The Ergative in Proto-Australian

LINCOM EUROPA LINCOM STUDIES IN AUSTRALIAN LANGUAGES

The Ergative in Proto-Australian

in this series

0 I KRISTINA SANDS

The Ergative in Proto-Australian

Kristina Sands

forthcoming

LJNCOM Studies in Australian Languages 01 02

HEATER

B.

KING

The Declarative Intonation of Dyirbal. An Acoustic Analysis .

ed. by R.M. W. Dixon

1996

LINCOM EUROPA Miinchen - Newcastle

Published by LINCOM EUROPA , Miinchen, Newcastle, 1996.

CONTENTS

All correspondence concerning LINCOM Studies in Australian Languages should be addressed to:

1. Introduction .......................... . . . ...... . ....... . 1.1. The ergative in Australia .. . .... . ... . . .............. . · . · . ... . 1.2. The purpose of this paper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . • . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . · . . . . . 2

LINCOM Germany.

2. Dixon's reconstruction . .. . . . . . . ..... . .. . ....... . .. . . . .... 6

EUROPA,

P.O.

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University , A. DENCH University of Western Australia, K.L. HALE MIT, F. MERLAN University of Sydney, B. RlGSBY University of Queensland. All rights reserved, including the rights of translation into any foreign language. No part of this book may be reproduced in any way without the permission of the publisher.

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3. Revised Pama-Nyungan reconstruction .... . ........ · · · · . · · · 3.1. -l)gu on disyllables ... . ........ . ......... . ....... · · · · · · · · · 3.2. *- lu for non-common nouns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . • . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.3. Reconstruction of *-DHu ....... . ..... . ... . ............ . .. · · 3.4. The problem of -Ru . . ..........•... . ... . . . ..... . ...... . ...

· 8 · 8 12 25 35

4. Pama-Nyungan summary . .. . ......... . .................. · 38 5. Non-Pama-Nyungan languages . . ..... . ....... . . . ..... .. · · · 5.1. Nominal ergative suffixes .. . ....... . . . . . ... .. .. . ....... . · · · · 5.2. Comparison with Pama-Nyungan .. . .•....... . ...... · .... · · · · · 5 .3. Other forms of the ergative .... . .......... . .. . . . ... · . . · · · · · · · 5.4. Non-Pama-Nyungan summary: nominal ergative . . . .. ........ . .. . ..

40 40 44

47 49

6. Ergative in the pronouns ...... . .... .. ....... . .. .. . . ... · · · 50 7. Conclusion . . ..... . ... . .. . ................ · · · · · · · · · · · · · 66 Appendix A: References for specific languages ....... . ... . · · · · · 68 Die Deutsche Bibliothek - CJP-Einheitsaufnahme

Sands, Kristina: The ergative in Proto-Australian I Kristina Sands . - MOnchen [i.e.) Unterschleissheim ; Newcastle: LINCOM Europa, 1996. (LINCOM studies in Australian languages; 01) ISBN 3-89586-053-0 NE:GT

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Printed on chlorine-free paper

Appendix B: Subgrouping .. . . . . .... .. ... .. .... . .... . · .. . · · · 72 Appendix C: Language locations ...... .. ......... . .......... · 74 Bibliography ............ . ........ ... . . · · . · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 77

1.

Introduction

1.1. The ergative in Australia The ergative is the case that is used for the subject (A) of a transitive verb. In Australia it is very common for the Aboriginal languages to have an ergative case suffix (which is opposed usually to an absolutive case for the patient of a transitive verb (0) and the subject of an intransitive verb (S)) though very often the san1e suffix may also cover other functions, most notably the instrumental function. Almost all Pama-Nyungan languages I have an obligatory ergative suffix that marks the A of a transitive verb and very often this also covers the instrumental function. The non-Pama-Nyungan languages2 are less consistent in having an ergative case suffix as these languages have a system of pronominal cross-referencing that makes core case marking redundant, although there are still many non-Pama-Nyungan languages that do have an ergative case suffix. The ergative case suffixes in Australian languages (notably Pama-Nyungan languages) show many similarities of form as was first noted by Capell ( 1956:63-65) who put forward for his Common Australian an 'operative' (covering both A and the instrumental) case suffix -lu which he notes is almost universal except for in the prefixing languages (i.e. the non -PamaNyungan languages). This is not a strict reconstruction of the ergative in proto-Australian but it does take into account the fact that a form -/11 is very common and recurs over the whole PamaNyungan area. In this same publication Capell puts forward for Common Australian a locative

-ryga but fails to note that the ergative and locative actually share parallel allomorphy and in fact -l)gu is also very common for the ergative, as is -Ia for the locative. The common ergative suffix

·!J811 is, however, noted by Hale (1976) who attempts to account for this form and the fact that it often appears only on disyllabic nouns. He postulates an early addition of final lJ to vowel final disyllables and a later loss of this in a language ancestral to those with · !)gil following disyllables (see §2 for a fuller discussion on this). Further early di scussions on the ergative include Hale ( 1970) where a theory of proto-Australian accusative syntax is put forward with

1 Pama-Nyungan languages make up the majority of the continent and are for the most part typologically and morphologically similar. Most of them are also termed 'non-prefixing' languages and mark the major functions with case suffixes to the nominal. The Pama-Nyungan languages are held by some to form a subgroup within the Australian language family. 2 The non-Pama-Nyungan languages occupy about 10% of Australia in the northern part of the Northern Territory and Western Australia. They share the typological similarity of being 'prefixing' and in most languages there are prefixes to cross-referenceS, A and 0 on the verb. The non-Pama-Nyungan languages make up several small subgroups.

2

3

the ergative derived from the passive construction, Blake ( 1976) who further discusses Hale, Dixon ed. ( 1976) where papers on the ergative, instrumental and locative are presented for several languages, and Blake (1977: 13-34) where aspects of distribution are discussed. Dixon (1980:311-321) was the first person to put forward a rigorous reconstruction of the

the regularity of sound change. Where sound changes in the ergative allomorphs can be seen to conform to more regular sound changes in the language this is pointed out. However, in dealing with morphological reconstruction there are many more factors that must be considered and simple regular sound change is not the only method of language change. Analogical change

ergative case suffix in what he calls proto-Australian. In fact Dixon took into account PamaNyungan languages only. This reconstruction is based on some of the more well known

(as outlined in Koch forthcoming) is one very important factor where one form in the language becomes more like another form with which it has some kind of association. In terms of allomorphs of case suffixes this might mean that different allomorphs which were originally

languages of the time and shows a strong Western bias in the forms reconstructed. Furthermore, his reconstruction does not account for the ergative in many Pama-Nyungan languages and accounts for none of the non-Pama-Nyungan languages. Since that time, noone has attempted a further reconstruction or revision of the original reconstruction for either protoAustralian or proto-Pama-Nyungan and Dixon's reconstruction has been assumed (generally as a reconstruction for Pama-Nyungan only) in further works. These include Blake ( 1988) who

morphologically conditioned might merge, with one form taking over from another. With this sort of levelling, allomorphs may be lost in individual languages. Therefore, as stated in Arlotta (1972: 143) "in seeking the oldest stages we pay special attention to those forms that appear anomalous and could not possibly be the result of analogy." This is a very important point in the reconstruction of the ergative allomorphs and forms which are phonologically conditioned may be the result of analogy or regular sound change while forms which are morphologically

attempts to find reflexes of the Pama-Nyungan ergative (as well as the locative with parallel allomorphy) in non-Pama-Nyungan languages and thus show that the ergative is older than Pama-Nyungan, and Evans (1988) who takes the opposite position and posits that the PamaNyungan ergative and locative are innovations.

conditioned or irregular are more likely to retain ancient condilionings. Another factor about morphological reconstruction is that the sound changes are not always regular and different sound shifts may occur to those in the vocabulary as well as in different

1.2. Purpose of this paper

morphological forms. For example, in Australian languages it is quite common for final u on the singular pronouns (originally part of the ergative suffix) to shift to a though a similar change

There are two things which I attempt to do in this paper. Firstly, I discuss the Pama-Nyungan allomorphs of the ergative and propose a reconstruction that differs from that put forward by

does not occur in the vocabulary nor on the ergative case suffix on nominals -Cu . The explanation given by Dixon ( 1980:345) is that in the pronouns there is replacement of the marked vowel by the unmarked vowel but a similar change does not occur on the nominal

Dixon. Secondly I compare the non-Pama-Nyungan languages which have an ergative suffix with the Pama-Nyungan languages and propose an ergative suffix for proto-Australian. In carrying out the reconstructions I have initially made two assumptions. The first is that all languages in Australia are related and stem from a single proto-language. There is therefore some basis for attempting to relate the ergative case suffixes in the various languages. The second is that the Pama-Nyungan languages form a genetic subgroup. Although this is a controversial topic in Australian linguistics the ergative data tends to support the theory of Pama-Nyungan as a subgroup as two ergative allomorphs are found exclusively in PamaNyungan languages (i.e. -I]gu (§3 . 1) and -l11 (§3.2)).3 I use the Pama-Nyungan subgroup as redefined in Blake (1988 :38-40) as including Yanyuwa (Yanyula) and excluding the Tangkic languages. Garawa and Waanyi are of mixed Pama-Nyungan type and are included within the Pama-Nyungan group. ln reconstructing the allomorphs of the ergative 1 have used as a basis the comparative method (as outlined for example in textbooks as Arlotto (1972) and Anttila (1989)) and assume

3 This claim, that -I]g ll and -l11 are Pama-Nyungan innovations, is also made in Evans ( 1988:94).

ergative because this would result in a merger of the ergative and locative case suffixes. A synchronic example of different phonological rules applying to grammatical morphemes and the vocabulary can be found in the Dhuwal dialects of eastern Arnhem Land. Morphy ( 1983) describes for Djapu a rule of final vowel deletion in the grammatical morphemes: case and verbal inflections, derivational affixes, pronouns and demonstratives. A final vowel in any of these grammatical morphemes is deleted if the word is more than two syllables in length and if the vowel is preceded by only one consonant. This rule can be illustrated with the dative case: The dative case has suffix -ku with lenition to -wu following vowels, laterals and rhotics, and loss of final vowel (leaving -w) as outlined above. Thus: waayin-ku 'animal-Dative' and gumurr-wu 'chest-Dative' , but bumbarru-w 'rock-Dative' . The final vowel of the postvocalic allomorph can be observed where a suffix follows this - thus bumbarru-wu-nj 'rock-Dative-Prominence '- and on a monosyllabic stem - thus dhaa -wu 'mouth-Dative' . This rule of final vowel deletion does not occur on the vocabulary and there are many examples of lexical words of more than two syllables with a final vowel. For example: gumurlurru 'curlew', lul)gurnna 'north wind', maiJulji 'eye' . Because of the tendency for different sound shifts to occur in the morphology from the vocabulary it is not always possible to deal with morphological sound shifts purely through the

4 comparative method. Sometimes it is necessary to posit sound shifts for the ergative which cannot be substantiated elsewhere in the language. Where this is the case the putative cognates put forward are of course more tentative than those which can be derived through regular sound shifts. However. where the sound shifts proposed to derive the observed form from the reconstructed form are natural sound changes that require no complicated rules, the probability of cognacy of forms is taken to be high. Throughout this paper the following conventions have been used:

5 Cape York: languages of the Cape York Peninsula in northern Queensland . The numbers 79 to 98. 1 also indicate close genetic relationships between languages with a superscript letter before the language name. e.g.: caayungu CDhalandji

Language names in Australia are very variable and often many different variants exist. I have chosen to use the names as spelt in the sources cited (with the most modern source if there is more than one reference) even if there is a more accepted modem variant. Where data is presented for many languages I specify the area of Australia from which each language comes in order to indicate how widespread the allomorph under discussion is. Within Pama-Nyungan these areas are: Am hem Land: the group of Pama-Nyung an languages (the Yolngu languages) in Amhem Land which is completely surrounded by non -Pama-Nyung an languages. This includes the numbers 99 to 101 on the map in Appendix C. Western Australia: languages within the state of Western Australia except for those which are included in Central Australia. The numbers 1 to 16.

Yingkarta dMartuthunira dYindjibarndi This indicates that Bayungu and Dhalandji are closely related to each other, as are Martuthunira and Yindjibarndi. Yingkarta is not closely related to any of the other languages mentioned. The subgroups indicated by superscript are presented in Appendix B. The reason for doing this is to indicate where shared innovations might have occurred and where two languages are very closely related only one of these languages should be counted as being significant. The orthography used throughout the paper has been standardised for the common phonemes. These are as follows:

South Australia: languages within South Australia and the languages of south-west Queensland which are related to these. The numbers 31 to 37. Victoria: languages south of the Murray River, most of which are in Victoria. The numbers 38 to 43 . New South Wales: languages of New South Wales. The numbers 47 to 61. Southern Queensland: languages from the New South Wales border, north to Mackay half way up the Queensland coast. The numbers 62 to 71. Central Queensland: languages from Mackay north to around Cairns. The numbers 72 to 78 .

DORSO-

PALATAL

DENTAL

VELAR

Bll.ABIAL

STOP

tid

rtlrd

tildi

th/dh

kiR

o/b

NASAL

II

11!

IIV

nh

LATERAL

I

rl

"

r

ALVEOLAR RETROFLEX

25. Northern Territory: languages mainly within the Northern Territory but with the inclusion ofWarluwara due to its relationship with Yanyula. The numbers 26 to 30.

LAMINAL

APICAL

Central Australia: this is the desert area of central Australia and includes the numbers 17 to

RHOTIC SEMIVOWEL

}I

117

m

IV

Note that in most languages there is no contrast for voicing on stops and so different authors have chosen either voiced or voiceless symbols to represent stops that actually tend to alternate, either in free variation or conditioned by the environment, between voiced and voiceless. I keep to the voicing conventions as adopted by the authors for the indi vidua l languages, though it can be noted that for the purposes of comparison t is equivalent to d etc. In a few languages there is a stop contrast with voiced/len is and voiceless/fortis stops. This contrast, however, is very likely a recent innovation arising differentl y in different languages and has little importance in the reconstructio n of the ergative. Voiced stop symbols have been selected for reconstructed forms .

6

7

The vowel phonemes are a, i, u, e and o with length represented by aa, ii and uu. The less common phonemes such as the glottal stop(?), fricatives and less common vowels are

was lifted and a restriction introduced on words ending in a velar nasal. Following these changes, a reanalysis would have taken place and XI]-gu was reanalysed as X-I]gu with ergative

represented by IPA symbols. The following general symbols have been used : V =vowel, C =consonant, N =any nasal , T =any stop, L =any lateral , R =any rhotic, H =homorganic

suffix -I)gu. This process can be illustrated with a reconstructed Pama-Nyungan root, *djina 'foot', as follows :

stop, DH = !aminal stop, NH = !aminal nasal. Stage 1: vowel final roots are common and take ergative *-lu: Phonemic representations are presented in italics while exact quotations of data from the sources which are not necessarily phonemic are left without italics. English glosses are enclosed in quotation marks(' .. .. ').

djina --> djina-lu Stage 2: vowel final disyllabic roots are restricted and final -I] is introduced:

djinaiJ --> djinaiJ-gu The sources for languages mentioned throughout the paper are presented in Appendix A Where two or more sources are listed the data is taken from the first source listed unless

Note that the ergative has a homorganic stop following a nasal . Stage 3: word final coronal consonants (i.e. including IJ) are restricted and the restriction on

otherwise stated.

vowel final roots is lifted:

2. Dixon's reconstruction

djina --> djinaT)-gu. Note that the environment for deletion of IJ is not found when there is suffixation of the

Dixon's reconstruction of the ergative in 1980 was put forward for proto-Australian but in fact considered only Pama-Nyungan languages and thus should be considered as a reconstruction for the Pama-Nyungan area only. The following discussion, therefore, applies only to PamaNyungan . Dixon's reconstructed allomorphs are as follows :

-Hu -DHu -du -lu

N

-I]gu

Stage 4 : through pressure to analyse the underlying form of the stem the same as the surface root, which is now vowel final, the ergative is reanalysed:

djina --> djina-l)gu Thus, all allomorphs of Dixon's reconstruction can be reduced historically to a single form

-

y_

*-du (or *-Itt depending on which form is taken as basic in the dll allophony) and this is a very

/, rr_ v _ > 2 syllables

simple system. This is, of course, very neat but few modem languages actually have such tidy ergative allomorphy and there are many irregularities and oddities in the systems which tend to

v-

recur over the area. Furthermore, there are many modern languages in which the ergative allomorphs cannot be accounted for from the above reconstruction or for which implausible changes must be proposed. Going through Dixon's reconstructed forms the following points

2 syllables

The first three forms may be stated as -Hu I C_, where all consonants are followed by a homorganic stop. Dixon proposes that [d) and [I] may possibly have been allophones of the same phoneme and thus the first four forms can be reduced to *-du with assimilation following consonants and allophony

III -->

ergative and this remains as in stage 2.

[d) I

C_

(I] I

v_

can be made: The environment of -lu in many modem languages is more consistent with positing a morphologically conditioned environment of vowel final nominals which are not common nouns rather than conditioning by the number of syllables. The syllable number hypothesis leaves many facts unaccounted for.

accounting for the allophone -lu. Finally, Dixon accepts a possible origin for -I]gu put forward by Hale ( 1976) who suggests that in proto-Pama-Nyungan there was at one stage a phonological restriction on disyllables such that these could not end in a vowel. Final -IJ was

In several languages the post consonantal allomorph appears to be -DHu and not -Hu. This allomorph is also several times found following vowels. As there is no reason to suggest underlying -du for -Hu other than the neatness of the [d) and [I] allophony, the facts

added to all disyllables which ended in a vowel and following this came the regular ergative suffix -gu . At a later stage of proto-Pama-Nyungan the restriction on vowel final disyllables

suggest that underlying -DHu shou ld be posited.

8 An allomorph with a rhotic shows up in many modern languages and this is not discussed at all in Dixon's reconstruction. These rhotic allomorphs present something of a problem and may have several different origins which I briefly discuss. All three of these questions will be discussed in detail in the following sections and lead to a reconstruction of the ergative in Pama-Nyungan of:

*-Itt *·l)gu

V_ nominals which are not common nouns V _ 2 syllables

*-DHu

elsewhere

The conditioning environment of non -common nouns supersedes that of two syllables and thus all nominals which are not common nouns are hypothesised to take the -lu allomorph regardless of the number of syllables. This may not look so neat as Dixon's reconstruction but has

9

DISYLLABIC ALLOMORPH

LANGUAGE

POLYSYLLABIC ALLOMORPH

Western Australia hNanda 4

-oku

-lu

byingkarta

-nku

-lu

cohargari

-ku 5

-luI 3 syll, -ru I >3 syll

caavungu

-T)ku

·nt

CDhalandji

-T)ku

-lu

dMartuthunira 6

-l]ku

-lu

dyindjibamdi

-l]ku 7

-Ill

dpanyjima

-l]ku 7

-Ill

dNgarla

-l]ku 7

-lu

M~ala

·T)gU

·dJt-t

considerable advantages over it, not least of which is that it can be extended to some non-PamaNyungan languages (see §5). Furthermore, a more general ergative *-DHu may be

Central Australia

reconstructed from both Pama-Nyungan and non-Pama-Nyungan data.

I?.i_aru

·l)gu 7

-lu

Warlpiri

-nku

-rlu

K~tetye8

·Ill!

-le

Warumungu

·11.1/V

-ntjtjV

3. Revised Pama-Nyungan reconstruction 3.1. ·l)gu on disyllables Before discussing those aspects of the allomorphy of the ergative that are to be changed, let us first reconsider the allomorph ·l)gu. In 1976 Hale noted that the ergative allomorph -l)gu often occurred on vowel final disyllables with the allomorph -lu on polysyllables, and proposed a set

Table 1: Languages with -l)gu on vowel final disyllables

of rules at an early stage of the development of the languages to account for this (this has been outlined in §2). I see no reason to change the reconstruction for -l)gu as a close look at the data does indeed confirm both that it is common for ·l)gu to occur only on disyllables and that there

4 Note that the conditioning environment for Nanda ergative allomorphs is not explicitly stated but from the example sentences given there is one example of -l]ku following apa 'rain' and two

is a tendency in several languages to add final I) to vowel final disyllables, thus adding weight to Hale's proposal that this happened at an early stage. The languages which have a reflex of *· l]gu which is restricted to vowel final disyllables

5 The loss of homorganic nasals in Dhargari is entirely regular (Austin 1981 c:308).

are as given in Table I.

of -lu following watjanu 'fi re' and wutjpa/a 'white man' .

6 This is termed the 'effector' by Dench ( 1987: 152) and though it descends from the ergative its principal function is to mark the 'demoted' actor in a passive clause. Th.e situat.ionis very si milar for Panyjima (' Agentive' in passive function (Dench 1991 : 139)) whtle m YmdJtbarndt the forms given here are for the instrumental case. 7 There is an additional allomorph -ku (or -gu) on disyllables where there is a nasal+stop cluster in the root. This is lenited to -wu in Yanyula. 8 These are regular reductions from -l)gu and -lu with the final vowel a neutralised vowel. These allomorphs occur on forms which were originally disyllabic or polysyllabic though initial dropping has now changed the conditioning environment. (Koch 1980:226-228)

10

LANGUAGE

DISYLLABIC ALLOMORPH

11

POLYSYLLABIC ALLOMORPH

following conditions (note that not all languages are listed):

Northern Territorv Yanvula

Australia. It is, however, only the conditioning which is Jacking from these languages and not the allomorph itself, as the allomorph -I]gu is extremely widespread and occurs also under the

-11JW

7, -nydju I i

-lu

kKalkatungu

-nku 7

-tlru

-I)gu is found on vowel final common nouns regardless of the number of syllables while -/11 appears on vowel final proper nouns. This is quite rare but occurs for example in Watjarri (Western Australia) and in Yankunytjatjara (Central Australia), both with the following

kYalarnga

-T}kll

-vu

ergative allomorphs:

Dyirbal

-T}J:ll

-Jill

Central Queensland

-I]ku I V_common noun

Cape York Flinders Is. Lang. Kuku Thaypan

-I]a

9

- I]RO

10

-ma

-/u I V_proper noun

-n/rdha (- -mpa ?)

-Hu I N_

Table I continued: Languages witlr -l]gu 011 vowel final disyllables

-I)gu is found on all vowel final nouns. This is quite common in eastern Australia and occurs for example in the following languages:

From this table it can be seen that in Western Australia it is very common for languages to have the allomorphy of -l)ku IV_ 2 syllables and -luI V_ > 2 syllables. Outside of Western Australia there are also some examples of -l]gu on disyllables though they are less common and the trisyllabic allomorph is generally not -lu. A few languages have a reflex of the general ergative allomorph *- DHu (see §3.3) (i.e. M31Jala, KalkatunguiYalarnga, Warumungu (though as outlined in §3.3 this is only a tentative reflex) and possibly Kuku Thaypan) while Flinders Island Language has -ma, possibly from the common Cape York form *-mpu. Dyirbal has polysyllabic allomorph -gu though it should be noted that the Dyirbal data may not reflect inheritance as it may be that there has simply been loss of the IJ of -l]gu in polysyllables and that this has been a language internal development. The languages in which -l]gu is conditioned by disyllables only are restricted to a band across the top of the Pama-Nyungan area. Conditioning of -l)gu by this environment is completely lacking from southern Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and South

9 There are additional complexities of allomorphy not outlined here (see Sutton 1980:134-137 for a full description) . There is clear evidence that final vowel of the ergative shifts to a in Flinders Island Language as the reflex of Cape York -lu on irregular nouns (see §3.2) is -Ia on the same group of nouns. This has happened through regular phonological rules where most vowel distinctions on case suffixes are collapsed. Regular rules also account for the deletion of stops from nasa l+stop clusters. 10 There appears to have been a shift to final a in the ergative of Kuku Thaypan as there are reflexes of the Cape York morphemes *-I]grt, *-mpu and *-(nlr)dlw (see for example Sommer 1976) all with final a.

Muruwari (New South Wales): -I]ku IV_, -Hu IN_, -u I L, R_ Wargamay (Central Queensland) : -I]gul V_, -Hul N_, -dju I y_, -dui1T~ -ndull_ As the disyllabic environment of -I)gu is not restricted to a single area or subgroup but extends from the west coast to the east coast, the data on the ergative allomorph -I)gu would suggest that it most likely originates as a morpheme restricted to disyllables. This is because there is no likely explanation for the development of a disyllabic environment from a more general environment. The expansion of the environment from disyllabic vowel final nouns to all vowel final nouns is, however, far more likely and can be explained by the fact that the majority of common nouns tend to be disyllabic II and so · I]gr~ would have been the most common post-vocalic allomorph and could have spread to all vowels from there. Those few languages where -l)gu is found on common nouns, contrasting with -lu on proper noun s, can also be explained as expansion of the environment to include most nouns , though here the - lu allomorph (outlined in §3.2) retains its environment of proper nouns.

II This fact can be verified by looking through language descriptions and dictionaries . For example Crowley (1978:24) states that in Bandjalang 74.8% of roots are disyllabic , Arrowsmith (n.d.) states that 60% are disyllabic in Yota Yota and Eades ( 1979:264) says that in Gumbaynggir 314 roots are disyllabic, 117 trisyllabic and only 20 are monosyllabic. A glance at the dictionaries of Australian languages generally shows disy llables to be the most common, and in Capell's ( 1956:87-94) reconstruction of common Australian all twenty-four nouns given by him are di syllabic with only a single trisyllabic altemant for one noun , wagura 'crow '.

12

13

There is also some evidence that final I) is added to disyllables in modem languages. Some examples of languages in which this occurs are as follows:

-lu follows vowel final proper nouns and the number of syllables has no place in the conditioning environment. This fact was noted by Dixon who suggests that this may come about because most proper nouns tend to be trisyllabic or longer while the most frequently used

Uradhi (Cape York) - a final dorsal consonant is always added to word -final vowels or glides. This is realised as a stop k where the preceding consonant is a stop and as a nasal I) where the preceding consonant is a nasal. This is an automatic phonetic addition (reported in Dixon 1980:211 ). Muk-Thang (Victoria)- almost all disyllabic roots end in a consonant and the most common final segment is IJ. Monosyllables and polysyllables have a far greater proportion of vowel final roots (Dixon 1980:211).

common nouns are disyllabic Thus proper noun conditioning could have arisen from the number of syllables conditioning. Alternatively, however, two types of conditioning may have existed side by side with syllable number triggering the allomorphy on common nouns while proper nouns morphologically triggered the allomorph -lu regardless of syllable number. Thus there are two hypotheses: either -lu was an allomorph triggered by nouns of greater than two syllables, or it was triggered morphologically by a group of nouns including proper nouns. First consider the evidence to suggest that the number of syllables conditions allomorph -Itt. In Western and Central Australia several languages have the following allomorphs in the

Woiwurrung (Victoria) - body part nouns which are disyllabic end in IJ. Where cognates are found elsewhere in Australia these lack the IJ. e.g. djinaiJ for *djina 'foot', gunal) for *gww 'faeces' (Blake 1991 :64-65). Anmatjera (Central Australia) - vowel final disyllabic stems have added final 1J (Hale 1976:416). Koch (p.c.) reports that this is actually final-alj~). By searching word-lists of languages in south-east Australia many languages often have a final velar nasal on disyllabic words that in other languages end in a vowel. The following languages from New South Wales and Southern Queensland are just some examples: hwiradhuray, hNgiyambaa (given by Donaldson (1980) as archiphoneme N word finally), iGabi-Gabi, iWakka Wakka, Bandjalang, fNgarigu, foundungura.

environment post-vocalically (see Table 1 in §3.1 for a list of these languages):

-l)gu

I V _ 2 syllables

-lu

I V_ > 2 syllables

Although this involves a significant number of languages these all form a continuous geographical group and furthermore are almost all related, with the exception of Kaytetye, and fall within the South-West subgroup ofPama-Nyungan (from O'Grady et.al. 1966). The only other language in the continent with such conditioning is Yanyula (Northern Territory) with:

I u, a_ 2 syllables

-l)gu -nydju

I i_

-lu

I V_ > 2 syllables

2 syllables

Other languages in this same general area have a final velar nasal on just a handful of disyllabic words that elsewhere end in a vowel.

Thus, all evidence for Dixon's hypothesis that -/u was conditioned by the number of syllables comes from a group of mainly contiguous and related languages plus one isolated language.

Thus, the distribution of the ergative allomorph -l)gu tends to support the theory of a di syllabic origin . Furthermore, there are many languages where final I) is added to disyllabic

In other parts of the continent there are cognates with *-lu which are not morphologically conditioned (to be discussed below) but which are either the only attested allomorph or the sole post-vocalic allomorph of the ergative, or which are in free variation with some other

nouns and this supports Hale's theory that this may have occurred at an early stage in the development of Pama-Nyungan . I thus conclude that Hale's hypothesis still holds and reconstruct *·l)gu following vowel final disyllabic nouns.

allomorph. This occurs often in New South Wales and Victoria where grammatical data is generally poor for the languages but there are also a few examples of more well known languages in the west where -luis the major post-vocalic allomorph:

3.2. *-lu for non-common-nouns

Western Australia Many modem languages have an allomorph of the ergative derived from a form -/u. Inspired by Hale and the hypothesised restriction of -vgu to disyllables, Dixon proposed that this was the allomorph following vowel final nouns of greater than two syllables. The main evidence for this comes from languages in Western Australia where this generally is the conditioning environment. However, in some of the Western Desert dialects (for example Yankunytjatjara)

Nyungar 12

-l- -il

12 This is optional and only used where required to disambiguate a sentence. Note that in Nyungar the insertion of a vowel between non-permitted consonant sequences is entirely

14 Badimaya

-lu- ·l)guiV_

eNjangumarta

-luiV_

eoaradjari

-luiV_

Central Australia Walmatjari Pintupi Alyawarra I 3

15 Atynyamathanha (South Australia) has ergative -lu on proper nouns, pronouns and the plural markers matha 'mob' and -pi/a 'both'. Elsewhere there is the ergative -IJG. Badimaya (Western Australia) has ergative: -ill I V_ proper nouns and kin terms -lu - ·1)811 I V _ common nouns (there is free variation)

-rlu -luiV_

-gu I 1)_

-/;}

South Australia Kaurna 14

-/11

Pitta Pitta

-lu (non-future)

-du I elsewhere

Yindjibarndi 15 (Western Australia) has instrumental allomorphs: -luI V _ proper nouns -l)ku IV_ I or 2 syllables, common nouns

Victoria Narrinyeri

-if

-luI >2 syllables, common nouns

Bungandidj Yota Yota

-fa- -a

-Hul N_

-if

- 11

New South Wales ioumbaynggir iyaygir

·l)gu- -lui u, a~ -yu- -dju I i_ -lu- -yu

I rr_

In two closely related South Australian languages, noiyari and nwankumara (Breen 1976a), -lu (with -li in Diyari) is found with masculine proper nouns while -ndrul-nrrtt is found on feminine proper nouns. In these two languages it is clear that the origin of this distinction is from the pronouns which have a masculine/feminine distinction in third person si ngul ar. For example in Wankumara the 3sg ergative pronouns are nhulu , masculine and nhanrru, feminine and these are likely the origin of -lu, masculine and -nrru, feminine ergative suffixes through

Southern Queensland Wak.ka Wakka -lu- -yu- -rru Midhaga -lu- -li- -ndu Cape York Lama Lama -Ia- -i

loss of the first syllable. Note that in Diyari the masculine form -li- -ali is used on common nouns while in Wankumara the form -nrru is used on common nouns.

Note that where alternating different forms are given the conditioning is not known or there is free variation. Now consider the evidence for a morphologically conditioned allomorph -lu . Firstly, the following languages have a morphologically conditioned allomorph -l11 triggered by proper nouns: Both Yankunytjatjara (Central Australia) and Watjarri (Western Australia) have the ergative allomorphs: -luI V_ proper noun, -l)gtt IV_ common noun, -H11 1 N_.

lwagaya (Northern Territory) has an ergative allomorph -rl on masculine nouns (loss of the final vowel is regular) with ergative on feminine/neuter -g . The feminine/neuter form is cognate with the suffix -g11 in the closely related language lwarluwara, and the masculine may come from the pronoun as the masculine ergative pronoun is yuw;,rl. In Umpila (Cape York) all nouns which refer to persons, including proper nouns, almost always take the ergative variant -/u , but other nouns may take any of -7\f, -1 or -lu with a tendency to favour -7\f.

regular (hence -il). The loss of final vowel in the morphology is very common and also occurs for example in -ak purposive from *-g11. 13 Yallop (1977) gives -ila. Koch (p.c.) analyses the form slightly differently as given. 14

This is actually given with the allomorphs -diu 1 i~ -rlul - 11/11 I a_> 2 syllables.

-11rlu-

11 ,

a_ 2 syllables, and

15 In Yindjibamdi there is no ergative case suffix as a nominative/accusative system has developed, but there are cognates with the ergative case suffixes which cover the instrumental function .

16

17

In all of these languages, all of which belong to separate subgroups within Pama-Nyungan, there is evidence that proper nouns take a suffix -lu. In some of the languages listed -lu only occurs on proper nouns, but in Badimaya and Umpila -lu may also occur on common nouns in free variation with other allomorphs. Note, however, that on proper nouns the only possible

Central Queensland Yalarnga: kin terms and a few other nouns ('boy ' , 'girl', 'child', 'hand', 'mosquito' and

allomorph is -lu. In Yindjibamdi there is evidence of both syllable number conditioning for common nouns and morphological conditioning for proper nouns. This is significant as it would seem that in this language there has not been a switch from one type of conditioning to the other and here is some evidence that both types of conditioning may be original. There are many other languages where the ergative allomorph -lu is conditioned morphologically, though not by proper nouns. Kin terms and/or human nouns, where they end in a vowel, are often followed by -lu (the more regular allomorphs are given in brackets):

'mob') take -rlu (-rjw, -yu). Warunu: a few vowel final kin terms including gayana 'father' may take -Ill (-T)gu, -Hit). Cape York Kunjen: kin terms with final IJ take -al (-manhdh, -dh, -iy, -y). In many languages of Cape York a cognate with -lu is the allomorph on a group of irregular nouns. 18 In individual languages this occurs on anywhere between one and fifteen different nouns with the following nouns recurring with suffix -/u: *pama 'man' (in every

aDjapu: vowel final kin terms take .[16 (-THu).

language surveyed), *kutaku 'dog' (three out of the ten languages), *mayi 'vegetable food' (four out of the ten languages) and *mi11lta 'animal ' (three out of the ten languages). This is a group which includes some of the more salient higher animates. An alternative analysis of thi s group, however, is as noun classifiers as all of pama, minlta and mayi are commonly classifiers

aRithamgu : kin terms take -li (-THu).

in most of the noun classifying languages of Cape York and there are two tentative classifier

Arnhem Land

Western Australia Badimaya: kin terms as well as proper nouns take -lu (-lu- -T)ku). Bayungu : although Austin ( I 981 b) gives -I]ku and -ru as the ergative allomorphs in Bayungu , in a typescript (1980) he gives kuputju-lu 'child-ergative' and konyara-lu 'man-ergative'. South Australia Wankumara (Galali ): in the Galali dialect (McDonald and Wurm 1979:22) one kin term takes the irregular affix -/11 (-ndru).l7 Note that this differs from the Wankumara dialect described above where masculine nouns take -lu. Southern Queensland Gureng Gureng: a group of irregul ar nouns ('woman', 'cat' and 't hunder') takes the suffix -lu

(-bu).

18 Some examples of languages and the nouns which take the allomorph of -/11 are: Flinders Island Language -Ia: aba ' person', inya 'meat', ayi 'food'. aampa 'ground',

maRta 'upper arm' . Kunjen -(a)l: ud 'dog', abma 'person'. Mbabaram -(V)l: m::>g 'man', d::>g 'dog', mberl:J 'dingo', dhayari 'horse', nambwtr ' big brown snake', gul)gag 'kookaburra', yaar 'spear', bir 'emu', gi 'st ick'. Guugu Yimidhir -il: bama 'person', bidlta 'small', warrga 'large, warra 'bad',

16 This is not noted in Morphy's (1983) aDjapu grammar but is found in Heath's (1980b:24) grammar of aJambarpuyngu. Note that loss of final vowels in grammatical morphemes (with certain restrictions) is a feature of Djapu. 17 Two other nominals are reported as taking -lu: wara 'who' and barku/11 'two'. Note that this analysis is from a limited corpus of a text of 514 sen tences and hence does not show the full picture. I have checked through the text and as no other kin terms, interrogatives or numerals are given in the ergative case it may well be that all kin terms, interrogatives and numerals have erga tive suffix -/11. McDonald and Wumt ( 1979:22) note that there is no association of -Itt with the masculine and there are numerous example of semantically masculine nouns with the ergative -ndru.

mayi •food'. Kurtjar -(V)I: aam 'person' , njaa 'animal, niya ' what', woorrch 'boomerang', lkooy 'axe'. Thaayorre -a/: pam 'person', IJOk 'water', may 'food', kuuk 'voice', ktm 'excreta', minh 'animal' T)Gt 'fish', rat 'book', piny 'saltwater crocodile', puun 'wind', puuy 'swamp crocodile' wuudj 'corroboree', ulp 'that one' , wanh 'who', inlr?lllr-th- 'this, these'. Linngithig -I: ma 'person', iwaT) 'mother in law' , ani 'what'. Uradhi -/u:

Atampaya dialect; ama 'person', mayi 'food'. Angkamuthi dialect; ama 'person',utaytt 'dog' ur]unyulu 'mother'.

Yidiny -:1: bama 'person'. Djabugay -lu : bama 'person'. Note that there has been much phonological change in these languages and changes such as loss of final vowel or initial consonant or syllable are quite regular.

18 cognates with kutaku.19 Classifying appears to be an areal feature of Cape York and I hypothesise that originally classifiers took the -lu ergative allomorph.20 From this situation the modern languages have reduced or expanded the environment for the -Ill allomorph, possibly partly through phonological change. This hypothesis is pure speculation as no modern language has ergative -/11 on the set of classifiers. The hypothesis does make sense, however, in that demonstratives take the ergative -/11 (see later discussion) and classifiers are very demonstrativelike as they usually co-occur with a noun . Functionally they also fulfil a demonstrative-like role in acting as anaphoric pronouns for the referent noun (see for example Craig 1992:284). In all of the above examples the allomorph -Ill is morphologic ally conditioned by a semantically or lexically defined set of nouns. There are, however, also languages where it is a gram matically determined set of nominals which take this allomorph . That is, in many languages any of the pronouns, demonstrativ es or interrogative s with final vowel take allomorph -lu . Table 2 presents examples of languages where any of the above take an allomorph -lu which cannot be predicted from the noun allomorphy.

19

LANGUAGE

ATIVES

ti'ITERROG·

REGULAR ALLDMORPHS IV_

ATIVES

Arnhem Land Rithamgu

-

-

-li 'who' 22

-li I kin terms, thu I elsewhere

Western Australia Miminy bsadimaya bwatjarri csayungu CDhalandji

dpanyjima dMartuthunira dyjndjibamd i i.e. Out of the Cape York classifying languages Guugu Yimidhirr, Yidiny , Kunjen, Yir Yiront and Lama Lama, cognates with pama classify in four languages, minha in all languages and mayi in four languages. The two potential classifiers cognate with kutaku 'dog' are Yir

DEMONSTR-

21

cohargari

19

PRONOUNS

not known

not known -lu 'what'

(-Ia) 23

-lu

-lu

-lu I proper nouns, kin terms,

(-Ia) 23

-/u - -T)ku

-Ill

-lu I proper nouns,

-lu

-lu

-Ill 24

-luI 'man', 'child' -t]ku I 2 syll, -m I >2 syll

-lu

-lu

-Ill

-t]kll I 2 syll, -/u I >2 syll

-lu

-l11

·T)ll

-lu- -nku I elsewhere

-lu- -ru

~T)ku

IV

-t]ku I 2 syll, -luI 3 syll,

-ru I >3 syll -Ill

regular

-Ill

-l]ku I 2 syll, -l11 I >2 syll

-lu

-lu

-Ill

-Ill

-Ill

not known

-T}k11 I 2 syll, -Ill I >2 syll -Itt I proper nouns, -T)ktt I 2 syll, -lui >2 syll

Table 2: Languages with -lu on grammatical morphemes

Yiront with kllrta 'domes tic animal' and Lama Lama with ku- - kur- 'animal'. Also, dogs are specifically classified in the Daly language Ngan 'gityemerri where wu- is a classifying prefix for canines.

Classifier

noun with -/11 ergative

2 1 In some languages presented here not every pronoun inflects for the ergative case (for example in Dhalandji the Jsg pronoun has one form for S and A l)Gtha as opposed to 0 I)Gtlzanha). The ergative suffixes presented here, therefore , are not necessarily applied. to every pronoun but they are applied to every vowel final pronoun which inflects for the ergauve. Note

Yidiny gugu 'purposeful noise ' Yidiny bulmba ' habitable '

Thaayorre kuuk 'voice'

that in languages with a dash the pronouns do not inflect at all for the ergative.

Flinders Island Lang. aampa 'place, ground' Kurtjar lkooy 'axe'

22 'What' with the stem nhaa has ergative nhaathu.

Thaayorre IJaf 'fish' Mbabaram gi 'stick'

23 The pronouns do not distinguish the ergative case, but the locative on pronouns h~s the form -Ia and in these languages the ergative and locative have parallel allomorphy wtth ftnal u

20 Further evidence for this hypothesis is found in that some of the odd words which take irregular -lu ergative in a single language are cognate with classifiers in another language. For example:

Yir Yiront kay 'axes, guns etc' Yir Yiront I)Grt 'fi sh' Yidiny djllgi 'tree'

Note that some of the sound changes required to assume cognacy between the above form s are entirely regular. These include loss of final vowels in Thaayorre, loss of initial consonant in Flinder's I land Language, loss of vowel length in the first syllable of Yidiny and loss of ini tial syllables in Mbabaram.

on ergative and a on locative. 24 Note that in Bayungu, Dhalandji and Dhargari the interrogative 'who' with ergative form I)Gna-lu is taken from O'Grady, Voegelin and Voegel in ( 1966).

20

LANGUAGE

PRONOUNS

DEMONSTR-

21

ltmlRROG-

ATIVES

REGULAR AI..I..O:"v!ORPHS IV_

(-ria) 23

Kaytetye Warumun11;u

-1 26

-rlu

-nku12 syll, -rlu 1>2 sy]l

-le

-

-l]e

irrel1;Ular

re£ular

-l]kV I 2 syll, -nrjtjV 1>2

I *2 syll, -/e I *>2 syll

-

-lu

Gumbaynggir

(-Ia) 27

-

Bandjalang

-lu·)'1129

-lu-

-lu 'what '

-yu

-)'II

-l'l' 'who'

WikMungkan

-lu

·I? II

-lu 'what' 28

-IJJ? ll-

pi

not known -lu

-il I irregular nouns

-

-ul 'what' 3 I - VI I irregular nouns, -nf!:J

-lal)32

regular

-aI}

-l11

-lu

-l11 I persons, -?VI elsewhere

It should be noted that most Pama-Nyungan languages have nominative/accusative morphology on the pronouns and thus do not distinguish the ergative here. The examples given

-andnt

in Table 2 include most languages with an ergative pronominal system, although there are a few languages where the pronominal ergative is entirely regular and follows the nominal pattern . In these languages the ergative can be seen to have regularised from the nominals to the pronominals. For the demonstratives and interrogatives, where data is known, most other

-rlu

-IflU

-l]ku I 2 syll, -tlzu I >2 syll

-yi sg kyaJamga

-/+regular

Table 2 continued: LAnguages with -lu on grammacical morphemes

-lu

non-sg

-yV

-

Umpila

Central Queensland kKaJkatungu

REGULAR ALI..OMORPHS IV_

ATIVES

suffix 'what' -IJU or -Vnh 30

-f?u, -tiu I i

not known -lrl

Southern Queensland ·IJII

-muun Guugu Yimidh.ir Mbabaram

hNgiyambaa

Wankumara (Galati)

INTERROG-

Cape York

-rlu

New South Wales hwiradhuray

DEMONSTRATIVES

Central Australia Warlpiri 25

PRONOUNS

LANGUAGES

ATIVES

-rlu

-rill sg

non-sg

-rlu du ·)'II

languages not presented here are quite regular in the ergative. Thus, for all three grammatical sets of morphemes where an irregular ergative is used this most often has the form of the

-yu

-I]ku I 2 syll, -yu I >2 syll -rlu I kin terms

pJ

Table 2 continued: LAnguages with -Ill on grammatical morphemes

allomorph -lu. All of the languages listed for Western Australia take -lu on pronouns regardless of syllable number and thus differ from the nouns where-luis restricted to polysyllables. In Warumungu there are some traces of what may have been an older ergarive suffix -lu on the pronouns, while in the eastern language Bandjalang there is an allomorph -lu on some pronouns, demonstratives and interrogatives which does not appear at all on nouns. It can be further added that for the 3sg an ergative form *NHulu is reconstructable (see for example Dixon 1980:36 1) and this involves

25 Data is from Reece I 970 and Hale 1974. 26 In Warumungu all non-sg subject pronouns end in -/which is generally dropped in the object form . Heath and Simpson ( 1982: I OJ) state that this could be the remnants of an older ergative suffix. 27 Only lpl and 2du are marked for ergative with -Ia. 2pl takes -dju lny_ for ergative and ldu is nominative/accusative. The third person pronouns are irregular, some taking a suffix -dju. 28 'Who' is irregular as it has S/0 waarru and A waadu.

the ergative suffix -luto the stem NHu- which is also found in the accusative form *NHuNHa

30 'Who' with S/0 wanh11 has two A forms; wanhcmda- wmzhdlw. 31

'Who • is irregular with S/0 nab and A nal)g:J.

32 The demonstratives in Wik Mungkan seem to involve the addition of the regular ergative suffix -aiJ to an older form which involved a lateral. Following this is a demonstrative suffix -an. The actual forms are:

29 2sg has -lu (waalu). 3sg masc has -yu (l]ltliyu). first person is irregular and other pronouns have -Htt IN_.

' here' irzmz nominative 'there' nanan nominarive

ilai)Or1 ergative nalai}Qn ergative.

22

23

(Dixon 1980:36 1). The reconstructable stems for the other singular pronouns all end in a consonant and so they take different ergative suffixes.33

Australia/Central Australia and one Northern Territory language (Yanyula) morphological conditioning is found over the entire Pama-Nyungan area as shown above. Secondly, if one accepts the hypothesis put forward in §3.3 that the most basic ergative allomorph (on common

For the demonstratives there are no reconstructable Pama-Nyungan forms with final -lu, but -lu appears in different languages on quite different demonstrative forms. It therefore appears that there is a tendency for demonstrative forms to take the allomorph -lu. Interrogatives also have a tendency to take the allomorph -lu but in Ritharngu only 'who' takes

-lu, while throughout eastern Australia it is relatively common for 'what' to take -lu while 'who' is variable. 'What' here, however, is cognate with the classifier minha 'animal' in Cape York which has already been shown to commonly take the allomorph -lu. It can be hypothesised, therefore, that in proto-Pama-Nyungan *minha 'animal' took the allomorph -/11

nouns) is -DHu then the allomorph -lu cannot be derived from this through a phonological rule . It is far more likely that the morphologically defined group of nominals which are not common nouns would take an irregular allomorph than that the phonologically defined group of polysyllabic nouns would (note that the other allomorph -l)gu I 2 syllables is derived from

*-DHu) . There are two further points that can be brought up which are consistent with the morphologically conditioned allomorphy. These are:

and this has been carried through where it has shifted in meaning to 'what' (see Dixon 1980:376).

1. The morphological group presented above conforms to the upper half of the feature hierarchy

In summary, the morphological environments where the allomorph -Ill recurs are as follows:

discussed by Silverstein (1976 and 1981). This feature hierarchy is summarised as follows :

proper nouns - Western Australia, Central Australia, South Australia, Northern Territory and Cape York

pronouns 34 demonstratives proper names

kin tem1s - Arnhem Land, Western Australia, South Australia and Queensland

kin terms

classifiers - Cape York

status terms (humans)

pronouns- Western Australia, Central Australia, New South Wales and Queensland

beings (animates)

demonstratives- We tern Australia, Central Australia, New South Wales and Queensland interrogatives - Amhem Land, Western Australia, Central Australia, New South Wales and

other nouns 35

Queensland

Classifiers do not feature in this hierarchy but functionally can be included with the demonstratives. This hierarchy is proposed by Silverstein to account for split ergative systems

This apparently diverse group of nominals actually makes up the nominals which are not common nouns, and thus they form a coherent group. The likelihood that these diverse morphological conditionings for the allomorph -lu are related is therefore increased and a

and where ergative occurs it can be expected from the bottom up while accusative can be expected from the top down . In terms of the ergative allomorphs, *-DHtt, discussed in §3.3, occurs on nouns from the boll om rank(s) of the hierarchy while the proposed -lu allomorph

hypothesis can be put forward that in proto-Pama-Nyungan the ergative allomorph -lu was used on nominals which are not common nouns.

occurs on nouns from kin terms up. There are a few languages, however, where some status terms also take the -lu allomorph and so there appears to be spread down through the hierarchy

In comparing the two hypotheses on the ergative allomorph -lu, polysyllabic conditioning versus morphological conditioning, the facts seem to favour the morphological conditioning

which culminates in languages where -lu is the sole ergative allomorph.

hypothesis. Firstly, while the polysyllabic conditioning environment is restricted to Western

33 Singular pronouns as reconstructed by Dixon 1980 are: lsg S IJOY, A I]Oy+DHtl, 0 I)Oy+NHa 2sg S l)ill, A IJin+du, 0 l)in+NHa 3sg A NHu+lu, 0 NHu+NHa These involve stems plus the ergative suffixes -Hu and -lu and accusative suffix -NHa.

2. The reconstructed accusative suffix *-NHa (Dixon 1980:315) can also be reconstructed for almost exactly the same morphological group of nouns as the ergative allomorph -lu. That is, it

34 The pronouns are actually further ranked in the hierarchy but for the purposes of this discussion relative ranking is not important. 35 The other nouns are ranked from top to bottom: perceived objects, containers, spatial, sensual entity, essence.

25

24 is very commonly found on pronouns, demonstratives and interrogatives as weff as proper nouns. kin terms and occasionally aff human or animate nouns.36 Even more interesting, 1 have found two examples of languages where the accusative suffix -NHa occurs on nouns which semantically correspond to classifiers of Cape York. In Bayungu (Austin 1981 b:216) the two nouns nwrla 'meat' and thanuwa 'vegetable food' are irregular and take the accusative suffix -nha which is otherwise restricted to animates and pronouns. Although neither of these are cognate with the Cape York forms minya 'meat' and mayi 'vegetable food' both are nouns

which commonly become classifiers. In Duungidjawu (Waga-Waga) a few irregular inanimate nouns take the accusative suffix -Na . The examples given by Wurm (1976: 106) are dadu 'tree' and guyw11 'fire, camp' . Again though these are not cognate with Cape York classifiers they are nouns which are subject to becoming classifiers. Thus, one way to explain the irregularities in these two languages is that originally the irregular nouns were classifiers in the language and

3.3. Reconstruction of *-DHu In accepting Dixon's reconstruction of *-du as the underlying allomorph of the ergative one must also accept that there are some languages which have an irregular form of the ergative -DHu which cannot be accounted for in the reconstruction. Dixon ( 1980:320) himself points out that there are some unexplained forms -dhu such as in Kalkatungu and Gupapuyngu and assumes that it "is likely that further comparative work may provide explanations for them". Further comparative work has not accounted for these forms and by careful searching there are, in fact, many more languages which have an affomorph of the ergative with a lamina! stop or semivowel. I have found the following forms which are presented in Table 3. All of these languages are presented as possible cognates with an ergative affomorph -DHu though there is some variation in the actual forms of these putative cognates which are discussed following.

took the accusative case suftix.37 Thus the morphologically defined group of nominafs which are not common nouns can be seen to differ from common nouns both in taking an accusative case suffix -NHa and in having a unique ergative suffix -lu. Of the two hypotheses about the ergative allomorph -/u I prefer morphological conditioning. The original conditioning environment, however, is ancient and in the individual modern languages much change has taken place. The -lu allomorph has reduced or expanded its environment while remaining morphologicaffy conditioned, has been lost altogether, has extended as the sole ergative affomorph or has come to be used in free variation with other allomorphs. One problem remains and this is finding the origin of the form (note that this remains a problem regardless of the proposed conditioning environment) as cognates are not found outside of the Pama-Nyungan area. I do not know the origin of the form though further study opened up by the proposed conditioning environment may reveal a source.38

LANGUAGE

aDjapu 39

ENVIRONMINI"

-thu

T,N_ L,R_

-yu

:1. aRitharngu 38

OTHER ERGATIVE FORMS

aDjinan_g_ 40

v

-dhu

c_

:1.

v

-djj- -r( i) - -li

on all nouns

-thu

ny_

(~ional)

Western Australia

CDhalandji/

-Hu I other nasals ~u

Bayungu!Dhargari

-ul L,R_, -lu -

Martuthunira

-Hu I other nasals

eMaiJala

36 Blake (1977: 13) gives a fist of very varied languages in Australia where humans nouns, including kinship terms and proper nouns, take the accusative case suffix while other nouns do not.

ERGATIVESUFFlX

Arnhem Land

-dhu -dju

ny_

V_ >2 syllables

-l)gu IV_ 2 syllables

C(non-apical)

-dul~cal_

eNjan__g~J_marta

-dj_u

c

-lu/V

eGaradjari

-tjj_u

L,N (N --> n)

-du I R~ -lu IV

I V_

Table 3: Languages with ergative ojthefonn -DHu

37 The presence of a marker -n on noun class prefixes (probably derived from classifiers) of Arnhem Land is noted in Heath (1987 :233) who states that this is probably related to the ParnaNyungan accusative -NHa. Thus here there is further evidence that the accusative -NHa occurs on classifiers.

39 Regular phonological rules from a basic form -thu lead to the observed allomorphs.

38 One poss ible source is suggested by Evans in Evans and Jones (forthcoming) where it is suggested that the ergative -luis derived from a reduced form of the proto-Pama-Nyungan 3sg

40 In Djinang -dji is the unmarked allomorph and may replace -r(i) or- li on any noun . The shift to final i is regular.

masculine ergative pronoun *NHulu . This pronoun NHulu may in turn be borrowed from Maran 3masculine 'that' nurlu.

26

l.Ar\GUAGE

ERGATIVE SUFFIX

ENV IRON~1ENT

27

an!ER ERGATIVE FORMS

Central Australia Warumungu 41

LANGUAGE

-nrjrjV

v_ >2 syllables

-l]kV IV_ 2 syllables

-rjrjV

N, l_ >2 syllables

-HV IN_ 2 syllables

-Vnrjrji

I_ 2 syllables

hYuwaalaraay 45 hWiradhuray 46

Northern Territory

ENVIRONMENT

OTHER ERGATIVE FOR.\1S

-yu

rr_ (rr --> ¢)

-dju

i

-ul y, 1_, -dul "-gulu, a

i(N)_

-gulu, a_

-dju -dhu

gyanyula

-nydju

i_ 2 syllables

-l)gulu, a_ 2 syllables

~Vagaya42

-dj

non-sg nouns

-rll masculine sg noun, -g I feminine sg noun

hNgiyambaa 47

-/uiV >2 syllables

Garawa 43

ERGATIVE SUFFIX

New South Wales

- \ '11

kin (minor class)

-wanyi- -ll)'i- -T)ini - -I)i

-dha- -dja

ny, m_

-a In , rr, ny

gAwabakal gThangatti

(-DHu)

I

y(NJ

c-

-guiV_

-lu- -yu

3sg A bound form

-to (likely -tiJLt)

i

-yu

i

proper nouns

-kolu,a,e, o -Rulu, a

Table 3 continued: Languages with ergative of tire jomr -DHu

Victoria Woiwurrung 44

Table 3 contmued: Languages with ergative ofthefomr -DHu

41 There are two possible underlying forms of the ergati ve. The first is -nrjtjV (Vis the same as ~he final V of the stem and tjrj is a voiceless stop which is formed by a regular rule of adding vorce less allomorphs to polysyllables) with a rule deleting n following a nasal or lateral in greater than two syllables. The second is -rjrjV which lacks the nasal and there is a rule of nasal addition following a vowel. It is uncertain , therefore , what is going on here but there are some words which have alternatives either with or without the nasal : 'one' yamti --> yami-nrjrji- yami-rjrji- yanrri-ntjrji ' where/which ' ll'anrja --> wanya-ntra - wantja-tra 42 Loss of the final vowel is regular and leads to merger of the ergative and the locative. The non -sg form -dj is also used with a handful of other nouns which end in a stop or lateral. It therefore appears to be the least marked form . 43 Most of the ergative allomorphs in Garawa cannot be related to ergative markers elsewhere. There is, howe ver, a minor class of kin terms which take ergative -yu . Blake ( 1988 :36-7) drscusses how this likely reflects *-lrt ergative and may also be reflected in the allative -(yu)rri-

-l]kurri. 44 The ergative data for Woiwurrung in Blake (1991 :67) comes from R.H . Mathews and the conditioning environments are not c 1ear. Jt may be that the ergatrve · and locative have fallen together (accounting for the final vowel a) as the locative is also given by Mathews as -dha.

45 Williams (1980:30-31) posits an underlying form of the ergative -gu and gives rules to derive all of the forms from this . She does, however, state that there is no phonetic reason why the cluster rrg should become y (i.e. in -yu I rr_) as rrg is a permissible cluster in the language. Furthermore she states that there is a drawback in that the same rules do not apply to all suffixes and an allative/purposive/genitive suffix -gu does not undergo the rules posited for ergative -gu. It seems to me, therefore that it is better not to posit a single underlying form -gu but -yu may be a reflex of -DHu with lenition. (See below for discussion on -dju I i_). ln the hGamilaaraay dialect the allomorph following i is -dlru rather than -dju.

46 McNicol ( 1989) also gives various other examples where the allomorph -dlw is used though she does not explain these: e.g. buRa-dhu 'boy-ergative' (p.26) where buRa-gu would be expected, madan -dlru 'stick-ergative/inst rumental' (p.28) where madan -du would be expected and 1)0/an-dhu 'flame-ergative' where 1JOlan-du would be expected. 47 Donaldson (1980:83) gives as the underlying form of the ergative -DHu following consonants with changes to this dependent on the consonant. However, as all of these changes involve assimilation or loss of the stop, there is no real evidence that there is underlying !aminal except following y where the allomorph is -dlw rather than the palatal -dju that might be expected from assimilation. In the 3sg ergative bound pronoun the usual form -Itt alternates with -yu which certainly has evidence of a !aminal and is quite irregular.

29

28

OTHER ERGATIVE FORMS

LANGUAGE

ERGATIVE SUFFIX

ENV!RONMINf

OTHERERGATIVEFORMS

LANGUAGE

ERGATIVESUFFlX

ENVlRONME.'IT

Dharawal48

-yi

v_

-Ha IN~ -tt I

jsatjala 50

-yu

ai-, i --> ¢

-rruiV~ -Hu iN

-dju

i!itvlnv_

-a I rr, I, adi_

jGoeng Goeng 50

-yu

v

-guiV elsewhere

-ya

i (only e .g. of V)

-HaiN~

Central Queensland

Dharuk

-ya

i (only e.g. of V)

-aln

Bandialang

-}'U

v

- H11IN~

Darginyung

iGumbaynggir

-y11- -dj11

iyaygir

·)'II -

-lu

il11d)~

-al l, rr

hKalkatungu

i, }'

· l]RLI -

V_(conditioning

-HuiN~

-ull, rr

(i only??)

-thu

V_ > 2 syllables

-T)ku IV_ 2 syllables

-yu- -yi

irregular nouns,

-HuiC_

sg demonstratives

-luI 11, a -ull_

hYalamga

-yu

V_ > 2 syllables

-T)ku I V_ 2 syllables

nhat]u 'what'

unknown) Southern Queensland

Cape York

Bidjara

-dlw

ny_

jwakka Wakka 49

-vu- -lu- -rru

v

-1)11

IV ,

1 -HuiN~

-11 I

C

-d11 I 11

-1111, rr

Table 3 continued : Languages with ergative ofthefonn -DH11

Fl inders Island

subset of irregular nouns

-1)0-

-dh

n --> nh_

-manhdh I e, o, a_

-nydj

1--> r_

-arr I some nouns

-iy

c

-a/ I kin terms with final 1J

-thV

some nouns

-rrV- -gV

Language 51 Kunjen 52

iMpakwithi

-Ia I other irregular nouns

-tha

-ma regu lar nouns

Table 3 continued: Languages with ergmive of the fonn -DHu 48 The data for Dharawal is only from old sources, collated and analysed by Eades (1976), and as such is not entirely reliable. There is a proliferation of different allomorphs but there does, however, appear to be some pattern to the allomorphs and all can be explained from a single underlying form, -dju, if the following rules are posited (my analysis): dj --> yiV_

dj -- >¢I L. R, T_ dj --> H IN, y_ !1-->i ly_ u ·->a I elsewhere except where protected by the environment ofV(+high)C(+pala tal)_ All of these rules are fairly natural in Australian languages (except for the conditioning of u -->a) although little is known of historical phonology in Dharawal to confirm them. Further evidence for some of these changes can be found and for example there is also lenition of

g --> w IV_. The l sg stem is r;aya (from original *r;aDHu) which shows both lenition of DH (i.e. dj) and a shift to final a. It can be noted that the final vowel must be posited as u because there is no way to posit a natural rule to derive u following i+palatal, and the consonant must be

50 These two languages are closely related and although it is quite possible in Goeng Goeng that -yu is conditioned by the high front vowel (though note that Holmer (1983 : 108) is not certain here) through palatalisation of -gu, in Batjala it is not so likely that -yu is a palatalised version of -rru. Both of these languages have 2sg ergative pronoun T)indju(n) which involves a palatal stop and not the more usual alveolar. 51 There is clear evidence that the final vowel of the ergative shifts to a in Flinders Island Language as the reflex of Cape York -lu on irregular nouns (see §3 .2) is -Ia on the same group of nouns . i.e aba-la from *pama -lu ' man', inya -la from *minya-lu 'a nimal ' and ayi-la fro m

*may i-lu 'vegetable food'.

dj to account for the palatal following vowels. 49 Holmer ( 1983: 166, note 72) states that -yu is the more common allomorph. He also states that it may have followed final i ore but is not sure as he gives examples of both -yu and -lu

52 Loss of final vowels is regular and leads to merger of the ergative and locative forms. The allomorphs given here are for stems with two or more syllables. Monosyllables take the allomorphs-manhd! t and -y I gu, i_ as well as some irregular forms . Although there is a great

following meme 'mother'.

deal of variety in the ergative forms it is common for there to be a !aminal element.

30

31

lANGUAGE

ERGAllVE SlJFAX

ENVIROI'.'M.ENT

iuradhi 53

-IIIII

n -- > nh~ 2 nouns -a/- -rjm I ny_ a:ri 'who' -1]/cu - -mpu - -ntu IV c -rjdV + irregular forms velar -Vt]k I non-velar

-cJu iLinngithig Kurtjar Kalaw Kawaw Ya 54

-tJ (< *dh ) -V(NH )TH

-dh

singular pronouns and I)lla 'who'

CYT'HER ERGAllVE FORMS

-n I common nouns -¢I proper nouns

Table 3 continued: Languages with ergative ofrhef orm -DHu First it can be noted that all languages in Table 3 have a lamina! in the ergative but they differ in the actual lamina) that they have. There are examples of each of the stops dh and dj 55 and of the semivowel y. As Dixon ( 1980: 153) points out when comparing cognates, preceding I he vowels u and a the !aminal tends to be dental in double laminal languages. In single )aminal languages different authors use eirher dental or palatal orthography although these are phonologically equivalent. This is indeed the case here and of the double !aminal languages presented Djapu, Ritharngu, Martuthunira, Kalkat ungu and languages in Cape York have a

53 Allhough the regular ergarive allomorphs involv e -NTu or-al, two irregular nouns (upwj aidun 'what ' miai --> midun (Note that rhe loss of initial bilabials is sporadic. Another example of loss is ipi ' woman' cognate with *bibi 'breast' and an example of retenri on is mar- 'take' from *ma- 'take' .) Here -lu is preserved as -du- and to this is added the regular ergative suffix of the language, -n. 55 Note that rhe voicing distinction is ignored as the majority of languages lack a voicing distinc tion and different authors use either the voiced or voiceless spelling.

dental stop and so follow the expected pattern . Excep tions to this generalisation, the double Jaminal languages which have a palatal stop in the ergativ e are: Djinang has -dji, although here the vowel shift may have caused palatalisation of the stop. Woiwurrung is given as both -dha and -dja though the conditioning environments are not given and the data is from old unreliable sources and so we cannot be entirely certain about the stop (note, however that the two examples includ ed by Blake (1991 :67) have a dental stop and thus confirm to the expected pattern). Yuwaalaraay and Wiradhuray have a palatal stop but as this is found only in the environment following the high front vowel i this possibly arises through palatalisation rather than being inherited as dj. Wagaya has -dj. Wagaya is the only real exception and so this remain s as a tentative cognate only. Several languages in Table 3 have a palatal semivo wel rather than the stop DH. Lenition of a lamina! stop to a semivowel is a very common change in the Australian languages (as for example in the lenition of the Pama-Nyungan lsg ergative pronoun *I)liDHu to IJOYII in languages all over the continent (see for example Dixon 1980:339-46)). For some of these languages the lenition to -yu in the ergative is match ed by lenition of the lsg ergative as for example in Garawa with lsg I)Q)'tl and Yuwaalaraa y with I)Qya . In one other language, Yalarnga, there also appears to have been lenition in other suffixes as the dative is -wu from *-gtt. Although there is no supporting evidence for the lenition of *-DHu to -yu in the other languages with -yu in Table 3, this does not dispro ve that these are cognate as not only is lenition very common in Australia, but in all of these examples -ytt is found following vowels and this is a common environment for lenition (see for example the Yolngu languages (e.g. Morphy (1983 :28) for Djapu )). It should also be noted that grammatical morphemes do not always show the same sound changes as does the genera l vocabulary (as is for example shown by the lenition of *I)liDHtl to IJOYU). Finally there are languages where the final vowel of the ergative is a rather than the expected u. This appears in Flinders Island Langu age, Woiwurrung , Darginyung and Dharuk and results in the merger of the ergative with the locativ e. ln Flinders Island Language it is clear that a change has taken place from u -->a as outline d in footnote 51 . ln the latter two languages the switch to final a can be seen as pan of a more general shift to final unmarked vowel a that also shifts the Jsg •I)QDHu to J)O )'O and in Dargin yung 2sg • I]indu to I]inda (see Dixon 1980:344-346 for discussion of this shift). In Woiw urrung the pronouns are innovative and so

32 it cannot be determined if there is a more general shift. Having determined that the languages in Table 3 may have cognate forms of the ergative these can be looked at in some detail. There are four groups that the languages with a ]aminal ergative allomorph lend to fall under. First there are languages in which ]aminal allomorphs appear only post consonantally and the -lu or -l)gu allomorphs follow vowels (e.g . Garadjari). In the second group the lamina] allomorph is found following vowels but following consonants has generally been lost through assimilation (e.g. Dharawal). The third major group has a lamina! allomorph in all environments (e.g. the Yolngu languages). Finally, there are a few languages in which the laminal allomorph is morphologically conditioned (e.g. Wagaya) and thus has a restricted distribution. In the first and third groups of languages there is an allomorph of the ergative -DHu following consonants. A list of these languages from Table 3 is (note that I include only a single example from closely related subgroups): Njangumarta, Warumungu (uncertain), Djapu, Woiwurrung, Yuwaalaraay (traces), Kunjen and Uradhi. Furthermore, in Martuthunira, Bidjara and the group Dhalandji/Bayungu /Dhargari the dental allomorph is found following the palatal nasal and so here would not seem to have come about through assimilation. i.e. if assimilation were occurring one would expect that -ny + Tu would yield -nydju and not the -nhdlru that is observed in these languages. It may be, therefore, that the dental stop of the ergative, -dllU, in these languages is underlying and while non-lamina! nasals cause this to assimilate to the nasal, lamina] nasals do not cause any change to the ergative suffix . Thus there are six to nine languages or subgroups far flung across the continent all with the supposed irregularity of an allomorph -DHu I C_ (though not always every consonant). In all of these languages it would seem that one must posit an underlying lamina! stop for the ergative, at least following consonants. Now given that in most languages post -consonantal allomorphs are neutral with regard to the articulation of the stop (that is, either -du or -DHu results in -Hul C_) and that I have not found a single language in which -du follows other than an alveolar consonant 56 it is clear that when considering Pama-Nyungan a reconstruction of *-DHu accounts for far more than does *- du. The loss of this form in most languages can be explained by the tendency of assimilation to a preceding consonant.

33 Thus, I reconstruct *-DHul C_ rather than the -du previously reconstructed by Dixon and there are very few modern Pama-Nyungan languages in which the allomorphs cannot be explained from this. Most often assimilation leads to -Hul C_ (see for example the details on Wargamay in §3.1) and in many languages the stop is lost following a rhotic or lateral leaving -u I L , R_ (see for example Muruwari in §3.1). The only forms which cannot be explained involve a rhotic following a lateral (this will be discussed in § 3.4 ), and a few irregular ergatives, mainly in Cape York, such as -I]imenhth in Gog-Nar and -na in Yitha Yitha. In the second and third groups of languages the !aminal allomorph is found following vowels. For a subset of these languages (i.e. Yanyula, Yuwaalaraay, Wiradhuray, Awabakal , Gumbaynggir, Thangatti, Batjala and Goeng Goeng) there is a palatal allomorph which follows the high front vowel i only, while with other vowels there is a reflex either of -rygu or of the post-vocalic allomorph -Ru discussed in §3.4. In some of these languages this situation may have arisen through palatal assimilation of a consonant to the high front vowel, i.e.: possibly in Wiradhuray

-gu IV_ --> -dju I i_ and in Yanyula

-rygu I V _ --> -nydju I i_. It can be noted for these languages, however, that palatal assimilation is not a regular morphophonologica l rule as other velar suffixes do not undergo this assimilation. For example in Yuwaalaraay there is an allativelpurposivelg enitive suffix -gu which is invariable (see also footnote 45) and thus under the analysis that the underlying form of the ergative is -gu follow ing vowels different rules have to be posited for the same form dependent on the morphological environment. There might be two reasons why this is so. Either there really is a morphologically defined phonological rule (perhaps triggered by the fact that the ergative also lends to undergo assimilation following consonants whereas the dative does not) or the underlying form of the ergative is -DHu and this changes following vowels and the original form is preserved only where it follows the high front vowel. This theory is supported by the Gamilaaraay dialect closely related to Yuwaalaraay where there is a dental following the high

56 An exception here is where -du follows the retroflex rhotic, such as in Yidiny. Here, however, the retroflex rhotic is an apical consonant and as Yidiny is a single apical language the single apical stop d follows this. Another apparent exception might be Kuku Yalanji where ergative suffix -dV I elsewhere is given. An example is given of djalbany-da 'taboo food' . The closely related neighbouring language Guugu Yimidhirr, however, has ergative suffix -nda of unknown origin and these may well be cognate.

front vowel. As in a double lamina) language the dental would not be expected to have arisen through palatalisation from the high front vowel this supports that in at least subgroup h the lamina I is a retention in the environment of the high front vowel rather than caused by it. In three of these languages - Gumbaynggir, Thangatti and Batjala - the lamina! allomorph following i is less likely to be a palatalised version of the more usual vocalic allomorph (at least in the modem languages). In Gumbaynggir the post-vocalic allomorph -rygu alternates with -lu while in Thangatti and Batjala there is allomorph -Ru . It is highly unlikely that -T)gu is the origin of -djrt because of the nasal, while the palatalisation of -lu to -dju is also unlikely . The shift

34 from -Ruto -yu is more likely though I can find no further examples where R --> y 1 i_ in either Thangatti or Batjala. In two other languages there is also a possibility that palatal assimilation occurs. The only examples given of the ergative are following the vowel i and the allomorph following other vowels is not known (i.e. Darginyung and Dharuk). There are, however, several diverse languages where there is no question of palatal assimilation as the !aminal allomorph follows all vowels (i.e. the Yolngu languages, MaiJala, Dharawal, BandjalangiYaygir , Kalkatungul Yalamga and Wakka Wakka) and in these languages the general ergative allomorph following vowels should be seen as -DHu. In most other languages the post-vocalic allomorphs of the ergative are reflexes of ·T)gu and/or -lu which were discussed in §3. J and §3.2 and have only limited post-vocalic distribution in the reconstruction. No other forms have significant . 57 an d thus the best reconstruction of the general post-vocalic allomorph is *-DHu. d'Jstn'b uuon As this is reconstructed as the general post-vocalic allomorph and contrasts with two other fom1s which have restricted post-vocalic distribution it might be expected to find languages where the distribution of -DHu complements the distribution of -T)gu and -lu. In fact it can be seen that there are languages where -DHu appears in contrast to ·T)gu on polysyllables only (MaiJala and Kalkatungu) and also languages where -DHu appears on nouns that -lu does not select (i.e. Djapu and Rithamgu have -DHu on non-kin terms and Wagaya has -dj on nonsingular nouns). Only a single language has all three forms: Yalarnga with ·T)ku 12 syllables, -yu I >2 syllables and -rlu I kin terms.

Again, if the allomorphs *-lu (see §3.1), *-1)gu58 (§3.2) and -Ru (§3.4) are excluded, almost all modem allomorphs following vowels can be derived from *-DHu. Again the only forms which cannot be explained are those which are quite irregular such as -bu in Gureng Gureng. Thus *-DHu (i .e. a lamina] which is generally dental in double lamina! languages and the sole lamina! in single lamina! languages) appears to be the reconstruction of the ergative following both consonants and vowels and thus can be seen as the major underlying allomorph

35 3.4. The problem of -Ru There are many Pama-Nyungan languages which have an allomorph of the ergative involving a rhotic (R for indetenninate rhotic). This rhotic allomorph has not previously been considered in any reconstruction of the ergative59 although it is relatively common and very widespread. It appears almost always in one of two environments; following a vowel or replacing a lateral. Although it is not possible at the moment to state with any certainty the origin of the rhotic allomorphs and they present somewhat of a problem in the reconstruction they cannot be ignored. The data is presented here with a brief discussion on some possible origins. The languages with a rhotic allomorph are presented in Tables 4 and 5. The first point to notice is that there are in Tables 4 and 5 examples of both of the rhotics, alveolar and retroflex. However, it can be noted that there is a tendency in Australia for retroflexion to be associated with the vowel u60, and this is exactly the environment of the ergative. It is thus quite plausible that alveolar rhotic rr and retroflex rhotic r originate from an alveolar rhotic. (Note that as two rhotics in a language is quite unusual outside of Australia there is very little data on rhotic change from elsewhere). Thus, although there are two different kinds of rhotic it may be possible to relate these to each other and given the similarity of the environments in which they occur it looks quite likely that they might be cognate. First consider languages where a rhotic follows a vowel in Table 4. In some of these languages a possible origin of the rhotic through regular sound changes may be found. For example Wangka-Yutjuru and Arabana are very closely related to Pitta Pitta which has allomorph -luI non future .61 Furthermore, in Wangka- Yutjuni and Arabana the ldu inc! *l)ali comes out as I]GRi and aRi respectively and thus in these languages the rhotic of the ergative may originate from the lateral. In Mpakwithi, of Cape York, the nouns which take the -rrV ergative allomorph are ma 'man', kwe?e 'spear' /wag a 'fever'. drathi 'current' and ?wa 'tame dog'. As three of the five forms here often take the -lu allomorph in Cape York languages (see

of the ergative. This is backed up by the Yolngu languages which have a ]aminal as the sole allomorph of the ergative. Rumsey ( 1980:5), however, although he does not give a strict reconstruction of the ergative states that there is for pan-Australian "an ergative in something like *-ru- -Iu- -du" . 59

57 The only exception to this is in languages of Cape York where allomorphs of the form -NTu are common (i.e. -mpu, -11hthu, ·ll)'tju). These, however, are outlined in Sommer (1976) who claims that they have originated from *-l)gu. 58 *·l)gu may undergo change to -gu through loss of the nasal, or to ·IJU through Joss of the stop.

60 For example Dixon ( 1980: 155) states that the retroflex tends to occur following u while the apical follows a and i. It can also be noted that in Nyawaygi intervocalic d has shifted to a rhotic with the conditioning

*d --> r I _ll *d --> rr I _a, i

(Dixon 1983:439)

61 Pitta Pitta also has future subject marker ·IJU and so is very similar to Wangka- Yutjuru .

37

36

Arnhem land Djinang

-r( i) - -li - -dji

Western Austra lia CBayungu -ru IV cohargari

-ru IV

-r( i) tends to occur on kin terms

> 2 syllables

-oku I 2 syllables

> 3 syllables

-l)ku I 2 syllables, -/u I 3 syllables

Southern Queensland Bidjara

final/

-->

-rm (one example68)

Darumbal

final I

-->

-Ill

final I. rr

-->

-nt

final I

-ru (one example in the data) -VVra

· IT

Central Queensland

South Austra lia

Dyirbal

OWangka- Yutjuru

Cape York

-Ru62 I (V ) non future -Rv62 I V (V -u/u, a

-1]11

I future subjectS/A 63

New South Wales

Flinders Is. lang.

final VI

Dharuk 64

Kunjen

final/

--> --> -->

Yir Yiront

final I

·->

0 Arabana

Than<>atti

-ra /V -Ru65 I 11, a

Baa11:andii 66

-rru I evervwhere

Kuku Thaypan

iii )

-yu/i

Table 5: Languages where final lateral shifts to a rhotic

Southern Q ueenslan d joarumbal

-r + n}•di

§3.2) it is also quite possible that -rrV in Mpakwithi derives from *-Itt. This suggests a plausible origin of the post-vocalic rhotic from a lateral (i.e. *- lu69) and there are other languages such as Bayungu which have very close relatives which do in fact have po t-vocalic ergative -lu. However, for none of these languages have I found any evidence of a regular

joabi-Gabi

-rru IV -RII67 I i

jaatjala

-rru IV

jwak.ka Wak.ka

-rru- -lu- -yu IV

may be free variation

sound change of lateral to rhotic other than in Arabana and Wangka-Yutjuru just quoted and it therefore has to be assumed that this is a sporadic change in the ergative only for most

Kunjen

-arr I some nouns

these are irregular

Mpakwithi

-rrV- -RV- -thV

languages. Furthermore, some of these languages also have examples of the ergative allomorph -lu (for example Dhargari has allomorph -luI V_ 3 syllables and Wakka Wak.ka has both -rr11 and -/u in variation) and so in these languages at least there does not appear to have been a shift

few examples of -T]u no other vowels given - -lu rarely

Ca pe York

Table 4: Languages wrth -R11jollowing vowels

62 The rhotic is an alveolar tap. 63 In the future tense sentences have nominative/accusative morphology. 64 The form -ra is given for the locative and instrumental functions contrasting with -(y)a for the ergative. The data is extremely scarce and it is not clear what the real picture is.

from *-lu to -Ru . An alternative hypothesis might be that -Ru was an allomorph of the ergative following vowels in proto-Pama-Nyungan. There is, however, a problem with this as unlike -l)gu and -/11 , no restricting environment can be found for -Rtt and *-DHu is a far better candidate for the general post-vocalic allomorph. The post-vocalic rhotic allomorph thus remains a problem in the reconstruction of the ergative. The situation where a rhotic allophone occurs with a stem ending in a lateral is slightly different as here the rhotic generally replaces the lateral. This phenomenon is restricted to a

65 Note that Holmer ( 1966: 15) states that he is doubtful about the identification of the three rhotics that he posits for the language and so it is not clear which rhotic occurs here. 66 In Baagandji ergative case marking is rare. Only in the Baarundji and rarely in the Gumu dialects is ergative marked, with -rru, on common nouns. In other dialects ergative -rru seems to be restricted to demonstratives, which may be affixed to nouns. 67 It is unclear which rhotic occurs here.

68 This is quoted in Holmer (1983 :209-210) with waiJCII 'boomerang' in the ergative as IVa i)Cirrll.

69 In Djinang there is an environment that is consistent with this theory as -r(i) occurs on kin terms. There is, however, also a suffix -li in Djinang.

38

39

band of languages in Cape York and down the Queensland coast and so may be an areal innovation.

2. Innovations involving *-1)gu:

- -->

these combine to form r, e.g. (example from Dixon 1980:492):

- --> -nydju I i_

waada/ + dal --> waadara/

[Dhargari - footnote 5]

- --> -gu

[Miminy - table 2]

-I)ll

[Yanyula- §3 .3]

3. Innovations involving *-DHu:

Although Guugu Yimidhir is not one of the languages with ergative allomorph /--> R it is in the same general area and it may be that such a rule was once more widespread. If at an earlier stage of the Queensland languages, *-I+DHu assimilated to -l+du, this may have yielded -Ru. Another hypothesis is again as outlined for the vowels, where the lateral switches to a rhotic. Thus , where final lateral is followed by allomorph -u (through loss of the stop in

*- DHu), change to rhotic yields the lateral replacement observed in the data. As with the postvocalic allomorph -Ru, the l -- > Ru ergative allomorph remains an unsolved problem. 4,

[Muruwari - §3 .1]

- comes to be used following all vowels

A possible origin for this phenomenon is found by looking at the data for Guugu Yimidhir. Havi land ( 1979:44-5) points out that at reduplication boundaries, where I and d come together

[Wargamay - §3.1]

- --> -Hu IN_

[Djapu - table 3]

- --> -yu - --> -du I L, R_

[Wargamay - §3.1)

- --> -u I L, R_

[Muruwari - §3.1]

Other more general changes that occur which have an effect on the ergative are: - merging of ergative and locative taking the vowel a of the locative [Fiinder's Island language - footnote 51] - neutralisation or loss of final vowels

Pama-Nyungan summary

[Kaytetye - table I] [Urad hi - footnote 53 J

- fricat ivisation In the previous discussion I have revised Dixon's reconstruction of the ergative case suffixes in proto-Pama-Nyungan and come up with the following reconstruction:

- loss of ergative function of the ergative suffix [Martuthunira - footnote 6) These changes account for the great majority of modem ergative suffixes in Pama-Nyungan languages . Only those which are clearly entirely innovative cannot be accounted for.70 Note ,

*-lu I V _ nomina Is which are not common nouns

however, that there is also a recurring suffix -Ru. which may have arisen different.ly in different

*-vgu I V_ common nouns with 2 syllables

languages and which is still not readily accountable for in the discussion of the ergative.

*-DHu I elsewhere There are many changes that commonly occur which lead to different systems and different forms . The most common can be summarised as follows (also given is an example of a language that either exhibits the change or has data that is consistent with the changes):

1. Innovations involving *-lu:

follows:

b) proper nouns c) kin terms d) pronouns/demonstratives/interrogatives

[Mbabaram - see footnote 18] [Watjarri - §3.2] [Djapu - §3 .2] [Bayungu -table 2]

- loss of the non-common-noun category and -lu comes to be used: a) V _ > 2 syllables [Yingkarta - table I] b) V _ [Garadjari- table 3] c) as the only (attested) allomorph

- --> -Ru

Thaayorre : - Vr- -an - -r- -ku - -tim Yir Yiront : includes allomorphs

- a reduction in the category of non-common -nouns to: a) an irregular group of nouns

70 The list of ergative allomorphs that I have found which are not readily accountable for is as

[Kauma - §3.2] [Arabana- §3 .4]

-11

--> -lh and -Tjel

Kunjen : includes allomorph -manluih Guugu Yimidhir : ·1Jllll, -nda I C_ Garawa : -nyi- -rzi- -1]illi- -1)11 Gugadj : - 1)Gnt Waanyi : -V Gog-Nar : -1)imenhth Gureng Gureng : -bu I V _ Ngayawung : -n11anna Yitha Yitha : -na Ngamini : -na

40 5.

Non-Pama-Nyung an languages

In most non -Pama-Nyungan languages the subject and object of the sentence are crossreferenced on the verb with pronominal prefixes and thus case marking is basically redundant. Therefore, the majority of languages have no case marking on the core participants. There are, however. a few languages which do have an ergative case that is available for comparison though it has often been claimed that these languages have no cognates with the Pama-Nyungan ergative (e.g. Evans 1988:93 "no language now classified as non-Pama-Nyunga n, and not immediately adjacent to a Pama-Nyungan language which could serve as a source for loans, has a con vincing reflex of ERG -I]gul· lu or LOC -I]gal-/a "). Statements like this, however, are based on the previous reconstruction of *-du, *-lu and *-I]gu and in the following discussion I show that there are possible cognates of the ergative *-DHu in some non-Pama-Nyunga n languages. I reconstruct an ergative case suffix for a language ancestral to both Pama-Nyungan

41

PWagiman

-yi optional 74 -yi optional 75

PAJawa

-tji

PWaray

IN, T_

-rr(l) IV_

-nydji I y. w_ -tV II_ -ndV I r_ The Ngandi forms are borrowed from the neighbouring Yolngu languages (Heath 1978b:75-7) but for the other languages in this group there can be reconstructed an ergative *-dji. Very often there has been lenition to the semivowel but the stop can be seen in Wardaman and Alawa where it appears to be protected in the consonantal environment. Alawa has some innovative forms that seem to involve some similarities to the Pama-Nyungan forms (most notably the

and at least some non -Pama-Nyungan languages.

allomorph -rri following vowels) but it can be noted that Alawa neighbours the Pama-Nyungan languages and so there may have been some borrowing. Many languages have lost this ergative

5.1. Nominal ergative suffixes

suffi x but, as it is only optional in many languages where it does occur, it would seem to be

Most non -Pama-Nyungan languages with an ergative case fall within a single subgroup, the macro-Gunwinygua n languages. These have ergative suffixes as follows:

generally dropping out of usage. Although the other languages in this subgroup lack an ergative suffix, for some languages the re is some evidence that they may have previously had one. For example Heath (I 976:410)

-yi optional 71 -yi? optional 72 -yi?

states that it is quite likely that Nunggubuyu had at an earlier stage a non-zero ergative/instrument al case suffix and that its loss has led to the borrowing of an instrumental fro m neighbouring Yolngu languages. Other languages in the subgroup have ergative

PNgandi

-tlw- -dhu

morphology elsewhere than on the nominals . Mara, for example, has no core case suffixes but

PWardaman 73

-yi IV_ -dji IT_ -nyi IN_

PDalabon PRembamga PNgalakan

71 From my field notes it can be seen that the suffix is most often used in the instrumental sense or for transitive subject where the subject is inanimate. There are a few examples of -yi on animate subjects. 72 The ergative is often omitted if the context clearly indicates the functions of the core noun phrases.

2. m- ->biT_ 3. g -- > w, b -- > w, dj -- > y I non-nasa l sonorant_ If -yi were to be taken as the underlying form of the ergative the data does not fit in with the fortition process in rule 1 as the fortition of w to b occurs only following a nasal and not a stop. If -dji were to be taken as underlying, the data more closely follows the lenition process in rule 3 where a stop is retained following a nasal and stop but is lenited elsewhere. However, there is the irregularity of the nasal allomorph -nyi following nasals. If -11yi were taken as underlying, the fortition to -dji following a stop is as form in rule 2, but the. lenition to -y~ is irregular. Thus the ergative in Wardaman is irregular and it is not really possible to deterrrune the basic underlying allomorph.

73 The Wardaman ergative (and locative) allomorphs do not pattern the same as other suffixes in the language. Regular morphophonologica l fortition and lenition processes in the language are: I . IV-- > bIN_

74 The ergative is used where it is required to disambiguate a sentence, where the agent is nonhuman, or in texts where emphasis is being placed. 75 The ergative is optional in non-ambiguous contexts.

43

42 distinguishes the ergative (A) from the absolutive (S/0) in the noun-class prefixes with differing forms.76 Similarly in Mangarayi, although the masculine and feminine noun-class

twambaya 80

-yi I some kin terms

prefixes inflect on a nominative/accusative system, the neuter prefixes are ergative /absolutive. 77

tDjamindjung/Ngaliwuru

Other non-Pama-Nyungan ergative suffixes are:

-ni 81 1 singular, plural nouns -dji I dual nouns

(=ergative/locative)

-ni IV, m_ -gi I lJ,n_ -di IT_

qyukulta

-ya IV_

(=ergative/locative)

-i(ya) I

-i /L_

L, R, y,

w_

-ki(ya) IN_, demonstratives -tji(ya) IN_ possessive adjectives, genitive,

tNungali 82 (=ergativellocati ve) Murinpata

miscellaneous words. qKayardild (=locative 78)

-ni IV_ -gi IN, T_

-re IV_

-te IC_

-ya IV_ -i(ya)

I L, R, k, th. tj_

Some Daly languages have an ergative postposition:

-ki(ya) IN_ -dji(ya) I"- possessive pronouns,

miscellaneous words. Bachamal

-karral) (=ergative/locative)

lNyigina

-ni optional 79

'1lardi

-nim (=agentive/focus)

SBunaba SGooniyandi tDjingili

-iryga -l)ga

-mi masculine

-rp feminine

UMarrithiyel

kin

UMarringarr

rprrin

UMarramaninydji

gin

UMerranunggu

1111/lU

UEnuni

nene

Ngangikurungur

ltirygi

VMaJak Malak

wary

VMatngela

ni

Kunema

newary

The ergative in the Daly languages tends to be optional and is used only where it disambiguates a sentence or where the agent is being emphasised or is semantically marked in that role. The ergative is therefore only used for emphasis. Two further languages have a marginal ergative suffix which is optional and hardly ever 76 For example, the feminine singular class has prefix n - to nouns in S and 0 functions and prefix ya- to nouns in A and oblique functions (Heath 1981 :71).

occurs:

77 For e"ample the feminine noun class has prefix rprla- for S and A and prefix rpn- for 0 , but the neuter noun class has prefix ma- for A and¢- for Sand 0 (Merlan 1982:57). 80 The other Eastern Barkly languages Gudanji, Binbinga and Ngarnga are very similar. 78 Although this suffix covers only the locative in Kayardild, Evans ( 1985:87) suggests that in proto-Tangkic this suffix covered both ergative and locative functions as it now does in Yukulta. 79 The suf!i" -ni is normally used only where the agent is capable of controlling the activity. It is also used in the instrumental sense where a force performs its natural function. The suffix-ni also has a second function as a narrative suffix where it adds emphasis.

Ngamga has -yi on all kin terms and Gudanji has -11h. 8 t There is an alternative -rw following the vowel u. 82 These suffixes only occur on those nouns which take no noun class prefix. On the majority of nouns the ergative case is indicated by a change in the noun class prefi" and generally has the form ny i- .

45

44 Wulna has suffix -dje for the ergative which sometimes also covers the instrumental and purposive functions. Umbugarla has an optional ergative suffix -idj which is used where the opposite of what is expected to happen happens. Thus this also seems to be used for emphasis only.

There are several of the non -Pama-Nyungan languages in which the ergative case suffix is comparable with the Pama-Nyungan ergative. Most important are the macro-Gunwinygu an languages in which there is an ergative -dji (usually with lenition to -yi), and the languages Wulna and Umbugarla which have an ergative suffix involving a palatal stop. Although in none of these languages (except Ngandi where there has very likely been borrowing) is there any trace of the vowel 11 found in Pama-Nyungan , it is quite plausible that the high vowel 11 may have assimilated to the palatal. Thus these are quite plausible cognates with *-DH11 • The comparison with Pama-Nyungan is strengthened by adding the locative data. In PamaNyungan languages the locative and ergative tend to share parallel allomorphy with the locative having final a where the ergative has finalu (see for example Dixon 1980:3 11-322). Although there is a lot of variety in the locative of the non-Pama-Nyungan languages, several of the languages presented here with ergative -dji have a locative of the form -dja or -ya. In Alawa the ergative and locative are identical. i.e.:

Dalabon Wardaman Alawa

between these two morphemes. In the other macro-Gunwinygua n languages with ergative -yi or -dji the locative is either completely innovative and has no cognates elsewhere, or can be seen to be related to a postposition lagani in Limilngan (see footnote 85). Furthermore, although the locative -dja is not particularly common it is the only suffixal form in this area, or even within the larger area of non- Pama-Nyungan languages, that recurs and is a possible candidate for proto-macro-

5.2. Comparison with Parna-Nyungan

Rembamga

pecu liar and unique allomorphy of both the ergative and locative greatly strengthens the link

er ative

locative

-yi -yi7

-dja 83- -ga -tja(m)

-yi - -dji- -nyi -djietc.

-ya - -dja - -nya -dji etc.

Gunwinyguan.85 A few further languages have possible cognates with the Pama-Nyungan ergative. In Wambaya there is a form which may be cognate with the ergative -DHu as here the ergative suffix on nouns marked for the dual is -dji. There are two points to note about Wambaya which make it seem that while the other ergative suffixes (on singular nouns) are innovative, the -dji may be original. Firstly, the suffix -ni on singular nouns is clearly cognate with the same suffix found in other languages of the Barkly and the Kimberleys (see §5.3). In this language plural nouns are often unmarked and thus the singular unmarked noun may also stand for more than two participants (note that the dual is always marked). Thus the plural has the same ergative marking as the singular. The dual, however, is obligatorily marked for number and does not take any overt mark of gender. Therefore, where the ergative in the singular may have originated from gender suffixes (see §5.3) this is not so in the dual where gender is not marked and so there must be some other origin for the ergative suffix. Perhaps then, thi s suffix is the retention of an ancient suffix which has been replaced in the singular. A second point to note involves a benefactive/oblique stem in the dual, but not in the singular, where -dja- is added to the noun before the local case suffixes. This is possibly from an old locative *- DHa and is retained in the same environment that the ergative is retained. In Wambaya a second possible cognate with the ergative -DHu is found on the kin terms where -yi is the ergative suffix on a limited subset of these. This also occurs in Ngamga as the sole suffix on kin terms.

If these forms originally had parallel allomorphy then in Dalabon and Rembarnga there must have been lenition of the stop only where it precedes the high front vowel ;,84 In Wardaman the the subsection terms l)t1rritjtjan and kalitjan . The former of these can be compared with IJCirritjan in Djapu and Dalabon). 83 The most common locative is -ga but in some situations there is suffix -dja. This includes the interrogative 'where' mari7-dja. The form -ga may be a later innovation, see discussion below . 84 The tendency for lenition of tji to yi can be seen in the Rembarnga third person minimal feminine pronoun which has the forms l)t1tji7ranta - l)t1yi7ranta. On the other hand, in for example the subsection terms of Rembamga it can be seen that -tja does not Jenite (i.e. look at

85 There is another locative form which does recur with a form -gan (i.e. Mangarayi, Nyigina, Bardi) and possible cognates -ga (i.e. Dalabon and Ngalakan), but this is very likely cognate With a postposition which appears as lagani in Limilngan and kami in Wulna. Jawonj also has a cognate with thi s with -luk and Waray with -lik though Evans (forthcoming) suggests that these have developed from a noun *lak 'p lace '. This may simply be a shortened form of an older longer form lakani.

46

47

In saunaba and soooniyandi there are ergative forms which resemble the Pama-Nyungan ergat1ve ·l]gu as these have the forms -il]ga and -l]ga respectively. With final a, however, they more closely resemble the locative and in fact in both of these languages there are some usages of the ergative which are more locative-like than ergative-like. For example in Bunaba such expressions as 'this side' ('this'+comitative+ergative), 'underneath' (down-ergative) and 'he's lying on his stomach' utilise the ergative suffix. Thus the ergative seems to be cognate with the

following all nasals (except for a morphologically defined group which take -tji(ya)) and is not restricted to the nasal IJ. 86 A second possible cognate with the Pama-Nyungan ergative in Tangkic has been put forward by Blake ( 1988:38) who suggests that the -rlu of Yukulta allative -Cirlu may have come from *-lu. However, I think it more likely that this has been borrowed from the nearby Warluwara where the allative is -lu- -karlu. Note the similarity of -karlu with the post-nasal

Pama-Nyungan locative -l]ga. Jn Gooniyandi, however, the locative also seems to be cognate with Pama-Nyungan as this has the forms -ya IV_ - -dja 1 N, T_ which resemble *-DHa. This suffix also has some cross over with the ergative as there are examples of semantic instruments in the data both with this suffix and with the ergative -l]ga . Thus, in these two languages there is a great deal of cross-over between the ergative, instrumental and locative functions but the

allomorph -kirlu in Yukulta. In Ngangikurungur the ergative postposition nil]gi has been hypothesised to contain the ergative -l]gu by Blake (1988:33). Some languages of the Kimberleys close by have an instrumental suffix which closely resembles this:

question remains as to whether they have inherited their case suffixes or whether these have been borrowed or have innovated. There are two reasons to believe that while -l]ga may have been borrowed the locative -ya - -dja is unlikely to have been borrowed. Firstly, Bunaba and Gooniyandi neighbour the Pama-Nyu ngan languages and while their neighbouring languages have ergative and locative of the form -l]gu and -l]ga they have no cognates with *-DHV. Furthermore, no other neighbouring languages have cognates with *-DHV. Secondly, cognates with *-DHV are found in other non-Pama-Nyungan languages as outlined above but no other plausible cognates are found for the -l]g V form. Finally, I consider languages which have been presented in the literature as having plausible cognates with Pama-Nyungan ergative -l]gu or -lu. First are the Tangkic languages, qyukulta and qKayardild, which have ergativenocative -kiya. Evans (1985:87-8) puts forward the hypothesis that the initial element -ki is cognate with the ergative -l]gu with the element -ya coming about through absorption of a following particle. Evans proposes that the form -ki may have come about through two processes. The first is vowel harmony where the; aJiomorph has generalised. The second is analogical resegmentation of -l]ki which leads to ergative -ki and the lJ reanalysed as a part of the nominal stem (i.e. the opposite to what Hale (1976) proposes, with the nasal from the suflix being analysed as part of the stem rather than the other way around). I see, however, two arguments against this and do not believe that Tangkic has a cognate with the Pama-Nyungan ergative *-l]gu. Firstly, although there are some words in Tangkic languages which have finallJ where cognates elsewhere have a final vowel , these are only few in number and there are plenty of vowel final nouns. There is therefore no real evidence that ·l]gV could have lost its nasal to the nominal stems. Secondly, the allomorph -ki(ya) is found

wworora WWaljamidi WMunumburu

nyinil]ge nyil)ge nyil]ge

All of these, including the Ngangikurungur form, look cognate with the Worora suffix. As other Kimberley languages have an instrumental postposition nyini the Worora form appears to involve an augment -l]gV to this. It is suggested by Blake that rhis augment is the ergative suffix -l]gu found in Parna-Nyungan. There is, however, another possible origin and this is from the noun-class marker for inanimates, as is suggested by Capell and Coate ( 1984: 158). In modern Worora the instrumental is affected by class and a noun-class suffix may be added, thus

86 The analysis of the Tangkic ergative remains unsolved and there are several tentative hypotheses. If, as Evans suggests, the final -ya derives from a particle then an origin must be found for the initial segment -ki- - -tji-. If -ki- is taken to be the more basic form then this may be cognate with the locative -gV found in other non-Pama-Nyungan languages. On the other hand, -tji- may be more basic as it has only a restricted distribution that is morphologically defined. If this case then -rji- may be cognate with the ergative *-DHu. There is, however, in Kayardild a rule of delaminalisation whereby final !aminal stop becomes alveolar before the nominative suffix -a (e.g. biriid-a 'father-nominative' but biriidj-balad 'father-many'). If such a rule exists for nasals also, then it may be that the allomorph -tji- is conditioned by an earlier underlying final !aminal nasal. I have found no cognates to confirm or deny this possibility. Finally, it may be that the final segment -ya of the ergativenocative -Ci-ya is the primary marker of the case and this is a plausible cognate with the locative *-DHa. This analysis is made possible because the elements (i.e. -tji, -ki etc.) which precede this are actually found also in the allative, ablative and comitative cases with the same conditioning environments and thus these are far more general than just the ergative/locative case. e.g. The allative in Yukulta has the following allomorphs: -r/u, -irlu, -kirlu, -tjirlu and -l]kirlu.

48

49

nyinii]ge-m 'by an object of the vegetable class'. At an earlier stage it is possible that this class marking was more widespread and as several languages have a suffix -l)g V for the inanimate

*mayi is also the origin for the vegetable noun class prefixes of the language there is clearly a link between class and case affixes (see also footnote 87). Thus, within the subgroup of the Mindi languages there is evidence that the ergative case suffixes have innovated from class

class (e.g. Worora 'where-inanimate' IJGIIO·I]ga) and most usages of the instrumental would involve an inanimate object it is quite likely that this is the origin of the -I]ge on the instrumentaJ.87 5.3. Other forms of the ergative There are several ergative forms in the non -Pama-Nyungan languages which cannot be considered cognate with *-DHu nor with any other ergative suffix so far reconstructed. Most of these languages have an ergative of the form -11i which may have phonological alternatives. This appears in fNyiginaJll3ardi, in the Mindi languages tDjingili, tDjamindjung, tNgaliwuru, tNungali, twambaya, tGudanji , tsinbinga and tNgarnga as well as possibly in Matngela. All of these languages are within a fairly small area of northern Australia and this form may be seen as an areal feature. In Djingili the concepts of noun-class and case cannot be separated as they are marked together in the same suffix. Here the ergative has the forms -mi where the noun is masculine and ·IJG where the noun is feminine. Chadwick (1976:393-4) outlines a hypothesis that these have originated from class [gender] markers which were also indicators of transitive third person. As the forms of these class markers in Djingili are -ni- masculine and -I)Gyi- feminine thi s hypothesis seems highly likely. Thus in Djingili, at least, the ergative suffixes have a recent origin from class markers. Of the other Mindi languages Ngarnga also has some evidence that -ni has originated from the masculine class. In this language while the ergative is -11i, where this appears on a feminine noun this is preceded by the feminine suffix -I)G-. Thus there is masculine ergative -ni, but feminine ·IJCI+ni. This would suggest that although -ni is now the general ergative suffix it is still associated with the masculine gender. In Nungali the ergative/instrumental suffix, where it occurs, has the form -ni - -gi. However, on nouns of the vegetable class the instrumental suffix has the form -mayi and thi s very clearly originates from the vegetable classifier *mayi. As

markers. A possible explanation as to why these languages might have developed an ergative suffix from the noun-class affixes is suggested by the data in Nungali where the instrumental on the vegetab le class is -mayi which is very clearly cognate with *mayi the vegetable classifier. If the hypothesis put forward in this paper is correct that proto-Australian had an ergative (/instrumen tal) suffix *-DHu then upon the loss of this the instrumental function would no longer be marked. These languages seem to have opted for adding the noun class marker to indicate this function. The instrumental may then extend to cover more agent-like functions and so a new ergative comes about which may have initially been used only for emphasis but could become more common. For Nyigina there is also some evidence that the -11i ergative is a recent innovation. In this language the suffix -IIi undergoes no phonological change and upon the combination of root+11i ergative suffix there are found consonant clusters that are not found anywhere else in the language. Stokes ( 1982:67) suggests that this is because -11 i is only a recent addition to the language, possibly derived through the suffixation of an earlier word or particle. Alternatively it may have been borrowed. It is possible that in fNyigina and I"Bardi the origin of the ergative is from the masculine class, as in the Mindi languages, though there is no evidence that this is so. However, the fact that ergative -ni appears to be of recent origin in at least Nyigina suggests that it is not inherited from a high level subgroup. The final languages which have an ergative are the Daly languages where there is generally a postposition to indicate function. As these are all very diverse, even within subgroups, it would certainly seem that these are not inherited from a proto-language but are recent innovations, different in each language. Furthermore Nangikurrungur nii]gi would seem to be borrowed from the Kimberley languages (see §5 .2) and Matngela may also have a borrowed form. In Marrithiyel the ergative kin also serves as an emphatic marker on deictics and this may

be the origin of the ergative suffix in this language. 5.4. Non-Pama-Nyungan summary: nominal ergative

87 There is one example of a language in the non -Pama-Nyungan area where the instrumental very clearly has the same origin as a noun class affix. In Nungali, nouns of the vegetable class

Over the non -Pama-Nyungan area there are many diverse forms for the ergative but with two forms which recur. The most restricted of these is a form -ni which is limited to one particular

may take an instrumental suffix -mayi while nouns of the other classes take the same suffixes as for the ergative (see earlier list). As the vegetable class prefix in Nungali is ma- - mi- (Bolt et. al. 1971) and it is hypothesised that *mayi 'vegetable food' is the origin of the vegetable

area and most likely derives from the masculine noun class suffix at least in some of the languages. This is of recent origin and is thus a later innovation. The second form is -dji, very

food class affixes with form m V in Australia (see for example Dixon 1982: 173) it looks highly likely that the instrumental suffix -mayi for vegetable class in Nungali originates from the same

often with lenition to -yi, which is not restricted to a si ngle area but is widespread, though scarce. This con trasts with a locative -dja. or -ya in a couple of these languages, thus

source as the vegetable noun class prefixes.

strengthening the similarity as there is a paradigm of parallel forms:

51

50

er ative

locative

-ya- -dja

Umbugarla

-yi- -dji -dje -idj

Wambaya

-dji /dual

-dja I dual local case augment -ya- -dja

macro-Gunwinyguan Wulna

Gooniyandi

s A

0

These forms are widespread and discontinuous. This would suggest that they are relics as discontinuity of a form indicates that there is retention of an ancient form (i.e. Blake 1988:42). These forms may be related to the Pama-Nyungan ergative and locative forms reconstructed as *-DHu and *-DHa. They share the same parallel allomorphy for the ergative and locative and differ only in the final vowel of the ergative. Thus a locative *-DHa and an ergative of the form *- DHV with either i or 11 as the final vowel may be reconstructed at a level higher than proto-

Is

2s

TJGY

l)ill l)in+lu --> l)indu IJin+NHa --> 1JiNHa

l)lJy+DHtt --> l)lJDHu rpy+NHa --> l)lJNHa

These involve the regular ergative suffixes reconstructed for Pama-Nyungan and are therefore quite regular. In the non-Pama-Nyu ngan area most languages have only a single free cardinal pronoun form which covers all of S, A and 0 functions and grammatical roles are further marked by bou nd pronouns. As these are often portmanteau forms it is a lot more difficult to reconstruct individual case forms for the pronouns. However, there is a small amount of evidence that different case forms can be reconstructed for lsg and 2sg88 in the non -Pama-Nyunga n languages.89

Pama-Nyungan . If the original vowel is considered as 11 then i may be easily derived from this by palatalisation in the presence of the palatal consonant. The question of this final vowel will be further considered in §6. Finally, the question of the laminal stop needs to be addressed. In Pama-Nyungan languages this is a dental stop in double lamina! languages and the single !aminal stop occurs elsewhere. This is usually represented as a palatal. In the non-Pama-Nyu ngan languages there are no dental cognates (with the exception of Ngandi where the ergative has been borrowed from Pama-Nyungan languages) but most languages here are single Jarrtinallanguages. Of the languages listed with possible cognates with -DHV, only Dalabon and Gooniyandi are stated to have double larrtinals. However, Capell ( 1962:93) states for Dalabon that "there does not seem, however, to be phonemic contrasts on the lexical level between them [dentals] and the alveolar series, so perhaps they may be regarded as allophonic". This leaves only Gooniyandi as a double laminal language with palatal allomorph. However, the serrti-vowel is taken to be the underlying allomorph with hardening to dj through regular rules (McGregor 1990:97, 181). As either dj or d/1 lenites toy either consonant is equally plausible as the original form. Thus, the ergative is reconstructed with the lamina! DH which is realised as dh before u in double larrtinal languages and as the single !aminal, usually represented as dj, in single lamina! languages.

88 Many non-Pama-Nyu ngan languages actually have a minimal-augme nted rather than singular-plural number system. However, for the purposes of comparison 2sg is the same as 2rrti nimal etc. For the sake of simplicity of comparison I have standardised all references to pronouns with the terms singular, dual and plural. Note that as the pronouns under discussion are Jsg , 2sg and 3sg there is no need to refer to pronouns within the minimal-augme nted analysis. 89 In this paper 1 discuss only the proposed S and A forms of these pronouns though it may also be possible to reconstruct distinct 0 forms of the pronouns. This involves suffix -n to all pronouns, both singular and non-singular (see also Heath 1987:233 who identifies a sufftx -n on noun classes and pronominal prefixes in 0 and S functions). As this is irrelevant to the topic, however, this is not further discussed (but see Dixon et. al. forthcoming for further discussion). The reconstructed case morphology that I propose for proto-A ustralian is therefore as follows:

6.

Ergative in the pronouns.

For the Pama-Nyungan singular pronouns it is possible to reconstruct individual forms for each of S, A and 0 functions. These forms are reconstructed in Dixon 1980 as:

1sg and 2sg: distinct S, A and 0 forms non-singular: S/A versus 0 forms . This morphology differs from the hierarchy for ergativity proposed by Silverstein (1976) m that in his hierarchy third person should be marked ergative before first and second person. However it does follow his hierarchy in that in his theory singular pronouns should be marked for ergati,ve before non-singular pronouns (i.e. 2sg is more likely to be ergative marked than 2du or 2pl).

52

53

First consider the 2sg pronoun. As a free pronoun there are two related but different forms which are widespread as the uninflecting S/A/0 form: 1]iny(V) and 1Jiny+DHv.90 Some examples are as follows:

LANGUAGE

0 PREFIX

S PREFIX

FREES/NO

Jawonj

1Jiny

PDalabon

Umbugarla

l)iny

PNdjebbana

Limil ngan

T)inyi

PNgalakan

SBunaba

l}inyi

PRembam__g_a

SGooniyandi

T)inydji

Tiwi

IJinydja

Worora

I)Lmdju

Wulna

T)it}a-nitj

tNung_ali

rsardi f'Nyigina

dju djuwa

It appears, therefore, that there may be two reconstructable forms for the 2sg pronoun : *1Jiny(V) and *T)inyDHV. In the bound pronouns there are also many languages which appear to have the morpheme DHV associated with 2sg. This may appear in combinations of S, A and 0 functions . The data is presented in Table 6.

l!J!!!nindj_u

dja7- -da7-

nyi- - dja-

dja- - I)GIIG-

dja?-- da?-

dja- - IJGIIG·

dja-

nyanda-

I IJiny-

1711111·

dju-

djtlll ·

I 1Jiny-

I 1Jiny-

ta-

tan-

1ljljn]djabba

tanta

2sg-->lsg

I

Tj(Uiju-

I IJGni-ny- 93 gani-ny- 93

l l)GdjiIJG!lluihi-

I)GdjaTI· i_1lClllluihin-

tojamindjung_

/IGIIli

na-

tNgaliwuru

IIGIIli

na-

XMiriwung

II~I)U

nV-

na-

dje-

1

'.'2'~1

IIG-

nV-

dji-

Lxini-

XKija 94 In a few languages there is simply the syllable DHV, sometimes augmented by an additional syllable:

T'li!l J}j1!)'fl}_a 7

A PREFIX

3sg-->2sg 9 I 2sg-->3sg 92

PRONOUN

wungarinjin

I~

wworora

l!J.tmdj_u

Gooni.Y_andi

L!l!~

nyin -

I TJIIII · I fiR·- dji-

1

gani-ny- 93

IIJllll· l_r]tm -

l)gi-

Murii!Q_ata

nhinhi

thV-

- II hi

Ngan'gityemerri

nyinyi

yV--

-nyi

PAJawa

ll)'_agarm

gVnytjVyi-

i iJOII)'dji-

I IJGiuljin-

cjj_an -

anydj_a-

l}jpll -

(_g_)an)'4J: djiti!VyV--

yene-

!

T)ill-

gVn}'lj_Y-

ku -

)'i-

tjj-

Table 6 : languages which have bou11d pronominals for 2sg cognate with DHV

91 Note that in the great majority of languages the 3sg A has zero realisation and so the 3sg-->2sg transitive prefix consists solely of the 2sg as 0 . In the majority of languages here the form presented appears everywhere where 2sg is the 0 . 92 Note that in the great majority of languages the 3sg 0 has zero realisation and so the 2sg-->3sg transitive prefix consists solely of the 2sg as A. 93 Initiall)Gni- and gani- occur with all 3sg agent pronouns. The final -ny- is 2sg 0 . 94 In Kija the 2pl also has allomorph djV-. Here, however, the 2pl appears to be based on 2sg by addition of suffix -rrV. i.e. where 2sg S is na- 2pl is narra- and where 2sg-->3sg is dji 90 Justification for comparing forms with differing final vowels is given later.

2pl-->3pl is djarri-.

-I 54

LANGUAGE

FREE S/A/0

S PREFIX

OPREAX

55

APREAX

Many languages have a reflex of DHV in A function or A and S functions , but not in 0 function:

2sg-->lsg

In Ngalakan all 2sg A prefixes use the form dju- (i .e. 2sg-->3pl djubu-) with the minor exception of 2sg-->lnon -sg which has the form yini-. As this , however, is identical to 2non-sg--> lnon-sg there has very likely been collapse of the forms . Note that in the free pronoun the final -dja7 is probably not a reflex of the DHV under discussion but is very likely the post-palatal reflex of a regular augment -ka? to all free pronouns in Ngalakan (e.g. lsg J)Oyka?, 3pl burrka?, note that 3sg masculine is minydja?, also with dj following the palatal nasal). Rembarnga has an alveolar rather than !aminal cognate. However, the close relationship of this language with Ngalakan and the highly suppletive nature of 2sg-->3sg and 2sg--> lsg presented above makes it highly likely that these are cognate. In the 2sg-->non-sg pronouns ta appears to be realised as rra (i .e. 1 --> rr I V_ V) in for example 2sg-->3pl parra- (i.e.

Table 6 continued: languages wlrich /rave bound pronominalsfor 2sg cognate with DHV Firstly, there are two languages where there is a reflex of DHV in most of the forms whe re 2sg is involved:

compare with Jsg->3sg J)CI· and lsg-->3pl pava-).

In Dalabon the S/A prefix has dja7- and da?- in free variation. No mention is made as t0 when 0 prefix nyi- is used and when dja- is used. According to Capell (1962: 116-117) the 0 prefix simply precedes the A prefix.

In tNungali, tojamindju ng and 'Ngaliwuru the listed A prefix appears in all 2sg A pronoun prefixes (for example with 2sg--> I pli)CldjiRi- and 2sg-->3pli)CldjiwiRi- in Nungali; note that -Ri- and -wiRi- occur in all I pi and 3pl 0 pronouns respectively). There is, however, a minor vowel change to finalrr in some Djamindjung and Ngaliwuru forms. For example, in

In Ndjebbana the 2sg S prefix and 3sg-->2sg is dja- with I)Cina- in the realis. The 2sg A prefix is dja- in all but 2sg--> I sg (e.g. 2sg-->3du/ ldu djabindi-, 2sg-->3plll pi djabanda

-

Ngaliwuru the 2sg-->3du is rpnydjrmy- and 2sg-->3pl is rpnydjuRu- . The A prefix for these three languages has initial 1)CI, rather than l)i , but Blake ( 1988: 15) states that there are possible paths of development for the first vowel a here from earlier i and states that the suppletion of the final -d)V suggests that these are cognate with

Note that bindi- and banda- occur in other singular A with non-singular third person 0 prefixes such as for example lsg-->3 pl l)Obanda-).96 The 2sg 0 uses prefix dja- (with vana

-

in the realis) with singular A (i.e . I sg/3sg-->2 sg dja -) and zero elsewhere (i.e lpll3pl -->2sg nbarra - where -nbVrrV- is the regular mark of plural A). Note that th e irregular form 2sg--> Isg nyanda- is identical to 3sg--> I sg/pl and is entirely regular as 3sg--> I pi (with nymr- for I pi 0- also found in 2pl/3pl--> I pi nyanbirri-- and -nda- for 3sg A- also found in for example 3sg-->2pl1ralrda- and 3sg-->3pl banda-). Thus it is likely tha I this form has spread from the 3sg-->lpl.

2sg pronouns elsewhere. XJGja and XMiriwung are closely related. In Kija dji- is the 2sg-->3sg/p l in the present tense. There is djana- in the past and djuwu- in the future. 2sg--> lsg/pl has yene-, yinaand yinpi- respectively . Miriwung is similar but has non-future forms 2sg-->3pl djemina

-

and 2sg-->lsg/p l yini- and has future forms 2sg-->3sg djuwilu-, 2sg-->3pl djemindilaand 2sg-->lsg/ pl yindi/e-. In these two languages, therefore, the 2sg A with third person 0 pronouns appear to have cognate with 2sg DHV. but 2sg A with first person 0 pronouns do not. However, as in Kija all I pi 0 pronouns have initial yi-, and in fact 3sg--> I pi is identical to 2sg--> 1pl. it is highly probably that the 2sg--> I sg/pl pronoun was originally a 3sg-->lpl pronoun which has extended its usage. This is made more likely by the fact that

95 -ni- and -I)Cli- are for masculine and feminine respectively. Thus -11u-- -nyu- is the marker for 2sg 0 . The form -nyu- is also given as the 2sg 0 with non-sg A. 96 Note that the analysis of prefixes in this paper is generally my own segmentati on and 1 isolate A or 0 prefixes where there is a recurring element in all, or most, 2sg A or 0 transitive

yene- present tense form is entirely regular as a 3sg--> I pi form (w ith ye- analysable as cognate with yerre- which is the I pi S prefix, and -ne- found in all 3sg A pronouns) but is

prefix combinatio ns. 1 provide some justification for the segmentation that I make for A and 0 prefixes in brackets.

completely irregular as a 2sg--> I pronoun.

L....i

57

56 In wworora and wungarinjin the initial segment (g)a- of the 2sg A prefix is the masculine prefix which is replaced by nyi- in the feminine (i .e. 2sg-->3sg feminine nyinydj- in Worora and nyinydja- in Ungarinjin). Thus the 2sg A segment is -nydj(a)-. In Worora -nydj- appears in all 2sg A combinations except 2sg-->lsg which has the slightly different form djan- . Similarly in Ungarinjin except that 2sg-->lpl has njada-. the same form as 3-->lpl pronouns. As -da- is a consistent marker of 3pl A (e.g. 3pl-->lsg l)Clnda-, 3pl-->2sg nyinda-, 3pl-->3pl bunda-) it is probable that njada- was originally a 3pl--> 1pi pronoun that has extended to other meanings. In Gooniyandi a prefix d)V- appears in all 2sg A transitive combinations except 2sg-->lsg (i.e. there is also 2sg-->3pl djun- and 2sg-->lpl djin-) . The 2sg-->lsg form here is identical to 3sg--> lsg and so there may have been some merger of these two forms . Murinpata and Ngan'gityemerri have S/A prefixes and 0 suffixes with no variation for different person combinations. In both languages the vowel is determined by the vowel of the following auxiliary. In Ngan'gityemerri yV- is the neutral subject marker while g Vnyt)V- is termed the 'undesirable' subject by Reid (1990: 112) and is used to mark the undesirability of an event in the irrealis, or for warning/prohibition constructions. Here gVwould appear to be the mark of undesirability as gV- is the third person mark of undesirable subject, and so -nyt)V- is the mark of 2sg SIA. As nasal-stop clusters are not permissible word initially it is quite possible that -nyt)V- is realised as t)V- word initially, and that there has been lenition of this to yV-. There are also a few languages where the 2sg-->lsg pronoun has an element DHV that is not found with 2sg-->3 prefixes, nor where there is 2sg 0. However, for many of the other 2sg A pronouns in these languages there is some alternative explanation for the forms observed: Alawa has 2sg-->lsg tji- which is irregular and for which there is no alternative explanation but inheritance. However, 2sg--> I plnyun- is identical to 3sg--> I pi incl and is similar to 2pl--> I pi and 3pl--> I inclnyunurr-. There has clearly been some merging of forms here. 2sg-->3sg is identical to the 2sg S prefix. The 2sg-->3pl is wurrku- and this was originally a 2pl-->3pl pronoun a it still is. Note that it involves the 2pl morpheme wuR/L- found in 2pl-->3sg wul- and 2du S wurr- . lwaidja has 2sg-->lsg yan- and 2sg-->lpl yamm -. 2sg-->3pl is a1)1nzm- which seems to involve the same form as is found in 2sg S prefix a!)- with the 3pl 0 prefix -bun-IT_ and

-mun- 1 N_. The 2sg-->3sg form, gac-97 , is quite irregular and no explanation can be given for this form . Pym (1979: 123) analyses the prefixes yan- and yarruN- as first person 0 prefixes with no indication of the A but as the I pi free pronoun is lJClrrurri, I pi S prefix is (!J)arru - and I pi 0 prefix with third person A is (IJ)arruN- there is no reason to suppose that initial ya- is associated with I pi and it is equally likely that it indicates 2sg A. Note that lenition is very common in Iwaidja and so it is quite reasonable that ya- may be cognate with dja-. In Djingili the S/A prefix is cognate with the free pronoun. There is, however, a quite suppletive portmanteau form to indicate 2sg-->lsg l)Cli!Jd)ana-. As this is completely irregular in the language it is more likely to have been inherited rather than developed independently and as -ana- is given as the suffix for lsg 0 with non-sg A then it is likely that lJClndj- indicates 2sg A Wunambal has 2sg-->lsg prefix djan- . This is irregular as lsg 0 elsewhere is marked by IJUII- (e.g. 2pl/3pl-->lsg IJUnburr- , 3sg-->lsg IJWld-) and 2sg A with zero (e.g. 2sg-->lpl

jan- where njanburr- is 2pV3pl--> I pi, and 2sg-->3sg simply with the noun class prefix for

11

3sg) . Finally, there are two languages which have the DHV element in 2sg 0 affixes but not elsewhere: In Wagiman the only trace of 2sg DHV is found in 3sg-->2sg l)tllld)u- and 3pl-->2sg !Jtmdjuba-. Note that the other 2sg 0 prefixes are I sg-->2sg l)Clll)'- and I pl-->2sg l)il)gu-. In Nyigina both the free pronoun and 0 suffix have djuwa. The S/A prefix is quite different to this In summary it can be stated that there are two different recurring forms of the 2sg pronoun,

l)iny(V) and (1Jiny)+DHV.98 Both of these occur as the uninflecting S/A/0 pronoun in modern

97 The c indicates that w, rd or d) is added before vowel initial verb stems and changes occur to consonant initial stems. 98 There are also many other 2sg pronouns which are not discussed here as they appear to be restricted and have a recent origin. For example the Mindi languages (subgroup t) have the form 11 amila which is an innovation restricted to this subgroup, though a bound S pronoun noappears to be an areal feature spreading out from here (e.g. see Miriwung and K.ija S prefix). XMiriwung, XK.ija and Ungarinjin have a form nyVI)V(n) while Dalabon has nyil). This, I

58

59

languages. From this one could hypothesise that both forms might be reconstructable and may originally have had different functions. In the free pronoun data the possible roles of these forms has been lost, however, as there is merger of the S, A and 0 functions. One therefore needs to look at the bound pronouns where there is some differentiation for S, A and O, in

pronouns, even where these free pronouns are recent innovations (see for example 2sg nya- na- from nyama- nama in Djingili). Even in portmanteau A/0 pronouns where there has been

order to determine what the function of *ryiny+DHVmay have been.99 The data on 2sg bound pronouns with an element DHV is as follows: I . It occurs on almost all 2sg bound pronominals for S, A and 0 (two languages which are geographically close but are from different lower level subgroups). 2. It occurs as the 2sg A prefix (but not S or 0) on all, or almost all, 2sg A transitive pronouns (eight languages from four different subgroups). 3. It occurs as the 2sg A prefix on all or almost all 2sg A transitive pronouns and as the 2sg S prefix (four languages from four subgroups). 4. It occurs in the 2sg-->lsg transitive pronoun but in no other prefixes (four languages from three subgroups).

much reduction and merger of the forms the bound pronouns can very often be seen to be cognate with the free pronouns. Thirdly, there is a great deal of variety in the ordering of A and 0 in the transitive bound pronouns and in some languages A precedes 0, in others 0 precedes A, in others the order is variable. Sometimes either of A or 0 is not marked at all. Finally, a few languages have prefixes for S and A but suffixes for 0. Over all it does not appear possible to reconstruct bound pronouns for proto-Australian and these must be recent innovations. It is therefore most likely that they have originated from the free pronouns. With regards to the second assumption made, that DHV is cognate with l)iny+DHV, it can be noted that although most bound forms have simply DHV and lack the initialiJiny the four Mindi languages (subgroup t) retain I]iny as l)QNH-. It can also be noted that in wungarinjin, wworora and Ngan'gityemerri the 2sg has evidence not just of DHV but of -nydjV- which retains the nasal of the putative original form I]iny-djV where this follows a vowel. The loss of

5. It occurs where 2sg is 0 but in no other bound pronouns (two languages from two subgroups).

initial I]i(ny) in bound forms can be accounted for through the very common process of simplification and shortening of bound pronouns as compared to free forms. Note also that in a language such as Gooniyandi where the free pronoun is IJinydji and the bound S prefix is dji-

In order to compare the DHV found in the bound pronouns with the free pronoun ryiny+DHV there are two assumptions that must be made:

there is a strong link between the forms with and without initiall)iny. Thus, assuming that all of the forms (IJiny)DHV are cognate and can be compared then it can be seen that where there are DHV morphemes of 2sg bound pronouns this occurs

I . That the bound pronouns are cognate with the free pronouns.

predominantly in the A function. In eight languages it occurs in almost all 2sg A pronouns and exceptions to this can be explained as having a recent origin, usually through merging of fonns. 1n four other languages it occurs in the 2sg--> I sg bound pronoun. Of these languages Alawa has alternative origins for each of the other 2sg A pronouns, in Djingili the more usual S/A prefix is a shortened form of the free pronoun and is thus likely a recent innovation, and in

2. That DHV is cognate with I]iny+DHV through loss of the first syllable. With regards to the first assumption there are several reasons for not reconstructing bound pronouns for proto-Australian. Firstly, allhough bound pronouns can be reconstructed for some lower level subgroups, for others, particularly in the East, they clearly cannot be. Secondly, in many languages the bound pronouns are clearly reduced forms of the free

Wunambal 2sg A is not marked elsewhere. Thus in each of these languages the other 2sg A pronoun prefixes are of recent origin and do not reflect inheritance. In the fourth of these languages, Iwaidja, there is a possible DHV reflex in both 2sg--> I sg and 2sg--> I pl. Thus, in these twelve languages the DHV morpheme could be said to be an ergative form of the 2sg

believe, may be cognate with an earlier oblique 2sg pronoun found for example in Ungarinjin 'possessive' and Miriwung nyiryiya- 'possessive'. In Murinpata, Ngan'gityemerri and

1!)'111)0-

Ndjebbana there has very likely been laminalisation of the initial velar nasal preceding the high front vowel, thus *ryiny --> ny!nhiny. In the bound pronouns a prefix gu(n)- is quite common, particularly in 0 function. This, however, is most likely cognate with the 2pl which is reconstructed in for example Blake ( 1988:7) as *nu-rrV- *ku-rrV. 99 Note that it appears that •I]iny is the stem and therefore one might expect DHV to be a case suffix. Compare this to Pama-Nyungan where *IJin is reconstructed for the 2sg stem which takes case suffixes -du ergative and -NHa accusative.

pronoun that is restricted to the A function. In four other languages the DHV morpheme occurs both in A and S function . Of these languages, however, in Gooniyandi there are two allomorphs of the 2sg S prefix. These are J]gbefore vowel initial classifiers and dji- before consonant initial classifiers. The A prefix, however, which has 2sg-->3sg dji- has the same underlying form regardless of the following classifier (though phonological rules may change the shape of the prefix). DHV is therefore always associated with A but only sometimes with S . The Daly languages, Murinpata and Ngan'gityemerri, which have potential cognates with DHV in S and A functions belong to a

60

,,

group of languages where there are identical prefixes for both Sand A and suffixes for 0. 2sg therefore follows a general pattern and we cannot know what the original situation was.

however, there is a palatal stop rather than semivowel: Bachamal I]Qt}e. In many other languages there is no trace of the semivowel. Some examples are: I 02

Two languages have cognates of DHV in all of S, A and 0 functions. Of these Ndjebbana is like Gooniyandi in that while dja- appears without variation in 2sg A function, in S and 0 functions there is an alternative morpheme in the real is. In Dalabon the 0 prefix is only sometimes dja- and has the alternative form nyi-.

61

Malak Malak I'

All of the languages thus far mentioned, as well as those where there is a free pronoun with DHV, are consistent with a hypothesis that T]inyDHV was originally an ergative form of the pronoun as opposed to T]iny in S function. I propose that from a pronoun marked for A function it has spread to A and S functions in a few languages, and in even fewer to all of A, S and 0 functions . Note that in some of these languages, while dja- is obligatory in A function it alternates with another form in S or S and 0 functions. As a free pronoun, where there is generally only a single cardinal pronoun in these languages, some languages have adopted the original form Qiny while others have adopted QinyDHV. There are only two languages where there is counter evidence to the hypothesis put forward , Wagiman and Nyigina. In these languages the DHV morpheme occurs only in 0 function. However, in Nyigina all 0 suffixes but 1sg have initial dj and thus there is for example 3sg 0 -djina, I pi 0 -djarr and 2pl 0

Kayardild Maung Laragia Ngamga Nak.k.ara Wagiman

1)CI

1]0da I]Qbi

1JCIOI UUJll 1)CIIlid)a I)Clroba I)Clgun

Blake does not deal with these languages and simply states that the final palatal is not always reflected. The intransitive lsg bound pronoun also lacks this final semivowel and in the great majority of non-Pama-Nyungan languages is simply 1JCI· (one exception is Bunaba with IJaY· but this may have been influenced by the free pronoun l)Qyini). The evidence therefore suggests that there are two forms of the tsg pronoun, 1JCI and T)Qy(V), and a reasonable hypothesis is that these reflect the same case alternations as reconstructed for the 2sg. Although there is no evidence from the transitive pronominal prefixes for a lsg ergative pronoun the -yV of lsg contrasts quite regularly with the -d)Vof the 2sg (see Blake 1988:34) and it is thus quite likel y

-djul)gurr. Therefore, dj appears to be associated with 0 in this language and its presence in 2sg is not remarkable. The only exception, therefore, is Wagiman with T)undjulba- for 3sg/pl-->2sg. l 00

that -yV may be an ergative suffix. As Bachamal has the form I)Clt)e with a palatal stop it is quite possible that there has been a significant tendency towards lenition of an initial stop between

Blake ( 1988:34-35) has also stated that the DHV element of the 2sg is very likely an ergative suffix but draws this conclusion only through analogy. He considers only the free pronouns and points out that in Pama-Nyungan languages there is a parallel in the ergative pronouns with DH or yin lsg and din 2sg. He points out that a similar parallel exists in nonPama-Nyungan languages withy in Jsg and dj in 2sg. He states that the similarity in parallels suggests that if one represents the ergative then very likely the other does so too. Turning now to the lsg pronoun, this has previously been reconstructed for northern Australia by Blake ( 1988:7) as *1J'IY for the uninflecting S/A/0 form. IOJ In a single language,

102 In most languages without -y(V) the second element of the lsg pronoun can be accounted for and the stem may be seen simply as I]Q: -da in Kayardild is the regular nominative suffix which appears on all nominals in citation. -bi in Maung shows a similar tendency to some Pama-Nyungan languages which add -ba

to monosyllables. I)Clanal)Q in Laragia may be an original lsg oblique pronoun (compare for example .. Wagiman I)Cllllll) lsg dative, Ngandi -71)inal)i lsg genitive, Djaru I)Clllil)Q l sg gemllve

I00 This may not, however, be an exception as it may be that the -dju here is a reflex of 3sg A which is more commonly -gu in Wagiman, i.e. compare 3sg-->lpl r]il)gu-, 3sg-->2pl1Ju1)gu-, 3sg-->3pl bul)gu- . As the 2sg free pronoun is reconstructed in the north as *IJiny (Blake 1988:7) it may be that originally Qiny (2sg) plus gu (3sg) became T)inydju which became T)tmydju (or T)tmygu --> T)unydju).

and Badimaya 1)Qna1) lsg dative). -nidja in Ngamga is a regular pronominal augment of the language (e.g. 3pl wirriyanidja, 2du guliyanidja). . . lJGra- in Nakkara is possibly borrowed from neighbouring Yolngu languages wh1ch have

101 Although Blake reconstructs *1J'IY there is in fact a final vowel on the great majority of languages (e.g. Kunwinjku T)Gye, Ngandi l)Clya, Nyigina T)Gyu, Ngan 'gityemerri l)Clyi).

I sg I)Clra. -gun in Wagiman also appears on 2sg and may originate from an oblique suffix (compare with the dative suffix -gun in the nearby language Jawonj).

J

62 vowels in the I sg pronoun and thus an earlier form , hypothesised as *I]lJDHV may be the origin of I)lJ)'V in the northern languages. Thus I put forward the hypothesis that for lsg and 2sg pronouns in proto-Australian there are reconstruct able S and A forms where the A form is derived from the S form by the addition of the suffix -DHV. The evidence for this reconstruction in the lsg pronoun is only poor and relies on comparison with 2sg. However, the evidence for this reconstruct ion in 2sg is quite good though it relies solely on bound pronouns as the free pronouns have tended to merge towards a single uninflecting S/A/0 pronoun. Both reconstructed forms, however, both for Isg and 2sg are found as the invariable S/A/0 pronoun. The hypothesised 2sg A *!Jiny-DHV retains the lamina! stop but in the hypothesised lsg A *I]lJ -DHV the stop lenites to a semivowel . In other words, following the nasal the stop is preserved but lenition occurs in the environme nt between vowels. This is a natural tendency of lenition that was also noted in the PamaNyungan languages. One final point for discussion involves the final vowel of the hypothesise d pronomina l ergative which comes out as any of the four vowels u, i, e and a in the daughter languages (see the previous data). All of these could originate from *u with i ore through assimilation with the lamina] and a through neutralisation of final vowel to a; a process that also occurs in many Pama-Nyun gan languages. As all of these forms may not be quite so easily explained from an original i or a the most likely reconstruct ion purely on phonological grounds is *-DHu. One need not rely solely on phonological naturalness. however, as in most languages with a vowel other than 11 in the 2sg pronouns with a reflex of -DHV, this can be explained in terms of the rest of the pronoun paradigm. The explanations are as follows: Tiwi: the free pronoun is vinydja and as all pronouns end in the vowel a there would appear to have been final vowel neutralisation. Dalabon : the transitive and intransitive S/A prefix is dja?- but all subject prefixes have final a? and so there would appear to have been final vowel neutralisation plus the addition of glottal stop. Ndjebbana : the free pronoun nyinydja-bba shows vowel harmony with final -bba which is added to all pronouns and causes all vowels but e to switch to a. The bound pronoun dja - is a reduced form of this. Ngalakan : the free pronoun is l)inydja?but the -dja here is probably cognate not with the ergative but with -ka? (see earlier discussion) . The transitive prefix dju- has the proposed original vowel u. Rembarnga: the free pronoun is tanta and bound transitive is ta-. As all free pronouns have final -ma the vowel of the initial ta - may be influenced by this either with vowel hrumony or

63 through analogy . Alternatively the vowel a carries through from the 2sg--> lsg pronoun ran(see footnote 103). . · d' and Ngaliwuru· the transitive prefix for most combinatio ns with 2sg agent is DJanun JUng · . NHDHi- but with 3du or pi object in present/past or negative future tenses IS vaNHDHu- .

~I

free pronouns in these languages have final vowel i and shift to i seems to be a very common change in the pronouns of these languages. The forms with vowel II cannot be derived through any phonological rules (i .e. compare Ngaliwuru 2sg-->ldu (past/presen t) d .. - with 2sg-->3du (past/prese nt) vanydjuny - and 2sg-->3pl (past/prese nt) 111 11 I)lJ Y :J Y · · 1 wei vanydjllrll- with 2sg-->3sg (future) I)lJil)'djiwll-) and so may preserve the ongma vo . Nungali: the transitive prefix is vadji- (in all but 2sg--> I sg where it is IJGdj~-) but. ~he intransitive prefix is vadjll- . There is no alternative explanation f~r. the II of the mtransll!V~ prefix but like Djamindjung and Ngaliwuru neutralisation to final l IS very co.m~on and sol may be derived from any other vowel. Final -dju on the free pronoun vammdJII may also reflect the ergative though this is not at all clear. Miriwung: the transitive prefix for 2sg-->3sg is dje- and there would see~ to be one other example in the pronoun prefixes of a vowel that was originally II beconung e. L~. the 3pl prefix is berrY- from original bllrrll- (i.e. pllrrll- in the closely rela~e~ language KiJa as well as many other languages). There is no evidence of other vowels shiftmg to e. Ki ' . the transitive prefix for 2sg A has varied vowels with djana- 2sg-->3 past, djuwu fu:~;e and dji- present. In the first two forms there appears to be vowel harmony Wit~ the

following vowel. In the present tense almost all pronouns (with three out of 49 ex:cepuo~s) have final vowel e or i and there appears to be a strong association between these hlg.h vowels and the present tense. The final vowel may therefore be a tense morpheme and

II IS

not possible to tell what is the underlying vowel of djV. . . d ._, · Un arin 'in : the 2sg transitive prefix IS -nydja- an tUJS IS preceded by the gender or number pre~xesJ for third person . As all pronominal prefixes with final vowel have the vowe l a there would appear to have been neutralisation.

. . d " but all pronouns end in final i and so there would Gooniyand i: the free pronoun IS !JLnY ~~ f h. may be a shortened form o t IS. seem to have been neutralisation. The boun d pronoun d" 11. h · d' wh 1ch may preserve t e It can also be noted that the transitive prefix 2sg --> 3p1 IS 11m original vowel as there is no other el(planation for the vowel here. Murinpata and Ngan' gityemerri : these languages have a vowel that is variable and determined by the shape of the verb.

64 The languages in which the vowel of DHV has no explanation and so may be original are Wulna with T]itja-nit j, rNyigina with djwva, rsardi with dju, Worora with l)unydju, and possibly Wagiman with l)tmdju-. 103 Here languages from three subgroup s have vowel u but only a single language has vowel a. It can further be added that in Ngalakan , Gooniyandi, Nungali and Djamindjung/Ngaliwuru discussed above there were also examples of vowel u fo r which there is no explanation, while in Miriwung the vowel of the prefix can be explained from original vowel u. Thus, the evidence from the 2sg pronoun is that the ergative suffix *-DHV can be reconstructed with vowel u, *-DHu, and this is consistent with the reconstructed form *-DHu for Pama-Nyungan. Finally the 3sg pronouns should be considered to see if there are traces of the ergative here. Blake ( 1988:35) suggests that there are example of the Pama-Nyungan ergative *-l)gu in forms such as: Kunwinjku

nllljffi

'he'

Mara Worora

nal)ga

'he' 'she'

nyul)ga

65 'he' Nakkara ' he' Umingangk noog These forms are much more common than languages with -I)ga. 4 The 3sg pronominal prefix is often ga- and this I suggest may be the origin of final -( l))ga in . the free pronouns. Alternatively -ga may be simply a meaningless augment added to the pronoun (just as -ba is also common as a meaningless augment) to produce a dtsyllable . The evidence, I believe, suggests that -l)ga here is not a reflex of the ergative, but rather is cognate with a more common element -ga found on cognate pronouns . . . . The 3sg pronouns are the most diverse of the pronouns and so there IS httle to go on m trying to reconstruct forms for proto-Australian. Many of the modem free forms are h~ely to.be cognate with earlier demonstratives and no patterns can be found apart from those mvolvmg final -(l))ga discussed above. Furthermore there are very few languages which have non-zero 3sg agent pronominal prefixes and so there is very little data from ~hich to look for reflexes of . Jsg 104 The evidence therefore, is inconclusive as to whether the 3sg the ergative on · ' distinguished the ergative case. It may be that it did not do so.

Jf these were truly examples of an ergative -l)gu this would place such an allomorph at a far greater time depth than previously suppo ed, and perhaps even as far back as proto-Australian. I believe, however, that *-T)gu is a Pama-Nyungan innovation along with *-lu, and that these are not examples of the ergative. There are several factors that Blake did not take into account: I . The environment for ·T)g V here is not following a disyllable as per Hale's hypothesis and so some other reason for the presence of -T)gu here would have to be found.

2. In all languages with a reflex here the final vowel is a, and never a different vowel. In Worora, at least, the ergative does not shift to -Ca as there is lsg IJOYU and 2sg l)inydju(l )ga) and so if -l)ga were to be related to the ergative there would have to be an ad-hoc rule proposed that changed the final vowel in 3sg ergative but not in lsg and 2sg ergative. It is more likely that -Qga has a different origin. 3. There are many languages which have simply -g(a} where these languages have -l)ga. e.g.: Gunbarlang nuga 'he' Nunggubuyu niga 'he' l)iga 's he'

103 I do not include 2sg-->lsg pronouns here as they very often have vowel a and a form

(l)Vny)djan(a)- is very common (see data on Rembarnga, Worora, Ungarinjin, Iwaidja, Djingili

and Wunambal). l propose that this originates from a combination of (1Jiny)DH V 2sg A plu

l](ln(a) lsg 0 and that the vowel a is from the lsg 0 , not 2sg A.

104 It is, however, interesting that in the few languages with non-zero bo~nd prono~n forms, although there is no consistency with the S and 0 affixes, there is conststen cy wtth the A affixes. These are compared with free pronouns below: feminine A rna culine free masculine A feminine free miwan Ngandi Nunggubuyu niga yanad Maung

mawan

-(gu)na-

-ni-

T]iga

-T]i-

-IIi·

yanad

-1)0·

-(gtl)lli-

as masculine T)liT1U Tiwi ·IJll)'idjiwimi -nidjiwi Djingili /)iyiWarnbaya · gml· with the exception of Tiwi which takes the A prefix from the S prefi~, there IS Here, "")'I (Ngandt . r· h'le most feminine forms might be relate d to a form ·r -(gV)m- for mascu mew 1 • older ative a form from the innovative free pronoun). There are posstbly some .g . seems to take . h th final 1 of nl & h though we cannot be at all sure. If these arc ergauve forms t en e . oorms ere an old ergauve may have come through palatalisation of the stem *nu - (see Blake I 988 ..7 ) f ~om rr· Th's is . · 1 1 be the old ergauve su IX. involving a palatal, and -yi in femimne IJOYI may a so extremely tentative and I make no claims that this i so. a- yi- (=S/A)

nyirra

67

66 7.

Conclusion.

nominative(S)

In this paper I have shown that not only does the accepted Pama-Nyungan reconstruction of the ergative require revision, but that an ergative suffix can be reconstructed for the entire continent, very likely for proto-Australian. This has cognates not only in the Pama-Nyungan languages but also in the non-Pama-Nyungan languages. In many languages traces of the ergative are found only in the singular pronouns, particularly in the second person, where the bound pronouns show some evidence for an old ergative form. The proto-Australian reconstruction is *-DHu. This has undergone innovations in modern languages: macro-Gunwinyguan - *-DHu --> -dji ( --> -yi) Warnbaya - *-DHu --> -dji (retained in dual only) Wulna Umbugarla

- *-DHu --> -dje - *-DHu --> -idj

Although no supporting evidence has been found that these might be regular sound changes in the languages the change from -dju to -dji is highly phonologically motivated and might have occurred several times. All other non-Pama-Nyungan subgroups have lost the proto-ergative although some have innovated a new ergative form. Loss of the ergative may occur as a result of the system of verbal prefixing that occurs in the north where verbal pronominal prefixes take over the role of subject and object marking and thus case marking basically becomes redundant. In the same process, however, new ergative cases are innovated in some languages from these verbal prefixes and thus in Djingili the masculine and feminine third person singular pronoun affixes come to be used as ergative suffixes. In proto-Pama-Nyungan two further ergative suffixes have innovated: -lu

-T)gu

non-common-noun I V_ 2 syllables

For the first of these suffixes the origin remains unknown though the second is derived from *- DHu through Hale's hypothesis, i.e. vowel final disyllables added final T) in pre PamaNyungan and;

--> -->

VTJ+DHu VTJ + gu V + T)gu

Further changes to Pama-Nyungan ergative suffixes are as outlined in §4. I have reconstructed singular pronouns for proto-Australian as follows:

lsg 2sg

er ative (A) I)llDHu ( --> lJGYU)

T)iny

T)inyDHtt

These also undergo change and the ergative pronoun may be lost enti~e.ly, may extend to all of S A and 0 functions or may be retained only in certain bound transttlve pronouns. In proto-

P~ma-Nyungan

the first and second person ergative and nominative pronouns are retamed

(third person forms are innovated). ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 1 would like to thank the following for comments on draft versions of this paper: R.M.W . Bl k H ld Koch The work was Dixon Ian Green, Rebecca Green, Alan Dench, Barry a e, aro . suppo~ed by grants from the Australian Research Council to Dixon.

68

69 1:

Appendix A: References for specific languages.

II

Diyari

Austin 198 Ia

M

Djabugay

Patz 1991

M

Djamindjung

Hoddinott and Kofod 1976b Bolt, Cleverley and Hoddinott1970

M

M = modem source usually from the authors own field-work, though not always. S =salvage study using generally all of the old sources. Not always complete or reliable.

Djapu

Morphy 1983

M

Djaru

Tsunoda 1981

M

X = incomplete or very old, often with examples from only a few words.

Djinang

Waters 1989

M

Djingili

Chadwick 1975

M

Duungidjawu

Wurm 1976

?

Dixon 1972 personal communication with Jan Green

M

Note that the following references are classified according to how reliable or complete the information is likely to be. Data from a source marked M is far more likely to be reliable than data from a source marked X.

Alawa

Sharpe 1972

Alyawarra

Yallop 1977

M

Araban a

Dyirbal

Hercus forthcoming

M

Atynyamathanha

Schebeck 1974

Emmi

M

Awabakal

Hale 1846

X

Baagandji

Flinders Island Language Sutton 1980 Schmitt n.d. Gabi-Gabi

Hercus 1982

M

Bachamal

Ford 1990

M

M

1:

I'

M

M M

Gamilaaraay

Sands 1991

Garadjari

Sands 1989

s s s

Garawa

Leeding 1976

M

Badimaya

Dunn 1988

M

Bandjalang

Crowley 1978

M

Blake 1988

M

Bardi

Metcalfe 1979

M

Goeng Goeng

Holmer 1983:105-112

s

Batjala

Holmer 1983:138-146

s

Gog-Nar

Breen 1976d

M

Bayungu

Austin 1981b,

M

Gooniyandi

McGregor 1990

M

Austin 1980

M

Gudanji

Chadwick 1978

M

X

Gugadj

Breen 1976c

M

Bidjara

O' Grady Voegelin &Voegelin 1966: 108- 11 Breen 1973

M

Gumbaynggir

Eades 1979

M ,S

Holmer 1983:202-218

s

Gundungura

Alexander 1975

Binbinga

Chadwick 1978

M

Brasch 1975

Biri

Gureng Gureng

s s

Terrill 1993

s

Guugu Yimidhir

Haviland 1979

M

Bunaba

Rumsey forthcoming

M

lwaidja

Pym 1979

M

Bungandidj

Brasch 1974

s

Jambarpuyngu

Heath 1980b

M

Merlan n.d. Koch 1980, Koch forthcoming

M M

Ford and Ober 1991 Bani and Klokeid 1971

M

Dalabon

Capelll962

M

Jawonj

my own field work

M

Kaytetye

Darginyung

Crowley 1974 Holmer 1983:456-469

s s

Kalaw Kawaw Ya

Darumbal Dhalandji

Austin 1981b

M

Kalkatungu

X

Dharawal

O'Grady Voegelin &Voegelin 1966: 103-7 Eades 1976

s

Dhargari

Austin 1981b

Dharuk

O'Grady Voegelin &Voegelin 1966:1 I 1-2 Osmond 1989

M

Blake 1979a

M

Kat tang

Holmer 1966

M

Kaurna

Simpson 1994

s

M

Kayardild

Evans 1985

M

X

Kija Kuku Thaypan

McNichol (compilor) n.d.

M

s

King 1987

s

70

71

Kuku Yalanji

Patz 1982

M

Ngarigu

Hercus and Mathews 1986

s

Kunema

personal communication with Ian Green

M

Ngarla

Brown and Geytenbeek 1991

M

Ngarnga

Chadwick 1978

M

Chadwick 1976

M

Ngayawung

Moorehouse 1846

X

Ngiyambaa

Donaldson 1980

M

Kunjen

Sommer 1972

M

Kurtjar

Black 1978

M

Lama Lama

Laycock 1969

X

Laragia

Capell 1984

M

Limilngan

Sands 1992

s

Njangumarta

Brown 1976

M

Linngithig

O'Grady, Voegelin and Voegclin, 1966 176- 196

X

Nungali

Hoddinott and Kofod 1976b

M

Malak Malak

Birk 1976

M

Bolt, Hoddinott and Kofod 1971

M

MaiJala

Chow n.d.

M

Nunggubuyu

Heath 1984

M

Mangarayi

Merlan 1982

M

Nyawaygi

Dixon 1983

M

Mara

Heath 1981

M

Nyigina

Stokes 1982

M

Marramaninydji

personal communication with Ian Green

M

Nyungar

Douglas 1976

M

Maningarr

personal communication with Jan Green

M

Panyjima

Dench 1991

M

Pintupi

Hansen and Hansen 1978

M M M

Manithiyel

Green 1981

M

Martuthunira

Dench 1987

M

Pitta Pitta

Blake !979b

Matngela

personal communication with Jan Green

M

Rembarnga

McKay 1975

Maung

Capell and Hinch 1970

M

Ritharngu

Heath 1980a

M

Mbabaram

Dixon 1991

M

Thaayorre

Halll972

M

Merranunggu

personal communication with Ian Green

M

Thangatti

Holmer 1966

M

Tiwi

Lee 1987

M

s M

Midhaga

Breen n.d .

X

Miriwung

Kofod 1978

M

Umbugarla

Davies n.d .

Mirniny

combined data from O'Grady Voegelin &Voegelin X

Umpila

Thompson 1988

1966: 134-135 and Bates n.d.

Ungarinjin

Rumsey 1982

M

Mpakwithi

Crowley 1981

M

Uradhi

Crowley 1983

M

Munumburu

Capell and Coate 1984

M

Umingangk

Cape111942

X

Murinpata

Walsh 1976

M

Waanyi

Breen 1989

M

Munl\vari

Oates 1988

M

Wagaya

Breen 1976b

M

Nakkara

Eather 1980

M

Wagiman

Cook 1987

M

Nanda

O'Grady, Voegelin &Voegelin 1966: 119-128

X

Wakka Wakka

Holmer 1983:14-32

s

Narrinyeri

Taplin 1880

X

Waljamidi

Capell and Coate 1984

M

Ndjebbana

McKay forthcoming

M

Walmatjari

Hudson 1978

M

Ngalakan

Merlan 1983

M

Wambaya

Nordlinger 1993

M

Ngaliwuru

Bolt, Hoddinott and Kofod n.d.

M

Wangka-Yutjuru

Blake l979b

M

Ngamini

Austin 1991

M

Wankumara

McDonald and Wurrn 1979

M

Ngan ' gityemerri

Ried 1990

M

Breen 1976a

M

M

Waray

Harvey 1986

M

Wardaman

Merlan 1994

M

Ngandi Ngangikurungur

Heath 1978a Hoddinott and Kofod 1976a

M

72 Wargarnay Warlpiri

73

Dixon 1981

M

d = Ngayarda subgroup: Martuthunira, Panyjima, Yindjibarndi, Ngarla

Hale 1982

M

e = Marngu subgroup: Njangumarta, Garadjari, M31Jala

Reece 1970

M

f = Yuin subgroup: Ngarigu, Gundungura, Dharawal

Hale 1974

M

g = Kuri subgroup: Awabakal, Thangaui, Kauang

Warluwara

Breen 1971

M

Warumungu

Simpson and Heath I982

M

Warunu

Tsunoda 1974

M

h = Wiraduric subgroup: Yuwaalaraay, Gamilaaraay, Wiradhuray, Ngiyambaa i = Gumbaynggir and Yaygir combined as suggested in Eades 1979 j = Waka-Kabic subgroup: Gureng Gureng, Batjala, Goeng Goeng, Darumbal, Wakka Wakka,

Watjarri Wik-Mungkan

Douglas I981 M Kilham, Pamulkan, Pootchemunka and Wolmby M 1986

k = Kalkatungu and Yalarnga. The relationship between these languages is unclear. They certainly share vocabulary and structural similarities that surrounding languages do not but it

Duungidjawu, Gabi-Gabi.

is not clear whether they form a genetic subgroup. Blake 1971 states that they do but Blake

Wiradhuray

McNicol 1989

Woiwurrung

Blake 1991

s s

Worora

Capell and Coate 1984

M

1 = Warluwaric subgroup as outlined in Blake 1988: Yanyula, Warluwara, Wagaya

Wulna

summary of all the data by McFarlane I989 Vaszolyi 1976

s

m =Northern Pama subgroup: Uradhi, Mpakwithi , Linngithig

Wunarnbal Yalarnga

Blake 1989

M

Yankunytjatjara

Goddard 1983

M

n = Dieric subgroup: Diyari, Ngamini, Wankumara o = Arabanic (Arabana) and Pittapittic (Pitta Pitta, Wangka- Yutjuru) subgroups combined due to work being carried out in the ANU linguistics depertment (including data presented in this

Yanyula

Kirton I 971

M

Yaygir

Crowley 1978

M

Yidiny

Dixon 1977

M

Yindjibarndi

Wordick 1982

M

Yingkarta

Dench 1979

s

YirYiront

Alpher 1991

M

Yitha Yitha

Berryman n.d.

Yota Yota

Arrowsmith n.d.

s s

Yukulta

Keen 1983

M

Yuwaalaraay

Williams 1980

M

Appendix B: Subgrouplng The subgroups mentioned in the paper follow . Note that I only include languages that are mentioned in this paper. Unless otherwise stated the information for subgrouping comes from O'Grady, Voegelin and Voegelin 1966. a= Yolngu/Mumgic subgroup: Djapu. Jambarpuyngu, Ritharngu, Djinang b = Kardu subgroup: Nanda, Watjarri , Badimaya, Yingkarta c = Kanyara (Bayungu, Dhalandji) and Mantharda (Dhargari) subgroups. The grouping differs slightly from O'Grady et.al. and is taken from Austin (1988).

1979 says that they do not.

paper) p = Macro-Gunwinyguan : Macro-Gunwinyguan is a term adopted within the ANU linguistics department. Various people have linked some of the macro-Gunwinyguan languages within a subgroup. These include Heath 1990 who links Ngalakan, Dalabon, Rembarnga, Kunwinjku, Ngandi, Nunggubuyu, Anindilyakwa, Mara, Alawa and Warndarang on the basis of monosyllabic verbs, Alpher, Evans and Harvey (forthcoming) who add Jawonj , Waray and Kungarakayn to the Gunwinyguan subgroup from verb conjugations, and Harvey (n.d .) who reconstructs proto-Gunwinyguan phonology for a subgroup that includes Mangarayi, Wardaman, Gamu and Matngele on top of the other languages. The Maningrida languages Gurr-goni, Burarra, Nakkara and Ndjebbana are all linked into a subgroup in work by R. Green and these along with Maung and Iwaidja are added to MacroGunwinyguan from work done in the department of Linguistics ANU by Sands and R. Green . The languages included here are: Dalabon, Rembarnga, Ngandi, Ngalakan, Nunggubuyu, Wardaman, Wagiman, Jawonj , Waray, Alawa, Mara, Mangarayi , Nakkara, Ndjebbana, Maung, lwaidja. q = Tangkic subgroup, this is reclassified as non-Parna-Nyungan in Blake 1988: Kayardild, Yukulta r = Nyulnyulan subgroup: Nyigina, Bardi s = Bunaban subgroup: Bunaba, Gooniyandi t = Mindi subgroup, first proposed by Chadwick: Djingili, Wambaya, Gudanji , Binbinga, Ngarnga, Djamindjung, Nungali , Ngaliwuru

75

74 u =Western Daly subgroup, from work by I. Green : Marrithiyel, Marringarr, Marramininydji, Merranunggu,EnurU v =Eastern Daly subgroup, from work by I. Green: Malak Malak, Matngela w = Wororan subgroup: Worora, Munumburu, Waljamidi, Ungarinjin, Wunambal x = Djeragan subgroup: Kija, Miriwung Appendix C: Language locations

Following is a map showing the approximate location for each of the languages mentioned in this paper. The main map includes the Pama-Nyungan languages and the inset includes the nonPama-Nyungan languages. The key to these languages is below: Alawa Alyawarra Anmatjera

109 25 22

Djapu Djaru

Araban a Atynyamathanha Awabakal

34 36 48

Djinang Djingili Duungidjawu

Baagandji Bachamal Badimaya Bandjalang Bardi

52 134 4 61 151 65

Dyirbal Erruni Flinders Is Lang Gabi-Gabi Gamilaaraay Garadjari

136 84 64 56 IS

9 69 107 74 149 40 114

27 67 88 148 108 86 59 118 45 66 83 120 99 127 98

Djamindjung

BaVaJa Bayungu Bidjara Binbinga Biri Bunaba Bungandidj Dalabon Darginyung

49

Garawa Goeng Goeng Gog-Nar Gooniyandi Gudanji Gugadj Gumbaynggir Gunbarlang

Darumbal Dhalandji Dharawal Dhargari Dharuk Diyari Djabugay

68 10 46 8 47 35 80

Gundungura Gureng Gureng Guugu Yimidhir Iwaidja Jarnbarpuyngu Jawonj Ka1aw Kawaw Ya

139 99 18 101 106 62 78

Kalkatungu Kattang Kaurna

73 54 37

Kayardild Kaytetye Kija

103 23 142

Kuku Thaypan Kuku Yalanji Kunema Kunjen Kunwinjku Kurtjar

90 81 136 89 121 87

Lama Lama Laragia Limilngan Linngithig Malak Malak Mal) ala Mangarayi Mara Marramaninydji Marringarr Marrithiyel Martuthunira Matngela Maung Mbabaram

85 133 130 95 135 16 123 110 136 136 136 II 135 119 82

Midhaga Miriwung

136 71 141

Miminy Mpakwithi Muk-Thang Munumburu Murinpata

I 96 43 144 138

Merranunggu

Nunggubuyu Nyawaygi Nyigina Nyungar Panyjima Pintupi Pitta Pitta Rembamga

112 75 ISO 2 6 19 31 115

Muruwari

58

Rithamgu

100

Nakkara

116

92

Nand a Narrinyeri Ndjebbana Ngalakan Ngaliwuru Ngamini Ngan' gityemerri

3 39 117 Ill 140 33 137

Thaayorre Thangatti

Ngandi Ngangikurungur

113 137

Ngarigu Ngarla NgaJnga Ngayawung Ngiyambaa Njangumarta Nungali

44 13 105 38 53 14 125

Tiwi Umbugarla Umpila Ungarinjin Uradhi Urningangk Waanyi Wagaya Wagirnan Wakka Wakka Waljamidi Walmatjari Wambaya Wangka-Yutjuru Wankumara

55 132 128 94 147 97 122 28 29 126 63 143 17 104 32 70

Waray Wardaman Wargamay Warlpiri Warluwara Warumungu Warunu

129 124 76 20 30 24

Watjarri Wik-Mungkan

5 93

Wiradhuray Woiwurrung

so

Worora Wulna Wunambal Yalamga Yankunytjatjara

77

42 146 131 145 72

21

Yanyula

26

Yaygir Yidiny Yindjibarndi Yingkarta YirYiront Yitha Yitha Yota Yota Yukulta Yuwaalaraay

60 79 12 7 91 51 41 102 57

76

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Languages of the World/Materials LINCOM's Descriptive Grammar series 01 Ge' ez (Classical Ethiopic) St Weninger' 02 Kwomera (Polynesian) L. Lindstrom & J. Lynch' OJ Mbalanhu (Wambo. Namibia) D. Fouric' OS Ukrainian A. Dan) lcnko & S. Vakulcnl o' 06 Ca ntonese S.-Y. Killinglcy' 07 Koptiseh R. Sch ul z & A. Eberle 08 Laz (Kartvclian) U.J. l.Odcrs 10 Koiari (Papuan) T.E. Dutton' II Gunin/K11ini (non-Pama-Nyungan) \\'. McGregor' 12 Even (Tungusic) A.L. Malchukov' 16 Middle Egyptian R. Schu lz et al. 18 Sanskrit D. Killingle) & S.-Y. Killingley' 19 lxteneo Otoml (Otomangucan) Y. Lastra' 20 Miiorl R. llarlow' 21 Chadian Arabie S. Abu-Absi' 22 (Modern Eastern) Armenian N.A. Ko
82 Canaano-Akkadian Sh. l>.re'el 8J Papiamentu (Creole) S. Kmll\cnbcrg & E. Murray' 84 Berbi
107 Roman (Romani) D. W. Hah,achs cl. al. I08 Lachian (Slavic) K. II annan 109 Karacha y (Turkic) St Seegmi ller' Ill Nivkh E. Gru<deva 11 2 Rutul (Dagcstan) H. van den Berg & 5. Maxmudova 114 Hittite . Luraghi' 11 5 Lower Sorblan (Sia' ic) G. 5picB 11 6 Songhay R. Nicolai & P. Zima• 117 Macedonian V.A. Friedman 11 9 Abkhaz Sl. Chirikba 120 Ainu J.C. Mahor 12 1 Adyghe R. Smeets 122 Tuki (Niger Kordolan) F.. Biloa 12J Hindi Mahendra K. Verma 124 Q'eqchi' (Mn)an) J. DeChicchis 125 Czech 1.. Janda & Ch.E. To11nsend 126 Maithili (Indo-Aryan) 5. nand Jha 127 Modern Hebrew 0 . 5chwarzwald 128 Turin Piedmontese D. Ricca 129 Siciliano R. Rigalkc' 130 Rata han .P. llimmelmann & J.U. WoiiT IJI El nahuatl de Tezcoco Valentin Peralta IJ2 Tsez R. Ramazan IJ3 Tsa khur W. Schul>.c' 135 Late Cornish I. Wmffre' 136 Fyem D. Neule' 137 Ylngkarta A. Deneh' IJ8 Jurruru A. Dcnch 139 Svan K. ruitc•

81 Akkadion Sh. l
142 Modern Hebrew 0 . Sch"aw•·ald 143 Old Armenian N. Kozintsevn 144 Livonian (Liv) h. Moselc) 145 Russian E. Andre" s 146 Uzbek I.D. Cirtautas 147 Georgian M. Cherchi 148 Serbo-Croatian S. Kordic' 150 Azeri A. Bodrogligeti 151 Tagalog L. 5hkarbnn I52 Central Breton I. WmiTre' 15J Demotic St Vinson I 54 Polci R. Cosper I SS Dashkiri A. Bodrogligeti I58 Vogu l 1'. Riese I59 Mandan {Siouan) Mauricio Mixco• 160 Upper Sorblan G. 5chaarschmidt 16 1 Toura (Mand~) l'h. lleanh 162 West Greenlandic J.M. adock 165 Dagaare (Gur) A. Llodomo 166 Yuchi M.S. Linn 167 ltelmen J. llobaljik 168 Apache W.dc Reuse 169 Modern Greek B.D. Joseph 170 Tol D. Holt 171 Secret Language of Chinese Yanbin Ou 172 Lummi (Salish) R. Demers 173 Khamnigan Mongol Juhn Janhunen 174 Nepali Ba hhasar Bickel & J. Peterson 175 Comecrudo R.C. Troikc 176 Panamint (Central Numic. UtoAltccan) J. Mcl.aughlin 177 Kuaja M. maia 179 Toba II. E. Mane lis Klein 180 Degema E. E. kari' 181 Kupeno J. ll il l 182 Cayuga 11.-J. Sasse 183 Jaqaru M.J . llardman 184 Madurese W. D. Davis 185 Kamass A. Kllnnap 186 Eneh A. KUnnap 187 Guajiro J. Alvarct 188 Kurdish G. llaig 189 Sa lar A.M . D'V)er 190 Esprranto Ch. Gledhill 191 Bonan Chen Nai-Xiong 192 Maipurr (Ara\\ak) Raoul Zamponi 19J Kiliwa (Siouan) M . Mixco 199 Miluk Coos (Coosan) Anthon) Grant 200 Karbardlan (F.ast Circassian) John Colarrusso 20 I Irish Aid ian Do) le 202 Qae Evelyn l'odd 203 Bilua be l) n rodd 204 Ket Edward J. Vajda 205 Finnish Borje Vfthnmaki 206 Ancashino Queehua S. I Ieman Aguilar 207 Damnna (Chibcha) Maria Trillos

Amaya 208 Embera (Choc6) Daniel Agui rre 209 11illgaynon l llonggo Walter L. Spitz 210 Lobire Moses Kwado-Kambou 211 Fering (Northfrisian, Germanic) Karen Eberl 212 Udmurt (Finno-Ugric) Erberhard Winkler 2 I3 Ancient Greek Si lvia Luraghi 2 14 Chiwere Siouan N. Louanna Furbee & Jill D. Davidson 2 I5 Chuckchee (Paleosiberian) Alexander Volodin 216 Chirigu•no Wolf Dietrich 217 Latvian Nicole Nau• 222 Tyvan Gregory Anderson 225 Sloven ian Ch. Gribble 226 Nootka T. Nakaynma 227 Malaya lam Rodney Moag 242 l\1odrrn Scots Alexander T. Bergs 25 I Xakas Gregory Anderson• 252 Old Saxon James E. Cathey 254 Saho (East Cushitic) Giorgio Banti 2SS Udeghe (Tungus-Manchu) Albina H.Gi rfanova 256 Newari/Newar E. Austin Hale 257 Tyvan (Turkic) Gregory Anderson 258 Biri (Pama-Nyungan) Angela Terrill• 260 Ostyak (Uralle) Irina Nikolaeva 26 1 Lingala Michael Meeuwis 262 Klallam Timothy Montier 263 Manchu Carsten Naeher 266 Chuj Judith M•m•ell 267 Kaqchlkel Judith Maxwell 268 Urak Lawoi' David Hogan 269 Karitiana L.R. Storto 270 Sapuon Pascale Jacq & Paul Sidwell 27 1 01 Pascale Jacq & Paul Sidwell 272 Talieng Pascale Jacq & Paul Sidwell 273 Bubbure Andrew Haruna 274 Romanian Cynthia M. Vakareliyska 275 Aragonls Carlos lnchaurraide 276 Chagatay A. Bodrogl igeti 277 Turkish A. Bodrogiigeti 278 lslefto Spanbh Felice Coles 298 Gheg Pandeii Pani 300 Nuu-chah-nulth (Nootka) T. Nakayama 30 I Oneida C. Abbott 302 Sapuon P. Jacq & P. Sidwell 303 01 P. Jacq & P. Sidwell 304 Talieng P. Jacq & P. Sidwell 305 Ostyok I. Nikolaeva 306 Ottoman A. Oodrogiigcti 307 Faetar Naomi Nagy 311 Juong Manideepa Patnaik 312 Korit iana L. Raccancllo torto

320 Kawesqor Oscar Aguilar F. 32 1 Turkish A. Bodrogligeti 322 Shanghai Sean Zhu

Languages of the World/Text Collections: 0 1 Even- Texts Andrej Mnlchukov OS Palestinian Texts Kimary N. Shahin 07 Tariana Texts (North Arawak) Alexandra Ai khenvald 08 Chinook Jargon Zvjezdana Vrzic 09 Western Apache Texts W.de Reuse II Camling -Texts Karen Ebert 12 lttlmtn - Texts Jonnthnn David Bobalj ik 14 A Collection orLuSpoken Tuts (+CD-ROM) ilvia Kutscher & Nuran Scvim Gen~• 15 Saho Tuts Giorgo Oanti 16 Mbay Text• John M. Keegan

09 A Short Bonon-Engllsh Dictionary Chen Nai-Xiong 10 A Short Dongslong-English Dictionary Chen Nai-Xiong I I A Short 111ongour-Engli!h Dictionary Chen ni-Xioog 12 A Short Ea.l Vugour-Engllsh Dictionary Chen Nni-Xiong 13 A Short Dogour-English Dictionary Chen Nai-XIong 14 Tyvon dictionory Gregory Anderson IS Xakos dlrtionary Gregory Anderson 16 Nhaheun - French - English Luleon Michel Ferlus (ed. by P. Jacq & P. Sidwell) 2 1 Comparative West Bohnark Dictionary P. Jacq & P. id,.ell

Language and Location in Space and Time PETR ZIMA

& VLADIMIR TAX (eds.)

Charles University, Prague

This is a collection of papers prepared within the framework of the research project Communications, Contacts and Barriers In Different Cultures and

Regions of Europe and Africa (IFSC I IZV, Charles University, Prague, Grant Agency of the Czech Republic Project No 40319610787). The major part of the papers published within this volume was presented either at the international workshop Language and its Stratification in Space and Time held in Prague in 1996, or at various disciplinary (linguistic) and multidisciplinary (sociolinguistic and psycholinguistic) round-tables organized in 1996 and 1997 by this research group in cooperation with the Charles University and the Prague Linguistic Circle. The multidisciplinary character of the project offered even outlooks in

Languages of the World/Text Library:

philosophical and cognitive aspects of the linguistic expression of existence and

0 1 Minh< Mangghuer Folktalts Zhu Yongzhong, Wong Xianzhcng. Keith Slater & Kevin Stuart 02 Xunhuo So lor Folklore Ma Wie, Ma Jianzhong & Kevin Stuan 03 Huzhu Mongghul Folklore Limusishiden & Kevin tuart 04 Huzhu Folklort Selettions Limusishiden & Kevi n tuart (eds.) OS Die udisrhtn Eva ngelitn der GtbrOder Btlanov (1893) Wolfgang Schulze 06 Anthology or Menominee Sayings Timothy Gu ile 07 Kawesqar Te•ts Oscar Aguilar F.

cooperation with a philosopher and a participant from the Max Planck Institute for

certain papers were subject to discussions, and a sort of coordination and

Languages of the World/Dictionaries:

from languages of other regions both in Africa (Bantu) and in Europe (Indo-

01 Min he Mangghutr - English Dittionary Wang Xianzheng (Qinghai Medical College). Zhu Yongzhong (Zirongc/111on Junior Middle School), Keith Slater (Qinghm Junior Teachers' College), & Kevin Stuan (University of California. Santa Barbara)

03 Dictionary or Mbay John Keegan• 05 l>lctionary or San go Bradford &

Bradford 06 A Di
its location in space and time. That is why the present volume was prepared in Sociolinguistics. In spite of the fact that language data and situations dealt with by these papers involve different language types, families and areas deserving different cultures in several regions of two continents, the original versions of homogenisation was attempted. As several authors of the present team are also members of the Groupement de Recherche European No 1172 of the Centre

National de Ia Recherche Scientifique

(Paris)

HDiffuslon LexlcaleH (Caron,

Cyffer, Jungraithmayr, NicolaY, Zima) , the main focus of most papers was on languages of the Sahel-Sahara region of Africa. However, contrasting with data

Standing orders available for all4 • series

European in general, and Romance or Baltic languages in particular) proved very useful and offered opportunities for attempting more universal conclusions. Papers presented by Eleonore Adwiraah, Thomas Bearth, Siegmund Brauner, Cecile Canut, Bernard Caron, Norbert Cyffer, Nella Vladimirovna Gromova, Toma~ Hoskovec, Herrmann Jungraithmayr, Robert Nicolai, Eric Pederson, Zdenek Pine, Jan Sabr~ula , Petr Zima ISBN 389586 540 0. LINCOM Studies In Theoretical Ungulstlcs 07.

Ca. 200 pp. Ca. USD 67/ OM 102 / £39. 1998/lV.

Introduction to Linguistic Field Methods BERT VAUX & JUSTIN COOPER Harvard University

The present volume addresses the need for an up-to-date, accessible, and comprehensive introduction to the elicitation of linguistic data from native speaker informants. The material, following an introductory chapter surveying the general enterprise of field research , is organized into eight major areas of current linguistic and anthropological interest: Phonetics, Phonology, Morphology, Syntax, Semantics, Sociolinguistics/ Dialectology, Lexicography, and Folklore. The chapters are designed to be covered at a rate of one per week, based on a sixteen-week semester. Each chapter presents basic structures to be elicited, and provides cautionary tales drawn from the experiences of seasoned field workers who have attempted to elicit these structures. These, in turn, are followed by suggested readings and illustrative exercises for each chapter. Emphasis is placed not on developing a theory of field work, but rather on providing enlightening suggestions and entertaining anecdotes designed to guide students down their own personal path to linguistic discovery. ISBN 3 89586 198 7. LINCOM Coursebooks In Linguistics 01 . Ca. 240 pp. USO 48 I OM 72 I £ 28. 1998/111.

Coursebook in Feature Geometry JOHN NEWMAN Massey University

The Coursebook in Feature Geometry is an undergraduate course introducing students to current phonology through a sustained use of the Feature Geometry framework. It is written as a coherent, accessible, and well-illustrated introduction to the key ideas of Feature Geometry, focusing on rules of assimilation. In its 20 units and 40 exercises, it takes the reader step-by-step through the representational devices of Feature Geometry. The Coursebook attempts to present the core ideas of Feature Geometry in a unified way, rather than attempting to incorporate the (considerable) debate concerning almost every aspect of the theory. The version of Feature Geometry underlying the Coursebook is basically that found in Sagey's The Representation of features in non-linear phonology (1990), revised in accordance with the claims of Lahiri and Evans' 1991 article on Palatalization and coronality. · The author is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Linguistics and Second Language Teaching , Massey University, New Zealand. The author has a PhD in linguistics from the University of California at San Diego. ISBN 3 89586 102 2. LINCOM Coursebooks In Linguistics 02.

160pp. USO 381 OM 62 I£ 25.

Course discounts available!