39th Annual Symposium on the American Indian at Northeastern State University, Tahlequah Oklahoma Indigenous Languages DocumentaFon and RevitalizaFon Seminar April 15, 2011 Agreement in Tohono O'odham and Chickasaw Colleen Fitzgerald The University of Texas at Arlington h8p://ling.uta.edu/~colleen cmfi[email protected] 1 Agreement •  We have seen how Shawnee and Omaha verbs express agreement. •  Now let's look at how two other NaFve languages show agreement. –  Tohono O'odham is from the Uto-­‐Aztecan family (related to Comanche). –  Chickasaw is in the Muskogean family (relaFves are Creek, Muskogee, Seminole, and of course, Choctaw!) 2 Verbs agreeing with Verbs •  Tohono O'odham has main verbs and "helping" (auxiliary) verbs, and someFmes, pronouns. •  'A:ñi 'añ s-­‐ba:bigĭ ñeok. •  'I was speaking slowly.' 3 What kind of agreement is it? Pronoun: First person, singular -­‐here a subject, but same pronoun is used for objects Auxilary: First person, singular, imperfecFve Main verb: singular, imperfecFve •  'A:ñi 'añ s-­‐ba:bigĭ ñeok. •  'I was speaking slowly.' 4 What kind of agreement is it? Pronoun: First person, singular -­‐here a subject, but same pronoun is used for objects Auxilary: First person, singular, imperfecFve Main verb: singular, imperfecFve •  'A:ñi 'añ s-­‐ba:bigĭ ñeok. Person Number Person Number Aspect Number Aspect •  'I was speaking slowly.' 5 Another way to say the same thing •  S-­‐ba:bigĭ 'añ ñeok. •  It means the same thing: "I was speaking slowly.". •  What did we leave out? •  What else is different? •  What does that tell us about auxiliaries in Tohono O'odham? 6 Second Person Singular Pronoun: Second person, singular, subject •  'A:pi Person Number Auxilary: Second person, singular, imperfecFve Main verb: singular, imperfecFve 'ap s-­‐ho8am cipkan. Person Number Aspect Number Aspect •  'You were working quickly.' •  Can we guess what other way we could say the same thing? 7 Another way to say the same thing •  S-­‐ho8am 'ap cipkan. •  It means the same thing: "You were working quickly.". •  We did first person singular. We did second person singular. What about third person singular? 8 Third Person Singular Pronoun: Third person, singular, subject •  Hegai Person Number Auxilary: Third person, singular, imperfecFve Main verb: singular, imperfecFve 'o cicwi. Person Number Aspect Number Aspect •  'He (or she) was playing.' •  Can we guess what other way we could say the same thing? 9 Another way to say the same thing •  Cicwi 'o. •  It means the same thing: "He (or she) was playing." •  We have now done first, second and third person all in singular. Let's look at what happens when the subject is plural 10 First Person Plural Pronoun: First person, plural, subject Auxilary: First person, plural, imperfecFve Main verb: plural, imperfecFve •  'A:cim 'ac ganhu wo:po'ŏ. Person Number Person Number Aspect Number Aspect •  'We were running over there.' •  Can we guess what other way we could say the same thing? 11 Another way to say the same thing •  Ganhu 'ac wo:po'ŏ. •  It means the same thing: "We were running over there." •  Let's look at what happens when the second person subject is plural. 12 Second Person Plural Pronoun: Second person, plural, subject Auxilary: Second person, plural, imperfecFve Main verb: plural, imperfecFve •  'A:pim 'ap 'i:ya cicwi. Person Number Person Number Aspect Number Aspect •  'You (all) were playing there.' (for some of us, "Y'all were playing there.") 13 Another way to say the same thing •  'I:ya 'ap cicwi. •  It means the same thing: "Y'all were playing." •  Let's look at what happens when the third person subject is plural. 14 Third Person Plural Pronoun: Third person, plural, subject Auxilary: Third person, plural, imperfecFve Main verb: plural, imperfecFve •  Hegam 'o 'aṣ ñeñok. Person Number Person Number Aspect Number Aspect •  'They are/were just speaking.' 15 Another way to say the same thing •  'O 'aṣ ñeñok. •  It means the same thing: "They were just speaking." •  Do you remember how we did the verb for 'speaking' in the very first sentence? 16 Singular versus plural verbs •  Singular subject and verb: –  'A:ñi 'añ s-­‐ba:bigĭ ñeok. –  S-­‐ba:bigĭ 'añ ñeok. •  "I was speaking slowly." •  Plural subject and verb: –  'O 'aṣ ñeñok. –  Hegam 'o 'aṣ ñeñok. •  "They were just speaking." 17 ReduplicaFon to Pluralize •  Many nouns and verbs "copy" the first consonant and vowel of the singular form to make the plural. –  taḍai 'roadrunner'
–  towa 'turkey' tataḍai 'roadrunner, plural' totowa 'turkey, plural' –  ñeid 'seeing' –  him 'walking' ñeñeid 'seeing, pl' hihim 'walking, pl' 18 Agreement in Chickasaw •  Chickasaw verbs carry lots of informaFon, like in Cherokee and Omaha. •  A verb like konta, 'to whistle', shows how Chickasaw uses prefixes on verbs. •  Kiikonta. "We are all whistling. •  Hashkonta. "You all are whistling." •  Hookonta 'They are whistling. ' 19 •  But look at what first person singular does: •  Kontali. 'I am whistling.' •  The other singular forms: •  Ishkonta. "You are whistling." •  Konta. "He (She or It) whistled." 20 •  Chickasaw has another interesFng feature: •  Ilookonta. 'We (more than two, including you) are eaFng.' 21 Chickasaw Verb ConjugaFon Kontali. Ishkonta Konta Kiikonta Hashkonta ookonta Ilookonta ookonta 'I am whistling.' "You are whistling." "He (She or It) whistled." "We are all whispering. "You all are whispering." "They are whistling." 'We (more than two, including you) are eaFng.' 'They are whistling. 22 Konta-­‐li. Ish-­‐konta Konta no suffix or prefix 'I am whistling.' "You are whistling." "He (She or It) whistled." Kii-­‐konta "We are all whispering. Hash-­‐konta oo-­‐konta Iloo-­‐konta "You all are whispering." "They are whistling." 'We (more than two, including you) are eaFng.' 'They are whistling. 23 for third person singular! oo-­‐konta Food for thought… •  We can have a lot packed into the Chickasaw verb. •  The verb for 'dance' is hilha. •  Add a daFve prefix and ihilha becomes 'dance for' 24 •  Hashpohilha'chi 'You all will dance for us.' –  'chi=future –  Hash is "y'all". What is ler to be the pronoun part to equal "us"? •  Ihilhatok 'He danced for her. –  -­‐tok is the past tense. –  Remember, Zero or nothing is what tells us we have the 3rd person subject ('he') –  So what is ler to be the the 3rd person object ('her')? 25 •  We can use li8le bits we know of the pieces in words to climb up the tree of knowledge in our language. •  Verb-­‐centered languages, like Chickasaw, build and build and build on pieces. •  Break the words, down, to build up your knowledge. –  Brad will show you some ways to teach breaking verbs down and building them up. •  Start with simple verbs, build to more complicated ones. –  Ardis talked a lot about how to pick your teaching items. 26 References •  Zepeda, Ofelia. 1988. A Papago Grammar. Tucson: University of Arizona Press.. •  Munro, Pamela and Catherine Willmond. 2008. Let's speak Chickasaw: Chikashshanompa' Kilanompoli.. Norman: The University of Oklahoma Press. 27