Gilles Authier Reconstructing prefixal number marking in East Caucasian MMM20, Budapest 3 September 2022 1 WALS: plural suffixes vs plural prefixes East Caucasian: 40 languages, 8 well-accepted branches predominantly suffixal, but most languages have gender-number (verbal) agreement Chechen prefixes: human masculine human feminine non human ‘animates’ inanimates vrbd- Andic Tsezic Avar Lak Lezgic K 3 Two singular vs plural agreement syncretisms 3d person plural marking in all branches SG PL SAP plural marking in Nakh (W) and Dargic (E): retention? SG PL M v- b- v- d- F r- b- r- d- A b- d- b- d- N d- d- d- d- 4 3d person vs SAP agreement in Dargic (& Nakh) haˤltːi lebilra cuglan-te ka-b-eʁ-ib=qːele, those all.HPL Tsugni.people-PL.NOM down-3HPL-go.PF-PRET=WHEN ka-d-eʁ-ib=da. down-1/2PL-go.PF-PRET=1 ‘ When all Tsugni people moved to the lowlands, we also moved down.’ 5 Agreement markers can be very transparent = monomorphic, alliterating ARCHI buwa-mu b-ez ditːa<b>u χːʷalli a<b>u. mother-ERG A-1SG(DAT) early<A> bread(A)(NOM) made<A>.PFV ‘Mother made bread for me early.’ This is not always the case ! 6 (b = Animate non human) Agreement markers can be very transparent but the trigger noun often shows an alliterating onset: mulli-tti-k ditta-bu barq A-long-ATTR-Amountain.OBL-SUPER-DIR quick-A sun(A) A-reach.IPF b-eχu-ttu-b ‘On a high mountain, the sun arrives early.’ > Niger-Congo ‘overt gender’ type; J. Nichols ‘autogender’ 7 b-erq’ir. Long recognized v-, r-, b- and d- onsets disproportion in dictionaries 8 ‘brother’ ‘sister’ ‘animal sibling’ Avar vac: jac: bac: Dargi udzi rudzi budzi the cognacy of gender morphology is often obscured: branch-specific or areally determined consonant shifts: b → v; d → r → j root-particular nasalization: b → m; d → n), language specific (locus determined) allomorphies. 9 Locus of agreement and allomorphy LAK allomorphs b/v: baˁr č’ivi pond(A) small.A ‘The pond went down.’ livč’-un A.grow-SEQ b-ur. A-COP d/r + root-particular nasalization: d → n: neχ č’iri river(N) small.N ‘The river went down.’ 10 lirč’-un N.grow-SEQ d-ur. N-COP Initial B and D in dictionaries 11 ‘moon’, third gender ‘heart’ fourth gender Batsbi but: dok’ Avar moc:’ rak’w Lak bar-z dak’ Dargi bac: urk’i Kryz vaz ji-k’ Nouns marked for the third, ‘B’ animate gender in all languages unique active THINGS ANIMALS discrete, active BODY PARTS ‘moon’ ‘sun’ ‘wolf’ ‘boar’ ‘tongue’ ‘nose’ ‘tale’ but: - bʕorc’ - mot:’ marɬŏ moq Avar moc:’ barq’ bac’ boƛon mac:’ meʕer marha Lak barz burk’ barc’ burk’ - maj maq Dargi bac: - bec’ - mez - - Kryz vaz viraʁ - vak mez maʕal maχw Batsbi 12 Nouns marked for the fourth, ‘D’ gender in all languages complex or mass BODY PARTS mass or paired THINGS ‘heart’ ‘meat’ ‘cloud’ ‘axe’ Batsbi dok’ ditx doxk’ dik’ Akhwakh rak’wa riƛ:’i - - Avar rak’ - nak: - Lak dak’ dik’ t:urlu rik’ SDargi urk’i dig dirixw - Lezgian jik’ jak cif jak’w Kryz (ji)k’ jak džif jak’w 13 overt gender and case marking Overt gender in the nominative (S/P) only: S/P OBL (ERG, GEN) Tsez ‘son’ M u-ži ž-a Lak ‘moon’ A ba-rz z-urdu-l Kryz ‘heart’ N ji -k’ k’-ij Very irregular morphology - ‘weak suppletion’ but found across non-adjacent branches: archaisms Suggests a state of affairs in which only S/P arguments would be flagged for their own gender. marked nominative ? definiteness? 14 equipollent gender contrasting nouns: four adjacent branches: probably areal innovation Chechen Akhwakh Avar Dargi ‘brother’ ‘sister’ voša vaci vac udzi joša jaci jac: rudzi 15 non equipollent gender contrasting nouns ‘brother’ ‘sister’ feminine overt gender, prefixal (Lak) s:u d-us: (r>d in Lak) feminine overt gender, suffixal (Kryz) šid šid-ir is is // unspecified gender (Tsez) 16 Ø/ B alternation across Dargi lects for ‘blood’ : ‘blood’ Akhwakh hini Avar bi Tsez ijo Lak uˁ Northern Dargi ħe Southern Dargi / be Lezgian ivi Kryz Khinalug i-radž p’i Preliminary conclusions Most nouns are not marked for their own gender, including in the most stable inherited vocabulary: e.g. cognates for ‘water’ and ‘fire’ are of the fourth (N) gender, and this is never marked on the nouns for ‘water’ and ‘fire’ themself But fourth gender nouns can have a word initial dental, in the third gender, nouns can have a word initial labial. Hypothesis: overt gender marking has to do with definiteness / specificity / number marking 18 B / Ø alternation on singular / paired body parts ‘eye’ Batsbi Akhwakh Avar Lak Dargi Lezgian Kryz bʕar-k’ k’ehar (= č’e- ‘two’) ber ja (ħ)ul vili ʕul D / Ø alternation on countable measure word ‘day’ Akhwakh Avar Dargi Lezgian Kryz ‘year’ reše(n) q’o son dus barħi juʁ, pl. ʁ-ar jis, pl. s-ar jiʁ san B- / Ø- and D- / Ø alternation: singulative and collective forms for bodyparts? B- singulative? (cattle) ‘head’ ‘fingernail’ Batsbi Akhwakh Avar Tsez Lak Dargi Tsakhur Lezgian Kryz bet’er bak’ bek’ vuk’ul k’il q’il mʕajrĭ miƛo maƚ moˁƚu mix mekka kek - D- collective? ‘span’ ‘liver/lung-s’ reƛ:’en roƛ:’ob t’om č’im dɦeɁ riƛ’e:ƛ:i t’ul t:ilik’ dulek’ - č’ib k’ep’ leq’ - The main problem Many obviously cognate nouns have - a labial onset, B/M i.e. third-gender prefix, in one branch or language - and a dental onset, D/N i.e. fourth-gender prefix, in others, with no subgrouping evidence Lexeme distinguishing gender alternation ‘day’ ‘sun’ Avar q’o barq’ Dargi barħi Lezgian juʁ, pl. ʁ-ar raʁ Kryz jiʁ viraʁ = barħi Lexeme distinguishing gender alternation 24 ‘tear(s)’ = ! ‘broth’ Batsbi Akhwakh natʾqʾajri maq’a - Avar maʕu - Tsez Lak Dargi Lezgian mo (Bezhta janq’o) naq’ nerʁ diq’ maq’ nurʁbe (regular plural of!) - M / N alternation on nasalised roots no apparent subgrouping except for Nakh ‘honey’ ‘bedclothes’ Batsbi Akhwakh Avar Tsez Lak SDargi ‘louse’ mac’ nac:’i nac:’ noci nac’ nez moc’ unc:’i hoc:’o nuci nic’ vaza mot: rešva bosen muži - Lezgian Kryz Khinalug net nimc’ virt jit nüc’ mes mes - other M / N = B / D alternation on nasalised roots no apparent subgrouping except for Nakh and Lezgic ‘dream’ ‘nettle’ Batsbi nab nit:’ Akhwakh Avar Tsez Lak SDargi miƛ:’e maƛ:’u moƛu mak’ muger mic:’i meč’ mic:i Lezgian Kryz Udi nik’ neq’ nep’ medž meč’ Typological (morphology/semantics) conclusions reconstructed types of number marking (in the nominative (S/P) case) - singularia tantum, consistent b-: ‘moon’, ‘sun’, ‘tongue’, ‘nose’ - mass/pair nouns, consistent d-: ‘heart’, ‘cloud’, ‘axe’, ‘meat’, ‘tears/broth’ - singular/pair, b- or d- / Ø: ‘eye’, ‘liver/lungs’ - mass or discrete nouns, b- or d- : ‘honey’, ‘lice’, ‘sheets’, ‘nettle’, ‘dream’ 27 General conclusion A submerged inflectional feature reconstructible for the proto-language, opposed to the current state of affairs in attested languages: typological shift driven by long-standing contact with purely suffixing languages (Turkic) 28