Person marking in Sahaptin.
(sample presentation)
Organization
• Background
– Historical affiliation
– Phoneme inventories
– Morphological overview
• Person marking
LING 481 slides by Sharon Hargus
Genetic affiliation
Plateau Penutian
Proto-Sahaptian Klamath-Modoc
Sahaptin
Nez Perce Klamath Modoc Molala
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Plateau
linguistic
area
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Sahaptin dialects
Rigsby, Bruce, and Noel Rude. 1996. 'Sketch of Sahaptin, a Sahaptian Language.' In Languages, ed.
LING 481 slides
by Sharon Hargus
by Ives Goddard. Washington DC: Smithsonian
Institution.
666-692.
Sahaptin consonants
labial
stops
alveolar
p p’ t t’
affricates
ts ts’
lateral
tɬ tɬ’
fricatives
s
lateral
ɬ
nasals
lateral
glides
palata
l
m
velar
labio-velar uvular
labio-uvular glottal
k k’ kw kw’
q q’
qw qw’
ʔ
x
χ
χw
h
ʧ ʧ’
ʃ
xw
n
l
j
w
LING 481 slides by Sharon Hargus
Stress contrasts
[jXa]
'beaver'
[wXa]
'foot'
[pamta]
‘toad’
[pamta]
[akak]
‘nephew!’ (woman's brother's
child)
'goose'
[kak]
'your maternal uncle'
LING 481 slides by Sharon Hargus
Linguist-designed orthography
• Phonetically transparent
– ʧ <ch>
– ʃ <sh>
– j <y>
– q <k>
– χ <x>
– ʔ <’>
– stress transcribed with acute accent
LING 481 slides by Sharon Hargus
Vowel system
high
low
front
central
back
i ii
ɨ
u uu
a aa
[a] = mid central unrounded vowel ([ʌ] ~ [ə]): [pláʃ] ‘white’
[ii] (etc.) = [i:] = long high front unrounded vowel
LING 481 slides by Sharon Hargus
Affixation
number marking, “animate” nouns
singular
p'úus
spílya
áyat
dual
p'úusin
spílyayin
áyatin
plural
p'úusma 'cat'
spílyama 'coyote'
áyatma ‘women’
LING 481 slides by Sharon Hargus
Category-changing morphology
• -i: ]{N,Adj}___]V
• tákmaaɬ ‘hat’
– tákmaaɬi ‘wear, put on a hat’
• átaw ‘valuable, favored, important’
– átawi ‘like, love, value’
LING 481 slides by Sharon Hargus
Case suffixes
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Reduplication
number marking for “inanimate” nouns
singular
t'píip
shp’áw
tk’ú
plural
t’píipt’piip
shp’áwshp’aw
tk’útk’u
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'wingdress'
'ball'
'cattail'
Consonant symbolism
bigger
n
sh
tímash
myánash
anamáal
smaller
l
s
‘book’
tímas
‘child’
myálas
‘for a while’ alamáal
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‘paper’
‘infant’
‘for a short while’
Compounding
• “not so common in Sahaptin as in Nez Perce” Rigsby
and Rude 1996
• Nch’i wána
cf. nch’í wána
big river
• chmuk táatpas
black shirt
• yalmílk
myánash
haphazard child
‘Columbia R.’
‘(a) big river’
‘Catholic, priest’
‘illegitimate child’
LING 481 slides by Sharon Hargus
Person marking in Sahaptin
• 1st, 2nd person: clitics
• 3rd person
– affixes
– direct vs. inverse construction
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A verb paradigm
anáwi- 'be hungry'
-sha
imperfective
1sg
anáwishaash
'I'm hungry'
2sg
anáwishaam
'you're hungry'
3sg
i'anáwisha
'he/she is hungry'
1.incl
anáwishana
'we 2 are hungry'
1.excl
anáwishatash
'we are hungry'
2pl
anáwishapam
'you (folks) are hungry'
3pl
pa'anáwisha
'they're hungry'
LING 481 slides by Sharon Hargus
Clitics vs. affixes
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
i3SG.SUB
pa3PL.SUB
=nash, Vsh 1SG
=na
1PL.INC
=natash, tash1PL.EXC
=pam
2PL
=nam, Vm 2SG
=mash
2.OBJ.SG
=matash
2.OBJ
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3rd person number affixes
• I-’anáwi-sha.
‘He/she is hungry.’
3sg.SUB-be.hungry-IPFV
• Agree with pronouns
– Pínk i’anáwisha.
– Pmák pa’anáwisha.
‘He/she is hungry.’
‘They are hungry.’
– *Pínk anáwisha.
‘He/she is hungry.’
• Obligatory affixation
LING 481 slides by Sharon Hargus
1st/2nd person number clitics
• Anáwi-sha=tash.
be.hungry-IPFV=1PL.EXCL
‘We’re hungry.’
• Agree with pronouns
– Namák=tash
anáwi-sha. ‘We (excl.) are hungry.’
1PL=1PL.EXCL be.hungry-IPFV
– Ímk=nam anáwi-sha.
2SG=2SG be.hungry-IPFV
• Obligatory cliticization
– *Namák anáwisha.
‘You’re hungry.’
‘We’re hungry.’
LING 481 slides by Sharon Hargus
Properties of Sahaptin 2P clitics
• Expected properties of clitics
– freedom of host selection
– less prosodic integration
– do not trigger alternations
– no idiosyncratic meanings
– no arbitrary gaps
• Unexpected properties
– 1s and 2s alternations
LING 481 slides by Sharon Hargus
Freedom of host selection
 =nam/am 2SG
• i- 3SG.SUB
– Shaláwi-sha=am.
be.tired-IPFV=2SG
‘You’re tired.’
– Áw=nam shaláwi-sha.
now=2SG be.tired-IPFV
‘You’re tired now.’
– Mísh=nam
shaláwi-sha-’?
yes/noQ=2SG be.tired-IPFV-yes/noQ
‘Are you tired?’
– I-shaláwi-sha.
3sS-be.tired-IPFV
‘He/she is tired.’
– Áw i-shaláwi-sha.
now 3sS-be.tired-IPFV
‘Now he/she is tired.’
– Mish
i-shaláwi-sha-’?
yes/noQ 3sS-be.tired-IPFVyes/noQ
‘Is he/she tired?’
LING 481 slides by Sharon Hargus
Prosodic integration
• Some affixes shift stress off root
– Spiljáj ‘Coyote’
– -nmí genitive: Spiljajnmí ‘of Coyote’
• Clitics never cause stress to shift
LING 481 slides by Sharon Hargus
Semantic idiosyncracy
• Affix-base: some idiosyncracy
– wána ‘river, flow’
– -á agent
– wanaá ‘Sahaptin person from Celilo, Goldendale and
neighboring area’ (post-contact name for people who
refused to move to the Reservations, continuing to
live on the Columbia R., Boyd 1996)
• Clitic-host: no idiosyncratic meanings
–
–
–
–
But -pam ‘people’, cf. =pam 2pl
wánapam ‘Sahaptin people from Priest Rapids area’
xwáxway ‘bluejay’
Xwáxwaypam ‘Klickitat people’
LING 481 slides by Sharon Hargus
Idiosyncratic alternations triggered
• Some affixes require special bases
– pt’íniks ‘girl’
– pt’ilíin ‘2 girls’
– pt’ilíma ‘girls’
– áswan ‘boy’
– amíisin ‘2 boys’
– amíisma ‘boys’
• No clitics require special bases
LING 481 slides by Sharon Hargus
Idiosyncratic alternations
undergone
 Affixes with lexically specific variants
 accusative suffix –nan
 myánash ‘child’
 myánashnan ‘child’ (acc.)
 –aan with some lexical items
 pt’íniks ‘girl’
 pt’íniksaan ‘girl’ (acc.)
 -pa with kin terms
 káɬa ‘maternal grandmother’
 káɬapa ‘maternal grandmother’ (acc.)
LING 481 slides by Sharon Hargus
Idiosyncratic alternations
undergone
 Two clitics have special forms
1SG =Vsh after V, =nash after C
kúshxi ‘similarly’
kúshxiish ‘similarly I...’
áw ‘now’
áwnash ... ‘now I...’
2SG =Vm after V, =nam after C
kúshxi ‘similarly’
kúshxiim ‘similarly you...’
áw ‘now’
áwnam ... ‘now you...’
LING 481 slides by Sharon Hargus
Direct vs. inverse
• direct
• inverse
Umatilla Sahaptin
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Sg. vs. pl. inverse forms
• Sg. subject
Iwínsh i-k'ínu-na twít'ash
man
ku pá-'itɬ'yawy-a.
3s-saw-PST grizzly.bear and INV-kill-PST
'The man saw a grizzly bear and it killed him.'
• Pl. subject
Iwínsh i-k'ínu-na twít'ash-in-aman ku=pat
man
áw-itɬ'yawy-a.
3s-saw-PST grizzly.bear-DU-ACC and=3.INV ABS-kill-PST
'The man saw 2 grizzly bears and they killed him.'
Yakima Sahaptin
LING 481 slides by Sharon Hargus
Inverse vs. direct construction
• A. object is
topic
• B., C. subject
is topic
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Sahaptin summary
• Word formation types
– Affixation
– Compounding
– Reduplication
– Consonant symbolism
• Person-number marking
– 1st, 2nd person clitics
– 3rd person affixes
– unusual direct vs. inverse prefixes
LING 481 slides by Sharon Hargus