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The T/K Languages: A New Substratum

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 January 2012

Extract

In a recent article, Westphal has drawn attention to two important points which are in danger of being forgotten in attempts at linguistic classification:

1. Phonetic and phonological, lexical, morphological, and other relationships may differ as between the languages being compared. ‘Thus if we say two languages are related, we usually mean something more specific, e.g. they are phonologically related, they are morphologically related, they are lexically related, etc.’

2. In attempting to determine ‘genetic’ relationship, we should be careful not to speak about any language as if there were always only one ‘parent’. Not only may there be more than one ‘ancient language’ involved, but these may have come into the ‘family tree’ at different historical periods, so that one language or group of languages may have evolved from the impingement of one or more other language types upon a substratum. Languages that are of mixed origin in this sense are probably more common than has been suspected, and it would be possible to classify any such language (or group) in a number of different ways according to the different criteria mentioned under (1) above. Even on the plane of lexical relationships, the recent discussions on the position of the ‘Nilo-Hamitic’ languages show that reasonable claims for the ‘Niloticism’ or ‘Hamiticism’ of these languages can be made, the point at issue resolving itself into a statistical one of percentages of words related to one or other of the two Larger Units, Nilotic and Hamitic.

Résumé

LES LANGUES T/K: UNE SUBSTRUCTION NOUVELLE

On avance ici l'hypothèse d'une substruction (‘la substruction T/K’) qui serait à la base d'un certain nombre de langues très divergentes dans leur état actuel. Leur parenté est morphologique; les affinités de lexique sont dans la plupart des cas sporadiques et peu concluantes.

Leurs principaux caractères communs sont les suivants: (a) l'emploi du morphème t comme particularisation (un affixe singulier ou singulatif, une particule déterminative, etc.); (b) l'emploi du morphème k pour dénoter le contraire de t. On devrait également noter que le morphème est fréquemment utilisé dans ces langues comme un élément du pluriel. On indique, pour l'emploi précité de t et de k, des exemples tirés du Kadugli-Krongo, du Temein, du Daju, du Fur, du groupe Tama, et du groupe Didinga-Murle.

L'emploi de t et de k en Bari ressemble beaucoup à celui qu'ils ont dans les langues précitées. En Nandi les ‘suffixes secondaires’ des substantifs sont: Sing, -t, Plur. -k. Les préfixes servant à distinguer les genres sont: Masc. kip-, Fem, cep- (on remarque également dans la langue cushitique l'emploi de k pour dénoter le masculin et le rapport de c à t).

Dans les langues cushitiques, il existe deux morphèmes t distincts: le t qui se rencontre dans toute la substruction T/K (*t) et le t du féminin hamito-sémitique (HS t). Ils sont tantôt distincts, tantôt confondus.

En Galla et en Sidamo, *t > c (particularisation), tandis que HS t reste t (avec la double fonction de féminin et de particularisation). c est donc relégué au masculin. De plus, il s'ensuit de l'opposition fondamentale de t et k, que le k se trouve également associé au masculin: c Masc: particularisation; k Masc: démonstratif, possessif, etc.; t Fém.: (a) particularisation, (b) démonstratif, possessif, etc.

En Somali, t représente à la fois *t et HS t. k, à l'origine contraire du t de particularisation, est devenu le contraire de t dans sa double fonction de féminin et de particularisation; il en réquite le phénomène dit de polarité. -k est Masc. dans son opposition à la fonction féminine de t; Plur. dans son opposition à la fonction Sing. de t, et puisque -k est le pluriel de -t (Fém.), -t se trouve également être le pluriel de -k (Masc.).

On ne peut pas prouver qu'une seule de ces langues soit ‘la langue T/K primitive’. Beaucoup des langues en question sont des langues complexes émanant de plusieurs ‘ancêtres’, connus et inconnus. Mais l'existence des facteurs inconnus est nécessairement admise pour expliquer les divergences entre des langues qui seraient autrement incompréhensibles. Par exemple, les langues Bari-Maasai-Nandi (‘nilo-hamitique’) se composent de la manière suivante: (a) la substruction T/K, (b) maints éléments nilotiques (de lexique pour la plupart), (c) quelques éléments cushitiques, (d) d'autres éléments, connus et inconnus; les langues cushitiques se composent de la manière suivante: (a) la substruction T/K, (b) un corpus principalement hamito-sémitique, à la fois morphologique et de lexique, y compris, entre autres, le même type de conjugaison de verbes, la distinction des genres par le changement de voyelle et le morphème t de genre féminin, (c) d'autres éléments inconnus qui varient selon les langues et/ou les groupes; les langues nilotiques ne se fondent pas sur la substruction T/K, bien qu'elles montrent des affinités de lexique avec non seulement les langues Bari-Maasai-Nandi, mais à un moindre degré avec d'autres langues ayant la substruction T/K.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 1959

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References

page 1 note 1 ‘On Linguistic Relationship’, Zaïre, May 1957.

page 1 note 2 Greenberg, Studies in African Linguistic Classification; Huntingford, , ‘The “Nilo-Hamitic” languages’, Southwestern J. Anthrop., 1956CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Hohenberger, , ‘Comparative Masai word list’, Africa, July 1956CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Greenberg, , ‘Nilotic, “Nilo-Hamitic” and HamitoSemitic: a reply’, Africa, October 1957CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Hohenberger, , ‘Some notes on Nilotic, “Nilo-Hamitic” and Hamito-Semitic, by Joseph H. Greenberg’, Africa, January 1958CrossRefGoogle Scholar; see also Meeussen, , ‘Hamietisch en Nilotisch’, Zaïre, March 1957Google Scholar, and Westphal, op. cit.

page 2 note 1 Either Prefix or Suffix according to language, grammatical context, &c.

page 2 note 2 Greenberg regards Plural n as a HAMITIC characteristic.

page 2 note 3 Stevenson, A Survey of the Phonetics and Grammatical Structure of the Nuba Mountain Languages.

page 3 note 1 There is Concord of a sort, but it is based on grammatical Gender and not on the Noun Class system.

page 3 note 2 Dental ţ and ç are distinct from alveolar t and d.

page 3 note 3 The symbol / is used to show Singular/Plural opposition, the symbol ∥ to show Masculine∥Feminine opposition throughout.

page 4 note 1 Stevenson, op. dt.

page 4 note 2 Dental ţ and ç are distinct from alveolar t and d.

page 5 note 1 Stevenson, manuscript notes.

page 6 note 1 Beaton, ‘Fur Grammar’ (MS.).

page 6 note 2 Stevenson, manuscript notes on TAMA; Lukas; ‘Die Sprache der Sungor in Wadai (aus Nachtigals Nachlass).’

page 7 note 1 -t, however, also occurs as a Plural Suffix, with corresponding Singular Suffix zero.

page 7 note 2 The use of this label by-passes the present controversy about the right name for the Larger Unit consisting of BARI, LOTUHO, the TESO Group, MAASAI and the NANDI Group.

page 8 note 1 See footnote 2 on p. I.

page 8 note 2 See especially SUK, under NANDI, p. 9.

page 8 note 3 Spagnolo, Bari Grammar.

page 9 note 1 Huntingford, , A manual of the Nandi latiguagt (cyclostyled, 1958)Google Scholar, from which all examples are taken.

page 9 note 2 Anaptictic d after n.

page 10 note 1 Cf. ‘witch’, above.

page 10 note 2 Examples from Tucker, personal communication.

page 10 note 3 With the Prefix denoting ‘Place’, kap-, we are not here concerned.

page 10 note 4 ‘The “Nilo-Hamitic” languages’.

page 10 note 5 On the correspondence of t and c, see pp. 14–15.

page 10 note 6 Huntingford, ‘The “Nilo-Hamitic” languages’.

page 10 note 7 ‘Les langues chamito-sémitiques’, in Meillet and Cohen, Les Langues du monde, 1924, and many subsequent works.

page 11 note 1 Greenberg's suggested name ‘Afroasiatic’ has the merit of avoiding the dichotomy between SEMITIC and non-SEMITIC, but is not adopted here, owing to its possible political overtones.

page 11 note 2 Called by Cernili ‘suffisso individuale’.

page 11 note 3 Leslau, , ‘Notes on Kambatta of southern Ethiopia’, Africa, October 1952.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

page 12 note 1 The combination of nasal with t in nomina agentis is reminiscent of BARI -nit.

page 12 note 2 The Masculine element b in BEDAWIE is unique in CUSHITIC. Klingenheben (‘Althamito semitische nominale Genusexponenten in heutigen Hamitensprachen’) describes it as an old Gender Suffix, occurring only after a vowel; he relates it to ANCIENT EGYPTIAN.

page 13 note 1 Moreno, Manuale di Sidamo. The names given to the Tenses are Moreno's.

page 13 note 2 ‘Die Präfix- und Suffixkonjugationen des Hamitosemitischen’.

page 14 note 1 Whereas HS t occurs throughout HAMITOSEMITIC, an opposition of t and k does not occur in any HAMITO-SEMITIC languages except CUSHITIC.

page 14 note 2 In NANDI, however, c is the sign of the Feminine, k of the Masculine (see p. Io).

page 14 note 3 The Particularizer appears to be used with Nouns denoting persons only; this includes tribal names (Andrzejewski, personal communication).

page 15 note 1 Note also distinction of Gender by vowel change (HAMITO-SEMITIC).

page 15 note 2 Note also distinction of Gender by vowel change.

page 16 note 1 It is so classed by Greenberg, but the points of resemblance are too few to warrant this classification.

page 16 note 2 For a fuller description of the Genders, see Whiteley, A Short Description of Item Categories in Iraqiw, from which all examples are taken.

page 16 note 3 Other HAMITO-SEMITIC features in the IRAQW Group are the 2nd Person morpheme t, used in Verb conjugation, and the 2nd Person Self-standing Pronoun containing the element k, with Gender distinction shown by vowel change.

page 17 note 1 Dyson-Hudson, MS. vocabulary.

page 17 note 2 See the articles referred to in footnote 2 on p. I.

page 18 note 1 See Bryan, ‘The verb in the Tama and Didinga language groups’ (in Lukas, J. [Ed.], Afrkanistische Studien, 1955).

page 18 note 2 In BARI-MAASAI-NANDI, many Nouns have a Prefix k-, which has no apparent significance.

page 18 note 3 Cp. NILOTIC, e.g. SHILLUK winy.

page 18 note 4 Cp. NYIMANG ami.

page 18 note 5 Cp. BAGIRMI bisi (but note also AMHARIC wu∫oo).

page 18 note 6 Cp. NILOTIC yli, yith.

page 18 note 7 In CUSHITIC, OMETO daŋgarsa, KAFFA daŋgiyo, but also SIDAMO danico, SAHO dakano.

page 18 note 8 Cp. NILOTIC waŋ.

page 18 note 9 Cp. NILOTIC mac.

page 19 note 1 Cp. NILOTIC luaŋ.

page 19 note 2 Cp. CUSHITIC, AGAU nan.

page 19 note 3 Cp. NILOTIC, DINKA kur, stone.

page 19 note 4 If -ţ is a Suffix incorporated into the Stem (see P.5).

page 19 note 5 Cf. NILOTIC thok, dh⊃k.

page 19 note 6 Cf. BONGO-BAGIRMI ŋgaŋ; DAI ŋgi; BUA Group, MANA nye, le.

page 19 note 7 Cf. NILOTIC lac.

page 20 note 1 Andrzejewski, personal communication.