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Contact and change at the northern Bantu borderlands Hannah Gibson Linguis6cs departmental seminar 17 th February 2015 SOAS, University of London
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Contact and change at the northern Bantu borderlands
Hannah Gibson Linguis6cs departmental seminar
17th February 2015 SOAS, University of London
Introduc6on There is general consensus that language change can result from external factors (i.e. other languages) or internal processes (i.e gramma6calisa6on). However, this is no consensus on what constrains these processes, nor on the interac6on between these two drivers of change. • No absolute constraints on structural borrowing (Campbell
1993). • However, borrowing not en6rely arbitrary – ‘borrowability
scale’ (Thomason and Kaufman (1988). • Why are some word classes more ‘easily’ borrowed than
others?
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Introduc6on
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RiY Valley area of Central Tanzania unique in being the only area where languages from all four African language phyla are found.
Sustained history of language contact with high levels of bilingualism and shiY.
The current talk examines language change and contact through the lens of a subset of languages spoken in East Africa.
Introduc6on The Tanzanian Bantu language Rangi exhibits an unusual word order in which the auxiliary appears post-‐verbally: 1) maama jót-‐a a-‐ri maaji mpoli 1.mother collect-‐FV SM1-‐AUX 6.water later ‘Mother will collect water later’ • This ordering is unusual in East African Bantu. • Unusual for SVO languages which more commonly exhibit
auxiliary-‐verb ordering.
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Introduc6on • Rangi spoken in an area of high linguis6c diversity. It has been
proposed that this feature is the result of contact with non-‐Bantu languages (Stegen 2002, Dunham 2005).
• It has also been suggested that these features may be beher understood to represent language-‐internal gramma6calisa6on processes (Mous 2000, Nurse 2000, Gibson 2013).
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Introduc6on: the languages Rangi is not along amongst Bantu languages in exhibi6ng post-‐verbal auxiliary placement: • Rangi • Mbugwe • Gusii • Kuria • Ngoreme • Suba-‐Simbi6
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Introduc6on: objec6ves This talk develops an account of verb-‐auxiliary ordering in this subset of six East African Bantu languages. What do these languages have in common that might be able to account for the presence of this marked structure? • To what extent is this the result of contact with non-‐Bantu
languages spoken in the area? • To what extent can it be considered to result from language-‐
internal gramma6calisa6on processes?
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Introduc6on • What are the differences between the languages with respect
to this construc6on? • What other (possible) contact features can be iden6fied in
the languages? • What pathways of change can be proposed to account for the
presence of this marked structure? • What type of addi6onal informa6on might be required to
support either a contact-‐based or a language-‐internal account?
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Structure of talk
1. Introduc6on 2. Verb-‐auxiliary order: The data 3. Sociolinguis6c and historical backdrop 4. Accoun6ng for change
-‐ Verb-‐auxiliary order in Rangi/Mbugwe -‐ Other (possible) contact features
5. Con6nuing research -‐ Informa6on structure -‐ Which direc6on is change?
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2. Verb-‐auxiliary order: The data
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TAM in Bantu: Simple verb forms 2) Ni-‐na-‐end-‐a shule-‐ni Swahili SM1stsg-‐PRES.PROG-‐go-‐FV 9.school-‐LOC ‘I am going to school.’ 3) Tu-‐li-‐pik-‐a cha-‐kula Swahili SM1stpl-‐PAST-‐cook-‐FV 7-‐food ‘We cooked food.
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TAM in Bantu: complex verb forms 4) Saa tu-‐va tu-‐gus-‐ile Hehe come-‐FUT SM1stpl-‐be SM1stpl-‐buy-‐RETR ‘We will have bought.’ (Nurse 2003: 91) 5) Tu-‐tenda ku-‐hemera Ngindo SM1stpl-‐do INF-‐buy ‘We are buying.’ (Nurse 2003: 91) 6) Ba-‐fana ba-‐ngahle ba-‐phidze ba-‐bheme isangu siSwa/ 2-‐boys SM2-‐might SM2-‐repeat SM2-‐smoke 9.pot ‘The boys might smoke pot again.’ (Thwala 2006: 357)
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Auxiliary construc6ons in Bantu Languages vary: • Subject-‐marking proper6es • Number and form of auxiliary However, auxiliary-‐verb ordering predominates across the Bantu language family. Excep6on: Rangi, Mbugwe, Gusii, Kuria, Ngoreme, Suba-‐Simbi6 which exhibit verb-‐auxiliary order to some extent. These languages will be examined in turn.
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Rangi: auxiliary construc6ons 7) U-‐ra mu-‐gonjwa áá-‐ri a-‐a-‐kwíy-‐ire 1-‐DEM 1-‐ill.person SM1.PAST1-‐AUX SM1-‐PAST1-‐die-‐PTV ‘That ill person has died.’
8) N-‐áá-‐ri n-‐a-‐téy-‐ire mu-‐teho w-‐ááni SM1stsg-‐PAST-‐AUX SM1stsg-‐PAST-‐set-‐PTV 3-‐trap 3-‐my ‘I have set my trap …’
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Rangi: Verb-‐auxiliary order
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• Immediate future 9) Háánd-‐a tw-‐íise mi-‐disi plant-‐FV SM1stpl-‐AUX 4-‐banana.plant ‘We will plant banana plants.’ • General future 10) Weéwe rín-‐a ú-‐ri i-‐hi mi-‐ríínga 2ndsg.PP open-‐FV SM2ndsg-‐AUX DEM-‐4 4-‐beehive ‘You will open these beehives.’ 11) *Ndí-‐ri térek-‐a chá-‐kurya SM1stsg-‐AUX cook-‐FV 7-‐food Intd.: ‘I will cook food’
Mbugwe: Simple tenses 12) N-‐áa-‐rem-‐á yonda r-‐áne wiki aloká SM1stsg-‐PAST-‐cul6vate-‐PAST 5.farm 5-‐my week PAST ‘I cul6vated my farm last week.’ (Mous 2004:8) 13) Si-‐já-‐lóséka na wée Neg.1stsg-‐FUT-‐talk PREP you ‘I will not talk with you.’ (Mous 2004: 9)
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Mbugwe: Verb-‐auxiliary order • Present progressive 14) Serera r-‐á mw-‐ényi o-‐lóma re-‐kénde 5.illlness 5-‐of 1-‐visitor 15-‐bite SM5-‐AUX ‘The visitor is ill.’ (Mous 2004:11) • Recent past progressive 15) Nosíta áa-‐re o-‐nyá irusú 15.refuse SM1.PAST-‐AUX 15-‐drink beer ‘He used to refuse beer.’ (Mous 2004:11) • Present habitual 16) O-‐ra w-‐anda nsíye? 15-‐eat SM2ndsg-‐AUX 9.fish ‘Do you eat fish?’ (Mous 2004:12)
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Gusii: Verb-‐auxiliary order Un6med fact/occasional habit 17) Ń-‐kó-‐ráá-‐rut-‐á ńdé FOC-‐INF-‐TAM-‐bite-‐FV SM1stsg.AUX ‘I bite occasionally.’ (Cammenga 2002:488) • Present con6nuous 18) Ń-‐kó-‐riing-‐or-‐a ńdé ama-‐raange6 FOC-‐INF-‐fold-‐RVRS-‐FV SM1stsg.AUX 6-‐blankets ‘I am unfolding the blankets.’ (Cammenga 2002: 385)
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Gusii: Verb-‐auxiliary order • Hodiernal past con6nuous 19) Ń-‐kó-‐rut-‐a mw-‐áá-‐ré FOC-‐INF-‐bite-‐FV SM2ndpl-‐PAST1-‐AUX ‘You were bi6ng (earlier today).’ (Cammenga 2002: 493) • Past habitual 20) N-‐kó-‐ge-‐á n-‐áa-‐renge FOC-‐INF-‐harvest-‐PAST SM1stsg-‐PAST2/3-‐AUX.HAB ‘I was harves6ng.’ (Whiteley 1959:34)
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Kuria: Verb-‐auxiliary order
• Present progressive 21) Ne-‐ko-‐som-‐a bá-‐re FOC-‐INF-‐read-‐FV SM2-‐AUX ‘They read, they are reading.’ (Cammenga 2004: 248) • Simple present 22) N-‐ko-‐nyaháár-‐ék-‐á á-‐re FOC-‐INF-‐harm-‐STAT-‐FV SM1-‐AUX ‘S/he is becoming injured.’ (Cammenga 2004:259)
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Ngoreme: Verb-‐auxiliary order • Present progressive 23) N-‐ko-‐bin-‐a baa-‐ni FOC-‐INF-‐sing-‐FV SM1stsg-‐AUX.LOC ‘I am singing.’ (T. Roth p.c.) • Past progressive 24) N-‐ku-‐gany-‐a aa-‐re Foc-‐INF-‐wait-‐FV SM1.PAST-‐AUX ‘S/he was wai6ng.’ (T. Roth, p.c.) 25) Baa-‐re ko-‐bin-‐a SM1stsg. PAST-‐AUX INF-‐sing-‐FV ‘I was singing.’ (T. Roth p.c.)
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Suba-‐Simbi6: verb-‐auxiliary order • Present progressive 26) N-‐ku-‐tuk-‐a tö-‐rë FOC-‐INF-‐dig-‐FV SM1stpl-‐AUX ‘We are digging.’ (J. Walker p.c.) • Present habitual 27) N-‐ku-‐bhin-‐anga tö-‐rë FOC-‐INF-‐dance-‐HAB SM1stpl-‐AUX ‘We are (usually) dancing.’ (J. Walker p.c.)
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Overview: Verb-‐auxiliary order Rangi Mbugwe Gusii Kuria Ngoreme Suba-‐
Simbi9
No. of tenses
2 6 5 2? 2 2
No. of auxiliaries
2 6 2 1 2 1
Form of auxiliaries
-‐ri -‐íise
-‐re -‐je -‐kaajie -‐keende -‐se -‐ande
-‐re -‐renge
-‐re
-‐ri -‐ni
-‐rë
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3. Socio-‐linguis6c and historical backdrop
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Kondoa cluster
Kondoa cluster
Central Tanzania is an area with a long history of language contact: • Cushi6c (Afroasia6c) languages entered the area from
the north and northeast approximately 3,000 years ago. • Bantu (Niger-‐Congo) languages began sehled in the area
some 1,000 later. • Southern Nilo6c Datooga (Nilo-‐Saharan) are es6mated to
have arrived in this region only a few centuries ago (Nurse 2006).
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Kondoa cluster “All linguis6c observa6ons of Bantu and Cushi6c languages in the area indicate that there has been significant interac6on -‐ and interference -‐ between the language groups.” (Kießling et al. 2007:267) Today, more than 40 languages are found in the linguis6c area.
These include the Cushi6c languages Iraqw, Burunge, Gorwaa and Alagwa. The Nilo6c languages Datooga and Maasai, the Khoisan language Sandawe and the Bantu languages Rangi, Mbugwe, Gogo and Chaga.
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Kondoa cluster Rangi: -‐ Alagwa, Burunge,
Gorwaa
Mbugwe: -‐ Alagwa, Burunge,
Iraqw, Maasai Rangi and Mbugwe presumed to share a common predecessor language.
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Lake cluster
Lake cluster • High concentra6on of Bantu languages in a small area – the
intralacustrine languages.
• Sustained history of language contact with the Nilo6c languages Luo, Maasai, Datooga
• Strong Nilo6c presence in the area, also in Kenya.
• No Cushi6c languages in the region.
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Lake cluster
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Gusii + Luo -‐ Kuria -‐ Ngoreme -‐ Suba-‐Simbi6 Kuria + Luo -‐ Maasai -‐ Gusii Ngoreme + Datooga -‐ Gusii -‐ Suba-‐Simbi6 Suba-‐Simbi9 + Luo -‐ Gusii -‐ Kuria
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4. Accoun6ng for change
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Verb-‐auxiliary in Rangi/Mbugwe Iraqw and Gorwaa both have rigid SOV word order. Verbal noun precedes a ‘go’ auxiliary to form future tense. 28) Makay I ma’á mahúngw ay-‐á animals S.3 water:CON drinking:CON go:3-‐pl ‘The animals will drink water.’ (Iraqw, Mous 1993: 267)
29) Matlo atén agadyée-‐r tleehhamá-‐r aw-‐aan-‐a-‐ká Tomorrow 1.PL S.1/2 work:CON-‐F doing:CON-‐F go-‐1.pl-‐INF-‐NEG ‘Tomorrow we will not go to work.’ (Iraqw, Mous 1993:267)
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Verb-‐auxiliary in Rangi/Mbugwe • Is this a possible source of transfer for verb + (go) auxiliary to
encode future tense from Iraqw to Rangi and/or Mbugwe?
• Mous (p.c.) notes that Iraqw examples such as those above are ‘marginal’.
• Movement verbs such as ‘go’ are oYen involved in gramma6calisa6on of future tense cross-‐linguis6cally (Kuteva and Heine 2002).
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Clusivity in Rangi Inclusive/exclusive dis6nc6on in first person plural possessive pronouns. 30) Na-‐mu-‐kál-‐ir-‐y-‐e taáta w-‐íitu SM1stsg-‐OM1-‐anger-‐APPL-‐CAUS-‐FV 1.grandfather 1-‐our ‘Today I angered our (not including you) grandfather.’ 31) Ki-‐riro ch-‐á mu-‐ndugu w-‐íiswi Kondoa 7-‐death 7-‐of 1-‐rela6ve 1-‐our Kondoa ‘The death of (both of) our rela6ve in Kondoa.’
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Clusivity in Rangi • Clusivity not marked on the verb or in absolute personal
pronouns. • Dis6nc6on not ahested in any of the neighbouring Bantu
languages nor in Bantu languages more widely. • Is this a contact feature? • Neighbouring Cushi6c language Iraqw as a possible source (cf.
Filimonova 2008)?
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Clause-‐final nega6on: Rangi Nega6ve marker sí and clause-‐final nega6ve marker tuku. 32) Isiku vi-‐viiswi sí v-‐új-‐ire tuku 9.today 2-‐fellow.our NEG SM2-‐come-‐PTV NEG ‘Today our friends did not come.’ 33) Nkuku sí jí-‐ri ku-‐tu-‐héer-‐a mayi tuku 10.chicken NEG 10-‐AUX INF-‐OM1stpl-‐give-‐FV 6.eggs NEG ‘The chickens will not give us eggs.’
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Clause-‐final nega6on Mbugwe Nega6ve prefix te-‐ and op6onal nega6ve marker toko. 34) Síyɛ te-‐kw-‐á-‐re-‐fɛ́ɛ́ng'-‐ɛr-‐a ma-‐sibitáli toko. SM1PL.PP NEG-‐SM1PL-‐PAST-‐PROG-‐run-‐APPL-‐FV 6-‐hospital NEG ‘We did not run to the hospital at all.’ • Nega6ve markers tuku and tokó appear to be instances of
lexical borrowing (Gibson and Wilhelmsen 2015) • Burunge tuku ‘en6rely, wholly’ • Alagwa túku ~ túk expresses the completeness of an ac6on
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Two nega6on strategies in Kuria
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Nega6ve marker ta-‐ or nega6ve marker te-‐ plus the post-‐verbal nega6ve marker hai. 35) Bá-‐ta-‐som-‐ere SM2-‐NEG-‐read-‐PERF ‘They have not read today.’ (Cammenga 2004: 289) 36 )Te-‐bá-‐som-‐ere hai NEG-‐SM2-‐read-‐PERF NEG ‘They have not read today.’ (Cammenga 2004: 288) Reflects two different stages in a gramma6calisa6on process? Result of contact-‐induced change (cf. Gibson and Wilhelmsen)?
Ngoreme: Asymmetric vowel system 7 vowels in nouns (/ieɛaɔou/) but only 5 in verbs (/iɛaɔu/).
37) /e-‐ke-‐reɣe/ ‘noise’ /o-‐mo-‐songo/ ‘type of tree’ /e-‐ki-‐rɛrɛ/ ‘type of fish’ /o-‐mu-‐sɔngɛ/ ‘large chicken
But no contrast in verbal roots with no minimal or near-‐minimal pairs for mid-‐vowels (Tim Roth p.c.). Bila (Bantu D32, DRC) have acquired two addi6onal vowels in the verbal (but not the nominal) system as a result of contact (Kutsch Lojenga 2003).
Datooga has 7 vowels in verbs and 5 vowels in nouns. 41
5. Con6nuing research
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Informa6on Structure In Rangi, declara6ve main clauses in the immediate and general future tenses exhibit verb-‐auxiliary order. However, future tense construc6ons are associated with auxiliary-‐verb ordering in contexts where the future tense construc6on is:
i) preceded by a wh-‐element, ii) part of sí...tuku senten6al nega6on, iii) part of a rela6ve clause, iv) part of a cleY construc6on, or v) preceded by the subordinators jooli or kooni.
• To what extent is this related (historically) to informa6on
structure? • What about other contexts?
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Informa6on structure The forms which exhibit verb-‐auxiliary ordering in Gusii, Kuria, Ngoreme, Suba-‐Simbi6 all host a (fossilised) focus marker on the infini6ve. 37) N-‐kó-‐ge-‐á n-‐áa-‐renge FOC-‐INF-‐harvest-‐past SM1stsg-‐PAST2/3-‐AUX.HAB ‘I was harves6ng.’ (Gusii, Whiteley 1959:34)
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Change in which direc6on? Contact-‐induced change could be proposed in a number of different contexts/direc6ons.
Is verb-‐auxiliary ordering in Rangi and Mbugwe the result of i) Contact with a common language? ii) Independent contact in the two languages? iii) Contact between predecessors of Rangi and Mbugwe and predecessor language of Southern Cushi6c? Does a contact account see transfer into Gusii from Luo and then from Gusii into the other Bantu languages? Or is it two (or more) instances of individual contact in each case? Does presence of this so-‐called ‘unusual’ word order in these six languages provide further support for a language-‐internal account? 45
What next? State of descrip6on of the languages differs: • Other tenses in which verb-‐auxiliary order is found? • ‘Inversion contexts’ in all languages? Addi6onal inversion
contexts? Other domains of linguis6c interference: • Iden6fica6on of instances of lexical borrowing? • Phonological interference: vowels and beyond? • Morphosyntax: New temporal dis6nc6ons, past/non-‐past
dis6nc6on vs degrees of past
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What next? Deeper understanding of historical, socio-‐linguis6c rela6ons and present-‐day situa6on: • (Changing) paherns of bi-‐ and mul6-‐lingualism • Alagwa/Burunge > Rangi • Levels of language endangerment across Tanzania -‐ increasing
pressure from Swahili
Do the two clusters have anything else in common except for language contact?
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The bigger picture All of this is done with a view to beher understanding the process of language change. Beher understanding of the interplay between language contact and gramma6calis6on. The way in which structural transfer (in these six languages) is delimited by universal constraints on processes of language change and gramma6calisa6on.
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References Cammenga, J. 2002. Phonology and Morphology of Ekegusii: A Bantu language of Kenya. Köln, Rüdiger Köppe Velag. Dempwolff, O. 1916. 'Beträger zur Kenntnis der Sprachen in Deutsch-‐Ostafrika -‐ Irangi.' ZeitschriG für Kolonial-‐Sprachen 7: 319–326. Dunham, M. 2005. Eléments de descrip/on du langi, langue Bantu F.33 de Tanzanie. Louvain-‐Paris-‐Dudley MA, Peeters. Gibson, H. 2013. 'Auxiliary placement in Rangi: A case of contact-‐induced change?' SOAS working papers in linguis/cs 16: 153-‐166. Gibson, H. and V. Wilhelmsen. 2015 Cycles of nega6on in Rangi and Mbugwe SOAS, University of London and Uppsala University. Greenberg, J. H. 1963. 'Some universals of grammar with par6cular reference to the order of meaningful elements'. In: Universals of Language. J. H. Greenberg (ed.) Cambridge, MA, MIT Press: 73-‐113. Kießling, R., M. Mous and D. Nurse. 2007. 'The Tanzanian RiY Valley area'. In: A Linguis/c Geography of Africa. B. Heine and D. Nurse (ed.) Cambridge, Cambridge University Press: 186–227.
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References II Kuteva, T. and B. Heine. 2002. World Lexicon of Gramma/caliza/on. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. Mous, M. 1993. A grammar of Iraqw. Hamburg, Helmut Buske. Mous, M. 2000. 'Counter-‐universal rise of infini6ve-‐auxiliary order in Mbugwe (Tanzania, Bantu, F34.)'. In: Mehr als nur Worte... : afrikanis/sche Beiträge zum 65. Geburtstag von Franz Ro^land R. Vossen, Angelika Mietzner, Antje Meissner (ed.) Köln, Köppe. Mous, M. 2001. 'Basic Alagwa syntax'. In: New Data and New Methods in Afroasia/c Linguis/cs: Robert Hetrzon, in Memoriam A. Zaborski (ed.) Wiesbaden, Harrassowitz: 125–135. Mous, M. 2004. A gramma/cal sketch of Mbugwe : Bantu F34, Tanzania. Köln Köppe. Nurse, D. 2000. 'Diachronic morphosyntac6c change in Western Tanzania'. In: Mehr als nur Worte... : afrikanis/sche Beiträge zum 65. Geburtstag von Franz Ro^land. R. Vossen, A. Mietzner and A. Meissner (ed.) Köln, Köppe: 517–534. Nurse, D. 2006. 'The Emergence of Tense in Early Bantu'. 37th Annual Conference on African Linguis6cs, University of Oregon, Cascadilla Proceedings Project, Somerville, MA. Sommer, G. 1992. 'A survey of language death in Africa'. In: Language death. Factual and theore/cal explora/ons with special reference to East Africa. M. e. Brenzinger (ed.) Berlin & New York, Mouton de Gruyter: 301-‐417. Stegen, O. 2002. 'Deriva6onal processes in Rangi.' Studies in African Linguis/cs 31(1/2): 129-‐153. 50
