[Lingtyp] Borrowed indefinite pronouns and markers

[David Gil]

Dear Johannes, all,



In Indonesian, one of the ways of forming indefinite pronouns is by the
reduplication of content interrogative words, some of which are borrowed
from other languages.  Examples include:



kapan-kapan 'any time' from kapan 'when', borrowed from Javanese.

bagaimana-bagaimana 'any way' from bagaimana 'how', where bagai is borrowed
from Tamil.



David


On Tue, Apr 22, 2025 at 10:45 PM Neil Myler via Lingtyp <
lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org> wrote:

> Dear Johannes,
> I've seen a very similar pattern with a certain negative indefinite marker
> in Quechua languages, where the donor language is Spanish.  A case from
> Coombs Lynch et al (2003:157) is the following (hyphenation and glossing
> supplied by me; the translation is mine from the Spanish translation given
> in the book); the borrowed element is bolded. In Spanish, *ni* as such
> doesn't appear in most negative indefinites, but it does appear in the
> construction that means *neither...nor* (*ni...ni...*), and in various
> expressions corresponding to English *not even* *X*.
>
> (1) Mana-m           *ni*   pi-pis            shamu-rqa-n-chu. (Cajamarca
> Quechua)
>      Not-dir.evid      ni   who-also       come-past-3sg-non.assert
>     "No-one came."
>
> Ref: Coombs Lynch, David, Heidi Carlson de Coombs, and Blanca Ortiz
> Chamán. 2003. *Rimashun Kichwapi. Una introducción al quechua
> cajamarquino*. Lima: Atares artes y letras.
>
> Best,
> Neil
>
> On Tue, Apr 22, 2025 at 5:26 AM Johannes Hirvonen via Lingtyp <
> lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org> wrote:
>
>> Dear typologists,
>>
>> I am currently gathering data for a study on borrowed indefinite
>> pronouns and markers, with a focus on negative indefinite pronouns.
>> Leaving aside the various terminological differences, what I am looking
>> for are any parts of indefinite pronouns or whole indefinite pronouns
>> that have been borrowed.
>>
>> To give examples for the two types: 1) Ramaškonys Lithuanian has
>> borrowed nigdi/nigdy ‘never’ as a whole pronoun from Polish; 2) Meadow
>> Mari has borrowed the prefix ńi- for the formation of negative
>> indefinites with its own interrogative bases (e.g. ńigö ‘nobody’) from
>> Russian (compare nikto).
>>
>> I assume that I have already gone through all the ‘obvious’ sources, and
>> therefore I would be most grateful about specific examples from
>> languages you might know from your work.
>>
>> Thank you and best regards
>>
>> Johannes Hirvonen
>> LMU Munich
>> johannes.hirvonen at campus.lmu.de
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-- 

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
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