User:Jczhu/arapaho

Arapaho is an Algic language currently spoken in Wyoming and Oklahoma. In Wyoming, on the Wind River Reservation, the variant Northern Arapaho is spoken, while Southern Arapaho is spoken in Oklahoma. Arapaho is a level 6b (Threatened) language with approximately 1,000 speakers in 2007.

After World War 2, Northern Arapaho tribe tended to use English, not Arapaho, when raising their children. However, Arapaho speakers within the tribe still primarily speak Arapaho amongst each other. The Northern Arapaho additionally have had relatively less intermingling with other tribes and non-Native Americans compared to the Southern Arapaho who live amongst a predominantly non-Native American population.

Northern Arapaho are aware of the loss of the language and have made efforts to preserve the language, but most members of the tribe are not particularly passionate about learning the language as they aren’t sure what value/purpose there is in learning Arapaho. Southern Arapaho are generally less involved in language preservation, but there are individuals that are striving to preserve/document the language.

Vowels
Arapaho has 4 basic vowels, each with a lengthened, contrastive counterpart. When lengthened, the vowels change in ways other than duration. For instance, /ii/ sounds similar to [i], where the brackets (just as in the table below) denote the IPA equivalent. The vowels can further be combined into three main diphthongs, /ei/, /ou/, /oe/, and the marginal /ie/, which each also have a lengthened, contrastive counterpart that lengthens the second vowel. For example, hou ('blanket') versus houu ('crow').

All vowels additionally have pitch accents: high or normal. For a cluster of vowels, namely for long vowels and diphthongs, a falling pitch accent (from high to normal) can also occur.

Consonants
The consonants in Arapaho are in the table below. Again, the brackets denote the IPA equivalent if it differs. The glottal consonants appear less pervasively word-initially. The glottal stop /'/ only occurs at the start of a subset of particles and the glottal fricative /h/ only is pronounced initially before an underlying vowel-initial word as vowel-initial words do not occur in Arapaho.

Syllable Structures
Syllables tend to have the structure CV(C), where final consonant, if it is present, is either a single consonant, or /hC/.

Vowel-initial, onset-less syllables, however, can occur due to partitioning of vowel clusters. An example of partitioning a cluster of 3 identical vowels into syllables is ní.ii.non ('tepee'). The vowel cluster is not always split into short followed by long vowel; the location of the partition depends on Arapaho's complex pitch accent system. For example, another word with a sequence of 3 vowels, but with a different partitioning of vowels into syllables is hóo.ó ('bed').

However, sometimes the vowel cluster does not divide and the whole cluster becomes the nucleus of the syllable. One example is hi.héio ('his/her aunt (obviative)').

Morphology
Arapaho is polysynthetic; verbs in particular take multiple morphemes. Arapaho has multiple fusional morphemes, a mixture of prefixes and suffixes, and both inflectional and derivational affixes.

Animacy
Nouns in Arapaho come in two classes: animate and inanimate. Which category a noun belongs to is part of the lexicon. Being animate does not necessitate “aliveness” (but aliveness does mean animate): doors, planets, ghosts, etc. are considered animate. Some nouns can also be both animate and inanimate, but in these situations, the animate version is more “active” (e.g. a log is inanimate, but a rolling log is animate).

Obviation
Animate nouns can be made obviative or proximate.

When the underlying noun is consonant final, two general patterns can occur. One pattern occurs for the class of nouns that have /ii/ or /uu/ (depending on vowel harmony) as their plural marker. These nouns reuse the plural marker to mark obviative singular and both obviative and proximate plural. For example, /iwoxuuh/, a stem meaning 'elk,' is hiwóxuu in the proximate singular, but becomes hiwóxuuh-uu in obviative singular, proximate plural, and obviative plural.

The other pattern occurs for most other consonant final noun stems and is summarized in the table below. C denotes the final consonant and the bracketed [C] denotes either consonant mutation of C or deletion of some number of stem-final phonemes. /siisiik/ is 'duck'. There are a class of nouns for which the obviative singular undergoes inflection pattern [C]-o, matching the proximate before suffixing with an /o/. /nooku/ is 'rabbit'. For vowel-final stems, the general pattern is a variation of the first consonant final pattern. Namely, a single marker is used to mark all plural forms and the obviative singular form. For example, /ote/, a stem meaning 'sheep, bighorn sheep,' becomes hóte-’ in proximate singular but hóte-ii in both plural forms and the obviative singular.

Verb categorization
Verbs are divided into classes depending on transitivity and animacy of their subject (if intransitive) or object (if transitive). Transitivity of a verb affects how many arguments are affixed to the verb. Notice in the examples below the usage of the transitive form requires the addition of INAN, the inanimate marker for the object (the shoes). Verbal inflection also depends on "orders" like imperative.

 Intransitive, Animate Subject (AI) 

otoonee-noo wo’ohn-o

IC.buy(AI)-1S shoe-PL

'I am buying shoes.'/'I am shopping for shoes.'

 Transitive, Inanimate Object (TI)  otoonoot-o-woo wo’ohn-o

IC.buy(TI)-INAN-1S shoe-PL

'I am buying [these] shoes.'

Initial Change
Initial change (IC) can mark tense and aspect (in particular, "present tense and ongoing aspect or present perfect aspect") under affirmative and conjunct orders. Differing phonological changes occur depending on the first vowel of the stem. If the vowel is short, it is lengthened. For example, be’éé- 'to be red' becomes bee’éé’ 'it is red'. Otherwise, an infix is placed before the first vowel. The infix is either /en/ or /on/ and is determined based on harmonizing with the long vowel. For example, hoowúsee- ('to walk downward') becomes honoowúseenoo ('I am walking downward').

If the first vowel is short and is followed by an /h/, some speakers treat the /h/ as a vowel and use the infix /en/ or /on/ to mark initial change. Other speakers treat the /h/ as a consonant and perform the vowel lengthening process instead.

An irregular form of initial change affects some vowel-initial preverbs by appending an /n/ before the first vowel, rather than the ordinary /h/ that would be prepended to avoid a vowel-initial word. For example, the imperfective /ii/ morpheme becomes nii- instead of the expected hii- when prefixing verbs that would undergo initial change.

Agreement
In sentences with an explicit noun, separate from the verb, the verb agrees with the noun in terms of animacy, number, and whether the noun is proximate or obviative. The grammatical category, including person, of the noun also needs to agree with the noun. Note that the categories of subject and object do not affect agreement inflection. As an example of agreement, the verb for "to fall" has a form that takes an animate subject, nihtééscenísi , and a form that takes an inanimate subject, nihtéésceníse'’.

If a verb has a single noun argument that is composed of two different types of noun, most speakers default to the obviative (over proximate) and inanimate (over animate) forms to refer to the composite noun argument in case of conflict. This can be seen in the example below where 'walk' takes an argument that is composed of a composite proximate and obviative noun. Both nouns are animate, but there is conflict regarding proximate or obviative. The verb thus defaults to the obviative plural (4PL).

ne-si[h] noh i-betebihew-o cebisee-ni3i

1S-uncle(PROX) and 3S-wife-OBV IC.walk(AI)-4PL

'My uncle and his wife are walking by.'

Nouns
Arapaho has a number of derivational affixes and processes. Some operate on nouns to form verb-like clauses. For example, the morpheme /tohúút/ can prefix a noun to ask 'what kind of '. A specific example is hoséíno’ ('meat') when prefixed becomes tohúút-oséíno’ ('What kind of meat is this?')

Verbs
Derivational morphology on verbs can be grouped into abstract and concrete. Abstract morphemes mark the transitivity and the animacy of subject/object for the verb. For example, the basic root /be'/ "red" can be marked with abstract morphemes as follows


 * 1) /be'-ee/ "to be red," intransitive and takes an inanimate subject
 * 2) /be'-eihi/ "to be red," intransitive and takes an animate subject

Concrete morphemes tend to add three types of meanings to the verb


 * 1) patients and undergoers; attach particularly common nouns after a verb with a transitive meaning to give it an object, resulting in an intransitive verb
 * 2) *Example: to add /-oox-/ "wood" as an object, transform it to /-ooxu-/ before appending to verb such as /no’ooxu-/ ('haul wood here') and /cowooxu-/ ('haul wood along')
 * 3) topics concerning nouns that lack volition; examples include body parts, weather and nature, sensations
 * 4) *Example: the underlying noun be-sonon ('neck') becomes /-isono-/ before attaching to a verb such as /enisono-/ ('have a long neck')
 * 5) methods of achieving action; examples include tools, means of transportation, non-manmade forces such as wind
 * 6) *Example: /-see/ ('walking') can be added to create an AI (animate subject, intransitive) verb such as no’usee- ('to arrive on foot') and oowusee- ('to descend on foot')

Reduplication
Reduplication is prefixal and is formed by taking the first consonant (if there is one) and the first vowel and then adding /:n/, where the colon indicates that the preceding vowel is elongated. The /n/ is deleted in the presence of a subsequent consonant. For example, cebísee- ('to walk past') after reduplication becomes cée[n]cebísee- ('to walk back and forth past').

There are multiple usages of reduplication in Arapaho including pluralizing implied, secondary, and inanimate objects of (di)transitive verbs; indicating repeating and habitual action (extend the space and time a verb occurs in general), and intensifying. One example of marking repeating action is as follows

toon-to’oot-owoo

IC.REDUP-hit(TI)-1S

'I am hitting it (over and over).'

There can be multiple reduplications in compound words, where each reduplication can have an independent effect. Some verbs appear to be only in a reduplicated form; these verbs tend to describe repeating, iterative action.

Syntax
Arapaho has no canonical word order. Some sentences/clauses consist of only the verb like below

ihoowu-entootiin-i

{NEG-be present(AI.PART)-II.IMPERS}

'No one is home.'

Single Noun Phrase
When a sentence contains a verb and a single noun phrase, the noun phrase can either prepose or postpose the verb. Preposing the noun phrase, however, gives it more importance and salience. Some instances noun phrases are preposed include introducing a new referent (or reintroducing one that was inactive) and creating contrast.

 V-NP order  

i’i-bebiisitii-t kohuyohoen-i

IC.INSTR(PREVERB)-fix(AI)-3S glue-S

'He is fixing it with glue.'

 NP-V order   (additional context: a new referent, "stone monuments," is being introduced) 3i’eyoon-o’ nih-bi’i-eenentoo-3i’

{stone monument-PL} {PAST-only-REDUP.be located(AI)-3PL}

'There were just some stone monuments located there.' [O :Woman Captive, 4]

Two Noun Phrases
For a basic sentence with a single verb that takes two noun phrases as arguments, all orderings are possible, but having the verb final is less common.

 Example of NP + NP + V  (additional context: occurs under "contrastive focus")oo3oo’o’ tece’-ii nih-e’in-o’u

some night-PL PAST-know(TI)-3PL

'Some knew the nighttime' [O :Eagles, 93]

Saliency
Saliency determines whether a noun phrase can precede its corresponding verb. Noun phrases are deemed salient if they are referring to something new, something that is being reintroduced, something contrastive, or something that is being emphasized.

 Preposed NP  (here, the noun phrase meaning "where the attack was taking place" preposes the verb "see" to create emphasis)

eetoh-bisiitooni-’ noonoohoot-o’u te’iyoonehe’-o’ isein-o’

where-attack.PART.IMPERS-0S see.REDUP(TI)-3PL child-PL woman-PL

'Women and children watched where the attack was taking place.' [O :Scouts, 70]

Noun Phrase Hierarchy
Additionally, a hierarchy exists in determining which noun phrase goes in which position. In the listing below, the first in the pair is treated as "higher" in the hierarchy and tends therefore to be the leftmost NP.


 * subject (object)
 * proximate (obviative)
 * actor (undergoer)
 * marked object (unmarked object)
 * animate (inanimate)

 Subject-verb-object order  

e’iiteihi3i eebeh-notinoohoot niiteheibetiiton-i

someone {POTENT-look for(TI)} help(AI.PART)-S

'Someone might be looking for help.' [O :Scouts, 64]

 Verb-subject-(implied) object order  

e’ih-ii-xooxookusee-nino nuhu’ o3-ii niine’ee-no ii3einoon-[in]

{NPAST-IMPERF-REDUP.go through(AI)-4PL} this arrow-PL {here is-PL.OBV?} buffalo-OBV.PL

'Their arrows went right through the buffalos.' [O :Scouts, 60]

Modifying Nouns
Generally, noun modifiers occur before the noun. These modifiers additionally tend to occur in a particular order relative each other. For example, in the example below, note that the presentative 'here is' occurs before the demonstrative 'this'

’oh owoo niiyou-no nihii nuhu’ nihii yookox-ii

but also {here is-PL} well this well willow-PL

'And then there are these, well. . . these, well. . . willows.' [O :Apache Captive, 7]

Particles and Verb Stems
Some particles are more closely linked to verbs; these particles generally prepose the verb and are often neighboring the corresponding verb.

 Particle expressing potential  nooxeihi’ esowobeihi-t

maybe {IC.be sick(AI)-3S}

'Maybe he’s sick.'

 Particle expressing recent past  teebe nih-no’usee-t

{just now} PAST-arrive(AI)-3S

'He just now arrived.'

Adverbials
Adverbials are a type of particle. Unlike other particles in Arapaho, however, they are not a closed class and are instead derived from or compose of other morphemes. One purpose of adverbial construction is to emphasize a morpheme by extracting it from a verb and having it stand alone. Another purpose is to convey meaning outside of what can normally be attached to a verb.

Adverbials are constructed by appending /iihi'/ (which can become /uuhu'/ after vowel harmony) to the end of the root.

A common usage of adverbials is to modify verbs. Adverbials can also act like prepositions and modify noun phrases; such adverbials can occur before or after the noun phrase and are thus exceptions to the rule that nominal modifiers prepose the noun (see example below).

nih-ii-cebeso’on-oono’ sosoni’-ii neeyou ohe’en-i’ niih-iihi’ nih-ii-3i’

PAST-IMPERF-chase(TA)-12/3 Shoshone-PL {there it is} mountain-LOC along-ADV PAST-say(AI)-3PL

'“We were chasing the Shoshones along the mountain there,” they said.' [O :Shade Trees, 15]