16.2959, Review: Lang Description/Amerindian Lang: Hardman (2001)

[LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-16-2959. Wed Oct 12 2005. ISSN: 1068 - 4875.

Subject: 16.2959, Review: Lang Description/Amerindian Lang: Hardman (2001)

Moderators: Anthony Aristar, Wayne State U <aristar at linguistlist.org>
            Helen Aristar-Dry, Eastern Michigan U <hdry at linguistlist.org>
 
Reviews (reviews at linguistlist.org) 
        Sheila Dooley, U of Arizona  
        Terry Langendoen, U of Arizona  

Homepage: http://linguistlist.org/

The LINGUIST List is funded by Eastern Michigan University, Wayne
State University, and donations from subscribers and publishers.

Editor for this issue: Lindsay Butler <lindsay at linguistlist.org>
================================================================  

What follows is a review or discussion note contributed to our 
Book Discussion Forum. We expect discussions to be informal and 
interactive; and the author of the book discussed is cordially 
invited to join in. If you are interested in leading a book 
discussion, look for books announced on LINGUIST as "available 
for review." Then contact Sheila Dooley at dooley at linguistlist.org. 

===========================Directory==============================  

1)
Date: 11-Oct-2005
From: Edward Vajda < vajda at cc.wwu.edu >
Subject: Aymara 

	
-------------------------Message 1 ---------------------------------- 
Date: Wed, 12 Oct 2005 22:28:44
From: Edward Vajda < vajda at cc.wwu.edu >
Subject: Aymara  
 

AUTHOR: Hardman, M. J.
TITLE: Aymara
SERIES: LINCOM Studies in Native American Linguistics 35
PUBLISHER: Lincom GmbH
YEAR: 2001
ISBN: 3895869759
ANNOUNCED IN: http://linguistlist.org/issues/12/12-610.html

Edward J. Vajda, Western Washington University, Bellingham, 
Washington, and Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, 
Leipzig

DESCRIPTION OF THE BOOK

The book is arranged in the style of a reference grammar, with 
chapters progressing from an exposition of introductory historical and 
sociolinguistic information (ch. 1, pp. 1-10), through an explanation of 
the phonology (ch. 2, pp. 11-33), morphophonemics (ch. 3, 34-43), 
and on to topics in morphology and syntax.  

Ch. 4, entitled "Overview of the structure of the Aymara grammatical 
system" (pp. 44-58), offers a breakdown of form classes and 
morpheme types and serves as introduction to the book's remaining 
eight chapters.  Chapter 5, "Thematics" (pp. 59-72) deals with the 
language's rather extensive form-class changing morphology.  Ch. 6 
(pp. 73-99) goes over the intricate system of verbal derivational 
suffixes, the interplay between which gives Aymara linguistic 
expression much of its sophistication.  Each suffix receives an 
individual description.  

Verbal inflectional suffixes are the topic of ch. 7 (pp. 100-119).  
Hardmann devotes considerable space to the use of tense forms for 
purposes of expressing the language's important category of "data 
source", or evidentiality.  Ch. 8 (pp. 120-161) goes into equal detail to 
explain the system of nominal suffixes used to express number, the 
opposition between human and non-human, and a variety of temporal 
and spatial concepts. Here too, much care is devoted to explaining the 
form, morphophonemics, and functioning of the individual nominal 
suffixes.  Ch. 9 (pp. 162-169) covers what the author refers to 
as "independent suffixes". These are several morphemes whose 
occurrence is not fixed to any particular form class.  The copious 
examples in this brief section help elucidate a category of elements 
that are difficult to define using simple translations. Hardeman likens 
their semantic force to nuances of meaning often express in 
languages such as English by the use of intonation (p. 162).  

Chapter 10 (pp. 170-183) moves on to "sentence suffixes" -- elements 
added to entire clauses to express functional sentence perspective 
and illocutionary force of various sorts. These morphemes often 
interact with the "independent suffixes" described in the previous 
chapter.  Ch. 11, entitled "syntax", (pp. 183-217), discusses the 
creation of complex and compound sentences. Also discussed are 
patterns of word order permutations, which play a minor role in the 
syntax compared to the language's arsenal of suffixes. The final 
chapter includes four sample texts, each provided with interlinear 
glosses and an idiomatic English translation.  

There are also 13 appendixes, which add information ranging from the 
topics of homonyms and ambiguity in Aymara to portions of a 
classified vocabulary offering lists of names of the months and days of 
the week. There is also information here on Spanish borrowing 
patterns.

CRITICAL EVALUATION:

Published in the Lincom series "Studies in Native American 
Linguistics" rather than as a grammar sketch in the series "Languages 
of the World/Materials", this book offers comprehensive description of 
the language. The author is a long-time expert on Aymara, and on the 
Jaqi family in general, having conducted over four decades of both 
theoretical and practical investigation of these languages. Hardman is 
the founder of the Instituto Nacional de Estudios Lingüísticos in Bolivia 
and the Aymara Language Materials Program at the University of 
Florida.  Much of the material in this grammar derives from the 
author's previously unpublished practical teaching and reference 
materials.

For any English speaker hoping to learn about one of South America's 
most widely spoken indigenous languages, there has previously been 
very little material available on Aymara. Accessible materials are 
basically limited to dissertations or brief articles on individual aspects 
of the language structure (listed in the bibliography on pp. 247-50), as 
well as a basic course designed for Peace Corps workers (Wexler 
1967). Given the prior absence of a modern and accurate full-length 
grammar of Aymara, this book can only be welcomed as an essential 
reference by anyone hoping to gain true insight into one of South 
America's most vibrant indigenous linguistic communities.  Hardman's 
use of a practical orthography consisting of 26 consonant phoneme 
symbols and 6 vowel phoneme symbols, alongside her careful 
exposition of the phonetic and morphophonemic realization of these 
sounds, makes the examples extremely easy to follow.  Previous 
descriptions of Aymara did not do justice to the fact that the language 
employs only three short and three long vowel phonemes (a, i, u), 
each of which appears in an unusually wide variety of phonetic 
variants.  The sociolinguistic factors underpinning the use of 
evidentials -- which Hardman refers to as "data source" -- is 
elucidated here on a level not before achieved.  Likewise, Hardman 
links her explanation of overt person marking as based on a system of 
contrasts between speaker and addressee, on the one hand, and the 
referent's presence vs. absence with regards to the speech act, on 
the other (pp. 5-6) to the sociolinguistic salience of the addressee 
category over the other persons.

Besides presenting a detailed and lucid account of Aymara language 
structure, the book is replete with accurate sociolinguistic information 
and valuable observations about the linguistic worldview of the 
speakers.  Readers will gain insight into Aymara substrate features in 
Andean Spanish and into pre-Inka influence by Jaqi languages on 
Quechua, an event that Hardman suggested developed during the 
Huari period (500-1200 AD) predating the rise of the Inca Empire. 
Aymara substrate features in Andean Spanish include the use of 
certain European tense/aspect forms to express information source 
(evidentiality). Pre-Columbian influence includes the adoption into 
Quechua of an Aymara-like triple distinction in voiceless plosives 
(plain, aspirated, and glottalized).

This is a key publication on a highly important regional language, 
spoken as a mother tongue by a numerically significant minority of the 
populations of both Bolivia and Peru, as well as in northernmost 
Chile.  Aymara is likely to be the only Jaqi language that survives into 
the next century, since the family's other two extant members -- 
Jaquaru and Kawki -- are already endangered.

REFERENCE

Wexler, Paul. 1967. Beginning Aymara: A course for English speakers. 
Seattle: University of Washington. 

ABOUT THE REVIEWER

Edward J. Vajda is director of East Asian Studies and professor of 
linguistics and Russian language at Western Washington University. 
An editor of the journal Word, his research interests include 
morphological typology and minority languages of Eurasia. He is 
intensively involved in documenting and describing Ket, an isolate 
spoken by a few hundred people in Central Siberia.





-----------------------------------------------------------
LINGUIST List: Vol-16-2959