Karitiâna language
Karitiana, otherwise known as Caritiana or Yjxa, is a Tupian language spoken in the State of Rondônia, Brazil, by 210 out of 320 Karitiana people, or 400 according to Cláudio Karitiana, in the Karitiana reserve 95 kilometres south of Porto Velho. The language belongs to the Arikém language family from the Tupi stock. It is the only surviving language in the family after the other two members, Kabixiâna and Arikém, became extinct.[2]
| Karitiâna | |
|---|---|
| Region | Brazil |
| Ethnicity | Karitiâna |
Native speakers | 210 (2006)[1] |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | ktn |
| Glottolog | kari1311 |
| ELP | Karitiana |
History
Although the first Western contacts with the Karitiana people are believed to have begun in the 17th century, the first recorded contact dates to 1907 when a survey conducted by Cândido Rondon indicated that they were already working for Bolivian rubber tappers. Systematic contact between the Karitiana people and Caucasians, nevertheless began in the 1950s with the intervention of ISA and Roman Catholic Salesian missionaries. As a result of the missionaries' visit, a list of words and phrases were compiled, allowing Professor Aryon Rodrigues, who was working at the University of Campinas at the time, to classify the language as a member of the Arikém Family by comparing the language to existing materials on the Arikém language.[2]
Many of the Karitiana people are bilingual in Karitiana and Portuguese, and despite the population growth in recent years and the language's high level of transmission,[3] the language is listed as vulnerable by UNESCO due to the low number of speakers and the proximity to the city of Porto Velho.[4] A literacy project in the 1990s resulted in 24 students being made literate, and written documentation of the culture, as well as audio recordings were created. As of 2005, indigenous teachers have been holding lessons in the villages. However, the literacy project ended in 1997 due to a lack of permanent funding.[5]
Literature on Karitiana
Some of the earliest works on the language date to the 1970s by missionary David Landin, who spent time in the Karitiana village between 1972 and 1977, through a partnership between FUNAI (Fundação Nacional do Índio) and SIL International (Summer Institute of Linguistics) (Landin, 2005). He has mainly studied syntax (1984), but has also compiled lexicon that has resulted in the creation of a Karitiana dictionary (2005). Another early researcher is Gloria Kindell, also from the SIL, who has analyzed phonological and syntactic aspects of Karitiana (1981).
The first substantial grammar of Karitiana, however, was published by Luciana Storto (1999),[6] describing topics on the phonology, morphology and syntax, and since then she has published a number of papers on Karitana syntax (2003, 2008, 2012, 2013, 2014). Subsequently, a number of studies on the language has continued to be published, covering a wide array of topics. Ana Müller, for example has published papers on Karitiana semantics (2006, 2009, 2010, 2012). Ivan Rocha da Silva has produced a variety of works on Karitiana syntax (Rocha 2014), including two extensive descriptions on syntactical topics (2011, 2016). Ethnographically, Felipe Ferreira Vander Velden has documented a number of social aspects of the Karitiana people, specifically researching about the relations between indigenous peoples and animals. He has published a book about domestic animals among the Kartitiana (2012).
Phonology
Vowels
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| High | i ĩ | ɨ ɨ̃ | |
| Mid | e ẽ | o õ | |
| Low | a ã |
Karitiana vowels can be distinguished by the features [high], [back], and [round], and can be short, long, oral or nasal.[6]
Consonants
| Bilabial | Coronal | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | |
| Plosive | p | t | k | ||
| Fricative | s | h | |||
| Rhotic | ɾ | ||||
| Semivowel | j | w |
Karitiana also presents [͡tʃ] and [ʔ], but according to Luciana Storto (1999),[6] the occurrence of the glottal stop is predictable, and [͡tʃ] is extremely rare, though it occurs in Karitiana's personal pronouns. The nasals /m n ɲ/ are prestopped [ᵇm ᵈn ᶡɲ] if they are preceded by an oral vowel, and poststopped [mᵇ nᵈ ɲᶡ] if they are followed by one. The velar nasal /ŋ/ is denasalized to [ɡ] before oral vowels in unstressed syllables, poststopped to [ŋᶢ] before oral vowels in stressed syllables, and prestopped [ᶢŋ] after oral vowels.
/h r j w/ are nasalized [h̃ r̃ w̃ ȷ̃] when surrounded by nasal vowels.
Morphology
In his PhD thesis, Caleb Everett (2006)[7] listed six word classes for Karitiana. In general, Karitiana follows the general trend in Tupi languages of presenting little dependent-marking or nominal morphology, though it has a robust system of agglutinative verbal affixes. Valence-related verbal prefixes occur closer to the verb root than other prefixes, and according to Everett, the most crucial valency distinction in Karitiana is the distinction between semantically monovalent and polyvalent verbs as this plays an important role in verbal inflections and clausal constructions, such as the formation of imperative, interrogative and negative clauses, as well as in the establishment of grammatical relations. Karitiana presents a binary future/non-future tense suffix system and a number of aspect suffixes. It also presents desiderative inflection, an optional evidentiality suffix, a verb-focus system among other constructions. Karitiana presents a nominalizer suffix that is attached to verbs in order to derive nouns. In general, nouns serving as core arguments for a verb are left unmarked for case, but non-core arguments can receive allative and oblique case markers.
Pronouns
Only epicene pronouns exist in Karitiana. This means that no distinction is made between male vs. female (as "he" or "she" in English).[8] There are free pronouns and pronominal prefixes, the latter of which serves to cross-reference the absolutive nominal of a given clause, and also functions as possessors when attached to nouns. It is also worth to mention that the third person pronoun i is the only free pronoun that can be used to express possession.
| Free pronouns | Pronominal prefixes | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Singular | Plural | Singular | Plural | ||
| 1st person |
Exclusive | ɨ̃ | ɨta | ɨ- | ɨta- |
| Inclusive | ɨːtʃa | ɨj- | |||
| 2nd person | ãn | aːtʃa | a- | aj- | |
| 3rd person | i | – | ø- | – | |
Examples of free pronouns and pronominal prefixes:
ɨ-ɲõŋõ
1S.GEN-arm
My arm
ɨj-hadni-pa
1P.GEN-speak-NOM
Our cellphone
a-soːjt
2S.GEN-wife
Your wife
i
3S.GEN
soːjt
wife
His wife
Karitiana has at least six demonstrative pronouns. 'Ka' refers to manner, 'ho' is proximal, 'onɨ̃' is distal, 'ɲã' refers to things that are close and seated, 'hɨp' refers to things that are close and supine, and 'hoːɾi' refers to things that are out of sight.
mõɾ̃ãmõn
WH+
ka
DEM.MAN
What is this? (something in hand)
mõɾ̃ãmõn
WH+
ho
DEM.PROX
What is that? (something close)
mõɾ̃ãmõn
WH+
onɨ̃
DEM.PROX
What is that (over there)
hoɾi
DEM.ONSEEN
naka-atɨka-t
NSAP-be.t-NFUT
pikom
wooly.monkey
ep
tree.on
okɨp
There is a woolly monkey in some tree over there (Not sure which tree.) Mismatch in the number of words between lines: 5 word(s) in line 1, 4 word(s) in line 2 (help); Unknown glossing abbreviation(s) (help);
Causativization
Karitiana expresses causation by the prefix 'm-' or the periphrastic 'tɨpõŋ' (Rocha, 2014), inferring that one participant is causing another to act in a certain manner.[7] The prefix 'm-' is used to add an argument to intransitive verbs, and 'tɨpõŋ' is used to add a third argument to a transitive verb, and the former agent receives the oblique suffix '-tɨ'.[3]
ɨ̃n
1S
i-pɨtʔɨ-t
INT-eat-NFUT
I ate
ɨ̃n
1S
na-m-pɨtɨ-t
NSAP-CAUS-eat-NFUT
i-tɨ
3-OBL
I fed him'/'I gave him food
ɨ̃n
1S
a-taka-mĩː-t
2S.ABS-SAP-hit-NFUT
tɨpõŋ
cause(?)
i-tɨ
3-OBL
I made you hit him
Nominalization
The suffix '-pa' can be attached to non-finite verbs, in general, resulting in a noun that is related to the given verb.[7] The meaning of the resulting noun is quite flexible and it varies according to the context. For example:
taɾɨka
walk
+
-pa
NOM
⟹
⟹
taɾɨkipa
'thing related to walking/going'
In certain contexts 'taɾɨkipa' can be used to refer to canoe, car, airplane, as well as a friend's house that one frequently visits, or make-up and nice clothing, as these are associated, for some Karitiana, to going out in the city.
Verbs associated with '-pa' can also be preceded by a noun in order to reduce the scope of the '-pa' nominal:
mɨhõɾõn
clean
+
-pa
NOM
⟹
⟹
mɨhõɾõnpa
'thing related to cleaning'
mɨhõɾõn
clean
+
-pa
NOM
⟹
⟹
mɨhõɾõnpa
'thing related to cleaning'
osop
hair
+
mɨhõɾõn
clean
+
+
-pa
NOM
⟹
⟹
osop mɨhõɾõnpa
'thing related to cleaning'
In some cases, ’-pa' can also be attached to nouns to derive other nouns. For instance, when attached to nouns representing animals, the result is the animal's habitat or a trail used by it.
Syntax
Case and agreement
Karitiana displays an ergative pattern of agreement, where the subject agrees with the intransitive verb, and the object agrees with the transitive verb,[6] as is shown in examples 1a to 1f. This pattern surfaces in all matrix clauses and is evident from person agreement morphology on verbs[9], and is true for both declarative and non-declarative sentences. An exception is the object focus construction, where the transitive verb eccentrically agrees with the ergative argument[6] as shown in examples 2a and 2b. This construction does not involve intransitivization, and the eccentric agreement is a product of object focus morphology.
Yn
1S
a-ta-oky-j
2S-DECL-kill/hurt-IRR
an
2S
I will hurt you
An
2S
y-ta-oky-t
1S-DECL-kill/hurt-NFUT
yn
1S
You will hurt me
Yjxa
1P
ø-na-ahee-t
3-DECL-blow-NFUT
iso
fire
We-incl. blew fire
Y-ta-opiso-t
1S-DECL-listen-NFUT
yn
1S
I listened
A-ta-opiso-t
2S-DECL-listen-NFUT
an
2S
You listened
Aj-taka-tar-i
2P-DECL-leave-IRR
ajxa
2P
You-PL will leave
ø-Naka-hỹrỹja-t
3-DECL-sing-NFUT
i/taso
2S/man
He/the man sang
'Ep
trees
aj-ti-pasagngã-t
trees
ajxa
2P-OFC-count-NFUT
2P
Trees, you-PL are counting Mismatch in the number of words between lines: 3 word(s) in line 1, 4 word(s) in line 2 (help);
Sepa
basket
y-ti-m-'a
lps-OFC-caus.-do
ty-j̃a-t
imperfve.sitting-NFUT
A basket, I am weaving
According to Everett (2006),[7] many phenomena in Karitiana follow a nominative pattern generally due to the pragmatic status of arguments. The author argues that the grammatical relations of Karitiana suggest a system where syntactic phenomena often tend to display nominative-accusative patterns, and morphological phenomena tend to display ergative-absolutive patterns.
Semantics
Quantification
Noun phrases (NPs) in Karitiana surface as bare nouns, without any functional operator, such as inflection to mark number or definiteness.[10] Bare nouns can refer to one or more entities, definite or indefinite, and these are determined by the context in which they occur.
Maria
Maria
naka-m-’a-t
DECL-CAUS-make-NFUT
gooj
canoe
Maria built the/a/some canoe(s)
taso
man
naka-’y-t
DECL-eat-NFUT
boroja
snake
A/the/some man/men ate a/the/some snake(s)
Karitiana does not require numeral classifiers, thus numerals receive the oblique suffix -t and are directly linked to common nouns. The numeral system consists of units from 1 to 5, and larger numbers are expressed with a combination of these units.[10]
yn
1S
naka-’y-t
DECL-eat-NFUT
myhin-t
one-OBL
pikom
monkey
I ate one monkey
yn
1S
naka-’y-t
DECL-eat-NFUT
sypom+t
two-OBL
pikom
monkey
I ate two monkeys
Karitiana makes a lexical distinction between mass and count nouns. Count nouns can be counted directly, while mass nouns require a system of measurement.
myhin-t
three
ouro
gold
na-aka-t
DECL-AUX-NFUT
i-’ot-<o>t
part-fall-REDUP-NFUT
Three golds fell
myhin-t
three
kilo-t
kilogram-OBL
ouro
gold
na-aka-t
DECL-AUX-NFUT
i-’ot-<o>t
part-fall-REDUP-NFUT
One kilogram of gold fell
j̃onso
woman
naka-ot-Ø
DECL-bring-NFUT
sypom+t
two-OBL
ese
water
The woman brought two waters
j̃onso
woman
naka-ot-Ø
DECL-bring-NFUT
sypom+t
two-OBL
byt-ypip
bowl-in
ese
water
The woman brought two bowls of waters
Quantifying expressions can behave like adverbs or nouns. The word si’ĩrimat is used to mean nobody or never, and the word kandat is used to express quantification of nouns and verbs.[10]
i-semboko
3-get.wet
padni
NEG
si’ĩrimat
ever
eremby
hammock
Hammocks never get wet
i-a-okooto
3-PASS-bite
padni
NEG
si’ĩrimat
ever
y-‘it
1S-son
Nobody bit my son
kandat
a.lot
naka-hot-i
DECL-go-FUT
dibm
tomorrow
taso
man
Many men will go tomorrow
pyry-kiid-n
assert-exist-NFUT
j̃onso
woman
pytim’adn
a.lot
kandat
SUB
tyym
There are many women that work a lot Mismatch in the number of words between lines: 5 word(s) in line 1, 4 word(s) in line 2 (help);
Universal quantification is conveyed by the expression (ta)akatyym, where -ta is a third person anaphora, aka is the verb to be, and tyym is the SUBordinate particle. This expression roughly means those who are. Anaphoric ta is used when the quantifying expression is not adjacent to the noun it modifies, and is not necessary when it is adjacent to the noun.[10]
ta-aka-tyym
a3anaph-be-SUB
na-pon-pon-Ø
DECL-shoot-REDUP-NFUT
João
João
sojxaaty
wild.boar
kyn
at
João shot at every wild boar (literally: João shot at wild boar that be)
ta-aka-tyym
a3anaph-be-SUB
na-pon-pon-Ø
DECL-shoot-REDUP-NFUT
taso
taso
sojxaaty
wild.boar
kyn
at
All the men shot at the boar (literally: Men that be shot at wild boar)
sojxaaty
wild.boar
aka-tyym
be-SUB
na-pon-pon-Ø
DECL-shot-REDUP-NFUT
João
João
João shot at all the wild boars’ (literally: João shot at the wild boars that are)
References
- Karitiâna at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
- Landin, David J. “An Outline of the Syntactic Structure of Karitiâna Sentences”. MA Thesis. University College London, 1984
- Rocha, Ivan (April 2014). "Processos de causativização na língua Karitiana". Boletim do Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi. Ciências Humanas. 9 (1): 183–197. doi:10.1590/S1981-81222014000100012. ISSN 1981-8122.
- "UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in danger". www.unesco.org. Retrieved 2018-12-08.
- "Karitiana – Indigenous Peoples in Brazil". pib.socioambiental.org. Retrieved 2018-12-08.
- Storto, Luciana (1999). Aspects of a Karitiana grammar (phd thesis). Massachusetts Institute of Technology. hdl:1721.1/9702.
- Everett, Caleb (2007). Patterns in Karitiana: Articulation, perception, and grammar (Thesis thesis). hdl:1911/20600.
- Everett, Careb (2011). "Gender, pronouns and thought: The ligature between epicene pronouns and a more neutral gender perception". Gender and Language. 5 (1): 133–152. doi:10.1558/genl.v5i1.133.
- Storto, Luciana (2005). "Caso e Concordância nas Línguas Tupi" (PDF). Revista Estudos Lingüísticos. XXXIV: 59–72.
- Müller, A.; Storto, Luciana; Coutinho-Silva, T. (2006). "Number And The Mass-Count Distinction In Karitiana" (PDF). UBCWPL 19: Proceedings of the Eleventh Workshop on Structure and Constituency in Languages of the Americas: 122–135. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2018-12-09. Retrieved 2020-02-13.
Further reading
- Landin, David J. (1988). "As orações karitiâna" (PDF). Série Lingüística (in Portuguese). 9 (2): 30–50.
- Landin, David J. (2005) [1983]. Dicionário e léxico karitiâna/português (PDF) (in Portuguese). Brasília: Summer Institute of Linguistics.
- Landin, Rachel M. (1987). "Conjunções karitiâna de nivel superior" (PDF). Série Lingüística (in Portuguese). 9 (1): 199–206.
- Everett, Caleb (2011). "Gender, pronouns and thought: The ligature between epicene pronouns and a more neutral gender perception". Gender and Language. 5 (1): 133–152. doi:10.1558/genl.v5i1.133.
- “Karitiâna”. Ethnologue, SIL International, www.ethnologue.com/18/language/ktn/.
- Kindell, Gloria E. 1981. “Descrição preliminaria da estrutura fonológica da língua Karitiâna”. G.E. Kindell, Guia de análise fonológica, SIL, pp. 196–226
- Landin, David J. Dicionário e Léxico Karitiana/Português. Summer Institute of Linguistics, 2005
- Muller, Ana. “Distributividade: o caso dos numerais reduplicados em karitiana”. Cadernos de Estudos Linguísticos. UNICAMP, vol. 54, pp. 225–243, 2012.
- Muller, Ana; Sanchez-Mendes, L. "O Significado da Pluracionalidade em Karitiana". Cadernos de Estudos Lingüísticos. UNICAMP, vol. 52, pp. 215–231, 2010.
- Muller, Ana. “Variação semântica: individuação e número na língua Karitiana”. Estudos Lingüísticos. Universiadade de São Paulo, vol. 38, pp. 295–308, 2009.
- Rocha, Ivan. Não-Finitude em Karitiana: subordinação versus nominalização. Ph.D. Thesis. University of São Paulo, 2016
- Rocha, Ivan. A estrutura argumental da língua Karitiana. MA Thesis. University of São Paulo, 2011
- Storto, L. R. “Subordination in Karitina”. "Amérindia", vol. 35, pp. 219–237, 2012
- Storto, L. R. “Paralelos Estruturais entre a Quantificação Universal e as Orações Adverbiais em Karitiana”. Estudos Linguísticos (São Paulo. 1978), vol. 42, pp. 174–181, 2013
- Storto, L & I. Rocha (2014). "Estrutura Argumental na Língua Karitiana". Sintaxe e Semântica do Verbo em Línguas Indígenas do Brasil. Campinas: Mercado de Letras. pp. 17–42.
- Storto, L. & I. Rocha. (2014). "Strategies of Valence Change in Karitiana". Incremento de Valencia en las Lenguas Amazónicas. Francesc Queixalos, Stella Telles & Ana Carla Bruno (resps.). Universidad Nacional de Colombia & Instituto Caro Y Cuervo. Bogotá. 51–69.
- Storto, L. (2014). Reduplication in Karitiana. In Reduplication in the Indigenous languages of South America. Gale Goodwin Gómez & Hein van der Voort (eds.). Brill's Studies in the Indigenous Languages of the Americas. Brill. 401–426.
- Storto, L. (2014). "Information Structure and Constituent Order in Karitiana Clauses". Information Structure and Reference Tracking in Complex Sentences. Rik van Gijn, Jeremy Hannond, Dejan Matic, Saskia van Putten & Ana Vilcay Galucio (eds.). Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company. 163–191.
- Storto, L. R. “Marcação de Concordância Absolutiva em Algumas Construções Sintáticas em Karitiana”. Amérindia, vol. 32, pp. 183–203, 2008
- Storto, L. R. “Interactions Between Verb Movement and Agreement in Karitiana (Tupi Stock)”. Revista Letras, vol. 60, pp. 411–433, 2003
- Storto, L. R., and Vander Velden, F. F. “Karitiana”. Povos Indígenas no Brasil, Instituto SocioAmbiental, 19 September 2018, https://pib.socioambiental.org/pt/Povo:Karitiana
- Vander Velden, F. F. “De volta para o passado: territorialização e ‘contraterritorialização’ na história karitiana”, Sociedade e Cultura, vol. 13, no. 1, 2010, pp. 55–65
- Vander Velden, F. F. Inquietas companhias: sobre os animais de criação entre os Karitiana. São Paulo, Alameda Casa Editorial, 2012. vol. 1