nasality and negation

[Stefan Georg]

..and it would also possible to add the negative verb in Tungusic,  
*e-, also that of Finnish, e-.

StG
Am 30.08.2007 um 19:21 schrieb Michael Noonan:

> To Marianne's examples we can add Tamangic [Sino-Tibetan, Bodish] a-
> (<*ma-); the Krongo [Nilo-Saharan] circumfix a...e; the Ga [Niger- 
> Congo,
> Kwa] negation of the past, progressive, and habitual tenses,  
> consisting of
> a high (or mid) tone on the verbal root and a lengthening of the final
> vowel; etc.
>
> Mickey Noonan
>
> On Thu, 30 Aug 2007, Marianne Mithun wrote:
>
>> But we do know that negatives can in fact consist of just a vowel,  
>> even if
>> it is not common. The regular form of the negative in Barbareño  
>> Chumash
>> (Chumashan family), indigienous to the Southern California Coast,  
>> is the
>> verbal prefix -e-.
>>
>> Barbaraño Chumash
>>
>> s-qantun-us
>> 3.sg.subject-obey-3sg
>> 's/he obeys him/her'
>>
>> s-e-qantun-us
>> 3sg.subject-NEG-obey-3sg
>> 's/he does not obey him/her'
>>
>>
>> Marianne Mithun
>>
>> ---------- Forwarded Message ----------
>> Date: Thursday, August 30, 2007 3:24 PM +0200
>> From: Martin Haspelmath <haspelmath at EVA.MPG.DE>
>> To: LINGTYP at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG
>> Subject: Re: nasality and negation
>>
>> Willi Mayerthaler discussed the alleged association between  
>> negation and
>> nasality in his 1981 book "Morphologische Natürlichkeit", in §5.2 on
>> phonetic iconism. He cites a forthcoming paper "Phonetisch ikonische
>> Kodierung von Negationspartikeln", but apparently this paper never  
>> appeared.
>>
>> In the half-page remarks in the 1981 book, he claims that negative  
>> markers
>> never consist of only a vowel, and that it is striking how often the
>> consonant is a nasal, also outside of Indo-European. He associates  
>> this
>> with a culturally widespread tendency to signal denial by the  
>> interruption
>> of sensory contacts.
>>
>> Martin
>>
>> Mayerthaler, Willi. 1981. Morphologische Natürlichkeit. Wiesbaden:
>> Athenaion. (= Mayerthaler 1988)
>> Mayerthaler, Willi. 1988. Naturalness in morphology. Ann Arbor:  
>> Karoma.
>>
>>
>> Östen Dahl wrote:
>>> Otto Jespersen claims in his "Negation in English and other  
>>> languages"
>>> (1917) that there is a natural tendency for negative words to  
>>> begin in n-.
>>> When I did research on the typology of negation around 1980 I  
>>> tried to see
>>> if there were any such tendencies but the claim did not seem to be
>>> confirmed in my materials. I do not know if anyone has done any more
>>> systematic count since.
>>>
>>> Östen Dahl
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>> -----Original Message-----
>>>> From: Discussion List for ALT  
>>>> [mailto:LINGTYP at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG]
>>>> On Behalf Of Kaoru Horie
>>>> Sent: den 30 augusti 2007 00:51
>>>> To: LINGTYP at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG
>>>> Subject: Re: nasality and negation
>>>>
>>>> Dear Eduardo,
>>>>
>>>> I remember having read a similar statement, possibly in Talmy  
>>>> Givon's
>>>> 1978 paper.
>>>> Horn's book may also provide some relevant information.
>>>>
>>>> Kaoru Horie
>>>> **************
>>>> *Talmy Givon. (1978) Negation in language: Pragmatics, function,
>>>> ontology. In Peter Cole,
>>>> editor, Syntax and Semantics, Volume 9 (Pragmatics), pages 69-112.
>>>> Academic
>>>> Press, New York.
>>>>
>>>> *Horn, L.R. (1989) A natural history of negation. University of  
>>>> Chicago
>>>> Press, Chicago.
>>>>
>>>> At 18:33 07/08/29 -0400, you wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Dear colleagues,
>>>>>
>>>>> I remember having read somewhere, quite a while ago, about a
>>>>> cross-linguistic tendency for negative morphemes to present  
>>>>> similar
>>>>> forms (involving nasal phonemes) in unrelated languages.  I
>>>>> unfortunately am unable to recall where I read this, and I  
>>>>> couldn't
>>>>> find any reference to this subject among my textbooks or class  
>>>>> notes.
>>>>>
>>>>> Could anyone help refresh my memory?  Any bibliographical  
>>>>> references
>>>>> would be very much appreciated.
>>>>>
>>>>> Thanks in advance,
>>>>>
>>>>> Eduardo
>>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>> -- 
>> Martin Haspelmath (haspelmath at eva.mpg.de)
>> Max-Planck-Institut fuer evolutionaere Anthropologie, Deutscher  
>> Platz 6	
>> D-04103 Leipzig      Tel. (MPI) +49-341-3550 307, (priv.)  
>> +49-341-980 1616
>>
>> Glottopedia - the free encyclopedia of linguistics
>> (http://www.glottopedia.org)
>>
>> ---------- End Forwarded Message ----------
>>
>
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