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<!doctype html><html lang=en-us><head><meta charset=utf-8><meta name=viewport content="width=device-width,initial-scale=1"><meta name=msapplication-TileColor content="#da532c"><meta name=theme-color content="#ffffff"><meta name=author content="Angelika Jakobi"><meta property="og:title" content="Reconstructing Proto-Nubian Derivational Morphemes"><meta property="og:description" content><meta property="og:type" content="article"><meta property="og:url" content="/article/jakobi/"><meta property="og:image" content="/UNS-logo.png"><meta property="og:site_name" content="Dotawo Journal"><meta name=twitter:card content="summary_large_image"><meta name=twitter:image content="/UNS-logo.png"><meta name=twitter:title content="Reconstructing Proto-Nubian Derivational Morphemes"><meta name=twitter:description content><meta name=generator content="Hugo 0.76.5"><link rel=apple-touch-icon sizes=76x76 href=../../apple-touch-icon.png><link rel=icon type=image/png sizes=32x32 href=../../favicon-32x32.png><link rel=icon type=image/png sizes=16x16 href=../../favicon-16x16.png><link rel=manifest href=../../site.webmanifest><link rel=mask-icon href=../../safari-pinned-tab.svg color=#996561><link rel=stylesheet href=../../css/site.min.css><link rel=stylesheet href=../../css/player.min.css><title>Ama Verbs in Comparative Perspective - Dotawo Journal</title><script type=text/javascript>var relPathDepth=3;</script><script defer src=../../js/sandpoints.js type=application/javascript></script></head><body><div class=header><a title="Dotawo Journal's Bibliotheke" href=../../library/BROWSE_LIBRARY.html class=bibliotheke target=_blank><img src=../../images/bibliotheke.svg></a><div class=breadcrumbs><a href=../../journal/index.html><span class=sup>D</span><i>otawo - A Journal of Nubian Studies</i></a>
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» <a href=../../issue/dotawo7/index.html><i>Dotawo 7: Comparative Northern East Sudanic Linguistics</i></a>
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<span class=mantlebar><i>» <a href=../../article/norton/index.html>Ama Verbs in Comparative Perspective</a></i></span></div></div><h1>Ama Verbs in Comparative Perspective</h1><div class=crusttitle><span class=sup>article⁄A</span>ma Verbs in Comparative Perspective</div></div><div class=grid><div class=leftcolumn><nav id=TableOfContents><ol><li><a href=#preliminaries>Preliminaries</a></li><li><a href=#syntax>The Syntax of Ama Verbs</a></li><li><a href=#ama-verb-stems>Ama Verb Stems</a><ol><li><a href=#the-factativeprogressive-distinction>The Factative–Progressive Distinction</a></li><li><a href=#stem-formation-and-the-verb-root>Stem Formation and the Verb Root</a></li><li><a href=#tk>T/K Morphology for Factative/Progressive</a></li><li><a href=#concretization-of-core-clause-constituents>Concretization of Core Clause Constituents</a></li></ol></li><li><a href=#ama-verbal-affixes>Ama Verbal affixes</a><ol><li><a href=#affix-selection-and-order>Affix Selection and Order</a></li><li><a href=#pluractional-affixes>Pluractional Affixes</a><ol><li><a href=#distributive-pluractional>Distributive Pluractional</a></li><li><a href=#second-historic-pluractionals>Second Historic Pluractionals</a></li><li><a href=#innovative-dual-participant-pluractional>Innovative Dual-Participant Pluractional</a></li></ol></li></ol></li><li><a href=#conclusion-ama-as-a-matured-north-eastern-sudanic-language>Conclusion: Ama as a Matured North Eastern Sudanic Language</a></li></ol></nav></div><div class=rightcolumn><div class=has><span class=sup>in issues⁄</span></div><div class=afterhas><div class=article><a href=../../issue/dotawo7/index.html>Dotawo 7: Comparative Northern East Sudanic Linguistics</a></div></div></div></div><div class=content><h2 id=preliminaries class=hx>Preliminaries<a class=hpar href=#preliminaries>¶</a></h2><p>Ama is a North Eastern Sudanic language spoken in villages to the west and north-west of Dilling, near to where Kordofan Nubian languages are spoken in the north-western Nuba Mountains. “Ama” (<em>ámá</em> “people”) is the self-designated name of the language community identified by the ISO639-3 code [nyi] and replaces the name “Nyimang” in older sources,<sup id=fnref:1><a href=#fn:1 class=footnote-ref role=doc-noteref>1</a></sup> as “Ama” is the name used in local literature in the language created over the last three decades. Nyimang is an altered form of “Nyima,” one of the mountains in the Ama homeland, which is now used as the name of the branch of Eastern Sudanic consisting of Ama [nyi] and Afitti [aft]. I will assume that Nyima is one of a group of four extant northern branches of the Eastern Sudanic family, the others being Nubian, the Nara language, and Taman.<sup id=fnref:2><a href=#fn:2 class=footnote-ref role=doc-noteref>2</a></sup></p><p>Ama examples unless otherwise stated are from the author’s fieldwork verified with leading Ama writers who oversee literacy in the language. For vowels, I distinguish five –ATR brassy vowels ɪɛaɔʊ and five +ATR breathy vowels <em>ieəou,</em> as represented fluently by Ama writers using five vowel letters {aeiou} and a saltillo {ꞌ} in breathy words. For tone, Ama’s nearest relative Afitti has been described as having two contrastive tone levels,<sup id=fnref:3><a href=#fn:3 class=footnote-ref role=doc-noteref>3</a></sup> but Ama has three levels, which play a role in the verb system as well as the wider lexicon as shown in <strong>table 1</strong>.</p><table><thead><tr><th></th><th></th><th></th><th></th><th></th><th></th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>kɛ́r</td><td>woman</td><td>nɪ́</td><td>kill (factative)</td><td>ɕɪ́ɛ̄</td><td>do (transitive)</td></tr><tr><td>kɛ̄r</td><td>crane (bird sp.)</td><td>nɪ̄</td><td>kill (progressive 3rd person)</td><td>ɕɪ̄ɛ̄</td><td>say</td></tr><tr><td>kɛ̀r</td><td>around</td><td>nɪ̀</td><td>kill (progressive 1st/2nd person)</td><td>ɕɪ̀ɛ̄</td><td>do (intransitive)</td></tr></tbody></table><p><strong>Table 1: Level tone contrasts in Ama</strong></p><p>A brief overview of Ama morphos
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<a href=#syntax><span class=sup>www⁄</span><i>§2</i></a>
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. Both T/K number marking and relative clause modification have moved out of the noun phrase, and in these comparable changes we can observe a trend towards concretization of noun phrases, with number and clausal information about the participant being expressed later in the clause.</p><p>The trend towards concretization also affects the verb itself. T/K and other irregular stem alternations did not maintain their pluractional meaning, as this evolved into a more concrete construal of the predicate over an interval of time as progressive aspect. Since concretization affected the verb as well as noun phrases, it affected the entire core SOV clause, with plurality as well as relative clauses largely deferred to after the verb.</p><p>A role for concreteness in grammar was previously proposed in the Pirahã language of Brazil by Everett.<sup id=fnref:30><a href=#fn:30 class=footnote-ref role=doc-noteref>30</a></sup> Everett’s approach remains highly controversial,<sup id=fnref:31><a href=#fn:31 class=footnote-ref role=doc-noteref>31</a></sup> particularly, I believe, in its attempt to constrain grammar by culture directly in the form of a synchronic “Immediacy of Experience Constraint” on admissible sentence constructions and lexemes in Pirahã. My proposal here is deliberately less ambitious, appealing to concreteness as a diachronic trend in the Nyima branch, not as a constraint on the current synchronic grammar of Ama. Thus, Ama typically attests a separation between a concrete SOV clause and post-verbal modification, but this is not a strict division in the grammar, because it is not impossible to express number or relative clauses within the noun phrase, just infrequent. The concretization process in Ama must also have been specific enough not to have eliminated adjectives from the noun phrase. Ama has adjectives, as shown in examples (8)–(11), which occur as attributive modifiers of nouns in their unmarked form, whereas in predicates they are separated from the subject noun by a clause particle and occur as the complement of the inflecting copula verb <em>nɛ̄</em>. Ama adjectives include numerals and quantifiers, despite the limited role of number in the grammar.</p><p>(8)</p><p>(9)</p><p>(10)</p><p>(11)</p><h2 id=ama-verbal-affixes class=hx>Ama Verbal affixes<a class=hpar href=#ama-verbal-affixes>¶</a></h2><p>Research over the past century has also been gradually clarifying the complex morphological system of Ama verbs.<sup id=fnref:32><a href=#fn:32 class=footnote-ref role=doc-noteref>32</a></sup> Factative and progressive aspect are distinguished in the affix system as well as in stems, and there is an evolving portfolio of pluractional affixes.</p><h3 id=affix-selection-and-order class=hx>Affix Selection and Order<a class=hpar href=#affix-selection-and-order>¶</a></h3><p>Some verbal affixes are selected depending on factative or progressive aspect in Ama, just as verb stems are. For example, different suffixes for past tense or for directional movement are selected in the different aspects:</p><table><thead><tr><th></th><th>stem</th><th>past</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td><strong>factative</strong></td><td>t̪àl</td><td>t̪àl-ʊ̀n</td></tr><tr><td><strong>progressive</strong></td><td>tām</td><td>tām-áʊ́</td></tr></tbody></table><p><strong>Table 9a. Affix selection according to aspect: “eat”</strong></p><table><thead><tr><th></th><th>stem</th><th>direction</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td><strong>factative</strong></td><td>dɪ̀ɟ-ɛ̄</td><td>dɪ̀ɟ-ɛ̄-ɡ</td></tr><tr><td><strong>progressive</strong></td><td>dɪ̄ɟ-ɪ̄</td><td>dīɟ-ír</td></tr></tbody></table><p><strong>Table 9b. Affix selection according to aspect: “throw”</strong></p><p>The same is true of passive and ventive suffixes, but in factative aspect the suffixes replace the theme vowel, so that the affixes are the sole exponent of aspect in many verbs:</p><table><thead><tr><th></th><th>stem</th><th>passive</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td><strong>factative</strong></td><td>ásɪ̄d̪āy-ɛ̄<
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<a href=#tk><span class=sup>www⁄</span><i>§3.3</i></a>
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), and by a plausible assumption of a transition in passive marking strategy from use of a copula to morphological marking on the verb. This sourcing does not extend to the other passive suffix in factative aspect <em>-áɪ́,</em> however, which does not resemble the singular copula <em>*an</em>. Some similar proposals that other progressive suffixes have pluractional origins are made in the course of §4.2 below.</p><h3 id=pluractional-affixes class=hx>Pluractional Affixes<a class=hpar href=#pluractional-affixes>¶</a></h3><p>Ama has extensions that fall within the family of pluractionals that associate plurality with the verb in different ways, that has emerged as an area of study in language description in recent years.<sup id=fnref:34><a href=#fn:34 class=footnote-ref role=doc-noteref>34</a></sup> These extensions are particularly comparable with Nubian and other related languages.</p><h4 id=distributive-pluractional class=hx>Distributive Pluractional<a class=hpar href=#distributive-pluractional>¶</a></h4><p>Ama has a distributive suffix <em>-ɪ́d̪</em> that marks incremental distribution of an event over time or over participants (<em>àɪ̀ bā fʊ̄rā mʊ̄l t̪àl-ɪ́d̪-ɛ̀</em> “I ate until I had eaten five rabbits,” <em>wùd̪ēŋ bā dɔ̄rɛ̄ŋ t̪ɛ̀l-ɪ́d̪-ɛ̄</em> “The child saw each of the children”).<sup id=fnref:35><a href=#fn:35 class=footnote-ref role=doc-noteref>35</a></sup> Called “plural” in earlier works, it is remarkable that this category was largely unaffected by the shift of pluractional → progressive analyzed in
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<a href=#tk><span class=sup>www⁄</span><i>§3.3</i></a>
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above,<sup id=fnref:36><a href=#fn:36 class=footnote-ref role=doc-noteref>36</a></sup> indicating that we are dealing with two distinct pluractionals, a distributive pluractional and another former pluractional that is now progressive. Ama has a second distributive suffix <em>-r</em> used only on verbs with the theme vowel <em>-a</em> (<em>wāɡ-ā</em> “keep,” distributive <em>wāɡ-ɪ́d̪-ā-r</em>).<sup id=fnref:37><a href=#fn:37 class=footnote-ref role=doc-noteref>37</a></sup> Ama’s immediate relative Afitti has a “verbal plural” suffix <em>-tər,</em><sup id=fnref:38><a href=#fn:38 class=footnote-ref role=doc-noteref>38</a></sup> which corresponds to Ama <em>-ɪ́d̪</em> and <em>-r</em> combined, reminiscent of their use in that order in Ama on verbs with the theme vowel <em>-a,</em> but regularized to all verbs in Afitti. The Ama suffix <em>-ɪ́d̪</em> also closely resembles a “plural action” suffix <em>-(ɨ)t̪</em> in the nearby Eastern Sudanic language Temein,<sup id=fnref:39><a href=#fn:39 class=footnote-ref role=doc-noteref>39</a></sup> and a “plurality of action” suffix <em>-íd</em> in Midob.<sup id=fnref:40><a href=#fn:40 class=footnote-ref role=doc-noteref>40</a></sup> The distributive suffix <em>-ij</em> in Kunuz Nubian is also similar.<sup id=fnref:41><a href=#fn:41 class=footnote-ref role=doc-noteref>41</a></sup></p><p>Distributive pluractionals are characterized by optionality with a plural participant (distributivity implies plurality but is distinct from it),<sup id=fnref:42><a href=#fn:42 class=footnote-ref role=doc-noteref>42</a></sup> which distinguishes them from plural-object pluractionals found in many Nubian languages that mark, and are thus obligatory with, plural objects.<sup id=fnref:43><a href=#fn:43 class=footnote-ref role=doc-noteref>43</a></sup> Distributives are also characterized by non-occurrence with dual participants (to be non-trivial, distribution requires at least three targets).<sup id=fnref:44><a href=#fn:44 class=footnote-ref role=doc-noteref>44</a></sup> The Ama distributive has the first property of optionality in transitive (but not intransitive) verbs, and the second property of non-duality with respect to subjects (but not objects).<sup id=fnref:45><a href=#fn:45 class=footnote-ref role=doc-noteref>45</a></sup> This second property is shared by the Afitti suffix <em>-t(ə)r</em> which likewise does not occur with dual subjects.<sup id=fnref:46><a href=#fn:46 class=footnote-ref role=doc-noteref>46</a></sup> This is shown in Afitti field data below,<sup id=fnref:47><a href=#fn:47 class=footnote-ref role=doc-noteref>47</a></sup> where the suffix <em>-t(ə)r</em> contrasts in this respect with plural pronominal affixes 1pl <em>ko-</em>, 2pl <em>o-</em>, and 3pl <em>-i</em> which do occur with dual subjects.</p><table><thead><tr><th>1st person</th><th>gloss</th><th>2nd person</th><th>gloss</th><th>3rd person</th><th>gloss</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>ɡə́-ɡaɲal</td><td>I milk</td><td>é-ɡaɲal</td><td>you (sg.) milk</td><td>kaɲál</td><td>he/she milks</td></tr><tr><td>kó-ɡaɲal</td><td>we (du.) milk</td><td>ó-ɡaɲál</td><td>you (du.) milk</td><td>ɡaɲál-i</td><td>they (du.) milk</td></tr><tr><td>kó-ɡaɲa-tr̀</td><td>we (pl.) milk</td><td>ó-ɡaɲa-tr̀</td><td>you (pl.) milk</td><td>ɡaɲá-tər-i</td><td>they (pl.) milk</td></tr></tbody></table><p><strong>Table 13. Afitti pluractional <em>-t(ə)r</em> not used with dual subjects</strong></p><p>Beyond the Nyima branch, the Temein “plural action” suffix <em>-(ɨ)t̪</em> shares the first property of optionality as it “is by no means always added with plural objects.”<sup id=fnref:48><a href=#fn:48 class=footnote-ref role=doc-noteref>48</a></sup> It actually marks a distributive effect of the verb on the object (<em>ŋɔŋɔt-ɨt̪-ɛ dʉk</em> “I break the stick into pieces”), as also found with the Kunuz Nubian distributive suffix <em>-ij</em> (<em>duɡuːɡ ɡull-ij-ossu</em> ‘She threw the money here and there’).<sup id=fnref:49><a href=#fn:
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[^56] Stevenson, Rottland & Jakobi, “The Verb in Nyimang and Dinik.”
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[^57] This verb appears in unpublished data collected by Abi Kingston.</p><table><thead><tr><th>factative</th><th>progressive</th><th>gloss</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>bwìɡ</td><td>buɡìr</td><td>overtake</td></tr><tr><td>nɪfɛ̀ɡ</td><td>nɪfìr</td><td>fall</td></tr><tr><td>tɛnɛ̀</td><td>kɛndìr</td><td>climb</td></tr><tr><td>tɪjɛ</td><td>jeìr</td><td>shoot</td></tr><tr><td>ánasa</td><td>ánasor</td><td>take down</td></tr></tbody></table><p><strong>Table 15. Progressive stems ending in a trill</strong></p><p>The trill thus fuses with certain vowels that behave like theme vowels for creating extended progressive stems. As a progressive element, the trill most probably derives from the shift of pluractional → progressive, identifying it as the missing extension of the second Nyima pluractional. We then have an Ama distributive pluractional suffix <em>-ɪ́d̪</em> that resembles the Nubian distributive pluractional <em>*-[i]ɟ,</em> and Ama “pseudo-pluractional” progressive suffixes of the shape <em>-Vr</em> that resemble the Nubian plural-object pluractional <em>*-er</em>.</p><h4 id=innovative-dual-participant-pluractional class=hx>Innovative Dual-Participant Pluractional<a class=hpar href=#innovative-dual-participant-pluractional>¶</a></h4><p>A late addition to Ama’s pluractional portfolio is its unique dual suffix <em>-ɛ̄n</em>.<sup id=fnref:55><a href=#fn:55 class=footnote-ref role=doc-noteref>55</a></sup> The older form of the Ama dual suffix is <em>-ɪn,</em><sup id=fnref:56><a href=#fn:56 class=footnote-ref role=doc-noteref>56</a></sup> which has been noted to resemble reciprocal suffixes in other Eastern Sudanic languages, such as Kordofan Nubian <em>-in</em>, Daju <em>-din</em>, Temein <em>-ɛ</em>, and also Ik <em>-in</em> of the Kuliak group.<sup id=fnref:57><a href=#fn:57 class=footnote-ref role=doc-noteref>57</a></sup> In Ama, its function has evolved to dual reciprocal and other dual participant readings, so for example <em>wʊ̀s-ɛ̄n</em> “greet (du.)” can refer to when two people greeted each other, or someone greeted two people, or two people greeted someone.<sup id=fnref:58><a href=#fn:58 class=footnote-ref role=doc-noteref>58</a></sup> The dual suffix is regularly used in Ama folktales to link two primary characters.<sup id=fnref:59><a href=#fn:59 class=footnote-ref role=doc-noteref>59</a></sup> Although such dual participant marking is extremely rare globally, it becomes possible in Nyima languages in particular where the incremental-distributive pluractional leaves a paradigmatic gap for dual subjects, as still seen in Afitti in <strong>table 13</strong> above, which Ama has filled in.</p><h2 id=conclusion-ama-as-a-matured-north-eastern-sudanic-language class=hx>Conclusion: Ama as a Matured North Eastern Sudanic Language<a class=hpar href=#conclusion-ama-as-a-matured-north-eastern-sudanic-language>¶</a></h2><p>Ama verbs show a number of connections to Nubian and other Eastern Sudanic languages in their clause-final syntax, CVC root shape, and certain affixes. However, these connections are more in form than meaning, as the semantics is highly innovative in such notable shifts as plural → pluractional → progressive and reciprocal → dual, and in the drive towards concretization that has moved the expression of both relative clauses and number out of noun phrases to after the verb. In addition, the movement of low-tone suffixes to the final suffix slot, while itself a formal development, has further advanced the morphologization of aspect, so that stem selection, affix selection, and affix order all vary with aspect in Ama verbs. Next to these considerable changes, Ama’s stable distributive pluractional stands out as indicative of a wider Eastern Sudanic verbal category.</p><p>An explanation for the innovations found in Ama will not be found in influence from other languages of Sudan, because several of its innovations are extremely rare (adjoined relative clauses, dual verbal number, tone-driven affix order alternation). Instead of an influx of new for
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