draft manuscript - Linguistics - University of California, Berkeley

patiRi =k1Ra usu
priest =dim go
‘Is the priest going?’
(example (8.10))
Cognates of augmentative =wasu are attested in other Tupí-Guaraní languages, such as Tapiete
-wasu (González 2005), and Tupinambá -gûasu ∼ -usu (Lemos Barbosa 1956) (see Michael et al. (in
prep) for further discussion). The diminutive, however appears to have been an innovation in Proto-
Omagua-Kokama, since we do not find cognates in other Tupí-Guaraní, and Jensen (1998:508) has
reconstructed the Proto-Tupí-Guaraní diminutive to have been *-Pí. It is probably grammaticalized
from the verb 1k1Ra ‘be unripe, young’, as in 1k1ramai ‘infant’.
2.2.2.3 Nominal Past Tense =puRa
The nominal enclitic =puRa expresses nominal past tense, approximately parallel to the use of
‘former’ in the English expression ‘former teacher’. The nominal past tense marker occurrs between
the augmentative or diminutive and plural markers, as evident in (2.6). In all but one example in
the Old Omagua texts, (5.8b), =puRa attaches to the inactive nominalizer =mai, as in (2.6).
(2.6) Dios yaw1k1maipuRakana puRai Ranu.
Dios yaw1k1 =mai =puRa =kana puRai Ranu
God make =inact.nomz =nom.pst =pl.ms contr.foc 3pl.ms
‘They are God’s creations.’
(example (5.6b))
With the exception of two frozen forms, =puRa does not surface as a nominal past tense marker
in modern Omagua. These forms are kuupuRa ‘second-growth forest’ 26 and SiRupuRa ‘rag’. 27 Nevertheless,
it is clear that Proto-Omagua-Kokama *=puRa had nominal past tense semantics, given the
existence of cognates with similar semantics in a large number of other Tupí-Guaraní languages, including
Tupinambá (Lemos Barbosa 1956:100-104) (see Michael et al. (in prep) for further
discussion). 28
Modern Omagua additionally exhibits a clitic =puRa that marks focus following narrative peaks,
which appears to be related to the nominal past tense marker (see §2.3.8.1). Vallejos Yopán (2009,
2010a:679-713) describes a morpheme =puRa with information-structural functions which is presumably
cognate to the discourse-functional clitic in modern Omagua. The functional and distributional
differences between Omagua and Kokama-Kokamilla =puRa are important topics for future research
(see also §2.3.8.1).
2.2.2.4 Nominal Future Tense =Ra
The nominal enclitic =Ra expresses nominal future tense, and is shown in (2.7). 29
(2.7) ene putaRi, tene Rayaw1k1 muRa maiRamania 1watimai RitamakatemaiRai weRanu, aikiaRa
tuyuka Ritamakate weRanu.
26 That is, it more literally means ‘former swidden’, from kuu ‘swidden’.
27 That is, it more literally means ‘former shirt’, from SiRu ‘shirt’.
28 The morpheme is also attested in regional toponyms, such as the Paranapura River (paRana ‘river’ and =puRa
nom.pst), a tributary of the Huallaga in northeast Peru.
29 For additional commentary on this example, see §2.3.6.4.
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