Hishkaryana (Carib) Syntax Structure I: Word

Abstract

* Part II, Phrase and Sentence, follows in a later issue of IJAL. 1 Hishkaryana is a member of the Carib linguistic family and is spoken along the middle and upper courses of the river Nhamunda in northern Brazil. There are about 120 speakers. It is closely related to Waiwai (cf. W. Neill Hawkins. A Fonologia da Lingua UIiuAi. Universidade de Sao Paulo, Boletim 157, Etnografia e Tupi-guarani 25; Sao Paulo 1952. pp 49; and also W. Neill Hawkins and Robert E. Hawkins. Verb inflection in Waiwai (Carib), IJAL 19.201-11, 1953). The phonemes of Hishkaryana are: high vowels --e, i, u; low vowels-a, o; consonants-p, t, k, f (bilabial fricative), s, s, c (alveopalatal affricate), m, n, f, r (alveolar flap), r (alveopalatal flap), w, y, h; vowel length is phonemic; no final conclusions have been reached with regard to stress, but it is not marked in this paper. 2 This presentation is based on data collected on three field trips, covering a total period of ten months, in 1959 and 1960. The data consisted of conversational pieces and eight tape recorded texts. This paper was prepared as part of the Linguistic Workshop requirements of the Summer Institute of Linguistics at the University of Oklahoma in the summer of 1960. The author is especially indebted to Sarah Gudschinsky for help received between field trips and to Viola Waterhouse for help in organizing the data in the workshop. of structure beyond the sentence, such as the paragraph and the discourse; these have not yet been adequately studied and are not dealt with in this paper. The total structures at one level usually constitute the included units at a higher level. Thus, the word constitutes one of a potential sequence of items on the phrase level; conversely, the phrase consists of a potential sequence of words. Frequently the structure at one level is identical with