Sirinek eskimo: The available data and possible approaches

2018

This work is a first, non exhaustive and tentative descriptive grammatical sketch of the dialect of the Ogiek language spoken commonly by the circa 15.000 people belonging to the 7 clans which compose the Morisionig family, and who live in the Eastern Escarpment of the Mau Forest having Mariashoni village as its focal point. The data have been gathered using the classical grammatical questionnaires contained in Bouquiaux-Thomas 1992 7 combined with the methodology suggested by the Dictionary Development program and toolkits proposed by SIL 8. The Fieldwork activities have been done during four months in January and February 2013 and 2014. Two were the main interlocutors: Catherine Salim and Victor Jeres. Both of them were young (among 20 and 25) and educated. Both had attended the college and could speak and understand English without too many troubles. Catherine lived in Mariashoni, while Victor came from a village called Njoro, located close to Elburgon, about 15 km far from Mariashoni. Between the Ogiek spoken by the two I could not identify any differences and both of them confirmed to me that they did not perceive any false notes in the other's way of speaking. All the sessions, which were held either in NECOFA's office in Mariashoni or in my house in Elburgon, far from disturbing noises, were recorded with a very simple Olympus DM550 digital voice-recorder. Besides, at least once a week, the team held also public sessions with the community elders living in different locations 9 of the area (Mariashoni, Ndoswa, Kiptunga, Kaprop, Molem, Njoro), in order to gather genuine pieces of oral history, tales, riddles, which were then transcribed, translated and finally used as a database for the linguistic analysis. Many of the examples reported in this work are taken directly form that data base of spontaneous speech 10. 7 9 questionnaires contained in Section 2 Linguistic Approach, Bouquiaux-Thomas 1992: 175-309. 8 https://www.sil.org/language-development 9 10 I thank here especially Emilie Chepkory Kirui and John Kipkoech Kemoi, who accompanied me, Catherine and Victor to visit the elders of the Mariashoni District. 2. Ogiek phonemes and phonology 11 2.1 CONSONANTS Analyzing the first 646 words collected, the phonetic repertoire of consonants in Ogiek (Table 1) resulted actually very similar to that of other Kalenjin languages, to which it is closely related, such as Nandi, as described by Creider & Tepsubei-Creider in 1989 12 , Kipsigis, Tugen and Pokot, as described by Kamuren in 2011 13 and Akie, as described by König et al. in 2015 14. 11 A first tentative discussion of the Ogiek phonetics and phonology has already been published by the author in Micheli, I. (2016) "We are indigenous and we want to be literate in our own language". The Ogiek of Mariashoni: a good example of how a literacy project with the best premises can be a failure" in AION 2016, vol 76, pp. 77-101. Brill and will thus not be reported here.

This paper is concerned with a case of language change in MalakMalak, a non-Pama-Nyungan highly endangered language spoken in the Daly River region of Northern Australia. The language expresses deixis and direction- ality in different types of demonstratives and deictic suffixes attaching to all word classes. The semantics of the demonstratives and the distribution pat- terns of the deictic suffixes have changed over the last forty years. I argue that this is in direct correlation with a dramatically shrinking speaker community size and the resulting massive decline of language use. The historical data was collected between 1972 and 1974 by David Birk. Cur- rent data comes from Mark Crocombe and original fieldwork between 2012 and 2014 by the author. The historical data suggests certain uses of deictic demonstratives which are recognized by today’s speakers, but rarely produced spontaneously. For example, a four-way distinction between ngun- ‘there’ kaduk - ‘over there’ keen - ‘over here’, and ki - ‘here’ as in example (1): (1) kaduk wuyu keen wuyu yawug wunelli DIST 3SG.neu.stand.PST PROX 3SG.neu.stand.PST another big.neu ki wuyu PROX 3SG.neu.stand.PST ‘there’s one over there, one over here and another big one here (talking about groups of people sitting spread out during a meeting)’ (Histori- cal source) Furthermore, kaduk used to be used as a marker of ‘otherness’ or taboo as in examples (2) and (3) while keen was a familiarity marker as in (4) : (2) kaduk yide, dek yuwaya DIST 3SG.masc.go.PRS camp 2SG.go.PRS ‘this other one (that person over there - brother that cannot be named) - he goes away with his brother’ (historical) (3) kaduk wudyu DIST 3PL.stand.PST ‘another mob is there’ (historical) 1 (4) mity nga keen wurrka-ma nuende Denisibal sister 1SG.excl PROX work-CONT 3SG.fem.go.PRS nt op ‘my sister works in Belyuen’ (historical) Proximal -nggi or distal directional suffixes -ngga may attach to all word classes as in (5), (6) and 7). Their distribution, however, has grown much more restricted in today’s speech where they mainly occur in lexicalised form attaching to coverbs (9) , inflecting verbs (8) and demonstratives (11), or in direct opposition to one another as in (10) and (12). (5) kanjuk-man-nggi kanggi nuendung on.top-ABL-DIR.PROX come.DIR.PROX 2SG.go.PURP ‘you come from up there to here’ (historical) (6) ngurra tyid pi enung-ngga some/other take move 1SG.excl.go.FUT-DIST.DIR ‘I’m gonna take some beef back’ (historical) (7) karrk-wat wa-nggi move.up-send pick.up-PROX.DIR ‘bring it up here!’ (historical) (8) Jigbala-nen nuenue-yen wuta-ngga name-DIR 3SG.fem.sit.PRS-DIR 3PL.go.PST-DIST.DIR ‘they are going towards where Jigbala is sitting’ (current source) (9) dek kadurruk-en wa-ngga wirrminy=ye camp DIST.EXT-DIR pick.up-DIST.DIR 3PL.do.PUNCT=FOC ‘they took him to another country’ (current) (10) pungaty-man-nggi nunda pungaty-man-ngga smoke-ABL-PROX.DIR 3SG.fem.go.PST smoke-ABL-DIST.DIR nunda 3SG.fem.go.PST ‘She came over here/there smoking’(current) (11) ngunanggi pi yida western.riverbank/DIST.PROX.DIR move 3SG.masc.go.PST ‘he went to the other side?’ (current) (12) titykanggi kinangga come.out.come.PROX.DIR eastern.riverbank/PROX.DIST.DIR ‘they come out on the eastern bank’ (current) 2 I argue that some of the spatial system’s former complexity among the dimin- ishing speakers and especially among those having left the traditional home- lands has been lost over time. Therefore, this suggests a direct correlation between language use and geographic and cultural environment that is under threat alongside the language itself in a case of language endangerment.

Special Note: Out of 54 pages of the 560 page "Eurasian Linguistic Foundations" document, I have extracted data that is reaching 40 pages! I thought there might be pattern(s) that would clarify the movement of Indo-Europeans and their interaction with other linguistic groups. While the data all look like chaos, it is surprising how much of an affect the extinct Akkadian language (last spoken ~3,000 years ago!) has had in our European and Asian linguistic foundations. Hittite, a dead language since 1150 B.C., also plays a big part in the formation of our modern European and Asian languages. Akkadian is one of the oldest Semitic languages and Hittite is considered to be the oldest Indo-European language. It is clear that the patterns shown on Akkadain and Hittite will continue to dominate our search. Hoping to see patterns involving Georgian, Basque and Armenian, I broke them into separate linguistic "correspondences." As will be seen in Part I, "Eurasian Linguistic Foundations," Basque is highly influenced by Latin and corresponds with Slavic, English, et. al. Armenian is not as associated with Greek as linguists would have us believe and Georgian corresponds with Eurasian languages more than expected. However: This discussion, Part II of "Eurasian Linguistic Foundations," attempts to make sense out of the data base of linguistic patterns in Part I. Part II is a work in progress and will be updated and is expected to exceed 200 pages. Part I of this document consists of a data base showing correspondences among Indo-European, Akkadian, Basque, Georgian, Finnish-Uralic, Altaic, and Traditional Chinese, languages. We also include extinct languages, such as Etruscan, Lycian, Milyan (Mylian), Luvian, Tocharian and Hittite. The corresponding words in Part I did not emerge as I expected, and there are many anomalies that need to be addressed which will be presented in Part II of this work. The greatest anomaly involves Akkadian, an extinct and the oldest Semetic language. It is named after Akkad, a major center of the Mesopotamian civilization(s). It was spoken from the 3 rd millennium B.C. until its replacement by Old Aramic by the 8 th century B.C. The language was the lingua Franca of much of the Ancient Near East until the Bronze Age Collapse ~1180-1150 B.C., when major capitals were destroyed, such as Troy, and the Hittite capital, Hatussa. By the Hellenic period the Akkadian language was largely confined to scholars and priests working in temples in Assyria and Babylonia. The last known cuneiform text in Akkadian dates from the 1 st century B.C. (See Wikipedia.org). Because of its central position, such as during the Assyrian Empire (2025-1522 B.C.), traders were no doubt coming from afar to exchange goods with the civilizations of the Near East. Some of the curious affiliations that need to be explained include the Basques (who are located in Iberia (Spain) and southwestern France). They were known as the Vascones by Rome. While the Basque language generally corresponds with Latin-based languages, that we color "red" in Part I, there are many peculiar correspondences with Akkadian. Another language, Finnish-Uralic, displays similar anomalous features relating to Akkadian. Any connection that these or other languages may have to Akkadian would have to be well before the 8 th century B.C. I recommend that an informative application of this data base Eurasian Linguistic Foundations-Discussion on anomalous patterns of cultural exchange.

Министерство образования и науки РФ Федеральное государственное бюджетное образовательное учреждение высшего образования «Ульяновский государственный педагогический университет имени И.Н. Ульянова» МОЛОДЕЖЬ И НАУКА: СЛОВО, ТЕКСТ, ЛИЧНОСТЬ Материалы III Международной молодежной научно-практической конференции Том 1 Ульяновск 2016 2 УДК 41 ББК 80 М 75 Печатается по решению редакционно-издательского совета ФГБОУ ВО «УлГПУ им. И.Н. Ульянова» Рецензенты: И.И. Гребенкина, кандидат филологических наук, доцент, декан факультета иностранных языков ФГБОУ ВО «УлГПУ им. И.Н. Ульянова» А.М. Лобин, кандидат филологических наук, доцент, доцент кафедры «Филология, издательское дело и редактирование» ФГБОУ ВО «УлГТУ» М75 Молодежь и наука: слово, текст, личность: Материалы III Международной молодежной научно-практической конференции. Том 1. -Ульяновск: ФГБОУ ВО «УлГПУ им. И.Н. Ульянова», 2016. -347 с.

Journal of Ethnology and Folkloristics

Language, 2007

Payap University, MA Thesis, 2016

This thesis presents an exploration of the historical phonology of the West Katuic language family (< Katuic < Austroasiatic). West Katuic (WK) is divided into two sub-groups called Kuay and Bru (Ferlus 1974a, Diffloth 1982, Sidwell 2005). As no previous publication has concerned itself solely with the comparative phonology of WK, it was determined that this thesis should provide a review of previously published phonological descriptions of WK languages, a reconstruction of the segmental inventories of Proto-West Katuic (PWK), Proto-Kuay (PKuay) and Proto-Bru (PBru), and an isoglossic analysis of the phonological changes apparent in a representative sampling of modern Kuay and Bru languages. Additionally, a word list data collection tool was developed, which is aimed at eliciting etyma from other, previously undocumented WK varieties that will provide data pertinent towards the isoglossic analysis of those varieties. The lexical data supporting the analysis in this thesis comes from three previously published sources and seven new data sources collected by the author. A 973-item comparative lexicon of WK that is cross-referenced with Sidwell’s (2005) comparative dictionary and lexical reconstruction of Proto-Katuic (PK) is provided as an appendix. It was found that WK languages are differentiated from other Katuic languages based on the combination of the following four innovations/retentions: 1) the split in Sidwell’s (2005) PK *ia, *ua to PWK *ea, *oa and PWK *ɛɛ, *ɔɔ; 2) the split in PK *ii, *uu to PWK *ii, *uu and PWK *ia, *ua; 3) the maintenance of PK *ie, *uo as PWK *iə, *uə and 4) the reanalysis of PK *ɛɛ in open syllables to PWK *-aj. Also noteworthy is that PWK had four levels of height contrast in its back long vowel inventory due to the intrusion of PK *ua > PWK *ɔɔ, which caused the lowering of PK *ɔɔ > PWK *ɒɒ. No register split is reconstructed for PWK vocalism on account of the transitional, pre-register vocalism described for modern Suay (Ferlus 1971). This precludes the possibility of PWK and PKuay being marked by register contrast. No significant consonant changes were found between PK and PWK, though the process of initial stop devoicing likely did begin in the PWK period or slightly after under Middle Khmer influence. An analysis of the phonological isoglosses discovered here reveals that the Kuay sub-group may be further divisible into an eastern branch and a western branch. This makes sense based on the geographic isolation of the western Kuay languages (Suay) of Laos. While intra-Bru isoglosses were discovered, no indications were found of sub-groupings within the Bru language community and the entire Bru area remains best described as a dialect continuum. It is hoped that this thesis will serve as a synthesis of the WK research that has gone on up to this point and provide a starting point for the further investigation of WK languages.

This book is a translation of the "Sintaksis nivxskogo jazyka (Amurskij dialekt)" ("Syntax of the Nivkh language: The Amur dialect"), originally published in Russian (Nedjalkov and Otaina 2012). This is a posthumous edition of a draft found in the archives of Vladimir P. Nedjalkov, a major representative of the Leningrad/St.Petersburg Typological School. The work was not finalized because of the complicated situation in Russia in the early 1990s and the untimely death of Galina A. Otaina (1995), a native speaker of Nivkh.