Innamincka Talk: A Grammar of the Innamincka Dialect of Yandruwandha with Notes on Other Dialects

264 Pages·2015·32.504 MB·English

by  Gavan Breen

Innamincka Talk
A grammar of the Innamincka
dialect of Yandruwandha with
notes on other dialects

Innamincka Talk
A grammar of the Innamincka
dialect of Yandruwandha with
notes on other dialects
Gavan Breen
Published by ANU eView
The Australian National University
Canberra ACT 0200, Australia
Email: [email protected]
This title is also available online at http://eview.anu.edu.au
National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry

Title: Innamincka talk: a grammar of the Innamincka dialect of
Yandruwandha with notes on other dialects

ISBN: 9781921934193 (paperback) 9781921934209 (online)

Subjects: Innamincka language--Dialects.
Innamincka language--Grammar.
Yandruwandha (Australian people)
Aboriginal Australians--Languages.
Queensland--Languages.

Other Creators/Contributors:
Australian National University

Dewey Number: 499.15
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system
or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise,
without the prior permission of the publisher.
Original cover concept by Ciril’s Printers. Cover by Ivo Lovric and layout by ANU Press.
Printed by Griffin Press
Previous edition © 2004 Pacific Linguistics, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, The
Australian National University
This edition © 2015 ANU eView
This book can be purchased from http://eview.anu.edu.au
Table of contents
Acknowledgments xi
Preface xii
Abbreviations and conventions xiii
Map: Yandruwandha and neighbouring languages xvii
1 Introduction 1
1.1 The Yandruwandha and their country 1
1.2 The linguistic affinities of the Yandruwandha language 3
1.3 Previous work 4
1.4 The informants 5
1.5 A comparison of the sources 7
1.6 The project 8
2 The sound system 10
2.1 Introduction 10
2.2 Consonant phonemes 11
2.2.1 Voiceless stops 11
2.2.2 Voiced stops 12
2.2.3 Trill-released stops 13
2.2.4 Nasals 14
2.2.5 Laterals 15
2.2.6 Pre-stopped laterals 16
2.2.7 Rhodes 17
2.2.8 Glides 18
2.2.9 The apical contrast between unstressed vowels 18
2.3 Vowel phonemes 19
3 Pronunciation 21
3.1 Description of the consonants 21
3.1.1 Voiceless stops 22
3.1.2 Voiced stops 23
VI
3.1.3 Trill-released stops 24
3.1.4 Nasals 24
3.1.5 Laterals 24
3.1.6 Prestopped laterals 25
3.1.71 Trill 25
3.1.8 Glides 25
3.2 Description of the vowels 25
3.2.1 Distortion of word-final vowels 27
3.3 Features of rapid speech 28
3.4 Interphonemic alternations 29
3.5 Extraphonemic exclamations 30
3.6 Stress 30
3.6.1 Phrase stress 33
3.6.2 Intonation 33
4 Organisation of sounds 36
4.1 Distribution of phonemes 36
4.1.1 Consonant clusters 37
4.2 Phoneme frequencies 39
5 The sentence 44
5.1 Definitions 44
5.2 Sentence types and constituents 46
5.3 Word and phrase order 47
5.4 Incomplete sentences 50
6 Word classes and paradigms 52
6.1 Words 52
6.2 Word classes 53
6.3 Nominal paradigms 55
7 Simple declarative sentences 60
7.1 Verbless sentences 60
7.2 Intransitive sentences 62
7.3 Transitive sentences 63
7.4 Reflexive and reciprocal sentences 64
8 Non-declarative simple sentences 66
8.1 Command sentences 66
8.2 Questions 66
8.3 Uncertainty and indefiniteness 68
8.4 Negation 70
8.4.1 walya 70
vii
8.4.2 pani 73
8.4.3 pudlu 74
9 Nominal inflection 75
9.1 Common noun inflection 75
9.1.1 Nominative 75
9.1.2 Vocative 76
9.1.3 Operative 77
9.1.3.1 Operative as a co-ordinator in a noun phrase 78
9.1.4 Dative 79
9.1.5 Locative 81
9.1.6 Ablative 83
9.1.7 Aversive 84
9.2 Kinship terms 85
9.3 Personal names 86
9.4 Dual and plural nouns 87
9.5 The personal interrogative 87
9.6 Location nouns 88
9.7 Directional terminology 89
9.8 Singular personal pronouns 90
9.9 Non-singular personal pronouns 93
9.10 Inflection of third person and demonstrative pronouns and yarndu 94
9.10.1 Singular third person pronoun inflection 94
9.10.2 Non-singular third person pronoun inflection 97
9.10.3 Inflection of demonstrative pronouns 97
9.10.4 Yarndu 99
9.11 The interrogative yila- 100
9.12 Inflection of noun phrases 101
9.13 Double case-marking 103
9.14 The suffix -ngi 103
10 Noun-stem formation 106
10.1 Noun roots 106
10.2 Reduplication 107
10.3 Compounds 109
10.4 Non-productive noun-stem formatives 111
10.5 Productive noun-stem formatives 112
10.5.1 Dual 113
10.5.2 Plural 113
10.5.3 Other 114
10.5.4 Proprietive 116
10.5.5 Privative 116
10.5.6 Comitative 117
10.5.7 First person kin proprietive 118
viii
10.5.8 Second and third person kin proprictive 118
10.5.9 Habitual action 119
10.5.10 Formatives denoting characteristics 120
10.5.11 Noun stem formation by inflectional suffixes 120
10.6 Derivation of nouns from verbs 121
11 Verb inflection 125
11.1 Past tenses 126
11.2 Present tense 130
11.3 Future tense 130
11.3.1 Immediate future 132
11.4 Specification of time of day 133
11.5 Imperative mood 136
11.5.1 Negative imperative 136
11.6 Optative mood 137
11.7 Potential mood 138
11.8 Unspecified tense 138
11.9 Contemporaneous action 139
11.10 Repeated action 140
11.11 I mmediate sequence 140
11.12 Simultaneous action 141
11.13 Number markers 142
11.14 Motion away 143
11.15 The'now’present 144
11.16 Possible suffix, with unknown function 145
11.17 Inflection of verb phrases containing two verbs 146
12 Bound verb aspect markers 148
12.1 Action while going along 150
12.2 Action on passing 150
12.3 Action directed away 151
12.4 Action directed back 152
12.5 Arrival 154
12.6 Widespread action 156
12.7 Action around a centre 157
12.8 Continued action 158
12.9 Habitual action 159
12.10 Action at night 159
12.11 Action in the morning 159
12.12 Action directed in or across 160
12.13 Action directed downwards 162
12.14 Action directed upwards 163
12.15 Action directed across 163
12.16 Going a different way 164
ix
12.17 Action for oneself 164
12.18 Following and completion 165
12.19 -thanggu 166
12.20 Order of aspect markers 167
13 Verb-stem formation 169
13.1 Verb roots 172
13.2 Reduplication 172
13.3 Compounding of verbs 173
13.4 Compounding of nouns and verbs 174
13.4.1 Derivation of verb phrases from abstract nouns 175
13.5 Compounding of adverbs and verbs 176
13.6 Non-productive verb-stem formatives 176
13.7 Productive verb-stem formatives 176
13.7.1 Inchoative/transitiviser/applicative 177
13.7.2 Inchoative verb phrases 180
13.7.3 Causative -ka 181
13.7.3.1 -kamnana 183
13.7.4 Causative -ma 184
13.7.5 Causative -Ika 184
13.7.6 Intransitivisation of transitive verbs 185
14 Variations on transitivity 186
14.1 Verbs with -yindri 186
14.2 Pseudotransitive sentences 194
14.3 Ditransitive sentences 195
15 Coordination and subordination 197
15.1 Compound sentences 199
15.2 Coordinate sentences 200
15.3 Complex sentences 201
15.4 Subordinate sentences 205
15.5 Quotation 205
16 Adverbs 207
16.1 Modal adverbs 208
16.2 Aspectual adverbs 208
16.2.1 kali 208
16.2.2 ngada 209
16.2.3 ngurra 209
16.3 Reciprocal adverbs 210
16.4 Adverbs of time 211
16.5 Adverbs of place 212
16.6 Directional adverbs 213
X
16.7 Demonstrative adverbs 214
16.8 Adverbs of manner 216
16.9 Adjectives/adverbs derived with the operative suffix 217
16.10 Other adverbs 219
17 Conjunctions, interjections and emphatic particles 222
17.1 Conjunctions 222
17.2 Interjections 225
17.2.1 Sentence introducers 225
17.2.2 Sentence substitutes 228
17.2.3 Exclamations 228
17.3 Emphatic particles 228
18 Clitics and emphatic suffixes 230
18.1 Dual and plural 230
18.2 Similarity 231
18.3 Bound conjunctions 233
18.3.1 -ngu 233
18.3.2 -Idra 236
18.3.3 -Idrangu 237
18.4 Emphatic suffixes 238
18.5 -yukala (clitic with unknown meaning) 240
References 242