[An-lang] Suppletive forms of 1sg+2sg personal pronoun clusters

TSUKIDA Naomi tsukida at for.aichi-pu.ac.jp
Wed Nov 12 15:00:08 UTC 2003


Dear Loren A. Billings,

In Seediq, which is one of the Atayalic,
1SgGen+2SgNom is =misu.

1SgGen+2PlNom is =maku.
2SgGen+1SgNom is =saku.

In isolation, the clitics concerned appear as below.

1SgNom: =ku
2SgNom: =su
2PlNom: =namu

1SgGen: =mu
2SgGen: =su

The above description is based on the Teruku dialect.

I wrote about this phenomenon among others in the book on
Austronesian typology which will be published from
Routledge/Curzon.

Naomi Tsukida

--
Faculty of Foreign Studies
Aichi Prefectural University
Nagakute, Aichi, 480-1198, Japan

Phone: +81-561-64-1111 (ext. 2613)
Fax:   +81-561-64-1107
email: tsukida at for.aichi-pu.ac.jp


> I've been investigating how clusters of bound (or clitic) personal pronouns
> are ordered in Central Philippine (CP) languages (as defined, for example,
> on <Ethnologue.com>). As is relatively well known to people working on these
> languages, the combination of 1SgGen and 2SgNom pronouns results in
> replacement of one or both of the expected forms. For example, in Tagalog
> the 1SgGen form is _ko_ and the 2SgNom form is _ka_; together in the same
> clause, however, we don't get *_ko ka_ or *ka ko_ but rather _kita_
> (discussed in detail by Schachter's 1973 paper in _Parangal kay Cecilio
> Lopez). For those of you in the know, Tagalog _kita_ is an aberration from
> other CP languages, but I won't discuss those details here. (Zorc's 1975
> Cornell dissertation, p. 90, lists examples from several Bisayan languages.)
> This phenomenon, to my knowledge, exists in every CP language which has
> pronoun clusters--namely: Bikol, Bisayan, Mansakan, and Mamanwa. I use the
> adjectives _Bisayan_ and _Mansakan_ (and even _Central Philippine_) here
> descriptively, without intending to endorse any particular phylogenic brand.
>
> Recently, I attended a workshop on Formosan languages, where I met Lillian
> Huang. She (and others) pointed out some similar facts about Mayrinax and
> another Atayalic language. In these languages, the morphological cases are
> switched (compared to CP). There is a special suppletive form for 1SgNom and
> 2SgGen. Two grammars I've found so far in this regard are Huang's _A study
> of Mayrinax syntax_ (1995) and Rau's _A grammar of Atayal_ (1992).
>
> My query is this:
> Does anyone know the extent of this 1SgGen+2SgNom suppletion in Philippine
> languages (i.e., within or beyond CP)? Likewise, an anyone tell me about the
> similar 1SgNom+2SgGen phenomenon in Atayalic (and beyond)? I am most
> interested in comparative works, discussing groups of languages in this
> regard. However, mention of such phenomena in descriptions of individual
> languages may be the only thing to work with at this point. I'm also
> interested in unpublished knowledge you may have.
>
> P.S.: I have just re-subscribed to the list, so if there was any chatter
> about this in the past, please humor me with a reference to the archives.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Loren A. Billings, Ph.D.
> Associate professor of linguistics
> Department of Foreign Languages and Literature
> National Chi Nan University
> Puli, Nantou, Taiwan 545 Republic of China
>
> E-mail: billings at ncnu.edu.tw
>
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