Fitting the pieces together – Towards a linguistic prehistory of eastern-central South Asia (and beyond)
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John Peterson
Abstract
This study summarizes preliminary research into the distribution of morphosyntactic patterns in the languages of South Asia from three different families, above all in eastern-central South Asia, in a first attempt to unravel the linguistic prehistory of this part of the subcontinent. To achieve this goal a small, preliminary morphosyntactic database has been compiled on 29 languages from throughout South Asia based on data from published resources, original field work, as well as questionnaires sent out to researchers working on a number of languages from the region. This data base, although still quite limited, will serve as the starting point for a much larger, finer-grained analysis of languages from throughout the subcontinent which will ultimately contribute substantially to our knowledge of the linguistic prehistory of this region.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank those who contributed to this study by providing me with data on the languages they are working on and answering my many questions, above all to (in alphabetical order) Arun Ghosh for his help with Bengali, Masato Kobayashi for his help with Kurukh and Malto, Tatjana Oranskaia for her help with Awadhi, Felix Rau for data on Gorum and Judith Voß for data on Gutob. Many thanks also go to Balthasar Bickel, Mathias Jenny, Masato Kobayashi, Leonid Kulikov, Tobias Weber and Alena Witzlack-Makarevich for their comments on an earlier version of this paper. Needless to say, any remaining errors are my own.
Abbreviations
- 1, 2, 3
person
- abl
ablative
- act
active
- antic
anticipatory
- comp
complementizer
- du
dual
- ext
extentional case
- fin
finite
- foc
focus
- gen
genitive
- indep
independent stem
- inf
infinitive
- ipfv
imperfective
- lnk
linker
- m
masculine
- mid
middle voice
- nar
narrative
- nnom
non-nominative
- nom
nominative
- nsg
nonsingular
- obj
object
- obl
oblique case/stem
- pl
plural
- poss
possessive
- prox
proximate
- prs
present
- pst
past
- ptcp
participle
- sbj
subject
- seq
sequential converb
- sg
singular
- tel
telicity marker
- top
topic
Literature
Appendix
A Description of structural properties
| Code | Description | Values |
|---|---|---|
| B | Gender | 1 – one noun class (i.e., no gender system with common nouns) |
| 2 – two classes (M/F, F/NF, M/NM) | ||
| 3 – three classes (M/F/N) | ||
| C | Enclitic plural marker or free-standing word | 0 – affixal plural |
| 1 – enclitic plural marker (with a largely constant form) or free-standing phonological word | ||
| 2 – basically enclitic but with considerable morphophonological variation which is not entirely due to phonotactic constraints | ||
| D | Oblique stems of common nouns | 0 – one invariable stem |
| 1 – two stems, “oblique” stem not a productive case | ||
| 2 – two stems, “oblique” stem is at least generally identical with genitive | ||
| E | Presence of ergative morphology | 0 – none |
| 1 – found either in certain verbal categories only (typically non-imperfective past tense, e.g., Hindi), with only certain persons (e.g., Darai, 3rd person, singular), or potentially in all verbal categories with all persons with transitive predicates, dependent on other factors (e.g., Nepali). | ||
| F | Three numbers with free-standing pronouns | 0 – no |
| 1 – yes | ||
| G | Inclusive /exclusive distinction in non-singular first persons (or at least in dual or plural, if not in both) | 0 – no |
| 1 – yes | ||
| 2 – yes, but found only on predicative marking, not on the pronouns themselves (e.g., Oriya) | ||
| H | Classifiers | 0 – none found |
| 1 – found only with numerals and possibly a few other quantifiers | ||
| 2 – found with numerals etc., but also postposed to nouns to denote definiteness /referentiality | ||
| I | Similarity between morphemes denoting ‘from’ and ‘to’ | 0 – none found |
| 1 – identical forms | ||
| 2 – no formal identity, but signs of at least some previous similarity, e.g., Kharia tay ‘from’ and khoʔtay ‘to’ (<*khoʔ tay ‘from the place’) or Konkani ajun ‘up to today’ (<aji-un ‘today-abl’, cf. Master 1964: 153; 156; 170, (under the entry “ājhuiṃ”)) | ||
| J | Lexeme for ‘place’ can be used productively as a locative case marker or as part of a nominal compound | 0 – no |
| 1 – yes | ||
| K | Lexeme for ‘side’ can be used productively as an allative marker (juxtaposition or compound, not when ‘side’ is a relational noun, cf. Hindi kī taraf) | 0 – no |
| 1 – yes | ||
| L | Alienable /inalienable distinction in attributive possession | 0 – none |
| 1 – yes, but only in some persons (e.g., Sadri, only found in the 3rd person) | ||
| 2 – yes, in all persons. Here we include cases such as Remo, for which we have only one example but which clearly seems to fit the overall pattern, i.e., the usual means in Munda languages in which the noun is followed by an enclitic/suffixal person marker, in this case the 2nd person, singular, so that it is clearly different from the Sadri case above (cf. Anderson and Harrison 2008a: 576). | ||
| 3 – so-called “appellative nouns” in Kuvi /Kui – status not entirely clear | ||
| M | Marker of focus which derives from genitive | 0 – no |
| 1 – yes | ||
| N | Genitive used as a nominalizer/adjectivizer (e.g., as (part of the) infinitive or participle marker | 0 – no |
| 1 – yes | ||
| O | Genitive used as a person marker (typically 3rd person, singular) | 0 – no |
| 1 – yes, formal identity at least in some forms, where it is productive | ||
| 2 – found in some forms, but not /no longer productive | ||
| P | Genitive marker found in copular form(s) | 0 – nowhere |
| 1 – yes, equal to the genitive in the respective language or in the donor language, if borrowed | ||
| Q | Suppletive forms for the positive identity and locative copulas (including obligatory “zero verb” as a separate stem) | 0 – no |
| 1 – yes | ||
| R | Suppletive forms (for at least one form) of the positive and negative copulas | 0 – no |
| 1 – yes | ||
| S | “Finite” or “narrative” predicate marker | 0 – none |
| 1 – yes, but only in some verbal categories and “optional” | ||
| 2 – yes, obligatory | ||
| T | Object marking on predicate | 0 – none |
| 1 – yes – regular and productive | ||
| 2 – object marking is found but generally not subject marking | ||
| 3 – special marker denoting that object is a 1st or 2nd person, but not a person marker, strictly speaking (e.g., Kuvi, Kui) | ||
| 4 – yes, but only in combination with ergativity (e.g., Hindi) | ||
| U | Anticipatory predicate category | 0 – no |
| 1 – yes, on finite predicates (and perhaps also non-finite). | ||
| 2 – yes, but only non-finite forms | ||
| 3 – form contains a finite and a non-finite element, e.g., the form “Verb-an Verb-le” found in Sora (Anderson and Harrison 2008b: 346), where the second form (in -le) is a finite form but the first form is not. | ||
| V | Interrogative pronoun is also used in relative clauses | 0 – no |
| 1 – yes | ||
| W | Lexeme is found which can mean both ‘start’ and ‘continue’, irrespective of Aktionsart of the predicate | 0 – no |
| 1 – yes | ||
| 2 – no, but clear historical traces are still found (e.g., Santali) | ||
| X | ‘want’ is formally identical with ‘search’ | 0 – no |
| 1 – yes | ||
| Y | Interrogative marker is also used as a complementizer | 0 – no |
| 1 – yes | ||
| Z | Nominal incorporation, where the nominal element becomes part of the same morphological word as the predicate | 0 – no |
| 1 – yes, largely productive | ||
| 2 – yes, but not productive - only with a very limited number of nouns | ||
| AA | Active /passive opposition | 0 – none found (e.g., achieved instead through other means such as an active /middle distinction, where the middle fulfils this function, in addition to other functions such as ‘intransitive’, etc.) |
| 1 – yes (morphological or periphrastic) | ||
| AB | Number neutralization, i.e., singular (/dual) /plural distinction is neutralized in some environment (e.g., in verbal morphology) | 0 – none found |
| 1 – some form of obligatory number neutralization is found, e.g., Bengali, where the singular /plural distinction found with nouns is not found with verbs, which show no number distinctions. This group also includes languages where the neutralization affects only part of the verb system, e.g. Remo, which has a singular /dual /plural distinction with pronouns and verbs in the 1st and 2nd persons, but not on verbs for 3rd persons, Gtaʔ, where the dual /plural opposition is neutralized in the first person only, or Gorum, where there is number neutralization in 3rd person object marking. | ||
| 2 – found, but typically “optional”, e.g., Kharia, where the dual marker =kiyar or the plural marker=ki are optional with nouns and where the predicate in 3rd persons may optionally mark for non-singular number. This also includes Bhojpuri, where e.g. Verma (2003: 531) writes that number is basically not marked on verb forms – only person and honorific status – although it is optionally marked periphrastically. | ||
| AC | Melodic overwriting (“echo-word formation”) with -i-Substitution | 0 – no |
| 1 – yes | ||
| 2 – yes, but the first consonant is also replaced by another consonant, e.g., by /g/in Kuvi, or by /b/, e.g., in Marathi. |
B The structural features and their values
| A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z | AA | AB | AC |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kharia_SM | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| Santali_NM | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | ? | ? | 2 | ? | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | ? | ? | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 |
| Mundari_NM | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | ? | ? | 2 | ? | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ? | ? | 2 | 0 | 2 | 1 |
| Ho_NM | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ? | ? | ? | 2 | ? | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ? | 1 | 2 | 0 | 2 | ? |
| Remo_SM | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | ? | ? | ? | 2 | ? | ? | 0 | 0 | ? | 1 | 0 | 0 | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | 2 | 0 | 1 | ? |
| Juang_SM | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | ? | ? | ? | 2 | 1 | ? | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | ? | ? | ? | ? | 2 | 1 | 2 | ? |
| Gorum_SM | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | ? | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | ? |
| Gutob_SM | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 1 |
| Korku_NM | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | ? | ? | ? | ? | 2 | ? | ? | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | ? | ? | 1 | ? | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| Sora_SM | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ? | ? | ? | 2 | ? | ? | 0 | 0 | ? | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 1 | ? | ? | ? | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| Gta_SM | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ? | ? | ? | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | ? | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | ? | ? | ? | 1 | ? | 1 | 1 |
| Sadri_IA | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| Bengali_IA | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Maithili_IA | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | ? |
| Oriya_IA | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | ? | ? | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | ? | ? | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| Bhojpuri_IA | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ? | ? | ? | ? | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| Hindi_IA | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Nepali_IA | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | ? | 2 | 1 |
| Darai_IA | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | ? | 0 | 1 | ? | 1 | 0 | ? | 1 | ? | 0 | ? | 1 | 0 | ? | ? | 2 | 1 |
| Konkani_IA | 3 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 1 | ? | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ? |
| Marathi_IA | 3 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| Braj_IA | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ? | ? | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | ? | ? | ? | 0 | ? | 0 | 1 | 0 | ? |
| Kurukh_DR | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Malto_DR | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | ? | 1 | 0 | ? | ? | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Brahui_DR | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ? | ? | ? | ? | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ? | ? | ? | 0 | 1 | 0 | ? |
| Kannada_DR | 3 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | ? | ? | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | ? | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| Telugu_DR | 2 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | ? | ? | ? | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | 0 | 1 | 0 | ? |
| Kuvi_DR | 3 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | ? | ? | 1 | 3 | ? | ? | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 2 | ? | 0 | ? | ? | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Kui_DR | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | ? | ? | 3 | 0 | ? | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3 | ? | 1 | ? | ? | ? | 0 | 0 | 2 | ? |
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Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Articles
- Jhirī: A ‘Sanskrit-speaking’ Village in Madhya Pradesh
- Fitting the pieces together – Towards a linguistic prehistory of eastern-central South Asia (and beyond)
- The emergence of the Ladakhi inferential and experiential markers from a marker for admirativity (non-commitment): the case of ḥdug and snaŋ
- Book Reviews
- Elisa Freschi Tiziana Pontillo: Rule-extension strategies in Ancient India: Ritual, exegetical and linguistic considerations on the tantra- and prasaṅga-principles
- Saverio Sani:Grammatica sanscrita (Orientamenti Linguistici 27)
- Sabine Ziegler: Klassisches Sanskrit (Kurzgrammatiken indogermanischer Sprachen und Sprachstufen 1)
- Anne Boyle David: Descriptive grammar of Bangla (Mouton-CASL Grammar Series 2)
- Jayaratna Banda Disanayaka: Encyclopaedia of Sinhala language and culture
- Diana Schackow: A grammar of Yakkha (Studies in Diversity Linguistics 7)
- Tobias Bernaisch: The lexis and lexicogrammar of Sri Lankan English (Varieties of English Around the World, Vol. G54)
- Henrik Liljegren: A grammar of Palula (Studies in Diversity Linguistics 8)
- Samra Azarnouche Céline Redard: Yama /Yima: variations indo-iraniennes sur la geste mythique=Variations on the Indo-Iranian myth of Yama /Yima (Publications de l’Institut de Civilisation Indienne. Série in 8°; 81)
- In memoriam
- In memoriam Alice Davison and James W. Gair
- In memoriam Braj B. Kachru (1932–2016)
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Articles
- Jhirī: A ‘Sanskrit-speaking’ Village in Madhya Pradesh
- Fitting the pieces together – Towards a linguistic prehistory of eastern-central South Asia (and beyond)
- The emergence of the Ladakhi inferential and experiential markers from a marker for admirativity (non-commitment): the case of ḥdug and snaŋ
- Book Reviews
- Elisa Freschi Tiziana Pontillo: Rule-extension strategies in Ancient India: Ritual, exegetical and linguistic considerations on the tantra- and prasaṅga-principles
- Saverio Sani:Grammatica sanscrita (Orientamenti Linguistici 27)
- Sabine Ziegler: Klassisches Sanskrit (Kurzgrammatiken indogermanischer Sprachen und Sprachstufen 1)
- Anne Boyle David: Descriptive grammar of Bangla (Mouton-CASL Grammar Series 2)
- Jayaratna Banda Disanayaka: Encyclopaedia of Sinhala language and culture
- Diana Schackow: A grammar of Yakkha (Studies in Diversity Linguistics 7)
- Tobias Bernaisch: The lexis and lexicogrammar of Sri Lankan English (Varieties of English Around the World, Vol. G54)
- Henrik Liljegren: A grammar of Palula (Studies in Diversity Linguistics 8)
- Samra Azarnouche Céline Redard: Yama /Yima: variations indo-iraniennes sur la geste mythique=Variations on the Indo-Iranian myth of Yama /Yima (Publications de l’Institut de Civilisation Indienne. Série in 8°; 81)
- In memoriam
- In memoriam Alice Davison and James W. Gair
- In memoriam Braj B. Kachru (1932–2016)
