draft manuscript - Linguistics - University of California, Berkeley

This morpheme has fallen out of the modern language, and instead there exist two strategies to
express similarity. In the first, the nominal enclitic =sana attaches to the noun functioning as the
standard of comparison, as in (2.51). 83
(2.51) Modern Omagua
maniaikua nIyumisaRika yapIsaRasana?
maniaikua
why
nI= yumisaRika yapIsaRa =sana
2sg= play man =sim
‘Why do you play like a man?’
(AHC:2011.07.07.1)
In the second strategy, the morphologically free element IntIRu appears between the two constituents
being compared, as in (2.52). The two strategies may also co-occur, as in (2.53).
(2.52) Modern Omagua
miSu sas1s1ma IntIRu yawaRawasu
miSu
cat
sas1s1ma IntIRu yawaRawasu
howl.redup 84 sim jaguar
‘The cat howls like a jaguar.’
(2.53) Modern Omagua
nIipuRaka jaula IntIRu gallinerosananani, nIyasaisInuni akia kaikana.
nI= ipuRaka jaula
2sg= make cage
kai =kana
monkey.sp. =pl.ms
IntIRu
sim
gallinero =sana =nani nI= yasai =sInuni akia
hen.house =sim =lim 2sg= trap =purp dem.prox.ms
‘You make a cage just like a hen house in order to trap these monkeys.’
(MCT:C2.S1)
Old Omagua =ya is cognate to Kokama-Kokamilla =yá, as in (2.54). It is unclear whether Old
Omagua =ya bore stress as in Kokama-Kokamilla. 85
(2.54) Modern Kokama-Kokamilla
ipiRawiRa mai ayray ukua. awayá ya tsapuyuRu.
ipiRawiRa mai ay =ray ukua. awa =yá ya tsapuyuRu
river.dolphin spirit already =spe go.around person =cmp 3sg.f whistle
‘It seems that the spirit of the dolphin just goes around. He whistles like a person.’
(Vallejos Yopán 2010a:291)
83 The morpheme =sana appears to be a grammaticalization from a free nominal that meant ‘shadow, reflection’, a
meaning that is still productive in Kokama-Kokamilla (Vallejos Yopán 2010a:444), which otherwise does not employ
a cognate to Omagua =sana in similative manner constructions.
84 Modern Omagua exhibits a small number of frozen reduplicated verb stems that reflect a formerly productive
pattern of reduplication of the first non-initial CV (O’Hagan 2011:91-93).
85 Nevertheless, the origin of final stress is likely attributable to an erstwhile nasal n, reported by Cabral (1995:350)
for Brazilian Kokama, in which the particles ya and yan differ along genderlect lines, with the latter uttered by
male speakers. Cabral does not discuss the stressability of these forms, and no gender distinction is reported for
this morpheme in Vallejos Yopán (2010a).
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