Rama language
Encyclopedia
Rama is one of the indigenous language
s of the Chibchan family
spoken by the Rama people
on the island of Rama Cay
and south of lake Bluefields
on the Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua
. Other indigenous languages of this region include Miskito
and Sumu
. Rama is one of the northernmost languages of the Chibchan family .
The Rama language is severely endangered
. Their language was described as "dying quickly for lack of use" as early as the 1860s . By 1980, the Rama were noted as having "all but lost their original ethnic language", and had become speakers of a form of English creole
instead . Language revival
efforts began in 1980–1981 under the Sandinistas
; though literacy campaigns were launched for neighbouring languages such as Miskito
and Sumu, the same was not practical for Rama due to the small number of speakers. . The fieldwork for the first dictionary of Rama was done during this time by Robin Schneider, a graduate student from the University of Berlin . In 1992, only approximately 36 fluent speakers could be found among an ethnic population of 649 individuals in 1992, of whom only a few scattered individuals live outside Nicaragua . The number of speakers on Rama Cay
island was only 4 in 1992, due to language shift to English that engendered Rama Cay Creole
.
(see for example ):
The following consonants are found (IPA
transcriptions are shown where helpful):
Rama words have non-predictable stress.
includes notable consonant clusters at the beginning of words (e.g. psaarik "toucan", tkua "hot", nkiikna "man", mlingu "killed") and word-internally (e.g. alkwsi "speaks", salpka "fish"). Variations among speakers witness a tendency to simplify such clusters (e.g. nkiikna or kiikna "man", nsu- or su- "we, us, our").
Such clusters often arise due to a tendency to omit unstressed short vowels. For example, when the third person singular subject prefix i- and the past tense suffix -u are added to the verb stem kwis "eat", thus: i- + kwis + -u, the verb stem loses its only vowel, resulting in the form ikwsu "he/she/it ate". Sometimes omitting different vowels may lead to alternative results. Adding the past tense suffix -u to the verb stem maling "kill", i.e. maling + -u, may give either mlingu or malngu "killed".
There are also cases of vowel alternation in morphemes (e.g. the first-person subject prefix may appear as n-, ni- or na-) and lexical stems (thus the stem aakar "stay" may appear in the forms aakir-i "stays" and aaikur-u "stayed", where the short stem vowel copies the vowel of the suffix).
Consonants display a degree of sandhi
-type alternation, as seen for example in the final consonant of the same stem aakar "stay, be", cf. the imperative aakit "stay!". This latter variant is found both word-final and before a suffix beginning with a consonant (e.g. aakit-ka "if there is").
, a dominant contact language, displaying many characteristics typical of SOV languages (even though not all sentences are actually verb-final). A single set of prefixes serves to express both pronominal possessors (e.g. n-up "my eye") and subjects (e.g. n-taaku "I went"). Noun phrase relations are indicated by postpositions, tense and subordination
by verbal suffixes.
Demonstrative determiners precede the noun: ning nguu "this house", naming tausung "that dog". Quantifiers follow the noun: tausung saiming "one dog", puus puksak "two cats", nguu ngarak "many houses", tamaaski ui "every morning", kaulingdut umling "all the people", tausung saina "the other dog, another dog".
Most nouns do not change for number
, but those denoting humans can take the plural suffix -dut or -lut, as in kiiknadut "men", kumaalut "women", tiiskamalut "children", etc.
Attributive adjectives follow the noun they qualify: salpka taara "(a/the) big fish".
In other cases (including kinship relations), a genitive pronoun (formed from the pronominal prefix + -aing) precedes the possessed noun, e.g. naing puus / nguu / aak / tiiskama / taata / tairung "my cat / house / name / child / father / sister", maing kaulingdut "your family (lit. your people)", yaing aak "his/her name", nsulaing rama kuup "our Rama language".
The forms naing, maing, yaing etc. also function predicatively (as equivalents of English possessive pronouns), as in Naming puus naing "That cat is mine".
Nominal possession is expressed by two constructions: possessor + possessed (i.e. simple juxtaposition), e.g. naing taata aak "my father's name" (my father name), and possessor + aing + possessed (aing being a genitive postposition), e.g. Nora aing nguu "Nora's house".
The independent pronouns are often used as subjects: Nah tawan ki aakar "I live in Bluefields" (I town in stay), Maa kalma apaakut? "Can you sew a dress?" (you dress sew-IRREALIS), Yaing taaki "He/She is going". They may also be complements of postpositions: Naing airung ning nguu ki aakar nah u "My mother lives in this house with me" (my mother this house in stay I with), maa kang "from you", Walsa anut su tabiu "The tiger came out at them" (tiger they at came-out). Note that -ut changes to -ul before a vowel, for example in nsul u "with us".
The prefix forms of the pronouns are used as subject prefixes with verbs: Neli aa nitangu "I gave it to Nelly" (Nelly OBJECT I-gave), Tamaik suulikaas niaukut "Tomorrow I will cook some meat" (tomorrow meat I-will-cook), Taa u mtaaku? "With whom did you go?" (who with you-went), Itaaku "he/she went", Ipang su ansiiku "They came to the island" (island in they-came). In the second person plural, m- is prefixed and -lut suffixed to the verb.
Subject prefixes are omitted when the subject is represented by an independent pronoun: "I am going" is either Nah taaki or Ntaaki, "He is going" is either Yaing taaki or Itaaki, etc. They are also commonly absent in the presence of a full subject noun phrase: Naing taata taaki "My father is going", but "repetition" of the subject is also possible: Pkaak tkii su itraali "The lizard (he) walks on the ground" (lizard ground on it-walks).
A pronominal object is expressed by adding the postposition aa to the pronouns, which adopt the prefix form in the singular but the full form in the plural: naa, maa, yaa but nsula (for nsut + -a) etc. But third person objects are commonly zero-marked, that is, the absence of an overt object of a transitive verb implies an understood "him", "her" or "it", e.g. Anangsku "They cleaned it" (lit. they-cleaned).
The demonstrative pronouns are the same as the corresponding determiners: ning "this", naming "that", as in Ning naing nguu "This is my house".
The interrogative pronouns are niku "what", taa "who", as in Niku maing aak? "What is your name?", Taa rama kuup alkwsi? "Who speaks Rama?" (who Rama language speaks), Taa u mtaaku? "With whom did you go?" (who with you-went).
Postpositional phrases may occur either before or after the verb. Some postpositions have a shorter and a longer form; following the verb the long forms are used, e.g. Nangalbiu naing taata kang "I ran away from my father" (I-ran my father from) but before the verb the short forms are more usual: Naing taata ka nangalbiu (my father from I-ran).
Although aak or aa is given as an object marker, most objects (other than personal pronouns) take no postposition, e.g. Kruubu kiikna kwisu "The tiger ate the man" (tiger man ate).
In addition to the simple postpositions there are more complex forms of the relational
type that express more specific relationships. These are composed of a noun-like lexical form followed by a postposition, such as psutki "inside", karka "out of". They are placed after a noun phrase, e.g. ngurii psutki "inside the hole", or a postpositional phrase, e.g. ung su karka "out of the pot" (literally: pot in out-from). Such expressions may also be used adverbially.
e.g. Nah tawan ki aakar "I live in Bluefields" (no subject prefix and no tense suffix), Yaing taak-i "He/She is going" (no subject prefix, present tense suffix), Taa u m-taak-u? "With whom did you go?" (second person subject prefix, past tense suffix), Suulikaas ni-auk-ut "I will cook some meat" (first person subject prefix, future/irrealis suffix), kruubu an-sung-ka "when they see the tiger" (third person plural subject prefix, "when" subordinator), Nah suulikaas baalpi ni-paya-kama "I am looking for meat to buy" (first person singular subject prefix, purpose subordinator).
This basic structure may be expanded by adding other elements, including aspect markers (which come between the stem and the tense/mood suffix) and preverbs (which precede the subject prefix, if present). More complex meanings can be expressed through the use of serial verb constructions.
Use of one of the subordinator suffixes constitutes the main subordination strategy. Since these suffixes occupy the same place as the tense suffixes, the resulting subordinate clauses are tenseless, in this respect resembling non-finite clauses in European languages. Nonetheless, Rama verb forms with subordinators take subject prefixes under the same basic conditions as tensed ones, and in this way resemble finite forms.
Examples with siik "come": nsiiki "I am coming", nsiiku "I came", nsiikut "I will come", nsiikbang "for me to come", nsiikka "when I come", nsiikkata "if I come" etc.
In some cases the lack of any suffix signals a lack of marked tense or a habitual sense: compare Ntaakkama aakari "I am ready to go" (now) with Nah tawan ki aakar "I live in the town". Imperatives in the second person singular are also suffixless, e.g. Siik! "Come!" One verb, taak "go", has a suppletive imperative mang! or bang! "go!".
Sometimes forms with the -bang suffix are used in independent clauses: see the section on Aspect below.
A range of further aspectual nuances may be conveyed by a variety of periphrastic constructions. Several of these involve the verb aakar "stay" or its derivative baakar (which contains the preverb ba-), either of which, following a verb stem, may convey progressive aspect: Nah paun baakiri "I am crying" (paun "cry"; the second vowel in aakar can copy the vowel of the suffix). Baakar can also express "be about to (do something)".
The suffix -bang (see also above) may express intention, as in Tiiskama nitanangbang "I am going to look at the baby" (tanang "look at"), and in first person plural imperatives (i.e. "let's..."), as in Nsukamibang! "Let's sleep!" (kami "sleep"). In the latter use the subject prefix may be omitted, e.g. Rama kuup alkwisbang! "Let's speak Rama!" (alkwis "speak").
A form related to bang, bating, means "want" with a nominal object, as in Sumuu ibatingi "He/she wants a banana", but with verbal complements means "be going to (do something)" in the simple form, as in Itraat batingi "He/she is going to walk" (traat "walk"), or "get ready to (do something)" in the progressive baakar construction, as in Nalngu bating baakiri "I get ready to drink" (alngu "drink").
Another periphrasis, constructed with aakar following the subordinate form in -kama of the main verb, expresses "be ready to (do something)", e.g. Ntaakkama aakari "I am ready to go" (taak "go").
One other means of expressing aspectual (or mood) nuances is provided by the use of a second set of emphatic tense suffixes which replace the simple suffixes, namely -aing emphatic affirmative, -uing habitual past and -uting emphatic future.
s which form constructions comparable to English phrasal verb
s such as "run away", "come over", "carry on" etc. The Rama preverbs resemble some of the postpositions in form: they are ba-, yu-, ka-, su- and yaa-. Like English phrasal verbs, the meanings and uses of Rama preverb constructions can be quite idiomatic and unpredictable. Preverbs precede the subject prefix if present: Kanangalbiu "I ran away from (him/her)" (ngalbi "run" with the preverb ka- "from": -na- is the subject prefix). Ngulkang tawan ki yuansiiku "They brought the wild pig to the town" (yu-siik "come with, i.e. bring"). Tiiskama taa yutaaku? "Who took the child?" (yu-taak "go with, i.e. take").
While many preverb-verb combinations are lexically specified, yu- may also be used productively to express an instrumental argument, e.g. Nainguku kiskis nsukuaakari, suulikaas yunsuaukkama "That's why we have tongs, in order to roast meat with (them)" (therefore tongs we-have, meat for-we-roast-with).
The verb aakar "stay" is used to express "be (in a place)" and "be (in a state)", as in Skuul saud aap su aakar "The school is on the south side" (school south side in stay), Nah mliika aakar "I am fine" (I well stay). Aakar can also mean "live (in a place)" as in Nah ipang su aakar "I live on Rama Cay" (I island in stay), and "there is" as in Nguu ngarak ipang su aakar "There are many houses on Rama Cay" (house many island in stay).
The verb kuaakar (or kwaakar) means "have", e.g. Nah nising puksak kuaakar "I have two sisters" (I sister two have), Nainguku kiskis nsukuaakari "That's why we have tongs", Puupu kwiik ngarak ikuaakari "The octopus has many arms".
Other sentence elements (in bold here) may be placed:
Clausal elements (i.e. those containing a verb) usually follow the main verb, e.g. Nah taaki ai nipiabang "I am going to plant corn", Nah suulikaas baalpi nipayakama "I am looking for meat to buy", Mliika anaakar paalpa analkuka "They are happy when they hear about the manatee".
Some question words (sometimes called wh-words):
Question words may be preceded by another sentence constituent as topic, e.g. Tiiskama taa yutaaku? "Who took the child?" (child who took), Maa, ngarangki aakar? "And you, where do you live?" (you, where live).
However, question words generally stand at the beginning of the sentence: Ngarangki maa aakar? "Where do you live?" (where you live), Ngarangki ngulkang aakar? "Where does the wari live?" (where wari lives), Ngarangki Nora aing nguu aakar? "Where is Nora's house?" (where Nora GENITIVE house stay), Ngarangsu yaing taaki? "Where is he/she going?" (where he/she goes), Ngarangsu yaing taata taaki? "Where is his/her father going?" (where his/her father goes), Taa nsulaing rama kuup alkwsi? "Who speaks our Rama language?" (who our Rama language speaks), Taa u mtaaku? "With whom did you go?" (who with you-went).
Questions words with a non-verbal predicate: Niku maing aak? "What is your name?", Niika bii maing kaulingdut? "How is your family?"
There is a special negative word, angka, to express impossibility, e.g. Nah angka aakar tawan ki "I cannot live in Bluefields".
Subordinate clauses may be formed by means of subordinator suffixes as described above. Reported speech is formed by juxtaposition as in Anaapiu anaungi "They found it, they say" (aapi "find", aung "say"). Relative clauses also have no specific subordinator but the clause marker kaing may be employed, e.g. Suulikaas nipaayau kaing Neli aa nitangu "The meat I bought, I gave it to Nelly" (meat I-bought kaing Nelly OBJECT I-gave).
Many verb stems are made up of extensions from primary roots by the addition of one of the prefixes al- and aa-, which often correlate with intransitive and transitive meanings respectively. Evident intransitive derivation with al- is illustrated by the pairs maling "kill" : almaling "die", aark : alaark "break (tr./intr.)" and auk : alauk "roast (tr./intr.)", while other cases of outward resemblance are semantically opaque, e.g. kwis "eat" and alkwis "speak", or involve more complex relationships, e.g. aap (i.e. aa- + p) "find" and baalp (ba- [preverb] + al + p "seek".
Verbs may be derived from other parts of speech by suffixing one of several verbal roots glossed as "do, make", such as -king, -ting and -uung.
A common adjective-forming suffix is -ba, while the participial suffix -ima gives rise to both adjectives and nouns.
Certain recurrent endings found in numerous noun stems appear to correspond to vague semantic classes. A notable example is -up, which occurs as the last component in nouns many of which denote round objects, fruits or body parts. As an inalienable noun in its own right, -up means "eye" or "seed".
Composition is another common way of forming nouns, as in suulikaas "meat" (from suuli "animal" + kaas "flesh") or the inalienable noun -upulis "eyelash" (from -up "eye" + ulis "hair").
New concepts can also be expressed syntactically, e.g. through genitive constructions such as preya aing nguu "church" (lit. house of prayer), or through verbal paraphrase.
Partial or complete reduplication is seen in the forms of some words, including onomatopeics such as tahtah "dripping", animal names like ngaukngauk "spider" or tkwustkwus "rabbit", colour names and other descriptive adjectives such as nuknuknga "yellow", ngarngaringba "green", siksiknga "speckled", kingkingma "calm", and others, e.g. tiskitiski "a little".
Indigenous language
An indigenous language or autochthonous language is a language that is native to a region and spoken by indigenous peoples but has been reduced to the status of a minority language. This language would be from a linguistically distinct community that has been settled in the area for many generations...
s of the Chibchan family
Chibchan languages
The Chibchan languages make up a language family indigenous to the Isthmo-Colombian area, which extends from eastern Honduras to northern Colombia and includes populations of these countries as well as Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama...
spoken by the Rama people
Rama (people)
The Rama are an indigenous people of Nicaragua. The 900 ethnic Rama live within a thirty mile radius of the Rama Cay island on the Caribbean coastline.The Rama are hunters, fishers and agriculturalists growing mainly bananas and white cacao beans....
on the island of Rama Cay
Rama Cay
Rama Cay is an island in the Bluefields Lagoon on the eastern coast of Nicaragua. During the 17th or 18th century, the more powerful Miskito awarded the island to the Rama people in recognition of their assistance in fighting off the Terraba Indians....
and south of lake Bluefields
Bluefields
Bluefields is the capital of the municipality of the same name, and of Región Autónoma del Atlántico Sur in Nicaragua. It was also capital of the former Zelaya Department, which was divided into North and South Atlantic Autonomous Regions...
on the Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua
Nicaragua
Nicaragua is the largest country in the Central American American isthmus, bordered by Honduras to the north and Costa Rica to the south. The country is situated between 11 and 14 degrees north of the Equator in the Northern Hemisphere, which places it entirely within the tropics. The Pacific Ocean...
. Other indigenous languages of this region include Miskito
Miskito language
Miskito is a Misumalpan language spoken by the Miskito people in northeastern Nicaragua, especially in the North Atlantic Autonomous Region, and in eastern Honduras....
and Sumu
Sumo language
Sumo is the collective name for a group of Misumalpan languages spoken in Nicaragua and Honduras. Hale & Salamanca classifies the Sumu languages into a northern Mayangna, composed of the Twahka and Panamahka dialects, and southern Ulwa...
. Rama is one of the northernmost languages of the Chibchan family .
The Rama language is severely endangered
Endangered language
An endangered language is a language that is at risk of falling out of use. If it loses all its native speakers, it becomes a dead language. If eventually no one speaks the language at all it becomes an "extinct language"....
. Their language was described as "dying quickly for lack of use" as early as the 1860s . By 1980, the Rama were noted as having "all but lost their original ethnic language", and had become speakers of a form of English creole
English-based creole languages
An English-based creole language is a creole language that was significantly influenced by the English language...
instead . Language revival
Language revival
Language revitalization, language revival or reversing language shift is the attempt by interested parties, including individuals, cultural or community groups, governments, or political authorities, to reverse the decline of a language. If the decline is severe, the language may be endangered,...
efforts began in 1980–1981 under the Sandinistas
Sandinista National Liberation Front
The Sandinista National Liberation Front is a socialist political party in Nicaragua. Its members are called Sandinistas in both English and Spanish...
; though literacy campaigns were launched for neighbouring languages such as Miskito
Miskito language
Miskito is a Misumalpan language spoken by the Miskito people in northeastern Nicaragua, especially in the North Atlantic Autonomous Region, and in eastern Honduras....
and Sumu, the same was not practical for Rama due to the small number of speakers. . The fieldwork for the first dictionary of Rama was done during this time by Robin Schneider, a graduate student from the University of Berlin . In 1992, only approximately 36 fluent speakers could be found among an ethnic population of 649 individuals in 1992, of whom only a few scattered individuals live outside Nicaragua . The number of speakers on Rama Cay
Rama Cay
Rama Cay is an island in the Bluefields Lagoon on the eastern coast of Nicaragua. During the 17th or 18th century, the more powerful Miskito awarded the island to the Rama people in recognition of their assistance in fighting off the Terraba Indians....
island was only 4 in 1992, due to language shift to English that engendered Rama Cay Creole
Rama Cay Creole
Rama Cay Creole is a Creole language spoken by some 8-900 people on the island of Rama Cay in eastern Nicaragua. It is based on Miskito Coast Creole with additional elements of the Chibchan language Rama and purportedly some elements of English spoken with a German accent...
.
Phonology
There are three basic vowel sounds: a, i and u. In addition to these, e and o have been introduced as distinct vowels in some foreign loanwords. Each vowel may be either short or long. Here the vowels are shown in standard Rama orthography(see for example ):
| Short Vowel length In linguistics, vowel length is the perceived duration of a vowel sound. Often the chroneme, or the "longness", acts like a consonant, and may etymologically be one, such as in Australian English. While not distinctive in most dialects of English, vowel length is an important phonemic factor in... |
Long Vowel length In linguistics, vowel length is the perceived duration of a vowel sound. Often the chroneme, or the "longness", acts like a consonant, and may etymologically be one, such as in Australian English. While not distinctive in most dialects of English, vowel length is an important phonemic factor in... |
|||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Front Front vowel A front vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a front vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far in front as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Front vowels are sometimes also... |
Back Back vowel A back vowel is a type of vowel sound used in spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a back vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far back as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Back vowels are sometimes also called dark... |
Front Front vowel A front vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a front vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far in front as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Front vowels are sometimes also... |
Back Back vowel A back vowel is a type of vowel sound used in spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a back vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far back as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Back vowels are sometimes also called dark... |
|
| High | i | u | ii | uu |
| (Mid) Mid vowel A mid vowel is a vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a mid vowel is that the tongue is positioned mid-way between an open vowel and a close vowel... |
(e) | (o) | (ee) | (oo) |
| Low | a | aa | ||
The following consonants are found (IPA
International Phonetic Alphabet
The International Phonetic Alphabet "The acronym 'IPA' strictly refers [...] to the 'International Phonetic Association'. But it is now such a common practice to use the acronym also to refer to the alphabet itself that resistance seems pedantic...
transcriptions are shown where helpful):
| Bilabial | Alveolar Alveolar consonant Alveolar consonants are articulated with the tongue against or close to the superior alveolar ridge, which is called that because it contains the alveoli of the superior teeth... |
Palatal | Velar Velar consonant Velars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue against the soft palate, the back part of the roof of the mouth, known also as the velum).... |
Labiovelar | Glottal Glottal consonant Glottal consonants, also called laryngeal consonants, are consonants articulated with the glottis. Many phoneticians consider them, or at least the so-called fricative, to be transitional states of the glottis without a point of articulation as other consonants have; in fact, some do not consider... |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Voiceless Voiceless In linguistics, voicelessness is the property of sounds being pronounced without the larynx vibrating. Phonologically, this is a type of phonation, which contrasts with other states of the larynx, but some object that the word "phonation" implies voicing, and that voicelessness is the lack of... Plosives |
p | t | k | kw [kʷ] | ||
| Voiced VOICED Virtual Organization for Innovative Conceptual Engineering Design is a virtual organization that promotes innovation in engineering design. This project is the collaborative work of researchers at five universities across the United States, and is funded by the National Science Foundation... Plosives |
b | d | g | |||
| Fricatives | s | h | ||||
| Nasals Nasal consonant A nasal consonant is a type of consonant produced with a lowered velum in the mouth, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. Examples of nasal consonants in English are and , in words such as nose and mouth.- Definition :... |
m | n | ng [ŋ] | ngw [ŋʷ] | ||
| Liquids | l, r | |||||
| Semivowel Semivowel In phonetics and phonology, a semivowel is a sound, such as English or , that is phonetically similar to a vowel sound but functions as the syllable boundary rather than as the nucleus of a syllable.-Classification:... s |
y | w | ||||
Rama words have non-predictable stress.
Phonotactics and sandhi
Rama phonotacticsPhonotactics
Phonotactics is a branch of phonology that deals with restrictions in a language on the permissible combinations of phonemes...
includes notable consonant clusters at the beginning of words (e.g. psaarik "toucan", tkua "hot", nkiikna "man", mlingu "killed") and word-internally (e.g. alkwsi "speaks", salpka "fish"). Variations among speakers witness a tendency to simplify such clusters (e.g. nkiikna or kiikna "man", nsu- or su- "we, us, our").
Such clusters often arise due to a tendency to omit unstressed short vowels. For example, when the third person singular subject prefix i- and the past tense suffix -u are added to the verb stem kwis "eat", thus: i- + kwis + -u, the verb stem loses its only vowel, resulting in the form ikwsu "he/she/it ate". Sometimes omitting different vowels may lead to alternative results. Adding the past tense suffix -u to the verb stem maling "kill", i.e. maling + -u, may give either mlingu or malngu "killed".
There are also cases of vowel alternation in morphemes (e.g. the first-person subject prefix may appear as n-, ni- or na-) and lexical stems (thus the stem aakar "stay" may appear in the forms aakir-i "stays" and aaikur-u "stayed", where the short stem vowel copies the vowel of the suffix).
Consonants display a degree of sandhi
Sandhi
Sandhi is a cover term for a wide variety of phonological processes that occur at morpheme or word boundaries . Examples include the fusion of sounds across word boundaries and the alteration of sounds due to neighboring sounds or due to the grammatical function of adjacent words...
-type alternation, as seen for example in the final consonant of the same stem aakar "stay, be", cf. the imperative aakit "stay!". This latter variant is found both word-final and before a suffix beginning with a consonant (e.g. aakit-ka "if there is").
Grammar
In terms of grammatical typology Rama may be considered a fairly "normal" language for the linguistic area within which it is located, despite the lack of close genetic ties with its immediate neighbours. For example, Rama shares some general typological features with MiskitoMiskito language
Miskito is a Misumalpan language spoken by the Miskito people in northeastern Nicaragua, especially in the North Atlantic Autonomous Region, and in eastern Honduras....
, a dominant contact language, displaying many characteristics typical of SOV languages (even though not all sentences are actually verb-final). A single set of prefixes serves to express both pronominal possessors (e.g. n-up "my eye") and subjects (e.g. n-taaku "I went"). Noun phrase relations are indicated by postpositions, tense and subordination
Subordination (linguistics)
In linguistics, subordination is a complex syntactic construction in which one or more clauses are dependent on the main clause, such as The dog ran home after it had played with the ball. The italicized text is the subordinate clause...
by verbal suffixes.
Elements of the noun phrase
There are no articles. Nouns are frequently undetermined, e.g. Pkaak tkii su itraali "(The) lizard walks on (the) ground" (literally: lizard ground on (s)he-walks), Salpka sauk u ikuu "He/she caught (a) fish with (a) hook" (fish hook with (s)he-caught).Demonstrative determiners precede the noun: ning nguu "this house", naming tausung "that dog". Quantifiers follow the noun: tausung saiming "one dog", puus puksak "two cats", nguu ngarak "many houses", tamaaski ui "every morning", kaulingdut umling "all the people", tausung saina "the other dog, another dog".
Most nouns do not change for number
Grammatical number
In linguistics, grammatical number is a grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions ....
, but those denoting humans can take the plural suffix -dut or -lut, as in kiiknadut "men", kumaalut "women", tiiskamalut "children", etc.
Attributive adjectives follow the noun they qualify: salpka taara "(a/the) big fish".
Possession
Inalienable pronominal possession, found with body parts and characteristics, is expressed by prefixes attached to the possessed noun: nup "my eye", yausa "his/her strength", nsusuluk "our fingers".In other cases (including kinship relations), a genitive pronoun (formed from the pronominal prefix + -aing) precedes the possessed noun, e.g. naing puus / nguu / aak / tiiskama / taata / tairung "my cat / house / name / child / father / sister", maing kaulingdut "your family (lit. your people)", yaing aak "his/her name", nsulaing rama kuup "our Rama language".
The forms naing, maing, yaing etc. also function predicatively (as equivalents of English possessive pronouns), as in Naming puus naing "That cat is mine".
Nominal possession is expressed by two constructions: possessor + possessed (i.e. simple juxtaposition), e.g. naing taata aak "my father's name" (my father name), and possessor + aing + possessed (aing being a genitive postposition), e.g. Nora aing nguu "Nora's house".
Pronouns
Personal pronouns have free (independent) and bound (prefix) forms as in the following table. The third person singular bound form is i- before a consonant or y- before a vowel.| Independent | Prefix | |
|---|---|---|
| I, me | naas, nah | n- |
| you (sg.) | maa | m- |
| he/him, she/her, it | yaing | i-, y- |
| we, us | nsut | nsu- |
| you (pl.) | mlut | m- -lut |
| they, them | anut | an- |
The independent pronouns are often used as subjects: Nah tawan ki aakar "I live in Bluefields" (I town in stay), Maa kalma apaakut? "Can you sew a dress?" (you dress sew-IRREALIS), Yaing taaki "He/She is going". They may also be complements of postpositions: Naing airung ning nguu ki aakar nah u "My mother lives in this house with me" (my mother this house in stay I with), maa kang "from you", Walsa anut su tabiu "The tiger came out at them" (tiger they at came-out). Note that -ut changes to -ul before a vowel, for example in nsul u "with us".
The prefix forms of the pronouns are used as subject prefixes with verbs: Neli aa nitangu "I gave it to Nelly" (Nelly OBJECT I-gave), Tamaik suulikaas niaukut "Tomorrow I will cook some meat" (tomorrow meat I-will-cook), Taa u mtaaku? "With whom did you go?" (who with you-went), Itaaku "he/she went", Ipang su ansiiku "They came to the island" (island in they-came). In the second person plural, m- is prefixed and -lut suffixed to the verb.
Subject prefixes are omitted when the subject is represented by an independent pronoun: "I am going" is either Nah taaki or Ntaaki, "He is going" is either Yaing taaki or Itaaki, etc. They are also commonly absent in the presence of a full subject noun phrase: Naing taata taaki "My father is going", but "repetition" of the subject is also possible: Pkaak tkii su itraali "The lizard (he) walks on the ground" (lizard ground on it-walks).
A pronominal object is expressed by adding the postposition aa to the pronouns, which adopt the prefix form in the singular but the full form in the plural: naa, maa, yaa but nsula (for nsut + -a) etc. But third person objects are commonly zero-marked, that is, the absence of an overt object of a transitive verb implies an understood "him", "her" or "it", e.g. Anangsku "They cleaned it" (lit. they-cleaned).
The demonstrative pronouns are the same as the corresponding determiners: ning "this", naming "that", as in Ning naing nguu "This is my house".
The interrogative pronouns are niku "what", taa "who", as in Niku maing aak? "What is your name?", Taa rama kuup alkwsi? "Who speaks Rama?" (who Rama language speaks), Taa u mtaaku? "With whom did you go?" (who with you-went).
Postpositions
Rama postpositions perform roughly the same functions as English prepositions, as in tkii su "on the ground", tawan ki "in (the) town", nah u "with me", nguu aing "of the house", etc.Postpositional phrases may occur either before or after the verb. Some postpositions have a shorter and a longer form; following the verb the long forms are used, e.g. Nangalbiu naing taata kang "I ran away from my father" (I-ran my father from) but before the verb the short forms are more usual: Naing taata ka nangalbiu (my father from I-ran).
| Long form | Short form | Meaning or function |
|---|---|---|
| aak | aa | object marker |
| aing | "of, for", genitive | |
| bang | ba | "to, for" |
| isii | "like" | |
| kama | "for" | |
| kang | (i)ka | "from" |
| ki | "in, on, at, to" | |
| king | ki | "for" |
| su | "in, on, at, to" | |
| u | "with" | |
Although aak or aa is given as an object marker, most objects (other than personal pronouns) take no postposition, e.g. Kruubu kiikna kwisu "The tiger ate the man" (tiger man ate).
In addition to the simple postpositions there are more complex forms of the relational
Relational noun
Relational nouns or relator nouns are a class of words used in many languages. They are characterized as functioning syntactically as nouns, although they convey the meaning for which other languages use adpositions...
type that express more specific relationships. These are composed of a noun-like lexical form followed by a postposition, such as psutki "inside", karka "out of". They are placed after a noun phrase, e.g. ngurii psutki "inside the hole", or a postpositional phrase, e.g. ung su karka "out of the pot" (literally: pot in out-from). Such expressions may also be used adverbially.
Overview
The simplest structure for verb forms consists of these elements:- an optional subject prefix (already discussed above under Pronouns)
- the verb stem
- either a tense/mood suffix (or zero) or a subordination marker
e.g. Nah tawan ki aakar "I live in Bluefields" (no subject prefix and no tense suffix), Yaing taak-i "He/She is going" (no subject prefix, present tense suffix), Taa u m-taak-u? "With whom did you go?" (second person subject prefix, past tense suffix), Suulikaas ni-auk-ut "I will cook some meat" (first person subject prefix, future/irrealis suffix), kruubu an-sung-ka "when they see the tiger" (third person plural subject prefix, "when" subordinator), Nah suulikaas baalpi ni-paya-kama "I am looking for meat to buy" (first person singular subject prefix, purpose subordinator).
This basic structure may be expanded by adding other elements, including aspect markers (which come between the stem and the tense/mood suffix) and preverbs (which precede the subject prefix, if present). More complex meanings can be expressed through the use of serial verb constructions.
Tense/mood and subordinator suffixes
Most verb forms end in a suffix such as one of the following which either specifies a tense (or a mood) or else signals a subordinate clause:| Tense/mood suffixes | Subordinator suffixes | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Suffix | Meaning | Suffix | Meaning |
| -i | present tense | -bang | "in order to" |
| -u | past tense | -ka | "when, if" |
| -ut | future/irrealis | -kama | "in order to" |
| no suffix | tenseless/habitual | -kata | "if" |
| imperative | -su | "upon, and then, since" |
Use of one of the subordinator suffixes constitutes the main subordination strategy. Since these suffixes occupy the same place as the tense suffixes, the resulting subordinate clauses are tenseless, in this respect resembling non-finite clauses in European languages. Nonetheless, Rama verb forms with subordinators take subject prefixes under the same basic conditions as tensed ones, and in this way resemble finite forms.
Examples with siik "come": nsiiki "I am coming", nsiiku "I came", nsiikut "I will come", nsiikbang "for me to come", nsiikka "when I come", nsiikkata "if I come" etc.
In some cases the lack of any suffix signals a lack of marked tense or a habitual sense: compare Ntaakkama aakari "I am ready to go" (now) with Nah tawan ki aakar "I live in the town". Imperatives in the second person singular are also suffixless, e.g. Siik! "Come!" One verb, taak "go", has a suppletive imperative mang! or bang! "go!".
Sometimes forms with the -bang suffix are used in independent clauses: see the section on Aspect below.
Aspect
Using the simple past tense of kwis "eat", the sentence Kruubu kiikna kwisu means "The tiger ate the man", but the "manner of eating" may be specified further to express completion of the action by adding to the stem kwis the aspect marker -atkul, giving Kruubu kiikna kwisatkulu "The tiger ate the man all up". Further examples with -atkul- are: Dor yakaangatkulu "He/she shut the door tight" (akaang "close") and Paalpa ansungatkulu "They saw the whole manatee" (sung "see"). Another aspect-marking suffix similarly used is -atkar (-itkr-) expressing repetition.A range of further aspectual nuances may be conveyed by a variety of periphrastic constructions. Several of these involve the verb aakar "stay" or its derivative baakar (which contains the preverb ba-), either of which, following a verb stem, may convey progressive aspect: Nah paun baakiri "I am crying" (paun "cry"; the second vowel in aakar can copy the vowel of the suffix). Baakar can also express "be about to (do something)".
The suffix -bang (see also above) may express intention, as in Tiiskama nitanangbang "I am going to look at the baby" (tanang "look at"), and in first person plural imperatives (i.e. "let's..."), as in Nsukamibang! "Let's sleep!" (kami "sleep"). In the latter use the subject prefix may be omitted, e.g. Rama kuup alkwisbang! "Let's speak Rama!" (alkwis "speak").
A form related to bang, bating, means "want" with a nominal object, as in Sumuu ibatingi "He/she wants a banana", but with verbal complements means "be going to (do something)" in the simple form, as in Itraat batingi "He/she is going to walk" (traat "walk"), or "get ready to (do something)" in the progressive baakar construction, as in Nalngu bating baakiri "I get ready to drink" (alngu "drink").
Another periphrasis, constructed with aakar following the subordinate form in -kama of the main verb, expresses "be ready to (do something)", e.g. Ntaakkama aakari "I am ready to go" (taak "go").
One other means of expressing aspectual (or mood) nuances is provided by the use of a second set of emphatic tense suffixes which replace the simple suffixes, namely -aing emphatic affirmative, -uing habitual past and -uting emphatic future.
Modality
Modal notions are expressed by further periphrastic constructions. A verb with the -kama suffix may be used in an independent clause to convey obligation: Tiiskiba umling taakkama skuul ki "All the children must go to school". Ikar is used as a modal auxiliary of volition, as in Nah rama kuup larn tang ikri "I want to learn Rama" (larn tang "learn"). Ability may be expressed by the future/irrealis tense form in -ut, e.g. Maa kalma apaakut? "Will/can you sew a dress?" Inability is expressed by the negator angka preceding the complete verb, e.g. Nah rama kuup angka alkwsi "I cannot speak Rama".Preverbs
Rama has preverbPreverb
Although not widely accepted in linguistics, the term preverb is used in Caucasian , Caddoan, Athabaskan, and Algonquian linguistics to describe certain elements prefixed to verbs.Theoretically, any prefix could be called a preverbal element...
s which form constructions comparable to English phrasal verb
Phrasal verb
A phrasal verb is a combination of a verb and a preposition, a verb and an adverb, or a verb with both an adverb and a preposition, any of which are part of the syntax of the sentence, and so are a complete semantic unit. Sentences may contain direct and indirect objects in addition to the phrasal...
s such as "run away", "come over", "carry on" etc. The Rama preverbs resemble some of the postpositions in form: they are ba-, yu-, ka-, su- and yaa-. Like English phrasal verbs, the meanings and uses of Rama preverb constructions can be quite idiomatic and unpredictable. Preverbs precede the subject prefix if present: Kanangalbiu "I ran away from (him/her)" (ngalbi "run" with the preverb ka- "from": -na- is the subject prefix). Ngulkang tawan ki yuansiiku "They brought the wild pig to the town" (yu-siik "come with, i.e. bring"). Tiiskama taa yutaaku? "Who took the child?" (yu-taak "go with, i.e. take").
While many preverb-verb combinations are lexically specified, yu- may also be used productively to express an instrumental argument, e.g. Nainguku kiskis nsukuaakari, suulikaas yunsuaukkama "That's why we have tongs, in order to roast meat with (them)" (therefore tongs we-have, meat for-we-roast-with).
Serial verbs
A limited range of serial-type constructions are found. A notable case of this is the use of the verb traal "walk" following another verb, as in: Ipang ika kiikna paalpa baanalpi traali lakun aik "Men of Rama Cay go to look for manatee in the lagoon" (island from man manatee they-seek walk lagoon side). The morphological analysis of baanalpi traali "they go to look for" is: ba-an-alpi traal-i (PREVERB-they-seek walk-PRESENT).'Be' and 'have'
Noun and adjective predicates are constructed without a copula, in the order Subject + Predicate, e.g. Ning naing nguu "This is my house" (this my house), Yaing aak Basilio "His name is Basilio" (his name Basilio), Paalpa suuli taara "The manatee is a big animal" (manatee animal big), Naing nguu aakwaala "My house is pretty" (my house pretty); so also Naming puus naing "That cat is mine" and Naing puus suuk mlingkama "My cat is for killing rats". The Subject + Predicate order is inverted in a question such as Niku yaing aak? "What is his name?"The verb aakar "stay" is used to express "be (in a place)" and "be (in a state)", as in Skuul saud aap su aakar "The school is on the south side" (school south side in stay), Nah mliika aakar "I am fine" (I well stay). Aakar can also mean "live (in a place)" as in Nah ipang su aakar "I live on Rama Cay" (I island in stay), and "there is" as in Nguu ngarak ipang su aakar "There are many houses on Rama Cay" (house many island in stay).
The verb kuaakar (or kwaakar) means "have", e.g. Nah nising puksak kuaakar "I have two sisters" (I sister two have), Nainguku kiskis nsukuaakari "That's why we have tongs", Puupu kwiik ngarak ikuaakari "The octopus has many arms".
Word order with verbal predicates
In sentences with a verb as predicate, the basic order is:- SV if intransitive, e.g. Sukmurk tkari "The frog jumps", Nah paun baakiri "I am crying" (I cry AUXILIARY), Naing tiiskama almlingi "My child is sick" (my child is-sick)
- SOV if transitive (assuming that both arguments are present as noun phrases in the utterance), e.g. Kruubu kiikna kwisu "The tiger ate the man" (tiger man ate), Nora rama kuup alkwsi "Nora speaks Rama" (Nora Rama language speaks), Nah tausung saiming kuaakar "I have one dog" (I dog one have).
Other sentence elements (in bold here) may be placed:
- in front of the verb: Pkaak tkii su itraali "The lizard walks on the ground", Tulkumas ituk u naayarnguli "The scorpion bites with its tail", Ipang su ansiiku "They came to the island", Nguu ngarak ipang su aakar "There are many houses on the island", Nah u alkwis! "Speak with me!", Nah yaabra aap su aapunu "I grew up on the south side", Naas sii ba taak ikar "I don't want to go for water", Salpka taara sauk u ikuu "He caught a big fish with a hook", Kruubu tamaaski ui tabii "The tiger came out every morning".
- at the end of the sentence (i.e. after the verb): Nsut rama larn tangi Nora u "We are learning Rama with Nora", Naing airung ning nguu ki aakar nah u "My mother lives in this house with me", Nkiikna ngulkang malngi twiis u "The man kills the wari with a lance", Maa kalma apaakut naing isii? "Can you sew a dress like mine?", Naing taata ngabang yuisiiku nguu ki "My father brings the silkgrass into the house", kiskis yuisiikka nguu ki "when he brings the tongs into the house", yupsi tabii ung su karka "when the oil comes out of the pot".
- or at the beginning of the sentence: Ipang su nah maktungu "I was born on Rama Cay", Ngurii psutki yaing tiiskama yuitaaki "She took the child inside the hole", Ung ariis ba upsi ankai "They put the oil in the empty pot", Tamaik suulikaas niaukut "Tomorrow I will cook meat".
Clausal elements (i.e. those containing a verb) usually follow the main verb, e.g. Nah taaki ai nipiabang "I am going to plant corn", Nah suulikaas baalpi nipayakama "I am looking for meat to buy", Mliika anaakar paalpa analkuka "They are happy when they hear about the manatee".
Questions
Yes/no questions take the same form as the corresponding statement, e.g. Maing nguu taara? "Is your house big?", Maa ipang su aakar? "Do you live on Rama Cay?", Maa rama kuup alkwsi? "Do you speak Rama?", Maa nising kuaakar? "Have you a sister?", Maa kalma apaakut naing isii? "Can you sew a dress like mine?" Such questions may be answered using Aha "Yes" or Mahaling "No".Some question words (sometimes called wh-words):
| Pronouns | niku | "what" |
|---|---|---|
| taa | "who" | |
| Adverbs | ngarangki, ngarangsu | "where" |
| niika bii | "how" |
Question words may be preceded by another sentence constituent as topic, e.g. Tiiskama taa yutaaku? "Who took the child?" (child who took), Maa, ngarangki aakar? "And you, where do you live?" (you, where live).
However, question words generally stand at the beginning of the sentence: Ngarangki maa aakar? "Where do you live?" (where you live), Ngarangki ngulkang aakar? "Where does the wari live?" (where wari lives), Ngarangki Nora aing nguu aakar? "Where is Nora's house?" (where Nora GENITIVE house stay), Ngarangsu yaing taaki? "Where is he/she going?" (where he/she goes), Ngarangsu yaing taata taaki? "Where is his/her father going?" (where his/her father goes), Taa nsulaing rama kuup alkwsi? "Who speaks our Rama language?" (who our Rama language speaks), Taa u mtaaku? "With whom did you go?" (who with you-went).
Questions words with a non-verbal predicate: Niku maing aak? "What is your name?", Niika bii maing kaulingdut? "How is your family?"
Negation
Sentences may be negated by placing taama after the verb or predicate, e.g. Nah ipang su aakar taama "I do not live on Rama Cay", Maa rama kuup alkwsi taama "You do not speak Rama", Naing nguu taara taama "My house is not big", Naming tausung naing taama "That dog is not mine", or by placing aa before the verb, e.g. Paalpa aa baanalpiu "They didn't look for the manatee", Naas aa taak ikar "I don't want to go".There is a special negative word, angka, to express impossibility, e.g. Nah angka aakar tawan ki "I cannot live in Bluefields".
Coordination and subordination
Coordinating conjunctions: an "and", barka "but": Naing nising an naing tairung ning nguu ki aakar nah u "My sister and my brother live in this house with me", Nah tausung saiming kuaakar an maa puus puksak kuaakar "I have one dog and you have two cats", Naing nguu taara taama, barka aakwaala "My house is not big, but it is pretty".Subordinate clauses may be formed by means of subordinator suffixes as described above. Reported speech is formed by juxtaposition as in Anaapiu anaungi "They found it, they say" (aapi "find", aung "say"). Relative clauses also have no specific subordinator but the clause marker kaing may be employed, e.g. Suulikaas nipaayau kaing Neli aa nitangu "The meat I bought, I gave it to Nelly" (meat I-bought kaing Nelly OBJECT I-gave).
Lexicon
Rama has borrowed words from Miskito (e.g. taara "big"), English, Rama Cay Creole and Spanish. Besides such loans, Rama has a primary lexicon of Chibchan origin, expanded through various word-formation processes, to which we now turn.Many verb stems are made up of extensions from primary roots by the addition of one of the prefixes al- and aa-, which often correlate with intransitive and transitive meanings respectively. Evident intransitive derivation with al- is illustrated by the pairs maling "kill" : almaling "die", aark : alaark "break (tr./intr.)" and auk : alauk "roast (tr./intr.)", while other cases of outward resemblance are semantically opaque, e.g. kwis "eat" and alkwis "speak", or involve more complex relationships, e.g. aap (i.e. aa- + p) "find" and baalp (ba- [preverb] + al + p "seek".
Verbs may be derived from other parts of speech by suffixing one of several verbal roots glossed as "do, make", such as -king, -ting and -uung.
A common adjective-forming suffix is -ba, while the participial suffix -ima gives rise to both adjectives and nouns.
Certain recurrent endings found in numerous noun stems appear to correspond to vague semantic classes. A notable example is -up, which occurs as the last component in nouns many of which denote round objects, fruits or body parts. As an inalienable noun in its own right, -up means "eye" or "seed".
Composition is another common way of forming nouns, as in suulikaas "meat" (from suuli "animal" + kaas "flesh") or the inalienable noun -upulis "eyelash" (from -up "eye" + ulis "hair").
New concepts can also be expressed syntactically, e.g. through genitive constructions such as preya aing nguu "church" (lit. house of prayer), or through verbal paraphrase.
Partial or complete reduplication is seen in the forms of some words, including onomatopeics such as tahtah "dripping", animal names like ngaukngauk "spider" or tkwustkwus "rabbit", colour names and other descriptive adjectives such as nuknuknga "yellow", ngarngaringba "green", siksiknga "speckled", kingkingma "calm", and others, e.g. tiskitiski "a little".