Cavineña language

Where the practical orthography is different from IPA, it is shown between angled brackets:

Examples in the morphology and syntax sections are written in the practical orthography.

Verbs do not show agreement with their arguments, but are inflected for tense, aspect, mood, negation, and aktionsart, among other categories. There are six tense, aspect, or mood affixes:{{sfn|Guillaume|2004}}

The following examples show the remote past and perfective affixes:

{{interlinear|indent=2

|I-ke {{=}}bakwe [e-kwe e-wane{{=}}tsewe] kanajara-kware [e-kwe tujuri{{=}}ju].

|1SG-FM {{=}}CONTR 1SG-GEN 1-wife{{=}}ASSOC rest-REM.PAST 1SG-GEN mosquito.net{{=}}LOC

|'Me, I was resting with my wife in my mosquito net.'}}

{{interlinear|indent=2

|Pakaka-wa {{=}}mi [manga{{=}}ju{{=}}ke].

|fall-PERF {{=}}2SG(-FM) mango.tree{{=}}LOC{{=}}LIG

|'You fell from the mango tree.'}}

Aktionsart suffixes include:

The following examples show the completive and reiterative suffixes:

{{interlinear|indent=2

|Shana-tirya-kware {{=}}tuna [piya{{=}}kwana mariku{{=}}kwana jadya].

|leave-COMP-REM.PAST {{=}}3PL(-ERG) arrow{{=}}PL bag{{=}}PL and

|'(They ran away and) left all their arrows and bags behind.' {{sfn|Guillaume|2004|p=193}}}}

{{interlinear|indent=2

|Peadya tunka mara{{=}}kwana ju-atsu {{=}}tu ekwita kwa-nuka-kware babi{{=}}ra…

|one ten year{{=}}APPROX be-SS {{=}}3SG(-FM) person go-REITR-REM.PAST hunt{{=}}{{gcl|PURP.MOT|purpose of motion}}

|'After about ten years or so, the man went hunting again.' {{sfn|Guillaume|2004|p=198}}}}

Cavineña is the first language in the Amazon for which an antipassive voice has been described.Dixon, R.M.W. & Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald (eds) (1990). The Amazonian Languages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. xxvii

Cavineña has a periodic tense paradigm with four suffixes:

diurnal -chinepe, nocturnal -sisa, auroral -wekaka and vesperal -apuna (Guillaume 2008:126), with cognates in the rest of Tacanan.{{cite journal|author=Guillaume Jacques|year=2023|title=Periodic tense markers in the world’s languages and their sources.|journal=Folia Linguistica |volume=57|issue=3|pages=539–562|doi=10.1515/flin-2023-2013|url=https://shs.hal.science/halshs-04239547}} These markers can be redundantly combined with temporal adverbs:

{{interlinear|abbreviations=NOCT:nocturnal|indent=3

|meta-tu nei ju-sisa-kware.

|at.night-3SG rain be-NOCT-REM.PST

|‘It rained all night long.’}}

Among the verbal suffixes, we also find a celerative -wisha encoding quick speed.{{cite journal|author=Guillaume Jacques|year=2024|title=Celerative: the encoding of speed in verbal morphology.|journal=STUF|volume=77|issue=2|pages=261–282|doi=10.1515/stuf-2024-2006 |url=https://hal.science/hal-04590309v1}}

{{interlinear|abbreviations=CELER:celerative;DUMMY:dummy nominal prefix|indent=3

|Iji-wisha-kwe e-na!

|drink-CELER-IMP:SG DUMMY-water

|‘Drink your water quickly (and let’s go)!’ (Guillaume 2008: 202)}}

There are three subtypes of nouns in Cavineña:{{sfn|Guillaume|2004|pp=71-73}}

1. e-nouns, which are a closed class of about 100 to 150 terms which must take a prefix e-. (The prefix is realised as y- before the vowel a).
2. kinship nouns, which are a small class of about 30 terms which are obligatorily inflected for their possessor.
3. independent nouns, which are an open class of a couple of thousand terms. Independent nouns do not take any e- prefix nor any possessor inflections.

Case marking on noun phrases is shown through a set of clitic postpositions, including the following:

The dative and genitive cases are homophonous.

Pronouns (independent or bound) also show these case distinctions.

The following example{{sfn|Guillaume|2004|p=526}} shows several of the case markers in context:

{{interlinear|indent=2

|I-ke {{=}}bakwe [e-kwe e-wane{{=}}tsewe] kanajara-kware [e-kwe tujuri{{=}}ju].

|1SG-FM {{=}}CONTR 1SG-GEN 1-wife{{=}}ASSOC rest-REM.PAST 1SG-GEN mosquito.net{{=}}LOC

|'Me, I was resting with my wife in my mosquito net.'}}

{{interlinear|indent=2

|Pakaka-wa{{=}}mi [manga{{=}}ju{{=}}ke].

|fall-PERF{{=}}2SG(-FM) mango.tree{{=}}LOC{{=}}LIG

|'You fell from the mango tree.'}}

{{interlinear|indent=2

|Ai{{=}}tu-ke{{=}}mi mare-wa?

|INT{{=}}3SG-FM{{=}}2SG(-ERG) shoot-PERF

|'What did you shoot?'}}

{{sfn|Guillaume|2004|p=599}}

Noun phrases show the order:{{sfn|Guillaume|2004|p=69}}

: (Relative Clause)-(Quantifier)-(Possessor)-Noun-(Adjective)-(Plural marker)-(Relative clause)

The following examples show some of these orders.

{{interlinear|indent=2

|E-marikaka ebari{{=}}kwana

|NPF-cooking:pot big{{=}}PL

|'big cooking pots'}}

{{interlinear|indent=2

|dutya tunaja etawiki{{=}}kwana e-tiru{{=}}ke

|all 3PL:GEN bedding{{=}}PL RES-burn-LIG

|'all their bedding that had burnt'}}

(The clitic {{lang|cav|{{=}}ke}} 'ligature' appears at the end of a relative clause.)

Pronouns in Cavineña can appear in either independent or bound forms. The two kinds of pronouns are pronounced almost exactly the same, but the bound pronouns appear in second position, after the first word of the sentence. Independent pronouns tend to be contrastive, and usually appear first in the sentence.

The following pronouns are found:

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{{sfn|Guillaume|2004|p=597}} notes that the formative suffix -ke (of singular absolutive bound pronouns) and the ergative suffix -ra (in ergative bound pronouns) do not show up when absolutive or ergative pronouns occur last among the second position clitics.

Cavineña has ergative case marking on the subject of a transitive verb.{{sfn|Guillaume|2004|p=527}} For sentences with a non-pronominal subject, this is shown with an ergative case clitic /=ra/:

{{interlinear|indent=2

|Iba{{=}}ra{{=}}tu iye-chine takure.

|jaguar{{=}}ERG{{=}}3SG(-FM) kill-REC.PAST chicken

|'The jaguar killed the chicken.'}}

For a sentence with a pronominal subject, there are distinct ergative and absolutive forms of the pronouns:

{{interlinear|indent=2

|I-ke{{=}}bakwe kwa-kware{{=}}dya{{=}}jutidya.

|1SG(ABS)-FM{{=}}CONTR go-REM{{=}}FOC{{=}}RESTR

|'I just went.'}}

{{interlinear|indent=2

|E-ra{{=}}tu [e-kwe tata-chi] adeba-ya{{=}}ama.

|1SG-ERG{{=}}3SG(-FM) 1SG-GEN father-AFFTN know-IMPFV{{=}}NEG

|'I do not know my father.' {{sfn|Guillaume|2004|p=585}}}}

Verbs do not inflect for the person of the subject or other arguments in the clause. Instead, a set of clitic pronouns occurs in the second position of the clause, as in the following examples:{{sfn|Guillaume|2004|p=595}}

{{interlinear|indent=2

|Tume{{=}}tuna-ja{{=}}tu-ke{{=}}Ø be-ti-wa budari.

|then{{=}}3PL-DAT{{=}}3SG-FM{{=}}1SG(-ERG) bring-go.TEMP-PERF banana

|'I will go and bring bananas for them.'}}

{{interlinear|indent=2

|Kwadisha-ya {{=}}tu-ke {{=}}e-ra {{=}}e-kwe encomienda [e-kwe ata{{=}}ja{{=}}ishu].

|send-IMPFV {{=}}3SG-FM {{=}}1SG-ERG {{=}}1SG-DAT package 1SG-GEN relatives{{=}}GEN{{=}}{{gcl|PURP.GNL|general purpose}}

|'I am sending a package to my relative.'}}

The clitics are ordered so that 3rd person pronouns precede 2nd person pronouns, which precede 1st person pronouns. (Some of the clitic pronouns in these examples have a formative element /-ke/ after them and some do not.)

{{reflist|20em}}

• {{cite journal |last1=Camp |first1=Elizabeth L. |title=Split Ergativity in Cavineña |journal=International Journal of American Linguistics |date=January 1985 |volume=51 |issue=1 |pages=38–58 |doi=10.1086/465859}}
• Camp, Elizabeth, L. and Millicent R. Liccardi. 1978. Necabahuityatira Isaraisara Huenehuene. (Aprendamos a Leer y Escribir), Cochabamba: Instituto Lingüístico de Verano. (Revised edition.)
• {{cite thesis

|last=Guillaume |first=Antoine

|year=2004

|title=A grammar of Cavineña

|degree=Ph.D. thesis

|publisher=La Trobe University

|url=https://edisciplinas.usp.br/pluginfile.php/4415432/mod_folder/content/0/Mouton%20Grammar%20Library/MGL%2044%20Guillaume.%20A%20Grammar%20of%20Cavine%C3%B1a%20%28Tacanan%2C%20Bol%C3%ADvia%29.pdf

}}

• [http://www.ru.nl/lenguasdebolivia/ Lenguas de Bolivia] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190904080403/http://www.ru.nl/lenguasdebolivia/ |date=2019-09-04 }} (online edition)
• [https://ids.clld.org/contributions/273 Cavineña] (Intercontinental Dictionary Series)

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Category:Languages of Bolivia

Category:Tacanan languages

Category:Endangered indigenous languages of the Americas