draft manuscript - Linguistics - University of California, Berkeley

(2.39) ene yumiaw1RaRaSi ta, Roaya [uya]w1R1 tayum1RataRi ene.
ene yumiaw1Ra =RaSi ta Roaya uyaw1R1 ta= yum1Ra -ta =aRi ene
2sg help =nass 1sg.ms neg again 1sg.ms= get.angry -caus =impf 2sg
‘If you help me, I will not anger you again.’
(example (7.4))
The form of the clausal negator in the Jesuit texts is unexpected in light of extant reconstructions
of Proto-Tupí-Guaraní and the modern language. Proto-Tupí-Guaraní exhibits **Ruã (Jensen
1998:547) and the modern language Rua. In fast speech, synchronic Rua frequently surfaces phonetically
as ["Roa] as a result of assimilation, a phenomenon which presumably explains the presence of o
in Old Omagua Roaya. We posit that the form Roaya is a result of the freezing of a morphologically
complex negating stem consisting of what Jensen (1998:545-549) analyzes as an adverbial negator
**Ruã and a suffix **-i, which elsewhere co-occurs with a prefix **n(a)- ∼ **ni- to negate verbal
predicates (see O’Hagan (2011:112-114)). In this scenario, Old Omagua Roaya (which was most
likely underlyingly Ruaya) reduced to Rua, although it is noteworthy that Roaya is recorded as late
as the 1840s by the French explorer Paul Marcoy (aka Laurent Saint-Cricq) in the Omagua of São
Paulo de Olivença (Amazon River), Brazil (Marcoy 1875). 76
2.3.4.2 Core Negator -s1ma
The core negator derives a stem meaning ‘not X’, where X is some property. The form has fallen
out of the modern language and is not attested in Kokama-Kokamilla (although the latter shares
a cognate in its clausal negator t1ma). Within the Jesuit texts, it is only attested on the adjective
eRa, as in (2.40), and derives a meaning of ‘evil’ from ‘good’. 77
(2.40) yene RasaSitaRaSi, yeneeRas1mamaikanasui yene Rausuepetasenuni, 1watimai Ritamakati yene
RayawaSimatasenuni weRanu.
yene Ra= saSita =RaSi yene= eRa -s1ma =mai =kana
1pl.incl 3sg.ms= love =nass 1pl.incl= good -core.neg =inact.nomz =pl.ms
=sui yene Ra= usuepe -ta =senuni 1wati =mai Ritama =kati
=abl 1pl.incl 3sg.ms= escape -caus =purp be.high.up =inact.nomz village =loc
yene Ra= yawaSima -ta =senuni weRanu
1pl.incl 3sg.ms= arrive -caus =purp coord
‘Since he loves us, in order to save us from our evils and take us to Heaven.
(example (5.12b))
2.3.4.3 Privative =1ma
The privative =1ma derives a stative predicate meaning ‘lacking/without X’, where X is a noun, as
in (2.41), where it occurs on the derived nominal eRas1mamaiwasu ‘great evil’. We analyze it as a
76 The first monographic edition of the work documenting Marcoy’s travels in South America appeared in 1869,
although it had been published serially in Paris between 1862 and 1867 in Le Tour du Monde. The first English
edition appeared in 1873 (see bibliographic references in Chaumeil (2001)).
77 Two Old Omagua roots eRa ‘good’ and ayaise ‘wicked’ may function attributively without additional morphological
marking, i.e., they function as true adjectives. Synchronically, all “attributive adjectives” are nominalized stative
verbs, including the reflexes of these two forms IRa ‘be good’ and aisI ‘be wicked’. All other nominal modifiers in
Old Omagua appear to be stative verbs that require nominalization to function attributively (e.g., nua ‘be big’).
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