Claire Moore-Cantwell
Ling 197: Individual Studies (Samoan)
Prof: Kie Zuraw
13 June, 2008
Samoan Thematic Consonants and t he -Cia suffix
0. Introduction
A long-standing problem in the phonology of Polynesian languages has been the
description of the suffixes containing so-called ‘thematic consonants’. These suffixes
may be vowel-initial or may begin with a lexically specified consonant. This paper
consists of two parts. First, the distribution of the consonants will be addressed, along
with possible explanations of their origins, then the distribution of the allomorphs of the
ergativizing suffix -Cia, where C is a thematic consonant, will be addressed. For this
second task, comparisons will be drawn to de Lacy’s (2002) description of the -Cia
suffix and its allomorphs in the related language Maori.
Data were collected from George Milner’s (1966) Samoan Dictionary.
1. Thematic Consonants in Samoan
Thematic consonants appear in four different suffixes in Samoan: -Cia, an
ergativizing suffix; -Caʔi, which intensifies the meaning of the stem and forms
frequentatives; -Caŋa, a suffix that forms deverbal nouns; and -Ci, a suffix that attaches
to verbs or nouns and forms a more specific version of the word, often the reciprocal or
plural form for verbs. Samoan uses the consonants f, ŋ, n, m, l, t, s, and ʔ.
All Polynesian languages have a similar set of suffixes, with lexically
determined consonants. The proposal I will explore here is that the consonants can be
traced to the Proto-Polynesian reconstructions of the roots in question. By this analysis,
the roots which exhibit thematic consonants were historically consonant final, but
somewhere in the history of Samoan, consonant-final words were prohibited, probably
by a reranking of *CODA. When this change happened, the consonants were deleted
from the end of the bare stems, but remained in suffixed forms which then became
lexicalized and are no longer productive (Pawley 2001).
In order to test this, I compared forms exhibiting thematic consonants gathered
from Milner (1966) with a list of Samoan cognates with Proto-Malayo-Polynesian and
Proto-Oceanic forms gathered by Karyn Maczka from The Austronesian Basic
Vocabulary Database, Greenhill, Blust, and Gray (2003-2008). All Proto-forms cited
come from this database.
The distribution of the consonants:
Consonant
Number of words
Suffixes in which it appears
f
23
-fia, -faʔi, -faŋa, -fi
ŋ
21
-ŋia, -ŋaʔi, ŋi
n
11
-naʔi
m
10
-mia, -maʔi, -maŋa
l
15
-lia, -laʔi, -laŋa
t
39
-tia, -taʔi, -taŋa, -ti
s
25
-sia, -saʔi, -saŋa, -si
ʔ
16
-ʔia, -ʔaʔi, -ʔaŋa, -ʔi
Mosel and Hovdhaugen (1992) suggest that the suffixes -naʔi, and -ʔaŋa are
productive to some extent, attaching to words that are not historically n-final or ʔ-final.
In all of the eleven forms found in Milner (1966) that contain n as a thematic consonant,
the only form the n appears in is -naʔi. No -nia, -naŋa, or -ni forms can be found, with
two exceptions that will be addressed below. I was able to trace one of these words that
is, [ʔai], to eat, back to its Proto-Malayo-Polynesian (PMP) ancestor. It is historically
n-final, however, being descended from PMP *kaen. This is no disproof of the theory
that -naʔi is or was a productive suffix, but it does mean that [ʔainaʔi] is not likely an
example of such productivity.
Similarly, out of the sixteen forms in Milner (1966) that have ʔ as a thematic
consonant, in nine of them the only place this consonant appears is in the suffix -ʔaŋa.
There is one form, [afio], which takes the suffix -ʔaŋa as the only attestation of the
thematic consonant ʔ, and can be traced to the Proto-Malayo-Polynesian root *ari ,
which has no consonant at the end. This form provides a probable example of a form
that took the semi-productive affix -ʔaŋa, even though it did not have a historical wordfinal ʔ.
The semi-productivity of these two consonants in suffixes can explain many of
the roots found in Milner (1966) that exhibit more than one thematic consonant. These
are as follows:
Root
Gloss
-Cia 1
-Cia 2
-Caʔi
-Caŋa
-Ci
be raised
ala
path, way
alofa love
sola escape
soa
have a friend
sai
arrest
eʔe
eʔetia
eʔenaʔi
alafia
alanaʔi
alofaŋia
soania
soaŋia
alofaʔaŋa
fealofaŋi~fealofani
fesolataʔi solaʔaŋa
saisailia saisaitia
The first two of these may have regularized their -Caʔi suffix, changing the
consonant to n, while keeping their original thematic consonant in the -Cia form. A
rather large glitch in this explanation is that the second, ‘ala’ descends from PMP
*zalan , an n-final form, not an f-final form. I cannot imagine a reason for the n to
become an f, and therefore this origin is mysterious to me.
The second two of these appear to have regularized their -Caŋa forms, while
retaining their other thematic consonants. I could not find any historical forms for these
two words.
The last two alternations, as well as the -Ci forms of the third set, are more
difficult to explain. An explanation of the appearance of the n’s might be
hypercorrection from colloquial Samoan, tautala leaga, in which all the n’s which occur
in literary or high style Samoan, tautala lelei, become ŋ. Speakers who had only heard
these forms pronounced in tautala leaga may have hypercorrected in converting them
into tautala lelei, turning the ŋ’s into n’s, even though they were not n’s historically. As
for the alternation between t and l in the last form, they mean the same thing, and I was
unable to find the proto-form for the root. This alternation remains mysterious.
Proto-forms and the Thematic Consonants:
There are 162 roots in Samoan that have thematic consonants. Out of these, I
was able to trace 19 of them back to their Proto-Malayo-Polynesian (PMP) or ProtoOceanic (PO) roots:
Samoan Root
1. afio
2. inu
3. ʔai
4. maʔalili
5. mataʔu
Gloss Suffixed Form
come
afioʔaŋa
drink
inumia
eat
feʔainaʔi
feel cold maʔaliliŋia
fear
mataʔutia
C
ʔ
m
n
ŋ
t
PMP
*ari
*inum
*kaen
*ma-diŋdiŋ
*ma-takut
PO
spit
anusia
7. taŋi
cry
taŋisia
8. lua
two
lualuaŋia
9. asu
smoke asuŋia
10. ʔaʔau
swim
ʔa:usia
11. valu
scrape valusia
12. laʔa
step
laʔasia
13. ulu
go into ulufia
14. to:
plant
to:faʔi
15. aʔa
root
aʔafia
16. ala
way
alafia, alanaʔi
17. tao
cover an oven taomia
18. tupu
grow
tupulaŋa
19. tu:
stand
tu:lia
6. anu
s
*ʔanusi
s
*taɡis
ŋ
*ʔasu
s
*karut
f
*ʔulu
f
*wakaR
m
*tanek
l
*tuʔud
ŋ
s
s
f
f, n
l
*duha
*kakaRu
*lakaw
*tanum
*Zalan
*tumbuʔ
Number 1 was discussed above as an example of the generalization of the affix -
ʔaŋa. Mysteriously enough, only numbers 2-7 straightforwardly exhibit the origin of
the thematic consonant. In numbers 11 and 19, the final consonant of the historical
form shares many features with the thematic consonant, and in number 16, one of the
attested thematic consonants is in fact the final consonant of the historical form.
However, in the case of the other 8 forms, the final consonant of the historical form just
doesn’t correspond to the thematic consonant in the present form. Though the
distribution of this data is not very promising, perhaps if more reconstructed forms
could be gathered, the relationships would look less inexplicable.
2. Samoan Ergative Suffixes
Samoan has a set of suffixes which attach to a verb or to a noun, producing an
ergative verb (Mosel and Hovdhaugen pg 742). There are four variations of these
suffixes: -a, -ia, -ina, and -Cia where C is a thematic consonant. The -Cia and -ia
forms are no longer productive, but both -a and -ina are. Furthermore, these latter two
appear to be in free variation (Mosel and Hovdhaugen pg 198). Many roots take both,
and there does not seem to be any difference in meaning between them.
Some examples of words that take both are asa ~ asaina ~ asa:, ford, wade
through; and puʔe ~ puʔeina ~ puʔea, catch, and there are many others.
Possible historical rules regulating the distribution of suffixes:
The -Cia suffixes are non-productive and the forms containing them are
presumably stored. However, although -ina and -a are not in strict complementary
distribution, the occurrences of each are not evenly distributed across root shapes. The
following chart illustrates this. H designates a syllable of two mora, with either a
diphthong or a long vowel, while L designates a syllable of one mora, with a single
short vowel.
(1) The distributions of -a and -ina:
Root
Number
Shape
of -ina
H
16
to: ~ to:ina
plant
a-final
21
asa ~ asaina
i-final LL 8
other V-
LL
43
example
gloss
Number of
example
gloss
1
tau ~ taua
fight
wade
8
asa ~ asa:
wade
ʔati ~
bite
44
ʔati ~ ʔatia
bite
ato ~ atoina
thatch
54
tolo ~
drag
-a
ʔatiina
through
final LL
HL
through
toloa
∅
N/A
23
pasi ~
be tired
pa:sia
LH
7
HH
6
ʔie: ~
be
3
mafa͡i ~
ʔie:ina
weary
lu:lu: ~
shake
∅
N/A
be able
mafa͡ia
lu:lu:ina
a-final
12
laŋona ~
feel
3
uiŋa ~
meaning
i-final
3
liaʔi ~
strike a
7
ʔaʔati ~
bite off
other V-
5
tapale ~
box
3
unoʔo ~
be
LLL
LLL
final LLL
laŋonaina
liaʔiina
tapaleina
disgust
blow
uiŋa:
ʔaʔatia
unoʔoa
bruised
There are four -ina suffixed forms of the type HL, but in all cases except one the
suffix is added after the -Caʔi suffix. I did not list these, since the base of affixation is
not just the HL stem, but the stem along with some other affixes. The fourth form is a
reduplicated form in which I am unsure if the length is underlying in the stem or a
result of reduplication. Though there is very little data, larger forms show an
approximately equal distribution of -ina and -a.
For most of these root shapes there is a strikingly uneven distribution of -ina
and -a. There are two types of uneven distribution - those dependent on the root shape,
and those dependent on the last vowel in the root. For the former, I propose to use
independently motivated prosodic constraints from Zuraw, Yu, and Orfitelli (2008), and
some constraints used by de Lacy (2002) for Maori.
(2) FTBIN - feet are binary under moraic analysis. (Zuraw, Yu, Orfitelli 2008, and
de Lacy 2002)
(3) EDGEMOST-R - Every foot appears at the right edge of a prosodic word (Zuraw,
Yu, Orfitelli 2008) A violation is incurred for every syllable intervening between
the right edge of a foot and the right edge of a prosodic word..
This constraint is closely related to ALLFTL, used in de Lacy (2002), but it requires
only the head foot to align, rather than all feet, and it requires alignment with the right
edge of the PrWd rather than the left edge. The constraint ALLFTL was part of the
mechanism used by de Lacy to arrive at maximal prosodic words. Since Samoan has
much larger roots than Maori, maximal prosodic words are not as convenient as in de
Lacy’s analysis.
(4) LAPSEFT - Adjacent unstressed moras must be separated by a foot boundary (de
Lacy pg 497)
(5) PARSE-σ Every syllable belongs to a foot (de Lacy 2002)
(6) MAX-V-LENGTH Long vowels in the input must be long in the output (Zuraw,
Yu, Orfitelli 2008)
(7) ALIGN -ina -L Align the left edge of the morpheme -ina with the left edge of a
PrWd. (Kager 1999, pg. 122)
Although this is a strange morpheme-specific constraint, the need for something like it
is articulated in Zuraw (2008) to account for the lack of coalescence of the [i] if an ifinal stem with the initial [i] of the morpheme.
For now I will refrain from committing to an underlying form for the morpheme
that is realized sometimes as -ina and sometimes as -a, but will call it ‘pv’ in
accordance with Milner (1966), and assume that it can surface as either of -a or -ina in
order to be most harmonic.
(8) Roots consisting of a single heavy syllable (diphthong or long vowel):
‘reach /to: +pv/
FTBIN EDGEMOST- LAPSEFT MAX-V-LENGTH
for’
R
a. {(tò:)}{(í.na)}
b. {(tó:.a)}
*!
c. {(tó.a)}
*!
d. {(tó:)a}
*!
e. {(tó:)i.na}
*!
PARSE-σ
*
**
There are two forms that consist of a diphthong with a denominal -a suffixed
after it. They have the exact same phonetic shape though they are two different lexical
entries, vai ~ vaia, ‘water’, and vai ~ vaia, ‘trick, guile’. As noted in Zuraw (2008),
denominal -a suffixes violate a constraint causing aVa# sequences to be syllabified as a
dipthhong then -a, or as áV.a# . Instead, diphthongs followed by denominal -a are
syllabified as a.v.́a#. Thus, these two forms have the shape {va(í.a)}, and they are
treated as LL sequences instead of as H sequences.
(9) Roots consisting of a heavy syllable followed by a light syllable:
‘be
/pa:si +pv/
FTBIN EDGEMOST- LAPSEFT MAXALIGN
tired’
R
VLENGTH
a. {(pà:)si}{(í.na)}
*!
b. {(pà:si)}{(í.na)}
*!
c. {(pà:)}{si(í.na)}
*!
d. {(pà.si)}{(í.na)}
*!
e. {(pà:)}{(sí.a)}
Here the aligment constraint is crucial.
PARSEσ
*
*
When roots such as this one consisting of a long vowel in the first syllable
appear unsuffixed, the long vowel is shortened. This can be accounted for in the
following manner (Zuraw, Yu, Orfitelli 2008):
(10)
‘be
tired’
Trochaic Shortening:
/pa:si/
FTBIN DEP µ
a. {(pá:)si}
b. {(pá:.si)}
c. {(pà:)(sí:)}
*!
*!
EDGE
MOSTR
*!
LAPSE
FT
ALIGN
MAX-VLENGTH
PARSE
-σ
*
d. {(pá.si)}
*
We see here that DEP µ is also needed, and must be ranked above MAX-V-LENGTH, as
must both EDGEMOST-R and FTBIN.
(11)
Roots consisting of a light syllable followed by a heavy:
‘be
/ʔie: +pv/
FTBIN EDGEMOST- LAPSEFT ALIGN
MAX- PARSEweary’
R
Vσ
LENGTH
a. {ʔi(é:)a}
*!
*
b. {ʔi(é:.a)}
*!
c. {ʔi(é.a)}
*!
*
d. {ʔi(è:)}{(í.na)}
*!
e. {(pà:)}{(sí.a)}
Here we see that PARSE-σ must be ranked below the rest of the constraints.
(12)
Roots consisting of two heavy syllables:
‘shake’ /lu:lu: +pv/
FTBIN EDGEMOST- LAPSEFT ALIGN
R
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.
MAX- PARSEVσ
LENGTH
*
*
{(lù:)(lú:)a}
*!
{(lù:)}{(lú:)a}
*!
{(lù:)}{(lú:a)}
*!
{(lù:)}{(lú.a)}
*!
{(lù:)(lù:)(í.na)}
*!
{(lù:)(lù:)}{(í.na)}
The previous examples might have worked using the ALLFTR constraint, the
counterpart to the ALLFTL used in de Lacy (2002) to describe the patterns in Maori, but
this one does not:
(13)
ALLFTR - Every foot appears at the right edge of a prosodic word (de
Lacy 2002)
(14)
‘shake’ /lu:lu: +pv/
a.
b.
c.
 d.
e.
{(lù:)(lú:)a}
{(lù:)}{(lú:)a}
{(lù:)}{(lú:a)}
{(lù:)}{(lú.a)}
{(lù:)(lù:)(í.na)}
FTBIN
ALLFTR
LAPSEFT ALIGN
*!**
*!
MAX- PARSEVσ
LENGTH
*
*
*!
*
*!****
*
f.
{(lù:)(lù:)}{(í.na)}
*!
The only way to fix this would be to rank ALLFTR below MAX-V-LENGTH,
which would be contradictory to the ordering established in (10), to explain Trochaic
Shortening. Maori words may only be four moras long at the most, and syllables of
type HH are not allowed. Samoan, however, allows not only words of shape HH, but
also even longer words with shapes such as HHL, HLH, and even HHH, and longer.
Words of up to seven mora can take affixes.
(15)
Roots consisting of two light syllables:
‘put
/teu +pv/
FTBIN EDGE LAPSE
away’
MOST
FT
-R
a. {(té.u)a}
*!
b. {te(ú.a)}
c. {(tè:)(ú.a)}
d. {(tè.u)}{(í.na)}
{ta(pà.le)}{(í.na)}
{(tà.pa)le)}{(í.na)}
{(tà.pa)}{le(í.na)}
{(tà.pa)}{(lé.a)}
MAX-VLENGTH
PARSEσ
*
*!
*!
(16)
Roots consisting of three light syllables:
‘box’’ /tapale +pv/
FTBIN EDGEMOST- LAPSEFT
R
a.
b.
c.
d.
ALIGN
DEP
µ
DEP µ
ALIGN
*!
MAX- PARSEVσ
LENGTH
*!
*
*!
In both of these cases, it is the low-ranked PARSE-σ that decides between
candidates. As seen in the chart in (1), a-final and i-final words of these shapes have
different distributions, a-final usually taking -ina, and i-final usually taking -a. The
OCP can be used to get this difference. It does not need to be ranked high, only above
PARSE-σ.
(17)
a-final LL roots:
‘wade
/asa +pv/
FTBIN
through’
a.
b.
c.
{(á.sa)a}
{a(sá.a)}
{(à:)(sá.a)}
EDGE
DEP µ
MOST
-R
*!
*!
ALIGN
MAX-VLENGTH
OCP
PARSEσ
*
*!
*
*
*
d.
{(à.sa)}{(í.na)}
(18)
‘bite’
i-final LL roots:
/ʔati+pv/
FTBIN
EDGE
DEP µ
ALIGN
MOST
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
{(ʔá.ti)a}
{ʔa(tí.a)}
{(ʔà:)(tí.a)}
{(ʔà.ti)}{(í.na)}
{ʔa (tí.na)}
(19)
‘feel
disgust’
a.
b.
c.
d.
{la(ŋò.na)}{(í.na)}
{(là.ŋo)na)}{(í.na)}
{(là.ŋo)}{na(í.na)}
{(là.ŋo)}{(ná.a)}
(20)
‘bite
off’
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
a-final LLL roots:
/laŋona+pv/
FTBIN
i-final LLL roots:
/ʔaʔati+pv/
FTBIN
{ʔa(ʔà.ti)}{(í.na)}
{(ʔà.ʔa)ti)}{(í.na)}
{(ʔà.ʔa)}{ti(í.na)}
{(ʔà.ʔa)}{(tí.na)}
{(ʔà.ʔa)}{(tí.a)}
MAX-VLENGTH
OCP
-R
*!
PARSEσ
*
*
*!
*!
*!
EDGEMOST
-R
ALIGN
MAX-VLENGTH
OCP
*!
*!
PARSEσ
*
*
*
*!
EDGEMOST
-R
ALIGN
MAX-VLENGTH
OCP
*!
*!
*!
*!
*
*
PARSEσ
*
*
*
A historical reranking of the OCP would account for the presence of those forms
with the opposite suffix from what is expected according to these tableaux.
It is not as easy to acocunt for the presently attested types by reranking
constraints in the other tableaux. I propose instead that at one time, these two suffixes
were in complementary distribution, being allomorphs of the same underlying form,
probably /-ina/. This would force at least MAX-SUFFIX to be ranked lower than all of
the constraints listed above (or if the underlying form were /-a/, DEP would be low
ranked). At some point the contrast between them disappeared for some reason, and
they were reconstructed as two different suffixes, with the same meaning, leading to
their present state of free variation.
3. Conclusions
The thematic consonants of Samoan are surprisingly unpredictable from their
Proto-Malayo-Polynesian or Proto-Oceanic ancestors.
The distributions of the allomorphs of the ergative suffixes, though not in
complementary distribution, are describable through a set of common prosodic
constraints, many of them at work in the language anyway. This may describe a
historical state of the language in which the ergative suffixes /-a/ and /-ina/ were
different realizations of the same underlying form. They have since been reconstructed
as two separate suffixes with the same or very nearly the same meaning.
References
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