Exclusive-Inclusive

[dnsbhat]

Any takers for an idea that in the case of Algonquian languages it is
the first person that gets included or excluded (in the second person
plural) rather than the usual exclusion vs.inclusion of second person in
first person plural?

Linguists writing on Algonquian languages like Potawatomi (Hockett, IJAL
14, 68-9, 1948), Bloomfield, Language, Page 256, Hollenbach, Linguistics
60, 27) Southwestern Ojibwe (Schwartz and Dunnigan 1986), etc. have
followed the general idea that the exclusive-inclusive distinction
occurs in first person and involves the exclusion vs. inclusion of
second person. But the paradigms occurring in these languages appear to
suggest that the distinction occurs in second person plural.

For example, Bloomfield gives the following Algonquian paradigm:

		Singular	Plural(Excl)	Plural(Incl)
	1	nenah		nina?		kena?
	2	kenah		kenua?		----
	3	wenah		wenua?		----

Bloomfield suggests that the forms contain (i) an initial element ke- if
the hearer is included, (ii) ne- if the hearer is not included but the
speaker is denoted, and (iii) we- if neither the speaker nor the hearer
are included. The description leaves the distinction between the two
plural suffixes -a? and -ua? unexplained.

On the other hand, if we regard the exclusion vs. inclusion to be that
of first person, we get a more interesting paradigm:

		Singular	Plural(excl)	Plural(Incl)
	1	nenah		---		nena?
	2	kenah		kenua?		kena?
	3	wenah		wenua?		---

We can regard nen-, ken- and wen- as denoting first, second and third
persons, respectively, and the plural marker -ua? as denoting, in
addition to plurality, the exclusion of first person and -a? as
denoting, in addition to plurality, the inclusion of the same.

The Potawatomi Paradigm (with first person being excluded or included)
makes this point more clear:

Independent Pronouns:
		Singular	Plural(Excl)	Plural(Incl)
	1	nin		---		ninan
	2	kin		kinwa		kinan
	3	win		winw		---

Possessive affixes:
	1	n-		---		n...nan
	2	k-		k...wa		k...nan
	3	w-		w...wa		----

This analysis appears to have an additional adventage. Languages that
have the inclusive-exclusive distinction in the first person plural
generally have the plural suffix of the exclusive form occurring in the
second person plural(and also of third plural) form.

			Singular	Plural(Excl)	Plural(Incl)
Havyaka		1	a:nu		engo		na:vu
		2	ni:nu		ningo		---

Marathi		1	mi:		amhi		a:paN
		2	tu:		tumhi		---

Gilyak		1	ni		nin		mirn
		2	ci		cin		---

Khezha		1	nie		ami		aro
		2	no		nomi		---


D.N.S.Bhat,
135, D-Block, 22nd Cross, 3A Main,
Vijayanagar III Stage,
Mysore 570 017, INDIA