit, in which they appear at the beginning of a sentence and are followed by a Focus/Tense particle.

Person plays a crucial role in what NP a quantifier is assigned to. Guirardello explains that in a sentence where there is both first- and third-person nouns/pronouns, it is clear that the quantifier is attached to the third-person. This is not as clear when there are two third-person NPs in a sentence. In order to understand which NP the quantifier is modifying in this scenario, one must look at what kinds of NPs are in the clause with the quantifier and if it is also being modified by a pluralizer.