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<FONT FACE="Century Gothic">Dear John and colleagues,</FONT>
<P><FONT FACE="Century Gothic">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.</FONT>
<BR><FONT FACE="Century Gothic">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.</FONT>
<BR><FONT FACE="Century Gothic">As you can see, Araki vowels are generally
conservative of their POc value.</FONT>
<P><FONT FACE="Century Gothic">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:</FONT>
<P><FONT FACE="Century Gothic">**********</FONT>
<BR><FONT FACE="Century Gothic">language: ARAKI</FONT>
<P><FONT FACE="Century Gothic">/ve-rasi/ "younger sister (EGO male or fem.)"</FONT>
<BR><FONT FACE="Century Gothic">
< /ve-/ + /rasi/ "younger brother (EGO male or fem.)" <
POc *taci</FONT>
<P><FONT FACE="Century Gothic">/ve-roga/ "older sister (EGO male or fem.)"</FONT>
<BR><FONT FACE="Century Gothic">
< /ve-/ + /roga/ "older brother (EGO male or fem.)" < POc *tuqaka</FONT>
<P><FONT FACE="Century Gothic">/ve(-)sogori/ "generic term for a sister
(EGO male or fem.), embracing /ve-rasi/ & /ve-roga/"</FONT>
<BR><FONT FACE="Century Gothic">
– not connected to any word of the form */sogori/</FONT>
<P><FONT FACE="Century Gothic">/ve-ragu/ "sister-in-law (EGO male)"</FONT>
<BR><FONT FACE="Century Gothic">
< /ve-/ + /ragu/ "brother-in-law (EGO male or fem.)" < ? cf. bisl.
tawian</FONT>
<P><FONT FACE="Century Gothic">/ve-paliga/ "mother-in-law (EGO male)"</FONT>
<BR><FONT FACE="Century Gothic">
< /ve-/ + /paliga/ "father-in-law (EGO male); son-in-law (EGO male or
fem.)"</FONT>
<P><FONT FACE="Century Gothic">/ve-naru/ "daughter (EGO male or fem.)"</FONT>
<BR><FONT FACE="Century Gothic">
< /ve-/ + /naru/ "son (EGO male or fem.)" < POc *natu</FONT>
<P><FONT FACE="Century Gothic">/ve-tu/ "daughter (EGO male)" <
/ve-/ + /tu/ "son (EGO male)" < ?</FONT>
<P><FONT FACE="Century Gothic">/ve-Mara/ "niece, daughter of sister (EGO
male)"</FONT>
<BR><FONT FACE="Century Gothic">
< /ve-/ + /Mara/ "nephew, son of sister (EGO male)" < POc *matuqa</FONT>
<BR><FONT FACE="Century Gothic">
with /M/ = apico-labial nasal consonant</FONT>
<P><FONT FACE="Century Gothic">/ve-ragura/ "niece, daughter of sister (EGO
male)"</FONT>
<BR><FONT FACE="Century Gothic">
< /ve-/ + /ragura/ "nephew, son of sister (EGO male); uncle (EGO male)"
< ?</FONT>
<P><FONT FACE="Century Gothic">/velua/ "niece, daughter of sister (EGO
male)"</FONT>
<BR><FONT FACE="Century Gothic">
< /ve-/ + /elua/ "nephew, son of sister (EGO male); uncle (EGO male
or fem.)"</FONT>
<BR><FONT FACE="Century Gothic">
< POc *(qa)lawa ?</FONT>
<BR><FONT FACE="Century Gothic">(the three last series are synonyms, except
for the masculine form)</FONT>
<P><FONT FACE="Century Gothic">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.</FONT>
<P><FONT FACE="Century Gothic">**********</FONT>
<P><FONT FACE="Century Gothic">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:</FONT>
<BR><FONT FACE="Century Gothic">Kwam. /prea/, /pr@si/, /piav/, /pitoga/;</FONT>
<P><FONT FACE="Century Gothic">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</FONT>
<BR><FONT FACE="Century Gothic">– the combination with *tapine to form
/pran/: this would have been redundant if *pe still was a feminine marker
at that time;</FONT>
<BR><FONT FACE="Century Gothic">– 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.</FONT>
<P><FONT FACE="Century Gothic">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</FONT>
<BR><FONT FACE="Century Gothic">– your Nuclear Southern Oceanic (if you
include South-Santo languages in "central Vanuatu")</FONT>
<BR><FONT FACE="Century Gothic">– your Southern Oceanic linkage (if you
include South-Santo languages in "northernVanuatu")</FONT>
<BR><FONT FACE="Century Gothic">[cf. J. Lynch, 1997, Possessive markers
in Central Pacific lgs, OL 36 no.2, p.229.]</FONT>
<P><FONT FACE="Century Gothic">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 ?):</FONT>
<BR><FONT FACE="Century Gothic">/wu-baliha/ "mother-in-law (EGO male)"</FONT>
<BR><FONT FACE="Century Gothic">
< /baliha/ "father-in-law (EGO male)",</FONT>
<BR><FONT FACE="Century Gothic">with probably /wu/ < *pu, or wu <
*pe with rounding of the vowel in contact with a former labio-velar *b<U>w</U>alika,
just like your /pumani/ < *pe + *m<U>w</U>aqane.</FONT>
<BR><FONT FACE="Century Gothic">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".</FONT>
<BR><FONT FACE="Century Gothic">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.</FONT>
<P><FONT FACE="Century Gothic">Hope this can help a little, and seems not
too far away from your question.</FONT>
<P><FONT FACE="Century Gothic">Best regards,</FONT>
<P><FONT FACE="Century Gothic">Alex</FONT>
<BR>
<BR><FONT FACE="Century Gothic">********</FONT>
<BR><FONT FACE="Century Gothic">Alex FRANÇOIS</FONT>
<BR><FONT FACE="Century Gothic">LACITO-CNRS</FONT>
<BR><FONT FACE="Century Gothic">Université Sorbonne Nouvelle</FONT>
<BR><FONT FACE="Century Gothic">22, Chemin de la Justice</FONT>
<BR><FONT FACE="Century Gothic">92290 Châtenay-Malabry</FONT>
<BR><FONT FACE="Century Gothic"> France</FONT>
<BR><FONT FACE="Century Gothic">tel / fax 33.1.46.30.34.02</FONT>
<BR><FONT FACE="Century Gothic"><francois@vjf.cnrs.fr></FONT>
<P>
<HR WIDTH="100%">
<BR>John Lynch wrote:
<BLOCKQUOTE TYPE=CITE>The languages of southern Tanna (Vanuatu) appear
to have a vestigial prefix
<BR>p- or pV- found on a number of kin terms in the same generation as
ego.
<BR>Reconstructions below are from Proto Oceanic (POc).
<P>Kwamera is the most prolific of the Tanna languages in this regard.
Note.
<BR>e.g.:
<BR>pran 'woman, wife' < p + POc *tapine
<BR>prea- 'older same sex sibling' < p + POc *tuqaka-
<BR>pr@si- 'younger same sex sibling' < p + POc *taci- (@ = schwa)
<BR>pumani- 'brother of female' < pV + POc *mwaqane-
<P>Note also:
<BR>pitoga 'foreigner' = p + itoga 'foreign'
<BR>piav- 'same sex sibling' cf. Erromangan av-
<P>Kwamera /p/ would derive from POc *b (and, in a few cases, also from
*p). Is
<BR>anyone aware of a reconstructed personal/kin prefix of the form *bV
or *pV
<BR>within Austronesian?
<P>John Lynch
<BR> </BLOCKQUOTE>
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