Brúnkahk Tek: An Extinct Language

This paper provides an insight into the syntactic evolution of bilingual light verb constructions in Northern Belize Spanish/English/Kriol code-switching. Quantitative analyses of syntactic verb type and pronoun type were conducted to examine the cross-generational use of these hybrid structures in the spontaneous oral production of 62 bilingual/trilingual speakers from Northern Belize. Results revealed that participants in the younger age groups employed 'hacer + V' markedly more than the eldest consultants. Whereas bilingual light verb constructions amongst first generation speakers were attested only with transitive, intransitive and ditransitive verbs, there was an expansion of these constructions to other syntactic contexts in the discourse of second and third generation speakers. For pronoun type, the incorporation of clitic and pronominal forms was particularly attested among younger generations. The analysis discusses changes in the use of these syntactic innovations vis-à-vis Belize's sociohistorical milieu and highlights some features of 'hacer + V' which do not conform to mainstream views on what constitutes 'nonce borrowings'.

Language Policy, 2011

In their introduction, editors Farfán and Ramallo write that the purpose of their book ''is to contribute to the debate regarding the perspectives of documenting languages,'' with language revitalization in mind (p. 7). The idea is to serve the language community being documented while also serving science in general. The editors note Lenore Grenoble's perspective in the fourth chapter that ''the more oriented towards revitalization the [language] documentation is the more effective and relevant it will be'' (p. 9). They conclude that a ''sociolinguistics of development, in which the revitalization of linguistic communities is the priority, opens new perspectives for the emerging field of linguistic documentation, in which the societal aspects of the research have frequently been marginal'' (p. 10). The ideal put forward by Grenoble in chapter 4 is of the linguist as ''facilitator and collaborator'' in well-planned documentation projects that include training and capacity building for the local community (p. 84; see also Grenoble 2009). This call for researchers to serve and give back to the Indigenous communities they study is not new, at least not in North America. In his 1969 book Custer Died for Your Sins: An Indian Manifesto, Vine Deloria, Jr. took to task anthropologists, and by implication linguists and other researchers who studied American Indians, and the issue has been roundly debated since then (see e.g., Biolsi and Zimmerman 1997). All linguists, the contributors to this volume take up a variety of issues surrounding language documentation and revitalization that have recently been discussed at length (see e.g., Kroskrity and Field 2009). The central question concerns the place of Indigenous languages in the modern world. Are they destined to become extinct one by one as is happening now, or can they find a place in our modern globalized world where only a few languages seem to be the ''fittest'' and able to survive? In the second chapter, Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald notes how Manambu, a language spoken by about 2,500 people in Papua New Guinea, is

Alain Fabre 2005-Diccionario etnolingüístico y guía bibliográfica de los pueblos indígenas sudamericanos. NAMBIKWARA 1 [Última modificación: 15/01/13] NAMBIKWARA A esta familia lingüística del oeste del Mato Grosso pertenecen tres lenguas:

This paper examines the remarkable structural differences across a range of speakers of Kukama-Kukamiria (Amazon of Peru). These differences illustrate the importance for documentation projects of broadening their focus from solely fluent speakers to other types of speakers as well. For Kukama-Kukamiria, this includes latent-speakers, neo-speakers, and those that use the language for symbolic purposes. The documentation of these speakers is important for two reasons. First, all of these types of speakers are already directly or indirectly engaged in ongoing revitalization efforts. Second, linguistic data from a variety of speakers is essential to advance our understanding about the structural outcomes of language decay. The data presented here from Kukama-Kukamiria has much to offer to the discussion of mechanisms of language change, change which is influenced not only by obsolescence but also by revitalization efforts. Keywords: Kukama-Kukamiria, types of speakers, language documentation, endangered languages, Amazonian languages.

2015

This dissertation focuses on the documentation and description of Mako, an indigenous language spoken in the Venezuelan Amazon by about 1,200 people and for which the only available published material at the start of this project were 38 words. The project creates a collection of annotated ethnographic texts and a grammar that could serve as a starting point for both language maintenance in the community and for further linguistic research. Additionally, the project assesses the language's vitality in the communities where it is spoken and demonstrates the relationship of Mako to the two other extant Sáliban languages, namely Piaroa and Sáliba. This research thus includes an assessment of language vitality in the Mako communities of the Ventuari River, a comprehensive description of the Mako language-heretofore undescribed-, and an evaluation of the genetic relationship between the three Sáliban languages. The description of the language covers a wide range of topics in areas such as phonetics and phonology, nominal and verbal morphology, and syntax of both simple and complex sentences. Discourse-level morphology and discourse-organization strategies are also covered. Aside from facilitating the study of other members of the Sáliban family and the reconstruction of the common ancestral language, the description of Mako also contributes to the typology of Amazonian languages and to our understanding of the prehistory of this area of the Orinoco basin. The products of this project also have the potential to be mobilized in language literacy efforts in the Mako communities.

2014

This paper highlights the role of speech community members on a series of interconnected projects to document, study and maintain Kokama, a deeply endangered language from the Peruvian Amazon. The remaining fluent speakers of the language are mostly older than 60 years of age, are spread out across various small villages, and speak the language in very restricted situations. The aim of this paper is twofold. First, it demonstrates with concrete examples that outcomes of projects implemented in collaboration with speakers yield more broadly useful outcomes than those conducted by a linguist working alone. Second, it underscores the significance of documenting language interaction among different types of speakers in accordance with the view that language preservation is not only about promoting a linguistic code, but also includes documenting communicative practices. The projects reported here can contribute to the development of fieldwork methodologies to work with a range of speakers. The involvement of community members has been crucial for the design of culturally relevant strategies to assess fluency in Kokama, for the naturalness and variety within the collected data, and for the documentation of interactional patterns essential for revitalization initiatives. This paper supports the view that language documentation, language preservation, and linguistic research can be complementary endeavors. 1 The first time I visited the Kokama territory was in February of 1997. At that time I was hired to work in the Programa de Formación de Maestros Bilingues de la Amazonía Peruana (FORMABIAP). As part of a multidisciplinary team, I was the linguist responsible for working on the description and maintenance of Kokama, also known as Kukama-Kukamiria. My first trip to the Kokama territory lasted only 32 days, but that was enough time to ascertain the complexity of the situation. On the one hand, there was an obvious sense of urgency to work towards the preservation of this highly endangered language. The few surviving speakers that I met reported having no one with whom they could use Kokama on a daily basis, and lamented the disappearance of their language. On the other hand, the complex socio-political context made implementing initiatives towards 1 My deepest gratitude goes to each and every one of the Kokamas that have shared their time and knowledge with me since 1997, especially to Victor Yuyarima Chota and Rosa Amías Murayari, my long-time friends and collaborators. This paper has benefited from detailed comments by Racquel Yamada and Keiko Beers. I am also grateful for discussion with Colette Grinevald and colleagues from the Laboratory Dynamyque Du Langage, University of Lyon. Financial support from the National Science Foundation Documenting Endangered Languages program (BCS #0965604) is gratefully acknowledged. All errors and shortcomings are my own.

This paper argues that early Terena ('Guaná') had a contrast between fricative and affricate consonants that has been lost in modern Terena. Evidence for this claim comes from the examination of late 19 th century and early 20 th century documents on the language. The existence of the relevant phonemic contrast is revealed not only by an analysis of the transcriptions employed in these early sources but, more importantly, by a demonstration that fricatives and affricates were treated differently in the history of the language. It is proposed that, after the early Terena voiceless fricatives were debuccalized, merging with early Terena h, the affricates started to include fricative realizations in their allophonic range. This scenario is consistent with descriptions of modern Terena that stress the 'archaic' character of affricate realizations of /ʃ/.

Diachronica, 2015

Relations between Arawakan and Guaicuruan groups in the Chaco region of South America have been widely discussed in ethnohistorical and anthropological sources. This paper offers the first systematic investigation of the linguistic effects of these interactions, relying on, and contributing to, the historical study of both language families. I discuss a number of nominal lexemes in Terena, the extant descendant of Guaná, that lack plausible Arawakan etymologies, thus being candidates for items adopted from some non-Arawakan language. I show that the Terena items in question are loans from Northern Guaicuruan languages and can be traced to source forms with established Guaicuruan etymologies. I propose some linguistic markers that characterize the Guaicuruan stratum in the Terena lexicon, particularly well-represented in the domains of zoonyms and phytonyms. Consequences of these findings are discussed, including their relation to the independent claims of the ethnohistorical literature.