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Tense in Gyeli Nadine Borchardt, Humboldt Universität zu Berlin nadineborchardt@gmail.com Bantu languages typically have rich tense systems (Dahl 1985, Nurse 2008). For instance, the vast majority of Bantu languages make multiple time divisions in the past tense (Nurse 2008). A second common characteristic is that Bantu languages mark tense via inflectional morphology, often with corresponding tone changes especially in northwestern Bantu languages. This talk investigates Gyeli, an exception to both these characteristics. Gyeli is a Bantu A80 language spoken by “Pygmy” hunter-gat<strong>here</strong>rs in southern Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea whose tense system is remarkable for its minimality in terms of tense distinctions made and morphological material. The Gyeli system contrasts both with closely related/neighboring farmer languages, which have fuller tense systems, and with other known languages which have reduced tense systems, in that they are vehicular languages (Nurse 2008: 22). Language Situation: Gyeli is an endangered and under-described language that is currently being documented. Data used in this paper stem mainly from my own fieldwork since previously published literature on Gyeli (Renaud 1976) is very limited and does not consider the verbal system at all. The hunting and gathering Gyeli speakers are in close contact with various groups of Bantu farmers. Due to increasing sedentarization and adoption to a farming lifestyle, the Bagyeli are currently shifting to their neighboring farmer languages. Reduced Tense Distinctions: While the other (farmer) languages of the area usually display three distinctions for past tense and two for future, Gyeli only possesses three tenses altogether: present, past and future without any further distinctions as to temporal proximity (e.g. recent vs. far past). Also, the tense systems of neighboring languages (see Hyman (2003) for Basaa and Alexandre (1955) for Bulu) and of closely related languages (see Ngue Um (2002) for Mvoumbo, Heath (1991) for Makaa, and Beavon (1991) for Koozime) mark tense by inflectional morphemes while Gyeli expresses tense distinctions only tonally as illustrated in (1) through (3). (1) mɛ́ djìì (2) mɛ̀ djìí (3) mɛ́ɛ́ djíì 1S.PRES open.PRES 1S.PST open.PST 1S.FUT open.FUT 'I open' 'I opened' 'I will open' Expression of Tense: Gyeli verb roots are either mono- or bisyllabic and are preceded by subject pronouns. The marking of tense affects the tonal pattern of both the subject pronoun and the verb root. In my analysis within the autosegmental and metrical approach, I show that in the present tense a floating H tone attaches leftwards to the underlyingly L subject pronoun if the verb stem has an initial L tone as in (1). If the stem initial tone is H, the floating H attaches rightwards and does not surface. In the past tense, the last L mora of the verb stem receives a H tone as in (2). If the last mora of a bisyllabic verb stem is already H, the H spreads leftwards. Finally, in the future tense, another mora is added to the subject pronoun as shown in (3). This second mora receives its vowel and tone specifications from the first mora. At the same time, the verb stem usually takes a HL for monosyllabic and a H L tonal pattern for bisyllabic verb roots. Broader Outlook: While Nurse explains other reduced tense systems on the grounds that they are vehicular languages, this is not the case for Gyeli. Instead, I address the question whether 'Pygmy' languages are systematically different from farmer languages. The findings about the Gyeli tense system provide evidence in favor of this often informally made assumption and add important information to the scarce literature on this issue. References: Alexandre, P. 1955. Manuel élémentaire de langue bulu. CHEAM. Beavon, K. 1991. Koozime verbal structure. In Tense and Aspect in Eight Languages of Cameroon, SIL. Dahl, Ö. 1985. Tense and Aspect Systems. Blackwell. Heath, D. 1991. Tense and Aspect in Makaa. In Tense and Aspect in Eight Languages of Cameroon, SIL. Hyman, L. 2003. Basaa (A43). The Bantu languages, Routledge. Ngue Um, E. 2002. Morphologie verbale du mvoumbo, Université de Yaoundé I. Ngue Um, E. 2011. Sketch grammar GS
of Bakola. Unpublished Ms. Nurse, D. 2008. Tense and Aspect in Bantu, OUP. Renaud, P. 1976. Le Bajeli. Phonologie, morphologie nominale, ALCAM. GS
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