<div dir="ltr">I can't remember the specifics, but in some language families the root for 'eye' relates to the rounded, globular shape of the organ (minus the optic nerve), and such a ball-like shape is suggestive of wholeness, and so singular nature, while other shapes will be suggestive of subdivision and so multiplicity.<div><br></div><div>Jess Tauber</div><div><a href="mailto:tetrahedralpt@gmail.com">tetrahedralpt@gmail.com</a></div></div><div id="DAB4FAD8-2DD7-40BB-A1B8-4E2AA1F9FDF2"><br>
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</table><a href="#DAB4FAD8-2DD7-40BB-A1B8-4E2AA1F9FDF2" width="1" height="1"></a></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Wed, Oct 13, 2021 at 3:43 PM Jussi Ylikoski <<a href="mailto:jussi.ylikoski@oulu.fi">jussi.ylikoski@oulu.fi</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
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<span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Tahoma,sans-serif;color:black" lang="FI">Dear Colleagues,<u></u> <u></u></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Tahoma,sans-serif;color:black" lang="FI"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Tahoma,sans-serif;color:black" lang="FI">In honor of World Sight Day (the second Thursday of October), I am looking for information about nouns denoting 'eye' being grammaticalized into singulative
markers of some kind.<u></u> <u></u></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Tahoma,sans-serif;color:black" lang="FI"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Tahoma,sans-serif;color:black" lang="FI">The best-known example might be Hungarian
<i>szem</i> 'eye', which is, however, generally and obviously better considered a kind of classifier among other classifiers. However, many cognates of
<i>szem</i> in the easternmost (Samoyed, Khanty and Mansi) and the northernmost (Saami) branches of Uralic appear to deserve to be characterized as some kind of singulative markers, as seen in the following North Saami compound-like expressions that could,
in principle be reconstructed all the way to Proto-Uralic:<u></u> <u></u></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Tahoma,sans-serif;color:black" lang="FI"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Tahoma,sans-serif;color:black" lang="FI">North Saami<u></u> <u></u></span></p>
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<i><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Tahoma,sans-serif;color:black" lang="FI">čalbmi</span></i><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Tahoma,sans-serif;color:black" lang="FI"> 'eye'<u></u> <u></u></span></p>
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<i><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Tahoma,sans-serif;color:black" lang="FI">varra-čalbmi</span></i><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Tahoma,sans-serif;color:black" lang="FI"> 'drop of blood' (~
North Khanty <i>wŭr-sem</i> id.)<u></u> <u></u></span></p>
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<i><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Tahoma,sans-serif;color:black" lang="FI">jiekŋa-čalbmi</span></i><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Tahoma,sans-serif;color:black" lang="FI"> 'particle of ice'
(~ Hungarian <i>jég-szem</i> 'hailstone')<u></u> <u></u></span></p>
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<i><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Tahoma,sans-serif;color:black" lang="FI">muorje-čalbmi</span></i><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Tahoma,sans-serif;color:black" lang="FI"> 'single berry'<u></u> <u></u></span></p>
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<i><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Tahoma,sans-serif;color:black" lang="FI">vuokta-čalbmi</span></i><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Tahoma,sans-serif;color:black" lang="FI"> 'single hair (on
a human head)'<u></u> <u></u></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Tahoma,sans-serif;color:black" lang="FI"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Tahoma,sans-serif;color:black" lang="FI">Interestingly, similar 'eye' singulatives can also be found in the neighboring Ket (see Helimski's "<i>S</i>-singulatives in Ket" at <a href="https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.31826/jlr-2017-143-404/html" target="_blank">https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.31826/jlr-2017-143-404/html</a>),
but otherwise there seems to be little global information about the origins of singulative markers, and even less about potentially analogous singulatives based on 'eye' in particular.<u></u><br>
<u></u></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Tahoma,sans-serif;color:black" lang="FI"><u></u><br>
<u></u></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Tahoma,sans-serif;color:black" lang="FI"><u></u>Anne Storch's (2014: 278) grammar of Luwo contains the solitary example
<i>wɔ́ŋ jɛ́n</i> [eye chicken:COLL] 'one chicken', though. I am also aware of the colexification of EYE, SEED, GRAIN etc., which looks like a natural route to singulatives (<a href="https://clics.clld.org/graphs/subgraph_1248" target="_blank">https://clics.clld.org/graphs/subgraph_1248</a>).<br>
<u></u></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Tahoma,sans-serif;color:black" lang="FI"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Tahoma,sans-serif;color:black" lang="FI">So I am wondering whether there are other similar 'eye' singulatives out there, in addition to Uralic and Yeniseian (and Luwo)?<u></u> <u></u></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Tahoma,sans-serif;color:black" lang="FI"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Tahoma,sans-serif;color:black" lang="FI">Best regards,<u></u> <u></u></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Tahoma,sans-serif;color:black" lang="FI"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Tahoma,sans-serif;color:black" lang="FI">Jussi<u></u> <u></u></span></p>
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