Banca de DEFESA: MARILIA GOMES TEIXEIRA MARQUES

Uma banca de DEFESA de DOUTORADO foi cadastrada pelo programa.
STUDENT : MARILIA GOMES TEIXEIRA MARQUES
DATE: 07/09/2022
TIME: 09:45
LOCAL: Remotamente, via google meet (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam)
TITLE:

SEGMENTAL AND SUPRASSEGMENTAL PHONOLOGY OF NUTAJENSU (SARAÉ) - NAMBIKWARA DO SUL

KEY WORDS:

Brazilian indigenous languages; Nambikwara family; Nutajensu; Sararé; Phonological Analysis

PAGES: 150
BIG AREA: Lingüística, Letras e Artes
AREA: Lingüística
SUMMARY:

In this study, we present a description of the segmental and suprasegmental phonology of Nutajensu, also known as Sararé, an indigenous language of Brazil, which belongs to the southern branch of the Nambikwara linguistic family. In Chapter I we provide some relevant ethnographic information regarding the Nutajensu people and position their language within the Nambikwara linguistic family. In Chapter II we describe the segmental phonology of the Nutajensu language. It is a characteristic of the Nambikwara languages to present a (much) greater number of vocalic contrasts than consonantal ones. This typologically infrequent modeling of the sound system also obtains in Nutajensu, where we find only 7 phonemic consonants, /t, n, k, l, s, h, ʔ/, next to 18 vowel phonemes, of which the 5 oral vowels /i, u, e, o, a/ contrast for creaky voice as well as for nasality, with the exception of /o/, which is never contrastively nasalized. The 4 nasal vowels moreover contrast for creaky voice. As for the glides /j, w/, we have chosen to derive these sounds from lexical high vowels. This is because sequences consisting of a vowel plus a high vowel always surface as diphthongs (with some systematic exceptions) on the condition that the high vowel does not carry stress. We thus consider glides as the phonetic correspondents of lexical high vowels syllabified in the syllable margin. In chapter III, we provide an inventory of the phonological processes of Nutajensu. We identify a number of processes affecting consonants and vowels in specific positions within the core syllable structure established at the level of the phonological word: voicing of stops in the syllable onset, assimilation of point of articulation and preoralization of nasal consonants in the syllable coda, syllable-initial glide strengthening, aspiration of consonants, vowel lengthening in stressed open syllables, as well as other processes triggered by segmental contact, such as regressive nasalization of unstressed vowels, vowel harmony, assimilatory laryngealization of vowels, monophthongization, consonant coalescence, and vowel deletion in internal and external sandhi. In chapter IV we study the role of stress and tone and conclude that Nutajensu has a mixed prosodic system in which stress and tone are partially independent. In this respect, the language aligns with most of the other Nambikwara languages, such as the northern Nambikwara languages Latundê (TELLES, 2002), Mamaindê (EBERHARD, 2009), and Negarotê (BRAGA, 2017), and the southern language Nambikwara do Campo (COSTA, 2020). Stress position is found to be predictable for lexical content words on the basis of the parameters syllable weight, lexical category, and syllable position within the lexical root. Contrarywise, grammatical morphemes must be lexically marked for being stress-bearing. Stress in grammatical morphemes always emerges as secondary at the phonological word level. We have identified two basic tones, High and Low, which can be combined to create contour tones in closed syllables only. The level tones H and L as well as the contour tones HL and LH are contrastive in nominal and verbal roots. In verbal roots, tone is moreover used to disambiguate person marking in the recent past and the present tenses. At the sentence level, tone is used to distinguish positive from negative sentences. With this thesis, we hope to have contributed to the linguistic typology of the Nambikwara languages in particular and of the indigenous languages of South America in general.

BANKING MEMBERS:
Externo à Instituição - BERNARD JACOBUS HUBERTUS HERMANS
Externo à Instituição - MATTHEW COLER
Externa à Instituição - PAULA MENDES COSTA
Presidente - 278.616.194-00 - STELLA VIRGINIA TELLES DE ARAUJO PEREIRA LIMA - OUTRA
Externo à Instituição - WILLEM FREDERIK HENDRIK ADELAAR
Externo à Instituição - WILLIAM LEO MARIE WETZELS