[Lingtyp] pain interjections

[Alex Francois]

Dear Maïa,

Mwotlap (Oceanic, north Vanuatu) has four interjections for expressing
pain:

   - *awē*  [a'wɪ]
   - *awō*  [a'wʊ]
   - *awuu * [a'wu:]
   - *lageh* [la'ɣɛh]

The first three *awē* *– **awō – awuu* are similar in their forms and
properties:

   - they occur either alone, or utterance-initially
   - they can be intensified either by lengthening their final vowel (→
   *awēēē*   ~  *awōōō*  ~  *awuuu*)
   or by adding an intensifying /h/ (→ *awēh ! ~ awōh !*)

The fourth one *lageh* is a bit different, being utterance-final ;  it
cannot be lengthened.

That said, these interjections share similar semantics:  they all colexify
*pain* (including violent pain) together with different forms of *strong
emotions*:

   - intense surprise  – including pleasant surprise (“Wow, great!”
   “Unbelievable!”)
   - annoyance
   - intense sadness – (as in mourning)
   - hilarity  – (as in laughing hard)

I just created these dictionary entries for you today, with examples from
my corpus  (including a couple with audio links):

   - *awē
   <https://marama.huma-num.fr/Lex/Mwotlap/a.htm#%E2%93%94aw%C4%93> —* *awō
   <https://marama.huma-num.fr/Lex/Mwotlap/a.htm#%E2%93%94aw%C5%8D> — awuu
   <https://marama.huma-num.fr/Lex/Mwotlap/a.htm#%E2%93%94awuu> —* *lageh
   <https://marama.huma-num.fr/Lex/Mwotlap/l.htm#%E2%93%94lageh> *
   - the combination *awō lageh
   <https://marama.huma-num.fr/Lex/Mwotlap/a.htm#%E2%93%94aw%C5%8D%E2%93%A22%E2%93%9Daw%C5%8D%20lageh>!*
    is also common, with the same array of meanings.

Finally, I also wrote the entries for *kēh
<https://marama.huma-num.fr/Lex/Mwotlap/k.htm#%E2%93%94k%C4%93h>* ~ *ēkēh
<https://marama.huma-num.fr/Lex/Mwotlap/%C4%93.htm#%E2%93%94%C4%93k%C4%93h>*,
but these are apparently used to express disappointment or sadness
(“alas!”) rather than pain.

best
Alex
------------------------------

Alex François
LaTTiCe <http://www.lattice.cnrs.fr/en/alexandre-francois/> — CNRS–
<http://www.cnrs.fr/index.html>ENS
<https://www.ens.fr/laboratoire/lattice-langues-textes-traitements-informatiques-et-cognition-umr-8094>
–Sorbonne nouvelle
<http://www.univ-paris3.fr/lattice-langues-textes-traitements-informatiques-cognition-umr-8094-3458.kjsp>
Australian National University
<https://researchers.anu.edu.au/researchers/francois-a>
Personal homepage <http://alex.francois.online.fr/>
_________________________________________


---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: PONSONNET Maia <maia.ponsonnet at cnrs.fr>
Date: Wed, 18 Jan 2023 at 05:13
Subject: [Lingtyp] pain interjections
To: lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org <lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org>


Dear all,


I am starting a study on pain interjections and the phonetic material they
are made of.

Before I begin excavating individual lexical resources, I thought I'd put a
request to the list.


Would you be able to share the forms of pain interjection(s) in the
languages you know?



All I need is the form, with its *phonetic transcription *and any *prosodic
information*; as well as its *semantic scope *(is it just pain or does it
also express other experiences eg surprise, fear...?). If you can flag
a published source where the interjection is documented this is ideal.


Also, if you can point to references containing lists of interjections (eg
grammars), this will be extremely useful too.


Many many thanks for your contributions, it is wonderful to be able to rely
on such a knowledgeable and generous community.

With kind regards,

Maïa




Maïa Ponsonnet

Chargée de Recherche HDR @ CNRS Dynamique Du Langage

14, avenue Berthelot, 69007 Lyon, FRANCE  -- +33 4 72 72 65 46

Adjunct @ University of Western Australia

+ + + + +

Co-rédactrice en chef du *Journal de la Société des Océanistes*

https://journals.openedition.org/jso/
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