Professional Documents
Culture Documents
W Dixoll
In (2),fana 'woman' is the pivot through the two c1auses. The transitve
c1ause is then an A-construction in whichfana is the understood A and awi 'tapir'
12
the stated O. It is recognizable as an A-construction by the absence of a verbal prefix
!Ji- and by the feminine forms of tense and mood suffixes, agreeing with the A argu
ment 'woman'. In (3), awi 'tapir' is the pivot linking the two c1auses; t is in S func
Smalllanguage families and
don in the first and in O function in the second. The latter is an O-construction, isolates in Peru
marked by verbal prefix hi- and the masculine forms of tense and mood
agreeing with the O argumento
Cahuapana
la Chayahuita (Canpo piyapi, Tshaawi) Paranapura, Cahuapana, SiIlay and Shanusi rivers; popo 7,000; 20% incipient to quite bilingual; 30%
lb Jebero (Chebero, Xiwila) District of Jeberos; pop. 2.000; only older adults speak he language.
Jivaro (Shuar)
2a Aguaruna (Aguajun) Westem Upper Maraon. Potro, Mayo and Cahuapanas rivers; pop. 39,000; 35% mono lingual; al
Shuar subgroup
2b Achuar-Shiwiar (Achual,livaro. Maina) Morona, Macusari, Tigre, Huasaga, and Corrientes rivers in Peru; Pastaza and Bobonaza rivers in
2c Wambisa Morona and Santiago rivers; popo 6,000-10,000; 20% mono lingual; 50%? literate.
2d Shuar (Jivaro. Chiwaro, Xivaro) Morona-Santiago Province in Ecuador; popo 32,000; 14% monolingual; 50%? literate.
Zapara ..
3a Andoa (Shimigae, Semigae, Gae, Gaye) village of Andoas, Pastaza river; popo of ethnic group - 150-200, language became extinct in 1993;
al! now speak Southern Pastaza Quechua andlor Spanish.
3b Arabela (Chiripuno) Arabela river, tributary of Napo; popo of ethnic group - 300, speakers 150 maximum; no monolin
guals in Arabela, many trilngual in Arabela, Tigre (Northern Pastaza) Quechua and Spanish. Note,
however, that a small isolated subgroup (the Pananahuri) which separated from those on the Arabela
3d Cawarano headwaters of the Nanay river; 5 speakers in 1972; possibly a dialect of Iquito.
3e lquito (Amacacore, Hamacore, Northern Nanay fver; popo 150 in 1965; only older adults speak the language, all are bilingual with
3g Zaparo (Zapara. Kayapwe) Pastaza Province, Ecuador; popo 01' ethnic group 150, only 2/3 older adults spoke the language in
1980; integrated with the Northern Pastaza Quechua.
Peba-Yagua
4a Yameo !taya and Nanay rivers; popo 50 in 1'125; now extinct.
4b Peba formerly spoken north of the town 01' Pebas on the Amazon river; extinct.
4c Yagua (Yava, Llagua, Yegua) Northeastern Amazon river from (quitos to Brazil border, a few in Colombia and Brazil; popo
3,000-4,000; 25-35% bilingual in Spanish, low level 01' literacy; some dialectal differences.
Wtoto
Bora-Muinane subgroup
5a Bora Colombia-Peru border, mostly in Peru - Yaguasyacu. Ampiyacu and Putumayo rvers; popo
2,000-2,500; hgh mte of literacy and bilingualsm; 94'V,) mutually intelligible wth Miraa dialect
(100 speakers in Brazil and Colombia).
Sb Munane East Central Amazonas in Colombia; popo 150; all are bilingual with Bora or Witoto.
Witoto-Ocaina subgroup
Sc Ocaina Yaguasyacu and Ampiyacu rivers, mostly in Peru, a few in Colombia; popo 150-200; multilingual in
Murui Witoto, Bora and/or Spanish; dialects: Dukaiya, Ibo'tsa.
Early Witoto languages
5d Nipode (Muinane) Witoto mostly in Peru; popo 50-100; bilingual in Murui Witoto andlor Spanish.
Se Mintca Witoto Igaraparan river in Colombia; pop. 2,500; many are bilingual with Spanish and litemte.
sr Murui Witoto (Be) Putumayo, Ampiyacu, and Putumayo rivers; pop. 2,000-2,800; 95% of those under 40 are literate;
90% 01' those under 50 are at leas! incipient bilnguals.
Isolates (ncludes only extant languages)
6 Candoshi-Shapm (Murato) Huitoyacu, Chapul, Morona and Pastaza rvers; popo 3,000; 12'Yo incipient bilinguals; many litcf'dte
in Candoshi; daJects: Kandoashi, Chapara.
7 Cholon (Tinganeses. Seeptsa) Huallaga Rver Valley; 1 or 2 speakers in 1985; no recent data avalable.
8 Harakmbet (Hate) Madre de Dios, Colorado and Keros rivers; popo approx. 650; approx. 80'Yu are at least incipient
bilinguals; approx. 10% lilerate in Amarakaeri and 50"/.) in Spanish; major dialecrs: Amarakaeri and
Wachipaeri; Kisambaeri is probably a subdialect of the former and Arasairi, Sapiteri and Toyoeri
are probably subdialects of he latter.
9 Munichi (Munichino, Otan abe) village of Munichis on the Parlnapum river; 3 speakers in 1988.
10 Taushiro (Pinche) Aucayacu river, a tributary of he Tigre; popo approx. 5.
11 Ticuna (Tukuna) an isolate spoken along the Amazon in Peru, Colombia and Brazil; popo 6,000 in Peru, 14,000 in
Brazil, 5,000 in Colombia; high rale 01' literacy in Spanish aud Ticuna among Peruvian Ticuna;
many biliugual with Spansh or Portuguese.
12 Urarna (Shimacu, ltucali) Chambira and Urituyacu rivers; popo 3,500; 40% at leas! incipient bilinguals; some
Eerate in Urarina and Spanish.
\
312 Mary Ruth Wise 12 Small /anguagefamilies and iso/ates in Peru 313
related, are mutually unintelligible. No reconstruction has been proposed, nor has
Table 12.2 Jebero (Cahuapana) consonants
membership in a larger family or stock been confirmed by comparative work.
The Jivaro (Shuar) family includes Aguaruna (the most diverse), Wambisa, bilabial dental alveolar p,ost-alveolar palatal velar labio-velar glottal
Achuar and Shuar. Candoshi has sometimes been c\assified as a member of a
Shuar-Candoshi family but David Payne (1989) considers his earlier (1981) com plosive p e k '/
ejective k'
parative reconstruction of proto-Shuar-Candoshi to be unjustified. It has also been nasal m n .n !l
erroneously e1assified as Zaparo by sorne authors. 2 fricative f
Little data are available on Peba and Yameo and no comparative work has been lIap f
ejective flap f'
done on the Peba-Yagua family.3
lateral
Languages of the Zaparo family are in the eastem jungle of northern approximant w
Peru and southeast Ecuador. The whole family is nearly extinct with fewer than 200
speakers in total. Only Arabela and lquito are spoken more than 10 people, and
only Arabela has even a slim chance of survival beyond the present generaton of Table 12.3 Jebero (Cahuapana)
older adults. (See Stark 1990 for a description of the sociolinguistic situation.) VOl veIs
Taushiro is possibly a Zaparo language, but its classification has not been con
firmed.
front central back
The Witoto family neludes two main branches: Bora-Muinane and close u
Witoto-Ocaina. The two Bora-Munane languages are: Bora, including the Miraa near-close
open a
dialect which is about 94% intelligible with Bora, and Muinane, not to be confused
with Muinane Witoto. Resigaro has sometimes been included in the family but
David Payne (1985) demonstrates that the apparent relationship is the result of
heavy borrowing, with consequent phonological change and some grammatical languages. Aguaruna (Ji varo) has no while Jebero (Cahuapana) has three.
borrowing; Resigaro is c1early an Arawak language (see also Aschmann 1993: Both fricatives and affricates occllr in sorne but others have one or the other.
Harakmbet has sometimes been erroneously classified as Pre-andine Arawak. Pitch accent and high-low tone contrasts are more frequent than contrastive stress.
Apparent cognates are probably due lo borrowing and lo Ihe presence of sorne A four-vowel system is the most frequent but severallanguageshave six.
widespread grammatical forms (cf. David Payne There has been some con The consonant and vowel inventories of Jebero (Cahuapana) are shown in tables
vergence of dialects, or rather ex.tension of Amarakaeri, al leasl in the Dominican 12.2 and 12.3 respectively (adapted from Bendor-Samuel
Mission al Shinluya (Van den Eynde 1972: 4; see also Lyon 1975). Chayahuita lacks e and the glottalized consonants, has one liquid (r) and
two nasals (bilabial and alveolar). In Jebero, occlusives are voiced after nasals. The
phoneme /!../ is 'produced by the blade of the tongue in the palatal regio n with the
2 PHONOLOGY
tongue tip down behind the bottom teeth' (Bendor-SamueI1961: 13); Jis a friction
Most of the languages in the five families differ from areal patterns in one or more less continuant. Syllables can be open or closed. The central near-close vowel is
traits. In the Jivaro languages there are few restrictions on syllable-final consonants lower in Jebero than in Chayahuita. 7, c-quality and nasalization are analysed as
so that consonant clusters are very frequent. Syllables are usually open in the other syllable pros odies in Jebero (1961: 20). Vowel length, aspiraton, glottalization
[vowel + 1] and nasalization are considered to be part of the syllable nucleus in
2 David P'''yne (1989) suggcsts a possible deep genetic relationship between Candoshi and
Arawak; he presents thirty-two basic vocablllary forms with CVC resemblances and several Chayahuita (Hart and Hart 1976) so that syllables are open. Stress is not contrastive
apparent grammatical cognatcs. Gnerre (1988) sllggests a possible deep genetic relationship in either language. In Jebero the first syllable of a disyllabic word is accented and
between the Jivaro and Arawak ramilies. Neither sllggests thal Jivaro langllages
Candoshi are more c10sely related to each other than to Arawak.
the second 01' words with three or more syllables; there is sorne modification with
J Dors Payne (1984) hypotheszes a possible Zaparo-Yagua connection. certain suffixes.
314 Mary Ruth Wise 12 Smalllanguage families and iso/ates in Peru 315
bilabial alveolar post-alveolar palatal velar labio-velar glottal bilabial alveolar post-alveolar palatal velar labio-velar glottal
open a
close i[i,l] i ti, i) u [u, u, i)
c1ose-mid e [e)
open-mid 0[0]
The Jivaro languages are characterized by many consonant dusters word open a [a, <e, e]
medially. The consonants and vowels of Aguaruna are shown in tables 12.4 and 12.5
(adapted from David Payne 1981).
Nasal and oral vowels contrast. As in many Amazonian languages, nasalization (2a) (David Payne 1981)
can extend over a whole series of vowels and semivowels; nasal consonants are pro Inama!]1 'meat'
nounced as prenasalzed voiced plosives in the environment of oral vowels. (See Isuwatfl 'Iungs'
David Payne 1976 for a detailed analysis of nasalty.) David Payne (1990a) proposes IpllJkiOI 'good'
that Aguanma has a type of pitch accent in which stress (intensity) does not neces
(Wipio el al. 1996)
sarily coincide with high pitch (accent) as shown in (1).4 Tbis analysis is nmh"hlv
Isaunkl 'kind of leaf' vs Isaunkl)tinl 'stream where plants
applicable to the other Jivaro languages. The reflex of 1*01 is Ir! in
with these leaves abollnd'
position (oftell syllable-final after vowel deletion) in aH of the languages except
Ijunmatl 'to draw near' vs 'to draw near to sorne-
Aguarulla which retains IU/; cOllsequently there are 110 liquids in Aguaruna.
thing or someone'
Voiceless word-final vowels are contrastive but are no louger pronolll1ced by many
speakers. Contrastive vowellength is interpreted as a vowel seqllence. Syllables may The phonemes ol' Yagua and their principal allophones except for most palatal
be open or dosed (2a). Vowel deletion andlor metathesis result in many consonant ized consonants are showl1 in tables 12.6 and 12.7 (adapted l'rom Doris Payne
cllIsters 1985b: 16-17).
Powlison (1995: 30-3) surnrnarizes the elfects of Ijl 011 vowels: for example, /wjal
(1) (David Payne 1990a: 165)
[~l/tful 'monkey (NOM)' vs [~lj ItJlIn I 'monkey is Whenever a morpheme ending
(David Payne 1981: 336) --"
in Ijl immediately precedes a rnorphemeh",,,nnn with any consonant other than
[~/kapl 'vine' vs [kaap]/kapl 'gnat'
an alveolar or palatal obstruent, there is rnetathesis of Ijl and the consonant.
Morphemes do not end in cOllsonants other than /jl (Doris Payne 1985b: 17). As in
lllSCI1t1mer the acute accent n is used to indicate high pitch or tone. Low tone
languages where torie is contrastive. the Jivaro languages, nasal consonants are pronollnced as prenasalized plosives,
\
316 Mary Ruth Wise 12 Smalllanguage families and iso/ates in Peru 317
1
1 Table 12.8 Dora consonants Table 12.9 Dora vowels
I
I
bilabial alveolar post-alveolar palatal velar labio-velar glottal [ront central back
I plosive p k kP[k P, kW ? clos i (i, 1] ID
ph th kh t [i, IJ
I
near-c1ose
nasal m n c1ose-mid 9[9'l]
affricate ts tI open-mid t:: [E, <e, el
tsh tJh open a la, <l)
fricative Ji x [x, e]
flap r
approximant
Table 12.10 Arabe/a COllsonants
Zaparo differs from Arabela in having alveolar and postalveolar affricates and a
3.1 Nominal morphology
plosive. Iq uito and Zaparo each has only four vowels: clase front and central,
open central, and one back vowe1 varying between close and mido In all three Jan 3.L1 Classifiers
guages long and short vowels contrasto In Arabela, al least, there is palatalization In Yagua, classifiers are infixed into the number 'one' and suffixed to other
and labialization of consonants (written as Ci and Cu in the examples) in syllables numbers; classifiers occur with nouns, demonstratives, adjectives and verbs. They
following i and ti, respectively. In Arabe1a /hl has a nasal quality and vowels are are especally important in Bora where more than 350 have been identified. In
nasalized following Ih/ and nasal consonants (F. Rich 1963: 197). With the excep Witoto and Peba-Yagua, the families with gender distinction, masculine or
tion of a phrase-final fortis Ih/ and [?J for emphasis in Arabela, syllables are open. feminine gender suffixes function as classifiers in words referring to animate nouns.
A two-tone system is reported for [quito (Eastmall and Eastman 1963: 146).5 In Bora c1assifiers occur in pronouns al so. Examples from Bora with - ?mi 'Ieaf'
The isolates present several phonological features which differ from areal patterns: follow:
Ticuna has a very complex tonal system as well as laryngealized vowels (L. Anderson
(4) (Thieseu 1996: \06-7)
l 959a,b, and Montes Rodrguez 1995). 6 Candoshi has a voiceless retroflexed post
alveolar affricate, and the maximum syllable is CCCVC. Taushiro is the kJ'aahkhw 'knowledge' kraahkhw?mi 'book'
Peruvian language in which there are no blabial or labio-dental consonants. mithja 'big' mthia?mi 'big leaf, book, etc.'
tsha 'one' tsh?ami 'oue leaf, boak, etc.'
3 MORPHOLOGY tsh 'another' tsh?iami 'another leaf,
etc.'
Word c1asses in most of the languages include open classes of nouns, verbs and
adjectives. Closed c1asses uSllally include adverbs as well as pronouns and conjllnc
a 'conjullction, ?ami 'that leaf, etc.,
tions. In most of the languages, adjectives are more likely to occur as predicate auaphoric mentioned in
pronoun' preceding sentence'
tives than in the noun phrase but the adjective c1ass as such ls not necessarily c1osed.
AH of the languages of the five familes are agglutinative, although strings of phanithwe 'important' phuithIe?mi 'the most impart;>nt
affixes tend to be shorter in the Jvaro languages than in the others. Sulfixes predom (Ieaf, book, etc.)'
inate but there are causative prefixes in Jivaro, Cahuapana and Harakmbet. The
In the Witoto family and Yagua, uumerals agree with their head noun as in (5);
Cahuapana languages also have about two dozen stem-formng verbal prefixes. In
in Bora and demonstratives do also.1 The modifier .in descrptive uoun
Zaparo, Bora and Yagua, person markers are prefixed to possessed noulls. In
phrases may optionally agree, as in
Yagua, (quito and Harakmbet, ud sometimes in Arabela and Zapa ro, subject
person markers are prefixes also. Cahuapana, Jivaro and Harakmbet verbs cross (5) (Yagua: Doris payne 1985b: 114)
reference both subject/agent and object. The cross-referencing morphemes are pre t-nu-kii nHnu
fixes in Harakmbet; declarative, dubitative and imperative sets differ in some one-CL:thick. pole-one pole
subject/agent-object forms. 'one Dole' or 'one tree trunk'
The Witoto languages and Yagua have dual, as well as singular and plural, (6) Doris Paync 1985b: 117)
numbers (a dual number is unusual in Amazonia). Cahuapana languages and
r-bti f'naj(-bii)
Harakmbet have dual number in the first person only.
[rna(-bi)]
5 Further analysis might show tha! quito has a pitch-accent i ts-cL:flower red( -cL:flower)
6 Anderson (1959a,b) and Soares (1995) describe Ticuna as having five tones as well as glides. 'its red flower'
In a recent auto-Seb'ltlental analysis, Montes Rodrguez (1995) agrees wilh Anderson's pho
netic transcription but consders tha! high and low tones comprise Ihe basic opposition and
that a third mid tone is relatvely weak and might best be con side red as an underspecified J Thedata available lo me are insufficienl to determine ir this is tme of all WitQto languages
element. or noto
320 Mar)' Ruth Wise 12 Smalllangllage fami/ies and isolates in Peru 321
lo Cahuapaoa aod Zaparo, one of the frequent nouo derivational suffixes is an Thomas payne (1983: 180) argues that this kind of system can lead to an ergative
attributive {'owner or'), as in so?ja- wan (wife-ATTRlB) 'one who has a wife', ma? reanalysis and places Yagua typologically with those languages which utilize erga
wan (thiogs-ATTRlB) 'a rich persoo' (Chayahuita: Hart 1988: 261). tive construction types as the unmarked transitive construction in dscourse, where
the direct object is not being introduced into the discourse for the first time.
3.1.2 Case The cases in Murui Witoto are: -di 'nominative', -na 'accusative/oblique', -d:>
Nominative-accusative type case markers occur io alllanguages of the Cahuapana, 'instrumental', -ri'dative', -m:> 'allative', -m:>na 'ablative" -k:>ni'locative'.
Jivaro and Witoto families, and in Candoshi and Harakmbet. In Bora and the Jivaro In Jivaro, accusative and dative cases are not distinguished; the marker in Achuar
languages, the nominative is zero. Witoto itself optiooally marks both oominative is -nl-nal-anl-un. Other Achuar cases are -har 'instrumental, comitative', -kl-ak
and accusative (the object is obligatorily marked when the subject is third person). 'means', -numl-nam 'Iocative', - V 'genitive', - V 'vocative'.
In Cahuapana both may be marked or both may be uomarked; the subject is usually In Zaparo and Yagua there are not only basic locative sulfixes or postpositions
marked to avoid ambiguity or for emphasis and the object only for emphasis. bu! more than twenty-five postpositions indicating more exact locaton in time or
In Arabela, subje\.:t and object fUllctions are usually marked by constituent order space; many of them are compound, e.g. Arabela -kako 'on, aboye', -h 'from',
but -ri may mark the subject when it precedes the verbo The -ri subject marker -kaka-h 'from aboye'; -koma 'below', ora 'for', -koma-ra 'downwards'.
occurs io traositive constructions and may be indicative that Zapara lan The Yagua applicative verbal sulfix and the 'instrumental, comitative' case
guages are partlally ergative. Another ergative-lke feature in all of the Zaparo marker have the same shape and are no doubt etymologically related (Doris Payne
is the fact that there are two sets of pronouns, the second of which could be consid 1985b: J78). This is also true for the A rabel a sulfix -tal-tia 'applicative or instrumen
ered absolutive since it is used for the object and for the subject of stative clauses. tal/comitative'.
The use of one set or the other, however, depends prmarily on constituent order; the
first set is used ror agents/subjects and also for objects when they precede the verbo
3.2 Pronouns
In Yagua, definite object enclitcs attach to any word which follows the verb and
directly precedes the object; or they attach to the verb when the object is not a fully Common to all five language families are personal, demonstrative, possessive and
specified noun phrase, as in Compare the ageot aod object references in interrogative pronouns.
Singular, dual and plural are distinguished lor all persons in the Witoto and Peba
(Thomas Payne 1983:
Yagua families. In Cahuapana languages, dual is distinguished only for first person
tsa-hj-ma Anita
inclusive (and first dual inclusive also has an impersonal sense).9 First person inclu
[tsah mjl
sive and exclusive are distinguished eXI..--ept in Jivaro where fi;5t person singular is
3sg.A-fall-PERFV Anita
used lor exclusive and first person plural inclusive and for tlle Witoto-
'Anita fello'
Singular Plural
Singular Dual Plural
I mase bb I wi ii
kue kaI 2 m tum
fem kalJlaW 3 present 01' in sight u
;mwb, absent ni
2 mase
; -:HnwbI ;m;W Demonstrative
fem ;mwJl:lW near present h
present (in sight) u
3 mase imwe iaWmaiaW imakw absent (out of sight) nu
-e -maki
fcm iJlaiJl:l iaWJluaW iJlaiJluadI
neut ie/-e
Near maseanim bimwe bimakw
(bi-) 3.3 Adjectives
fem anim biJlaiJl:l biJlaiJluaW
neut bie In sorne of the languages adjectives are not c1early distinguished from nouns in that
Within mase anim baimwe balmakw may occur with most of the nominal affixes. However, when they fllnction as
view nouns they often have a slightly different meaning, e.g. Achuar pu 'fat' (as adjec
fem anim baiJlaiJl:l baiJlaiJluaw
(ba-)
but 'the chief' (as noun); pSIl 'hard' but pis-ri hard-3sg 'its hardness or firm
neut bale
Fast and Fast 1996: 35, 236).
Fal' mase anim naimwe naimakw
(out of
fem anim naiJ1aiJlJ naiJlaiJlualU
sight) 3.3.1 and superlative grades
(/la-) neut nale In Chayahllita
is forrned
naja 'good', noja naja 'betterlbest'. The standard orecedes as
Demonstrative or interrogative pronouns uSllally substitllte for relative pro in (9).
nouns, as in Arabela.
(9) (H. Har t 1988: 267)
(R. Rich 1999: 46) ipi kiran wa1wi wa1w-iJn na-so?
agouti from small small-ADJ
that-EMPH
'Which is it?' 'That [animal] is srnaller than the agouti.'
(1I) (Doris Payne and Thomas Payne 1990: 290) CompouIld verbs are described for Bora (15), Chayahuita (16) and Harakmbet
hrjij r-muritfwa hatskaru n hrjij
much INAN-cost sugar NEG much
(15) (Thiesen 1996: 60)
r-muritfwa hartsij
i?h tf3-twhk hnw-lpe twhkhnru-wpe
INAN-cost rice
to.speak-to.begin-3sg.masc to.begin-3sg.masc
'Sugar costs more than rice. 'Sugarcostsa rice costs not much.')
i?h.itl3-ne
to.speak-action.in.general
Verbal morphology in all of the families is considerably more complex than that of (16) (H. Hart 1988:
nouns and other word c\asses; so much so that in narrative text many c1auses consist nito-ta?a-r-in
just of a verb. to.know-to.run-INDlc-3sg
In Jivaro and Cahuapana, suffixes referring to both the agent and the object 'He knows how to run.'
occur: in object-agent order in Jivaro and in the opposite order in Cahuapana. 1995:205)
(17)
When there is no suffix agreeing with the object, it is third person, as in e?-t? + e?-biei? > e?btejt?
(12) Chayalutita (H. Hart 1988: 273) INF-guardlpossess INF-to.die
awir-in-ko 'Hehits me.' 'to guard a dead animal'
awtr-in-kin 'He hits you.' In Candoshi repeated action is expressed by repetition or reduplication of the
awtr-in 'He hits [him/her/them].' verb rooL In a series of individual actions the repeated root is followed by an
In Iquito and Yagua a prefix agreeing with the subject/agent occurs, and in inflected pro-verb as in (18); in continllous repetition the reduplicated verb root
Witoto a suffix. In Bora the classifiers can occllr as verbal suffixes agreeing with a occurs in a finite verb, as in (19).
third person subjectlagent as in (13b). First and second person subjects are inde (18) (S. TlIggy 1982:
pronOUl1S preceding the verb, as in kos kos kos afira-g-ana
(l3a) (Thiesen 1996: 58) people tO.arrive tO.arrive tO.arrive to.do.th!Is-CURR.PAST-3pl
'A group of peop1e arrived, then another grollp, then another group.'
tsiin '1 ran.'
(19) (S. Tuggy 1982: 41)
(13b) (Thiesen 1996:
Tpots karo-waro-tar-tamta-e-ja
thpo-pe
people tO.descend-to.descend-HABlTuAL-also-3-EMPH
treat-masc.sg 'he treats sick)'
'A multitude of people descended also.'
thpo-tse
treat-fem.sg 'she treats (the sick)' Chayahuita distinguishes aspect but not tense in the verbo Jebero and languages
of the other famlies have both tense and aspect suffixes. In Yagua, Jivaro and
Incorporation of the object is described for Cahuapana and Harakmbet. The
Cahllapana the unmarked tense is the present. Witoto itself distinguishes non
object thus incorporated may be a noun stem or a c1assifier.
fllture and future tenses. Jivaro distinguishes five past tenses: immediate past, recent
(14) (H. Hart 1988: 274) past, remote past, habitual past (over a long period of time) and reportative past.
a1pi-naja-ti-r-awt Jivaro al so distinguishes imrnediate, definite and indefinite flltures. Example (20)
to.light-eye-APPLlc-INDIC-1 sg.A gives Achuar with the verb tilin 'to say', and (21) gives further
'{ shone the light in (his) eyes.' examples of contrasts in tense.
326 Mary Ruth Wise 12 Smalllallguage and isolates in Peru 327
(20) (Fast, Fast and Fast 1996: 75-7) AIl of the languages have 1110rphological causatives. In Cahuapana and Jivaro
twai 'he says' languages and Harakmbet a causative prefix consisting of a single vowel is iden
turtui 'he says to me' tified by David Payne (1990b: 78) as a wide-spread grammatical tbrm in South
tji 'he said (immediate)' American languages. These languages, as well as the others, also have causative
'he said (recent or remo te)' suffixes. In most cases the causative affix can occur with both transitive and intran
'he used to
sitive verb roots.
tu 'he said (repo1'ted)'
wak-tin vs i-wik-tin
ttinuilai 'he will say after sorne time'
tO.clirnb-INF CAus-to.c1imb-INF
(21) (Fast, Fast and Fast 1996: 45-6) 'to climb' 'to lin'
ji.afi takkma-s-ma-mt
takkma-s-mia-ji vs tak-mtik-sa-mia-ji
yeste1'day to. work -PER FV-REC. PAST-2sg
too work-PERFV-REc'PAST-3sg toowork-CAus-PERFV-REC. PAST-3sg
'You worked yesterday (recent).' 'he has worked' 'he has made him work'
am-fa takkma-s-mia-mi
In Witoto itself one of the causative suffixes is -tao A valency-changing suffix with
2sg-also to.work-PERFV-REM.PAST-2sg
the consonant t is wide-spread in Amazonian IUlIgUUg<::lS In Zaparo,
'You wo1'ked sorne time ago (remote).'
Peba-Yagua and Cahuapana (and possibly Jivaro
jamikia takkma-s-ta-hai
as Bueh), a suffix with t functions as an applicative" so tl1at normally oDllque noun
110W to.work-PERFV-IMM.PAST-I sg
phrases are treated as direct objects. The applicative may also introduce another
'1 am to work now (immediate).'
argument although it sometimes remains implicit. In Cahuapana the suffix -lif-la
may verbalize, transitivize, change impersonal verbs to intransitive, detransitivize,
wi takkma-s-tat-hai
and change transitive to ditransitive, as in (24) (-r 'indieative'; -in 'third singular
tomorrow l sg to.work-PERFV-FUT.DEF-I sg
arrival', 'UpOll departure', 'en route', 'stationary') and 'unbounded' (e.g. 'while nati-r-n 'he/she nati-ti-r-in 'he/she obeys'
wandering around'). himfher'
In livaro, Cahuapana and Witoto desiderative afllxes oeeur, especially if the a'~pa-r-in 'hefshe senda il' a 'pa-ti-r-in 'he/she sends it to
subject of the cornplement and 'to want' are identical. The desiderative in someone'
Cahuapana is a prefix (ja- in Chayahuita).
In Zaparo languages, the meanings of tal-tia include: in a container, with content&,
Mu/'ui Witoto (Burteh and Wise 1968: 23)
a group/plllral, affection, perform the action carrying something (25), involuntary
kW::l-aka-d-e
accompaniment (i.e. being carried), to do with a goallreason, the subject is (30a) (Doris L. Payne 1985b: 38)
unique to Zaparo, is that it occurs in the maio verb when the subject of the infiniti 3sg-knock.down-PERFv-INAN
Evidentials occur in Bora and Zapara. In Arabela there appear to be only repor
(26) (R. Rich 1999: 56) tative evidentials: -na s suffixed to the subject if it precedes the verb, as in (31); if
hanija-ri nu-koko-hi kua there is no subject preceding, -kinia is suffixed to the verb, as in (32).
1sg-S trail-by-of 1sg hurt-eL
(31) (R. Rich 1999: 80)
roJi-jo-ko-ho-ta-rikio-wa-oi
kua ke-ja-na kua nikitio-ja kuno pueja-no-ni
sg father-pl-REP 1sg give-coNT that person-sg-I R
'They say my parents are giving me to that man.'
nouns, as in (34a); descriptive adjectves, however, can foJlow the noun, as in (34b). Interrogative words in content questions are usually the first elernent or cliticized
In comoound nouns the modifier i5 usually first, as in (34c) and (35). to the first elernent in the sentence, as in Zaparo (38); in that language, however, inter
rogative particJes in polar questions are always cliticized to the subject, as in
Arabela (R. Rich 1999: 94)
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1 BRAZIL
There are about 170 indigenous languages in Brazil. They belong to about 20 lan
guage famliea and are spoken by approximately 155,000 people (A. D. Rodrigues
1986). Languages from Ihe larger families are discussed elsewhere in this volume
Carib in chapter 2, Arawak in chapter 3, Tup in chapter 4, Tup-Guaran in chapter
5, Macro-Je in chapler 6, Tucano in chapter 7, Pano in chapter 8, Mak in chapter
'9, Nambiquara in chapter 10 and Araw in chapler 11. Languages of the
Chapacura family, Ihe Yanomam dialect cluster, and isolates Trumai, Mura
Piraha, Jabut, Mku and Aikan are spoken exclusively in Brazil. Their typologi
cal properties are briefly discussed here.
1.1 Yanomami
I Special thanks go lo Niidia Pires, rol' providing information on Jabuti, HenI' Ramirez rol'
dala on Yanomami, Hein van der Voort fol' dala on Koaia and Ione Vasconcelos, fOf nfor
mation on Aikan. 13.L2, on Trumai. i8 a condensation, by Ihe authors, of matel'ials
writlen by Raquel Guirardello. We are grateful to Paul Frank, Francisco Queixalos, Terry
Malone,lanel Barnes and Tim Curnow ror commenting on a previous draft of this chapler.