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Indigenous Languages of the Americas
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Indigenous Languages of the Americas

A special issue of Languages (ISSN 2226-471X).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2020) | Viewed by 15168

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. José Camacho

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Hispanic and Italian Studies, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL 60607, USA
Interests: syntax; syntax–discourse interface; information structure; Amazonian languages; Romance languages
Prof. Dr. Liliana Sánchez

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Hispanic and Italian Studies, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL 60607, USA
Interests: syntax; information structure; language contact; bilingualism; language policy; Heritage languages; Quechua languages; Romance Languages; Amazonian Languages

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The goal of this Special Issue is to collect articles that focus on theoretical aspects of indigenous languages of the Americas or theoretically-informed descriptions of these languages.

The study of indigenous languages has provided important theoretical insights over the past decades, from influential discussions on ergativity in aboriginal Australian languages (Dixon 1979) to Lefebre and Muysken’s (1988) insightful proposal on mixed categories in Quechua, and more recent discussions on the mapping of syntax-morphology and argument structure (Roessler 2019). Although languages of the Americas have played an important role, theoretically informed descriptions and theoretical discussions based on these languages have not received as much attention as they deserve.

In this Special Issue, we would like to highlight theoretically informed language descriptions or theoretical issues exemplified by native languages of the Americas.

We request that interested authors initially submit a proposed title and an abstract of 400–600 words summarizing their intended contribution, prior to preparing their manuscripts. Abstracts will be reviewed by the guest editors for the purposes of ensuring proper fit within the scope of the Special Issue, and then full manuscripts will be solicited. Please send the abstract either to the guest editors [email protected], [email protected] or to the Languages Editorial Office at [email protected].

The deadline for abstract submission is 15 July 2020.

The notification of abstract acceptance is 30 July 2020.

The deadline for manuscript submission is 31 December 2020.

References

Dixon, R.M.W. 1979. Ergativity. Language 55:59-13.

Lefebvre, C. and P. Muysken. 1988. Mixed Categories: Nominalizations in Quechua. Springer.

Roessler, Eva-Maria. 2019. Differential object marking and object scrambling in the Guaraní language cluster. Lingvisticae Investigationes 42: 31-55

Prof. Dr. José Camacho
Prof. Dr. Liliana Sánchez
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Languages is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Native languages of the Americas
  • Syntax
  • Morphology
  • Typology

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Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

32 pages, 3299 KiB  
Article
Lexical Category-Governed Neutralization to Coronal and Non-Coronal Place of Articulation in Latent Consonants: The Case of Shipibo-Konibo and Capanahua (Pano)
by Jose Elias-Ulloa
Languages 2021, 6(4), 158; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages6040158 - 30 Sep 2021
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1983
Abstract
This study documents and accounts for the behavior of the place of articulation of latent segments in the Panoan languages Shipibo-Konibo and Capanahua. In these languages, the lexical category of the word governs the place of articulation (PoA) of latent consonants. Latent segments [...] Read more.
This study documents and accounts for the behavior of the place of articulation of latent segments in the Panoan languages Shipibo-Konibo and Capanahua. In these languages, the lexical category of the word governs the place of articulation (PoA) of latent consonants. Latent segments only surface when they are syllabified as syllable onsets. They surface as coronal consonants when they are part of verbs; but they occur as non-coronal consonants when they belong to nouns or adjectives. In non-verb forms, by default, they are neutralized to dorsal in Shipibo-Konibo, and to labial in Capanahua. The analysis proposed consists in using the well-known markedness hierarchy on PoA, |Labial, Dorsal > Coronal > Pharyngeal|, and harmonically aligning it with a morphological markedness hierarchy in which non-verb forms are more marked than verb forms: |NonVerb > Verb|. This creates two fixed rankings of markedness constraints: one on verb forms in which, as expected, coronal/laryngeal is deemed the least marked PoA, and another one on non-verb forms in which the familiar markedness on PoA is reversed so that labial and dorsal become the least marked places of articulation. The study shows that although both Panoan languages follow the general cross-linguistic tendency to have coronal as a default PoA, this default can be overridden by morphology. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Indigenous Languages of the Americas)
20 pages, 1834 KiB  
Article
Acquisition, Loss and Innovation in Chuquisaca Quechua—What Happened to Evidential Marking?
by Susan E. Kalt
Languages 2021, 6(2), 76; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages6020076 - 19 Apr 2021
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2929
Abstract
Variation among closely related languages may reveal the inner workings of language acquisition, loss and innovation. This study of the existing literature and of selected interviews from recent narrative corpora compares the marking of evidentiality and epistemic modality in Chuquisaca, Bolivian Quechua with [...] Read more.
Variation among closely related languages may reveal the inner workings of language acquisition, loss and innovation. This study of the existing literature and of selected interviews from recent narrative corpora compares the marking of evidentiality and epistemic modality in Chuquisaca, Bolivian Quechua with its closely related variety in Cuzco, Peru and investigates three hypotheses: that morpho-syntactic attrition proceeds in reverse order of child language acquisition, that convergence characterizes the emergence of grammatical forms different from L1 and L2 in contact situations, and that the Quechua languages are undergoing typological shift toward more isolating morphology. It appears that reportive -sis disappeared first in Bolivia, with eyewitness/validator -min retaining only the validator function. This finding seems to concord with reverse acquisition since it has previously been claimed that epistemic marking is acquired earlier than evidential marking in Cuzco. Meanwhile, Spanish and Quechua in nearby Cochabamba are claimed to mark reportive evidentiality via freestanding verbs of saying. I explore the reportive use of ñiy ‘to say’ in Chuquisaca as compared to Cochabamba and Cuzco and suggest the need for comparative statistical studies of evidential and epistemic marking in Southern Quechua. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Indigenous Languages of the Americas)
22 pages, 795 KiB  
Article
Object Sharing in Mbya Guarani: A Case of Asymmetrical Verbal Serialization?
by Marcia Damaso Vieira and Estefanía Baranger
Languages 2021, 6(1), 45; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages6010045 - 5 Mar 2021
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2546
Abstract
In this paper, we intend to describe and discuss the grammatical status of the V1-V2 (Cy/vy) constructions found in Mbya Guarani which can express simultaneous events, among other meanings, and which involve a single clause. We suggest here that this verbal [...] Read more.
In this paper, we intend to describe and discuss the grammatical status of the V1-V2 (Cy/vy) constructions found in Mbya Guarani which can express simultaneous events, among other meanings, and which involve a single clause. We suggest here that this verbal complex can be treated as a case of asymmetrical verbal serialization because it contains verbs from a major lexical class, occupying the V1 slot, followed by a more restricted intransitive verbal class, such as movement, postural, or stative verbs, which stands in the V2 position. The curious property of these constructions is that V2 can be transitivized through the attachment of applicative or causative morphemes and “share” its object with transitive V1. “Object sharing” is another property attributed to serialization, as suggested by Baker and Baker and Stewart, which may be seen as a strong argument in favor of the present hypothesis. We will also provide evidence to distinguish Mbya Guarani V1-V2 (Cy/vy) complex from other constructions, such as temporal and purpose subordinate clauses, involving the particle vy. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Indigenous Languages of the Americas)
23 pages, 1450 KiB  
Article
Typological Shift in Bilinguals’ L1: Word Order and Case Marking in Two Varieties of Child Quechua
by Susan E. Kalt and Jonathan A. Geary
Languages 2021, 6(1), 42; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages6010042 - 4 Mar 2021
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 3759
Abstract
We compare speech production and find morphosyntactic change among children and adolescents speaking two closely related varieties of Quechua in Cuzco, Peru, and Chuquisaca, Bolivia. Quechua languages traditionally employ Object-Verb (OV) word order in main clauses, but robust case marking permits other orders, [...] Read more.
We compare speech production and find morphosyntactic change among children and adolescents speaking two closely related varieties of Quechua in Cuzco, Peru, and Chuquisaca, Bolivia. Quechua languages traditionally employ Object-Verb (OV) word order in main clauses, but robust case marking permits other orders, especially to focalize new information through constituent fronting. In Chuquisaca, but not Cuzco, we find that schoolchildren often omit the accusative suffix -ta from direct objects while retaining a prosodic trace of -ta. In other varieties, loss of accusative marking is associated with a shift towards Verb-Object (VO) word order, as in Spanish. However, we find that Chuquisaqueños use more canonical OV and possessor-possessed order in declarative sentences than do Cuzqueños, who employ a wide range of word orders at the sentence level and deviate from the possessor-possessed norm for Quechua noun phrases. Our finding of more rigid word order in Chuquisaca highlights the complex factors contributing to typological shift in word order and morphology: Omission of case morphology places a greater burden on word order to identify grammatical roles. Further, we find that Chuquisaqueño schoolchildren alone have begun to use huk, “one,” to mark indefiniteness, perhaps to replace determiner-like functions ascribed to -ta and to obsolescent markers such as evidentials. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Indigenous Languages of the Americas)
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32 pages, 593 KiB  
Article
On Derived Change of State Verbs in Southern Aymara
by Gabriel Martínez Vera
Languages 2021, 6(1), 28; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages6010028 - 6 Feb 2021
Viewed by 2222
Abstract
There are two main approaches to change of state verbs. One adopts an approach in terms of a total change (becomeP, for base predicate P), i.e., a change from not being in the extension of the base predicate to [...] Read more.
There are two main approaches to change of state verbs. One adopts an approach in terms of a total change (becomeP, for base predicate P), i.e., a change from not being in the extension of the base predicate to being in it. The other adopts an approach in terms of a relative change (becomemore P, for base predicate P), i.e., a change for a theme in which it increases in the extent to which it holds the property denoted by the base predicate. Different languages have been analyzed using one or the other approach. I argue that both proposals are actually appropriate for analyzing related but not (completely) overlapping phenomena in the domain of derived change of state verbs in the very same language. This proposal is based on the discussion of change of state verbs in Southern Aymara that are derived with the suffixes -pta and -ra. I show that verbs with -pta convey the meaning of total change and that verbs with -ra convey the meaning of relative change. I further discuss how expressions with -pta and -ra interact: expressions with -ra implicate that the theme does not change from not being in the extension of the base to being in it. I propose an account in terms of scalar implicatures in which -pta and -ra are lexical alternatives, thus extending the domain of linguistic phenomena for which the computation of scalar implicatures is relevant. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Indigenous Languages of the Americas)
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