[Lingtyp] query: cumulative songs

[Peter Bakker]

There is a song in Basque, both weird and non-weird language. I learnt it many years ago, and looking for the exact lyrics there appear to be many different versions. Here the cumulative part exists of a noun in the ergative (-ak) followed by a noun in the absolutive case (-a), and the audience can add new combinations.

Basicallly, the pattern is:

We see the goat eat in the garden
We see the the stick hit the goat

The stick the goat
The goat the corn/maize
Etc
Take the goat out of the garden (refrain)

The fire the stick (burn)
The stick the goat (hit)
The goat the corn/maize (eat)

Peter

Version with lyrics with translation into Standard Average European, from Venezuela:

https://centrosvascosvenezuela.com/canciones-y-refranes/akerra-ikusi-degu-desde-los-tiempos-de-cervantes-hasta-hoy/

sing-along by folk music band Oskorri:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FtF1xxQZ_4

filmclip with a somewhat experimental karaoke version:
https://www.eitb.eus/eu/telebista/programak/ahotsak/bideoak/osoa/6777533/bideoa-energiaz-aritu-da-dakapo-abesbatza-akerra-ken-abestiarekin/

Other paper versions (no translations given)
https://www.eusko-ikaskuntza.eus/es/fondo-documental/cancionero-vasco/ab-703/

https://www.letras.com/herrikoiak/1243909/

https://www.badok.eus/euskal-musika/oskorri/oskorri-the-pub-ibiltaria-11/hitzak/8689-akerra-ikusi-degu

https://www.ikas.eus/spip.php?article3061&lang=eu



________________________________
Fra: Lingtyp <lingtyp-bounces at listserv.linguistlist.org> på vegne af David Gil <gil at shh.mpg.de>
Sendt: 12. februar 2023 08:13
Til: lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org <lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org>
Emne: [Lingtyp] query: cumulative songs


Dear all,

A cumulative song is one in which each unit, or stanza, introduces an additional layer of syntactic embedding, such as the following ...

This is the house that Jack built.

This is the malt that lay in the house that Jack built.

This is the rat that ate the malt
That lay in the house that Jack built.

This is the cat
That killed the rat that ate the malt
That lay in the house that Jack built.

This is the dog that worried the cat
That killed the rat that ate the malt
That lay in the house that Jack built.

... and so forth.  Perhaps the earliest example of a cumulative song is the Jewish Aramaic hymn Had Gadya.

My query: Is anybody familiar with examples of cumulative songs from other non-WEIRD cultures and languages.  While my main interest is in "indigenous" attestations, I would also be interested in successful adaptations and translations of western cumulative songs into other languages.

(Background to the query: I am interested in exploring variation in the propensity of different languages to make use of syntactic embedding.  My focus is on languages such as Malay/Indonesian, which have various tools to construct embedded clauses but generally choose not to make use of them in natural discourse.  I would like to test the hypothesis that such cumulative songs are absent or otherwise less successful in such languages.)

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<mailto:gil at shh.mpg.de>
Mobile Phone (Israel): +972-526117713
Mobile Phone (Indonesia): +62-082113720302


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