Internal reconstruction in Chulupí (Nivaclé)

Abstract

This paper is about internal reconstruction and the history of Chulupí, a Matacoan language of Argentina and Paraguay. We apply internal reconstruction and postulate several sound changes in the history of Chulupí. We bring the results of this internal reconstruction to bear on external comparisons based on cognates in other Matacoan languages, and in this way we check the validity of the internal reconstruction and contribute to aspects of Matacoan historical linguistics. We discuss some methodological implications for internal reconstruction in general and its relationship to the comparative method.

Vowel-consonant metathesis in Nivaĉle

“…From a synchronic perspective, the Nivaĉle stem alternations presented in (18)–(22) have been regarded as VC-metathesis (Stell 1987). 10 From a diachronic perspective, Campbell and Grondona (2007) have argued that historical vowel (and glottal) deletion is involved. The authors apply internal reconstruction to the forms presented in the singular and plural noun examples in (18)–(22) and posit several sound changes in the history of Nivaĉle.…”

“…The proposal advanced here argues that all these observed data receive a more coherent and integrated interpretation under a prosodic analysis of syllable structure constraints. 11 Even though Campbell and Grondona (2007) do not explicitly mention this implication, under their analysis one would expect the existence of separate plural suffixes for the examples in Table 4: -es, -as, -us, -ej, -uj. The suffix allomorph chosen for a given root/stem would be required to have a vowel that matches the root vowel that is targeted by the postulated syncope processes.…”

“…Vowel epenthesis occurs when VC-metathesis would yield illicit consonant clusters. I also discuss a previous proposal for Nivaĉle within a diachronic framework (Campbell and Grondona 2007) and consider alternative analyses such as pseudometathesis (Blevins and Garrett 2004).…”

The variable prosodic parsings of Nivaĉle glottal stop

“…Nivaĉle [niβaˈk ͡ le] is a Mataguayan language spoken in the Argentinean and Paraguayan Chaco by approximately 16,350 speakers in Paraguay (DGEEC 2012) and 500 in Argentina (INDEC 2004(INDEC -2005. The Nivaĉle language has also been referred to in the literature as Ashlushlay (Henry 1936;Wicke & Chase-Sardi 1969;Stell 1972) Chunupí (Hunt 1915) and Chulupí (Junker et al 1968;Stell 1989;Campbell & Grondona 2007). Nivaĉle is the preferred name in Paraguay.…”

La hipótesis de parentesco Guaicurú-Mataguayo: estado actual de la cuestión.

“…En el caso guaicurú-mataguayo, la existencia de una cantidad importante de semejanzas en términos del vocabulario básico, no acompañanadas de un número igualmente significativo de similitudes en el vocabulario cultural, coincide con lo que siempre se ha tenido como indicador de probable relación genética 48 . 45 Lafone Quevedo (1896:137-138), Imbelloni (1936:197), Henry (1939:91), Tovar (1951:377-378), Campbell y Grondona (2007:3), entre otros muchos. 46 La escasez de semejanzas en estos campos semánticos se puede explicar por diversos factores.…”