Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2013

Keywords

Morphological typology, Areal traits, Proto-Yeniseian, Inherited traits, Metathesis, Reanalysis

Abstract

This article provides and overview of key morphological traits in Ket and other Yeniseian languages (Kott, Yugh). It first identifies and describes several key features inherited from Proto-Yeniseian (polysynthetic prefixing verb structure, possessive prefixes, phonemic tones). Next it discusses other features that arose or were influence areally by prolonged contact with the surrounding suffixal agglutinating languages (case suffix systems, encliticization of possessive prefixes, repositioning of the finite verb’s semantic head toward the verb word’s leftmost edge). Finally, five morphological features are considered that appear to be anomalous from a typological perspective as they cannot be shown to have been inherited from Proto-Yeniseian in their present functions yet also cannot have arisen through language contact. The features in question are: thematic consonants occupying verb agreement slots, seemingly redundant plural suffixes on verbs, sporadic plural agreement suffixes on adjectives, sporadic pluractional markers on infinitives, and irregular ablaut noun plural formation). Each of these traits is shown to have arisen due to metathesis between originally labial and non-labial segments. In some cases, the metathesis triggered secondary morphological reanalysis, as when original adjectival or infinitival derivational suffixes were reinterpreted as plural or pluractional markers due to homonymy with a common noun plural suffix, or when an original thematic consonant in verbs was reinterpreted as the homonymous inanimateclass agreement marker when it metathesized into that marker’s morpheme position.

Publication Title

Tomsk Journal of Linguistics and Anthropology

Volume

1

Issue

1

First Page

14

Last Page

16

Required Publisher's Statement

© 2016 Tomsk Journal of Linguistics and Anthropology

Comments

The journal was founded in 2013 by Tomsk State Pedagogical University.

Subjects - Topical (LCSH)

Yeniseian languages--Morphology; Languages in contact; Ket language; Siberia (Russia)--Languages--Grammar, Comparative

Geographic Coverage

Siberia (Russia)

Genre/Form

essays

Type

Text

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License

Language

English

Format

application/pdf

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