Kulina | |
---|---|
Native to | Brazil, Perú |
Region | Acre, Amazonas, Purus River, Envira River, Juruá River, Ucayali |
Ethnicity | Kulina |
Native speakers | 5,900 (2014) |
Arawan
| |
Latin | |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | cul |
Note to Professor Kalin and others: underlined portions are taken from the existing Kulina language page, which was sparse (lead , history, classification, and phoneme charts).
My contributions are the non-underlined portions. I plan to replace the existing phoneme charts with my own, so the ones reflected here are my own. < > mark existing sentences that I deleted. I also plan to replace the info box with my info box (it's more complete).
Kulina (also Kulína, Kulyna, Culina, Curina, Corina, Korina, Culina-Madijá, Madijá, Madija, Madiha, Madihá) is an Arawan language of Brazil and Peru spoken by about 5,9000 Kulina people. [1]< > Kulina is classified as a 'threatened' language with a status of '6b'–this means that the Kulina still use the language for face-to-face communication across all age groups, but it is losing users.[2] A number of Kulina know how to read and write in Kulina, but not in Portuguese, so most are therefore functionally illiterate.[1] There are seven known villages that speak Kulina in Brazil and another seven villages in Peru. Most of these villages are situated on or near rivers because the traditional Kulina village economy is based on fishing, hunting, and slash-and-burn agriculture.[1]
Phonology
editVowels
editKulina has four main vowel phonemes /a/, /e/, /i/, and /o/. Kulina has a mixture of front, central, back, high, mid, and low vowels. The following table shows these in IPA. The /o/ vowel's pronunciation varies between [u̜] and [o̜]. Vowels in Kulina are often nasalised in word-final position after /h/.[1]: 19
Front | Central | Back | |
---|---|---|---|
High | i [i] | ||
Mid | e [ɛ] | o [u̜ or o̜] | |
Low | a [a] |
Kulina has six phonetic diphthongs, [ai̯], [ɛi̯], [oi̯], [au̯], [ɛu̯], and [iu̯].[1]: 20
An [a] sound can also range to a [ɨ] sound. The [u] vowel sound only appears in diphthongs.[1]
Consonants
editKulina has sixteen consonant phonemes. They are shown in the table below alongside their form in IPA in brackets.
Labial | Dental | Alveolar | Velar | Glottal | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Plosive | voiced | b | d [ d̪ ] | |||
voiceless | p | t [ t̪ ] | k | |||
aspirated | ph [pʰ] | th [ t̪ʰ ] | kh [kʰ] | |||
Fricative | h | |||||
Affricate | voiced | z [d͡z] | ||||
voiceless | s [t͡s] | |||||
aspirated | sh [t͡sʰ] | |||||
Nasal | m | n | ||||
Rhotic | r [ɾ] | |||||
Approximant | w [β̞] |
Consonants sounds /pʰ, t̪, d͡z, t͡s, t͡sʰ, ɾ, β~w/ may also be pronounced as /ɸ~f, t͡ʃ, z~ɟ, s, sʰ~ʃ, l, v/.[citation needed]
Syllable Structure
editKulina uses a (C)V(V) syllable structure. The last vowel slot is either empty or filled with /i/ or /o/, while the middle vowel slot can be any of the four vowel phonemes so long as the two vowels are distinct. The consonant slot also has the option of being empty if it is not filled by any of the sixteen consonant phonemes. The only consonant-vowel combination that is strictly prohibited is /w/ occurring before /o/. All other combinations are attested. The CV-syllables are the most common type and can be in any part of a morpheme. V-syllables usually occur in morpheme-initial position. CVV-syllables are less common and only occur in morpheme-final position. The following table shows where different syllable structures are likely to occur.[1]: 27
V | CV | CVV | |
---|---|---|---|
morpheme-initial | common | common | never |
morpheme-internal | rare | common | never |
morpheme-final | rare | common | rare |
Examples:
- 'amonehe' → 'a-mo-ne-he' (V-CV-CV-CV)
- We see V, and CV syllables here in morpheme-initial, and morpheme-internal/final positions, respectively.
- 'imai' → 'i-mai' (V-CVV)
- We see V and CVV syllables here, in morpheme-initial, and morpheme-final positions, respectively. Note that CVV is only allowed because the second vowel slot is filled with /i/ (the second vowel slot must be filled with either /i/ or /o/).
In Kulina, nouns and adjectives always have at least two syllables. While verbs can be monosyllabic, if a verb is inflecting it usually has at least one affix and is thus polysyllabic.[1]: 46
Stress
editKulina has predictable stress, where the primary stress usually falls on the last syllable. In the following examples, the start of the stressed syllable is indicated by an apostrophe and the syllable is bolded.[1]: 28
Examples:[1]: 28
botani
ima
[bota'ni]
[i'ma]
'stingray'
'story'
shikata [tshika'ta] 'sour'
Morphology
editVerbal Morphology
editAffixation
editKulina has both verbal prefixes and suffixes. If there are two or more affixes on a verb, they will occur in a predictable order. Many Kulina suffixes have a masculine and feminine form.
Example:[1]: 38
withi-za-hari
sit-in-NAR.m
'He is sitting inside (a hut).'
In this example, 'withi' is the root morpheme, meaning 'sit.' The second morpheme, 'za,' is a directional suffix and is a directional preposition to show sitting 'in' something. The final morpheme 'hari' is a suffix that indicates that the narrative (NAR) is that of a male. If the statement were about a woman sitting in the hut, the female version of the suffix, 'haro,' would be used instead.[1]
Example:
marasia
watermelon
mitha
buy
ti-na-zati=ko
2-AUX-IPAST=Q.m
‘Have you bought the watermelon now?’
In this example, -zati is a past tense verbal suffix that indicates the recent past. There are two other past tense verbal suffixes: -pa and -de, that indicate the hodiernal past and prehodiernal past, respectively.
Reduplication
editIn Kulina, partial stem reduplication of the final syllable of the verb stem can occur to express the dual of the direct object, only when the verb stem has at least two syllables. When the verb stem has only one syllable, the stem vowel is triplicated to indicate the object dual.[1]: 106
Examples:[1]: 106
takara
chicken
dama-ma
grab-DL
o-na-na
1SG-AUX-IFUT
'I'm going to grab two chickens.'
zomahi
jaguar
ehedeni
child
kha-aa
bite.dead-DL
i-na-i
3-AUX-DECL.m
'The jaguar killed two children.'
Some verbs in Kulina have suppletive stems. If the verb is intransitive, the stem indicates the subject number, otherwise it indicates the direct object number. These verbs with suppletive stems are called suppletive verbs and have different forms for singular and non-singular usage. In some cases there is a third form for the dual. In summary, there are different forms of the verb to indicate if the subject is singular or non-singular (for transitive verbs). The table below lists the transitive verbs in Kulina that have suppletive stems.[1]: 133
Singular | Dual | Plural | |
---|---|---|---|
'run, flee' | hopha na- | zaha- | domo kha- |
'move' | kha- | hawi ha- | |
'lie on the ground' | pona- | koda- | domo pona- |
'fall' | shona- | katoha- | |
'be born' | shona- | katoha- | |
'stand' | wa- | ba- | domo wa- |
'sleep' | wada- | ka(h)adiha- | |
'sit on the ground' | witha- | hashi na- | hashi na- |
'die' | zokhe- | pamahona- | hika- |
Subject Person Agreement
editKulina distinguishes four persons: first person singular, first person non-singular, second person, and third person. The following table summarizes the prefixes used to distinguish between the four persons.
Intransitive
verbs |
Transitive verbs
(gender agreement with A) |
Transitive verbs
(gender agreement with O) | |
---|---|---|---|
first singular | o- | o- | o- |
first non-singular | i- | i- | i- |
second | ti- | ti- | ti- |
third | Ø- | Ø- | i- |
Noun Class Agreement
editThe noun class prefix ka- cross-references on the verb for some Kulina nouns. If ka- is preceded by another prefix, it becomes wa-. While some verbs in Kulina can drop their initial vowel to take a prefix, if the verb is taking the prefix ka-, an epenthetic /k/ is inserted after ka- and before the initial vowel, which is then preserved.[1]: 107
Example:[1]: 107
parato
parato
plate
namiza
nami=za
ground=LOC
owakibana
o-ka-k-iba-na
1SG-NCL-EPENTH-put-IFUT
'I'm going to put the plate on the ground.'
Gender Agreement
editIntransitive verbs in Kulina always agree with the gender of their subject while transitive verbs can agree with the gender of either the subject or the direct object, following a set of complex rules. If a verb has a suffix that does not have distinct feminine and masculine forms, it will not indicate gender.[1]: 108
Examples:[1]: 108
makhidehe
man
Ø-zokhe-i
3-die-DECL.m
'The man died.'
amonehe
woman
Ø-zokhe-ni
3-die-DECL.f
'The woman died.'
Nominal Morphology
editReduplication
editKulina makes use of reduplication to derive agent nouns from verbs. The first syllable of the verb is reduplicated and the suffix -de is added. Below are a few examples.
verb | translation | noun | translation |
---|---|---|---|
ho | 'blow (wind)' | ho-ho-de | 'wind' |
maiza | 'lie' | ma-maiza-de | 'liar' |
Gender Agreement
editKulina has gender marking on most possessed nouns. The feminine forms are marked with the suffix -ni at the base of the noun. Forming the masculine forms is more complex. If the noun ends in -ri, the noun is not gender-marked. If the noun does not end in -ri, there are two ways to mark masculine gender. The first is too use the suffix -ne and the second is to raise the stem-final /a/ to /e/. This information is summarized in the table below.
stem ends in /a/ | stem does not end in /a/ | ||
---|---|---|---|
possessed nouns not
ending in -ri |
primary
derived |
raising of final /a/ to /e/
suffix -ne and raising of final /a/ to /e/ |
no overt marking
suffix -ne |
possessed nouns
ending in -ri |
no overt marking | no overt marking |
Syntax
editWord Order
editKulina has a basic constituent order of SOV, and SV when there is no direct object. Below are two examples of this word order.[1]: 79
S
o-kha
1SG-ASS
amonehe
woman
O
hihipa
food
V
hia
make.warm
imai
3-AUX-UP-DECL.m
'My wife is reheating the food.'
S
makhidehe
man
O
poroko
pig
V
ethe
raise
to-ha-i
3-AUX-DECL.m
'The man raises pigs.'
References
edit