Contact-induced language change in the western Amazon: The non-genetic origin of the Kokama language (Cabral 1995)

Recursos » Teses e dissertações online » Contact-induced language change in the western Amazon: The non-genetic origin of the Kokama language (Cabral 1995)

Autor:	Cabral, Ana Suelly Arruda Câmara
Data:	1995
Título:	Contact-induced language change in the western Amazon: The non-genetic origin of the Kokama language
Detalhes:	Orientação: Susan Berk-Seligson Doutorado, University of Pittsburgh

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cabral_kokama1995.pdf	PDF document	10.75 MB	Info

This dissertation discussed the non-genetic origin of the Kokama/Omawa language, a fact first observed by Rodrigues (1984-1985). Kokama is one the native South American Indian languages spoken at present in lowland Peru and on its way to extinction. Until now Kokama has been classified as a language belonging to the Tupi-Guarani linguistic family on the basis of small lists of basic vocabulary (Loukotka, 1968; Lemle, 1971, among others).

Based on Thomason's and Kaufman's (1988) analytical model on contact-induced change, I present evidence to prove that Kokama cannot even be classified genetically because its linguistic subsystems do not find correlates in a single language or linguistic family source. This is revealed through a full comparison of Kokama and Tupinamba with respect to lexicon and grammar. The result of the comparison constitutes proof that, except for lexical similarities and a number of sound correspondences, Kokama differs greatly from the Tupinamba language in its phonology, morphology and syntax, though the latter is the source of a significant portion of the vocabulary of the former.

A reconstruction of the social history of the Kokama/Omawa people shows the possible social context from which Kokama started developing towards an independent linguistic system: the missionary villages created by the Jesuits in the Provincia de Maynas. There, speakers of different Indian languages needed a common mode of communication. The Kokama/Omawa language was the official language in these missionary villages and the non-Tupi-Guarani speakers had to learn it rapidly, in this process failing to learn the Tupi-Guarani language as a whole. The original speakers of the Tupinamba language adopted the new version of their language, which came to be called the Kokama, or alternatively Omawa, language.

This dissertation intends to contribute to the theory of languages in contact, and to historical comparative research on South American Indian languages in discussing the origin of an extreme case of interference through language shift.

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kokáma

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línguas e culturas indígenas sul-americanas

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