[Lingtyp] query: instrument voice

[Jess Tauber]

In Yahgan, a nearly extinct genetic isolate from Tierra del Fuego, there is
a 'circumstantial' voice prefix I write as T-, with various forms depending
on following phonological contexts (that is, it is ch(i:) before /y/, /k/,
/g/, /l/, tu: before labial stops or nasal, ts before other alveolar
segments, etc., which can ambivalently mark the inclusion of an instrument,
another non-core animate participant in the action, locations in space or
time, and so forth.

Jess Tauber

On Mon, Feb 21, 2022 at 8:42 PM Matthew Dryer <dryer at buffalo.edu> wrote:

> David,
>
>
>
> Why would you not say that the instrumental construction in Meyah, Sougb,
> and Hatam is an applicative, since the A rather than the instrument
> controls subject agreement?
>
>
>
> Matthew
>
>
>
>
>
> *From: *Lingtyp <lingtyp-bounces at listserv.linguistlist.org> on behalf of
> David Gil <gil at shh.mpg.de>
> *Date: *Monday, February 21, 2022 at 7:40 PM
> *To: *"lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org" <
> lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org>
> *Subject: *[Lingtyp] query: instrument voice
>
>
>
> Dear all,
>
>
>
> In the Austronesian languages of Taiwan, Philippines and Madagascar, there
> is a verbal affix that is said to mark "instrument voice"; loosely
> speaking, it marks the topic or subject of the clause as bearing the
> semantic role of instrument.
>
>
>
> Is anybody familiar with similar instrument-voice constructions from other
> parts of the world?
>
>
>
> The reason I ask is that a similar construction is present also in some
> languages of the Bird's Head and Cenderawasih Bay regions of New Guinea,
> eg. Biak, Roon, Wamesa and Wooi (Austronesian), and Hatam, Sougb, Meyah and
> Moskona (non-Austronesian).  What's curious about this construction is
> that, unlike the well-known Austronesian cases, it is the only
> morphologically-marked voice in each of the languages in question; there is
> no "ordinary" morphological passive construction.  My feeling is that this
> construction is quite uncommon cross-linguistically, but I would like to
> get a feel for the extent to which this is indeed true.
>
>
>
> Thanks,
>
>
>
> David
>
> --
>
> David Gil
>
>
>
> Senior Scientist (Associate)
>
> Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution
>
> Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
>
> Deutscher Platz 6, Leipzig, 04103, Germany
>
>
>
> Email: gil at shh.mpg.de
>
> Mobile Phone (Israel): +972-526117713
>
> Mobile Phone (Indonesia): +62-81344082091
>
>
>
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