14.1689, Qs: Ergative Amazonian Langs; Proto-Altaic Forms

[LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List:  Vol-14-1689. Sun Jun 15 2003. ISSN: 1068-4875.

Subject: 14.1689, Qs: Ergative Amazonian Langs; Proto-Altaic Forms

Moderators: Anthony Aristar, Wayne State U.<aristar at linguistlist.org>
            Helen Dry, Eastern Michigan U. <hdry at linguistlist.org>

Reviews (reviews at linguistlist.org):
	Simin Karimi, U. of Arizona
	Terence Langendoen, U. of Arizona

Home Page:  http://linguistlist.org/

The LINGUIST List is funded by Eastern Michigan University, Wayne
State University, and donations from subscribers and publishers.

Editor for this issue: Naomi Fox <fox at linguistlist.org>
 ==========================================================================
We'd like to remind readers that the responses to queries are usually
best posted to the individual asking the question. That individual is
then strongly encouraged to post a summary to the list. This policy was
instituted to help control the huge volume of mail on LINGUIST; so we
would appreciate your cooperating with it whenever it seems appropriate.

In addition to posting a summary, we'd like to remind people that it
is usually a good idea to personally thank those individuals who have
taken the trouble to respond to the query.

To post to LINGUIST, use our convenient web form at
http://linguistlist.org/LL/posttolinguist.html.

=================================Directory=================================

1)
Date:  Fri, 13 Jun 2003 13:08:27 +0000
From:  Eva Monrós <emonros at fil.ub.es>
Subject:  Valence changing and ergativity

2)
Date:  Fri, 13 Jun 2003 07:04:12 +0000
From:  Anton ANTONOV <antonov_cej at hotmail.com>
Subject:  (proto-)Altaic  (*) -RA/RU

-------------------------------- Message 1 -------------------------------

Date:  Fri, 13 Jun 2003 13:08:27 +0000
From:  Eva Monrós <emonros at fil.ub.es>
Subject:  Valence changing and ergativity

Dear linguists,

I am pursuing my research on ergative Amazonian languages. I would be
very grateful if anybody could give me bibliographical references
dealing with the following topics:

- Morphological and syntactical descriptions of ergative languages of
South America.

- Valence changing in ergative languages of the world.

Thanks in advance,

Eva Monrós
Universitat de Barcelona


-------------------------------- Message 2 -------------------------------

Date:  Fri, 13 Jun 2003 07:04:12 +0000
From:  Anton ANTONOV <antonov_cej at hotmail.com>
Subject:  (proto-)Altaic  (*) -RA/RU

I am currently working on the grammaticalization of an Old Japanese
suffix -RA, which combines at least five seemingly very different
meanings, i.e., plurality, humility, affection, static adjective stem
suffix, location. It is this last meaning of -RA which is often
(cf. Miller 1976, Tekin 1993, Haguenauer 1951/6, Greenberg 2000, among
others) assumed to be a remnant of a proto-Altaic suffix
*-RA(/RE/RI/RU) which was arguably used as a marker of the
locative/allative cases. Thus, Modern Japanese place pronouns
kotira/sotira/atira/dotira ''here,there,etc.,where'' which can also be
used as direction pronouns ''(come)over here, this way, etc.'' have
been compared to Modern Turkish bura/sura/ora/nere ''here, there,
etc. where''.

Now I have been able to find out that both the Japanese forms and
their Modern Turkish counterparts are of rather recent coinage, the
latter stemming from a fusion between the demonstratives bu/su/o and
the independent noun ara ''interval, space''. I would therefore like
to know if in the other Turkic languages (or the rest of the so-called
Altaic family) there are forms where a reflex of proto-Altaic *-RA,
etc. appears and which cannot be explained as the result of a similar
''crasis''.

Thank you all in advance!

Language-Family:  Altaic; Code: AT

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
LINGUIST List: Vol-14-1689