Maká language
Maká is a Matacoan language spoken in Paraguay by the Maká people. Its 1,500 speakers live primarily in Presidente Hayes Department near the Río Negro, as well as in and around Asunción.
| Maká | |
|---|---|
| Maká | |
| Pronunciation | maˈka |
| Native to | Paraguay |
| Region | Presidente Hayes Department, Asunción |
Native speakers | 1,500 (2000)[1] |
Matacoan
| |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | mca |
| Glottolog | maca1260[2] |
Phonology
| Labial | Dental | Alveolar | Palatal/Velar | Uvular | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | |||||
| Plosive | plain | p | t | ts | k | q | ʔ |
| ejective | pʼ | tʼ | tsʼ | kʼ | qʼ | ||
| Fricative | f | ɬ | s | x | χ | h | |
| Approximant | w | l | j | ||||
Velar consonants alternate with palatal consonants before /e/ and sometimes before /a/. Examples include /keɬejkup/ ~ [ceɬejkup] "autumn" and /exeʔ/ ~ [eçeʔ] "stork". The palatal approximant /j/ alternates with the palatal fricative /ç/ before /i/, as in /inanjiʔ/ ~ [inançiʔ].[3]
| Front | Back | |
|---|---|---|
| High | i | u |
| Mid | e | o |
| Low | a | |
Syllables in Maká may be of types V, VC, CV, CCV, and CCVC. When a consonant cluster appears at the beginning of a syllable, the second consonant must be /x/, /h/, /w/, or /j/.
Morphology
Nouns
Gender
Maká has two genders—masculine and feminine. The demonstratives reflect the gender of a noun (Gerzenstein 1995:153:
| Masculine nouns | Feminine nouns | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| na’ | sehe’ | ne' | naxkax |
| dem:masc | land | dem:fem | tree |
| ‘this land’ | 'this tree' | ||
| na' | nunax | ne' | nunax |
| dem:masc | dog | dem:fem | dog |
| ‘this (male) dog' | ‘this (female) dog' | ||
In the plural the gender distinction is neutralized, and the plural demonstrative is the same as the feminine singular:
ne’ sehe-l these land-pl ‘these lands’
ne’ naxkak-wi these tree-pl ‘these trees’
Number
Maká nouns inflect for plurality. There are several distinct plural endings: -l, -wi, Vts, and -Vy. All plants take the -wi plural, but otherwise the choice seems to be unpredictable (Gerzenstein 1995:150):
| singular | plural | gloss |
|---|---|---|
| sehe | sehe-l | land(s) |
| naxkax | naxkax-wi | tree(s) |
| tenuk | tenuk-its | cat(s) |
Case
Maká does not have any overt case marking on nouns. Consider the following sentence, where neither the subject nor object shows any case (Gerzenstein 1995:139):
| Ne’ | efu | Ø-tux | ka’ | sehets. |
| dem:f | woman | A3-eat | indef:m | fish |
| ‘The woman eats fish.’ | ||||
Agreement with the possessor
Nouns agree with their possessor in person (Gerzenstein 1995:148):
| y-exi’ | Ø-exi’ | ł-exi’ | in-exi’ |
| 1s-mouth | 2-mouth | 3-mouth | 1plur:incl-mouth |
| ‘my mouth’ | 'your mouth' | 'his/her/their mouth' | 'our (inclusive) mouth' |
Verbs
Agreement with subject and object
Verbs agree with their subject and object in a rather complex system. Gerzenstein (1995) identifies five conjugation classes for intransitive verbs. The following two examples show intransitive verbs from conjugation classes 1 and 3.
| tremble (conjugation class 3) | dance (conjugation class 1) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | tsi-kawelik | 'I tremble' | hoy-otoy | 'I dance' | |
| 2 | łan-kawelik | 'you tremble' | ł-otoy | 'you dance' | |
| 3 | yi-kawelik | 'he/she trembles' | t-otoy | 'he/she dances' | |
| 1pl inclusive | xiyi-kawelik | 'we (inclusive) tremble' | xit-otoy | 'we (inclusive) dance' | |
Transitive verbs belong to a different conjugation class, Conjugation 6. The following forms show a transitive verb with a 3rd person object:
| love (conjugation class 6) | |
|---|---|
| hi-su'un | 'I love (him/her)' |
| łi-su'un | 'you love (him/her)' |
| yi-su'un | 'he/she loves (him/her)' |
| xite-su'un | 'we (inclusive) love (him/her)' |
If the object of the transitive verb is 1st or 2nd person, then certain combinations of subject and object are shown by a portmanteau morpheme.
| love (conjugation class 6) | subject/object combination | |
|---|---|---|
| k'e-su'un | 'I love you' | 1SUBJ›2OBJ |
| tsi-su'un | 'he/she loves me' | 3SUBJ›1OBJ |
| ne-su'un | 'he/she loves you' | 3SUBJ›2OBJ |
Other combinations involve an object agreement marker which may either precede or follow the subject marker (Gerzenstein 1995:94-101):
| łe-ts-ikfex |
| 2:subj-1sg:obj-bite |
| 'you bite me' |
| xi-yi-łin |
| 1pl(incl):obj-3-save |
| 'he/she saves us (inclusive)' |
Applicatives
Verbs in Maká have a series of suffixes called 'postpositions' in Gerzenstein (1995), which have the effect of introducing new oblique objects into the sentence.
The following examples show the applicative suffixes -ex 'instrumental ('with')' and -m 'benefactive ('for')'
| Ne’ | efu | ni-xele-ex | ke’ | ute | na’ | nunax. |
| dem:f | woman | A3-throw-with | indef:masc | rock | dem:m | dog |
| ‘The woman threw a rock at the dog.’ | ||||||
| H-osxey-i-m | na’ | sehets | na’ | k’utsaX | ||
| A1-grill-P3-for | dem:m | fish | dem:m | old:man | ||
| ‘I grill fish for the old man.’ | ||||||
Syntax
Noun phrases
In noun phrases, the possessor precedes the possessed noun (Gerzenstein 1995:155):
| e-li-ts | łe-xiła’ |
| 2-child-pl | 3-head |
| 'your children’s head' | |
Noun phrases show the order (Demonstrative) (Numeral) (Adjective) N (Gerzenstein 1995:154):
| Ne’ | efu | t-aqhay-ets | ne’ | ikwetxuł | fo’ | tiptip-its |
| dem:fem | woman | S3-buy-toward | dem:plur | four | white | horse=pl |
| ’The woman bought four white horses.’ | ||||||
Sentences
Affirmative
The basic word order for a transitive clause in Maká is subject–verb–object, as seen in the following example (Gerzenstein 1995:138)
| Ne’ | efu | ni-xele-ex | ke’ | ute | na’ | nunax. |
| dem:f | woman | A3-throw-with | indef:masc | rock | dem:m | dog |
| ‘The woman threw a rock at the dog.’ | ||||||
For intransitive clauses, the basic order is verb-subject (Gerzenstein 1995:106):
| Wapi | ne' | efu. | ||||
| rest | dem:f | woman | ||||
| 'The woman rests' | ||||||
Interrogative
In yes-no questions, the usual subject–verb–object order changes to verb-subject-object following an initial particle /me/ (Gerzenstein 1995:136):
| Me | y-eqfemet-en | na' | k’utsaX | na' | xukhew? | |
| q | A3-injure-caus | dem:m | old:man | dem:m | man | |
| ‘Did the old man injure the man?’ | ||||||
Sentences with wh-questions show a sentence-initial question word. Maká has a very small inventory of question words, with only three members: łek 'who, what', pan 'which, where, how many', and inhats'ek 'why'. The following example shows an interrogative sentence with an initial question word (Gerzenstein 1995:178:
| Łek | pa' | tux | na' | xukhew? | ||
| what | dem:m | eat | dem:m | old:man | ||
| ‘What did the old man eat?’ | ||||||
References
- Maká at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Maca". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
- Gerzenstein, Ana (1995). Lengua Maká. Estudio descriptivo. Archivo de Lenguas Indoamericanas (in Spanish). Buenos Aires: Universidad de Buenos Aires. ISBN 950-29-0176-2.
External links
- Argentinian Languages Collection of Ana Gerzenstein, containing audio recordings of Maká, from the Archive of the Indigenous Languages of Latin America.
- Maca (Intercontinental Dictionary Series)