draft manuscript - Linguistics - University of California, Berkeley

Table 2.16: Order of Modern Omagua Prenominal Modifiers
quant dem num poss= noun
The quantifiers upa, upai and amua are attested in Old Omagua. The distribution of upa ‘all’
and upai ‘every’ is widespread, i.e., upai is not limited to a small number of frozen expressions
(see footnote 70). This evidence, in combination with that from Kokama-Kokamilla, leads us to
reconstruct Proto-Omagua-Kokama *upa ‘all’ and *upai ‘every’. Under this account, *upai > upi
in Kokama-Kokamilla (following expected monophthongization processes (O’Hagan and Wauters
2012)) and came to semantically encomopass upa ‘all’, pushing it out altogether. In Omagua, the
opposite process occurred, wherein *upa ‘all’ came to semantically encompass upai ‘every’, nearly
pushing out the latter except for the small set of frozen expressions described above.
2.3.2.2 Noun-Noun Modification
Nouns may be modified by another noun, in which case the head follows the modifier, as in (2.36).
(2.36) uyaw1R1 RauRiaRi aikiaRa tuyuka Ritama upapupekatu.
uyaw1R1
again
Ra= uRi =aRi aikiaRa tuyuka Ritama upa =pupekatu
3sg.ms= come =impf dem.prox.ms land village end =temp.ovrlp
‘He will come again when the Earth ends.’
(example (6.23b))
A frequent use of noun-noun modification in modern Omagua is in the derivation of male and
female terms for animal names that either lack a gender distinction or are specific to the opposite
gender, e.g., yapIsaRa ‘man’, atawaRi ‘hen’, but yapIsaRa atawaRi ‘rooster’.
2.3.2.3 Modification via Nominalization of Stative Verb
Nouns may be modified by a nominalized stative verb, as shown in (2.37). In the Old Omagua texts,
nominalized stative verbs typically precede their head, although in modern Omagua the distribution
is the opposite.
(2.37) 1watimai Ritamakate Rausu 1m1nua.
1wati =mai Ritama =kate Ra= usu 1m1nua
be.high.up =inact.nomz village =all 3sg.ms= go long.ago
‘He went to Heaven.’
(example (6.19b))
Interestingly, two Old Omagua roots appear to function as adjectives, i.e., they modify nouns
without additional derivation, in which function they are only attested prenominally. These are eRa
‘good’ and ayaise ‘wicked’ (recruited by Jesuit authors to convey notions of ‘bad’ and ‘evil’ (see
footnote 146)), the former shown in (2.38). In modern Omagua, the reflexes of these forms, IRa and
aisI, are stative verbs that must be nominalized in order to modify a noun.
(2.38) upakatu yenesawakai upai ayaise yeneyaw1k1maipuRakana weRanu Rakumesasenuni RauRiaRi.
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