draft manuscript - Linguistics - University of California, Berkeley

‘Of these three people, which became man?
(example (5.11a))
Plural-marking is also one of the areas in the grammar that exhibits a genderlect difference,
with =kana being the masculine genderlect form, and =na being the feminine one. As noted in
§2.2.1.1, however, the Old Omagua texts are written entirely in the masculine genderlect.
2.2.2.2 Augmentative & Diminutive
Old Omagua exhibited both augmentative and a diminutive morphemes, which are retained in the
modern language without any change to their form. Both are NP clitics in modern Omagua, and
we infer that they likewise were in Old Omagua.
The augmentative =wasu expresses that the referent denoted by the NP is of greater than normal
size or that one or more of its attributes is of greater than normal intensity, effectiveness, or scope.
This sense is exemplified in (2.3), where the augmentative attaches to the noun yara ‘master’ in
reference to the Christian god.
(2.3) 1watimai Ritama, aikiaRa tuyuka Ritama, upakatu maRainkana, yaw1k1taRa yaRawasu Dios
muRa.
1wati =mai Ritama aikiaRa tuyuka
be.high.up =inact.nomz village dem.prox.ms land
=kana yaw1k1 -taRa yaRa =wasu Dios muRa
=pl.ms make -act.nomz master =aug God 3sg.ms
Ritama
village
upa
all
‘God is the Creator of Heaven, Earth, and all things, the great Lord.’
(example (6.2b))
=katu maRain
=intsf thing
The augmentative is also attested in a quite different context, where it attaches to the interrogative
word mania ‘how’, and appears to indicate that the information presupposed by the question
runs counter to expectations, as in (2.4). The attachment of the augmentative =wasu to an interrogative
word is not attested in the modern language, but is in Kokama-Kokamilla (e.g., see Vallejos
Yopán (2010a:505)).
(2.4) maniawasu jesucristo DiosRaSi Raumanu 1m1nua?
mania
how
=wasu
=aug
jesucristo Dios =RaSi Ra= umanu 1m1nua
Jesus.Christ God =nass 3sg.ms= die long.ago
‘How did Jesus Christ, being God, die?’
(example (6.17a))
The diminutive =k1Ra expresses either the positive affect on the part of the speaker toward the
referent, that the referent denoted is smaller than normal, or both. It is attested only once in the
Old Omagua texts, in a passage from Uriarte’s diaries, in which it appears to exclusively encode
positive affect, as in (2.5). 25
(2.5) patiRik1Ra usu?
25 Note that in Kokama-Kokamilla =k1Ra and a second morpheme, =tSasu encode both size-based and affective semantics
(Vallejos Yopán 2010a:239-241, 244-248).
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