Hal 01289268

Dunan grammar (Yonaguni Ryukyuan)
Masahiro Yamada, Thomas Pellard, Michinori Shimoji
To cite this version:

Masahiro Yamada, Thomas Pellard, Michinori Shimoji.
Dunan grammar (Yonaguni
Ryukyuan). Heinrich, Patrick; Miyara, Shinsho; Shimoji, Michinori. Handbook of the
Ryukyuan languages: History, structure, and use, De Gruyter Mouton, pp.449478, 2015,
978-1-61451-161-8. <10.1515/9781614511151.449>. <hal-01289268>
HAL Id: hal-01289268

https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01289268
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Published in Patrick Heinrich, Shinsho Miyara & Michinori Shimoji (eds.). 2015. Handbook
of the Ryukyuan languages: History, structure, and use. Berlin; Boston: De Gruyter Mouton,
p. 449478. isbn: 978-1-61451-161-8, doi: 10.1515/9781614511151.449. Corrected version.
Masahiro Yamada (Kyoto University)
Thomas Pellard (cnrscrlao)
Michinori Shimoji (Kyushu University)
1 The language and its speakers

1.1 Geography
Yonaguni Ryukyuan, Dunan munui in the vernacular, is spoken on Yonaguni Island
(Dunan ccima), which belongs to the Yaeyama district of the Okinawa prefecture, Japan.
The island, 28.91 km large, is the westernmost one in Japan (approximately long. 123
E, lat. 2445 N) and is located halfway between Taiwan and Iriomote Island. There
are three villages, Sonai (Thumaimura), Higawa (Ndimura), and Kubura (Khubura),
located 5 to 7 km away from each other. Kuburas population almost entirely consists
of immigrants from outside the island.
1.2 Genetic afliation and historical developments

The Dunan language belongs to the Macro-Yaeyama subgroup of Southern Ryukyuan,
and it is thus a sister language of Yaeyama Ryukyuan (Lawrence 2008; Pellard 2009,
this volume).
Dunan exhibits some interesting phonological developments, such as the reduction of the vowel system to three basic ones, the shift of the velars *k and *g to respectively // and // in intervocalic position, or the fortition of *z and initial *j to /d/.
Dunan is also characterized by the historical syncope of high vowels between voiceless consonants that led to the emergence of strong consonants (*CVC > C ), and by
the nasalization of high vowels before a voiced or nasal consonant, which gave birth
to syllabic nasals (*(C)VC/N > nC/N).
Concerning its lexicon, Dunan has renewed a significant number of its basic vocabulary, and it shares about 8085% of it with the other Ryukyuan languages and
70% with Japanese (shiro 1972).
1.3 Number of speakers

All Dunan speakers are in their mid-fifties or older, and all of them are bilingual in both
Standard Japanese and Dunan, while younger generations are usually monolingual in
Japanese. Extrapolating from these sociolinguistic observations and from the census
data available, the total number of Dunan speakers can be roughly estimated to be
around 400, that is to say 25% of the total population of the island (approximately
1600).
p. 449
Yamada, Pellard & Shimoji
1.4 Dialects and sociolinguistic information
p. 450
The dialects spoken in Sonai and Higawa are fully mutually intelligible and show very
little if any variation, which is a rather unusual situation in the Ryukyus. It should also
be noted that many women come from outside the island, which further contributes
to the replacement of Dunan by Standard Japanese. Within most Yonaguni families,
the inter-generational transmission of the language has long been interrupted, and
the total number of Dunan speakers is steeply decreasing.
1.5 Previous studies and available documentation

The first extensive description of Dunan is Hirayama and Hirayama & Nakamotos
(1964) phonological and morphological survey, which is accompanied by a short lexicon and a few texts. More recent grammatical sketches can be found in Hirayama
(1988), together with a larger lexicon, Takahashi (1997), or Izuyama (2002),1 but most
of the syntax is left undescribed. The tone system is best documented in Uwano (2009,
2010, 2011).
Though there are several Dunan-Japanese bilingual lexicons (Hsei daigaku Okinawa bunka kenkyjo 1987a,b; Ikema 2003), no real dictionary has been hitherto published. A few Dunan texts in phonemic script with word-by-word glosses in Japanese
can be found in Hirayama & Nakamoto (1964, with accompanying sonosheets), Shibata (1972, with audio tapes and a re-edition as cd-roms), and Kajiku (2002). Fukuda
et al. (1983) is the largest collection of Dunan texts, but it adopts an inconsistent orthography and has no glosses but only free translations in Japanese.
2 Phonetics and phonology

2.1 Vowels
Dunan has three main vowels: a low /a/, whose realizations vary between front [a] and
back [], a high front unrounded /i/ ([i], []), and a high back rounded /u/ ([u], []).
Though most previous studies only posit these three vowel phonemes, a mid-vowel
[o] can also probably be recognized as an independent phoneme and not just as an
allophone of /u/. The distribution of o is however extremely limited, and apart from a
few interjections, this vowel seems to consistently appear in one morpheme only, the
sentence-final exclamative particle do.
Vowel length does not appear to be distinctive, though vowels can be lengthened
in some cases. For instance, monosyllabic words are usually lengthened if they are not
followed by a clitic, and vowel lengthening can have an expressive function in some
adverbs like aragu very ([aau] or [aau]) or buru all ([buu] or [buu]).
1. Izuyama (2012) is the first grammar sketch of Dunan to appear in English, but it was not yet available
at the time this chapter was in preparation.
p. 451
2.2 Consonants
The Dunan consonant system is summarized in Table 18.1, with a practical orthographic
representation given between parenthesis after each symbol. There is a three-way
laryngeal opposition for stops between a fortis, a lenis, and a voiced series. The fortis/lenis opposition is neutralized in word-medial position, where all voiceless stops
are usually phonetically fortis. The fortis series, traditionally called glottalized, is
unaspirated and tense, while the lenis series is weakly aspirated and lax. The consonants /p/ and /c/ have no lenis counterparts. In our practical orthography, initial
fortis consonants are written with double letters and lenis ones as h-digraphs, while
word-medial neutralized consonants are written with a single letter.
In positions other than prevocalic, all nasals are neutralized and are here written
uniformly as n, but phonetically they are homorganic with a following consonant (e.g.
ng [], nd [nd], nb [mb]) and velar ([]) in final position. The symbol c(c) represents
a voiceless dental affricate [ts]. Major allophones include the palatalized realizations
of c(c), s, and h before j and i ([t], [], []), and the labialized variant of h before w
and u ([], []).
Table 18.1: Dunan consonants
Labial
Lenis stops
Fortis stops/affricates
Voiced stops
Nasals
Voiceless fricatives
Tap/trill
Approximants
/p/ (pp, p)
/b/ (b)
/m/ (m)
/w/ (w)
Dental
/t/ (th)
/t/ (tt, t)
/d/ (d)
/n/ (n)
/s/ (s)
// (r)
Palatal
Velar
Glottal
/k/ (kh)
/k / (kk, k)
// (g)
// ()
/c/ (cc, c)
/h/ (h)
/j/ ( j)
2.3 Syllable
The syllable structure of Dunan is rather simple, with both the onset and coda being
optional. Complex onsets are not allowed, except for the optional presence of a medial
glide (G) j or w. The only coda possible is the nasal archi-phoneme, and the [nucleus
can contain up to two vowels. Dunans basic syllabic template is thus as follows:
(1) (C(G))V(V)(N)
The nasal archi-phoneme can also constitute a syllable on its own, but this special type of minor syllable is strictly restricted to word-initial position before a stop,
affricate, or nasal (e.g. n.da you).
2.4 Mora
All vowels bear a mora, and a nasal is also moraic when it stands in coda or nucleus
position. Syllables can be light ((C)(G)V), heavy ((C)(G)VV, (C)(G)VN) or super-heavy
((C)(G)VVN). All super-heavy syllables seem to be morphologically complex and are
p. 452
not subject to resyllabification (CVVN *CV.VN). Thus hi=n needle=incl and di=n
handle=incl are respectively realized with a falling and a high pitch, and not as LF
and LH, as would be the case with disyllabic words (cf. hci=n chopsticks=incl LF
and hci=n bridge=incl LH).
The mora has not been considered to be an important unit in previous studies on
Dunan phonology, but it nevertheless plays a major role in two processes. First, there is
a bimoraic constraint on the minimal size of words, and C(G)V words get their vowel
lengthened when they constitute a phonological word on their own. This does not
apply to NC(G)V words since the initial nasal bears a mora.
Second, heavy and light syllables differ in their ability to bear a falling tone: polysyllabic words ending with a light C(G)V syllable cannot realize an underlying falling
tone, while those ending with a heavy (C)(G)VV or (C)(G)VN syllable can. NC(G)V
words also fail to phonetically realize a falling tone since the initial nasal forms a syllable on its own and thus does not affect the prosodic weight of the final syllable.
2.5 Tone
Dunan has a three-way word-tone system for simple nouns. The tone domain is not the
syllable nor the mora, but the word; one of the three distinctive melodies is mapped
onto the word as a whole, regardless of its length. However, the actual tone-bearing
unit is the syllable.
The three word-tones High, Low and Falling, are also usually called A, B and C.
The High tone is characterized by a high pitch on the last syllable of the words, with
all preceding syllables high, except the first one in polysyllabic words. The Low tone
is evenly low throughout the word. The Falling tone is similar to the High one, but[the
final syllable has a falling contour if it is heavy. If the last syllable of the word is light
(i.e., is a (C)V syllable), it is pronounced with a high pitch, making it indistinguishable
from a High-tone word, unless it is made heavy by attaching some extra phonological
material, such as the inclusive clitic =n (even, too). An unrealized final fall can also
trigger a downstep of the following word (Uwano 2010). In the present practical orthography, the High, Low and Falling tones are respectively marked with an acute (),
grave (), and circumflex () accent on the first vowel of the word.
p. 453
Table 18.2: Dunan tone system
High
1
n name
mi rice
[n]
[m]
Low
H
H
kh tree
hi South
Falling
[kh]
[h]
L
L
w pig
hi needle
[w]
[hi]
F
F
hci bridge
[ht] LH
2 hci=n bridge too [ht] LH
drai meeting [d] LH
hna flower
[hn] LL
hna=n flower too [hn] LL
mnui speech
[mn] LL
hci chopsticks
[ht] LH
hci=n chopsticks too [ht] LF
mgai bowl
[m] LF
3 mnaga garden
dmami peanuts [dmm] LLL
dmami k.o. turtle
[mn] LHH
[dmm] LHH
The difference of range between the high and low pitches is usually quite small
in Dunan, which makes the assessment of each words tonal category a difficult task.
Investigation of the tone system has barely begun,2 and tone will thus be left unmarked
in most examples.
3 Word classes
There are two large word classes (nominals and verbs) and five small word classes
(adverbs, role markers, adnominals, conjunctions, and interjections) in Dunan. As
in most Ryukyuan languages, property words (adjectives) share most of their morphosyntax with ordinary verbs and can thus be regarded as a subclass of verbs. Most
of the word classes listed above are phonologically independent, but role markers are
clitics phonologically integrated into the last word of the nominal phrase they attach
to.
3.1 Nominals
Nominals are words that head nominal phrases (NP), which are independently defined as constituents that can function as an argument or as a copula predicate. Nominals can be subcategorized into nouns, pronouns, and numerals.
3.2 Verbs
Verbal words comprise both ordinary verbs (henceforth simply verbs) and stative
verbs (which may alternatively be called adjectives). Verbs inflect and function as the
predicate of a clause. Basically, the same set of inflectional affixes applies to both verbs
and stative verbs, although some restrictions and differences are observed (Section
4.4). One conspicuous difference lies in the way negative forms are formed. Whereas
verbs are negated with the suffix -anu-, stative verbs are negated with the affix -minu-,
as in khag-anu-n (write-neg-ind) not write versus thaga-minu-n (high-neg-ind) be
not high.
3.3 Adverbs
Adverbs serve as modifiers of an entire clause (sentential adverbs) or of the predicate
of a clause (predicate adverbs). Adverbs may be underived bare root forms, or derived
from a stative verb root, by attaching -gu to it, e.g. thaga high thaga-gu high (adverb), ninsa slow ninsa-gu slowly.
3.4 Role markers

Role markers are enclitics that mark the syntactic, semantic, and/or pragmatic role
of the NP to which they attach. Case markers, quantifiers, topic markers, and focus
markers form the class of role markers. Several role markers can be agglutinated on
the same NP, with case markers coming closest to the NP, followed by quantifiers, and
finally topic/focus markers.
2. All the information on tone in this chapter thus comes from Uwano (2009, 2010, 2011).
p. 454
3.5 Other minor classes

Adnominals (khunu, unu, khanu) are preposed demonstrative modifiers of NPs. Though
both khunu and unu could be analyzed as involving a demonstrative pronoun (i.e., khu
proximal, u mesial) followed by the genitive case marker =nu, this analysis is not possible for khanu (cf. khari distal).
Conjunctions like =tasi while, =jungara because, =a but, =tin even if encode
the subordinate status of the clause they attach to. They follow the predicate of the
subordinate clause and act as a linker with the main clause.
Interjections are uninflected words that mark an exclamation, like di hey.
p. 455
4 Morphology
Dunan has a comparatively complex morphology for a Japonic language, but its morphological type is nevertheless similar to that of its linguistic relatives. Dunan has thus
a generally dependent-marking, concatenative, and suffixal morphology. Morphological formatives most often show no cumulative exponence, and words have a medium
degree of synthesis.
4.1 Nominal morphology

The general morphological structure of nominal words in Dunan can be summarized
as in (2).
(2) (Prefix-) (Root+) root (-diminutive) (-plural)
4.1.1 Noun afxes
Dunans morphology is overwhelmingly suffixal, but some noun prefixes that denote
a quality or a property are also found, like ubu- big (e.g. ubu-ici big stone), mi- female, (e.g. mi-uci cow), or bigi- male (e.g. bigi-uci ox). Nouns can be followed by
the diminutive suffix -ti, which marks smallness, youth, or endearment (e.g. agami-ti
child-dim small child, inu-ti dog-dim puppy). Most of nouns in Dunan are number
neutral, in the sense that they are not specified as being singular or plural, and they
can be used to refer to a single or to multiple entities (3).
(3) inu=a maasiku bu-n
dog=nom many be-ind
There are a lot of dogs.
However, nouns can be explicitly be marked for plural number with the suffix -nta,
which can express associative (e.g. Tharu-nta Taro-pl Taro and others) or collective
(e.g. inu-nta dog-pl a (particular) group of dogs) plural. Derived from its associative
meaning, the plural suffix can also be used to express ambiguity or [approximation
with entities (e.g. khwaci-nta cookie-pl cookies among other things) or locative nominals (e.g. khuma-nta here-pl around here).
p. 456
4.1.2 Numerals and classiers
Numerals in Dunan are built from a numeral root (1 ttu, 2 tta, 3 mi, 4 du, 5 ici, 6 mu, 7
nana, 8 da, 9 khugunu, 10 thu) followed by a classifier suffix. The choice of classifier
depends on the nature or shape of the object quantified (humans: -taintu; animals:
-gara; generic for inanimates: -ci; flat thin objects: -ira; trees: -mutu; days: -ka/-ga; times:
-muruci; steps: -mata; handful: -ka, etc.). Some numeral + classifier combinations exhibit morphophonological alternations and suppletion, and borrowed Sino-Japanese
numerals are also frequent.
4.1.3 Pronouns
Pronouns can be categorized into interlocutory pronouns, i.e, those referring to speech
act participants, demonstrative pronouns, which refer to non-speech act participants,
reflexive pronouns, locative pronouns, and interrogative pronouns.
While other nominals are number neutral, personal pronouns are regularly marked
for number. They also often exhibit suppletion and stem-final ablaut in the plural and
some case forms. In particular, interlocutory pronouns form their genitive case with
their bare (or truncated) stem or with the nominative marker =a instead of genitive
=nu, which can be viewed as an instance of case deponency.
Table 18.3: Dunan singular and plural pronouns
Interlocutory 1st person

Interlocutory 2nd person
Demonstrative Proximal
Demonstrative Mesial
Demonstrative Distal
Reflexive 1
Reflexive 2
Locative Proximal
Locative Mesial
Locative Distal
Interrogative animate
Interrogative inanimate
Interrogative locative
Singular
Plural
nu
nd
kh
khri
s
d, dunudu
khma
ma
khma
th
n
nm
bnu(-nta) (excl), bnta (incl)

nd(-nta)
khuntati
ntati
khntati
si
khumanta
umanta
khamanta
thanta
Table 18.4: Dunan irregular case forms of pronouns
1sg
1pl
Locative Proximal
Locative Mesial
Locative Distal
Locative Interrogative
Base form
Special form
nu
bnu(-nta) , bnta
khma
ma
khma
nm
a=a nominative/genitive
ba=a nominative, ba/bnta genitive
khmi locative
mi locative
khmi locative
nm locative
p. 457
4.2 Case
Case is marked by postpositional markers that have phrasal scope over whole NPs.
These markers are phonologically dependent, but they are not as tightly bound to their
host as suffixes, and some of them can also appear on verbs and act as conjunctions.
There is a sharp distinction between direct cases, which encode core arguments
(S, A, P), and oblique cases, which encode other verb satellites. While oblique cases are
usually always formally marked, the core arguments S and P are usually not, though
a nominative marker =a can be used on S arguments, especially when they are not
topicalized. This nominative marker is also regularly used to mark non-topicalized A
arguments.3
Table 18.5: Dunan case markers
Label
Marker
Main role(s) encoded
Nominative
Genitive
Locative
=a
=nu
=ni
Directive
=nki
Ablative
Elative
Terminative
Instrumental
Comitative
Comparative
=gara
=di
=ta
=si
=tu
=ka
S, A (genitive function with 1st person pronouns)

possessor, nominal modifier
location of existence or action, time, goal of movement, state resulting of a change, recipient, standard
of comparison, agent of passive constructions, causee
of causative constructions, beneficiary of benefactive
constructions
direction, goal of movement, state resulting of a
change, recipient, agent of passive constructions,
causee of causative constructions, malefactor of malefactive constructions
source, cause, mean of locomotion, path, location
source
temporal or spatial limit
instrument, material, cause, mean
companion, addition
standard of comparison
4.3 Verb morphology

4.3.1 Morphological structure and paradigm classes
The verbal system of Dunan is without doubt the most complex one within the whole
Japonic family. Its complexity is the result of the conjunct effects of important phonological and morphological changes that have disrupted the originally rather straightforward system.
Figure 18.1 represents the overall structure of the verb in Dunan. Each position can
be filled with only one morpheme, and only positions 0 (the root) and 5 (the endings)
3. The exact conditions that determine when the nominative marker is used and when it is not are still
unclear.
p. 458
are obligatory. Each of the non-final suffixes in positions 1 to 4 can change the conjugation class of the stem. Position 3 (aspect/polarity) and 4 (tense) are incompatible
with deontic moods and the medial/converb category.
0
(1)
(2)
(3)
(4)
Present -u-/ Indicative -n

Past -(i)ta- Participle /-ru
Negative -anuPast -(i)taRoot Causative -amir Passive -arir- Perfect -( j)a-/-( j)u
Circumstantial -iba/-uba
Conditional -ja
Imperative i
Prohibitive -(u)nna
Hortative -(i)ndangi
Medial -i
Figure 18.1: Verb structure in Dunan
Dunans verb morphology is characterized by a high degree of allomorphy in both

stems and grammatical formatives. There is generally no synchronic phonological motivation for these alternations, whose ultimate cause can only be found in the historical developments of the language. Moreover, stems and suffixes are arbitrarily coindexed, and stems carry themselves no inflectional information. The co-indexation
of stems and suffixes is also not uniform across all verbs.
The combination of stem alternations, formative allomorphy, and stem-suffix coindexation necessitates positing a complex system with several dozens of inflectional
verb classes and eight stems, far more than in any other Japonic language. There is also
no single form or stem that can serve as a principal part or reference form and predict
a verbs paradigm, which can only be deduced from a set of more than three forms.
For instance, some verbs otherwise homonymous differ only by their perfect form,
such as sagun tear satjan versus sagun bloom satun, or nirun cook,[boil njan
versus nirun get cooked, boiled njun. On the other hand, the perfect form alone
cannot disambiguate a verbs class membership, since non-homonymous verbs can
have the same perfect form, like khatun win and khagun write, which both have a
perfect form khatjan.
4.3.2 Stems
Dunan exhibits a comparatively high degree of stem allomorphy. Stem-shape alternation patterns are lexeme-based and follow no general (morpho)phonological rule
(Table 18.6). Trying to account for Dunans stem alternations with derivational rules
would be rather pointless, since rules would not be generalizable but would turn out to
be specific to some verb classes and suffixes, and they would thus hold no explanatory
power.
Stem allomorphy involves not only segmental but also supra-segmental alternations, since some Low tone verbs shift to the Falling tone within their paradigm. Me-
p. 459
tatony is not uniform across all Low tone verbs, and three patterns must be recognized
according to which forms undergo tonal alternation (Table 18.7).
Table 18.6: Verb stem (segmental) alternations in Dunan
pull
eat
drop
make
do
burn
sunksunt-
ppppu-
ututuutus-
kkwkkukkur-
khkhikhir-
mwmuimuir-
Table 18.7: Verb metatony in Dunan
Present indicative
Past indicative
Present negative indicative
Present perfect indicative
tear
go
rest
think
dndan L
dndatan L
dndanun L
dndasyan L
hrun L
htan L
hranun L
hjn
F
dgun L
dgutan L
dganun F
dgwan F
mun L
mutan F
manun F
mwan F
The variation of stem-suffix co-indexation across verb classes necessitates setting

up a complex system with eight different stems, though no verb has eight different
stem forms (see Table 18.8).
p. 460
Table 18.8: Examples of verb stems in Dunan
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
Used for
count walk think close make tear
burn (v.i.)
Present, Conditional
Negative
Imperative, Circumstantial
Prohibitive
Past
Hortative
Medial
Perfect
dm
dm
dm
dm
dm
dm
dm
dm
mir
mir
mir
mi
m
m
m
mw
ig
ig
ig
ig
it
it
it
it
m
m
mu
m
mu
mu
mu
mw
h
h
h
h
h
hs
hs
hs
kkr
kkr
kkr
kk
kk
kk
kk
kkw
dndir
dndir
dndir
dndi
dnd
dnd
dnd
dnd
4.3.3 Inectional morphology
Most of the inflectional information is encoded by suffixes, which, like stems, exhibit
allomorphy. Several suffixes have two phonologically conditioned variants according
to the shape of the stem they attach to, but, as explained above, the choice of the stem
depends on the suffix and the verbs class, and the allomorphy is not always phonologically motivated (see Table 18.9).
Table 18.9: Phonologically conditioned allomorphy in Dunan
Consonant-ending stem
Vowel-ending stem
Prohibitive
Past
Present
Circumstantial
-unna
-nna
-ita-ta-
-u
-uba-iba-
On the other hand, the perfect marker shows lexeme-based allomorphy between
-( j)a-/-( j)u-, depending on the verbs class only.4 Moreover, an inflected form can combine several suffixes, and the combinations between suffixes of different slots are by
and large idiosyncratic and often follow irregular patterns.
Inflected verb forms can be divided into two categories according to their morphosyntactic status and function, which are encoded by different endings (Slot 5).
First, independent verb forms are marked for mood and are syntactically autonomous;
they can head main clauses and form a complete sentence on their own. Indicative
forms can be marked for tense and/or aspect, but not other independent mood forms
(see Table 18.10).
p. 461
Table 18.10: Dunan independent verb forms
Non-perfect
Present
Past
Negative
Present
Past
Perfect
Present
Past
Indicative
Imperative
Prohibitive
Hortative
Marker(s)
Example do
--u/-n
--(i)ta-n
khirun
khitan
-anu--n
-anu-ta-n
khiranun
khiranutan
-( j)a/( j)u--n
-( j)a/( j)u-ta-n
khjan
khjatan
-i
-(u)nna
-(i)ndangi
khiri
khinna
khindangi
On the other hand, dependent verb forms (Table 18.11) such as the medial form and
converbs usually do not appear in independent clauses, except in the case of ellipsis.
They head adverbial or chained clauses, or appear with an auxiliary in a complex verb
form. Some of these dependent verb forms, namely the circumstantial and conditional
forms, can be marked for tense/aspect and take the perfect and past suffixes. Medial
and various converb forms are on the other hand incompatible with tense/aspect and
depend on another clauses predicate for the expression of these categories.
Participial forms have a somehow ambiguous status since while their primary
function is to head adnominal clauses, they can also appear in a main clause, with an
exclamative value or in focus concord (kakari musubi) constructions. For most verbs,
the stem of the indicative minus its suffix -n serves as a participle form, but for the
perfect and past, a suffix -ru attaches to the stem.
4. The choice of the perfect marker is partly correlated with agentivity/transitivity, but there are too
many exceptions to consider this correlation to be a synchronic rule. The relationship between transi-
p. 462
Table 18.11: Dunan dependent verb forms
Marker(s)
Non-perfect
Present
Past
Present
Past
Circumstantial
Conditional
Conditional
Conditional
---iba/uba
--ta-ba
---ja
--ta-ja
Negative
Present
Past
Present
Past
Circumstantial
Circumstantial
Conditional
Conditional
-anu--ba
-anu-ta-ba
-anur--ja
-anu-ta-ja
Perfect
Present
Past
Present
Past
Circumstantial
Circumstantial
Conditional
Conditional
-( j)a/( j)u--ba
-( j)a/( j)u-ta-ba
-( j)ar/( j)ur--ja
-( j)a/( j)u-ta-ja
Medial
Sequential
Causal
Simultaneous
Negative converb
Supine
-i
-iti
-ibi
-idatana
-nki
-ndi
Table on p. 461
Table 18.12: Dunan participles
Non-perfect
Present
Past
Negative
Present
Past
Perfect
Present
Past
Participle
Marker(s)
Example do
--u/-
--(i)ta-ru
khiru
khitaru
-anu-
-anu-ta-ru
khiranu
khiranutaru
-( j)a/( j)u--ru
-( j)a/( j)u-ta-ru
khjaru
khjataru
Dunan also shows several complex verb forms, where a medial verb is followed by
an auxiliary which carries the inflectional markers. Verb auxiliaries mark subject honorification (warun) or various TAM values (e.g. imperfective bun, completive ccidimirun,
conative nnun, preparative utugun, potential ccun, desiderative busan) and can be
more or less fused with the main verb. Some auxiliaries form a distinct word, as shown
by the fact they retain their tone and can be separated from the main verb by the focus marker =du (e.g. khati=du buru be writing). On the other hand, some auxiliaries
form a compound with the main verb and have no autonomy (e.g. khati-busan want
to write).
tivity and the perfect is thus better viewed as a relic of history.
4.3.4 Derivational morphology
Non-class changing derivation includes the two voice categories, namely the causative
and the passive. Both are marked by suffixes directly attaching to the root, and the two
can combine with each other, in which case the causative precedes the passive suffix.
The causative is marked by -(a)mir- and the passive by -(a)rir-.
4.4 Stative verb morphology

Stative verbs (adjectives) have a different and less complex morphology than ordinary verbs. Stative verb roots uniformly end with the vowel a and attach the auxiliary
verb an exist, which carries the inflectional markers. The root and the auxiliary are
in the process of being completely fused together, and the final a of[the root and the
initial a of the auxiliary can be reduced to a single short vowel. In some constructions,
the auxiliary still retains some freedom, and for instance the focus marker =du and
the topic marker =ja can attach to the root, in which case the auxiliary is detached to
the right.
Table 18.13: Dunan stative verb morphology
Example high
Indicative
Participle
Exclamative
Circumstantial
Conditional
Indicative
Participle
thaga-n
thaga-ru
thaga-nu
thagar-u-ba
thagar-ja
thaga-ta-n
thaga-ta-ru
Past
Indicative
Participle
Indicative
Participle
thaga-minu-n
thaga-minu
thaga-minu-ta-n
thaga-minu-ta-ru
Adverbial
Causal
thaga-gu
thaga-bi
Present
Non-perfect
Past
Present
Negative
Since all the inflectional information is carried by the auxiliary, stative verbs inherit the irregularities of the verb an, such as the suppletive form minun for the negative and the long participial form aru. Stative verbs also have two special forms not
seen in other verbs: an exclamative form in -anu (high thaga-(a)nu), and an adverbial form in -gu (high thaga-gu). On the other hand, stative verbs lack most aspectual,
mood, and converbial forms of other verbs.
Many stative verbs have two forms, a short one, and a long one with a suffix -sa
intervening between the root and the auxiliary (e.g. high thaga-an/thaga-sa-an), but
the difference between the two is unclear.
p. 463
4.5 Word formation processes

Though both nominal and verbal derivations are usually realized through affixation,
compounding is also frequent in nominal and verbal word formation. New nominals
can be formed by adding a noun or a property concept root (PCR) before the head
nominal root.
(4) a. noun + noun: dunan Yonaguni + ttu person dunan-ttu Yonaguni islander
b. baga young + nai seedling baga-nai young seedling
Compounding is also frequent with verbs. Compound verbs can combine a main
lexical verb with an auxiliary (see above) or a noun with the light verb khirun do,[like in
hanasi-khirun to speak, to chat (literally do story). The noun can also be a loanword
like benkyoo (Sino-Japanese study) benkyoo-khirun to study.
5 Syntax
Dunan is a head-final, dependent-marking language. The basic constituent order is
S (X) V / A (X) P V, but the arguments may be left unstated if they are recoverable from
the context. Word order is flexible and varies according to information structure, but
no obligatory fronting or post-posing of arguments is observed in questions or other
pragmatically marked structures. In nominal phrases, the modifier precedes the head,
and the syntactic/semantic role of a whole NP is indicated by an enclitic.
5.1 Alignment and the basic case system

Dunan has a nominative-accusative alignment, where the {S, A} argument rather than
the P argument is marked. However, the {S, A} argument is often left unmarked (Section 4.2). The nominative marker is consistently =a, unlike other Ryukyuan languages
where there are usually two nominative case forms.5 In a ditransitive clause, the Extended core argument (E, e.g. goal, recipient, causee) is indicated by the locative (=ni)
or the directive (=nki) case, and the alignment is thus of the indirective type. In a nominal predicate clause, a subtype of intransitive clause, the copula subject is marked by
the nominative, and the predicate NP is unmarked.
(5) [agami=a]s maasiku bu-n
child=nom many exist-ind
There are lots of children. (Intransitive)
(6) [agami=a]a [min]p num-u-n
child=nom water drink-prs-ind
A child drinks water (Mono-transitive)
(7) [agami=a]a [nma=nki]e [min]p num-asimir-u-n
child=nom horse=dir water drink-caus-prs-ind
A child makes a horse drink water. (Ditransitive)
5. For example, Miyako has two different nominative markers =ga and =nu (Hayashi 2010; Pellard 2010;
Shimoji 2011).
p. 464
5.2 The nominal phrase
p. 465
NPs have a head-final structure, with modifiers appearing before the head. An NP may
be further followed by a role marker when it is used as an argument, or by a copula
verb when it is used as a predicate. The entire construction consisting of an NP and
its extension (case marker, copula, etc.) constitutes an extended NP. The head of an
NP is usually a nominal, and it may be modified by an adnominal word, an adnominal
clause, or a genitive NP.
(8) [[[isu=ni ntu-i buru]modif [agami]head]np=a]ext np nai that-u-n
chair=loc sit-med ipfv-ptcp child=nom
now stand-prs-ind
The child who is sitting on a chair will now stand up.
Property-concept modification (e.g. beautiful person) is encoded by the adnominal clause construction with a stative verb predicate (e.g. a person (who) is beautiful).
The stative verb must in this case be a participial form, like ordinary verbs in adnominal clauses.
(9) [[khanu ttu=ka
mabin abja-taru]modif [ttu]head]np
dist
person=cmp more beautiful-pst-ptcp person
the person who was more beautiful than that person
5.3 The predicate

5.3.1 Verbal predicate
A verbal predicate can be simply constituted of a single inflected lexical verb or combine a main lexical verb in the medial form with a following grammatical auxiliary
which carries the inflections. Whereas the main verb denotes the lexical meaning
of the predicate and is thus a primarily determinant of the argument structure of
the clause, the auxiliary functions to indicate various grammatical categories that the
predicate is typically associated with: TAM, modality, honorification, etc.
Auxiliary constructions fall into two types: analytic predicates, where the two components form distinct words, and compound predicates, where the two form a compound word. In both types, the main verb must be inflected as a medial form, which
lacks TAM and other inflectional information, which are all taken over by the auxiliary verb that follows. Since the main and auxiliary components are separate words in
analytic forms, it is possible for a role marker to be inserted, as in (10) below, where
the focus marker =du follows the main verb.
(10) suuti khat-i=du
bu-ru=na?
book write-med=foc ipfv-ptcp=ynq
(Are you) writing a book?
By contrast, as illustrated in (11) below, some auxiliaries opt for a fused form, where
the main verb component and the auxiliary component form a single compound word.
(11) khat-i-busa-n
write-med-desid-ind
(I) want to write.
p. 466
5.3.2 Nominal predicate
A nominal predicate minimally consists of an NP, which may be further followed by

the copula, an irregular verb related to the existential verb an.6 However, as illustrated
in (12) below, the copula does not appear unless the overt marking of inflection (TAM,
polarity, honorification, focus concord) is necessary, as in (13). In other words, no copula appears in non-focalized present indicative nominal predicates.
(12) khari=ja dunan-ttu
(*a-n)
dist=top Yonaguni-person (*cop-ind)
(S)he is a Yonaguni islander.
(13) a. khari=ja dunan-ttu=du
a-ru/*
dist=top Yonaguni-person=foc cop-ptcp/*
b. khari=ja dunan-ttu=ja
ar-anu-n/*
dist=top Yonaguni-person=top cop-neg-ind/*
c. anu=ja nkaci=ja
maihuna a-ta-n/*
1sg=top old.time=top good
cop-pst-ind/*
I was a good child a long time ago.
5.4 Complex clause structure

Adverbial subordination is encoded by converb inflections on the predicate of subordinate clauses.
(14) [thagaramunu=du a-ibi]adv cl atara
khir-u-n
treasure=foc
cop-csl
importance do-prs-ind
Since (it) is treasure, (I) treat it as such.
Adnominal subordination is marked by participle forms, and adnominal clauses
fill the modifier slot of an NP with no linker (e.g. relative pronoun) required.
(15) [khami bu-ru]adv cl nma
there.loc exist-ptcp horse
the horse (that) is (standing) there.
Complementation is either encoded by an adnominal clause where the head noun
is a formal noun, or by a quotative clause with speech verbs like ndun say, kkun hear,
umun think, etc.
(16) [anu=du nn-anu
khatarai khir-iba]=ndi umu-i,
1sg=foc look-neg.ptcp pretention do-circ=quot think-med
(The woman) thought, [(They) pretend not to see me, so], and (Kajiku 2002:
283)
6. Contrary to existential verbs (see Section 6.1.1), the copula shows no variation according to its arguments animacy.
p. 467
6 Functional categories
6.1 Sentence types
6.1.1 Declarative
A declarative sentence with a verbal predicate normally takes the indicative verb ending -n as in (17), while with a nominal predicate, the bare nominal without a copula
occupies the predicate position.
(17) nai=gara i hu-n=do
now=abl rice eat-ind=sfp
Im going to eat now.
Clauses that express existence use one of the existential verbs, i.e, bun for animates
or an for inanimates, as their predicate, and the location is marked the locative case
(=ni).
(18) khunu da=ni
agami maasiku bu-n=do
prox house=loc child many exist-ind=sfp
There are many children in this house.
In Dunan, clauses expressing possession use the same construction as location
expressions, with the possessor marked as a locative.
(19) a. khanu ttu=ni
agami maasiku {bu, *a}-n=do
dist person=loc child many
exist-ind=sfp
That person has many children. (Literally Many children exist in that person.)
b. khanu ttu=ni
din
maasiku {*bu, a}-n=do
dist person=loc money many
exist-ind=sfp
That person has a lot of money. (Literally A lot of money exists in that person.)
6.1.2 Interrogative
A Yes/No-question is marked with the special sentence final particle =na. This particle attaches to the participle form of most non-perfect present verbs, but to a special
form7 for the existential verbs and for all past and perfect inflected forms.8
(20) khuruma mut-i
bu=na?
car
hold-med ipfv=ynq
Do (you) have a car?
7. The indicative form without its suffix -n.

8. This constitutes further evidence that both the perfect and past markers historically derive from the
existential verbs bun and an.
p. 468
Interrogative Y/N nominal predicates with or without role marking also take =na.
(21) a. khami bur-u nma=ja dunan-nma=na?
dist be-ptcp horse=top Yonaguni-horse=ynq
Is the horse (standing) over there a Yonaguni horse?
b. thabi nma=nki=bagin hi-ta=nga? hokkaidoo=nki=bagin=na?
travel where=dir=incl go-pst=whq Hokkaido=dir=incl=ynq
Up to where did you travel? Up to Hokkaido?
A content question with a verbal predicate is marked by =nga on the verb, and a
role marker =ba can attach to a wh-word.
(22) a. su=ja
tha=a waru=nga?
today=top who=nom be.hon=whq
Who is (here/there) today?
b. nda=ja tharun=nki nu(=ba) thura=nga?
2sg=top Taro=dir what(=ba) give=whq
What will you give to Taro?
A content question with a nominal (e.g. a noun or an interrogative) as its predicate
is marked by =ja on the nominal.
(23) a. dunan-ccima=ja
nma={ ja, *nga}?
Yonaguni-island=top where=whq
Where is Yonaguni Island?
b. nma=a(=ba)
dunan-ccima=ja?
where=nom(=ba) Yonaguni-island=whq
Where exactly is Yonaguni Island?
6.1.3 Imperative
The verb in an imperative sentence appears in either the imperative or the prohibitive
form.
(24) da=nki
hir-i / hi-nna
house=dir go-imp go-proh
Go home / Do not go home.
6.1.4 Negation
Negation of a verbal predicate is generally marked by the negative suffix -anu-, which
appears before other inflections. The existential verb an has a special suppletive negative form minun (25a), which is also used with stative verbs and to negate the perfect
aspect. Negation of a nominal predicate necessitates to use the negative form of the
copula, which is the expected regular form aranun (25b), and not not the suppletive
form minun.
(25) a. khumi=ja
baga nnani=ja {minun,
*ar-anu-n}
here.loc=top 1.gen clothes=top exist.neg-ind *cop-neg-ind
My clothes are not here.
p. 469
b. khu=ja baga nnani=ja {*minun,

ar-anu-n}
prox=top 1.gen clothes=top *exist.neg-ind cop-neg-ind
These are not my clothes.
p. 470
There are also some special negative forms, like the negative potential/passive/
malefactive, which is not formed by agglutinating the negative suffix -anu- to -arir- but
is marked by a special form -aninu-. The prohibitive form can be regarded as a negative
imperative and is marked by a specific suffix -(u)nna (24). Example (26) illustrates the
negative sequential form, which is marked by a special negative sequential suffix -nki
attached to a negative form.
(26) mata nni ccair-anu-nki=du bu-ru=na?
again rice wash-neg-seq=foc ipfv-ptcp=ynq
Are (you) not washing the rice again?
6.2 Tense and aspect

6.2.1 Tense
In non-converbial clauses, past tense is marked by the verb suffix -(i)ta-, while the
present and future (non-past) are marked by -u-/.
(27) nnu=ja
Tharu=a uta khi-ta-n=do
yesterday=top Taro=nom song do-pst-ind=sfp
Taro sang a song yesterday.
6.2.2 Aspect
The imperfective auxiliary verb bun follows a verb and indicates an ongoing action or
a resultant state.
(28) a. khat-i
bu-n
write-med ipfv-ind
(I) am writing (it).
b. khanu ttu=nu
na ubu-i
bu=na?
dist person=gen name remember-med ipfv=ynq
Do you remember the name of that person?
The perfect9 (-( j)a-/( j)u-) signals that a resultant state of the event indicated by
the verb exists at the reference time. The perfect is clearly differentiated in its uses
from the imperfective, but it can often rather freely alternate with the past, and the
exact distinction between the two remains to be fully clarified.
(29) a. tharu, di khat-ja=na? / khat-ita=na?
Taro letter write-prf=ynq write-pst=ynq
Taro, have (you) written/did you write the letters (that i asked you to write)?
9. Izuyama 2006 claims that what we call perfect is a type of evidential marker. We have tried to replicate her data in the same context settings she describes but we found no clear support for her claim.
This issue will require further research.
p. 471
b. oo, khat-ja-n
/ khat-ita-n
yes write-prf-ind write-pst-ind
Yes, (I) have written/wrote (them).
The negation of the perfect is marked by the special negative form minun following the medial form of the verb, which constitutes further evidence that the perfect
etymologically comes from the medial form of the verb followed by the existential
verb an.
(30) a. khica tharu=nki thuras-ja-n
just.now Taro=dir give-prf-ind
(I) have just given (it) to Taro.
b. madi tharu=nki thuras-i minu-n
yet Taro=dir give-med ipfv.neg-ind
(I) have not given (it) to Taro yet.
6.3 Mood and modality

6.3.1 Moods
The main moods, namely the indicative, imperative, and prohibitive, have already
been described above. Among other moods, the hortative (-indangi) expresses an invitation, an encouragement, or a request.
(31) ajami-habiru nn-iti=gara khais-i
h-indangi
mark-butterfly see-seq=abl return-med go-hor
Lets go back after watching Ayami-habiru butterflies.
The desiderative is marked by the auxiliary stative verb busan and expresses the
volition of the subject. Contrary to Japanese, the undergoer cannot be marked with
the nominative case.
(32) anu=ja bansuru(*=a) ha-i-busa=du
ar-u
1sg=top guava(*=nom) eat-med-desid=top exist-ptcp
I want to eat a guava.
Two different potential moods are found: the potential suffix -arir- usually marks
deontic possibility (33a), while the auxiliary verb ccun (< know) expresses the ability
of the subject (33b).
(33) a. gaku ma
simar-ja
da=nki
khais-i
hir-ariru-n
school already finish-cond house=dir return-med go-pot-ind
Since school is already over, (you) may go home.
b. khanu ttu=a
santi tt-i-ccu-n
dist person=nom sanshin play-med-abil-ind
That person can play the sanshin.
p. 472
The exclamative mood is expressed by a special form in -(a)nu for stative verbs.
(34) aca-(a)nu!
hot-excl
How hot it is!
6.3.2 Evidentials
Dunan has several evidential markers that indicate the source of the information for
the utterance. The inferential evidential marker -indangi, for instance, is illustrated in
(35), where the information is presented as being inferred by the speaker on the basis
of the outer appearance of the tree.
(35) khanu khi dagati
thur-indangi=du ar-u
dist tree eventually fall-infer=foc cop-ptcp
That tree will fall(, I infer). (Looking at the root coming out of the ground)
6.3.3 Other modality expressions
Other modalities, like necessity and possibility, are marked by periphrastic constructions.10 For example, the functional nominal hadi is used in an adnominal construction to indicate epistemic necessity (given the knowledge available for the speaker, it
is necessarily the case that) as in (36a).11 On the other hand, deontic necessity
(given the current situation, it is necessarily the case that) is marked by a complex
verbal expression, as in (36b).
(36) a. khanu ttu=ja
nai da=ni
war-u
hadi=do
dist person=top now house=loc exist.hon-ptcp must=sfp
That person must be at home now.
b. su=ja
ttu=a
war-u=jungara,
thai-gu da=nki
today=top person=nom come.hon-ptcp=because fast-adv house=dir
hir-anu-tu
nar-anu-ta-n
go-neg-cond become-neg-pst-ind
I had to go home early because a guest was coming.
Epistemic (given the knowledge available for the speaker, it is possibly the case
that) and deontic (given the current situation, it is possibly the case that) possibilities are also expressed periphrastically (37a, 37b).
(37) a. khanu ttu=ja
nai da=ni
war-u=kan
bagar-anu-n
dist person=top now house=loc exist.hon-ptcp=whether understand-neg-ind
That person may be at home now.
10. Nominal predicates need to be followed by the copula in the constructions presented in (36b) and
(37b), but not in those of (36a) and (37a).
11. According to the native speakers intuition, it might be too strong to call it a necessity modal; instead
it could simply be translated as I think that.
p. 473
b. gaku ma
da=nki
khais-i
hi-ta-n=tin
nsa-n
simar-ja
school already finish-cond house=dir return-med go-pst-ind=even.if good-ind
Since school is already over, (you) may go home.
6.4 Valency changing operations

6.4.1 Causative
The causative is marked by the suffix -amir- and increases a verbs valency by adding a
causer argument, which is marked by the nominative case. The causee, which would
be the {S, A} argument in a non-causative construction, is demoted and marked for
the directive or locative case when the resulting verb is ditransitive.
(38) a. tharu=a i maga-ta-n
Taro=nom rice cook-pst-ind
Taro cooked rice.
b. a=a
tharu=nki i mag-ami-ta-n
1sg=nom Taro=dir rice cook-caus-pst-ind
I made Taro cook rice.
6.4.2 Passive
The passive is encoded by the suffix -arir- and is canonically used to reduce a verbs
valency by demoting the A argument of a transitive verb. The demoted argument can
be simply suppressed or it can surface as an oblique in the locative or directive case.
Conversely, the corresponding P argument is usually promoted to the S position and
marked with the nominative case.
(39) a. khunu maju=a ujantu ha-ta-n
prox cat=nom nouse eat-pst-ind
This cat ate the mouse.
b. khunu ujantu=a maju=ni h-ari-ta-n
prox mouse=nom cat=loc eat-pass-pst-ind
This mouse was eaten by the cat.
6.4.3 Benefactive
The benefactive construction attaches the auxiliary verb thuran give to a lexical verb
to increase its valency by adding a beneficiary argument marked with the directive
case, without demoting or promoting the other arguments. Unlike modern Japanese,
the auxiliary verb is insensitive to the person feature of the beneficiary, and thus the
same verb thuran is used when the beneficiary is the speaker (40a) and when it is a
third person (40b).
(40) a. tharu=a anu=nki thuru kh-i
thura-ta-n
Taro=nom 1sg=dir lamp do-med ben-pst-ind
Taro turned on the lamp for me.
p. 474
b. a=a
tharu=nki thuru kh-i
thura-ta-n
1sg=nom Tarosg=dir lamp do-med ben-pst-ind
I turned on the lamp for Taro.
6.4.4 Malefactive
Apart from encoding the canonical passive voice, the suffix -arir- is also used with a
malefactive value. With intransitive verbs, an argument is added, which is usually
topicalized and thus not case-marked,12 while the original S argument is demoted and
marked with the locative or directive case. This added argument is interpreted as an
individual who is negatively affected by the event expressed in the clause.
p. 475
(41) anu=ja agami=ni nag-ar-iti, sikama khir-aninu-ta-n

1sg=nom child=loc cry-mal-seq work do-pot.neg-pst-ind
A child cried on me and i could not work.
6.4.5 Reexive and reciprocal
Reflexive and reciprocal are not morphologically marked on the verb in Dunan. Reflexive interpretation is achieved by using the reflexive pronouns sa or du as in (42).
Reciprocal, on the other hand, does not seem to be marked in any way. Reciprocal situations are often described by a plural subject and a transitive verb without an overt
internal argument.
(42) tharu=a {sa, du} khaan=nki ucus-iti
nni-ta-n
Taro=nom refl mirror=dir reflect-seq see-pst-ind
Taro reflected himself in a mirror and saw (himself).
6.4.6 Transitive/intransitive lexical alternations
Some verbs exhibit a transitive/intransitive morphological alternation, but the underlying process is opaque and no longer productive, so that such pairs are completely
lexicalized.
(43) a. nai=gara tharu=a that-u-n
now=abl Taro=nom stand-prs-ind
Taro is going to stand up.
b. nai=gara diru=a tharu thata-n
now=abl Jiro=nom Taro stand-prs-ind
Jiro is going to make Taro stand up.
6.5 Honorics
Dunan has an honorific system where the socially higher status of the subject is encoded on the verb. Some verbs have suppletive honorific forms such as ujan[eat.hon
12. Our corpus does not include examples of non-topicalized maleficiary arguments that would reveal
with which case they would be marked.
p. 476
and warun be.hon, go/come.hon, while most verbs simply attach the honorific auxiliary verb warun as in (44).
(44) asa=a
uta khi
war-u-n
grandfather=nom song do-med hon-prs-ind
The grandfather is singing a song.
A very limited number of verbs have a suppletive deferential form used when
the subject has a lower status than another argument. This class of verbs for example includes ccarirun say (to s.o.) and thabararirun receive, none of which is frequently used nowadays in Dunan except in some formulaic idioms. Contrary to Japanese, Dunan does not have allocutive (addressee honorific) forms.
6.6 Focus concord (kakari musubi)

Dunan exhibits a focus concord, or kakari musubi, phenomenon similar to that found
in Classical Japanese and other Ryukyuan languages. In its strong form, this phenomenon can be described as follows: the main predicate of a sentence is in the participle
form instead of the indicative form if and only if there is a focus marker =du in the
main clause (45).
(45) nai=du ttam-ja-{ru, *n}
now=foc tell-prf-ptcp *ind
(I) told (something to someone) now.
The existence of a special kakari musubi form for the negative predicates -anuneg and minu- exist.neg has not been described in the existing literature hitherto.
For example, the negated predicate in (46) ends with the special suffix -ru, which we
tentatively glossed as msb for musubi, rather than the expected participle form hiranu or the non-kakari musubi indicative form hir-anu-n.
(46) khama=ja thwa-bi=du hir-anu-ru
there=top far-csl=foc go-neg-msb
(I) will not go there because (it is) far.
There are however counter examples to this strong definition of kakari musubi in
Dunan. For instance, there are examples where the indicative form can co-occur with
the marker =du and the others where the main verb is in the participle form even
though there is no marker =du. It seems that the co-occurrence of participle/musubi
forms with the marker =du is at best a tendency, probably due to a significant overlap
of their distributional environments, though more research is necessary.
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank our native speaker consultants Ikema Nae, Mikura Takashi,
Mikura Toshiko, and Maekuroshima Yuichi. To work on and complete the present
chapter, Masahiro Yamada, Thomas Pellard, and Michinori Shimoji were supported by
a JSPS Grant, Number 22.4831, 22.0100 and 22720161, respectively.
p. 477
References
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Abbreviations
1
2
abil
abl
adv
ben
caus
circ
cmp
cond
cop
csl
desid
dim
dir
dist
excl
first person
second person
abilitative
ablative
adverbial
benefactive
causative
circumstantial
comparative
conditional
copula
causal
desiderative
diminutive
directive
distal
exclamative
foc
gen
hon
hor
imp
incl
ind
infer
ipfv
loc
mal
med
msb
neg
nom
pass
pl
focus
genitive
honorific
hortative
imperative
inclusive
indicative
inferential
imperfective
locative
malefactive
medial
musubi
negative
nominative
passive
plural
pot
prf
proh
prox
prs
pst
ptcp
quot
refl
seq
sfp
sg
top
whq
ynq
potential
perfect
prohibitive
proximal
present
past
participle
quotative
reflexive
sequential
sentence final particle
singular
topic
wh-question
yes-no question

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Dunan grammar (Yonaguni Ryukyuan)

Masahiro Yamada, Thomas Pellard, Michinori Shimoji

To cite this version:

HAL Id: hal-01289268

HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access

Larchive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est

Dunan grammar (Yonaguni Ryukyuan)

1 The language and its speakers

1.2 Genetic afliation and historical developments

1.3 Number of speakers

Dunan grammar (Yonaguni Ryukyuan)

Yamada, Pellard & Shimoji

1.4 Dialects and sociolinguistic information

1.5 Previous studies and available documentation

2 Phonetics and phonology

Dunan grammar (Yonaguni Ryukyuan)

Yamada, Pellard & Shimoji

Dunan grammar (Yonaguni Ryukyuan)

Yamada, Pellard & Shimoji

Table 18.2: Dunan tone system

dmami peanuts [dmm] LLL

dmami k.o. turtle

Dunan grammar (Yonaguni Ryukyuan)

Yamada, Pellard & Shimoji

3.4 Role markers

Dunan grammar (Yonaguni Ryukyuan)

Yamada, Pellard & Shimoji

3.5 Other minor classes

4.1 Nominal morphology

Dunan grammar (Yonaguni Ryukyuan)

Yamada, Pellard & Shimoji

4.1.2 Numerals and classiers

Interlocutory 1st person

bnu(-nta) (excl), bnta (incl)

Table 18.4: Dunan irregular case forms of pronouns

Dunan grammar (Yonaguni Ryukyuan)

Yamada, Pellard & Shimoji

Main role(s) encoded

S, A (genitive function with 1st person pronouns)

4.3 Verb morphology

Dunan grammar (Yonaguni Ryukyuan)

Yamada, Pellard & Shimoji

Present -u-/ Indicative -n

Figure 18.1: Verb structure in Dunan

Dunans verb morphology is characterized by a high degree of allomorphy in both

Dunan grammar (Yonaguni Ryukyuan)

Yamada, Pellard & Shimoji

Table 18.7: Verb metatony in Dunan

The variation of stem-suffix co-indexation across verb classes necessitates setting

Table 18.8: Examples of verb stems in Dunan

count walk think close make tear

4.3.3 Inectional morphology

Dunan grammar (Yonaguni Ryukyuan)

Yamada, Pellard & Shimoji

Table 18.9: Phonologically conditioned allomorphy in Dunan

Table 18.10: Dunan independent verb forms

Dunan grammar (Yonaguni Ryukyuan)

Yamada, Pellard & Shimoji