Maká is a Matacoan language spoken in Argentina and 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.[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/ is realised as a 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’ DEM:MASC sehe’ land 'this land' |
ne’ DEM:FEM naxkax tree 'this tree' |
na’ DEM:MASC nunax dog 'this (male) dog' |
ne’ DEM:FEM nunax dog 'this (female) dog' |
In the plural the gender distinction is neutralized, and the plural demonstrative is the same as the feminine singular:
ne’
these
sehe-l
land-PL
‘these lands’
ne’
these
naxkak-wi
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’
DEM:F
efu
woman
Ø-tux
A3-eat
ka’
INDEF:M
sehets.
fish
‘The woman eats fish.’ Unknown glossing abbreviation(s) (help);
Agreement with the possessor
Nouns agree with their possessor in person (Gerzenstein 1995:148):
y-exi’ 1S-mouth 'my mouth' |
Ø-exi’ 2-mouth 'your mouth' |
ł-exi’ 3-mouth 'his/her/their mouth' |
in-exi’ 1PL:INCL-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’
DEM:F
efu
woman
ni-xele-ex
A3-throw-with
ke’
INDEF:MASC
ute
rock
na’
DEM:M
nunax.
dog
‘The woman threw a rock at the dog.’ Unknown glossing abbreviation(s) (help);
H-osxey-i-m
A1-grill-P3-for
na’
DEM:M
sehets
fish
na’
DEM:M
k’utsaX
old:man
‘I grill fish for the old man.’ Unknown glossing abbreviation(s) (help);
Syntax
Noun phrases
In noun phrases, the possessor precedes the possessed noun (Gerzenstein 1995:155):
e-li-ts
2-child-PL
łe-xiła’
3-head
'your children’s head'
Noun phrases show the order (Demonstrative) (Numeral) (Adjective) N (Gerzenstein 1995:154):
Ne’
DEM:FEM
efu
woman
t-aqhay-ets
S3-buy-toward
ne’
DEM:PL
ikwetxuł
four
fo’
white
tiptip-its
horse=PL
’The woman bought four white horses.’ Unknown glossing abbreviation(s) (help);
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’
DEM:F
efu
woman
ni-xele-ex
A3-throw-with
ke’
INDEF:MASC
ute
rock
na’
DEM:M
nunax.
dog
‘The woman threw a rock at the dog.’ Unknown glossing abbreviation(s) (help);
For intransitive clauses, the basic order is verb-subject (Gerzenstein 1995:106):
Wapi
rest
ne'
DEM:F
efu.
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
Q
y-eqfemet-en
A3-injure-CAUS
na'
DEM:M
k’utsaX
old:man
na'
DEM:M
xukhew?
man
‘Did the old man injure the man?’ Unknown glossing abbreviation(s) (help);
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
what
pa'
DEM:M
tux
eat
na'
DEM:M
xukhew?
old:man
‘What did the old man eat?’
References
- ^ Maká at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
- ^ Herzfeld, Anita; Lastra, Yolanda (1999). Las Causas sociales de la desaparición y del mantenimiento de las lenguas en las naciones de América: trabajos presentados en el 49avo Congreso Internacional de Americanistas, Quito, Ecuador, julio 7-11, 1997 (in Spanish). USON. ISBN 978-968-7713-70-0.
- ^ 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)
| Authority control databases: National |
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This page was last edited on 30 October 2023, at 07:07