On The Realization Of Nominal Possession In Mehinaku: A Diachronic Account

Obscure cognates and lexical reconstruction: notes on the diachrony of the Xinguan Arawak languages

“…This is a morphologically conditioned alternation, kapitiwi being the Absolute (non-possessed) form and -kapɨtɨwɨ occurring where an overt possessor is present. As shown by Carvalho (2015), the etymological form, the one reconstructible to Pre-Waurá/Mehinaku is *kapɨtɨwɨ, the fronting of ɨ to i being a result of the diachronic absorption of the Absolute marker -*ʧi reconstructed for PA (plus regressive vowel harmony, see Carvalho, 2015, p. 128-130 for details). Finally, the form can be morphologically parsed as a compound of *-kapɨ and *-tɨwɨ 'head'.…”

“…Character (b) consists in the presence of a form *wɨʂɨku for 'hand', which seems to constitute a lexical innovation of the Xingu subgroup, while character (c) refers to the existence of a nominal compound of the roots for 'hand' and 'head' to convey the meaning for 'finger'. Finally, character (d) consists of the development PA *-ʧi > -i for the Absolute suffix reconstructed by Payne (1991), plus some consequent morphophonemic developments, as discussed in Carvalho (2015). Figure 1 does not indicate diachronic developments that are restricted to particular terminal taxa.…”

“…Starting with the Waurá/Mehinaku form, kapi, it is necessary to account for the change *ɨ > i, as in these languages no merger of the high central and high front vowels of the sort attested in Yawalapiti occurred. The explanation for this change lies in the account proposed in Carvalho (2015) for a separate set of patterns and comparative data. As the noun changed its category from a dependent, inalienable noun denoting a body part ('hand') to an independent, absolute noun ('huka-huka fight'), the occurrence of the noun in question with an Absolute marker is a plausible consequence.…”

“…As the noun changed its category from a dependent, inalienable noun denoting a body part ('hand') to an independent, absolute noun ('huka-huka fight'), the occurrence of the noun in question with an Absolute marker is a plausible consequence. One would have, then, at a Pre-Waurá/Mehinaku stage either a form *kapɨ-ʧi or *kapi (< *kapɨ-i), the latter if the semantic shift occurred after the changes that consisted in the loss of the affricate in the PA suffix *-ʧi (or some other, weakened reflex of this affricate) and the 'absorption' of the suffixal high front vowel, as discussed in Carvalho (2015). The change of -*kapɨ to kapi in Waurá/Mehinaku is, therefore, plausibly explained by its functional/semantic shift, its morphosyntactic consequences and the morphophonological developments involving the PA Absolute suffix *-ʧi (see Carvalho, 2015 for details).…”

“…Though a comprehensive account of the diachrony of the Yawalapiti Absolute-marking system will await for better (and badly needed) data on this language, one can note at this point that in all the paradigms involving dependent nouns attested in Bondim (1976) The pattern in (a) is identical to the one found in Waurá/Mehinaku nouns. As the languages in question have a regular pattern of main stress assignment to the penultimate syllable in the word, this can be accounted for by invoking the past presence of an additional syllable, the Absolute suffix, as discussed in Carvalho (2015) 15 .…”