kin term prefix *pe- in other Vanuatu languages

[Alex Fran�ois]

Dear John and colleagues,

Though there is only little likelihood that it be the same morpheme, your
Kwamera *pV/*bV forms remind me of a prefix in Araki, an undescribed language
spoken in South-Espiritu Santo (Vanuatu) by only 2 or 3 speakers nowadays
(personal data); it is an NCV language, quite close from its neighbour lgg
Tangoa.
This prefix is of the form /ve-/, phonet. [Be], with [B] = bilabial voiced
fricative. Araki /v/ comes from POc *p, e.g. /vulu/ "hair" < *pulu, /via/ "wild
taro" < *piRaq.
As you can see, Araki vowels are generally conservative of their POc value.

The /ve-/ prefix shows up exclusively within the kin terminology, which makes it
relevant for your question. Its use is to derive FEMININE kin nouns out of
(some) masculine kin nouns, namely:

**********
language: ARAKI

/ve-rasi/ "younger sister (EGO male or fem.)"
           <  /ve-/ + /rasi/ "younger brother (EGO male or fem.)"  < POc *taci

/ve-roga/ "older sister (EGO male or fem.)"
           < /ve-/ + /roga/ "older brother (EGO male or fem.)" < POc *tuqaka

/ve(-)sogori/ "generic term for a sister (EGO male or fem.), embracing /ve-rasi/
& /ve-roga/"
           – not connected to any word of the form */sogori/

/ve-ragu/ "sister-in-law (EGO male)"
           < /ve-/ + /ragu/ "brother-in-law (EGO male or fem.)" < ? cf. bisl.
tawian

/ve-paliga/ "mother-in-law (EGO male)"
           < /ve-/ + /paliga/ "father-in-law (EGO male); son-in-law (EGO male or
fem.)"

/ve-naru/ "daughter (EGO male or fem.)"
           < /ve-/ + /naru/ "son (EGO male or fem.)" < POc *natu

/ve-tu/ "daughter (EGO male)"  < /ve-/ + /tu/ "son (EGO male)"    < ?

/ve-Mara/ "niece, daughter of sister (EGO male)"
           < /ve-/ + /Mara/ "nephew, son of sister (EGO male)" < POc *matuqa
           with /M/ = apico-labial nasal consonant

/ve-ragura/ "niece, daughter of sister (EGO male)"
           < /ve-/ + /ragura/ "nephew, son of sister (EGO male); uncle (EGO
male)" < ?

/velua/ "niece, daughter of sister (EGO male)"
           < /ve-/ + /elua/ "nephew, son of sister (EGO male); uncle (EGO male
or fem.)"
           < POc *(qa)lawa  ?
(the three last series are synonyms, except for the masculine form)

As you see, the general Oceanic system using "same-sex / different-sex" terms
has been widely transformed in Araki, with rather oppositions between "brother /
sister" words, like in European languages; yet this reshaping of the system is
too ancient to be due to European contact.

**********

As far as your question is concerned, I would suggest the possibility that such
a *pe prefix was found in the history of Kwamera, perhaps bearing the same
meaning of feminine: this meaning is still clear, though not "productive", in
Araki, but has long become opaque in Kwamera. At least, some of the kin terms
you give are compatible with a feminine interpretation:
Kwam. /prea/, /pr at si/, /piav/, /pitoga/;

After existing as a parallel to correspondent male terms (just like in modern
Araki), these words may have had their "feminine" *pe- prefix reinterpreted as
characteristic of personal / kin nouns in general, thus allowing
– the combination with *tapine to form /pran/: this would have been redundant if
*pe still was a feminine marker at that time;
– the combination with *mwaqane to form /pumani/, which definitely shows the
semantic shift I suggest for prefix *pe, i.e. from FEMININE KIN / PERSONAL
MARKER to KIN / PERSONAL MARKER in general.

As far as etymology is concerned, a *pe morpheme coding for a feminine
immediately suggests it could be a shorter/ affixal form of words like *papine /
*tapine, but I reckon it would be adventurous to say so. I did not pretend that
there existed such a *pe feminine prefix at the time of common Oceanic; however,
if my hypothesis proved to be true, *pe would have to be reconstructed at the
level of
– your Nuclear Southern Oceanic (if you include South-Santo languages in
"central Vanuatu")
– your Southern Oceanic linkage (if you include South-Santo languages in
"northernVanuatu")
[cf. J. Lynch, 1997, Possessive markers in Central Pacific lgs, OL 36 no.2,
p.229.]

I have too little documentation here at home, to check whether the *pe- prefix
shows up in any other NCV language; yet my notes show a form in Malo (South
Santo, see Jauncey 1997 ?):
/wu-baliha/ "mother-in-law (EGO male)"
           < /baliha/ "father-in-law (EGO male)",
with probably /wu/ < *pu, or wu < *pe with rounding of the vowel in contact with
a former labio-velar *bwalika, just like your /pumani/ < *pe + *mwaqane.
I can't find such a derivational kin prefix in Lonwolwol (Paton 1971). The one
in Paamese (Crowley 1996:413), i.e. feminine suffix /-hin/ < *-pine, is a bit
different: /tue/ "same-sex sibling", /tue-nali/ "his brother", /tue-nahin/ "her
sister".
There is certainly no such thing in the Banks languages I know of, except if you
consider MOTA /veve/ "mother, aunt, female of the parent generation"
(Codrington), with Mota /v/ < POc *p.

Hope this can help a little, and seems not too far away from your question.

Best regards,

Alex

********
Alex FRANÇOIS
LACITO-CNRS
Université Sorbonne Nouvelle
22, Chemin de la Justice
92290 Châtenay-Malabry
 France
tel / fax 33.1.46.30.34.02
<francois at vjf.cnrs.fr>

------------------------------------------------------------------------

John Lynch wrote:

> The languages of southern Tanna (Vanuatu) appear to have a vestigial prefix
> p- or pV- found on a number of kin terms in the same generation as ego.
> Reconstructions below are from Proto Oceanic (POc).
>
> Kwamera is the most prolific of the Tanna languages in this regard. Note.
> e.g.:
> pran 'woman, wife' < p + POc *tapine
> prea- 'older same sex sibling' < p + POc *tuqaka-
> pr at si- 'younger same sex sibling' < p + POc *taci-  (@ = schwa)
> pumani- 'brother of female' < pV + POc *mwaqane-
>
> Note also:
> pitoga 'foreigner'   = p + itoga 'foreign'
> piav- 'same sex sibling'  cf. Erromangan av-
>
> Kwamera /p/ would derive from POc *b (and, in a few cases, also from *p). Is
> anyone aware of a reconstructed personal/kin prefix of the form *bV or *pV
> within Austronesian?
>
> John Lynch
>


-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/an-lang/attachments/20000225/ee63e4fa/attachment.htm>