Khoisan influence in Yeyi - PowerPoint Presentation

Slide1

Khoisan influence in Yeyi

Bantu 8 conference - 2/3/4 June 2021 - University of Essex - Hilde Gunnink

department of languages and cultures

african languages and cultures

yeyi

Yeyi (R41, Botswana/Namibia)

genetic affiliation within Bantu unclear

Bantu Botatwe? (

≈ zone M/K in Zambia)

Luyi? (K30, western Zambia)

Wambo/Herero? (R20/30, Namibia)

ongoing contact with Khoisan

extensive Khoisan influence

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Yeyi

Yeyi

Khoisan influence in Yeyiphonology:

12 clicks (Namibian Yeyi) -

22 clicks (Botswana Yeyi)

ejectives, aspirated plosives, voiced plosives > non-native, but source language uncertain

lexicon:

loanwords from

Khoe & Ju

morphology:verbalizing prefixes

i- and ra-derivational suffixes -kawo causative,

-am applicative, -kunu reciprocal, -sini neuter

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verbal prefixes i-/ra-

“Semantically empty” verbal prefixes i-/ra-

lexically determined: +- 20 ~ 25% of verbs take the prefix

interchangeable: i-bu

~ ra-bu ‘bark’,

i-khwe ~ ra-khwe

‘encourage’

verbs with

i-/ra- have a deviant phonological formCVCV roots instead of

CVCi-/ra-doho ‘put more firewood on the fire’,

i-/ra-ɡ!umu ‘shave, cut hair’ diphthongsi-/ra-ɡau ‘wear something on the shoulder

’

frequent clicks (60% vs. +- 10 ~ 15% in general lexicon) & other foreign phonemes

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verbal prefixes i-/ra-

verbs with i-/ra- have

deviant morphological behaviourno final vowel

-aseparate derivational suffixes

many reduplicated verbs that do not mark a frequentative:

i-ǁauǁau ‘prepare’,

i-tʃamutʃamu

‘investigate’,

i-nǀumunǀumu ‘germinate, have new leaves’

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verbal prefixes i-/ra-

One third of verbs with i-/ra-

have an etymology in a Khoisan languageKhoe

Yeyi i-ǁaa ‘crave’ <

Gǀui ǁa᷇ã ‘

crave’Yeyi

i-

/ra-tweli

‘become weak’ < Ts’ixa tʼēré ‘be lazy, weak’ Yeyi

i-nɡǃu ‘become drunk; become annoying’ < Naro nǂùū ‘dizzy, not know what is happening, be half drunk’

Yeyi ra-ǀo ‘carry on the shoulder’ < Khwe ǀoɛ́ ‘carry on the shoulder (bag, quiver)’

Ju

Yeyi

ra-n!i /

í-nǃ’ì

‘

prevent,

stop’ < Ju

ǀ’hoan

!

’áí

‘stop, prevent’

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verbal prefixes i-/ra-

One third of verbs with i-/ra-

have an etymology in a Khoisan languageKhoe

Khwe: 28 wordsGǀui: 17 words

Ts’ixa: 13 words

Kua: 13 wordsNaro: 12 words

Tsua: 4 words

Gǁana: 1 word

JuJuǀ’hoan: 16 words

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verbal prefixes i-/ra-

i- and

ra- function as verbalizers:

mu-pofo

‘blind person’ > i-/ra-pofo ‘become blind’

mu-ǀ

h

amu

‘urine’ > i-/ra-ǀhamu ‘urinate’

li-nǁee ‘story’ > ra-nǁee ‘tell’

Affixes signaling part-of-speech membership are often used on borrowed verbs crosslinguistically (Wichmann and Wohlgemuth 2008)

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verbal prefixes i-/ra-

i- and

ra- grammaticalized from a Khoe “juncture verb construction”:

verb + juncture suffix + verb

Khwe (Khoe, Namibia/Botswana)

xàmá kyã́ĩ-

a

ǁám̀àtèhe be_nice-

JUNCT feel‘He feels well.’

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verbal prefixes i-/ra-

i- and

ra- grammaticalized from a Khoe “juncture verb construction”:

verb + juncture suffix + verb

hĩ

‘do’ + juncture suffix + verb > prefix i-

cf. Proto-Khoe *

hĩ

‘do/make’, Khwe

hĩí ‘do’, Ts’ixa hĩĩ̀ ‘do’, Gǀui

hı́ı̃ ‘do’, etc11

verbal prefixes i-/ra-

i- and

ra- grammaticalized from a Khoe “juncture verb construction”:

verb + juncture suffix + verb

hĩ

‘do’ + juncture suffix -ra + verb > prefix

ra-

cf.

-ra juncture suffix in Khwe, Naro, G|ui, Cara, Kua, Proto-Khoe *

ra or *na juncture suffix

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verbal derivational suffixes

Four verbal derivational suffixes of Khoe origin:

causative -kawo“applicative”

-amreciprocal

-kununeuter -sini

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causative

Causative -kawo

interchangeable with causative -is

i-/ra-ɡ!umu-kawo ~ i-/ra-ɡ!um-is-a

‘cause to shave’less productive than causative

-is: only used with

verbs with

i-/ra-

causative stacking:man-is-a

‘finish, bring to an end’ man-is-a-kawo ‘help or cause to finish

’Khoe origin: Gǀui/ǂHaba/Naro/Ts’ixa/Danisi/Deti/Kua/Tsua -kaxu, Cara/ǀXaise -

kahu

, Proto-Kalahari-Khoe *-

ka(xu)

‘causative’

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reciprocal

Reciprocal -kunu

not in Namibian Yeyionly with verbs with

i-/ra-i-tʃ

hutʃ

hu ‘hurt’

i-tʃ

h

utʃhu-kunu

‘hurt each other’*mwanakunu ‘see each other’

more productive native reciprocal strategies:suffix -an: mwan-an-a ‘see each other’prefix

li-

:

li-lindira

‘wait for each other’

Khoe origin

:

-ku

‘reciprocal’

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neuter

Neuter -sini

not in Namibian Yeyionly with verbs with

i-/ra-i-ɡ!u

‘lack, be in need of something’

i-ɡ!u-sini

‘be necessary’

more productive neuter suffixes:-ik: vundj-ik-a ‘be broken’,

mwen-ik-a ‘be visible’-ahar (< Lozi -ahal

): mwan-ahar-a ‘be visible’Khoe origin: -ci/-can/-han/-si/-se/-sin/-hi ‘reflexive, stative, detransitiviving’

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applicative

“Applicative” -am

only with verbs with i-/ra-

combines with applicative of Bantu origin -in

optionally in Botswana Yeyi: i-!awa-am-a ~ i-!awa-am-in-a

‘try for, at’

obligatorily in Namibian Yeyi:

i-/ra-ɡǀin-am-in-a

‘build for’possible Bantu origin: *am

‘positional’, BUTpositional typically decreases valency, applicative -am increases valency

possible Khoe origin: -ma ‘benefactive’, BUT-ma > -am due to metathesis?

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discussion

Phonological Khoisan influence in Yeyi paralleled in morphologyMorphological influence comes from Khoe, Ju loanwords in Yeyi nonetheless attested

Khoe morphological borrowings facilitated by structural similarities?

More Khoe influence in Botswana Yeyi than Namibian Yeyi

More intensive contact in Botswana than Namibia?

Due to more limited lexical documentation of Namibian Yeyi?

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