Mal pomry velk zmny Language variation and change

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Malé poměry, velké změny: Language variation and change in North Saami Laura A. Janda

Malé poměry, velké změny: Language variation and change in North Saami Laura A. Janda Lene Antonsen Jussi Ylikoski

North Sámi… • A Uralic (Finno-Ugric) language • About 20, 000 speakers • In

North Sámi… • A Uralic (Finno-Ugric) language • About 20, 000 speakers • In contiguous regions of northern Norway, Sweden, and Finland • Unique in Europe as a minority language in contact with majority languages from two different language families: Indo-European and Finno-Ugric (Ylikoski 2009: 201 -202) • For several decades in 20 th century, children were forcibly removed from their families and forced to live at residential schools

5 = North Sámi 3

5 = North Sámi 3

An ongoing language change: NPx is being replaced by Refl. N Two examples from

An ongoing language change: NPx is being replaced by Refl. N Two examples from Elle Márjá Vars’ novel Kátjá NPx (possessive suffix, HIGH morphological complexity): (1 a) Kátjá. . . ollii latnjasis Kátjá. NOM reach. IND. PRET. 3 S room. ILL. SG. PX. 3 S ‘Kátjá. . . got to her room’ Refl. N (analytic construction with reflexive genitive pronoun): (1 b) Kátjá. . . ollii iez as latnjii Kátjá. NOM reach. IND. PRET. 3 S REFL. GEN. 3 S ‘Kátjá. . . got to her room’ room. ILL. SG

WALS Feature 57 a: Possessive affixes North Saami

WALS Feature 57 a: Possessive affixes North Saami

Refl. N is not itself morphologically complex

Refl. N is not itself morphologically complex

Gen/Acc reflexive pronoun is something one needs for other purposes. . . This pronoun

Gen/Acc reflexive pronoun is something one needs for other purposes. . . This pronoun does its expected jobs aside from expressing possession Pronominal use of reflexive pronoun: Son ii orron 3 S. NOM NEG. IND. PRS seem. IND. PRT. CONNEG dovdame iežas speadjalis. . . recognize. AKTIO. ESSIVE REFL. ACC. 3 S mirror. LOC. SG “She didn’t seem to recognize herself in the mirror. . . ”

NPx, by contrast, is morphologically complex

NPx, by contrast, is morphologically complex

NPx requires a large quantity of unique morphology • • [N. Saami has 3

NPx requires a large quantity of unique morphology • • [N. Saami has 3 types of noun stems: vowel stems, consonant stems, and contracted stems] NPx expands the paradigm of a noun from 10 forms to 91 – see 81 additional forms for guoibmi “partner” on handout with forms involving NPx-unique morphology boldfaced There are two full sets of 9 possessive suffix forms, one set attaches after vowels and one set attaches after consonants (compare Gen/Acc. Sg with Ill. Sg in handout) NPx conditions unique changes in case endings: Illsg -i/-ii > -s-/-asa-; Loc. Sg -s/-is > -st-/-isttá-/-istti-; Ill. Pl -ide/-iidda > -idas-/-iiddás. With NPx certain case endings have additional morphophonemic variants depending on the type of stem: Loc. Sg, Com Sg=Loc. Pl, Acc. Pl=Gen. Pl, Ill. Pl NPx conditions additional morphophonemic alternation in the stem, e. g. i ∼ á NPx requires insertion of the possessive suffix inside the Comitative Plural ending

Morphological complexity in the face of intense contact • NPx is much more morphologically

Morphological complexity in the face of intense contact • NPx is much more morphologically complex than Refl. N • North Saami is under intense pressure from both Germanic (Norwegian and Swedish) and Finnish • Many North Saami speakers have reclaimed the language as adults • Language contact and 2 nd language learners can lead to morphological simplification (Trudgill 2002, Mc. Whorter 2007, Bentz & Winter 2013) • In this situation, there may be an advantage for the morphologically simpler form: Refl. N

North Saami on Trudgill’s (2011) scale Trudgill (2011) has a 6 -point scale 1

North Saami on Trudgill’s (2011) scale Trudgill (2011) has a 6 -point scale 1 = strongest trend toward complexification 6 = strongest trend toward simplification North Saami receives a “ 4” due to: – small size – loose network – high level of contact Expectation: Reduction in paradigmatic redundancy, loss of morphological categories compensated for by an increase in transparent analytical structures (like Refl. N)

An example of an S-curve (cited by Blythe & Croft 2012) S-curve

An example of an S-curve (cited by Blythe & Croft 2012) S-curve

The S-curve in our Data Our S-curve is from this data • Literary texts:

The S-curve in our Data Our S-curve is from this data • Literary texts: 530, 000 words, three age groups, two geographic regions – 2, 272 examples, full analysis by hand • The New Testament (1998): 136, 522 words – 1, 530 examples, full analysis by hand • Newspapers: 10 M words from three newspapers (19972011) – 29, 964 examples of words with frequency ≥ 5, partial automatic analysis, a lot of cleaning by hand • Total: 33, 633 examples

Young Mid The S-curve: longitudinal data from literary texts, showing only anaphoric and endophoric

Young Mid The S-curve: longitudinal data from literary texts, showing only anaphoric and endophoric use Old

Frequency Does frequency explain the distribution? • Expectation: High frequency words are shielded from

Frequency Does frequency explain the distribution? • Expectation: High frequency words are shielded from the change, while low frequency words are vulnerable ☛ Is NPx more frequent with high frequency words?

No evidence that high frequency helps to retain NPx News data: Pearson's correlation =

No evidence that high frequency helps to retain NPx News data: Pearson's correlation = -0. 14, p = 0. 0001, 95% confidence interval: -0. 2 -0. 07

CART-analysis “Classification and regression trees and Random forests”: – Optimal sorting of data –

CART-analysis “Classification and regression trees and Random forests”: – Optimal sorting of data – Results similar to regression, but appropriate for non-parametric data – Bootstrapping and measurement of variable importance

North Saami CART analysis: variables and levels Dependent variable: Poss. Con (possessive construction) –

North Saami CART analysis: variables and levels Dependent variable: Poss. Con (possessive construction) – NPx (noun with possessive suffix), Refl. N (reflexive genitive pronoun) Independent variables: • Generation (of author) – Old, Mid, Young • PMClass (semantic class of possessum) – Abstraction, Body, Event, Human, Kin, Place, Property, Other • PMCase (case of possessum) – Acc, Com, Ess, Gen, Ill, Loc, Nom • PRCase (case of possessor) – Acc, Gen, Ill, Loc, Nom, Verb • Geography – East, West 18

Is nominative + possessive suffix evolving into a new Vocative case? In preceeding statistics

Is nominative + possessive suffix evolving into a new Vocative case? In preceeding statistics we excluded Exophoric Reference Nearly all examples of Exophoric use are NPx, and most of those are what we call “Exophoric Vocative”: Gula, mánážan. (KP 2: 6) Note diminutive suffix mánážan -š > -ž intervocalically child. DIM. NOM. SG. PX. 1 S “Listen, oh my (little) child. ” This use of NPx is robust even in the Young generation

Can a possessive form become a vocative? • The claim that a possessive construction

Can a possessive form become a vocative? • The claim that a possessive construction could develop into a vocative is not unprecedented • Michael (2013: 157) documents the use of the First Person Singular possessive construction with close kinship terms, as in ina “my mother” in Nanti (spoken in Peruvian Amazonia) as vocatives

Features of 1. sg NPx Vocative • • Possessums are restricted to kinship terms,

Features of 1. sg NPx Vocative • • Possessums are restricted to kinship terms, names, metaphorical names for people and names or words for animals that are addressed as if they were people Possessums are nearly always Singular (plural is not attested in our data but known to occur rarely & in connection with religious rituals) Possessums often have diminutive suffix and are often found in combination with an imperative verb form All vocatives in our literary data have 1. sg reference; in the Bible we find 1. pl in Áhččá-met [father. NOM. SG-1 SG. POSS] ‘Our Father’ Vocative meaning in N. Saami has been described since 1920 s and is part of a larger trend toward reinterpretation of NPx in Uralic languages The development of a Vocative could be further undermining the integrity of the NPx paradigm and thus further disadvantaging NPx vis a vis the Refl. N construction The tendency for inflectional forms to get “recycled” into new roles when paradigms are under pressure due to historical erosion is well documented (Lass 1990, Janda 1996)

4 Ambipositions in North Sámi 1. a. miehtá dálvvi b. dálvvi miehtá [over winter-G]

4 Ambipositions in North Sámi 1. a. miehtá dálvvi b. dálvvi miehtá [over winter-G] [winter-G over] ‘during the winter’ 2. a. čađa áiggi b. áiggi čađa [through time-G] [time-G through] ‘through time’ 3. a. rastá joga b. joga rastá [across river-G] [river-G across] ‘across the river’ 4. a. maŋŋel soađi b. soađi maŋŋel [after war-G] [war-G after] ‘after the war’

Ambipositions: Adpositions that function as both prepositions and postpositions • Typologically rare phenomenon (Hagège

Ambipositions: Adpositions that function as both prepositions and postpositions • Typologically rare phenomenon (Hagège 2010 ) • Such adpositions are found in Finnish, Estonian, and the Sámi languages • There are more of them in Sámi languages • In Finnish and Estonian there are strong tendencies (e. g. , time with preposition, space with postposition) • Distribution in Sámi languages has not previously been studied in detail

Three hypotheses 1. We expect to find regional variation in use of ambipositions since

Three hypotheses 1. We expect to find regional variation in use of ambipositions since N. Sámi is in contact with Finnish (predominantly postpositional) in East, and in contact with Norwegian/Swedish (prepositional) in Central and West regions 2. We expect position to be associated with differences in expression of meaning 3. We expect that a language with more ambipositions will use position in a more complex way

Ambipositions in North Sámi: Material • 4 relatively frequent ambipositions: • • miehtá ‘over’

Ambipositions in North Sámi: Material • 4 relatively frequent ambipositions: • • miehtá ‘over’ (2 dimensions, time and space) čađa ‘through’ (3 dimensions, time and space) rastá ‘across’ (1 dimension, space) maŋŋel/maŋŋil/maŋŋá ‘after’ (1 dimension, time) • 2 databases: • Newspapers • Literature

Examples from newspapers • 1997 -2011: 10 M words • Automatic extraction found 7496

Examples from newspapers • 1997 -2011: 10 M words • Automatic extraction found 7496 sentences with the 4 ambipositions • Goal: Tag by hand ≥ 100 examples for each position for each adposition • In all, 901 examples were tagged by hand for types of meaning expressed

3000 Distribution of adpositions in newspaper corpus (10 M words) 2500 2000 PR 1500

3000 Distribution of adpositions in newspaper corpus (10 M words) 2500 2000 PR 1500 PO 1000 500 0 miehtá čađa rastá maŋŋel+

Examples from literature • Examples extracted partly automatically, partly by hand • 652 examples

Examples from literature • Examples extracted partly automatically, partly by hand • 652 examples of the 4 ambipositions found, all tagged by hand • 20 texts, three geographical regions: • West = S. Troms (contact with Norwegian and Swedish) • Central = Kautokeino (contact with Norwegian) • East = Tana (contact with Finnish) • New translation of the New Testament

Tana S. Troms Kautokeino Geographical distribution of literary texts

Tana S. Troms Kautokeino Geographical distribution of literary texts

Distribution of adpositions in literature 300 250 200 PR 150 PO 100 50 0

Distribution of adpositions in literature 300 250 200 PR 150 PO 100 50 0 miehtá čađa rastá maŋŋel

Distribution of adpositions 100. 00% 90. 00% 80. 00% 70. 00% 60. 00% %

Distribution of adpositions 100. 00% 90. 00% 80. 00% 70. 00% 60. 00% % PR 50. 00% % PO 40. 00% 30. 00% 20. 00% 10. 00% S. Troms Kautokeino Tana NT Newspapers

Distribution of adpositions 100. 00% Х 2=118, df=2, p<2. 2 e 16 Cramer’s V=0.

Distribution of adpositions 100. 00% Х 2=118, df=2, p<2. 2 e 16 Cramer’s V=0. 49 90. 00% 80. 00% 70. 00% 60. 00% % PR 50. 00% % PO 40. 00% 30. 00% 20. 00% 10. 00% S. Troms Kautokeino Tana NT Newspapers

A -ráigge ‘hole’ in North Saami grammar? The advent of a prolative case marker

A -ráigge ‘hole’ in North Saami grammar? The advent of a prolative case marker by Jussi Ylikoski (2014) Words ending in -ráigge ‘hole’ have been attested in North Saami for about 200 years (also found in S. , Aanaar, and Lule Saami): Biret livkkihii olggos duon din ođđa uksara igge mii duoppe oidno. ‘Biret went outside through that new door that is visible over there. ’ cf. Czech 7. pád: vyšla dveřmi This would make sense since a door is a type of hole, and there are many attestations of -ráigge with nouns that denote holes: Ma htte oinnii Ma reha la sera igge. ‘Máhtte saw Máret through the window. ’ cf. Czech dívat se oknem Cokka ba ddegeaz i uhca ra igera igge. ‘Stick the end of the rope through the hole. ’

But it’s not limited to holes… In a corpus of over 20 M words,

But it’s not limited to holes… In a corpus of over 20 M words, we find over 500 examples of -ráigge words, and some of the most common are: • luoddara igge ‘along the trail’ • geaidnora igge ‘along the road’ • johkara igge ‘along the river’ • Deatnora igge ‘along the Tana river’ • eatnora igge ‘along the main river’ • ba lggesra igge ‘along the path’ Other examples include: • jiekŋara igge ‘along the ice’, luhppora igge ‘along the steep trail’, meahccera igge ‘through the forest/wilderness’, s aldera igge ‘along the bridge’, s alkara igge ‘along the trail made of packed snow’, guorbmeva vdnageaidnora igge ‘along the road for trucks’

So what are these -ráigge words? ✘Are they Noun-Noun compounds? ✘Are they adverbs? ✘Are

So what are these -ráigge words? ✘Are they Noun-Noun compounds? ✘Are they adverbs? ✘Are they nouns with a postposition? ✔Are they nouns with a prolative case ending? Ylikoski uses morphological, syntactic, and semantic arguments to support the hypothesis that -ráigge is a prolative case ending

Saami has lost a prolative case that can be reconstructed as *-ko and we

Saami has lost a prolative case that can be reconstructed as *-ko and we see traces in adverbials and adpositions (cf. Czech kudy) case ending where there beside between close by behind on the side under before behind above in So it is natural for N. Saami to fill in the missing spot with a new prolative

Are -ráigge words Noun-Noun compounds? Ylikoski has several arguments, but here is one: «Eiseva

Are -ráigge words Noun-Noun compounds? Ylikoski has several arguments, but here is one: «Eiseva lddit leat la hppon, ja go la hppo, de ferte jorggihit iez as luoddara igge gitta dovda fas» (A vvir 21. 2. 2013: 7) ‘The authorities are lost, and when one gets lost, one has to go back along one’s own path until one comes to a place one recognizes. ’ Refl. N iez as can only refer to the path (luodda) which can be one’s own; it can’t refer to luoddara igge as if it were a noun since it can’t be *one’s own along the path

Are -ráigge words adverbs? NB: This is the preferred solution in current dictionaries and

Are -ráigge words adverbs? NB: This is the preferred solution in current dictionaries and grammars • • One argument is that one cannot add other adverbs to these words: *menddo ba lggesra igge ‘too along the path’ *hui la sera igge ‘very through the window’ Another argument is that you can supply attributes, demonstratives, and even relative clauses to these words, which one can’t do with adverbs: ‘that’ ‘our’ ‘good’ ‘path’ ‘that goes to the beach’

Are -ráigge words nouns with a postposition? One argument against this hypothesis is that

Are -ráigge words nouns with a postposition? One argument against this hypothesis is that –ráigge does not allow metaphorical extensions, which are typical for postpositions • Here we can compare –ráigge with postposition bokte ‘through, via’ • None of these formations are possible: *la hkara igge ‘through the law’, *bus eahttara igge ‘through the budget’, *ovttasbargora igge ‘through collaboration’, *interneahttara igge ‘through the internet’, *Kristusra igge ‘through Christ’, *sa tnejođiheaddjera igge ‘through the mayor’ • But all of the above are possible combinations with postposition bokte ‘through, via’: la ga/bus eahta/ovttasbarggu/interneahta/Kristusa/sa tnejođiheaddji bokte

Are -ráigge words nouns with a prolative case ending? The paradigm of bálggis ‘path’

Are -ráigge words nouns with a prolative case ending? The paradigm of bálggis ‘path’ with prolative forms

However, the prolative is certainly not a prototypical case • It is limited to

However, the prolative is certainly not a prototypical case • It is limited to nouns that designate concrete objects or places that can serve as natural paths, such as paths, rivers, roads, fjords, doors, windows, chimneys, and holes. • In some examples -ráigge does behave like a postposition Ylikoski cites the famous words of Edward Sapir (1921): “All grammars leak”

Filling another “hole” in North Saami grammar: A dual for nouns: -guovttos (Ylikoski 2015)

Filling another “hole” in North Saami grammar: A dual for nouns: -guovttos (Ylikoski 2015) Both pronouns and verbs have dual forms, but nouns don’t. Here are the pronouns: Nom. Akk. /Gen. Ill. Lok. Kom. Essiiva 1 sg mun mu munnje mus muinna munin 2 sg don du dutnje dus duinna dunin 3 sg son su sutnje sus suinna sunin 1 du moai munno munnuide munnos munnuin munnon 2 du doai dudno dudnuide dudnos dudnuin dudnon 3 du soai sudno sudnuide sudnos sudnuin sudnon 1 pl mii min midjiide mis minguin minin 2 pl dii din didjiide dis dinguin dinin 3 pl sii sin sidjiide sis singuin sinin

…and here is a verb, the present tense of viehkat ‘run’ mun don son

…and here is a verb, the present tense of viehkat ‘run’ mun don son moai doai soai mii dii sii viegan viegat viehká vihke viehkabeahtti viehkaba viehkat viehkabehtet vihket Dual pronouns and verb forms refer almost exclusively to human beings, usually with definite reference But North Saami nouns, at least as presented in grammars, have only singular and plural forms Note that some Samoyedic languages have dual number for nouns

Number agreement in North Saami SG: Ba rdni lea lohkamin. [Boy. NOM. SG is.

Number agreement in North Saami SG: Ba rdni lea lohkamin. [Boy. NOM. SG is. 3 SG reading] ‘The boy is reading’ PL: Ba rtnit leat lohkamin. [Boy. NOM. PL are. 3 PL reading] ‘The boys are reading’ DU: a. Ba rtnit leaba lohkamin. [Boy. NOM. PL are. 3 DU reading] b. Guokte ba rtni leaba lohkamin. [ Two. NOM boy. GEN. SG are. 3 DU reading] c. Ba rtniguovttos leaba lohkamin. [Boy. GEN. SG-two are. 3 DU reading] ‘The two boys are reading’

Why -guovttos looks like a dual for nouns: It can be used in various

Why -guovttos looks like a dual for nouns: It can be used in various case forms NOM subject: Mánáguovttos leaba skuvllas ‘The two children are at school’ GEN possessor: Ma na guoktá va hnemat leaba barggus ‘The parents of the two children are at work’ GEN with postposition: Ma na guoktá duohken lea heasta ‘There is a horse behind the two children’ ACC direct object: In oainne ma na guoktá ‘I don’t see the two children’ LOC possession: Ma na guokta s leat sátnegirjjit ‘The two children have dictionaries’ ILL indirect object: Oahpaheaddji attii ma na guokta i sátnegirjjiid ‘The teacher gave the two children dictionaries’ COM: Maid mii galgat dahkat da inna ma na guokta in? ‘What should we do with those two children? ’

Why -guovttos looks like a dual for nouns: It resists plural da t amerihka

Why -guovttos looks like a dual for nouns: It resists plural da t amerihka laš da nsuguovttos ‘the American dancepair’ ? ? da t engla ndalaš da nsuguokta t ‘the English dancepairs’ Va hnenguovttos galgaba deaivvadit oahpaheddjiin. ‘The parent-pair should meet with the teacher’ Buot va hnemat galget deaivvadit oahpaheddjiin. ‘All parents should meet with the teacher’ ? ? Buot va hnenguokta sat galget deaivvadit oahpaheddjiin. ‘All parent-pairs should meet with the teacher’

So what is happening in North Sámi: • An analytic possessive construction is overtaking

So what is happening in North Sámi: • An analytic possessive construction is overtaking synthetic possessive suffixes • Remaining 1 sg possessive suffix use is being reinterpreted as a vocative case • Distribution of adpositions is heavily influenced by contact languages • Prolative case • Dual number for nouns