[Lingtyp] query: "come here" > "hey" grammaticalization in spoken and sign language
Philippe Bourdin
pbourdin at yorku.ca
Tue Sep 3 16:17:25 UTC 2024
Dear all,
I admit that the link with Jussi's note and other contributions is
somewhat tenuous, but there is the perennial controversy regarding the
etymology of the ethnonym ‘Somali’. It has been hypothesized that it
might be none other than the two-word command /soo /(hither) + /maal/
(milk), which translates as ‘Go milk (the cow)!’. According to Hersi
(1977: 26-7), this is one of five “popular explanations”. While
linguistically he views all of them as being of “dubious authenticity,
as they are nothing more than the fancies of folk literature and
philological speculations”, Hersi observes that /soo maal/ are “the most
likely words a foreigner would hear as his Somali host gave orders for
the preparation of the guest’s meal”. Incidentally, Hersi mistakenly
glosses /soo/ go’. The preverbal clitic /soo/ is actually a ventive
marker, which in /soo maal! /encodes subsequent associated motion. In
this instance, /soo /refers specifically to the return segment of a
round trip: ‘Milk *and come* (back)!’ (Encoding the return segment
rather than the outbound segment, as in English or French, is not an
uncommon strategy crosslinguistically: it’s attested for example in
Japanese and in Indo-Aryan languages such as Marathi). To come back to
the etymological controversy, Hersi refers to Lewis (1955: 14), who does
mention /soo maal/ as one of the competing hypotheses. So does, more
recently, Abdillahi Farah (2020: 61), who notes that the topic is
discussed in Mansuur (2016: 130). These are only a few references, I’m
sure there are lots more.
Best,
Philippe
Philippe Bourdin
York U., Toronto (em.)
Abdillahi Farah, Hawa. 2020. Étude linguistique et sociolinguistique de
la variété du somali parlée par les jeunes Djiboutiens. Doctoral
dissertation, Université d’Aix-Marseille.
Hersi, Ali Abdirahman. 1977. The Arab factor in Somali history: The
origins and the development of Arab enterprise and cultural influences
in the Somali peninsula. PhD dissertation, U.C.L.A.
Lewis, I.M. 1955. /Peoples of the Horn of Africa: Somali, Afar and
Saho/. London: International African Institute. (1994 ed. available at
ArcAdiA Archivio Aperto di Ateneo)
Mansuur, Cabdalla Cumar. 2016. /Taarikhda Afka iyo Bulshada Soomaaliyeed
/[‘History of the Somali Language and Society’], 2^nd ed. Leicester: Loh
Press.
On 2024-09-02 23:32, Jussi Ylikoski via Lingtyp wrote:
>
> Dear all,
>
> At the risk of being mislead by a legend or a hoax, I'd like to
> mention the story about English /come here/ resulting in the Rotuman
> (Austronesian) /kamia/ for 'dog'. If this is true, this would, in a
> way, be something where "an expression meaning "come here" is
> reinterpreted as an exclamation whose effect seems to be to draw the
> interlocutor's attention to the speaker", as formulated by David in
> his original query.
>
> Best,
>
> Jussi
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> *Frá:* Nina Dobrushina via Lingtyp <lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org>
> *Sent:* mánudagur, 2. september 2024 23:21
> *Til:* chao.li at aya.yale.edu
> *Afrit:* LINGTYP at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG
> *Efni:* Re: [Lingtyp] query: "come here" > "hey" grammaticalization in
> spoken and sign language
>
> Dear David,
>
>
> In the languages of Daghestan, the imperative of the verb 'to come'
> often also means 'let's go' and in some languages it is also used as a
> particle in a hortative construction (come.IMP drink = ‘let’s drink’).
> In Rutul, I tested such constructions by translating the sentence
> “let’s not go there’ - come.IMP go.NEG. Unfortunately, I don't know if
> these words are used to attract attention.
>
>
> Here, for example, is a description of such usage in Mehweb -
> https://langsci-press.org/catalog/view/225/1597/1658-1, and here,
> briefly, in Rutul -
> https://lingconlab.github.io/rutul_dialectology/179_Hortative_marking.html
> <https://lingconlab.github.io/rutul_dialectology/179_Hortative_marking.html>
>
> https://lingconlab.github.io/rutul_dialectology/178_Hortative_%E2%80%98Let%E2%80%99s_go!%E2%80%99.html
> <https://lingconlab.github.io/rutul_dialectology/178_Hortative_%E2%80%98Let%E2%80%99s_go!%E2%80%99.html>
>
> In addition, Timur Maysak wrote
> <https://www.academia.edu/3007153/%D0%A2%D0%B8%D0%BF%D0%BE%D0%BB%D0%BE%D0%B3%D0%B8%D1%8F_%D0%B3%D1%80%D0%B0%D0%BC%D0%BC%D0%B0%D1%82%D0%B8%D0%BA%D0%B0%D0%BB%D0%B8%D0%B7%D0%B0%D1%86%D0%B8%D0%B8_%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%BD%D1%81%D1%82%D1%80%D1%83%D0%BA%D1%86%D0%B8%D0%B9_%D1%81_%D0%B3%D0%BB%D0%B0%D0%B3%D0%BE%D0%BB%D0%B0%D0%BC%D0%B8_%D0%B4%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B6%D0%B5%D0%BD%D0%B8%D1%8F_%D0%B8_%D0%B3%D0%BB%D0%B0%D0%B3%D0%BE%D0%BB%D0%B0%D0%BC%D0%B8_%D0%BF%D0%BE%D0%B7%D0%B8%D1%86%D0%B8%D0%B8_2002_>about
> hortative usages of 'come', but only in Russian, as far as I know.
>
>
> Best,
>
> Nina
>
>
>
> Nina Dobrushina
> */I condemn the aggression in Ukraine/*
>
>
> Le lun. 2 sept. 2024 à 14:55, Chao Li via Lingtyp
> <lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org> a écrit :
>
> Dear David,
>
> Thank you for your observation of this interesting phenomenon. I
> believe that Mandarin 来lái (‘to come’ when used as a verb) is
> related to what you requested. (Particularly when the speaker
> intends to invite the addressee(s) to jointly participate in the
> action expressed by the verb in the remaining part of the
> utterance), he or she, to draw the addressee(s)’ attention, may
> use 来or 来来来 at the beginning of a Chinese utterance (two 来’s in a
> row for this use appear to be less common; others may correct me
> if my intuition is wrong here). I didn’t gloss 来in the following
> examples, but its vocative function appears to be clear.
>
> (1) 来，再唱一遍。
>
> Lái, zài chàng yí biàn.
>
> again sing one time
>
> ‘Hey, let’s sing it one more time!’ or ‘Hey, please sing it one
> more time.’ (depending on the context)
>
> (2) 来，唱一遍给我们听听。
>
> Lái, chàng yí biàn gěi wǒmen tīngtīng.
>
> sing one time for us listen
>
> ‘Hey, please sing it for us.’
>
> (3) 来来来，咱们好好看看。
>
> Lái lái lái, zánmen hǎohǎo kànkàn.
>
> we carefully watch/examine/study
>
> ‘Hey, let’s examine it carefully!’
>
> (4) 来来来，再敬你一杯!
>
> Lái lái lái, zài jìng nǐ
> yì bēi!
>
> again respectfully.offer you
> one cup
>
> ‘Hey, another toast to you!’
>
> Best regards,
>
> Chao
>
>
> On Sat, Aug 31, 2024 at 4:20 PM David Gil via Lingtyp
> <lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org> wrote:
>
> Dear all,
>
> I am interested in an apparent path of grammaticalization in
> which an expression meaning "come here" is reinterpreted as an
> exclamation whose effect seems to be to draw the
> interlocutor's attention to the speaker.I am familiar with two
> such cases and would like to know if any of you happen to be
> familiar with others.
>
> The first is from Hebrew, in which /bo hena/ (come.IMP.2SGM
> here), reduced to /boena/, may be used to begin an utterance,
> with an effect rather like English /hey/, as in
>
> Boena yored gešem
>
> BOENA descend.PRS.SGM rain
>
> 'Hey it's raining'
>
> The reduced nature of the form is often reflected by its
> orthographic representation as a single word: בוא הנה> בואנה.
>
> The second case is from the home sign used by a single deaf
> child and his hearing friends in Sorong, on the western tip of
> New Guinea.The signers make use of a "come here" gesture that
> is widespread in many parts of the world, in which the hand is
> extended forward with the palm facing downward, and then makes
> one or more sweeping downward motions, iconically suggesting
> movement from the interlocutor to the signer.However, in this
> usage, the same gesture is used not to mean "come here", but
> rather to attract the interlocutor's attention, as a prelude
> to a further signed message.
>
> I would appreciate any other examples you might be familiar
> with of similar paths of grammaticalization derived from "come
> here", in either spoken or signed language.For what it's
> worth, Heine and Kuteva's (2002) /World Lexicon of
> Grammaticalization/ provides examples of COME > HORTATIVE
> grammaticalization, which is perhaps in the same ballpark, but
> not quite the same thing.
>
> 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:dapiiiiit at gmail.com
> Mobile Phone (Israel): +972-526117713
> Mobile Phone (Indonesia): +62-082113720302
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Lingtyp mailing list
> Lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org
> https://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/lingtyp
>
> _______________________________________________
> Lingtyp mailing list
> Lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org
> https://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/lingtyp
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Lingtyp mailing list
> Lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org
> https://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/lingtyp
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/lingtyp/attachments/20240903/a0c5b773/attachment.htm>
More information about the Lingtyp
mailing list