ìApreliminarylookattheBiturlanguage:Phonology&morphosyntaxPhillipGRogers,UniversityofCaliforniaSantaBarbara

Outline

ì  Languagebackground

ì  Phonology

ì  Morphosyntaxì  TypologicalProfileì  Genderì  Verbalmorphology

ì  Summary

Biturlanguage

ì  860speakers

ì  5villages:Bisuaka,Kasimap,Petom,Tewara,&Upiara

ì  Ethnologueclassifiesitas“vigorous”ì  AllchildrenlearnBiturasafirstlanguageì  Englishisthelinguafrancaofthearea

ì  GeneQcclassificaQonì  MemberoftheTiriofamilyì  RecentlyshowntobelongtotheAnimstock(Usher&Suter2015)

Animlanguages(Usher&Suter2015)

Tiriolanguagefamily

PreviousdocumentationoftheTiriolanguages

ì  Shortwordlists(Chalmers1897;Jore&Alemán2002;Lean1986;Ray1907;Riley1931;Williams1936)

ì  SociolinguisQcsurvey(Jore&Alemán2002)

ì  OnepagetypologicaldescripQon(Wurm1971)

ì  TranslaQonsoftheGospelofMark(SIL)

“theleast-knownofallSouthernNewGuineagroups”

Evansetal.(toappear)

Phonology

Somechallengestoaphonologicalanalysis:

ì  VariaQonandgradienceinsyllabificaQon

ì  ProliferaQonandvarietyofvocoidsequences

ì  VariaQoninstressplacement

ì  InteracQonofstressandvowellength

Consonantinventory

Bilabial Alveolar Palatal Velar

Oralstop pb td kg

Frica4ve sz

Affricate z/dz

Nasalstop m n

Trill/tap r

Glide w j

Vowelinventory

Front Mid Back

High i u

Central e (ə) o

Low a

ì  Plusphonemicvowellength(lowfuncQonalload)

ì  Dipthongs:ei,ai,oi,ou,au,eu/øu

Vowelspace

SyllableStructure

Example Gloss

V o: 2SG

CV bari ‘eye’

VC ::erta ‘run’

CVC gag ‘name’

CVCC budurgdur ‘heavy.PL’

Morphosyntax

ì  Wordorderì  SOVì  (DEM)(NUM)N(ADJ)

ì  Stronglyhead-markingì  Mostlyprefixingverbaltemplateì  AclusterofprefixesisgrammaQcallybound,butprosodically

separatefromtheVerbstemanditsotheraffixes

ì  Veryfewcasesuffixes

Gender

ì  AcharacterisQcfeatureofAnimlanguagesisafour-gendersystem

ì  Foundin:ì  Human&kinshiptermsì  AdjecQveagreementì  DemonstraQvesì  Independent&boundpronominals

Singular Plural

Masculine *e*i

Feminine *u

Neuter1 *o/*a

Neuter2 *i

Gender:Human&kinshipterms

ane:ma ‘man’anu:ma ‘woman’ani:ma ‘people’

neamber ‘myyoungerbrother’ naumber ‘myyoungersister’

awiada ‘uncle’awuda ‘aunt’

ejamatem ‘youryoungerbrother’ omtum ‘youryoungersister’

Gender:Adjectiveagreement

N M F M.PL F.PL

‘long’ doraga doriaga doriagu dorodor durudur

‘hot’ totarga to:arga to:argu tota:tor to:ator

‘short’ do:pa do:po dodopai dodopoi

‘heavy’ budurga budurgu budurgdur

‘good’ masi:ga masi:gu masimsir

‘small’ gari:kain gari:kuin gari:gir

‘bad’ su:ga su:gu su:sur

‘wet’ obodai obobodai

‘round’ kokomakokoma

Gender:Demonstratives

ì  NoevidenceforNeuter2

Proximal SG PL

M e:tei::

F u:tuN o:ta

Distal SG PL

M te:te:::

F tu:tuN ta:ta

Gender:3rdpersonpronouns

IndependentPronouns

SG PL

M igiazi:

F zu:N -

BoundSubjectPrefixes(PRS)

SG PL

M te-:-

F tu-N ta-

Gender:Questionsforfutureresearch

ì  DothereremaintracesoftheNeuter2genderinBitur?

ì  HowhavegenderdisQncQonsinteractedwithreduplicaQoninadjecQveagreementforms?

ì  DogenderpakernsinBiturprovideevidenceforsubgroupingwithinAnim?

Verbalmorphology

ì  TemplaQcverbalmorphology

ì  Prosodicbreakbetweenprefixalclusterandverbstemwithaffixes

ì  Severalcategoriesareexpressedeitherintheprefixalclusterormoredirectlyontheverbstem

Verbaltemplate

1.Subject(person,number,gender)&

Tense/Aspect

2.ApplicaQve

3.n-(?)

4.Object

5.DirecQon/LocaQon

6.Object

7.Stem

8.ApplicaQve

9.Object

10.DirecQon/LocaQon

11.PluracQonality

12.Tense

Direction/locationprefixes

1SG.FUTsubjectprefixes

‘ontop,over’ mot-ep

‘behind’ mot-ib

‘under,around,side,down’ mut-u

‘down(notunder)’ mot-em

‘out’ mut-um

‘inside,into’ mot-ain

‘down’ mot-om

‘following,behind,nextto’ mo-mpa

Argument-indexingframes

ì  Basicframesì  IntransiQveframeì  TransiQveframe#1ì  TransiQveframe#2ì  Middleframe

ì  ApplicaQve

Intransitiveframe

waka ta- gaijagrass 3.INAN.SBJ.PRS start.on.fire‘thegrassstartedburning’

Transitiveframe#1

zo-za- rereta-na2PL.SBJ.PRS-3PL.OBJ- hit-PLUR‘youguyshitthem’

Transitiveframe#2

ta- w-eina-m1SG.SBJ.PST 3SG.OBJ-kill-PREH‘Ikilledhim’moi- s-igia-mana1PL.SBJ.FUT 2/3PL-push-PLUR‘wewillpushthem’

Transitiveframe#2

zo- n-agen2PL.SBJ.PRS 1.OBJ-give‘youguysgiveittome’

Middleframe

yawa noin ta:mi za- n-a:aigimwhen 1PL aoernoon 1PL.SBJ.PRS 1.OBJ-arrive.PREH‘whenwearrivedintheaoernoon’

Middleframe

nanopa eguara kiana-ba taz-last.Qme before sago-LOC 1PL.SBJ.PRS-erenonem1.OBJ.go.PREH‘lastQmebeforewewenttomakesago’Compare:ozat- erezonem2PL.SBJ.PST- 2/3PL.obj.go.PREH‘youguyswent’

Middleframe

ParQcipaQngverbs:ì  closeeyesì  arriveì  goinsideì  danceì  jump/stepì  goì  dieì  stay

Applicative

to-r-wa- zana2SG.SBJ.PRS-APPL-3SG.OBJ- get‘yougiveittohim’

Applicative

te- w-iata3SG.M.SBJ.PRS 3SG.OBJ-stay‘hestays’te- w-eta-ra-mea3SG.M.SBJ.PRS 3SG.OBJ-stay-APPL-1.OBJ‘hewaitsforme’

Verbalmorphology:Questionsforfutureresearch

ì  WhatcorrelaQonscanbeidenQfiedbetweenthesemanQcsofparQcularverbsandtheargument-indexingframesinwhichtheyarefound?

ì  HowproducQvearetheelementsintheverbaltemplate?

ì  What’sthediachronicstory?

Thankyou!

References

Chalmers,James.1897.VocabulariesoftheBugilaiandTagotadialects,BriQshNewGuinea,pp.139-144.JournaloftheRoyalAnthropologicalIns:tuteofGreatBritainandIreland,XXVII.Evans,Nicholas,WayanArka,MakhewCarroll,ChrisQanDöhler,EriKashima,EmilMikag,KylaQuinn,JeffSiegel,PhilipTamaandCharlokeVanTongeren.ThelanguagesofSouthernNewGuinea.ToappearinBillPalmer(ed.),TheLanguagesandLinguis:csofNewGuinea:AComprehensiveGuide.Berlin:WalterdeGruyter.GlendonA.Lean.1986.WesternProvince.(CounQngSystemsofPapuaNewGuinea,12.)PortMoresby:PapuaNewGuineaUniversityofTechnology.(DraoEdiQon).Jore,TimandAlemán,Laura.2002.SociolinguisQcsurveyoftheTiriolanguagefamily.SIL,Ukarumpa:UnpublishedMS.

References

Ray,SidneyH.1907.AcomparaQvevocabularyofthePapuanlanguagesofBriQshNewGuinea.InSydneyH.Ray(ed.),ReportsoftheCambridgeanthropologicalexpedi:ontoTorresStraits,Volume3:Linguis:cs.387-412.Cambridge:UniversityPress.Riley,E.Baxter.1931.SixteenvocabulariesfromtheFlyRiver,Papua(withmap,introducQonandnotesbySidneyH.Ray):Conclusion.Anthropos26.171-92.Usher,Timothy,andEdgarSuter.2015.TheAnimLanguagesofSouthernNewGuinea.OceanicLinguis:cs,Vol.54,No.1,110-142.Williams,FrancisE.1936.PapuansoftheTrans-Fly.Oxford:ClarendonPress.Wurm,StephenA.1971.NotesontheLinguisQcSituaQonintheTrans-FlyArea.In:PapersinNewGuineaLinguis:cs,No.4,115–172.(PacificLinguisQcsA-28.)Canberra:PacificLinguisQcs.